Lostprophets Q&A Will Lazenby caught up with the lostprophets before their gig at De Montfort Hall... What are your first impressions of Leicester?
We've actually played here about 5 times before, though at the Charlotte. We went to my mum's house for a Sunday roast, left about 12 and arrived at 5 when it was too dark to see anything.
What gets written first, the tune or the lyrics? Is song writing a collective experience? We jam on the guitars and if we think something sounds cool we'll use it for the basis of say the chorus or verse and build the song from there. | "It's great when someone says you've given them hope or even just given them a distraction from whatever's going on in their lives." | | Ian and Stuart from The Lostprophets |
Then Ian goes and writes the lyrics because it's really important to feel what you're singing about. Sometimes we don't know what it's about. He (Ian) can be really ambiguous at times (laughs). How long do you spend writing/revising each song? It depends upon the circumstances really. For example 'Rooftops' was written on the acoustic by Lee in about 20 minutes and stayed in pretty much the same form. However 'Can't catch tomorrow' took about five rewrites. It's important for our music to stay organic and practical. We might spend three months on a song but more often than not decide the original is best. The first 10 songs for an album are easier than the last two which are really hard to do. The current album is quite a departure from previous releases. Was there any conscious tempering for the mass market or would you describe it as a natural progression? We're quite schizophrenic as a band because we've all got different influences which can make us sound like we've got many different identities. Every other band seems to start a side project instead. We've always liked so-called 'pop-rock' like The Clash or The Jam but have also grown up amongst hardcore bands. When you listen to a record you (the public) don't always see all the development. When making this album there was some weird s**t that just wouldn't have fit in. We just wanted to get that album of pop songs out of our system and we don't try consciously to sound like just one band. People like David Bowie weren't afraid to do something new and neither are we. What are your favourite and worst things about touring?
Playing shows is definitely the best. If you complain about that you shouldn't really be doing what you're doing.
We get really annoyed with bands who moan about being tired of touring. Gigs really matter especially now – we see our albums as adverts for gigs not the other way round. Now everyone has a myspace but we believe the cream of the talent will outlast that. Of course you do have downtimes away from your family. What's next for lostprophets? Well, we're on tour for another month then we'll take a month off before starting writing for the next album. We'd like to write while we're touring because there's benefits to doing it together, but we can't really just go, "Hang on a minute, we're just gonna try something" out there on stage can we (laughs). It'll be like "right this record's done." We've refound some angst, lots of passion and energy just ready to break out. What would you class as your greatest achievement/most defining moment as a band to date? 'Give it a name' festival because we'd been away so long we thought people might have forgotten us. But we came back with new songs and got a good reception. I think we converted a lot of people at that gig and sort of proved everybody wrong, put a real message out there and got the people on our side. I'd say the way you can touch people with your music too. If the message gets through then music's not a selfish thing. It's great when someone says you've given them hope or even just given them a distraction from whatever's going on in their lives. We really appreciate all the letters of thanks we get. What bands are you into at the moment? The Dears, Mastodon, Converged, The Cure. Once established you can't really come out again. I mean we see these bands who've just changed their names and we're like "Didn’t you used to be in..... a few years ago?" Talent always asserts itself. We've been going 10 years now. We don't do side projects. I like listening to the Bronx, Black Flag, and The new 1920's. I'm really lively (Jamie) so I sometimes like listening to classical music so I can still talk to people. Anything that doesn't impose and is sort of like in the background. The gig at De Montfort Hall Will's impressions of the lostrophets gig... After concluding things with Jamie and Stuart I only managed to catch the last couple of songs by the 'New 1920's', a band who filled the boots of 'From First to Last' yet they gave a good account of themselves in the short time they were on stage.
Next on were 'Bring Me The Horizon' who were greeted with genuine widespread enthusiasm from a now swelling crowd.
The energy shown in this set by the frontman of the Sheffield-based hardcore/thrash fourpiece was frenetic to say the least, and the crowd duly responded to his taunts of "Show me what you got!" in the whirlwind of destruction which is a mosh pit. This climaxed in a Wall of Death in the final song 'For Stevie Wonder's Eyes Only' where the crowd split in half and charged at each other mirroring the energy displayed on stage. Truly a textbook rock performance, if a little musically and lyrically vague. However most people were here to see the headliners who opened the set with a couple of songs from their latest album, 'Liberation Transmission', including 'The New Transmission' and 'Can't catch tomorrow.' This was far from a mere reciting of the latest album, however, with the band playing material spanning almost a decade, including the self-confessed obscure first album track 'Five is a four letter word' delighting the legions of fans crammed as near the front as possible. The contrast between the new 'pop-ier' and old 'metal-y' material was complimentary rather than clashing, although some of the newer tracks seemed to be a little weaker than the classics live. The first song to really get the crowd buzzing was 'Rooftops' – a song both new fans and old could join in to and enjoy in its anthemic chorus. The only song that could have been omitted was 'Sway', which loses impact in its shortened form but the fellow slow yet dramatic '4am forever' was executed to perfection and was easily the most emotionally affecting song of the set. The band were obviously pleased to be back gigging in the UK - a fact made evident by their frequent declarations of loving gigging in the UK to their home fan base. As the set progressed frontman Ian Watkins said "Right, Lets take things up a level" and both the crowd and the band did. The last two songs were simply seminal, with the excellent 'Shinobi vs Dragon Ninja' and 'Burn Burn' bringing the show to a great rocking conclusion with the crowd all singing their hearts out and aching for more. | 
