How old are you?
Matt: I'm 76
Neil: I'm 301
Sel: I'm 302

How did you all meet?
Matt: We [Matt and Sel] met at music college and then we met Neil three years later.
Neil: I worked in a music shop - and Sel and Matt used to come in. Sel used to come in and buy lots of stuff and Matt used to come in and never buy anything.

Are you getting excited about the release of your debut album Amplifier?
Sel: Yeah definitely. We've been waiting a year for it to come out. It's taken a long time from our first gig which was May 4th 1999.

Sel Balamir

How long ago did you write the material for the album.
Sel: Some of it we had back then like Motorhead - we could have recorded it five years ago! But we're better off with it happening to us now because if you get anything too easy you don't appreciate it.

You've got a really epic sound and your songs are really long in today's standards...
Neil: It's just the way they come together - we could cut it really short but we develop a lot of grooves and things need to be paced out. A lot of it boils down to the fact that there's three of us and it's so much easier to just keep a bottom string ringing to have the sound. We have to work with a sound that just the three of us can create.

How's the tour going?
Sel: It's a pretty short one. It normally takes a week for us to get to know everyone really well. This is only eight gigs so it's just on the cusp, but we're definitely having fun with Span.
Neil: They are mental but very nice.

Matt Brobin

Any gossip?
Neil: Only Joff getting off with a fan mid guitar solo.
Sel: It was a disaster.
Neil: Did you ask her?
Sel: No, the guitar solo was all over the place.

So you've been having fun with the Span lads...
Neil: We had a bit of a bonding session when we had a night off in Manchester on Monday - we ended up getting hammered and playing golf pool.

What's your most prized possession?
Matt: My drums.
Sel: My guitar - it's an 1972 SG Special - when I bought it I was looking at it and saw that where you plug the jack in it's all gouged away, I reckon it must have belonged to one of those pogo punk bands in the 70's. I thought at the time me and this guitar have got to have some adventures of our own. I'd love to be able to trace back and find out where it's been.
Neil: I don't really have one.

Sel Balamir

Who would you most like to go out for a beer and a game of Pool with?
Neil: Jimmy White.
Sel: That'll be a short game then!
Matt: Lemmy.
Sel: I wouldn't want to go out with anyone famous because what would you say to them? It might get really uncomfortable. I think I'd get a boffin who'd be totally inept at Pool like Stephen Hawkins.
Neil: You can bond with Pool though, you just need to talk about what a wonderful game it is.

What are you plans after this tour?
Sel: We're going to France, to the Alps to do a Kerrang photoshoot in Grenoble.
Neil: Yeah we're going to Grenoble not Chernobyl which is what I've been telling everyone!

Are you doing any festivals?
Sel: Just getting on tour is hard enough when you haven't got an album out.
Matt: We're doing Download.
Neil: And hopefully we'll get Reading because we're rock! and bands always pull out and stuff. We have this idea that we'll get a band that are playing, get a support gig with them just before the festival, break their fingers and accidentally drop an amp on somebody so they have to pull out.