Draft 2

THE MUNDANESemerge yourself into their world and find

out where it all began.

where good music starts.

VAMPIREWEEKEND

And their outstanding stadium performance.

THE 1975Life on the road. Their hardships and success-es, all rolled into one.

Talk about that gig at Reading 2013.

And their debut album, Don’t Make A

Sound.

An exclusive interview, featuring photos you’ve

never seen before.

ARCTIC MONKEYS

THE BLACKKEYS

PARAMORE

www.musicmattersmag.co.uk

£3.00 $4.90 €3.60Issue No.62November 16th-30th 2013

SNOW PATROLwhere have

got to?

ALExANDRAWESTBROOK

newbie

how will she survive?

Plus, much more inside

Talk about their new singles, ‘I Miss You’ and ‘Feeling This’ as well as a possible 2014 tour.

all the news

all the pictures BLINK 182

&

* New single ‘Out Of Bounds’* Collaboration with Red Hot Chilli Peppers* Their secret getway to Magaluf

gLASTONBuRYREADINg

downloads of the week

The Top10Mmusic matters

M

THEVAMPSas you’ve never

seen them before

KASABIANsex, drugs, and er,

pugs.

-TOURS-MERCH-REVIEWS-GIGS-POSTERS-INTERVIEWS-

0612

24

50features

NEWBIE: ALEX WESTBROOK

Talks boys, fashion, “X - Factor sh*te”, parties and

politics. We like her already.

editor’s note

Well, what a week it’s been- Imagine Dragons releasing their new album, 30 Seconds to Mars finally displaying their much anticipated ‘City of Angels’ music video (which by the way if you haven’t seen you need to) plus Nickelback an-noucing a possible reunion. Phew. Read and review it all here in this fort-night’s edition of MM -Sophie Boston, Chief Editor

We get to sneak backstage at the Select Record-ing Studios to get a glimpse of the next possible tracks from the one and only Alina Haq.

regulars

Are you an innie or outie? Find out in our questionnaire and find the best

pair for you.

FACTFILE: BIFFY CLYRO

UPCOMING GIGS AND EVENTS

REVIEWS

POSTERS

COMPETITION TIME

TWEET TWEET

See what secrets this fortnight’s music celebrity factfile holds. The

Clyro reveals all.

Get the goss before anyone else. Now all you need to do is save up.

Whose at the top of the Cool-O-Meter and whose at the bottom this

fortnight?

One Republic, Paramore, The Flaming Lips plus more. What more could you want?

Win the holiday of a life time to The Big Apple for two people on page

Our favourite pearls of wisdom that’s fallen from the music stars this fort-

night. 24

Mmusic matters

M50

THE MUNDANES 06The story behind the trio who creat-ed the infectious disease ‘Mundane Mayhem’.

ALINA HAQ 24 MM get to put the headphones on backstage at her recording to hear her unreleased track, ‘Haunted Love’

IMAGINE DRAGONS 12We’re still buzzing about their recent smash hit, sell out concert. And we finally got a chance to meet them.

THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS 39New album, new video. At last. Is it any good? Of course it is. Also, the boys have some exciting news to tell you all.

THE 1975 31Why the band have decided now is the best time to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight.

PARAMORE 28We can never get enough of Hayley’s flaming hair. Plus, they release their tour dates for 2014 on page

VAMPIRE WEEKEND 33MM talk to them about their outstand-ing performance at Wembley Stadium

GADGET REVIEW: HEADPHONES

18

18

42

50

43

46

52

54

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@musicmattersmag

Be sure to check out our new YouTube Channel - MusicMattersUK

Inside MM this week... ...Issue No.62

31

39

37

Mmusic matters

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08

“ ”When asked their preferred drink, Connor replied ‘a cold Starbucks frappuccino.’ (with cream. Obviously.) Zak’s reply was a ‘nice simple cup of tea.’ (Tetley’s mind you.) And frontman, sorry front-woman, Karishma honestly replied “anything that’s going to keep me awake from dusk till dawn mate.” With a high flying 24/7 packed schedule, MM were lucky to get a few words that fell from the lips of the brand spanking new kids on the block formerly known as The Mundanes. Have they got good vo-cals? Check. Have they got great hair? Check. Have they got soul? Check. Have they got class? Definite-ly. Have they got a badass style? They’ve even got that too. Is there anything that the alternative indie

09

Issue No. 62


Music is life. Life is music.

Move over Blink 182, Alice in Chains, Bullet For My Valentine, U2, even The Vaccines- there’s three new kids in town. And they’re more determind than ever to rip up the ground and

set the world on fire.

rock trio don’t have? “Well there is one thing,” Zak says as we speak with him briefly at the Nickelodeon Awards where they’re due to perform, “peace and quiet! Nah, I’m kidding the fans are great, it’s just my comfy, tatty old couch whilst watching ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ and sipping Tetley’s tea is great too!” Well they certainly looked anything but tatty when we first interviewed them back in May this year right before the ‘Mundane Mayhem’ as it’s now known as kicked off and the young trio’s lives were flung in a whirlwind of fame. Where did it all begin? Well, we can even tell you that it was in the garage of 59 Holwood Drive in a small town known as Watford. This was the house of Mr and


www.musicmattersmag.co.ukexClUsIVe Mmusic matters

M

Mrs Labiad, who, for months on end were forced to listen to the wailing sounds of their son Zak practising his saxophone and piano all through the day and all through the night. Previously Zak admitted: “I feel so bad for my parents, I would torment them with my practising for hours on end. I’d never admit it then, but I will now- I was quite cr** really!”“Zak was determined he would be the next Frank Sinatra,” his mother Lilian told us, “he was so dedicated to his playing, I’d often have to go and remind that there was homework to be done too!”Though Zak’s iPod contained nearly of Sinatra’s albums, some-thing still didn’t feel quite right for him. “I wasn’t feeling it,” he tells us back in May, “something was missing.” It was only when Zak was wandering through Baker Street Station a couple of years later that he heard a busker busking out some ‘Radioac-tive’ by Imagine Dragons that he realised he had downloaded the wrong genre onto his iPod. “I stopped right still and even closed my eyes and fell right in love. I ended up joining in with him at the end!” “There I was, singing away when I heard this other, strong, deeper voice join in with me on the last chorus. I looked around for the source and saw a tall fellow wearing a real sharp suit. Not what I expected,” Con-nor interrupts –that’s right Mundanefans, Connor was the Baker Street Busker. Kicked out of high school for truancy, he found himself on the streets, doing what he loved best sharing his musical passion. A naughty boy on show, a soft music genius at heart. “Education just weren’t for me you know,” he says, “all that Chemistry cr**, all that bubbling and fizzing in those tubes -where’s that gunna get me? So I took off. The only lesson I enjoyed was music but I felt too stupid to do it at A-Level. So I stopped going.” So Connor found himself buying a cheap guitar, and a keen sing-er anyway, taught himself to play and began to perform on the pavements. Connor knew what he wanted to, and had an ambi-tion at last- to get into music college. He studied (and partied) hard, but there was still one problem. “I couldn’t afford it. And since my parents were still pretty cheesed off about my truancy, they weren’t ready to dip their hands into their pockets.

Especially my dad, who said that ‘music school is a waste of time, effort and money. You’ll never get in anyway.’” While Connor’s relationship with his mother was quite firm, he admits there were often arguments between him and his father. And music school was a sore subject. “Vases were thrown, insults hurled...it was ter-rible.”Busking wasn’t making near enough money, barely enough for a rucksack, let alone the course itself. So Connor retells us how he went and got himself a job in Waitrose, working there for a cou-ple of years, starting off as a check out boy, climbing up the ranks, until he became an assistant floor manager. “I was nineteen years old by the time I left Waitrose,” Connor said, “and every Monday and Thursday evening when I’d busk, I’d see Zak take the Metro-politan line towards Watford, wearing the same sharp suit and the same sad expression. So one day I stopped my playing and went up to him and asked him what’s wrong. And he tells me, ‘I’m unhappy. Unhappy with my job, my relationship, my house. The only thing that actually makes me smile is your music man.”

At age 19, Zak finished his A- Levels just scraping through with 3 C’s but achieving an A in music. Despite this, he decided to take over his late uncle’s business in engineering. Two years he stayed and built an engineering empire, but knew deep down it wasn’t for him. “I’d wait around for Connor, just so I could hear him play,” Zak admits, “It made me feel better. Cheesy, but true.” Since that meeting the pair continuously contacted each other and fast became friends, despite the two year age gap. Gradually in September 2010, they hatched a plan to form a band but just as a duo. Tuesday, Friday and Sunday were their ‘rehearsal nights’ spent in Zak’s garage. Connor says that “For two or three hours we’d get ourselves immersed in pure music sometimes trying to copy original songs in our own style, sometimes we would try to make up our own, and sometimes we would try and teach each oth-er how to play the instruments we loved guitar, keyboard and

drums.” A couple of months passed, and the duo, who named themselves ‘A Cry For Help’ in reference to each of their back-ground sufferings, were invited to play at low scale gigs and events, school concerts, discos, local festivals, even a few rocker weddings. “Our mums were our managers,” Zak laughs, “they were the only ones organised enough!”At this point Connor had raised enough cash to afford the mu-sic course, and so for a whole year he stayed in music college, playing truant only a couple of times as well as regularly keeping in contact with Zak, who also decided to use his skills in engi-neering and play his hand in a new career as an assistant audio engineer. “I worked with some of the best people,” Zak says, “I even once got to work with Jay Z on a new album of his. It was totally frig-gin’ awesome!”But there was a downside. “I missed Connor. I missed our garage session together, the fantastic tunes we used to smash out. Working inside the studio wasn’t enough for me; I wanted to be on the other side of the glass.”Connor’s course finished in November 2011, achieving an A in his qualifications and the pair were reunited. They set up a You-Tube Channel (ACryForHelp01) and uploaded videos of their collaborations weekly, and by February last year they had over 100,000 views. Aged just 20, Connor joined 22 year old Zak in his career of music and became an A&R Scout Manager, on the lookout for younger people with a music potential. And that’s how the third member of the band came to be found. Connor tells us how he sought Karishma out. “It was a cool, crisp April night and I was just on YouTube, check-ing over our past videos. One comment caught my eye. It read ‘you guys could do with a female voice to hit the highs’. I got me thinking; never had myself or Zak considered expanding our group, let alone have a female accompaniment. I talked it over with him, and though reluctant at first, he eventually gave in, and it was my job as a scout to find the missing piece to our jigsaw. It took a good couple of months to find her it wasn’t until August that I stumbled across her You-Tube Channel (naikmusic_92) that I knew I’d found the right person.” Connor and Karishma eventually got in contact with each other at the end of August 2012, sending emails and swap-

10 11www.musicmattersmag.co.uk www.musicmattersmag.co.uk

“FOR TWO OR THREE HOURS WE’D GET OURSELVES IMMERSED IN PURE

MUSIC.”

“ ”KARISHMA WAS PERFECT... SHE

WAS THE MISSING PIECE.

ping numbers. “Karishma was perfect,” Connor says, “her style, her voice, her age - she was the missing piece.”However Zak was still wavering about the decision to let another member into the band. In a previous interview he told how he was “concerned she would let us down” –but then how “Karish-ma blew that thought away the instant she sang live for us.” The three agreed to meet in a studio where Zak worked in Sep-tember. “I wanted to really put Karishma in the spotlight. I think back now how mean I was. I just wanted to see how she could cope with all this promising equipment around her, and how she sang in front of two strangers.”

“It was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. Even more so than turning up for my exams with no revi-sion done,” Karishma jokes, “Me and Connor already had quite a good chemistry, and I knew it was Zak I had to impress. My start was a little shaky, but as I got further into the song (Titanium by David Guetta) I relaxed and sang what I felt.”Zak’s frostiness melted away and eagerly welcomed Karishma into the group. When asked to describe herself Karishma an-swered: “A little fiery, a little crazy and a little mad, but you know some-thing? All the best people are.” From September to January this year, the trio worked their socks off, which proved to be difficult as 20 year old Connor, 21 year old Karishma and 22 year old Zak all had part time jobs. In an earlier edition of MM, the trio describe how their lives were “a chaotic mess of mayhem.” Karishma also wanted to change the name of the group as she said “I felt left out. They’d created that name when they were a duo. We’re a trio now, so we all should have an input!” Eventually they decided upon The Mundanes, with Connor and Karishma’s favourite book series being The Mortal Instruments as well as Karishma arguing that “It’s a sophisticated name, it’s got that cool, eerie, earthy vibe to it.”

12

DeTAIls FOR THe ‘BeWARe OF THe MOON’

UK TOUR 2014April-June

Date Venue supporting Act4/04/14

6/04/14

19/04/14

20/04/14

25/04/14

2/05/14

3/05/14

4/05/14

23/05/14

24/05/14

28/05/14

1/06/14

7/06/14

13/06/14

O2 ABC, Glasgow

MEN Arena, ManchesterO2 Acade-my, SheffieldO2 Acade-

my, SheffieldThe Institute, Birmingham

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff


Sub 89, ReadingSub 89, ReadingWembley

Stadium, London

O2 Arena, London

O2 Arena, LondonMr Kyps, Dorset


Apollo Theatre, Isle of Wight15/06/14

A Rocket to the Moon

Bastille30 seconds to Mars

Two Door Cinema Club

Biffy Clyro

Imagine Dragons

The Vaccines

Vampire Weekend

TBC

TBC

The 1975

All Time low

TBC

Bullet for My Valentine

Deaf Havana

*Terms and conditions apply. Please see www.themu-ndanes.co.uk for full details and conditions. Due to the

nature of these events, we regret to inform you that under 16s are not permitted. Extra dates may be added if

venues exceed limits.Tickets go on sale from Friday 6th December 2013.


Band Members: Zak Labiad, Karishma Naik, Connor Evans.

Birthdays: July 14th (Zak), 9th February (Karishma), 18th October (Connor)

Favourite film: Batman (Zak), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Karishma) and

Inglorious Bastards (Connor)

Favourite song: Demons by Imagine Drag-ons (Zak), Pompeii by Bastille (Connor) and

City of Angels by Thirty Seconds to Mars (Karishma)

-The Mundanes november 2013. ‘Reflection’ is out on the 6th december 2013 ‘Beware of the Moon’ is out 21st March 2014 article written by sophie Boston.

Since January, the trio worked together every time they could, and now with Ka-rishma’s vocal addition, their stats on You-Tube flew up to a staggering 650k views and 600,000 subscribers. When asked what the comments included Karishma replied “You’re always going to find a negative com-ment in there somewhere. But when I have, I just ignore it - focus on the thousands of peo-ple that compliment and congratulate you!”

It was in March this year when The Mun-danes truly made their mark upon the musical world, when they first appeared on The Voice UK. Spurred on by the posi-tive comments they had received, as well as the many bookings to perform at var-ious events, they decided to give it a go.

“I wasn’t sure if the audience or judges would like it...our style of music isn’t the same as everyone else’s. We like to shake it up a bit, but sticking to anything indie or rock. We wanted to prove we were different.” –Zak.

And after smashing an acoustic version of Coldplay’s Viva La Vida in their first round, they found all four judges turn round. “It was overwhelming,” Connor says, “To find the audience up on their feet and all four famous faces applaud-ing you...it’s a feeling I can’t explain.”And with a mentor like Danny O’Dono-ghue, who can blame them? With his help, The Mundanes made it all the way to the finals, but just losing the winner’s crown to R&B wannabe, Rebekah Anderson. “I was gutted,” Karishma said, “But you know what? It spurred us on even more. Being that close to winning...I wanted for us to be known even more than ever.”

Since their appearance, they’ve been signed to Epic Records,the same company that sign The Script. Back in May 2013, the trio revealed how they had already worked with The Script and acted as backing sing-ers for various music acts, and have ap-peared on several TV programmes, in-cluding The Jonathon Rossand Graham Norton shows, as well as performing and be-ing interviewed on Alan Carr’s Chatty Man.

When asked what their personal best achievement or experience so far was, it seemed Zak spoke for all of them. “I think for us, because of our tough journeys, our favourite ‘event’ if you like, is that this year we have been asked to put on the Christmas Lights at the Great Ormond Street Hospital as well as give a performance. It’ll mean so much to them, and we can’t wait.”

Before they had to go, the group was asked one final question: What will the future hold? “Do you know what? I don’t know, and to be honest I don’t want to know. We are having the time of our lives, and we are still only in our twenties. We work hard, and are current-ly producing our first album which is called ‘Beware of the Moon.’ It’s a follow on from our single, ‘Reflection,’ which tells the story of people wishing for something they want to achieve. It’s a very personal song, as it’s a metaphor of all of our lives. We just hope that people like it as much as we enjoyed mak-ing it, and who knows? Perhaps one day we’ll be performing on the stage of Glastonbury.”

“ ”WE WANTED TO PROVE

WE WERE DIFFERENT.

THe MUNDANe FIles

scan the QR code with your mobile to receive a FREE preview track

of ‘Reflection’

Design

Draft 2