1. What inspired you to start singing?

“Erm, I really liked watching people on the TV and seeing what they’d got, and seeing

how they performed to people. And then I just took it from there, cause I thought, I

wanna’ be like them.”

2. What music did you listen to when you were younger and how did it influence

you?

“Erm, when I was younger I kinda’ listened to erm, I think the first album I got was

The Kooks, Inside Out. Erm and I absolutely loved it to pieces. And that’s kind of

influenced me in the way that the band is and the way that we write songs and stuff.

But I also used to listen to a lot of, erm, kind of rap artists as well which was a bit

strange, considering we are quite a different, not rap band these days. But yeah,

that’s the kind of stuff. Most of a lot of things as well, and quite a lot of Jazz music as

well cause I thought I was cool. Ha.”

3. What makes you different from other artists?

“Erm, I think what makes us different from other artists is that we bring, erm, a lot of

friendship, like erm, togetherness as a band, because we are always looking at each

other on stage, and we’re not just about making money, we’re just about enjoying it

onstage, and about making sure the songs we write relate to each one of us, so we

can really express what we’re feeling through our music.”

4. If you had to describe your music in three or four words, what would they be?

“I’d describe our music as: Emotive, Capturing and Rhythmically Pleasing.”

5. You write your own songs, what inspires you? Is it easy and what if your process of

writing?

“Yes, we do write our own songs, we have an EP coming out soon, when we get the

all the money together for the last bit of mixing. Inspiration comes from new stuff

that I learn from, like if I’m learning a cover I try and inspirate it into my own songs,

and Inspiration comes from err, like every day, everyday life, everyday things that

happen to you, relationships wise or whatever or just family wise or whatever that

happens. Good times wise, erm that I get inspiration. And it’s not easy writing your

own songs, you have to try and, sometimes you’ll just be sitting there and you just

don’t know what to do with a song, and I just say leave it, and come back to it

another time. And process of writing, I used to just do the music and then do the

words, but now I’ve started like, if I come up with a tune in my head or something

and I’m singing a random tune, I’ll record it on my phone, and then I’ll go home and

try and add some chords to it cause sometimes that’s better cause sometimes,

because you can already sing, its more developed in the way you can improvise

because singings already naturally built into your body.”

6. What was the best gig that you have done so far?

“The best gig we’ve definitely done has been at The Picket in Liverpool, even though

it’s a bit of a crappy venue, erm we did on the 25th of February, and we did Moving

To New York a couple of times and we got people raving up and down, and it was

great cause the strobe lights were going mental and my mum ended up getting

knocked over at the side of the mosh pit which was quite funny. She didn’t find it so

amusing but I found it. It was a really great night and then we went for an amazing

takeaway afterwards, it was great.”

7. Do you get nervous before performing? And do you have any tips for people who

do?

“No I don’t get nervous performing any more; I think sometimes I get an adrenaline

rush, and erm tips wise: I would say... Have people in the audience that you know, is

good ‘cause it means you can see them, and then you are like “Yeah” it’s reassuring.

And erm, also make sure you interact with your band members as well, and make

sure you don’t look, even if you’re feeling nervous, make sure you don’t look

nervous, cause then everyone else feels awkward so it’s not good.”

8. If you make a mistake during a performance, how do you handle it?

“Erm, if I make a mistake during a performance, I normally just laugh about it to be

honest, but I don’t do much solo stuff so being in a band is better so you can hide

behind your mistakes. Erm I just kind of laugh about it and get on with it to be

honest. If it’s like, I do break guitar strings a lot. And then what you do is carry on

until the end of the song and then get another guitar. Oh definitely always have two

guitars if you are a guitarist, cause if you don’t have two guitars then it’s really

strange”

9. If you could change anything about the music industry, what would it be and why?

“Erm I think that I’d change about the music industry, I’d take a lot of artists who are

just in it for the money and the stuff like that and take them out, and get rid of them.

And just put people in who write their own tunes and mean, the music means more

to them than the money and stuff like that, and then stop people who like, Simon

Cowell and people just promoting people just because of the way that they make

money which is through their image and not their music. Which is a good thing, the

image is obviously a good thing, ‘cause loads of people like the image but, in my

personal opinion, that’s not what matters”

10. If you could perform with any artist in the world, dead or alive, who would it be

and why?

“I’d really like to perform with Dizzee Rascal because I think he brings rap music into

a different dimension, even though I probably wouldn’t be writing rap music, I think

it would be amazing to have him featured on one of my songs, and I really like his

ethics and stuff. And Rita Ora because I think she’s gorgeous and she’s got really

good songs, and she writes her own tunes and she’s cool. And I like her, so there you

go.”

11. What is something that not a lot of people know about you, but you wish more

people could know?

“Me, James and Jack have known each other since we were... At least twelve

months old and we played together as little kids and we grew up together. And we

kind of split up and then we came back together and I really do think that it was

meant to be that we were in a band and just being best mates all the time, it’s been

amazing.”

12. Musically where do you see yourself in a year’s time?

“In a year’s time, I would like to see myself, slightly bigger and better gigs with my

band, erm I’d like us to maybe be hosting our own stuff, got an EP out, maybe

recording the second EP, and hopefully getting on the back of a proper promotion

company. Maybe got a manager, stuff like that. And trying and just giving it all we’ve

gotta start seriously thinking about career options.”

13. Do you have any advice for aspiring musicians/artists?

“Advice for aspiring musicians would be, erm, to just get out there, get on Facebook,

get on Twitter, get on all those social network stuff. And do gigs, write your own

stuff, whatever, even how bad it is or how good it is, and practice like mad.”

Rachel Jones – AS Level Media Interview