Pete: So how’s the tour been going?
Adam: The tours going really well. Everywhere’s been really cool, Fightstar have been amazing.
Pete: Musically or as people?
Adam: Both. They really surprised me really. The music’s really good actually and they’ve been really cool guys. Cry For Silence are cool guys.
Pete: The lad who is doing lights tonight is a mate of mine, and he had a few interesting stories from the Fightstar camp about how their tour has been going, apparently they had to have their bus re – sprayed… have you guys got any interesting stories?
Adam: Well the thing is we haven’t actually spoken to them; they sort of keep themselves to themselves.
Tom: When they’re about they are alright. They just tend to stay on the bus.
Pete: Do you prefer that?
Adam: Well I understand the position that Charlie’s in, he can’t really be… well we go to bars and stuff after gigs, and he can’t really do that…
Pete: One of the things I wanted to ask was where have you been recently? Last time I saw you was in Manchester on the Hiding With Girls tour, and then the album came out and then you seemed to disappear!
Adam: We’ve had a quiet patch for a while, just jamming and getting tight for any tours that might come up, and then obviously this tour came up…
Pete: Did Mighty Atom get you on this?
Adam: No, it was Charlie actually. He heard “25:17,†the video, he’d seen that and he liked the song, and he got in touch with Uzman (band vocalist/guitarist) through email, and said he wanted us to play.
Pete: Did he get Cry For Silence as well?
Adam: No I think that was Johnny Philips’ call, he was doing the PR for it and he said he had Cry For Silence on his books if he wanted.
Pete: So how is the album actually doing?
Adam: The album is doing well last we heard…
Pete: What sort of figures?
Adam: I think in the first three weeks it was up to 500…
Tom, I think we’ve sold 1300, 1400…. We’ve sold a lot on this tour.
Adam: Yeah this tour has been amazing; we’ve made nearly 400, 500quid on merch…
Pete: That’s pretty good, because apart from the video to “25:17†there hasn’t been a lot else has there…
Adam: No there hasn’t but we have a new video coming out this weekend, and I think we’re heading for MTV2 with that one…
Pete: For which song?
Adam: Angel Town Part 2, from the album. It’s a bit more commercial than the last one.
Pete: What’s the new video like?
Adam: Just another performance one. Looks really candle lit, really chilled out.
Pete: A bit like a U2 Video?
Adam: Yeah! Atmospheric! Someone actually said we are a “heavy U2â€
Pete: Who the hell said that?
Tom: I don’t know, but I wouldn’t mind being a few quid behind U2.
Pete: That has to be one of the worst comparisons ever, that sort of mix! I mean if someone read that, I’d think “What?â€
Tom: Like Busted could be a “mellow Panteraâ€
Pete: Last time I spoke to you guys, you were sort of saying how you thought Mighty Atom was a great footstep to take, how do you feel about that now?
Adam: I think at the moment, anything could happen with Mighty Atom, I mean now we’ve had Warner Brothers interested and stuff… we’re just doing these tours, and not focusing on the majors…
Pete: What have things been like at Mighty Atom recently? Signing a lot of new bands and stuff…
Adam: Yeah it’s cool, he’s done a lot of licensing, getting a lot of bands on the books.
Pete: It seems to me that Mighty Atom pick up a lot of bands, such as yourselves, Days In December, Hondo MacLean, bands like that, and they get the records out, but the bands don’t seem to get that one step further…
Adam: Yeah, I mean they’ve got clout, but they haven’t got that much clout to get the bands that far.
Pete: Do you think there are too many bands on Mighty Atom?
Adam: A lot of the bands aren’t signed to Mighty Atom, most of it’s just licensing so they sort of get away with it, but there is a hell of a lot of bands.
Pete: So what’s in the pipeline for you guys?
Adam: More touring…
Tom: Possibly with Further Seems Forever I think, 5 dates I think, that’s in May.
Adam: Talk of America as well, probably a support slot, we’re just looking out for stuff…
Pete: What about the festivals this year?
Adam: Yeah we’re definitely gonna have a bash at festivals. Reading would be amazing. No confirmations yet, but we’ve got the people who could push it that way for us. That’d be excellent. I think that’s like the dream for all of us to do the festival circuit.
Pete: And what about new material?
Adam: We’re trying…
Tom: We haven’t really been bothered with it, just mainly working on the set and stuff, we wrote one new tune, and I think we’re gonna have a big session when we get back. We’ve pencilled in recording in autumn time.
Adam: I think there’ll be less screaming this time. It’ll still be as heavy, just less screaming. I don’t know… it was really good when it was fresh, it was a cool concept, but now it’s just over done, and done wrong these days. There probably be a few screams here or there but just where it’s needed.
Pete: When you listen back to the album, and you sort of said about the screaming is going out, is there anything that you’d change?
Adam: No, it had its place then.
Pete: Are you changing how you play them now?
Adam: No, it still suits them songs, we haven’t changed any old songs, we’re just keeping them as they are.
Tom: With the new songs, we haven’t got a set plan on what we want to do, the way we work is we sort of make a load of noise for an hour or two, have a few arguments and then a song appears. We’re not gonna specifically say “We’re not gonna be like this,†or “We are gonna be like this…†just on the screaming part, it’s just something we’re gonna bear in my mind…It needs to have its place does screaming, when it’s needed.
Pete: A lot of the bands on Mighty Atom are quite screamy…
Tom: That’s what we are hoping will split us away from everyone, because we’re not like any of the other bands. We can fit in that pigeon hole.
Adam: I think it’s just a case of utilising the three singers now, and getting some harmonies and stuff like that, doing the Beatles thing.
Tom: Pretty much we just want to continue doing what we’re doing, but try and get off Mighty Atom, I think the album will go out on Mighty Atom though, or they’ll end up licensing it to someone…
Pete: What do you think it will take to get you guys to the next level?
Tom: A new record label, with more money, that can do more things for us.
Adam: Something tells me it’s just around the corner…
Tom: The album that we’ve done only received one bad review… I think someone said we are actually the most successful band on Mighty Atom in the shortest amount of time. We just need to carry on doing it and fingers crossed something will happen.
Adam: I think like Funeral For A Friend, they were like 2 years, nothing happened to them and then in the space of a month – BOOM. It could be that way for us.
Pete: And you said Warner were interested?
Adam: Yeah well a guy from Warner made an offer to Mighty Atom, but they turned it down.
Pete: Can they do that?
Adam: Well I think it was an unofficial offer, and they did that with Funeral For A Friend and lost a lot of money…I don’t think they want to take that risk again.
Pete: On this tour, what sort of a reaction have Fightstar been getting?
Adam: Good. Very good.
Tom: I think a lot of the fans have been ex-Busted fans…
Pete: What have they thought of you?
Adam: We’ve gone down pretty well I think.
Pete: Apart from the Hiding With Girls tour, you’ve toured with 3 Colours Red, I mean that tour wasn’t your sort of crowd and I wouldn’t have said this one is either…
Tom: I think this tour has probably been our most suited actually. The tour with Hiding With Girls, Hondo and Cry For Silence, everyone seemed to be there for Hondo, all the hardcore kids, we went down alright at that, but this has done really well for merch, this tour, E.P’s and stuff…
Pete: Where have you gone down best?
Tom: I think Swansea.
Adam: The crowds have been really responsive, you move your arm and they are like “WAHAY!†straight away. Straight away they’re into it all, which is very good, because you need a crowd like that, or we do, we’re a band that feeds off the crowd.
Pete: So what else have you been getting up to on tour? Partying?
Adam: There have been a lot of ladies…
Tom: Ben’s nickname is “Almost,†cos he keeps pulling women, and he gets to the point where he’s going to get somewhere and then something happens, and he never does…
Adam: “Almost Ben†– where actually getting to the point where we are wondering if he actually has a penis. I wouldn’t put that in the interview though… We had a band game of football in the venue in Swansea, that was pretty cool.
Tom: It was mainly us versus Cry For Silence.
Adam: Fightstar were there, but they just lurked at the back…
Tom: We beat them 29 – 17. We play them all the time.
Pete: Right then, I think that’s about it guys, cheers, I’ll let you bob off to soundcheck!
Pete Punktastic