Attack! Attack! in the longest interview ever!

27-10-2008 15:11

Attack! Attack! are possibly the hottest guys to come out of Wales since Funeral For A Friend… and when I found out the two were on tour together I had to get my ass down there to mingle with some hotties.I cornered Neil Starr and Ryan Day to chat them up *ahem* I mean, to find out what the inspiration behind their incredible self-titled album, their dislike of Scouting For Girls and of course, their rock star demands.

What have you been getting up to lately?

Ryan: We’ve been doing plenty of gigs and plenty of pro evolution on the x box - Love it! Our driver has a DS and he has the new Batman Lego game and it’s amazing. [FF: I need it in my life] Maybe you do.The golf on the Wii is so addictive too. We have a friend at home who declares he’s the world champion at the bowling one, even though he’s never left our small town but I recon I could do him!

We have a challenge on our hands! Throw down the gauntlet… but back to more important matters; What’s it like being on tour with Funeral For A Friend and friends?

Neil: It’s like being on holiday with your best friends. It’s amazing. There are five of them and six of us and we’re all from the same area which is really great because usually when we’re out on the road no one can understand what we’re saying but they actually can!

Ryan: We can all be like we are back home; there’s no falseness or anything we can all be straight up with each other.

Neil: we’ve known them for about three years now and so it’s cool.

How did it all come about in the first place?

Neil: Ryan got a phone call and they said to us; “We’re going on tour in October, do you guys fancy opening up the bill?” and so we were all like; “Hell Yeah!” it was awesome.

Ryan: I was like; “You’re supporting us right?” and they said; “No” so then we had to think about it. But then we turned around and said we need; “At least 24 bottles of Becks a night, and a bag of carrots, and orange juice.

Neil: So we were like WHAT you will meet our demands? So then of course we asked for cans of coke - chilled - and bottled water and with that how could we turn the tour down? We decided as we got the most important things in life - Becks - we had to do the tour!

So to anyone who hasn’t been lucky enough to hear you yet, how would you describe your sound?

Ryan: Amazing. Melodic. This album rocks. It’s just melodic rock I guess.

Who would you compare yourself to then?

Neil: If my mum said; “Who do you sound like Neil?” I’d be like; “Think of the biggest band you know that does melodic rock. Have you heard of Foo Fighters? Have you heard of Weezer? Well we don’t sound like those bands but that’s as close as we can get.”

Ryan: We’d love to be as big as those two bands. But its melodic rock with a bit of pop and Welsh accents thrown in for good measure.

Doing it for the British!

Neil: Well no, the Welsh.

Yeah but Wales is in Britain isn’t it?

Ryan: Well yeah, but Wales is Wales.

I’ve obviously heard your fantastic album but what was the inspiration behind it?

Ryan: There are a lot of things. Friends, enemies, families, love, hate, betrayal.

Neil: Hot and cold.

Ryan: White or Black.

Neil: Snickers or Mars

Snickers all the way!

Ryan: I think a lot of it is to do with friends and enemies and a lot of trust issues such as betrayal.

Neil: We’ve been in bands before that haven’t gone the way we wanted them to go and this is what we want. Songs like Home Again are there to prove to everyone that we will do it and we will make it home again. It’s about having belief in what you’re doing and staying true to yourself.

Do you have a process that you go through when you write songs?

Ryan: Not really, there’s a bunch of things that happen; all four of us write separately and then one of us come in with an idea and mess about with it for a while in the practise room and then we make it into Attack! Attack! And I guess that’s just how it works.

Neil: Me and Ryan wrote some of the earlier songs together and then when the band was actually formed as a band we started writing the album together.

So how did you all come together as a band and how did you all meet?

Neil: Well me and Ryan were just writing songs when we had some time on our hands. The first songs we wrote were Lights Out and Home Again and we were like; “These are pretty good and quite catchy.”

Ryan: It was all acoustic at first so we didn’t know how it would sound in a live atmosphere.

Neil: so then we thought we would try it out as a band and we knew Will because he was in another band in the South Wales area and he had just left them and he was friends with out drummer who is Ryan’s cousin and they have been in bands together in the past and that’s that.

Do you have a favourite track that you like to play live?

Neil: Well contrary to what you think in the review it would have to be Say It To Me because we get everyone to chant along at the start and we try and get everyone involved in the set.

Ryan: I’ll go with Too Bad Son because it has a huge chorus that you can sing along to.

How did you get into the music industry in the first place? Surely you didn’t just charm everyone with your stunning good looks?

Neil: We recorded rough demos of our first couple of songs and put them on MySpace.

Ryan: MySpace is great for up and coming bands. If it wasn’t for MySpace I don’t think the scene would be as strong as it is today and I know a lot of people would disagree with that but for me and a million other bands that I discovered through MySpace I think it’s the best thing around to listen to a band who you are curious to hear more about. MySpace was the first point of recognition for us.

Neil: Then we played a couple of songs for people we know at the end of last year and a friend of ours, Stuart who is in Lost Prophets was looking to get back into recording and he offered to record our album so we were like “Sounds like a plan.” he was steaming drunk at the time so we though it would never happen and then we got a phone call asking us to come over in November to record it and there we go!

We didn’t get a label involved in the early stages because we weren’t sure of how we would sound like or how things would pan out.

Ryan: We wrote this album in like two months. We had two songs done but then we had like 12 or 13 unfinished songs and we went to America and had a week of pre-production before we went into the studio so we just slammed it all out in a week and changed loads of songs from what they were at the beginning. We were in the studio writing lyrics until the very last second.

Neil: The song Say It To Me; me and Ryan were sat in the apartment at two in the morning trying to finish the lyrics and we were recording the vocals at nine. Stu came into the studio and asked if we had finished the lyrics because we were recording in the morning and we were like; “we’re sort of struggling for inspiration here.” so he told us to write about how fake and plastic people are and that’s basically what the song is about.

When you started out did you ever imagine you’d be on tour with those foxy guys in Funeral For A Friend?

Ryan: Didn’t think anything of it. We just started a band to play and we were never like; “we’re going to do this and that.” We just started the band to see what happens. We never take anything for granted being in this band. We’re totally not the latest flash in the pan; we’re in this for the long haul.

We realise how lucky we are because there are so many good bands out there, we just feel privileged to be doing what we’re doing and we don’t let it go to our heads.

That’s good, because some people are so self-involved and it makes me angry! Who do you look up to within the music industry then?

Ryan: All the Welsh bands like. I come from the same time as the Stereophonics and I think they are the biggest influence for me. Just buying up as a kid and buying a guitar I thought; if they can do it, so can I.

Neil: It was different for me. I like Lost Prophets because they are from close to where we are and seeing them do so well gives you such a good feeling that you can do that. I also love the Foo Fighters who just play and write good songs. Weezer and Jimmy Eat World I really respect because they don’t give a damn what they look like; they just make good music and are in a band and have fun rather than trying to fit in.

Ryan: What’s the point in having to look a certain way to listen to music; when were those rules introduced?

Is there anyone you don’t like?

Neil: I just don’t like bands who think they are better than they are.

Ryan: Yeah, and bands who don’t think they should go out and meet fans after their shows.

Neil: Exactly. There are kids who wait outside your tour bus for hours after a show finishes and some bands don’t go and give kids two seconds to say thanks for coming to the show and buying records. Everyone has good and bad days but it’s the last they can do.

Ryan: You know whose music I don’t like? Scouting For Girls. Nothing personal to them… but their songs make my skin crawl and Scouting For Girls… I’d rather scout for ladies.

Well you can come and scout me out anytime you want Mr! So Other than to be married to me, where would you like to be in ten years’ time?

Neil: Still friends, still enjoying our music. Still doing this and being happy.

Ryan: Yeah, being happy and doing what we’re doing now.

Neil: I would like to see people coming to out gigs and I would like to be a headline band and to have people want to come and see us and to have people say “You know who my favourite band is? Attack! Attack!”

Ryan: And to have people singing along to every word of our songs - that would be really cool.

Well I think you could be up there; you’ll have to knock Biffy Clyro off the top of my favourite band list though!

Ryan: Biffy Clyro - Mountains is the best song I have heard in a long time. I love that song so much. Next time you speak to them tell them that it’s the best song since Hero by the Foo Fighters. Seriously, it’s so big and Hero is my favourite song of all time so that’s saying something.

Woo, Mon the Biffy! So, if you could make a super group, who would, you put in it?

Ryan: Angus Young from AC/DC, Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters on guitar, Kelly Jones on vocals and I need a drummer…

Neil: Tre Cool.

Ryan: I’d have Travis Barker but he needs time to recover from the plane crash.

Neil: I think for mine I would have Dave Grohl, and then Zack" de la Rocha from Rage Against The Machine on vocals,.

Ryan: I still need a drummer for my band!

Neil: Lars Ulrich.

Ryan: No I can’t stand him… I’ll have the drummer from Muse. He’s amazing. He’s awesome. That’s my super group right there!

Have Taylor Hawkins on drums.

Ryan: Yeah! Taylor Hawkins is on drums!

Neil: But now you’re super group is half of the Foo Fighters.

Ryan: That’s what makes it super!

Finally, we ask every musician we interview to come up with a question for the next person we interview and In Case of Fire want to know what it’s like being on tour with a bunch of Northern Irish guys?

Ryan: Shit because they beat me on Pro Evolution the other day!

Neil: It’s great because even though we’ve only just met them on this tour they are so down to Earth and such nice guys and they represent everything that the media doesn’t. They’re really nice and quiet and sweet.

Ryan: But don’t be fooled because they will have your ass on Pro Evolution… Steve; if you’re reading, I’m going to have you boy!

So now can you come up with a question for the Cancer Bats?

Ryan: Can they understand a word the Welsh say to them in conversation?

Neil: Ask them what it’s like being on tour with an ex member of Green Day also known as Ryan Day from Attack! Attack!

Is that some kind of inside joke?

Ryan: No it’s a true story… it’s on YouTube and everything.

Okay we’ll check it out. Thanks for talking to us guys.

FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison

Check out how we got on with their tour buddies;

Funeral For A Friend

Cancer Bats

In Case Of Fire