About to head out on their own headline tour THE XCERTS have just received the rather amazing news that they will be supporting the one and only Guns N’ Roses on their forthcoming UK arena shows! Speaking of the dates lead singer Murray Macleod says, “It will be an honour to play with a band of Guns N’ Roses stature and we are looking forward to taking ‘Scatterbrain’ to the big stage”. In addition The Xcerts have added a show at Fitzhurbert, Brighton on 10^th May as part of The Great Escape’s The Alternative Escape. Dates are as follows:

GUNS N’ ROSES TOUR

MAY

Fri 25 – Glasgow SECC

Sat 26 – Birmingham LG Arena

JUNE

Fri 1 – London O2 Arena

THE XCERTS second album ‘Scatterbrain’ has already taken the band on an incredible journey. In the albums short lifespan the band have been on several headline tours with a fan base that grows at every show, performed in Europe for the first time where their album is also released, been played by most major national radio stations (Radio 1, Kerrang! radio…) and TV channels (Kerrang TV, Scuzz…) and toured with many of their favourite bands (Manchester Orchestra, Biffy Clyro, Taking Back Sunday, Brand New…). Not only that, but the band flew out to New York to record it with their favourite producer Mike Sapone!

The dates of The Xcerts own headline tour are as follows:

HEADLINE TOUR

MAY               

Fri 4 – Tunbridge Wells Forum

Sun 6 – Southampton Joiners

Mon 7 – Exeter Cavern

Tue 8 – Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach

Thu 10 – Fitzhurbert, Brighton **Great Escape – 10pm**

Fri 11 – Sheffield Bowery

Sat 12 – Stoke Sugarmill

Sun 13 – Birmingham Academy 3

Tue 15 – Newcastle Academy 2

Wed 16 – Glasgow Garage

Thu 17 – Aberdeen Lemon Tree

Fri 18 – Thurso Newmarket Bar

Sat 19 – Dumfries The Venue

Mon 21 – York Stereo

Tue 22 – Leeds Cockpit Room 3 / 2 On Hold

Wed 23 – Manchester Sound Control

Thu 24 – Cheltenham Frog & Fiddle

Sat 27 – Bristol The Croft **rescheduled**

Sun 28 – Nottingham Rock City **rescheduled**

JULY

Fri 13 – 2000 Trees Festival

HAWK EYES are from Leeds, Englandshire. They consist of Paul Astick (vocals / guitar), Rob Stephens (guitar), Ryan Clark (bass) and Steve Wilson (drums)

One of those previous so-called ‘forms’ was Chickenhawk, whose gruesomely complex ‘Modern Bodies’ album of 2010 cheerily brutalised a not-so-innocent generation of grumpy grunged-up kids as they toured the known universe with Alexisonfire, We Are The Ocean and The Computers. Unfortunately all this cheery brutalisation came at a cost – a good doctor told singer Paul that his traumatic vocal stylings were doing unspeakable damage to his throat. He had to calm it down or get the heck off the back of the rock bus. So he calmed down. Relatively speaking.

The end of 2011 saw the renamed and reconstructed HAWK EYES foursome setting out their stall for future ever-so-slightly-mellower chaos with a nomination for Best Hard Rock Act at the Artrocker awards, touring fun with Turbowolf, The James Cleaver Quartet and Ginger Wildheart (though not all at the same time, you understand) and the release of the five-track ‘Mindhammers’ EP on Brew Records, a manically precise fusion of ferocious melodies and vivacious riffs which spewed forth comparisons with Foo Fighters, QOTSA, Alice In Chains and the epically heavy monstersound of Faith No More.

All extremely true, and all very indicative of a band growing up and rolling with the melodic punches. And the ‘Mindhammers’ template was refined and rewired on ‘Ideas’, HAWK EYES’ debut album which is sleek and modern and hardcore and suitably post-post-everything, but also cosmic and mischievous and never averse to (ab)using a classic riff here or there. The UK music press heaped praise on the album with Kerrang, Artrocker and Big Cheese Magazine all awarding ‘Ideas’ 5/5.

This led to the band being asked to join the one and only Andrew WK on his recent UK tour while Kerrang continued to show their support by nominating Hawk Eyes for best new band at the upcoming Kerrang Awards.

Forthcoming Live Dates:

Friday 11/5/12 Brighton, Concorde GREAT ESCAPE FESTIVAL

http://soundcloud.com/fierce-panda-records/hawk-eyes-headstrung  | www.hawkeyesmusic.com  |  www.facebook.com/HawkEyesMusic  | www.fiercepanda.co.uk

Having wowed critics with the release of their new album ‘Freaks Like Us’ which has received high praise across the board,STRAIGHT LINES are now preparing to take the album out on the road through September and October.

Speaking of ‘Freaks Like Us’ Kerrang! magazine said it possessed “choruses of a size that require a forklift to lift them” (4K’s)while Rock Sound said “…Straight Lines should be the biggest band on the planet right now” (8/10).

In addition, the singles taken from the record have been going down a storm at radio and television. ‘Half Gone’ secured ‘Single of the Week’ on Kerrang! Radio and was Huw Stephens ‘Next Hype’ on Zane Lowes BBC Radio 1 show and new single‘Commitments’ was made Kerrang! TV’s ‘Video of the Week’ on the week of the album’s release. You can watch the video for‘Commitments’ here: http://www.youtube.com/xtramilerecordings

The band has toured with the likes of Funeral for a Friend, The Subways, Kids In Glass Houses, The Get Up Kids and Presidents of the USA. Their headline ‘Freaks Like Us’ shows are listed below. In addition the band will be playing a special Xtra Mile Recordingsnight at Volks, Brighton as part of The Great Escape on 11^th May.

September

Fri 21 Leicester Soundhouse

Sat 22 Hull Fruit Space

Sun 23 Carlisle The Brickyard

Mon 24 Glasgow King Tuts

Tue 25 Newcastle O2 Academy2

Thu 27 Manchester Sound Control

Fri 28 Leeds Cockpit 3

Sat 29 Nottingham Red Room

Sun 30 Derby The Vic

October

Mon 01 Birmingham The Rainbow

Tue 02 Norwich Waterfront Studio

Thu 04 Kingston New Slang

Fri 05 Brighton The Hydrant

Sat 06 Southampton Joiners

Sun 07 Exeter Cavern

Wed 10 Bristol Thekla

Thu 11 Oxford Jericho

Fri 12 Milton Keynes

Crauford Arms

Sat 13 Reading Face Bar

Mon 15 London Barfly

Tue 16 Cardiff CF10

Tickets Available Online: kililive.com | artistticket.com | alt-tickets.co.uk

gigsinscotland.com | 24hr Booking Line: 0844 871 8820

What’s been your favourite city/venue to play on this tour so far?

Josh: Ahh can’t really say a favourite.. Yeah we can! Might have been last night for me.
Band: Really?!
Tony: I thought Leeds was pretty amazing.
Nick: Cardiff for me I’d say.
Josh: Last night was Nottingham mate. It’s different because I like the shows for different reasons. Some of them I like because we have better bass in some of the sound systems. Nottingham last night started off really quite tame and we had to win them over and that’s quite nice when you win over a crowd. Sometimes you go out there and they’re mental from the start and you love them because of that.
Matt: I can’t really put a finger on a favourite city, tricky one – Maybe tonight?! Who knows!

How have fans responded to you on this tour?

Band: Really good.
Josh: They’re so welcoming. Lostprophets fans are so amazing. Lostprophets are so lucky to have them.
Tony: They’re nice loyal people. We usually hang out after the shows, we’re very accessible meeting other people.
Matt: Getting pissed with the fans! We’re never one of those don’t look at us type people.

So there’s been a delay with releasing your brand new single ‘Show Me A Sign’ – Still how’s it gone down with the press and fans so far?

Josh: It’s gone down really well. The crowd seems to go more mad to that than any song we play in our set so far. Big thanks to UKF for that because the video helps a lot and UKF helped a lot with that. Yeah we’ll see how well it does next week. We never really saw it as a chart song so if it does well in the charts, it does well! If it doesn’t, it doesn’t! Support us, help us, if you can.
Matt: Just come and see us play live, that’s all we care about. Don’t judge us by just what we sound like on the radio to be honest.
Nick: I think the crowd can relate to that song more because it’s pretty heavy rock based and there’s Rage Against The Machine rifts at the end.

What inspired the music video for ‘Show Me A Sign’?

Tony: Mine and Josh’s warped brains.
Josh: It’s kind of ironic.
Tony: I don’t know what was it – We wanted a video with sexy girls, weapons, guns, violence and we wanted the execution of a bieber, that is definitely not Justin Bieber.
Matt: Definitely not, definitely not.
Tony: And it’s a bit ironic because we say destroy all commercial music, but we’ve been labelled as commercial music so we thought it would be a bit funny and ironic.
Josh: It’s basically a dig at X Factor, a big old dig at X Factor.

So there’s a full length album in the pipeline.. What can we expect from it and when?

Josh: It’s finished. Whenever the label decide to get up off their er..
Matt: Shoes..
Josh: Yeah whenever they decide to release it. Hopefully this quarter of the year. What should you expect – A combination of everything really.
Tony: Very a collective mix.
Josh: It’s got a lot of rock stuff on there, a lot of influences from Pink Floyd to some big Dubstep guys and drum and bass guys. So it’s a kind of.. mix of everything!

At this point in the interview their tour manager interupts us to share out Vodka between the band. Matt – “It’s impossible to do an interview without this”. Josh – “Nah, just give me the bottle” and we carry on..

Who do you draw influences from?

Tony: All different. Mine is kind of early electronic, UK garage kind of people – Tough Jam, big Daft Punk fan.
Josh: All Mowtown kind of things. Also Pink Floyd and I like modern electronic productions like Chasing Shadows.
Matt: Also quite heavily influenced by scat jazz from the 1930′s – Nah that’s a lie, obviously.
Nick: I’m more influenced by more of the old school 60′s rock and roll. Zepplin, Hendrix and obviously playing guitar all the guitar music. Quite similar to Matt I’d say.
Matt: Very similar yes and Pantera just for the power metal element.

What festivals will you be hitting up this summer?

Tony: Loads! Reading, Global Gathering, Wireless, EDC, Starscape, NASS, Park Life. A load!

What one are you most looking forward to playing?

Josh: EDC for me.
Tony: EDC in Vegas and Reading just for the nostalgia the fact it’s the first festival we ever went to. So we’re excited to be on the poster and actually playing there.
Matt: Last time we were there together was er..Phew..A very messy time.
Tony: Me and Matt woke up in drag.
Matt: That did definitely happen.
Josh: They don’t know how it happened. Took them a while to piece it together piecing together the wristbands.

For someone who hasn’t seen you before, what can they expect from a Modestep live show?

Tony: Frenzied energy.
Matt: Kicked in the nuts so hard that you puke blood for a week.
Nick: No, can’t top that!

Is it easy being two brothers in a band?

Josh: I think it makes it a lot easier with contracts and kind of stuff like that – We trust each other, we’re family. It’s much better than some best friends starting a band together and a couple of years down the line they want to go different ways and ends up being a big problem. But we’re brothers – Stuck with each other for life!

You got any crazy tour stories to share with us?

Matt: We went out drinking in Leeds and did gas chambers which is now illegal in several countries (Where you light the alcohol and you inhale the vapors.) We had about 5 or 6 of those and I swung for an invisible man, fell over, smacked my head off the pavement and was briefly unconscious.
Josh: Not briefly – A good few seconds! I’ve got it on video on Twitter.
Matt: I got 19 missed calls from my mother after she see that. It was on this tour. I also ended up in hospital because of my foot, that was fun.
Josh: Yeah, he had to miss out a show.
Matt: I was on the stage dancing on crouches so I was still there in some spirit.

If you could share the stage with one act, who would it be and why?

Tony: For me it’d be Lauren Hill because I love her.
Matt: And how would we go down with Lauren Hill!
Tony: She’d sound incredible on a dubstep tune. To share a stage with – I don’t know, The Prodigy, Pendulum – Someone like that.
Josh: I’d say Pink Floyd to warm everyone up. The Easy Star All Stars doing their version of ‘Dub Side Of The Moon’ and then we go on afterwards.
Matt: Yeah that’d be pretty cool. Good answer – Well done Josh!

And lastly do you have a message you’d like to leave to your fans and our readers?

Josh: Tony always has a message for the fans!
Tony: I do. I want to say a massive thank you. Obviously without you guys we wouldn’t be here and also massive thanks to Lostprophets fans for being so welcoming and so amazing to all of us. We love all of you, thank you very much – Big up! Genuine love.

Modestep’s brand new single ‘Show Me A Sign’ drops on 6th May via Polydor records. Pre-order from Itunes – http://itunes.apple.com/gb/preorder/show-me-a-sign-ep/id521784149.
And watch the incredible video for it HERE.

Noise Addiction spends a day with Harlow hairdressers Papa Shango. Apparently they also have a band, but we couldn’t get them to talk about that.

(Also available in HD. Just change the settings on the video below.) 

Camera/edit – James Burton