How did the band first come together?

Us and Hawk Eyes played darts for who would be in which band. We lost and ended up doing this – how different things could have been. That would have been good, wouldn’t it? We started out in a bunch of different bands that sort of fell apart. We came together, started out playing blues in bars and then wanted to sound like a heavy Devo, if you can possibly imagine that working? It didn’t. It was a gradual thing how we ended up sounding like this.

How did you come up with the name Blacklisters?

Coming up with a band name is the hardest thing you can ever do as a band. It’s loads harder than writing songs, cause it’s the first thing people are likely to hear and so you put loads into wanting it to be the best thing and you kill yourself trying to get it right. In the end, I don’t think it matters and actually it’s the songs and the sound and the sort of show you put on that do. For the record, our name is far from the best name – it’s OK and it’ll do. We have all hated it at some point but then were past caring. Sorry – to answer your question, I got it from a Bob Dylan documentary and there was a bit about Senator McCarthy and his Blacklisters and liked the sound of it.

There are some very intense and heavy moments on your record that can compare to bands like Refused and Glassjaw. Are you fans of these bands?

Yeah, we hear that a lot, particularly Glass Jaw, but I don’t think any of us have ever listened to either of those bands. Not out of choice or hatred of them but just that we never really crossed paths with them. I like hearing comparisons, especially ones that you wouldn’t expect cause you’ve never heard them, like The Deftones, we get that a lot too. People hear what they hear, you can’t help that, I hear a lot of Sting in our songs. We are much more from the Jesus Lizard and Rapeman School of influences.

Is the title for the record meant to be the band’s name in text speak and why did you go for that?

We just wanted to copy Madonna as we think what she is doing right now is really inspirational.

You obviously had a lot of fun with some of the titles on the record, particularly track no. 5. What is the inspiration behind them?

Most of them are things that make us laugh. We are not trying to be pretentious, we just find stuff funny and we don’t want to pretend that we are these serious life-hating idiots when in general we do it cause it’s fun. Track 5, “I Can Confirm That Ruth Abigail Homes Is Not Dead And Is Planning To Make A Movie About Her Life”, came about because Barry Chuckle of the Chuckle Brothers was rumoured to be dead and Twitter was rife with it. So Barry came on TV and said “I can confirm that I am not dead and am planning to make a movie about my life”. Me and my mate Ruth thought it was a funny thing to say and so said it a lot and so the title was born.

From the people who have been lucky enough to hear this record, has there been a positive reaction?

Yeah, so far so good. It’s a weird thing because when you record an album you are in this little bubble and you have no idea what people will make of it and you don’t even consider the idea of people listening to it, if that makes sense. So it’s strange but really good when reviews start popping up and people are saying nice things about the thing you do.

You did a tour with Birmingham’s Shapes recently. How did that go?

Really good, they are brilliant people and a great band, one of our favourites. We have wanted to get to know them properly for a long time and so when the option of touring with them came up, we all jumped at it. Hopefully, we’ll sort something out again in the future. They are good boys – I miss them every day.

What is the strangest touring experience you’ve had?

Any time spent with Kong is a strange time.

I’ve noticed that Leeds generally has been producing some great bands as of late, such as Pulled Apart By Horses and Hawk Eyes. Would you agree and why do you think its happening?

I mean yeah totally, there are some amazing bands in Leeds, Hawk Eyes, Pulled Apart By Horses being the two most well-known. But they are the tip of the iceberg of what has been going on for years. Right now you have bands like These Monsters, Humanfly, Shallows, That Fucking Tank, Canaya, Hookworms, Eagulls, Normal Man, Cowtown and Runners. If people are interested in having a bit of a look, and I implore you to, people will find all sorts of incredible bands that have influenced all of the bands that are around at the moment – the bands that started the scene we all learned what to do in.

Finally, you’ve been confirmed to play at Hevy Festival and The Camden Crawl. Is there anything else exciting in the pipeline?

Yeah, but we are waiting for the announcements to be made. Keep an eye out cause there is plenty of stuff coming up over the summer and beyond. Oh Dublin Camden Crawl, we are playing that. That’ll be loads of fun, a little holiday, we are gonna wear shorts and Hawaiian shirts.

Blacklisters album – BLKLSTRS will be released 24th April via Brew Records. Read the review Tom Willmott wrote for the album HERE.

How did the band form?

Luke: Myself and Kerry were at school together ever since we were little kids and we were in and out of bands (very bad ones!). Then we met Jonny and Simon - who were also at school and in a band together – through an old bass player of ours and it went from there. We got Kerry in to replace the bass player and we became Fin from then on.
Jonny: We’ve been together for about two and a half years now.

How did you come up with the name Fin?

Luke: Basically, we were trying to find a name, and I was going through my record collection looking at album names, song titles and anything you could think of. I came across the title of a song by the band Pavement off the album “Brighten The Corners”, and there was a song called Fin, and the name just popped out. I loved it, and asked the guys what they thought, and they liked it as well. So we kind of figured short and sweet, and it did the job.

Who would you consider as your main influences?

Jonny: We’re a mixed bunch when it comes to the stuff we’re into. But I think generally we’re very into our 90s grunge and rock bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam and Radiohead, but we also take influence from bands like The Temper Trap, Gotye and Phoenix.
Luke: There’s a band from Belgium called Deus I really love and am inspired by, but then There are other things that I consider good like Motown and Michael Jackson.

Recently you’ve been asked to support some big name acts such as Incubus, Feeder and Brand New. How did you get approached for these exciting opportunities?

Simon: We were very lucky last year. We were just playing some London shows and managed to get a brilliant booking agent on board called Rob Marcus. They loved what we do and wanted to help us, so they started getting us some great shows and tours.
Luke: Incubus was kind of the first big tour we got. We’ve all been fans of Incubus since we were kids, so it was quite a big opportunity for us. Since then the tours have been coming in and it’s been a great experience.
Jonny: It seems what’s happening is people are hearing what we’re doing and know we’re doing it by ourselves and then want to help out because they believe it’s good. The Incubus manager got it, passed it on to Incubus, they liked it and asked us to come on tour. It does seem people want to get involved and help us achieve those sort of things.

At this year’s Brit Awards you were chosen as the backing band for Rihanna. How did it feel to be performing at such a large scale event?

Luke: It was a strange experience. We’re used to what we do, but we got offered this opportunity, and we thought meeting Rihanna at The Brits would be amazing. It was a really good experience, and we got to meet Noel Gallagher. We gave him our record, he listened to it and gave us the thumbs up which was brilliant. We also saw Chris Martin from Coldplay. It was just an interesting experience for a band at our level to see what it’s like if you’re up there with Coldplay or Noel Gallagher or Rihanna level and to see what The Brit Awards is all about.

You recently toured in the US. How was that experience?

Simon: The US was brilliant. We went over there and played about eight shows at SXSW in Texas, had a great time, and then one of the coolest things we did was hire a van and drive across four states all the way to LA. That was an amazing experience to see how big America really is. Then we played two shows at The Viper Rooms in LA that were really busy, really vibey. Kerry smashed his head open and there was blood everywhere. It felt good to be over there. The American audience seems to like what we‘re doing and was really receptive.

You performed at the Occupy London setting, which has now been cleared. What was the reaction like and did you feel an urge to try and spread an important political or social message?

Luke: Myself and John went down there to check it out because a lot of our friends are unemployed, so we were just interested in it. By fluke, we had just come from an acoustic session and we had our guitars with us, and they asked us to entertain them for about half an hour because they’d been there all day. We were happy to do that. I’m not sure about the political message, because I don’t want to stand too much with the politics behind it, but I support it.
Jonny: When we recorded our album, we decided to completely do it ourselves and it came to the point where no one else was going to help us do it, and we took it upon ourselves to record and go ahead with it. I think in terms of money, we’ve shown you can do things without having to spend a lot.
Luke: I do notice that there is a very clear gap right now between the upper class and less fortunate, so I think it’s only a positive thing that these people are bringing that to the forefront of everyone’s lives at the moment.

You’re playing a launch show next week for your latest single. Are you looking forward to it?

Luke: We’ve got a lot of special stuff planned for it which we can’t tell you about but it’s going to be really good and we’ve been working really hard in getting it prepared, and it will be our first show since we’ve been out in America. It will be also be our biggest show yet.

You’ve recently released a video for the single “Twenty Three”. What was the concept for this?

Luke: Well, because we’ve been doing all the videos ourselves, editing them, and coming up with the ideas, we were really stuck with what to do with “Twenty Three”. The video is based in a backdrop of silver that engulfs us, and it was just a little idea that we had. We wanted to do something completely different but it cost too much money. The backdrop happened to come from a very famous band, which we will leave a mystery.
Jonny: It’s in a rehearsal space somewhere.
Luke: We covered ourselves and put some lights in there, filmed it and at the end we came out with loads of glittery kind of stuff that came from the backdrop.
Simon: I think it was the quickest music video we’ve ever done.
Luke: We shot it within four hours, which was ridiculous.

After reading your bio on Facebook, it says that you’re releasing a sequence of 7 inches that make up the album. With Record Store Day coming up, do you feel it’s still important to have a physical product when it comes to releasing music?

Luke: Absolutely. That’s one of the whole reasons why we did it. Growing up, we would go to a record store, buy a record, hold it in our hands, read the lyrics and connect with the bands on a visual as well as audible level. The whole package is lost in the digital world, and there’s not so much discovery now. We really wanted to bring that back with what we’re doing and make it more investable, so people would want to invest in the band more.

For the album, do you have a title set, and when can we expect it to be released?

Luke: At the moment we’re keeping the title secret.
Simon: We’re looking to get it out around the end of summer/autumn, which is our prospective date. We really want to get it out there.
Luke: The thing our fans understand already is that it’s DIY, so everything we do is self- funded and obviously it’s taken us a long time to get to this point using our own money, so once we can afford to do it, we will.

Finally, you’ve been confirmed to play at Hop Farm festival alongside the likes of Bob Dylan and Peter Gabriel. Are there any other exciting shows or happenings in the pipeline?

Luke: There’s a lot in the pipeline but we’re not allowed to disclose it yet until it’s 100 percent confirmed, which is annoying but you’ll be hearing a lot more on tours and shows soon.
Simon: We’ll be doing a load of festivals over the summer that we’ll confirm ASAP. But we’ll be out there – you’ll be able to find us!

March 2012 – Band Of The Month

What made you name your band AlicebanD?

I took my name, and then the fact that we are a band, and merged those two together to formulate the ultimate band name ever! But wait, we’re not done yet.. Instead of merely two words.. Alice and Band.. I put them as one word, then made the D big… which makes it a bit more symmetrical… creative genius I know… Let’s just pretend there aren’t 4 other bands also called AlicebanD.. one a lot more successful than we are…

Which bands do you draw inspiration from musically?

We all have different influences, and I wouldn’t really say we actively try to make our music sound like anyone elses.. But in an ideal world we’d have the harmonies of system of a down, the fun of faith no more, the soul of joan armatrading, the lyrics of eminem and the voice of.. someone else really good.. But we can’t do that, we can only do AlicebanD.. which actually works quite well..

What can people expect from your live show?

It’s hard to say really. I do solo shows as well as full band. The solo shows are a lot more emotional, and I always think they’re been a success if at least one person has cried. Full band is a lot more laid back and fun, we try to get people dancing and never take ourselves too seriously. I try to bring the words to life, because they’re the most important bit.. Overall I would say people should expect some music and singing and stuff..

What song would you recommend from your Facebook?

‘Who You Wished I Was’ is one of my favourites. It’s quite an old song.. but it’s pretty.. and I like it.

http://www.facebook.com/alice.aliceband

 February 2012 – Band Of The Month

What made you name your band As Autumn Falls?

The band has seen a few name changes and different members over the years. The name As Autumn Falls was randomly made up and it stuck. There’s no meaning or anything like that. Although I like to think that its a play on words as Autumn is also called Fall in Northern America!

Which bands do you draw inspiration from musically?

Bands that we draw inspiration are the bands that we listen to. We dont listen to one genre of music though, we all have different tastes. A few bands to name include The Devil Wears Prada, Funeral For A Friend and Heart In Hand.

What can people expect from your live show?

People can expect a very energetic live show with lots of lights for effect. We try and give as much as possible on stage so that the crowd can feel comfortable and give us some energy back. Our vocalist enjoys getting in peoples faces and getting interaction from the crowd. We always try and have parts of our songs that the crowd can sing or scream back at us which really blows us away!

What song would you recommend from your Facebook?

A song I’d recommend from our Facebook would be ‘Your White Collar Means Nothing’. Its the song we most often open with at our shows as its a straight to the point, in your face song. Theres no build up, it starts heavy and continues that way through the whole song!

http://www.facebook.com/asautumnfalls

Who is your biggest inspiration?

For me personally, as a singer, it has to be Green Day. I grew up seeing them play small shows of about 200 people to what they are now. They influenced me a lot when I was growing up. Hoosker Do and the Replacements also influence me. Lesser known bands like SuperChunck kind of influence how I sing to.

How does it feel to be at the forefront of the genre of Pop-Punk for so long?

WOW! I don’t know it’s pretty awesome I guess, I never expected it to happen. I really never expected to be part of that wave y’know? And it’s really cool that we are. And it’s really great that younger bands list us as their influences because that’s how we became the band that we are today, the bands we listened to shaped us!

Who would you most like to do a collaboration with? If you could pick anyone in the world?

Anybody in the world? I’d like to do a collaboration with Morrissey.

Is Morrissey someone you idolize?

I mean I wouldn’t say I idolize him. I don’t have tattoos of his face or anything like some people do (laughs), but, uh, I am more of a Smiths fan. I like some Morrissey albums, but I can listen to any Smiths record and sing along with all the words.

What do you think of TV shows like American Idol/ X-Factor USA? And what do you think they bring to music, if anything?

I think it gives people the wrong impression of how things work in music. I mean pop music is way different, but still, it gives the wrong impression and shows people’s fantasy’s are, and gives them a sense of false hope. It is cool because you could be nobody and that show could make you a somebody but it doesn’t show it for what it really is and only a handful of people have made it from American Idol. It’s funny though, because it’s not just in pop music, it’s in our world too. Like, there are so many bands that come and go because they think just because they have 1 million followers on Myspace they’re going to be huge, but that’s not the case.

What do you think of new bands like Lower than Atlantis and Don Broco? Do you think that they are keeping Pop-Punk alive?

Lower Than Atlantis are cool but I kind of think they sound a bit like Biffy Clyro or something y’know? But I think they are a really cool band! It’s good to see how this genre of music has evolved, because it still has the pop sensibility but it now has heavier guitars.

Would you ever think about going down a more hardcore route, like what you guys done with International Superhero’s of Husker Du and Shai Hulud?

I don’t think that we’ll ever just do that but the older New Found Glory records are definitely influenced by it.

What is the best and the worst thing about being on tour?

The best thing is obviously the shows are great, and the bands that are on this tour are awesome to hang out with. And the worst thing for me personally is, being away from home. I’ve got people at home that I really miss. It’s hard in the UK too because you wake up and it’s dark and you go to bed and it’s the same! (Laughs)

Where has been the best place to play so far on the K! Tour?

So far, I’ve really enjoyed Bristol, and Southampton was really fun!

How did you feel about the line up getting changed last minute and The Blackout being put in?

The Blackout are really good guys to tour with! We’ve played festivals with them before. They are the ones I’ve been hanging out with most actually. I love how they make fun of themselves, and make jokes about themselves on stage and on their merch. Y’know they’re not cool and they know they’re not cool! Ha-ha!

What’s your favourite thing about coming to the UK to tour?

The UK is awesome because of our fans!

Who is your favourite comic book hero and villain?

Lately I’ve been reading a comic called “The Boys”, it’s pretty awesome. And I got the first one of the comic Y: The Last Man. Yorick is the main characters name and he’s cool, so far he seems to be a bad ass! He’s living in a world where he’s the only man left so far and it’s a world full of woman and he has a pet monkey. So he’s pretty cool. I don’t really have a favourite villain!

What can we expect from you in 2012? Will there be another release soon or are you going to keep touring “RadioSurgery” just now?

No, it’s going to be a little while because it’s not been out that long so we still have this year of touring. Then next year we’ll probably go away and write.

What is your favourite country to play?

Uh, I really like Japan. Everyone is really nice there and they bring you little gifts and stuff. They find out what you like and give you little trinkets to keep.

Who is your tip for the top for 2012?

I guess Skrillex is pretty famous right now! (Laughs). But my pick, oh I don’t know. Lower Than Atlantis are really cool and Deaf Havana’s new record is good. There are actually lots of bands from this country right now which are really good!

I also read that you want to try and play every festival in Britain, so would you play T in The Park?

Yeah sure! If they asked us we would love to!

Would you play Slam Dunk again?

Yeah for sure! We headlined last time so we would love to! Slam Dunk is awesome!

Can we expect a “From the Screen to your Stereo Pt3?”

Sadly no, probably not! As of right now I’m saying no, but you never know we could decide to! I feel that we’ve kind of done too many covers!

What’s your favourite cover to do?

My favourite was “King of Wishful Thinking” with Patrick Stump from Fall out Boy. I actually really liked that album, From the Screen to Your Stereo Pt2 because every track had a guest vocalist on it!

Is there anything you would like to add or say to your fans?

Yeah, just thanks for supporting our band this long and for continuing to support us. Every time we come here we feel like we’re a new band so thanks!