"..I actually faith healed someone last night at the show. She had a migraine and I grabbed her head whilst I was doing 'Vesuvius' with the other hand."
It's a rainy day in
TOATM - So LostAlone, London Barfly and it's the launch of Shapes of Screams, so how are you feeling?
Steven Battelle
(Vocals & Guitar) - Relaxed looking forward to the show, we're always quite
subdued before we play a show.
Alan Williamson
(Bass) - When I think about the show tonight I'm quite excited, but right now
I'm so fed up with this day and how it is outside. However I'd rather play it
in this as opposed to last time we played here where it was ridiculously hot.
TOATM - How did you come together, how did LostAlone form?
Steven Battelle -
For starters me and Mark (Gibson)
were at school together and we were in loads of bands, we had like thirty
bands, then we formed a band. We had a different bass player at that point, and
he didn't like the note 'G' and I did, so we parted ways, then we found Alan (Williamson) and we found we're
all on the same page.
TOATM - Well it's great to see because you're very in flux with
one another and the chemistry really shows through when you're on stage. So you
recently embarked on your tour in celebration of your album Shapes
of Screams, and it's the fifth date today so how is the tour going so
far?
Steven Battelle -
Wow is it really the fifth date already? I didn't realise that!
Alan Williamson
- Yeah it's been cool so far and the
shows have been great.
Steven Battelle
- Yeah it's been fun, we've been
trying obviously the new tracks and new arrangements in the room, there's been
times where I have played the entire gig in the audience.
TOATM - So what's the response to things like that been then?
Steven Battelle -
Well I think it's been good, it's been bad for Alan and Mark they don't
like me doing it. But for the audience it's been like they seem to like it and
it's a special thing for them.
TOATM - Now I know you're a huge fan of Queen, I've seen some of the pictures, if you had to pick one song by them which describes where you are right now what would it be?
Steven Battelle -
There's one called 'All Dead' that Brian May wrote about his childhood pet cat,
so I'd probably go with that one. *laughter*
TOATM - I'm also aware that you are a big fan of Jurassic Park
Steven Battelle -
Well who isn't?
TOATM - Well it's dinosaurs running around doing crazy stuff,
it's pretty awesome. But do you say you would have a favourite dinosaur?
Steven Battelle -
I wouldn't say I have a favourite dinosaur, but I have a favourite dinosaur
from Jurassic park and that would be the velociraptor, it's very menacing.
Alan Williamson -
I think mine would have to be the ones with the fans that come out from their
neck and then they spit like this! *Imitates dinosaur with fan and spitting*
TOATM - Oh the Dilophosaurus? Yes they were pretty freaky to me
as a kid!
Anyways back to the music - you said on this tour you're playing all new songs so what are your favourite songs to play live from the album?
Mark Gibson (Drums)
- For me it would be the opening track on the album 'Crusaders' is my favourite to play as we put so much into recording
on it and there was a long time between recording it to playing it live so we
had to put a lot into playing it but it sounds really good now and it seems to
go down really well.
Alan Williamson -
I'm enjoying playing 'Scarlett Letter
Rhymes' and 'Apathy' - We played
that once and they are both great fun to play for me.
TOATM - I think my personal favourite on the album so far is 'Requiem' which I had as my alarm this
morning, it was a great form of motivation.
Alan Williamson -
We played that song live once on this tour already actually.
TOATM - Today is launch date of Shapes of Screams, so I was wondering whether you have anything special planned for tonight's show at all in light of that?
Steven Battelle -
Well I think that as this is show five, we are specifically trying to home it
on the album, as on the first few shows people probably didn't have the album.
But I don't really want to go and put emphasis on this being a special show as
it might be unfair to people coming to the show tomorrow for example. But there
is no denying there is a special feeling because we put in so much work into
making the record and today is such a release for us really to have it
out. You were saying about the reviews
for it earlier, and me personally it's more the fans of the band's reactions
that actually mean so much to me.
Alan Williamson -
It really has been amazing yeah.
Steven Battelle -
There's not really much to say but it's when there's a rush of messages saying
'This is my favourite album' from everywhere it's amazing. I've been really
overwhelmed by the reviews and positivity so far, I've not seen any rubbish
reviews for it yet!
TOATM - Well just like seeing the connection between you and
the band it's great to see just how engaged you are with the fans through
social platforms, it echoes very well with the fans.
Steven Battelle -
Well I've never really understood with things like Twitter, and we're not in
the 70's anymore where rock stars are so removed - I don't see any problem with
replying to a tweet. I mean if I see a tweet I reply to it. Some people freak
out but I don't get why, it's like if you send me a tweet about music I'll
reply to them, but if they send me some boring thing about garbage I just won't
reply to them but yeah if it's about music and they wanna talk I'll reply.
TOATM - Now big question.. we gave you some Lindt chocolate earlier..
Steven Battelle -
Of course.
TOATM - We know you're a huge fan of it..
Steven Battelle - Massive fan.
TOATM - So combining your two favourite things, would you
rather have a Lindt size dinosaur or a dinosaur sized Lindt? It can be any
flavour you want.
Alan Williamson-
That's a great question *laughter*
Steven Battelle - That is a great question actually, when you
say a Lindt size dinosaur do you mean the little ball Lindt? Because I think
it'd be ace to have a T-Rex that big that you can just get to run around!
TOATM - Is that the dinosaur that has featured on your track 'Doooooooooomageddon (Global Thermonuclear Metafictional Warfare)'?
Steven Battelle -
Well that actually was a T-Rex harmonised with a Uruk-Hai from Lord of The
Rings in D-minor.
Alan Williamson - That noise actually ruined my
hearing for four days! It was in the rehearsal studio, and Mark (Gibson) had it on his
little sample pad, and it was SO loud that I just had to go home - it still
haunts me to this day.
TOATM - In Kerrang! we've recently seen you as a Rambo in quite a dramatic photo, so do you think you embody the power of Rambo on stage and if not who would you say would is a great hero figure to represent you?
Steven Battelle -
I'd say more a combination of.. well mentally Rambo definitely I've got that
political corectness. Jack Bauer from 24, there's a lot of him in me.. that's
what she said.. *laughter from everyone* . I definitely see myself as few
characters from Lord of The Rings. I guess you could say that on stage I'm just
an amalgamation of mythical people..
Alan Williamson -
..And John McClane?
Steven Battelle -
Oh there is a LOT of John McClane in me!
TOATM - Do you just kick
people off of the edge of the stage and watch them fall in slow motion?
Steven Battelle -
Well I actually faith healed someone
last night at the show. She had a migraine and I grabbed her head whilst I was
doing 'Vesuvius' with the other hand
and just lowered her head like this *pushes Alan's head down* and started
shaking it. There's a great photo of it and apparently it cured her for a few
minutes.. what can I say there's a lot of healing power within these hands..
TOATM - So I met you on The Blackout's tour in January at the O2 in Islington and you had a special pink LostAlone toaster, so do you have any other forms of special LostAlone kitchen appliances on this tour?
Steven Battelle -
Yeah we had actually just bought it that day so it's nice you picked up on
that!
Alan Williamson - We have a special kettle there behind you..
Mark Gibson -
Don't forget the signature four way plug splitter?
Alan Willimason -
It says 'Kevin Montgomery' , we don't know who that is actually..
TOATM -Do you ever have any weird requests when you go out on tour?
Steven Battelle -
Not on this tour obviously as it's been focused on the album, but on the last
few tours I didn't want anywhere I went to not feel like Christmas. Like
anywhere I went had to be Christmas, it wasn't even Christmas at the time..
Alan Williamson - ..
Mine is just Houmous.. just plain houmous, maybe a bit of chilli in it.
TOATM - So what is your favourite place to play? Is it hometown
or is there any meaning that has any special meaning to you? I know you do the
christmas shows at The Assembly Rooms in Derby ?
Steven Battelle -
I always enjoy them.
Mark Gibson - There's
always really good. But then there's a number of factors that might make a gig
really good, like we played a show in Paris one and it became one of favourite
gigs ever because the audience just came together. We love playing the UK of course,
but it's a totally different experience playing abroad. Like we played St. Albans the other day which was great and it was a
great show overall.
TOATM - Taking from that previous question, is there any country that you would love to play in that you haven't played in yet?
Alan Williamson -
Poland .
Steven Battelle -
Yeah definitely, we know we're going there this year, we've had a lot of people
saying you need to come to Poland
for a very long time but it's never happened. Brazil as well, I've got family
there and we have a lot of fans there. Finally Japan , that's where we all want to
go.
TOATM - Well it's interesting you say that because when I saw
you, I was taking photos and uploading them to Twitter, and as I was doing this
every fan group for LostAlone was following
me, you can see just how dedicated they are.
Steven Battelle - Yeah they're so passionate it's really great
to see.
TOATM - Right last two questions for you guys now, are any of you fans of Harry Potter?
Alan Williamson - Yeah!
TOATM - Right great! If you were going to go to Hogwarts, which house do you think you would be in and why?
Alan Williamson - Gryffindor
just because it's simply the best.. I loved their dorms too where they would go
and hang out with the little fire, I don't know if the other ones were like
that though. I went to Harry Potter world the other year.. it's just outside of
London
somewhere.. is Watford a place?
Steven Battelle &
Mark Gibson - Is Watford a place?
*laughter*
Alan Williamson - I
meant to say is that THE place.
TOATM - Finally to round it off is there anything you'd like to say to your fans at all?
Alan Williamson - Keep
bringing us chocolate.. it's always appreciated.
Mark Gibson - Just
buy our music. That's what it's all about.
Alan Williamson - Yeah
continue to keep supporting us, it's so appreciated.
TOATM - Well LostAlone,
Shapes
of Screams, thankyou!
LostAlone - Thankyou!
No comments:
Post a Comment