DragonNinjaDotCom

Author: Graham Finney
Date: 21st October 2000
Link: Planet Loud

Looking for a band who are heavy, melodic, catchy and, on the whole, pretty damn smart ? Look no further than Cardiff boys Lostprophets. With a cracker of an album, The Fake Sound Of Progress, out now on Visible Noise, the band headed out on their first proper tour as opening act on the Kill II This / Brutal Deluxe jaunt. Prior to the London show Intoxicated had a chat to the band to find out a bit more about this ace new band.

PL – Okay, could you quickly introduce yourselves please ?
Lostprophets - “Lee (Guitar), Ian (Vocals), Mike (Guitar), Mike (Drums), Stuart (Bass) and our DJ Jamie, wherever he is..?”

PL – Can you give us a quick history of the band ?
Lostprophets – Yeah, we formed in 1997. We did a few demos, just messed around. We sent one of the demos off to Metal Hammer and got a really good review (10/10) and then we sat back and waited for a record deal ha! We were just a group of friends messing around trying to find our sound. We did a few more demos and a few shows as well. At the end of 1998 we did a show with Kill II This. We didn’t take it too seriously until about 1999 and then we spent about a year in the studio getting it all together. We chucked a few songs down, got rid of a few and then sent it off and..well..Julie was the only address we had..only joking! ha! We did a few more gigs and..well.. here we are.”

PL – Why did you form a band ?
Lostprophets – “Why not ? Ha! We had nothing else to do and we have always had a love of music. Plus we were a bit sick of not hearing what we wanted to hear in the music scene. I mean there are bands we like but there is always those bands that you like that do something where you think “ohh, I would have done it differently.” So, it was down to that old chestnut of ‘if you want something doing properly, do it yourself’”

PL – What bands do you like ?
Lostprophets – “It ranges from everything really. Everyone is into Refused in a big way and we love Faith No More and The Police, all the old metal bands like Carcass. Some of us into hardcore, some into metal, some into dance. If you hear the album then it is tailored to what we wanted it to sound like.”

PL – Are you happy with the album then ?
Lostprophets – “Err…yeah.”

PL – You had to think about that ?
Lostprophets – “Well, if we had the chance to do it again, we’d try and do it a lot more live this time. That’s our only problem with it is that it sounds too clinical and we want a raw sound. That’s just the band being anal and only the band would pick up on it but, when you see us live, you’ll hear that the sound is a lot more raw and that’s kind of what we would have liked with the album.”

PL – What does the name mean ?
Lostprophets – “It doesn’t mean anything although we did find out the other day that it was the name of a Duran Duran live album and we’re actually pretty stoked about that. We all love Duran Duran. We were looking for a name and it sounded cool and that’s that really.”

PL – How’s this tour been then ?
Lostprophets – “It’s been great, we definitely needed it! It’s alright playing one show and then rehearsing for three weeks then doing another one but a tour like this has made us better as musicians and brought us closer together as a band. We definitely needed to do some proper touring and this has been great.”

PL – Is this your first proper tour then ?
Lostprophets – “Yeah, we’ve always done like the odd show here and there but the thing is is that you can never get your live sound perfected unless you do like three weeks straight.”

PL – What about after this tour ?
Lostprophets – “We’d like to tour and tour and tour. Nothing is planned yet though. We’ve got a few dates in November. We’re playing with Snapcase, we’re doing Brumfest and a few other bits n’ peices. After Christmas we’re doing a tour with a band from New Jersey called One King Down which we’re really up for as that tour goes out to Europe.”

PL – How did Visible Noise discover the band ?
Lostprophets - “We we’re playing this Kerrang! gig and, somehow, we got on the bill. It was King Prawn, Kill II This and us. Julie gave us a card and asked for a demo. Eighteen months later we found the card and sent a demo down. Julie was still interested in working with us and we didn’t want to go through all the bullshit with labels and stuff, it was ideal. We don’t want to do all that bullshit stuff for suits and Julie gave us the opportunity to do what we want to do which is play live.”

PL – What can we expect from you live ?
Lostprophets – “The album but better! It’s wierd because the album is cool but it’s not that heavy and then people see us live and see that it is a lot heavier. Like on this tour kids have been saying we sound like Glassjaw and whoever and it’s really wierd. One kid came up to us and said we wanted to be Limp Bizkit.. what the fuck ?”

PL – So, do you want to be Limp Bizkit ?
Lostprophets – “Err..no! We wouldn’t mind his money! Ha! The thing is is that everyone is distancing themselves from that sound because that bandwagon as rolled out of town. It astounds me that labels are still signing rap metal bands. No matter what you think of Fred Durst, Limp Bizkit have opened up a lot of peoples eyes to heavier music and, at the end of the day, that can only be a good thing.”

PL – Okay, cheers for your time, anything else you’d like to say ?
Lostprophets – “Yeah, check out the album, check us out live and on our website at www.lostprophets.com”