| A band
we've seen many times over the years and are always excited at the
prospect of catching up with them to hear what they've been up to are
Manchester's finest Dear Superstar. This year has been a real
roller-coaster of a ride for them and with so much to talk about we drag
them off to the pub for a good old chin-wag.
MM - The band are
currently on tour with Buckcherry how are things going?
Micky -
Yes, we’ve just come back from Europe with Buckcherry, We were
out there with them and Papa Roach on tour. It's cool to hook up
with the guys again, well it's been pretty cool so far.
MM - You must see a lot of familiar face in the crowds now?
Micky -
Yes last night in Leeds there were a lot of Papa Roach and Dear
Superstar t-shirts in the crowd, plus they were singing out our songs
back to us which was great.
MM - I believe you’ve been leading Heavens Basement astray on this
tour?
Micky -
Oh Yes, we’ve been kicking around with those guys for a couple of
weeks now and doing all sorts of crazy stuff, we’ve been snorting
wasabi.
MM – What!!
Micky -
Snorting Wasabi, you know the Japanese horseradish. It's like
Horseradish on drugs! We’ve just been partying every night. It’s
just been cool. Yeh put two groups of people together that
individually are bad influences and then mix, the end result isn’t
gonna be right! (laughs).
MM
- This Sunday is the biggy, Sonisphere.
Micky -
Yes its so weird, people keep saying Sonisphere this Sunday and
we say ... yes it is! It’s not that we’re dismissing
it, its just that life is such high octane at the moment it's
really hard to digest things. We’ve just done Donnington
and now Knebworth, it just doesn’t compute in our brains yet.
We’re just so appreciative and we’re riding such a wave at
the moment, it’s so amazing that we get to be a part of
something like Sonisphere. I can't wait.
MM - How long have you known the you were on the bill for
Sonisphere?
Micky
- We got confirmation while we were out in Dijon in France, we
got a call from our agent saying ... “hey guys want to play
Knebworth” ... it was ... hey we got Sonisphere!!! It
was unbelievable, we had a big party that night.
MM - That’s
tremendous for any band to play there, especially as it's the
very first Sonisphere.
Micky -
The history of Knebworth is just amazing and to be a part of the
very first Sonisphere in the UK is just huge.
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Stew - For us it's
particularly good, but for any band to play with that line-up is just
great. We’ve been drooling over the line-up for a few weeks now,
just like Metallica, Alice In Chains ... it's oh my god! It's like
every band on there has been a big influence on Dear Superstar and
we’re gonna enjoy watching them and partying with them. It's
gonna be good.
Micky - We’re gonna be doing a Scuzz video diary, so people will
get so see what Dear Superstar are like behind the scenes.
MM - Going back to Papa Roach, you toured with them earlier on this
year?
Micky -
Yeh we toured with them in April. We just on like a house on fire,
two personalities just joining in the middle. We got on great,
partied every night, it was just brilliant. When it was over we
thought ... hey has that just been three days? It felt like
months, it was brilliant. They were like ... "hey we’re going out
to Europe in June, do you want to come with us"? We were like
... “what? do we want to come with you??, of course we do!!!”.
We went around Europe with them and had the time of our lives, saw some
great cities. Every show was sold out, it was really good.
MM - What were the European crowds like?
Stew -
Amazing, hitting new territories that we’ve never been to but always
wanted to go to, it was a great opportunity and the crowds were just
amazing.
Micky - Every night, every night, I was just jumping into the
crowd,. Yes it was great. The crowd out there were pretty
hyped up. It’s great for British bands to be able to get out
there, there aren’t many small British bands getting out there and
they were very appreciative.
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MM - Do you
think you’ll get out into Europe again to do another tour
soon?
Micky -
Yes! Definitely, that’s high on our priorities right now were
built for the road that’s what we like doing and we’re not
gonna leave any stone uncovered. When we got back from Europe we
realised how small the world really is, so were gonna go out
there and see as much as we can.
MM - What’s
the hardest thing about being on the road?
Micky -
I don’t know, clean undies.
Stew - Socks, you don’t appreciate a pair a socks, a brand
new pair of socks.
Micky - Yes, putting on a clean pair of sock on tour is just
the most glorious thing ever. We don’t miss anything on
tour though, we were born to be on road.
Stew - This
is what we’ve worked really hard for, to go away and to say
... I wish I wasn’t here would just be ridiculous.
Micky - This tour schedule that we are doing at the moment
has been ten years in the making, and we ain't gonna give it up
now and we're not gonna moan about it either, it's great.
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MM - We were saying to
the guys last time that the first time we saw you was at Lennon’s Bar
just around the corner from here.
Micky -
That’s when we were really glam rock ...
Stew - That is where we started five years ago, now where playing
venues like the Academy.
Micky – It’s a great testament to all the bands out there, you
get out on the road to travel seven hours to play in front of ten people
and not get paid and then go home. You get up at four in the
morning, do a days work and then do it all again for six months of the
your life. You’re nearly on deaths door half the time but when
you get to shit like this ... but you have to go through that shit ...
it's character building, we are all better people for it. We’re
better musicians for it. We’re better friends for it, so it’s
great.
MM - Well what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.
Micky -
Exactly, that's definitely the epitaph we’ve got, I don’t want to
play the violin but we’ve had a lot of shit thrown at us. We’ve have
come from the gutter, we’ve come from nothing. We’ve been ripped off
by management companies, we’ve been ripped off by labels, since
we’ve got on Demolition Record things have turned for us ... and
it’s from hard work.
You’ve got to have a good work ethic, it pays dividends for bands like
us. We haven’t had a shit load of money thrown at us, every penny that
has gone into this band hasn’t come from label investment, it has been
out of our own pocket.
MM – Download, that must have been good for the band.
Micky -
Yeh we’ve said it doesn’t compute that we’re playing Sonisphere,
it still doesn’t compute that we played Donington. Download is
something we’ve been chasing for years and now it's like ... “did
we do Donington?”
Stew - It’s just we're five lads from Manchester ...
Micky - We're not stuck up. We don’t think the world owes us
anything. We’re just five lads from Manchester who love to party
and love to play Rock n' Roll, and we’re doing this crazy shit now,
and we just love it.
MM - The Heartless album has been out for a while now, there’s been
some really great feedback from this.
Micky -
Yes the reviews have been awesome, but the best feedback has been from
the fans.
Stew - You go to towns you’ve never played before and you hear
'Brother’s In Blood' being sang out to us, it's just brilliant.
MM - Any news on the new album?
Stew -
It’s a work in progress.
Micky - Yeh it's work on progress. Since we’ve come back from
Europe with Papa Roach and Buckcherry we took three weeks out, we’ve
been in the studio five days a week, writing new tracks and demoing a
few things. Yes we're back in Newcastle next week to lay down some
tracks, but we won't be releasing anything yet. It is a work in
progress but we want the next album to be the best that Dear Superstar
can do. For now Dear Superstar are on the road for the foreseeable
future, we just want to kick ass on the road and when we’ve got time
for the new album we will do it.
Stew - Certainly we’re still writing on the road and when we’ve
got a few days here and there.
Micky - Yes, like we said before we're getting better as
musicians and tonight we'll be playing three new tracks so we can’t
wait.
MM - I was wondering if you will be playing one of my favourite new
songs … “Twiddles For A Nice Time” … (laughs)
Micky -
(laughs) We had been living in this bus for like a week and a half, and
we hadn’t had any time off at all. We’d been playing a show,
getting on the bus driving to the next show, playing then back on the
bus. Literally for a week and a half and we were really screwed
completely on our arses. It was the last night of the tour, we
were in Holland and in the dressing room they had this big Hammond organ
and we thought ... we have to do something with this. Then Ben just went
... Wooooooo!!!!! ..... complete cabin fever, and everyone just starting
doing the funniest things. We had to record it.
Stew - That was the horrible thing about it, it wasn’t staged.
When we watched it back we thought ... what the fuck are we doing?
Micky - All that cream on your face, where did you get if from? It
was like … “I don’t EVEN remember!”
Stew - I think knowing our past record the worst thing about it was
that we were all sober! (laughs)
MM – Yes, I
found it to be a particularly creative and expressive piece …
MM - I’ve notice you’ve also changed the logo.
Micky -
Yes we’ve kind of re-branded, the main reason it we thought the old
logo didn’t look good.
MM - Your drummer he’s changed his name what’s that all about?
Micky -
Yeh The Minge has been the Minge since he was thirteen years old and
I’m proud of the fact I named him. Even his mum calls him the
Minge. We thought yes let's get back to our old names. The Minge
came from Ben-ji-Minge. We get questions asking when did you get
rid of Minge and Gunns? We haven’t!
MM
– How on earth are you gonna follow this year?
Stew -
I think if my brain thinks about it too much it might melt.
Micky - From what we had last year to what we have this year
is just almost unheard of, for a band unheard of a year ago to
play Download, Sonisphere, tour with Papa Roach and Buckcherry
… and Cruefest! All this different stuff, it doesn’t
happen everyday, and to jump to the next level isn’t gonna be
that much of a step. We’ve got plans for 2010 were gonna play
festivals, play all round Europe, maybe the States and what
we’ve done this year is gonna be times by ten. Do the same
stuff but do a lot more of it. |
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Stew - The main
thing is we liked to think we’ve worked hard this year, but next year
we’re gonna turn it up a gear, we’re gonna keep writing and keep
touring.
MM – What plans have
you got for the rest of the year?
Micky -
As soon as we’ve finished this tour we’re gonna announce another UK
tour, and then finish that one.
MM - Headline or support?
Micky -
Support slot, but I can't say who with as it hasn’t been confirmed
yet, but it's a support slot, and then towards the end of the year
we’ll do a joint headline tour in the UK and keep on the road for the
rest of the year.
MM - With all the festivals and tours you’ve done you must have met
some real rock superstars on the way?
Micky -
Yes, just about everyone. Download Festival obviously Def Leppard
were playing. It was Def Leppard that got me into rock n' roll, so
I got backstage to meet Joe and it was like ... Ooooh that’s Joe from
Def Leppard! ... we had a chat for ages. But when we were in
Copenhagen ...
Stew - Yeh meeting Tommy Lee in Copenhagen was the highlight.
Micky - We played Copenhagen with Papa Roach and Toby came up to us
and said ...“hope you guys are up for a party tonight” ... we
said ... “we’re always up for a party!” ... but the night
before we slayed it, but we had to keep up appearances. He said Tommy
Lee is coming tonight, we thought ... yes! we’re gonna party tonight!!
Tommy came bursting in like a twelve year old on E, and he was like ...“Hey
yoh, you guys gonna rack them up or what?” ...Tommy Lee is what
you'd expect and at the end of the night he said ... “you guys
wanna come to Cruefest in Belgium next week?” ... so we went to
Cruefest and met the rest of the guys. So meeting Def Leppard and Motley
Crue has sealed the deal with meeting my idols definitely, and Papa
Roach they’ve been a big influence on Dear Superstar and Buckcherry as
well. To think we’ve shared a stage with these bands has been unreal.
Stew - It’s been great to share a stage with bands that have
truly influenced you.
MM - Finally is there anything you’d like to add to end the interview?
Micky -
Just get down to a Dear Superstar show, we’re still on the road
you’ve go no excuses. Buy our album, spin it, come and see us.
We’re a party band and we like to party with new people so come out
and see us.
MM - With that we leave Micky and Stew to chat with the hoards of
adoring fans that have gathered around them while we've been doing the
interview and look forward to catching them in action later tonight when
they perform. If you haven't already caught up with th
is band yet then I'd whole-heartedly suggest you do, they're good honest
hard rock at it's best with just a tinge of metal thrown in for good
measure. |