More Hollyoaks
Lost, But Now Found: Lostprophets Interview
You've been away for three years. What the beejeebus have you been doing in that time? Learnt any new languages? Watched Hollyoaks?
Stuart (bass): We recorded two albums...
An ill thought out double album!?
Stuart: No, no, no! We recorded one with producer John Feldmann and it didn't work out so well, so we went back and started again and produced it ourselves.
Mike (guitar): The first one just didn't work out as we'd envisaged, so we knocked it on the head, and thought no-one knows us better than us, so we'll produce the album.
Did you completely scrap songs from the ill-fated album or did you just try out new production techniques?
Mike: A bit of both. We kept half the songs and tried out new production techniques.
You've got to a stage now when your audience has proved very loyal to stick with you after a three year absence...
Mike: We could have released a record about a year and a half ago, but we didn't feel it was good enough. We've always wanted to progress and get better with every album, but after finishing the record with John Feldmann we didn't think we would have. We would have been cheating the fans if we put it out.
Stuart: So many bands coast off having one good single off an otherwise s**** record and we couldn't do that.
Mike: So we grew some balls and chucked the album in the bin! It's awesome that people have stuck with us though.
Stuart: We're really grateful.
Mike: It's three years since our last record came out, but we headlined Download in 2008. We've been playing some of the songs from the forthcoming album for about a year and a half now.
Stuart: Half the record's probably on YouTube already!
Mike: We did V Festival and some other shows last year, so it's not like we disappeared for 3 years. In a way, the internet's kept us in touch with the fans too.
You're on Twitter aren't you?
Mike: Yeah, we're twittering all the time. It's addictive!
Stuart: Yeah, I deleted my account in the end! I was on it all the time, but I've got kids, so I was spending time on it that I didn't have!
I felt as I've grown up, as have you. Your sound has changed somewhat since 2000, but with this comes continuous accusations of selling out. How do you deal with this?
Mike: Well, yeah, we had those accusations almost thrown at us from the beginning. When we re-released out first record was when we really had all the sell-out b******* chucked at us. Because we've stuck around, ten years since that first record was released, people have just accepted us.
We embrace the punk do-it-yourself attitude more than some actual punk bands do. Everything we do for this band we do it ourselves. We're control freaks!
I have no problem in playing The Hollyoaks Music Show or any TV show like this because I would rather people be exposed to music like us than any X-Factor nonsense.
Luke Johnson is your new drummer – you've said he'll continue to be if "it all works out". Has it worked out?
Mike: Yeah, he's awesome. He's like one of our best mates already.
Did you recruit him after seeing his old band Beat Union or were you already friends?
Stuart: We knew him when he was in Amen and we watched him and hung out with him. Then, on the sly, I said we should make Luke our drummer. Our drummer Ilan left for Nine Inch Nails and then Luke's band Beat Union split up, so I called him up and invited him for an audition in LA. He was so nervous though that he f***** it up! We asked him to come back and do it again and did and wiped the floor with it. We tried all these great drummers and he was better than all of them.
Did he record on the new album?
Stuart: No, he joined after. Ilan recorded on the forthcoming album before he left for Nine Inch Nails.
You're beginning a mammoth UK tour in February. You're old hands at the live show now, so any surprises involved? Pyrotechnics? Lion taming?
Stuart: Yeah, we're bringing out a giant Eddie like Iron Maiden!
Mike: I think this tour's going to be more about the songs. We'll play some new stuff and old stuff. During the last tour we only played one or two songs off the first record, but I think on this tour we'll bust out a few more old songs, a few more lesser known songs.
You'll be due a greatest hits record soon won't you?
Mike: Arh! Greatest hits are b*******! I don't see the point in them anymore because with iTunes you can make your own greatest hits. I can see why some bands do it – to get the Tesco music buying crowd listening to your music – but Metallica never did it, did they?
And finally, infamously, you guys once said that Justin Timberlake appeared on the cover of your second album 'Start Something'. Is that really true?
Stuart: No. We were just f***ing around in interviews when we said it. This might be the first time we’ve actually denied it's Justin Timberlake – it's actually [the singer] Ian on the cover.