"I reckon easily, ya know the one about people who have sex with there cars!?"
Early 2006 saw the birth of Progressive / Screamo / Southern Rock band, Deaf Havana. The band toured hard and looked for a new direction in their music. Here is what Lead Vocalist Ryan Mellor had to say.....
Deaf Havana Q & A: Ryan Mellor (Vocals)
[altsounds] How do you feel about your new mini-album (It’s Called The Easy Life) release, are you confident and 100% happy with it? I mean 4 K's in Kerrang! is a pretty nice compliment don't you think?
[Ryan] Yeah it was great, really surprised. but you’ve always gotta keep that aim of, "hey, next time lets make it five yeah!", but we feel like we honestly went in and made the right EP at the right time, and we did the best we could with what we had available to us ya know, and we were all extremely happy with it. But now it’s just obviously looking forward to the album.
[altsounds] On the front cover there is a picture of a door, does this have any relevance to the record?
haha not as such no, the idea behind the theme for the artwork was like it was a dirty seedy hotel, cos ya know were dirty seedy kinda guys.
[altsounds] Which do you enjoy more, live gigs or studio time?
[Ryan] I love recording, I record bands myself, so I have to like it but at the end of the day you’re in the studio for like a month at most every 2 years!? Then you’re out playing those songs live constantly in between those times, so I think you have to enjoy playing live. I personally love writing, sitting down with James (guitar/vocals) and a computer and just writing songs, it’s great.
[altsounds] How do you pass the time on the long tours, and do you have an epic tour bus?
[Ryan] Well I can tell you we’ve just upgraded our van! Were definitely going up in the world, our first van cost us 700 quid and its now pretty fuckin' dead, that van was awful! We lived in it all summer this year gone literally on tour and it stank soooo bad and just fell to bits. But we have a new one now and it’s fantastic, I’m slightly in love with it. Not as much as Chris (guitarist) though, he loves our new van, he could have been on that mecho-phile programme I reckon easily, ya know the one about people who have sex with there cars!? haha
As for passing time, well the rest of us just hang out really and listen to stupid music, the last thing our last van heard, was a Christmas carol CD sung by a children’s choir that we picked up in Tesco for 3 pounds; I think that was enough to kill it off.
[altsounds] What do you think about when performing on-stage?
[Ryan] Personally I’m normally just thinking about how I can get everyone involved in the room, whether that be singing along, hand clapping, dancing but then you get the cool kids who think there too freakin’ cool to do any of that, they’re a challenge I tell ya.
[altsounds] Do you still get nerves before playing a live gig?
[Ryan] I never really get nervous, its always the band before us that gets me up for playing a gig, if there good, I’m just like fuck yeah were gonna go out there and try and better that and if they suck then it tends to bring you down a bit! The last time I was really nervous was when we supported the Deftones, I was proper nearly sick!
[altsounds] Name two funniest moments that have happened whilst playing live.
[Ryan]
1. There was this one time in Manchester not that long ago actually where Chris just full on fell off the stage, proper like stacked it! He was fine but Christ it was funny, and it was one of those moments that for some reason everyone in the crowd saw as well, so he just couldn’t hide it!
2. Probably the best one for me recently was on that same tour actually, in Lincoln there were these dudes dancing and like sort of shouting along and at one point one of them grabbed the microphone and just shouted the completely wrong words! I don’t even think they were words, maybe that’s just what I sound like and he was doing a well good impression, but I was gone! I just couldn’t finish the set seriously, every time I went to sing I just burst into fits!
[altsounds] Out of all the live dates and venues you have played, which have you enjoyed the most and what other bands played?
[Ryan] My personally favourite, and I always say this when asked, and its kinda lame, but our last hometown show, it was just great to come home from a long summer and play to all our pals and hometown crowd. I just thought it was ace man, it was actually our CD release show, but all the kids knew the words already and the CD wasn’t even out, so I don’t know how that happened, cant keep anything secret in Norfolk I tell ya! We enjoyed it that much we’re playing 2 hometown shows in a row this week actually, the 15th and 16th of January, by the time this is up we probably would have played em.
[altsounds] What do you love most about being in a band?
[Ryan] The fact that I’m getting paid (not allot, but enough) to hang out with my best buds all day everyday, and play some music, and also get to meet loads of new really cool people. I’m really into touring with other bands and just hanging with them. I’ve made some real good life long friends on tour.
and some final random questions....
[altsounds] If you could describe your hair cuts as a type of animal, what would it be?
[Ryan] hahahaha, All of ours or just mine? We have a bit of a debate about haircuts in our band actually, I got one, everyone took the piss, but then slowly copied, so I declare myself the official trend setter!
as for an animal haha..............a lesbian gazelle! Manly but streamlined!?
[altsounds] Are you a Pc or a Mac?
[Ryan] That’s a geeky question… I’m a Mac but am addicted to the Sims so I have to play that on pc!
Thanks
Check out the band here: DEAF HAVANA (HOMETOWN SHOW TONIGHT!) on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
For fans of Alexisonfire......
Deaf Havana Q & A: Ryan Mellor (Vocals)
[altsounds] How do you feel about your new mini-album (It’s Called The Easy Life) release, are you confident and 100% happy with it? I mean 4 K's in Kerrang! is a pretty nice compliment don't you think?
[Ryan] Yeah it was great, really surprised. but you’ve always gotta keep that aim of, "hey, next time lets make it five yeah!", but we feel like we honestly went in and made the right EP at the right time, and we did the best we could with what we had available to us ya know, and we were all extremely happy with it. But now it’s just obviously looking forward to the album.
[altsounds] On the front cover there is a picture of a door, does this have any relevance to the record?
haha not as such no, the idea behind the theme for the artwork was like it was a dirty seedy hotel, cos ya know were dirty seedy kinda guys.
[altsounds] Which do you enjoy more, live gigs or studio time?
[Ryan] I love recording, I record bands myself, so I have to like it but at the end of the day you’re in the studio for like a month at most every 2 years!? Then you’re out playing those songs live constantly in between those times, so I think you have to enjoy playing live. I personally love writing, sitting down with James (guitar/vocals) and a computer and just writing songs, it’s great.
[altsounds] How do you pass the time on the long tours, and do you have an epic tour bus?
[Ryan] Well I can tell you we’ve just upgraded our van! Were definitely going up in the world, our first van cost us 700 quid and its now pretty fuckin' dead, that van was awful! We lived in it all summer this year gone literally on tour and it stank soooo bad and just fell to bits. But we have a new one now and it’s fantastic, I’m slightly in love with it. Not as much as Chris (guitarist) though, he loves our new van, he could have been on that mecho-phile programme I reckon easily, ya know the one about people who have sex with there cars!? haha
As for passing time, well the rest of us just hang out really and listen to stupid music, the last thing our last van heard, was a Christmas carol CD sung by a children’s choir that we picked up in Tesco for 3 pounds; I think that was enough to kill it off.
[altsounds] What do you think about when performing on-stage?
[Ryan] Personally I’m normally just thinking about how I can get everyone involved in the room, whether that be singing along, hand clapping, dancing but then you get the cool kids who think there too freakin’ cool to do any of that, they’re a challenge I tell ya.
[altsounds] Do you still get nerves before playing a live gig?
[Ryan] I never really get nervous, its always the band before us that gets me up for playing a gig, if there good, I’m just like fuck yeah were gonna go out there and try and better that and if they suck then it tends to bring you down a bit! The last time I was really nervous was when we supported the Deftones, I was proper nearly sick!
[altsounds] Name two funniest moments that have happened whilst playing live.
[Ryan]
1. There was this one time in Manchester not that long ago actually where Chris just full on fell off the stage, proper like stacked it! He was fine but Christ it was funny, and it was one of those moments that for some reason everyone in the crowd saw as well, so he just couldn’t hide it!
2. Probably the best one for me recently was on that same tour actually, in Lincoln there were these dudes dancing and like sort of shouting along and at one point one of them grabbed the microphone and just shouted the completely wrong words! I don’t even think they were words, maybe that’s just what I sound like and he was doing a well good impression, but I was gone! I just couldn’t finish the set seriously, every time I went to sing I just burst into fits!
[altsounds] Out of all the live dates and venues you have played, which have you enjoyed the most and what other bands played?
[Ryan] My personally favourite, and I always say this when asked, and its kinda lame, but our last hometown show, it was just great to come home from a long summer and play to all our pals and hometown crowd. I just thought it was ace man, it was actually our CD release show, but all the kids knew the words already and the CD wasn’t even out, so I don’t know how that happened, cant keep anything secret in Norfolk I tell ya! We enjoyed it that much we’re playing 2 hometown shows in a row this week actually, the 15th and 16th of January, by the time this is up we probably would have played em.
[altsounds] What do you love most about being in a band?
[Ryan] The fact that I’m getting paid (not allot, but enough) to hang out with my best buds all day everyday, and play some music, and also get to meet loads of new really cool people. I’m really into touring with other bands and just hanging with them. I’ve made some real good life long friends on tour.
and some final random questions....
[altsounds] If you could describe your hair cuts as a type of animal, what would it be?
[Ryan] hahahaha, All of ours or just mine? We have a bit of a debate about haircuts in our band actually, I got one, everyone took the piss, but then slowly copied, so I declare myself the official trend setter!
as for an animal haha..............a lesbian gazelle! Manly but streamlined!?
[altsounds] Are you a Pc or a Mac?
[Ryan] That’s a geeky question… I’m a Mac but am addicted to the Sims so I have to play that on pc!
Thanks
Check out the band here: DEAF HAVANA (HOMETOWN SHOW TONIGHT!) on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
For fans of Alexisonfire......
