Spread the Social Love:
Lostprophets are one of the biggest rock bands on the planet right now, recently releasing their fifth full length studio album. Lostprophets have toured around the world and sold out arenas, even headlining huge festivals. I recently had the opportunity to catch up with Stuart and Mike from the band for a chat about their new album, tour and career highlights.
AltSounds: How did you find recording your new album?
Lostprophets: Yeah it was great, it was recorded over a couple sessions in LA with producer Ken Andrews. It was cool this time, we did it kind of a different way to how we normally do it. We usually track all the drums, track all the bass, track all the guitars but this time we kind of concentrated on each song at the time and tried to finish each song as we were going along, so it was a bit of different method for us doing it. It kind of made it a little bit fresher you know, rather than the factory line. It was cool, it kept us interested and Ken was really cool, he’s really creative and a real good guy and brought a lot to it too, so it was cool.
AS: Did you have an idea what you wanted the album to sound like, before you went into the studio?
LP: Not really before we started writing I don’t think. I think we just wanted to see what kind of came out when we started writing. We jammed for a long time without having a game plan really. Whenever you have a game plan it never usually works anyway so its best to just go in and be creative. It was cool, we just let the record evolve naturally and it evolved into this big rock record.
AS: With each album we have seen you take on a new direction. Can we expect new things from the band this album?
LP: I think this kind of encompasses a bit of everything really, we never have a plan to do that, it just comes out naturally. We never have a grand scheme or anything. Maybe on this one, on some songs we experimented a bit more with electronic stuff, I think "Bring ‘Em Down" is probably the biggest example of that. I don't think we made anything radically different. The biggest thing with this record is we tracked fifteen songs but we just wanted to use ten; so I think we tried to make the cohesive record we could when we finally had all the songs together. We were just trying to make it more cohesive, although sometimes we got off in different directions. I think this time around it was more "lets make a rock record" and not so many different branches shooting off in different directions. That only came at the end, it wasn’t a thought out thing.
AS: "Bring 'Em Down" has been the first single released of your new album, what is the meaning behind that song?
LP: That's Ian's thing unfortunately but we do it on every record. It's a big song, in a nutshell it's a destroyer for the new album. Its just a song where we've been away for a while and we just wanted to prove that we still have the fucking chops [Laughs].
AS: What has been the biggest highlight been of your career so far?
LP: It kind of changes all the time. When you start and you're a small band you think about playing the places you go and see bands, so for us it was Newport Centre. The first time we played Newport Centre was massive for us. And then the first time we played Brixton Academy was even more massive and then the first time we played main stage at Reading etc. So its like there's been many highlights for us. Playing with Metallica, like getting to meet your heroes and getting to play with your heroes. Headlining Download, Monsters of Rock at Donnington was huge. Glen Johnson making us hot dogs [laughs], that was pretty good. We've had quite a few which have been pretty cool. The goal-posts are changing every time so, we’re always trying to push on to do the next thing you know. Still making records is a highlight as well, it's like still being here is a highlight. Its fucking great, we're just grateful.
AS: You have your new tour coming up, are you excited for that?
LP: Yeah can't wait, it’s always amazing touring the UK you know? Especially when you've got a new record out. You spend a lot of time in the studio writing new songs. You’re envisioning how they're going to sound live or how they are going to be, if they are going to even fit in the set. How the crowd are going to react. It’s like when we we're writing some fucking banging riffs and are like "ah man the crowd is gonna go fucking mental", and then at that point you're already excited to start playing. That’s kind of where we are at the moment, everyone in the band just buzzing. I always thought Lostprophets was more of a live band than a record band, that’s what we do. We are a live band and we pride ourselves on our live show. There's no bullshit and no gimmicks with us.
AS: Favourite performance you have given?
LP: One of my favourite shows was main stage Reading back in, I think it was 2001 or 2002? No 2004.
AS: Oh that one?
Yeah or even 2007? it was just insane how big the crowd was and the reaction we got, it was pretty mind blowing. When you see it all coming together you're like holy shit, it's this many people and you all know who we are. Especially as that was in the early days of the band. I mean it still fucking blows our mind when we go to certain places and there's so many people and their singing along; but it was all still pretty new to us at that point to have so many people reacting the way they did.
AS: Craziest thing a fan has done?
LP: We have lots of things like tattooing our signatures on their arms. I don't know, Ian's probably had more crazy stuff [laughs] than us. We are all kind of chill and mellow but Ian gets the nutters, yeah he attracts the mentalists. We do have a pretty amazingly loyal fan base though, we are very grateful for how supportive they've been. We get people when we're touring the UK, like now we are doing around fourteen dates and we will get people who will come to every show.
AS: Really?
LP: Yeah every show.
AS: That's dedication!
LP: Yeah absolutely, its pretty incredible, it blows my mind. We always try go outside after the show and hang out. I think that's a big important part of Lostprophets always be as personable as we can.
AS: At what age did you think you could get into music?
LP: I don't think you every consciously think it to be honest. I think the dream starts when you're fucking five years old. I started playing guitar when I was thirteen and immediately at that point you think you want to be in a band or you want to be like your heroes. At that point when I was obsessed with Metallica and stuff like that all I wanted to do was be James Hetfield. Then when you start a band and playing or whatever, you don't really do it and think about making a living from it or anything like that.
We never really thought it about it that way, we just loved playing music and loved writing music, we'd just get out and play and do our thing and it just kept on building and building and building. We got to the point where we couldn't work anymore, we couldn't do anything else, like we had to quit our jobs and everything just because we just didn't have time to go to work [laughs].
I was still working, when everyone had time off, I was still working on the second record, I was still going back to work, but then I just had to cancel, I just had to stop working. I think anyone who starts a band, and they ask you the question 'What would you do if you weren't in a successful band?', the answer would be 'I'd be in a band.' You do it because you want to do it until it becomes unfeasible. Even with children now, you know I have kids, I'd still be in a band at some point, I'd be in one if I wasn't in this one. It is completely part of your fucking psyche and part of your personality.
You know for better or worse when your five years old and you hear that one band that sparks your imagination, you can't really shake it off. Once you're inspired by music, you're fucked [laughs]! It stays with you for sure, and we always get asked when we meet people that are trying to start bands, we always get asked 'What’s the one piece of advice you can give me?' Don't do it! 'What advice can you give me to make it?' Don’t try and make it, don't try to be in a band to make it big, don't try and be in band to be famous or rich or any of that crap. Be in a band because you love being in a band and because you love playing music. That’s the most important thing, because then you do what comes natural rather than chasing the next thing or whatever it is. Rather than trying to "make it" just do your own thing, people can smell bullshit a mile a way.
AS: If you could describe your album in one word what would it be?
LP: Banging [laughs]. Yeah banging that's pretty good.
AS: Thanks gents you for your time.
LP: Thanks man.
AS: Bye and good luck with your album.
LP: Thanks, bye man.
AltSounds: How did you find recording your new album?
Lostprophets: Yeah it was great, it was recorded over a couple sessions in LA with producer Ken Andrews. It was cool this time, we did it kind of a different way to how we normally do it. We usually track all the drums, track all the bass, track all the guitars but this time we kind of concentrated on each song at the time and tried to finish each song as we were going along, so it was a bit of different method for us doing it. It kind of made it a little bit fresher you know, rather than the factory line. It was cool, it kept us interested and Ken was really cool, he’s really creative and a real good guy and brought a lot to it too, so it was cool.
AS: Did you have an idea what you wanted the album to sound like, before you went into the studio?
LP: Not really before we started writing I don’t think. I think we just wanted to see what kind of came out when we started writing. We jammed for a long time without having a game plan really. Whenever you have a game plan it never usually works anyway so its best to just go in and be creative. It was cool, we just let the record evolve naturally and it evolved into this big rock record.
AS: With each album we have seen you take on a new direction. Can we expect new things from the band this album?
LP: I think this kind of encompasses a bit of everything really, we never have a plan to do that, it just comes out naturally. We never have a grand scheme or anything. Maybe on this one, on some songs we experimented a bit more with electronic stuff, I think "Bring ‘Em Down" is probably the biggest example of that. I don't think we made anything radically different. The biggest thing with this record is we tracked fifteen songs but we just wanted to use ten; so I think we tried to make the cohesive record we could when we finally had all the songs together. We were just trying to make it more cohesive, although sometimes we got off in different directions. I think this time around it was more "lets make a rock record" and not so many different branches shooting off in different directions. That only came at the end, it wasn’t a thought out thing.
AS: "Bring 'Em Down" has been the first single released of your new album, what is the meaning behind that song?
LP: That's Ian's thing unfortunately but we do it on every record. It's a big song, in a nutshell it's a destroyer for the new album. Its just a song where we've been away for a while and we just wanted to prove that we still have the fucking chops [Laughs].
AS: What has been the biggest highlight been of your career so far?
LP: It kind of changes all the time. When you start and you're a small band you think about playing the places you go and see bands, so for us it was Newport Centre. The first time we played Newport Centre was massive for us. And then the first time we played Brixton Academy was even more massive and then the first time we played main stage at Reading etc. So its like there's been many highlights for us. Playing with Metallica, like getting to meet your heroes and getting to play with your heroes. Headlining Download, Monsters of Rock at Donnington was huge. Glen Johnson making us hot dogs [laughs], that was pretty good. We've had quite a few which have been pretty cool. The goal-posts are changing every time so, we’re always trying to push on to do the next thing you know. Still making records is a highlight as well, it's like still being here is a highlight. Its fucking great, we're just grateful.
AS: You have your new tour coming up, are you excited for that?
LP: Yeah can't wait, it’s always amazing touring the UK you know? Especially when you've got a new record out. You spend a lot of time in the studio writing new songs. You’re envisioning how they're going to sound live or how they are going to be, if they are going to even fit in the set. How the crowd are going to react. It’s like when we we're writing some fucking banging riffs and are like "ah man the crowd is gonna go fucking mental", and then at that point you're already excited to start playing. That’s kind of where we are at the moment, everyone in the band just buzzing. I always thought Lostprophets was more of a live band than a record band, that’s what we do. We are a live band and we pride ourselves on our live show. There's no bullshit and no gimmicks with us.
AS: Favourite performance you have given?
LP: One of my favourite shows was main stage Reading back in, I think it was 2001 or 2002? No 2004.
AS: Oh that one?
Yeah or even 2007? it was just insane how big the crowd was and the reaction we got, it was pretty mind blowing. When you see it all coming together you're like holy shit, it's this many people and you all know who we are. Especially as that was in the early days of the band. I mean it still fucking blows our mind when we go to certain places and there's so many people and their singing along; but it was all still pretty new to us at that point to have so many people reacting the way they did.
AS: Craziest thing a fan has done?
LP: We have lots of things like tattooing our signatures on their arms. I don't know, Ian's probably had more crazy stuff [laughs] than us. We are all kind of chill and mellow but Ian gets the nutters, yeah he attracts the mentalists. We do have a pretty amazingly loyal fan base though, we are very grateful for how supportive they've been. We get people when we're touring the UK, like now we are doing around fourteen dates and we will get people who will come to every show.
AS: Really?
LP: Yeah every show.
AS: That's dedication!
LP: Yeah absolutely, its pretty incredible, it blows my mind. We always try go outside after the show and hang out. I think that's a big important part of Lostprophets always be as personable as we can.
AS: At what age did you think you could get into music?
LP: I don't think you every consciously think it to be honest. I think the dream starts when you're fucking five years old. I started playing guitar when I was thirteen and immediately at that point you think you want to be in a band or you want to be like your heroes. At that point when I was obsessed with Metallica and stuff like that all I wanted to do was be James Hetfield. Then when you start a band and playing or whatever, you don't really do it and think about making a living from it or anything like that.
We never really thought it about it that way, we just loved playing music and loved writing music, we'd just get out and play and do our thing and it just kept on building and building and building. We got to the point where we couldn't work anymore, we couldn't do anything else, like we had to quit our jobs and everything just because we just didn't have time to go to work [laughs].
I was still working, when everyone had time off, I was still working on the second record, I was still going back to work, but then I just had to cancel, I just had to stop working. I think anyone who starts a band, and they ask you the question 'What would you do if you weren't in a successful band?', the answer would be 'I'd be in a band.' You do it because you want to do it until it becomes unfeasible. Even with children now, you know I have kids, I'd still be in a band at some point, I'd be in one if I wasn't in this one. It is completely part of your fucking psyche and part of your personality.
You know for better or worse when your five years old and you hear that one band that sparks your imagination, you can't really shake it off. Once you're inspired by music, you're fucked [laughs]! It stays with you for sure, and we always get asked when we meet people that are trying to start bands, we always get asked 'What’s the one piece of advice you can give me?' Don't do it! 'What advice can you give me to make it?' Don’t try and make it, don't try to be in a band to make it big, don't try and be in band to be famous or rich or any of that crap. Be in a band because you love being in a band and because you love playing music. That’s the most important thing, because then you do what comes natural rather than chasing the next thing or whatever it is. Rather than trying to "make it" just do your own thing, people can smell bullshit a mile a way.
AS: If you could describe your album in one word what would it be?
LP: Banging [laughs]. Yeah banging that's pretty good.
AS: Thanks gents you for your time.
LP: Thanks man.
AS: Bye and good luck with your album.
LP: Thanks, bye man.
![Review: Alt-J at Manchester Academy [Live]](http://hangout.altsounds.com/altthumb.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fhangout.altsounds.com%2Fgeek%2Fgars%2Fimages%2F2%2F1%2F3%2F3%2F0%2Faltjoe.jpg&h=75&w=75&zc=1&q=70)
