Bassist Andy Hopkins took a little tourbus time to tell us about being the Midlands’ best export since Cadbury’s chocolate
What’s with the love/hate thing for Coventry, before we talk about anything else?
Well, the album title ‘We’ll live and die in these towns’ came from some graffiti written in a club toilet, and it’s more a proud statement than anything; we love going back to Coventry, it’s our home. Now it’s a commentary on our life, what our mates have been through, what we’ve been through.
Who are the songs about, who are you making music for?
We wrote the songs for ourselves, but as we’ve been touring we’ve found lots of people relate to it; now we’ve released the album, it’s like we’ve handed the songs over to them.
Lots of people sit around dreaming about being in a band; you actually did it. What happened?
Me and Tom were sat in the pub one night, and we realised we were just spending away our wages, spending more than we were earning; we got talking about what it would be like to be in a band, and ended up booking a practice the next day. We wrote [first single] 40 days & nights in the first session!
So you could tell it worked right away?
Exactly, we didn’t try to make ourselves sound like anything in particular, that’s just how it came out.
How do the songs get written?
Well, Tom’s written a few tunes on the toilet… He writes the lyrics; he actually wrote the words to ‘Away from here’ on the shop-floor of the Co-op where he used to work – he must have had a bad customer.
Ever have disagreements when you’re writing?
Not really, we just get on with it, that’s how we write so fast – we’ve got enough new songs for a second album already.
You’ve been touring since October last year, have your audiences increased?
Yeah, we’ve seen the crowds grow, from five people in our local pub to it being so crowded you couldn’t get in the door; that was amazing. We’ve been supporting bands as well, playing to some big crowds – like with The Fratellis, we were playing to thousands.
Does it make you nervous, going on in front of that many people?
No, we don’t do ‘getting nervous before shows’, you just work yourself up if you do that. The only gig I’ve been nervous about is our first gig; after that, you just do it. I really love playing live.
What are your tours like?
It’s a high every night, you have so much adrenaline. We love going out and meeting the fans afterwards, too, and you meet some brilliant people, but it can definitely be hard work sometimes. It’s self-inflicted, though…
Do you have any pre-gig rituals?
I make sure I don’t need a pee! I think Tom quite likes doing gigs needing one, though, it makes him move around a bit more: keeps him on the edge!
It’s quite unusual to go and meet fans, many bands don’t…
I don’t understand that at all. The fans can show us the best places to go after the show as well.
No stalker fans?
Not really, and the fans are the ones who put the album at number one, so you have to meet them, and hear what they think.
What got you into music?
I listened to lots of different stuff, things my parents listened too, but it wasn’t until Oasis that I really thought ‘f*cking hell,’ that’s when I started really thinking about it.
You make very heartfelt music, wouldn’t you say?
We do, and I think that comes out even more on stage, I think we come across better live than on record, actually; I love that. I just get into it!
Nominated for a Q award, hundreds of fans…do you ever stop and look at things and think ‘how did that happen?’
Well it happened through hard work, but when bands sit down and go ‘we’ve made it’, that’s when things start going downhill. I don’t think we’ll ever do that.
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