TNR: Who are your biggest musical influences?Â
Mikey: “Oh my gosh! Anyone ridiculous, anyone that’s undoubtedly themselves, so people like Freddie Mercury, people like David Bowie, bands like My Chemical Romance, they’re huge for me, but then also artists like Eminem, I love Eminem…I love souly stuff. I draw from whatever’s pretty and shiny, I’m like a crow or magpie, I don’t really care about value, I’m just like, ooh that looks nice, I’ll have that and I don’t really care about anything else! If it strikes a chord with me and I can tell that it’s honest, then that’s big for me.”
TNR: And what about your guilty musical pleasures?Â
Mikey: “Oh, there’s no such thing, like I was just saying, if it’s shiny I’ll have it, if that means it’s ABBA then that’s fine, if it means it’s Justin Bieber then that is fine. Like Justin Bieber is wicked, his latest stuff is fantastic…the early stuff I can’t deal with but his latest stuff is fantastic. Bands like The Killers, who a lot of people have a go at…I love The Killers so much, they’re probably one of my favourite bands and, yeah, so many…I don’t really have any guilty pleasures I suppose is the point, I’m unashamedly into everything.”
TNR: I think it’s more “acceptable” now and more people are listening to different styles of music, so as long as people are listening to music…Â
Mikey: “Yeah, totally! I think genre as an idea is dying entirely, it’s a really boring outdated concept to say “I’m in a rock band” – yeah, that’s a real shame, you need to do more than that!”
TNR: The independent scene is really strong with bands supporting like-minded bands, working and putting their own tours together, do you think that’s the way forward?Â
Mikey: “Absolutely! I think it’s harder now than it has ever been for bands to “break through”, I’m doing air quotes here…not least because bands now, and artists, whatever you are, you have to have so many different hats on in order to just be viable, you have to understand how to build a website, you have to understand branding and logos and you have to be a designer, you have to be a great songwriter, you have to be good at your musical instrument and you have to be a great networker. It’s all utter rubbish to be honest and I think bands coming together and just looking at each other instead of trying to impress people they perceive as being ‘people that matter’, and just focussing entirely on the fans and the people who actually come to the shows and on each other, a rising tide lifts all ships, you know, we’ve been focussing pretty much focussing on support stuff with headline stuff here and there just because it makes the most sense for us right now but working directly with other bands is brilliant and, like I said, because we have to wear so many hats in order to just be viable it’s almost as if we’re just kinda fine, we’re just trying to crack on and work with other people and build something as special as it’s been so far.
TNR: These are good answers!Â
Mikey: “I’ll talk for England!”
TNR: This next one’s about Donna and Rock Seen…Â Â
Mikey: “Oh my gosh! Ok.”
TNR: How’s it going, working with Donna and the other bands that come under the Rock Seen umbrella?Â
Mikey: “It’s going great! So we met Donna on our first tour back when she was doing tour photography, but we almost immediately just started referring to her as tour mum. TM on the piece of paper for everyone else means tour manager but for us it means tour mum. Donna looked after us, she made sure we were all there for soundcheck, she made sure the merch was sorted, she made sure food was eaten by everybody…nobody was getting a cough, making sure we were all looked after. Donna’s a better person to describe this process, but from the outside it looked like she was slowly and naturally moving into a management position. There was just a day where I was like “Ok, you’re now Donnager, that’s your new name, you’re doing it anyway!” Around that time she started to launch Rock Seen, something she’d been working on for ages and I think it’s brilliant, I love the fact that it focuses on smaller fantastic bands who aren’t getting enough airplay for “whatever reason”, who aren’t getting enough exposure for “whatever reason” and she almost exclusively focuses on those small bands because they’re still malleable, there’s still things to learn and there’s still processes that they need to follow and Donna can help them with that as long as they’re a great band already, and that’s kind of her only quote “If you’re a good band and I feel like I could work with you” and she’s brilliant to work with, she’s so talented and clever, she’s so quick witted and she’s always got a way through something, no matter the problem, no matter the situation, Donna will come up with a solution and I love that about her…”
TNR: Next up, social media and streaming sites…Â
Mikey: “Ooh, ok!”
TNR: …they can be a blessing and a curse, there’s a good side and bad side, they’re considered a necessary evil, but how important are social media and music streaming sites?Â
Mikey: “I mean I could do the fashionable independent musician thing and say “I hate it all (insert angry noises here) let’s go back to the old days” but I think that’s rubbish! I think streaming has made music so much more accessible for people, it has meant that music now as a commodity is worthless, but I think maybe 80 or 90% of the people who buy our CDs are actually doing it directly to support us, not necessarily because they want the CD because they know they can go on Spotify or Deezer or whatever and get it for free! At the same time it makes your music so much more accessible with things like playlists and the ‘fans also like’ feature on Spotify…I’m speaking about Spotify as that’s the one I’m most familiar with, it’s the one I use – so I definitely can’t complain about it because I use it. I think it’s been great for bands, I think it’s played a hand in saving the economy in the music industry because so many people were pirating music, labels and artists were seeing no profit. Now labels and artists are seeing something like a tenth of a pence per play, it’s not much but it’s still something! Universal Records must see seven figures a day just from streaming so that’s fine. Social media again is another hat to wear and it’s something people have to learn to do and get familiar with, but I suppose given the fact that I’m an annoying millennial little entitled snot-nosed…can I swear?”
TNR: You can say anything you want!Â
Mikey: “Ok…an annoying millennial entitled little snot-nosed prick I was already familiar with it when I started in the band so it’s fine, and I enjoy it because I’m in this to connect with people and I’m in this to build bridges between people, and that’s why we call ourselves aggressive pop if somebody asks us what genre we are because we just don’t have one and we’ve always rejected the idea of it. I’d never really want to put a label on it, because I grew up being labelled. I grew up being called an emo, getting called a fucking faggot, called a goth and getting all sorts of shit thrown at me with labels and prejudice and I would never do that, I’m not interested in that. I’m all about making connections and I want to see kids with funny hair at our shows, but I also want to see fucking Beat-Herder dudes in bucket hats and older generations having a good time too! I don’t care, I just want to bring people together, that’s what it’s all about and social media is a great way to do that, to circle back to the point. Social media is brilliant because it’s so instant and you can reach anybody!”
TNR: We agree because, as you know, This Noise Rocks was born after one of your shows, and we’d been helping a few bands on social media at that time but we wanted to help a lot more because we’re really greedy and want to help as many bands as we can, and it’s bands like you guys that inspire us to do what we do.Â
Mikey: “And it’s brilliant..I love what you do…”
TNR: Yeah, we get up every day and think “What can we do today? Oh yeah, let’s make a playlist that bands won’t make any money from!”…but you know we’re joking!Â
Mikey: “Hell yeah! Some bands make something.”
TNR: Eventually! Â
Mikey: “It’s all in the sales now…as far as money is concerned, if a band breaks up because they’re not making enough money from selling their music then I’m sorry but they’re idiots! I know it’s got to be viable at the same time, you can’t just be driving yourself into a hole because at that point you’re a business and you’re bankrupt. I don’t like to see it as a business but, if you need money in order to continue doing this, which most of us obviously do, then you have to be clever and you have to accept the fact that your music isn’t worth anything financially despite the money you’ve paid to make it…you can’t be Tool, you can’t say it’s not going on Spotify, so you have to come up with ways to get around it so that you can fund the next record you want to make.”
TNR: What bands/artists have you been listening to lately?Â
Mikey: “Lately I’m massively into Yungblud, I love Yungblud.”
TNR: Ah yes, from Doncaster just like me!
Mikey: “Yeah, he’s a Donny boy. What else? I love The 1975, I love The Killers, Slipknot’s new record is fantastic. What else have I had on, what’s been on? My mind’s gone blank, but that’s a great list. Kill The Silence, I listen to them all the time, I love that band, yeah I love that band so much. Your Illuminations are a band from round here, and as you know they’re one of my favourite bands, I can’t wait for them to get back on with it!”
TNR: What’s your dream tour line up?Â
Mikey: “Alive or dead?”
TNR: Anything, whatever you want! Â
Mikey: “Are we on it?”
TNR: Yeah, of course you’re on it!Â
Mikey: “Alright, yeah we’re on it…(takes a deep breath) ok, dream tour line up. This is tricky, this is really tricky…so I’ve never spoken about this but it’s really funny, I noticed it as I was sound checking, back in London in March we had Damn Cargo, a band from Derby opening for us, who were fantastic so everyone check them out, and then we had Raiders, which is a brilliant band from Wales that includes two guys who used to be in The Blackout, Sean and Bob, and the drummer for Damn Cargo used to drum for a band called LostAlone, who were one of my favourite bands and incidentally the first band I got a tattoo for. I was huge on LostAlone, and I realised as I was sound checking for this show and I’d got the drummer from LostAlone opening the show, and I’d got the guys from The Blackout on main support, and then us, the biggest My Chemical Romance wannabes in the fucking world headlining, and that was the My Chem tour line up back in 2011 and it’s like some fucked up Parent Trap and I’m just trying to relive it…and, oh God, it was so funny! And then of course I’ve got Aled from Kids In Glass Houses mic stand as well, so I’m essentially just living in the Welsh rock scene.”
TNR: How long have you had that for now?Â
Mikey: “I’ve had it probably four years, it’s made of steel but it’s starting to bend a bit now but it’s fine…it’s a bit rusty at the bottom! Um yeah, so my dream tour line up would probably be…ah, there’s so many though, (long pause) ok, so us opening, and then My Chem…can we have Brian Eno do the after party? Yeah, us opening, My Chem, The 1975, this is gonna be a weird show opening for My Chem and The 1975…and Slipknot and Meatloaf, and then everyone gets really confused and has the best time…”
TNR: You’re opening so you get to enjoy it all…Â Â
Mikey: “This is it…that’s why, because I want to get my nerves out of the way so I can enjoy the show, and then everyone, all the bands are like “Ok, what are we going to do now? Let’s go get fucked up!” and we’ll all go listen to Brian Eno doing a DJ set, that would be the night of my life!”
TNR: That does sound like an awesome line up! Next question is about Patreon. You launched on Patreon a few months ago, how’s that going and how much is it supporting As Sirens Fall? Â
Mikey: “So we basically, like I said, I’m all about connections between people and we wanted to try and create a “paid fanclub thing” for a long time, it’s something I’ve wanted to do independently from a band for years, I’ve wanted to do it forever and so has Jason, and we kinda saw an opportunity to do it with the fact that we’re now working on our next project. When we started the last project we had five guys in the band on paper so to speak, and now we’ve got three…we’ve always had this rotating line up, and it’s never been a problem, but we’ve now got just three and we’re trying to make something bigger this time, and that’s as much as I’ll say about that! It’s difficult with just three guys basically surviving by the skin of their teeth anyway, and trying to fund a touring band that wants to go and make music and make a record, so we saw an opportunity to create something that would cost us nothing and we could provide people with fun things and extra things, and weird and wonderful things that we love doing…we can talk to people more, all for whatever they choose a month, and it all mounts up, like Jason said in Patreon the other day (and I don’t know when this is going out but we’ll probably have announced it by the time it does) that Patreon has actually paid for our next single, it’s done it and it’s incredible. It’s just an opportunity for people to almost like invest in us and really help us to make this thing fucking work, because God knows we want to…so that’s it, it’s really fun, the sense of community in there, I love it, I’m grateful and I absolutely love it.”
TNR: This next question looks a little long winded so I’ll try and condense it…Â Â
Mikey: “You know I will talk…”
TNR: How does the whole creative process work within As Sirens Fall; from writing the music and lyrics, coming up with ideas, making the videos and designing the merch? Are you all instrumental in that? Â
Mikey: “It changes constantly, so the old way, well the old way that we’ve not touched on as much recently but will probably come back to when we need to, was that we would write everything as a group, as a five piece in one room, and we’d basically do it one night a week, or two nights a week depending on how excited we were about what we were writing. Designs for merch would come from whoever had an idea and we’d knock together a mock-up to see if we liked it enough to move forward, and video ideas were done as a group too…merch ideas and video ideas still come from everybody, it’s very much a collaborative effort. What’s changed as the band itself has changed is that the writing process is now greatly varied, it can be Adam working on something on his own that he’ll bring to us, I might do an entire song and demo it and then bring it to the band, and we’re actually playing one of those songs tonight, in fact we’re playing two of those tonight…but yeah, it kinda comes from all over and I think it’s more free, everyone can just do what they want when they want. We don’t necessarily have to be together to do it, we can crack on with something ourselves because we know each other so well that we can almost sense if we’re not sure I will like that or if Jason would like that but at the same time it’s just collaborative and it’s different, it’s changing but it’s wicked.”
TNR: So here’s the last question! What’s next for as Sirens Fall?Â
Mikey: “I did hint at a single…well I told you about the single, it was a very heavy hint!”
TNR: Well, yes…that’s true…Â
Mikey: “There’s a single coming, and some live stuff that’s cool…”
TNR: And you’re supporting Bad Machines at their album release…Â Â
Mikey: “Oh yeah, we’re supporting Bad Machines…”
TNR: You know I’m really looking forward to that. Â
Mikey: “It’s going to be great. I miss those boys so much, haven’t seen them in years, since the last They Say Fall show. Remember I was driving Elements for that show?”
TNR: Yeah…but you did play with Bad Machines at their first show, supporting Courage My Love…Â Â
Mikey: “Oh yeah, they came over to Leeds and, yes…I tell a lie, you know all this better than me, so I tell a lie, I’ve seen them twice…(laughing) oh that’s bad!”
TNR: We saw them at the last They Say Fall show and the first Bad Machines show…and then we, This Noise Rocks, were born that night…Â Â
Mikey: “I think we might’ve played another show with them too…”
TNR: Yeah, wasn’t there a weekender?Â
Mikey: “Yes, that was it…oh my head, my memory is not brilliant! So yeah, we’ve got that coming up and Whitby Goth Weekend, we’re doing that again and then we’ve got some other live stuff that’s not announced yet, and some stuff in the new year not announced yet, stuff next summer that’s not announced yet…”
TNR: Lots of stuff?Â
Mikey: “Oh yeah, loads of stuff going on but I can’t tell anyone yet!”
TNR: We don’t mind, just as long as there’s loads of stuff…Â
Mikey: “Not because I’m not allowed to say, but I just don’t wanna jinx it.”
TNR: That’s understandable, you get something and you’re so excited about it but…NO!Â
Mikey: “Exactly! No, not telling, not telling anybody…if I keep it in here it’s not going away, but there’s some wicked stuff coming!”
Big thanks to Mikey for kindly announcing “quote marks” into my phone every time he used them so that I’d remember as I typed this up!
As Sirens Fall can be found all over social media and beyond at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify and www.assirensfall.co.uk/
You can support As Sirens Fall and gain access to exclusive perks by becoming a Patron on Patreon too, follow the link for more information. www.patreon.com/assirensfall
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