RiftRock website has posted an interview with lead singer of Lostprophets Ian Watkins. Chances are you’ve heard of Lostprophets many times before, but haven’t checked them out yet. If this is the case, you have no excuse for not knowing who they are now. Quickly becoming a part of mainstream consciousness, the Welsh sextet are going to be making big waves with the release of their second album, "Start Something." Ian Watkins talks about artistic growth, new album, pop songs, and touring. Read on for all the dirt…
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First thing’s first, how would you describe the album in your own words?
Ian Watkins: It’s kind of hard to nail it down to one thing, I know a lot of bands say the same old thing about “it’s a combination of this, this, this and this,” but it’s just a big rock album with influences ranging from our love of thrash metal to our love of ‘80s new wave and our love of punk, it’s a combination of everything. Ultimately it’s just a cool big rock album I think.
- Have you played any shows yet with any of the new material?
Yeah, end of last year we did some shows in the UK where we played the new stuff, and it was awesome. It went down really well. It is nice to be playing new songs after three years.
- How do you think the fan response has been to them so far?
Good, I mean, our shows are really small so I think the fans that came would’ve fucking liked anything. [laughs] It’s just nice to play new stuff and test out new material to people
- I know you guys did a lot of touring for your first album, are you going to be touring as much for Start Something?
Hopefully, we did like three years of touring on that album and that album was never meant to go very far, so it was fun but it was also kind of frustrating. With this album, hopefully we’ll tour and tour, I love touring anyways.
- Any plans for any US touring yet?
Well we’re doing two k-rock shows, one in LA and one in NY. At the moment I think there’s a plan to come back in March to do some MTV tour.
- How do you think you guys have evolved musically since The Fake Sound of Progress was released?
We kind of learned how to write songs, ‘cause we had no idea what we were doing on the first album. We were 19 years old, we had a week to record, add all these rifts and bits, and we just threw them down, no thought went into it, and it’s cool to do a record like that but I think this album we just wanted to structure and write real songs, with real choruses and a real cool vibe to each song.
- Did you take vocal lessons?
No, I’ve tried like once or twice, but I only go to the first lesson and then I can’t be bothered anymore. I know I should stick with it, ‘cause it’s kind of like driving when you first get into the car on your first driving lesson and everything seems so overwhelming and hard, you just go to vocal lessons and they’re like “do this, sing like this, try that, do that,” you know? I can’t do all this and sing. <...> Like on the first album, I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I’m in the studio, I couldn’t really sing, I could just hit notes. Then we spent three years touring and you learn.
- What was the inspiration for "Last Train Home"?
Lyrically, it was kind of the phrase “better to have loved and lost than never loved at all,” just the fact that whether you’ve been in love or haven’t been in love or are still in love, just to be happy about the fact that you’re feeling feelings. Just be glad that you’re feeling emotions, just put it out to experience, don’t mope about it, don’t be upset, don’t cry, just be cool, just be happy. Don’t let it bother you, just be happy you felt it
- How many Red Bulls do you consume a day?
I don’t know, I don’t drink that much. I used to, on our first tour in a van, we’d have crates of the stuff, we’d have three, four a day, but they started doing something funny to my throat. I don’t know what it was, but it used to make it swell up so I don’t drink much of it, just now and again.
- Any plans to cover any more pop songs?
You never know. We only do it when people ask otherwise we can’t be bothered. Like we did a session for Radio 1 and they’re like “they want you to play 3 original songs and a cover.” And we never see the point in covering a metal song or covering a punk song or hardcore, ‘cause what’s the point? It’ll just sound like a variation on the original. If you cover something completely out of your genre, it’s cool ‘cause you can do your own take on it. If we need to do a cover again, we’ll do it, maybe a Missy Elliot song or something. I think “Hey Ya” by Outkast, that would be really good.
Read more of this interview @ RiftRock.Com.
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