Mark; It’s an interesting cover, definitely! “Words and Weapons” the new single and video is doing very well, down here, are you pleased with the response so far? Was it hard to pick a single?
John: Yeah, it was recorded for that “best of” compilation last year and we just sort of felt it was so strong that we held it off, and wanted to save it for this new album, and as it turned out, it really helped set the bar in writing songs that would be just as strong as, if not stronger, so we thought it was very fitting to be the first single. All I can say is there has been great feedback, and we’re excited to get the album out, it’ll be out June 27th, there, June 30th here and Europe, and July 1st in the States, so we’re still excited about everybody getting to hear it! I try not to read too much, I don’t know, everyone’s a critic, but for the most part it’s been very positive, and that feels great!
Mark: Do you have any particular favourites off the new album?
John: Yeah, there’s a song on there called “Crash”, I really love, “Save Today” like we mentioned earlier, “Same Damn Life”, it depends what week you catch me, I have different favourites all the time. “Suffer it All” is a great rocker and I can’t wait to play that one live. We have actually sound checked because we can’t really play a lot of the new album yet, live, we have been rehearsing the better part of the album, and I can’t remember the last time we worked on an entire album, as far as sound checking, I think we’ll probably play this album straight through, and it would be great, first song to last! It’s a very strong album!
Mark: It would definitely stand up! You have a lot of media presence, a lot of fans online, talking about you, really dedicated fans, lots of hits on YouTube, so you seem to be embracing the “new world” of technology, really well, what do you put that down to? Is it something that just came naturally to the band?
John: No, I don’t know that it came naturally! It’s sort of the way of the world now, social media, that sort of immediate connection with people. We actually have a company that we work with, that helps guide us; we have a band “phone” that we take photographs with, on the road, and that sends them to a drop box and then posts it, we’re getting better at it! I guess, old habits die hard, and we’ve tried to improve on getting more involved. We recently as a band, did the ask me anything sessions, on Facebook and Twitter, and I love answering questions directly to the fans, they have great input on what they think we should play live, what songs they would like to hear, I think it’s very cool, I love getting feedback and talking directly like that.
Mark: It’s wonderful; you do it a lot better than most bands out there. Now for our two final questions that we ask everyone. If you could’ve been a fly on the wall for the making of any great album, at any point in time, what would it be for you and why?
John: The Beatles, “Revolver”.
Mark: Fantastic choice! Now, the easy one, what is the meaning of life?
John: It’s like Spinal Tap, “have a good time all the time”.
Mark: Well it’s been an absolute pleasure to talk to you, John, have a great festival, and hopefully we’ll see you soon!
John: Thank you very much. Cheers.
John spoke to Mark Diggins June 2014 |