City of Thieves – Remember that name because as it stands, this could well be one of the best debut albums to be released for a while, and quite possibly my contender for album of the year. If you like bands like AC/DC, Airbourne & Black Stone Cherry then look no further than this three-piece rock band, hailing from Camden in London and comprising of Jamie Lailey (vocals & bass), Ben Austwick (guitar) & Will Richards (drums). With “Beast Reality” due out on October 12th through Frontiers Music SRL, The Rockpit caught up with Jamie for a chat about the new album, festivals and the newly announced UK tour.
Sean: Hi Jamie, thanks for taking to time to chat to us here at The Rockpit. I’ve got to start by saying… WOW, the new album “Beast Reality” is fantastic and as it stands could well be my album of the year so far, so I beg our readers to pre-order this from your website www.cityofthieves.london. You guys must be so pleased with how it’s come out. Has it taken long to put together?
Jamie: Hi Sean and thank you, I really appreciate that. It’s been a long time from trying to write it to finally getting it out there. The recording sessions were spread over a number of months. We did two main sessions to lay down the tracks, then various smaller ones to add extra guitar bits and make adjustments here and there, so they took probably over a year in total. Then once that was ready we had to find someone to mix it and we managed to get Mike Fraser who’s worked with AC/DC, Metallica & Aerosmith, to name but a few. Toby Jepson (Wayward Sons, Little Angels, The Answer) produced it and we had Simon Francis (Kaiser Chiefs, Primal Scream) master it so we knew we were in good hands. Then once we signed the deal with Frontiers it was just a matter of finalising a release date and now we are there at last. We can’t wait for people to hear it.
Sean: Wow, there are certainly some experienced guys from the industry who have worked with some huge bands. And I’ve been one of the lucky ones and have had this on all week – all fantastic songs in their own right but my favourite is the last final track “Something of Nothing”.
Jamie: It’s one of our favourites too but ironically, if we had been producing the album ourselves, that track may not have made it on there. We would have worried as to whether it would fit of not. That and “Born to be Great” are two of my favourites but if we hadn’t had someone with Toby’s vision we may not have taken the step to put them on there. We would have talked ourselves out of it.
Sean: Well thank you Toby, if you’re reading this, that’s all I can say [laughs]
Jamie: [laughs] I know… Now when I listen to it all the way through I just can’t imagine that we would never have put them on there.
Sean: There are so many influences through the album and I can almost hear a bit of a Black Stone Cherry style in one of the tracks but still making it very much your own.
Jamie: I think you’re referring to “Right to Silence”. We kind of took a deliberate step of trying to get away from being put in a pigeon hole by having just one sound so to speak. We like to listen to bands like Black Stone Cherry, Audioslave, Nickleback and Shinedown – we wanted to play around with what other bands were doing so we started with C standard tuning and detuned down a couple of tones then we would see how we would texture that, so we might have the bass and guitar in standard C but then overlay a recording with a capo to kind of give it an almost Rolling Stones sound to it. So, we had a spread of three octaves of guitar and tried to build that weight of sound, a bit like Black Stone Cherry do, but then tell our stories through that.
Sean: We, as music fans, are going through a great time right now, where there is so much diversity and choice but also the quality of what we are getting to listen to seems to be getting stronger and bands aren’t just dropping music off a production conveyor belt just to keep their fans happy with “another” album.
Jamie: Saying that, I’ve got a question for you. Do you think the relationship between fans & bands is getting closer out of necessity? Even the big name bands don’t seem to have that “untouchable” status as much. I feel it’s the way the business has gone.
Sean: Yes defiantly. Personally, I put that down to the way bands have to go and earn living now – they can’t just hide behind an album release so they have to reconnect. They have to get out there, tour and sell merchandise at the shows to help pay the bills. In a way, it is great for the fans, because we get to see our musical hero’s more often now plus global travel is way more affordable to get acts to places further away. I have discussed with a few of my guests lately about the financial impact of digital downloading & streaming of music has caused. Talking of live gigs & touring some huge news for you guys with announcement that you will be supporting Inglorious on their forthcoming UK tour. How exciting is that for you all?
Jamie: It’s been in the planning for 3 or 4 months but obviously we had to wait for Inglorious to announce it. It’s been so hard keeping it quiet because we’ve been doing a lot of interviews and promo for the album and when the question of live shows come up we couldn’t say anything [laughs].
Sean: So, you kick off 28th January at Southampton Engine Rooms and play 11 shows including Shepherd’s Bush Empire & Nottingham Rock City – some great venues up and down the country (tickets available through livenation.co.uk & ticketmaster.co.uk)
Jamie: Yeah it’s great because everything has fallen into place for us on this. With us all having “proper” jobs we had to make sure we could all get time off, so the fact the dates are close together really helps, as well as the fact that the venues cover most of the country – so great coverage for us too. So the prefect length of time, perfect sized venues and a fantastic band to support.
Sean: And how do you guys approach supporting such a great band?
Jamie: One of the things we love about opening for people is that there is this element of competition. We’ve always looked at music is a bit like sport – you go to win, not to take part. Most of the fans are there for the main act, so they might have brought some cash to spend at the merch stall and buy a CD – our job is put on a set that makes them spend that cash on our CD, so in that sense it is a competition. You want people to go home and remember who you we and hopefully buy some merch off our table. Having that underdog status when opening for a big act is so exciting for us because we are going out to prove a point. We want to help push the main act so they sit up and think “we need to be on our game tonight”. We are always so grateful whenever we get the opportunity to support someone or if we get a festival slot, but if anyone ever says they are not trying to blow everyone else off the stage they are either lying or in the wrong job [laughs]
Sean: And as a music lover I want the experience of the night to involve the support act – you guys are out there to help warm us fans up, show us what you’ve got and set the tone of the night. It’s a huge responsibility and great to hear your hunger for that role in your voice. I see you guys are on the bill at Hard Rock Hell XII in Wales in November – what a great line up with Saxon, Girlschool, The Vintage Caravan and a host of other bands. The UK seems to be getting great support for rock festivals once more.
Jamie: Rock still is not the big deal it could and should be over here in the UK. Obviously, Download is the biggest of the rock festivals with maybe 60,000 – 80,000 if they have a few great headline acts but after that there’s probably Bloodstock Festival which is maybe 10,000. Hard Rock Hell I think is around 5,000 or 6,000 tickets for the weekend. Numbers drop down fairly quickly after Download.
Sean: The attraction for me, certainly with Monsters of Rock at Castle Donington was one stage, 5 or 6 quality bands and all in one day. And that’s why I liked the look of the new Stonedeaf Festival – 10 or 12 bands, but all on one day. I see Chris Jericho’s Fozzy were at Bloodstock this year – it looked a great set up. They seem to never stop touring at the moment, those guys.
Jamie: I loved him when he was in his WWE Wrestling days but the thing is he must really love doing Fozzy so much. I saw Fozzy when I was about 17 years old at The Astoria in London; it was around the time of their second or third album. To see how much they have grown it’s incredible. Certainly, the guy has taken an amazingly successful career with his WWE days and used it to help push on the next phase of his life.
Sean: I spoke to him a few months back and he is so excited by the band and especially the live shows. So where did music all begin for you Jamie?
Jamie: I can pinpoint that to the first time I heard Guns n Roses and thought “that’s what I want to do”. I was obsessed with them – I read & watched every interview. I remember watching the “Paradise City” video when drums beat starts up and the camera pans to Axl doing to sound check in the Stadium and I just thought “yeah, I want that please” [laughs]. So I then wanted to find out where that music came from so worked backwards to Aerosmith, then to the Rolling Stones then back to Howlin’ Wolf and other blues artists…
Sean: So why was the bass guitar the instrument of choice?
Jamie: It was because my dad was a bass player. So at home we had a steel stringed acoustic guitar and dad had a Rickenbacker 4001 bass, and still has. It just looked so cool – cooler than the acoustic anyway [laughs], so I was like “can I have a go on that please”. So dad made me learn some bits on the guitar first and then once I showed him I could listen and learn he helped me with the bass by showing me what its role in music was, how it could sound, everything about it really. He got me into people like Jack Bruce and bands like Mountain. When we went anywhere in the car we would choose what to listen too. Dad was a pro bass player for 20 years or so and was big into prog rock in the early 70’s. I still go out with him and do pub gigs with a friend of mine on percussion and dad on bass & keyboards, me on guitar and vocals – it’s great.
Sean: How cool that you can do that with him! I like to ask my restaurant question as we are nearing the end of our chat – booked you a two hour window and three guests to join you for dinner. They have to be from the music world but can be dead or alive.
Jamie: Because we mentioned him earlier, Chris Jericho would be pretty interesting. Slash would be my second guest and I think my third would have to be Jack Bruce.
Sean: A very mixed table of guests – would love to hear what you’d all talk about. What was the last album you listened to?
Jamie: Kamikaze by Eminem. I’m a massive Eminem fan. He makes you think about what you can lyrically cram into a song, how to use rhythm, groove & delivery. He’s almost like a punk rocker doing hip hop. He finds so many clever ways of saying things. I think, if you get stuck listening to the music style you play then you’ll end up getting stale.
Sean: Finally, if there is one song that you would like to be remembered for writing, what would it be?
Jamie: This could change if you asked me again another day but “Moonlight Mile” by The Rolling Stones from Sticky Fingers. It’s the final track on the album. It just gets me when I hear it.
Sean: Great answer – I’ll add it to my playlist that I’m building. On behalf of all of us over here at The Rockpit we want to wish you and the guys all the best on the release of your debut album and hope the tour with Inglorious goes well in the New Year. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us Jamie.
Jamie: Thanks to you guys for your kind words & support. Speak soon. Thanks Sean