AXIS OF - INTERVIEW (with billy riot)
1] Oi, Oi, give us a quick intro. to the band, who plays what and when, where and why you got together?
Mark plays drums, Niall plays the riffage and I, Ewen, play bass and howl, but Mark and Niall do their fair share of singing too. We got together just less than a year ago when our previous endevours, The Dragged and Man Over Bored, were disbanding. We wanted to start something fresh, playing a different style and working towards different goals so we started Axis Of and have been embarassing ourselves ever since.
2] Ewen was previously in Manoverbored, who played an almost old school 1979 new wavish punk. How conscious were you that people would be surprised at the fairly extreme change in musical style between the two bands?
We were well aware that people would recognise the vast differences in style. The new band doesnt sound anything like our past bands and some people have been put off, but we couldnt exactly be expected to keep up the old style just for those few people. Those old times were good but we wanted to try something new. We have had some slack for this move but I guess you cant keep everyone happy, we recognise that people arent obligated to like us, just as we're not obligated to change for anyone but ourselves.
3] Do you think older punk rockers can be guilty of being conservative and even threatened by the current crop of young bands?
Yea of course! But in a way this is too be expected, it happens all the time even outside the shackles of the punk rock scene. We're just glad there are also alot of the older punk rock fans who are into whats goin on now.
4] Do you think that downloads/I Pods and all that ballacks, is making it more difficult for bands to sell CD's and therefore cover their costs?
Yea that is something you do come across more often but to be fair its just the continuing evolution of the music industry. Vinyl killed recitals, CDS killed tapes, Herman Li will kill us all. I don't really download very often so I'm not really at liberty to comment academically.
5] You have a song on your debut CD EP "Apple Meat" called "Architects of Hair!" that has quite scathing lyrics. What or who was the main inspiration behind this song?
That track could be seen as the generic "band slags scene" ditty. The lyrics were written in direct response to the slander and abuse we received from show offs for starting a band that wanted to write songs concerning what we believe to important. The lyrics are quite sarcastic and satirical, but its basically a dig at our very critical friends mentioned previously.
6] To this point what bands have you most enjoyed playing alongside and what band[s] would you most like to play with.? Bands we like to play with :
Toxic Waste/BR
STUNT
Droppin Bombs
The Lobots
Never Close
Apathetic Youth
ASIWYFA
Daniel Man'ni
Inner Terrestrials
Bulbous Head
Still Birth
Bands we would like to play with: The Exploited?
7] Punk bands in general and anarcho-punk bands in particular are often guilty of getting tied up in their issues. How important do you think it is to "sometimes" just have fun?
Yea of course its extremely important to have fun or you'll lose focus and your mind amongst other things. Although there are countless bands out there, ourselves incuded, that are extremely passionate about their ideas and messages its essential to distance yourself from this at times and be a human.
8] In Northern Ireland, first generation punk rockers very rarely seem to support new young bands. Why do think this is the case?
No idea, probably because we rock hard and they have sore bones!
9] Do you see yourselves still being involved in punk rock in 20 years time? Undoubtably in some way.
10] OK, the interview has been too serious to this point, time for some random stupid questions;
a] should darts be a compulsory sport in school? Only if the same can be done with Formula One
b] is being ginger a disease and do you think MP Iris Robinson believes it can be cured?
Dont be so insensitive, we have a ginger haired member in our band, would you believe it! This is a very touchy subject for us.
c] How can you possibly identify a UFO?
Ask Herman Li. He must have spent some time in one... Shredding!
d] Who would win in a girly bitch fight between Beyonce and Shakira? Chuck Norris
e] Should Belfast International Airport be renamed the Dickie Best airport just to make it fair?
Only if the entire country is re-named Bestland.
11] Enough of this aul bolllocks, just tell us of your plans/hopes for the future and anything else you want to add?
Well we're just finished recording our debut album, it will be being released on Belfast Records mid August. We hope to have launch party up north around then. We have some water crossing planned for after the summer. Lots of gigs and releases forever we hope. To anyone reading - Please observe sarcasm where applicable.
The second is an interview with an online punk Fanzine from the Midlands, that focuses on just asking 3 questions, but 3 important ones (we cant put it up just yet, but take a look on his site for it):
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=201829900&blogID=418877730
cheers