Discovering a new band, for me at least, is much like being told for the first time as a child that you must start wearing clothes around the house. At first you find yourself hesitant, it’s strange and not instantly warming though it does have a vague familiarity. In time, you grow to the idea and before long you cannot imagine doing otherwise.

It is for this reason that Welsh post-punkers The Blackout put me in mind of nudity and coming of age. When their name popped up on the interview horizon, I can’t say I knew who they were. A wiki search got me initiated and iTunes gave me the goods, leaving only my opinion left to join the equation.

As I became more familiar with the band and reached that gleeful ‘hum along’ level of fandom, the questions I had started to arrange seemed less and less relevant. After all, this is a band who formed for something to do, were named after a slogan on a shirt and come from a town called Merthyr Tydfil (it exists, I checked).

A quick reassessment of approach later and I was ready to shoot the Welsh breeze with lead singer Sean Smith on the new album, Australian tour and the vicious animals that await him.

There’s a beep.

Then an operator,

Then a beep,

Then a pause…followed by the greatest accent known to man.

(For those of you who haven’t seen little Britain, the Welsh accent is like an Englishman raised in New Zealand accentuating ever OTHER vowel)

 

Hey is this Sean?

Yeah man, how you going there?

Good, good. Have to say first and foremost, your accent is brilliant; I’m a little in love already.

*laughs* It’s not really my accent; I put it on for the ladies you see. How do you think that will go in Australia?

Honestly?

Of course!

They may think you’re taking the piss

Brilliant! Even better!

Was it a spin out hearing the vocals of the first E.P back for the first time? You sound pretty much American

Yeah it was actually. You don’t realize how much kind of disappears. It was stronger when I first started but I consciously trained it a bit

Well they say everyone loses their accent when singing, something to do with voice muscles. How do you find the banter between songs goes? Must be a shock for a few fans

Definitely. I think a lot of them have real trouble understanding what I’m on about so I kind of make it up.

Does the reaction differ from place to place?

Well some of them kind of get it in Wales *laughs* but it’s not a huge accent so some people just stare blankly.

Where would you say you’ve had the best and/or worst reactions? To the show in general or accent in particular

Japan. For both. Japan is insane…surprising amount of Japanese people. They are the most intense crowd and really get into it, singing along and that, but when the songs finished there are a total of three claps then….silence. They don’t know what to do.

Bit of a culture shock then?

Well we went their early on so it was huge for us. Tokyo’s amazing, it’s so clean. No bins.

So what are your expectations of Australia?

We’ll probably get killed. We’ve heard from (touring mates) Lost Prophets that the crowds are intense.

Yeah, we tend to get into it.

I know, it’s like your thing isn’t it? And the animals there are so deadly. I can’t wait to see a big spider! You should have a saying ‘Australia – If the people don’t kill you, the animals will!’

Pretty much, far cry from Wales then? To be honest most people here only know of Wales what Little Britain has told us.

Well you’d be surprised; over here the shows like a documentary. There is actually only one gay in the village. And there are so many little villages spread out all over the place so no matter where you go, it’s tiny.

Do you think this has something to do with the urgency or energy of the music?

Definitely. We all went and saw Lost Prophets and they totally blew us away, then later we opened for them as our first big gig so it was really amazing. I think it’s the same for those guys, coming from Wales makes you want to break out a bit. Rise above the crowd.

I hope the significance of being signed to their label wasn’t lost on you.

Oh God, never. We love all the bands on the label. It’s still shocking for us; we’re just a few guys who had nothing better to do.

You have a similar, I want to say sound but genre is probably closer to the mark, to Lost Prophets. Was that a conscious decision?

Yeah pretty much, not to say it isn’t true to ourselves, it’s just what we wanted to do most. But we all love pop too, we did a cover of (N.E.R.D’s) Lapdance which sadly didn’t get approval, but that was huge fun. We still play it live.

It’s notable on the new album, not exactly pop but catchiness

Yeah that’s right, we love it. Who doesn’t love a great big hook? We love the 2 minute punk song but mix that with something catchy and you’ve got a winner.

Is it a direction you’ll keep moving toward?

Well we’ll always do what we’ve been doing but we’ll keep indulging in it now and then. I’m dying to get Justin (Timberlake) to do vocals on a song with us. Us doing out thing then a big Justin chorus out of nowhere! *laughs*

I think it would have a market. Dillinger covered Justin on their Plagiarism E.P and it was great!

Yeah I heard that, loved it! They weren’t afraid of doing what they loved. If you’re going to do something, do it well. And they certainly did.

Well the boundary has been broken, I say go for it. I want to see shimmies!

*laughs* Definitely! See you guys soon, can’t wait!

By Levi Dobbie