As well as getting track for the new album together, what else are you up to at the moment?
We're doing a lot of stuff in the summer, a lot of festivals. We're really focusing on playing live, and tweaking the live show, there's a lot of rehearsal going on.
When you play live do you use decks as well as the instruments?
We are a band, it's drums, bass, and guitar, and two vocalists, but, there's various cleverness going on which allows us to play our entire album, all the programmed sounds, all the synths and everything from the guitar, bass, and drums. so, basically everyone's playing two instruments, a real one and synth, and the whole lot comes out the speakers.
You played Glastonbury last month, how was that for you?
Yeah, it was brilliant some DJ sets there as well, which were funny. Glastonbury is such a strange place to try and organise anything, because everyone is just running around really madly. Each gig had their own foibles but they were brilliant, all three of them. It was strange because Michael Jackson's death was announced whilst we were on stage on the Thursday, and we didn't know whether to announce it or not, it was a really surreal place to be, when news like that was broken.
So what did you opt for?
We decided not to announce it. We thought it would bring everybody down and we weren't 100% sure it was true. So, most people found out the next day.
You've got a huge bend of styles going on from dancehall and metal, to grime, hip-hop, and electro, so, who are your musical heroes?
That's always a difficult one to answer. when we were growing up we were hugely influenced by bands like Rage Against The Machine, and Nirvana because they weren't just bands, they seemed to live their music all the time. The kind of music they made was the kind of people they are, and they were really respected. Anyone who could sink themselves into their music, and make music directly from who they are was a hero for us. We always wanted to live our entire lives as musicians, we kind of have done since then.
I think a lot of bands these days their sound is produced by producers or they make a certain type of music, and you always get they impression they go home afterwards and live a completely different life based on how much money they have made. I don't think that sort of thing really appeals to us. Those bands who had a message, or if they didn't their personality became the message, those bands have been influences on us in the past, but we've got so many it's hard to narrow them down.
Faith No More must fit into that category, so what was it like working with him? Well, he's the most professional person I've ever worked with either inside or outside the music industry. He knew exactly what he was doing and was very careful to make sure that we understood what he wanted to do, he understood what we were trying to do, and the next thing we know he's sent through a vocal which is 99% perfect.
Who does the live music mic duties by the way?
Jenna G who is on the album, and Bruno MC who is not on the album, although he will be appearing on the second one. He's a guy that we've worked for for years.
You have a lot of festival dates coming up, which are you most excited about playing?
Well I've been told that Secret Garden Party is a good one, but I'm looking forward to Summer Sonic in Japan, that's the biggest on we are playing, and it's also, you know, Japan.
Have you been there before?
Yeah, we have, the album was at number one in Japan for two weeks, and it's recently gone back up to number one in the dance charts, this summer, where I think it is at the moment. So, we did go over there and have a quick look around, and play a couple of gigs, and we'll be delighted to go back and play the biggest gig we've ever played.
The fans over there are quite frothy towards bands....
They are quite exuberant, yeah. I have to tell you the story of the crowd surfer, when we playing in Japan, who when he got to the front of the crowd, and there was no more crowd, they threw him so high, that he landed on the drum kit. He was straight through the singers at the front, it was just madness. There were just waves of people just coming over the front of the stage.
You've also got shows at Summer Sundae, Reading, Leeds, Secret Garden Party, and Bestival, are you likely to have any surprise guests appearing?
I'm not sure who we are going to link up with, it depends who is there I suppose, but no, no surprise guests, but we like to keep it interesting by throwing in a few surprise songs, and covers, and things. The way that we have our band set up means that we can play literally any piece of music, any style with any instruments. So were not limited to things that sound like us, we can throw in anything from dance music through to rock, through to anything. So, we'll have some surprises there.
What's the best gig you've been to see as a punter?
I have a top five of the best gigs I've ever seen in my life, two of them are Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lamb at Glastonbury around eight years ago on the Jazzworld, I saw them again recently and they played exactly the same, but it wasn't quite as good as when I saw them that time. I've also seen some recently that were really impressive, seeing Gallows was amazing I've never seen a band go quite that far with so much energy put into it as well. That was seriously impressive. The Prodigy is always good too.
Changing the subject slightly do you think the success of bands like Pendulum has effected your fan base at all?
I think a little while ago Pendulum were opening doors, and people's eyes to drum and base, people who hadn't listened to it before, which is a good thing. Their last album which was really big for them, was really quite unique, a blend of styles that we don't incorporate that much, that classic rock sound. Pendulum are just doing their own thing now really, they're just a talented bunch of guys.
How did The Qemists come about?
We have been a band for thirteen or fourteen years now, we started when we were at school. We just decided being in a band would be a cool thing to do, so we started learning instruments. The sound we make wasn't really a decision, it's just that we started recording ourselves as much as we were playing. We got quite into the studio side of things and the more we did that, the more production we started to add to the music. We were into drum'n'bass so it was a natural progression to do that, because drum'n'bass can use any style. You've got classical music, jazz tracks, rock, pure dance tracks, electro, everything in there. Somehow it all works with that beat, so that was a good spin off point and we all use the drum'n'bass beat no matter what else we put with it.
Lastly, have you got any other live dates or a tour on the horizon other than your festival shows?
Well, yeah, they're all festivals actually, everything we've got coming up is a festival, we've got a festival in Belgium, Secret Garden Party, then Summer Sundae, Bestival, and Summer Sonic in Japan, and Reading and Leeds. We've got a few DJ sets knocking around. I think we've got one in Romania.
Thanks for your time Leon, hope you have a good summer, and enjoy Japan.
Come and see us at one of the festivals, won't you.
article by: Scott Williams
published: 23/07/2009 14:38
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.