Call Upon The Author

Lostalone have spent the last 6 years honing their craft and developing their sound as one of the up and coming bands in British rock. Personally selected by both My Chemical Romance and 30 Seconds To Mars to be the opening act on their recent arena tours, the band are currently touring to promote their latest album “I’m A UFO In This City”. I caught up with them backstage in Southampton and managed to find out a little more about the boys behind the music.

CALL UPON THE AUTHOR: You’re playing what appears to be every town in the UK on this tour, how’s it going so far?
STEVEN BATTELLE (Vocals/Guitar): It’s been going great, last night (in Bristol) was my favourite gig for a long time. I thought we hit it in every aspect and the audience was great.

CUTA: Anything you do to stop it getting stale? Any competitions between yourselves?
SB: No there’s nothing like that for me, it’s more for me that those 30 minutes are the best thing ever.
MARK GIBSON (Drums/Vocals): We like to try new stuff out when we can at soundcheck and stuff, but it can be quite tight if you’ve only got 20 minutes or so. There’s plenty of dates for us to try stuff out though!

CUTA: For those unfamiliar with the band how would you describe LostAlone?
ALAN WILLIAMSON (Bass/Vocals): Right now I’d say get the album and then you’ll know ha ha!
SB: This is the moment in an interview where we are stumped and it’s not because we think we’re some unique band, I would just call us a rock band, it’s that simple. And if you like rock music with big choruses and harmonies and loud guitars – which in my head is what an album should be. It isn’t 11 or 12 songs that are the same, it’s different songs and because they’re played by us, it sounds like us.

CUTA: You’ve been going for a while now – what’s your motivation and inspiration now compared to when you started?
SB: It’s never really changed for me since I was 11, this is what we do, there is no alternative. This band has got something to say and if we get the chance to be put in front of a mass audience we will be a successful band. I’ve been over whelmed by the reactions we’ve received.

CUTA: Your album “I’m a UFO in this City” is out now and you worked with a veritable who’s who of the industry while recording it – how did that come about?
SB: I was asked by the label to give a wishlist of top 5 producers, of which 2 called me up (Jacknife Lee and Greg Wells) and said they loved the demos. I was like “What? We’re a new bad and you’re gonna spend that kinda money on producers?” We went out to Hollywood for 6 weeks and all we had to think about was creating a record, whereas previously it was a collection of demos, this is what I’d always dreamt of where I actually wrote a record and I knew that’s when we’d record it and at the end of it we’d have an album.

CUTA: Gerard Way Executive Producing it too?
SB: Yeah that was cool

CUTA: Did he have any input?
SB: No his input was walking into Warner Bros with our demos saying “I’ve never done this before, you’ve been asking me to do it for years, this is the band I want to do it with.” Gerard and me had an email weekend where I sent him 70 demos, he got psyched on them and he was like an ear. He didn’t have anything to do with music in terms of writing but in terms of filtering all the songs I’d written and then we’d say the songs we liked and he’d say “well actually guys have you thought about this one?” That was initially and then as we got into a period of really intense writing I was sending him a song a day for a period of about 2 months and that’s his involvement in the record, he helped shape the songs.

CUTA: Did you feel you had to up your game at all during those sessions or did you just do what you do but have some new toys to play with?
SB: I think we stepped up to the fact that our first album was a while ago and we’re a different band now. It was the greatest experience of my life, it wasn’t about the money, these guys were top producers and for each song they would sit with me and ask “what is it about?” and we’d talk about it and set the mood for the song. If it was a song I don’t ever want to sing the lyrics coz I was in a dark place, Greg would tell me “you’re going to that dark place one last time to sing it” and I would be in a horrible depression for two days, but it was because I needed to be in that frame of mind.
AW: We had the luxury of time as well, we’d be in the studio til 3am doing backing vocals.
SB: Yeah there is nothing on that record where we think “oh I’d love to have done this, but we couldn’t” the next record’s written and I want to push it further.
MG: We knew it was such a great opportunity that not every band could have so we made the most of it and we very lucky the way we instantly got on with the producers.
SB: We were clear we were an English band and we didn’t want to sound like an American one where they have that sheen and our producers told us they wouldn’t have wanted to work with us if we did.

CUTA: It’s an interesting title – any specific meaning?
SB: It’s not about aliens, it’s about alienation. It’s not a negative thing, it’s about every body, my mum, everyone. When you’re walking with your headphones on and you’re that thing for that moment in that time and everyone’s a UFO in the city, no one around you has any concept of what you are and what you’re about and I just liked that idea.

CUTA: And a Making of DVD too! Is that a marketing ploy to sell the physical copy of the album over the digital copy?
SB: No coz you get it with the digital! We love vinyl and records, we love the physical thing, but we know people are going to download so we have an iTunes album where it opens up like a webpage and you get everything you get with the physical copy and bonus tracks, 2 music videos and the documentary, lyrics… the only thing I’m upset about and we have no control over is you don’t get the bonus tracks with the physical copy. If someone buys the CD though I’ll just give them the tracks.

CUTA: What’s your take on the current state of the industry in terms of products and sales and downloads? It’s difficult for a new band because you need the money to fund being in a band.
MG: I think there’s a lack of understanding in the public of bands’ situations sometimes coz you never wanna put out negative things like “if you don’t buy this we can’t do this…” but that is the case and people don’t realise that and that’s what frustrates me.
AW: It’s a constant battle
SB: It’s slowly destroying bands like us. The bands that are already big are getting killed by it, but their merch sales mean they are a band forever. If 2,000 people illegally get our album that’s a lot of trouble for us, I know everyone’s going through a rough time, but if you just spend £6.99 in HMV that means the world to us. It’s not about charts, it’s what a new band needs to happen. If you’re on a major label and it needs to happen coz you get dropped because you haven’t recouped or if you’re independent because you physically don’t get the money back.

CUTA: OK, well let’s talk about something more positive – You’ve played some impressive venues with the likes of 30 Seconds To Mars and My Chemical Romance – do you prefer those or the clubs?
AW: Both have positives, I like to have the space to run around so I don’t bash Steve’s vintage guitar, but when people are in your face and everyone’s sweating and loving it, I miss that in an arena show.

CUTA: What would be your dream tour to be on the bill for?
AW: Aerosmith in stadiums
MG: It would be amazing to be on those early 70’s tours when bands like Deep Purple had their own plane.
SB: You’ve not said any bands
MG: OK well supporting Deep Purple in 1974 tour of the US.

CUTA: Specific.
SB: Mine would be (if it could be beamed to now) Queen from 1974 headlining with us as main support, Marina & The Diamonds, The Beach Boys….

CUTA: Which year of The Beach Boys though?
SB: When Brian Wilson was still in the band, just pre-“Pet Sounds”…Weezer would be on there…

CUTA: If you could have written any song what would it be?
AW: “Happy Birthday”.
MG: He’s all about the money… I’d say something iconic like “Freebird”
SB: Mine would be “England Arise”, it was on an episode of The West Wing and it encompasses everything I like about every bit of music, huge vocals….

CUTA: Finally, what does 2012 hold for LostAlone?
SB: Lots of touring, literally everywhere we can get to, I’d like to get some festivals in and if I have my way we’ll be recording by the end of the year or just coming off touring ready to go in the studio and this time next year be talking to you about the next record.

N.B. I’ve since checked and Steve’s favourite song is performed by the Shakespeare Company in the episode of The West Wing called “Posse Comitatus” and is actually called “Patriotic Chorus” – Greg

Follow me on Twitter! – @Greggerfer