Call Upon The Author

After starting their tour in Wrexham last Wednesday (October 4 2009) Elliot Minor found themselves in Portsmouth playing at the Wedgewood Rooms. A venue that lead singer Alex Davies actually quite likes. After a thorough sound check and a few moments of joking about with Franko and Me Vs Hero, through which the new phrase “fuck the horse” was born, Alex settled into someone’s dressing room, drinking a beer, he began to chat animatedly about the venue asking about gigs and visits. The way he sits comfortably in his seat and with his friendly demeanour you can’t help but think he’s a nice guy who’s enjoying what he does and would be more than happy to answer a few questions.

Is it good to be back on the road?

Yeah, it’s really cool. It feels kinda weird. We’re all, I guess, just feeling a little bit nervous, we’ve got a whole new album to play. We lived with the first album for a couple of years so it’s weird playing new stuff. We’re just concentrating a lot more on what we’re playing on stage rather than the actual show for the time being until we’ve kind of warmed to it. But it’s getting better.

How was the first night of your tour?

It was really good. It was Wrexham. Obviously on the first day of the tour there are a few screw ups here and there but the energy was there and we had a great show. It was a really good start to the tour.

How have you prepared (for the tour)?

Actually I’ve bought a mini Marshall Amp, you know those little practise amps and I’ve never really done that before for a show. I tried it yesterday just to, warm me up. Jamming out before a set really gets you going for the show. We’ve been lazy about that in the past as well; we’d just drink beers then get on stage. But I think we’re really trying to sound good this time round.

What do you do in any relaxation time you manage to find?

Me personally, I’m actually really into my Coronation Street, which I don’t think I should really admit, but my mum got me into it from a really early age. Yeah that’s what I do, watch a bit of Coronation Street, play a bit of football with Ali, our keyboard player, but apart from that it’s all music really, jam out, play the piano a bit.

So do you ever go back to classical music every now and then to get away from what you do now?

No we haven’t done that in years really. I just like going on the piano, it’s actually quite relaxing, it’s cool, you can just sit, mucking around. Yeah it’s been a while since we’ve done our classical stuff; it’s sort of a school thing.

As people that have worked hard to get where you are now, what do you think of programmes such as X-factor and Britain’s Got Talent offering aspiring musicians the chance to be famous without putting in as much work as you might have?

I’m not really a big fan of the show. It doesn’t seem to be about talent anymore. It’s all a bit controversial. The people who do win, I guess good on them because they’ve obviously worked hard to actually do that, go through the auditions and everything. It is very different this slogging out playing the crowds and touring. But it’s a different market. It’s complete pop though isn’t it and I guess the rock scene is very different from that. Yeah I guess it doesn’t seem to be about talent anymore. It’s all very staged and set up. It’s all about the money isn’t it?

Speaking of the X-factor and it not being so much about talent, what do you think of John and Edward?

John and Edward, I like those guys. I thought they were really entertaining. I thought they were really shit at first. I don’t know what it is, my girlfriend’s from Ireland and I just find the accent really funny. Not that I laugh at my girlfriend. I dunno there’s something about them, obviously they’re idiots when they came on stage but it’s really entertaining.

Surely being in the rock scene yourself, you like Jamie a bit?

Yeah, yeah. Well saying that this year has got no talent there are a lot of acts who did it this year I thought were pretty good actually. But the whole voting thing I thought that was very scripted. I watched the first audition, that was it. I don’t really watch more of them after that.

Describe yourselves in one word.

The band, or me personally?

Err, you personally.

I dunno, goofy maybe. Yeah I’m very goofy.

Going back to when you were saying you’re nervous about performing the new album, did you ever get nervous before a gig performing your old album?

I don’t actually remember the early shows that we did, I’m sure we did get nervous. But it got to the stage when, you know, we were still playing songs from that album and we just knew them so well anyway that we just kept on changing the format and doing different arrangements of them and doing medleys in between the songs, just to keep yourself interested. You don’t want to be playing the same stuff all the time. I think it was also that we were just so comfortable with the songs that it was a kind of an adrenaline thing

Do you have any good luck charms? Or any superstitions and stuff before you go on stage?

Not really. No. We tricked this person once. We convinced her that we prayed right before the show and we held hands together and took it really seriously. She got so freaked out. That was like the only ritual we’d done and there was no truth to it. We just get ourselves psyched up. We listen to music actually, you know, The Who, AC/DC. But that’s it.

I read an interview you did earlier this year and it said that you were finding it a bit of a challenge to write the new album, what were the main challenges and how did you overcome them?

I think because the album was so long ago, I was 16 or 17, quite a few years ago then. It’s such a big gap between the songs that there’s a change, it’s a lot more mature. I don’t think it was, really, hard to write. We wanted to get a second album out but it kind of got pushed back and delayed and delayed. I think we were a lot happier with the songs on this one. It was more us.

Wasn’t the fact that your album was delayed something to do with the record label at the time?

Yeah, we kinda got shelved into a corner with other bands like Greenday and My Chemical Romance. Right from the word go they delayed our album and we just wanted to get on with it so we decided that time was a lot more important than a huge backing. Eventually it was alright, it’s hard doing it all by yourself but we had a lot more freedom. It’s worked out for the better.

Do you have any song lyrics that sum yourself up?

We sing ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams. It’s a cool song to sing. It’s a bit of a guilty pleasure, actually it’s a great song, I’m not ashamed of it.

Solaris, your second album, was released last month, do you have any words to spare to try and convince people to buy it?

It’s better. It’s a lot more mature. It’s more us, I think now. It’s more of an album than a bunch of songs put together, which the first album kind of was. In the sense that that was all the material we had. It’s also different in the fact that in one track it’s slow and then another is full of strings.

With his beer now finished the interview wound down to a close, helped along quicker by Me Vs Hero rehearsing their set right outside the door. After a quick photo and goodbye Alex rejoined his four band mates and immediately started talking about their show later that night.