We caught up with techno-rockers You And What Army.
1. How did you guys all meet?
Bassist Jamie met Dave when they gigged together in seperate bands. Same for Zak who replaced the old drummer due to religious differences. Kieran and Jamie were at the same Uni doing the same course and yet, never met each other until they joined the band in September 2008 after an intensive audition process.
2. How would you describe your sound?
Completely Unique, Kerrang called it the most interesting sound performed on the RBBJ stage at Sonisphere this year, I cant really put one genre on us, we’re rock/rap/rave/trance/DnB/metal/hiphop!
3. Who are your influences?
We take influences from a plethora of musical sources. Zak’s into his Indie and Pop, Kieran his acoustic and emo, Jamie his metal and prog and Dave his electronica and hip hop. So the list reads quite strangely, but some of the biggest artists we respect would be Periphery, Celldweller, Fightstar and… uh… Dizzee Rascal.
4. You played a few festivals this Summer. Which ones did you play and which one did you enjoy the most?
We began with Download then T in the Park, Sonisphere, Underage and Hevy. Underage was off the hook, we had the biggest crowd of our stage, quite possibly bigger than most of the bands on the larger stages! Sonisphere was also awesome, we had a stage rush for Hevy which was incredible!!
5. What is your favourite and least favourite venue to play?
Favourite would be Download and least would be The Library in Leeds!!
6. All bands have their own way of writing songs, what is yours?
Usually get the synths and beats down first then guitar/bass, adding the drums and finally lyrics
7. You have grown quite rapidly in the time that you have been playing – what would you say the reason behind the success is?
Our fans!! Every bands says it, but its true! If we didn’t have fans we wouldnt have been able to play the festivals this summer. We wouldn’t sell merch and would have no reason to write music if no-one was listening. It’s all thanks to them that we are here and growing!
8. On that point, what advice would you have to bands starting out?
Don’t gig unless you are completely confident that you know your songs inside out and back to front. A key point of interest is showing how tight you guys are and how you win over a crowd. It’s good getting them involved because at the end of the day you’re entertainers and if you start to bore your audience, you loose!!
9. Finally, what is the future for You And What Army?
Hopefully win this RBBJ competition and win free recording time and a tour with Kids In Glass Houses – thats the main target on our mind at the moment, but we always think about writing new material and scheduling gigs around the UK.
For more information on You And What Army, check the guys out on MySpace and Facebook.
PHOTO CREDIT: Emmie Sketch McKee
