Page 11 - ION Indie Magazine JanFeb 2018

KY: It has been interesting for me to watch, just as a side-line,
to see how it worked. Initially when we first started, Matt
wasn't so confident as an individual playing and being up-front.
It has been really quite an experience to see that change. I
think in the early days, Paul was certainly more of the driving
force, in terms of what should happen. But Matt has really
started to develop hugely, in terms of a performer and being
the front-man of the band. Perhaps in the last couple of
months it has become more evident that he has been taking
up the driving force of where the band may want to go, et
cetera. He isn't when it comes to unpacking the gear at the end
of the night and all that stuff. The band has developed equally
within that from where we first started, both in terms of sound
and the way we perform and our outlook on the band.

PL: Playing in pubs is one thing -- where nobody really cares
whether you are there or not -- to then still playing at pubs
where people are actually listening. And then, getting out of
the pubs onto the blues and arts centres circuit and paid entry
gigs…suddenly you realize that you have to do a show, a Pictured: Adam Pyke
performance. You actually have to perform more outwards to
turn it into a stage show. Now everybody's finding things to do,
ways to express it. It's not that you're calculating it. It's realizing you have to be a little bit larger in your
performance.

KY: They're paying to come and see us, so they need to be entertained. I don't mean this as disrespectful…you
just cannot be a basic pub band anymore. In the pub band, you can do a little of jamming and get away with it.
People will take it because they're half drinking -- they're not really listening. You can forget the odd word here
and there. But now, a lot of our people that follow us, they know the words. They know the dynamic of the band.
Each performance, you need to be on your game.

PL: It's much more of a professional environment than it was when we were playing in the back of the pubs. But
at the same time, you don't want to make it so it's very strict. You still want to have fun.

KY: Rightly releasing our own songs was the game-changer.

ION: With your latest album "Broken Man,” you were writing more original compositions, with both Matt and
Paul taking songwriting credits. How does the writing process work between you?

ML: I often write songs piece by piece. I never write the song 100 percent in one sitting. Whenever I have a
skeleton of a song, I'll bring it to the guys, and if that's it, that's it. If not, we can add more into it. Pretty much
when I write a song, I will end up singing it because most of the time it's about me, it's from my perspective.

PL: I probably write more of the song in one go and then it changes when the band starts playing. On ‘Broken
Man,’ we wrote the songs pretty much separately, then they would get rearranged. On ‘Big Shot,’ Matthew came
up with the big riff there, which wasn't there when I wrote it. ‘Broken Man’ itself was developed in rehearsal.

ML: ‘Broken Man’ was pretty much like the skeleton of the song. I had the riff, I had the chords, which is essentially
the riff as well. But then there was this whole middle section that I had a vague idea how I wanted to go, but no
concrete thing. So that's when I brought it in to the guys and I sort of explained how I wanted to go and then they
played it -- exactly what I wanted.