On Hondo Maclean's latest tour Room Thirteen Managed to have a quick chat with Ben Woosnam (Vocals/Guitar) and Richard Boucher (Bass).
Room Thirteen: Your album "Unspoken Dialect" was released in February. What has been the reaction so far?
Ben Woosnam: The overall response had been really good. We had some really good reviews and of course a couple of bad one but on the whole it's been good!
R13: Do you have a follow up album planned?
Richard Boucher: Yeah we have just started writing it.
R13: Do you write your material on an individual basis or as a collective?
BW: Rich, Gav and myself write most of the foundations to the songs and then the others add to it after. Jake has only been in the band six months so all of our last album was written before he joined. He is a very creative drummer and it will be interesting to see what he brings to the group.
R13: You have had a couple of your videos on Scuzz recently too. Do you see this as an accomplishment?
BW: Yeah our first single "Animated Antics" got on to Scuzz and that was great. However we are a little pissed off with them at the moment. "Blinding lightshows and bad clothes dress codes" was shown recently and they got the name mixed up. They called it "Blinding lighthouse". Obviously that's a little disappointing but it still gets the word out about us so in that respect it's great.
R13: Is the music you write the same type of genre you would listen to yourself when at home?
BW: Yes definitely! We like what we do and we like other bands who have a similar style. However we try not to limit ourselves so that we can cater for a wide range of musical tastes and reach out to as many people as possible.
R13: You have just completed a three date tour with Funeral for a Friend. How did that go?
BW: Well we are all friends with them anyway and whenever we play with them we have a good laugh. The shows were incredible.
RB: They were really high class.
BW: We don't get much of a chance to play North Wales so it was good to play Bangor too.
R13: Touring the country you must get a chance to playing front of many different crowds. Do you find it any different when you play in your home town?
RB: To play in Bridgend was pretty amazing. We know lots of people there and the reaction was great.
BW: It was also nice to be able to walk out of your house and down to the venue instead of having to be driven miles to get there.
R13: You also have a European tour coming up in June. Is this something you're looking forward to as it's your first tour abroad?
RB: Yeah we are playing with a band called "The Bled". We've played with them before are great friends with them too.
BW: It should be really interesting for us as we have never toured outside the UK before. We get to play in Germany,
RB: And I look German so I should fit right in!
R13: What plans do you have for after the tour?
BW: Well probably touring a bit more and we will are going to try to concentrate on writing too.
R13: Will you be attending any of festivals this year?
BW: If you mean playing I'm not sure. The Agency do all the bookings!
R13: Does the band have a manager for that sort of thing or do you do most of it yourselves?
BW: We have a few people who look out for us but we mainly sort it out ourselves. However some of do a lot and some of us do little!
For more infomation about Hondo Maclean please see their website here.