Exit Ten Interview

Roomthirteen talks to Exit Ten in their tour van before their sold out Cardiff Barfly gig with Sikth. Exit Ten are:

Joe Ward on guitar, Chris Steele on drums, James Steele on bass, Stuart Steele on guitar and finally Ryan Redman on vocals.

Enjoy...

R13: Introductions then..
Exit Ten: I'm Ryan and I'm lead vocals. Stuart I play guitar and a bit of backing vocals. I'm Chris I play drums. I'm James I play bass. I'm Joe and I'm an alcoholic. No, I play guitar and sing a bit as well, do a bit of backing.

R13: Can you give us some background on the band, like how you got together?
Exit Ten: Well ok there's three...
Don't start with those days. Just start from when you were in the band.
Well basically there's three brothers in the band. James and Stuart are twins and then Chris is the older brother. Then Joe...well our parents have been friends and so they were together hanging out from an early age and then got a band together. Then in 2003 I joined as a new vocalist because the previous vocalist left. We just started writing some songs togeher. I came from a kind of indie funk band before that, with an acoustic guitar round my neck. Then I went metal.

R13: How did you guys make him metal? Did you force decent metal albums on him?
Exit Ten: They haven't been too forceful really.
You wanted to doing something different anyway.
Yeah I wanted to get into something a little heavier. I just auditioned for this random band because one of their girlfriends said they needed a singer.
Ex-girlfriend.
I had this bus that I was giving bands lifts to gigs in and one bands, one of the members was one of his girlfriends at the time and she said go and have a go.

R13: So the show's sold out tonight, I hear you've been selling out shows left, right and centre?
Exit Ten: Yeah, it's been totally awesome.

R13: Which has been the best show?
Exit Ten: Glasgow or Liverpool. We've had some technical problems. It's hard to say because we haven't done the whole tour yet, so we wouldn't want to say...
R13: Ok but so far?
Exit Ten: York, I think. It's become our new home because up there we have a group of people that are really behind us and they all came to the gig and just made it awesome for us and the sound was good...apparently.
R13: Are there any gigs that you're looking forward to?
Exit Ten: The last gig probably and a rest!
London always good.
We don't want to go home it's been a lot of fun but yeah London's always...we've played London Barfly a couple of times so we know it well, that's tomorrow.

R13: Are you getting on with Sikth?
Exit Ten:Yeah they're fucking safe basically, well cool.
R13: Are you learning anything new?
Exit Ten: Joe's trying to learn a riff .
I'm learning that I'm rubbish at guitar.
Almost learnt the beginning of 'Skies'. Almost.
But we think their new stuff is amazing. We're making good friends with them and they want to help us. We know where we're at, that we're a young band and just starting out so we more than open to a bit of guidance

R13: So your forthcoming release has been named 'This World They'll Drown'?
Exit Ten: Fuck yeah, our first release. Self-release. We have artist license so we're not putting a comma in there, it might be needed. There are five tracks all recorded with Andy Sneap, a legend
R13: A quote from Andy Sneap about working with you says "It's a slight departure from the norm style for me" - Why do think he might have said that?
Exit Ten: Yeah he said that on his web site. I think because the last few things he's been doing have been really heavy, I don't think he's worked with a singer, like Ryan for quite a while and he fancied doing something a little lighter, working with some vocals and so yeah, that's probably why he said it
R13: What was it like working with him?
Exit Ten: Easy, easy as hell. He was amazing.
R13: Easy?
Exit Ten: Well it's not easy if you're playing guitar.
Well you guys just need to practice more. No he was really wicked.

R13: What was the coolest thing in the studio?
Exit Ten: The coolest thing for me was the drum kit I got to use. The squirrels. Oh yeah we got that on camera, god know why it's there, just squirrels...A metal license plate that says metal on his Jag. We had a well good time, we only got drunk once properly. Shot his gun out in the woods because it's on a big farm.

R13: Have you got a release date for the album?
Exit Ten: Monday 12th June, the Monday after Download. Twelve, six, six.

R13: You've just shot a video, is there a theme?
Exit Ten: There's not a theme for the video because at this point in our career it's budget related whether you have a theme or not I think but the director had some ideas for what he wanted it to look like and it involved us looking hot, hot and sweaty. Well obviously we are going to look pretty good but...Uh yeah it's going to look wicked. It was shot on 35mm [film rather than digital] so that was our only expense.

R13: You're on the line up for Download. How did you manage that?
Exit Ten: The promoter has been watching us for a while and we played a Pre-load show last year at the Metro.
R13: Are you looking forward to it?
Exit Ten:Yeah. It will be good to find out which stage we're on. But to be honest every time the festivals come round I can never afford a ticket so just to get a free ticket to Download is more than enough for me as far as I'm concerned I'm really happy.
R13: Who do you wanna see?
Exit Ten: Tool, definitlely. I really want to see Guns n' Roses, there are loads of rumours that they're going to try and get all the original members on there.

R13: What if Guns n' Roses cancel and the promoter comes up and says "Exit Ten you've got to do the main stage instead of Guns n' Roses," who would you drag up there to play with you?
Exit Ten: Sikth...and Tool to play another day.

R13: Is there anyone you hope is going to be announced for the festival?
Exit Ten: I really wanted Dimmu Borgir to play. I wouldn't mind if Meshuggah played again. I think Opeth might still confirm. If Down played that'd be right.

R13: Finally, what do you hope to achieve this year?
Exit Ten: Three thousand record sales so that we cover the cost of our album, but if one person buys it I'll be happy. Just loads of touring, this is awesome and there's no need for this to end.
R13: Anyone you'd like to tour with?
Exit Ten: Killswitch Engage would be good. No, not Killswitch, every single interview we do...We do like them though. Every Time I Die are touring in May and we're hoping to be part of that.

Exit Ten have managed to jump aboard the Every Time I Die tour so you'll be able to catch them at a town near you!