Just prior to the band hitting Donnington for Download, I interviewed Rick from getAmped and I'm confident when I say they're the most enthusiastic band I've ever come across!

R13: How would you describe your music to somebody who has never seen you live yet?
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R: Well, we seem to have been lumbered with a bit of a pop punk tag, which anyone who's heard the new record 'Postcards From Hell' will confirm isn't exactly us. We have lots of darker rock and metal overtones, and these really come out in the live show. It's edgier and more aggressive and most importantly of all, lots of fun. We're not really a slit-your-wrists kind of band, and we like our shows to be uplifting and energetic. I haven't looked forward to a gig as much as I'm looking forward to Download since our first China tour, so I'm really excited about it!
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R13: How do you think the progress and development of GetAmped is going?
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R: I'm blown away by the support we've had from everyone. Our fans have been amazing to us - they've really been helping get the word out. Plus the record got really great reviews from good people such as yourselves, we've had lots of radio and TV play, and now Download. We've had such a good time over the past year and things are looking great for us right now. We have a really cool EP planned for autumn as we just can't wait until next year to get another release out, so we're really looking forward to getting back into the studio for that. But at the same time we're all real perfectionists and we have high expectations, so we're never really happy with our progress – we really don't pat ourselves on the back all that much. No matter what happens we just think we could always be doing better!
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R13: How is the Chinese experience for the band, you play to much bigger crowds over there don't you?
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R: Yeah we've done 3 tours to China now. We've played Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Kunming. No one over here has ever heard of these places but they're all about the size of London, and we were the first western band to play in a lot of places, so it was just an amazing experience. China is such a beautiful country and the crowds there were just amazing - they've never seen rock in real life before so we had about 1000 people turn up to watch our soundcheck on the first night. I've never had an encore request in soundcheck before, so it was pretty cool! We played to about 5000 people every day - it was mad!
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R13: Which other countries do you particularly enjoy playing?
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R: Erm, England, because that's the only other place we've played so far. We have some showcases set up in LA and Japan for the autumn though, so we're looking forward to those. We also went out to Dubai for our latest photo shoot which was in the desert near Oman. It was an awesome trip but we didn't play any shows though.

R13: Which of the other Download acts excites you the most?

R: Well, I've been a massive Alice in Chains fan for years, and the guy from Pantera is an awesome singer, so I'm really looking forward to seeing them. Also Fishbone are awesome, I've liked them since I was about 17. Reuben are awesome - they're flying the flag for UK rock at the moment I think, so I want to check them out. I'm interested to see Dragonforce as there's a lot of hype surrounding them at the moment, same with Fightstar. I've heard good things but I like to check things out for myself...and I will also most definitely be seeing our drummer Jason's other band This Is Menace, because they
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R13: How do you think you'll fit in at what is known for being a heavy rock and metal festival?
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R: We'll fit in just fine! We rock out with the best of em!
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R13: Do you have any festival tips you can pass on to our readers who are off to spend weekeneds in fields this summer?>

R: If it's sunny wear sunscreen, and if you pull use a condom. Otherwise anything goes!
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R13: What other festival plans do you have for this Summer, are you doing any of the coastal surfing events like Cornwall and Wales?
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R: We're doing a festival called Dogstock which sounds like fun. We're down in Devon and Cornwall a lot but we're not doing any festivals, just evening club shows. But that suits me just fine because the last time we did beach festivals we were cleaning the sand out of our gear for the next 6 months! The beach is for surfing not gigging!
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R13: You seem to be visiting Newquay a lot from your tour schedule, is that a particular favourite part of the country to play?
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R: That it be! We love playing down there as Tim and I both surf, so we get to surf in the day and play shows at night. Heaven!
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R13: What are the best and worst things about being on the road?
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R: The best things are meeting new people, making new fans, seeing new places and playing music for a living. The worst things are being in a van a lot, smelling each others farts, waiting around before and after soundcheck, and eating a lot of junk like Ginsters and kebabs!
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R13: Even when touring do you write all the time or do you need to be in a certain place to be creative?
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R: We are writing all the time. Sometimes when we're driving we'll be working on lyrics or brainstorming for concepts. We've even written whole songs without an instrument in sight, just melodies. 'God of the Zombies' happened that way, It's a fine way to work. Of course sometimes you're knackered and feel like shit and all you want to do
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R13: I'm guessing then you're planning ahead to the next album, how might the band develop?
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R: Yes we are indeed. We are in the studio in July to do our EP which will be coming out around October. We have a collection of songs that are so neat and self-contained that they are too short for an album and too long for a single, so we want to get that out as soon as we can. I don't want to say too much about it but all I will say is that fans who've followed our development since day 1 are in for a real surprise! We have a lot of new material for a follow-up album to 'Postcards' in the demo stages already, so we'll be chipping away at that over the summer. The direction is going to be similar but it's definitely going to be more groove-based. We want to get away from the standard rock 'duh-cha-duh-duh-cha' and use some more interesting rhythms to lay some balls out guitars over!
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R13: Thanks for you're time and good luck.
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R: Thank you! Oh and I don't want to sound like I'm sucking up or anything here but can I just say that your review of our record by Aaron Carey was one of the first reviews I've read that showed a real understanding of what getAmped was about - he got everything right, even down to the (deliberate) less-polished production on 'Token Xmas Song'. It's really nice to read a review of your work by someone who is really listening hard, and has a good grasp of the finer details in music rather than relying on the cliched genre bashing that goes on. So thanks.

Click here to read the review mentioned.