The press room at Kick Out The Jams was complete mayhem, but Nick Michaelson & James Barrett found a quiet spot to have a chat about Senser reforming (years ago), iMMa and plans for the future. We began with some small talk about festivals...
JW: Our features editor Andy saw you at Hellfest at the NEC with what I understand was quite a strange crowd
JB: Ooooh yeah that was, on paper it could have been much better. In reality it didn't really come together and I think probably the NEC probably wasn't the best venue for what was going on.
NM: The amount of people that turned up it seemed like 500 people or there abouts.
JB: It was probably more than 500 but it just felt like 500 in a venue made for a lot more.
JW: From all reports it was an amazing set though!
JB: Ha yeah, we didn't know whether to get up and talk about toothpaste and our latest sales target or play a gig because it's such a corporate environment where you'd normally have business seminars... our quarterly figures for that gig were really good.
JW: So clearly not your best gig! What would you rank as your best ever?
JB: I suppose Glastonbury.
NM: Reading.
JB: 93/94 all those festivals were amazing, actually Download last year.
NM: That was really good.
JB: We put on our own club last year too that was really cool; that was probably one of my favourites from last year.
JW: How was it playing Download? Did you catch AC/DC?
NM: We were on the other day so we missed them.
JB: We were actually on the same day as Rage Against The Machine.
NM: Which was probably a bit more appropriate.
JB: It was very good fun.
NM: It was a nice festival, used to be Monsters of Rock but now it's a bit more relaxed, not quite as hardcore. A little bit more leaning towards Glastonbury than the original concept was.
JB: It had a really good vibe, it seemed really cool everyone was up for having a good time.
JW: First Download?
JB: Yeah it's our first Download yeah.
JW: Would you go back?
JB: I'd love to go back yeah, absolutely.
JW: Kerstin's off having a baby is that right?
JB: Yeah she is, off having another baby and so we've got a deputy stepped in and that's iMMa and she's brilliant, she's really good, she's a one girl musical force; an amazing true talent.
JW: And she's fit right in, everything going to plan?
JB: Yeah we've had a couple of rehersals with her, she turned up and had it totally down. This will be our first gig with her so I'm looking forward to it.
JW: You've got a few more coming up as well right?
JW: We've got a couple of gigs at the moment, we weren't sure quite how we were going to play it, whether we were going to do loads of touring or what really. At the moment we've got a few gigs and then after that it's kind of a bit open ended. We're going to nail some stuff down in the next couple of weeks.
NM: There's talk about doing a proper tour in November.
JW: No firm plans yet
JB: There's some things hovering around, maybe some festivals and stuff but nothing set yet.
JW: So you've a single due out soon, tell me a bit about it.
JB: Yeah our next single '2 3 Clear' is taken from our album that we released about a year ago called 'How To Do Battle', the single '2 3 Clear' we've slightly tweaked it, given it a bit of a 2011 feel turned it all up, and yeah it's sounding pretty cool.
JW: What's it about?
JB: Well lyrically that's more Heitham's department but as I understand it lyrically I think it is about renergising, it's the idea of rap music and how it can be utter total nonsense and yet reviving that with a bit of depth and clarity, and ranting apparently, lots of ranting in there.
NM: And a bit of singing.
JB: And a bit of guitaring, bit of beats and that pretty much sums it up. It's going to be a free download.
JW: What's the response to the album been like?
JB: It's been going down a storm in France, France have been loving it! Yeah it's been pretty cool. I think, compared to the album we put out before it's sort of opened more doors for us. A lot of people are saying 'oh Senser it's so great to have you back that you've just reformed'; when actually we put an album out before.
NM: We've been hearing this since 1999.
NB: We haven't had the same big marketing push that we had years and years ago.
JW: People are slowly rediscovering you?
JB: Yeah basically, slowly gathering fans and just letting them know we're doing it again. Every day we get emails from people thinking we've just reformed.
JW: So what brought you to KOTJ?
JB: Our agent is also the promoter!
NM: It's good to get out in front of an audience that wouldn't necessarily have heard of us or seen us 15 years ago. And just play with some current bands, the metally sort of rock.
JB: Yeah up and coming bands and just being part of the scene is good; doesn't seem to be as many kind of collective scenes as there was 15 years ago. Although there is something going on.
JW: I think it's starting ot make a comeback
JB: Yeah it slowly feels like there's a bit of a vibe; I have to say; I mean even from a mainstream media they've been kinda sniffing around the idea of there being little scenes of alternative music. Notjust kinda indie rock alternative music so yeah you know fingers crossed something good will happen
NM: I suppose we kinda hark back to the 90's in 2011; it's meant to be the new 1995; a lot of One Minute Silence and similar bands; and a lot of original music coming out. Also a lot of bands are still going, these bands are still releasing stuff and a lot of it's just as relevant now as it was back then - even more so maybe.
JW: Are there plans for another album?
JB: Always planning the new stuff. Writing's easier said than done obviously, but yeah we'd love to do another album this year, look at getting this single out and then maybe another single off the album and then start trying to get the next lot of stuff done as quickly as possible.
NM: There are a lot of ideas.
JW: Is it one of those things that you've always got ideas and you get to a point where you're like "wow I actually have to reocrd something"?
JB: I think everyone's just constantly writing.
NM: Constantly getting ideas down. We've been working with cutting edege drum and bass producers in Berlin, they actually mixed '2 3 Clear'. It's not drum and bassy; but they're just really good producers, so we're getting a couple of tracks with them up and running that's stuiable for our sound. And just ideas, whenever we get the chance we're putting ideas down and there's a few really cool things happening.
JW: You've mentioned France and Germany - are you planning to head back to Europe?
JB: We've done pretty good over there, certainly our last album, and we've done festivals and tours there in the last few years; you know if the time's right and we get things booked up and organised then yeah out to Europe.
JW: Finally, are you looking forward to any of the bands today?
JB: Well I'm really intrigued to see, well all the bands; we've done gigs with Starseed and The Spindle Sect before and those gigs have been really cool.
NM: Breed 77, there was talk of us doing a tour with them but it didn't materialise; I'm quite intrigued to see what they're like.
JB: And then ill Nino obviously they've got a good vibe going on at the moment so yeah.
Senser put on a top show, iMMa performing flawlessly and everyone was raving about how much fun they are!