A couple of hours before their show, Mike Tyson from Hopesfall joins me and talks about the past, the present and the evolution of the band.
R13: Can you first introduce yourself?
MT: Sure. I'm Mike Tyson, I play the bass for Hopesfall.
R13: You've been touring a lot since the past couple of years...
MT: Yeah three years or so.
R13: How do you guys get along with all the bands you tour with?
MT: I liked playing every time. I liked all the bands. You're just having a great time. It's various. It's great on this tour.
R13: You're touring with the Tsunami Bomb on this tour...
MT: Oh yeah yeah we are very similar. They're really cool.
R13: What do you enjoy the most about touring?
MT: Travelling, everything's for free, free beers, and you get to play music so it's great.
R13: The worst part of touring?
MT: Erm... The worst would be to be constantly on the road, it's hard to maintain any serious relationship. You're always with people and you don't get like a break. On the tour bus we're always on each other.
R13: But you still enjoy it anyway
MT: Yeah there are days where you're travelling and you're like why am I doing this, it's just f***** terrible and there's other days like hey we're travelling the world! It's like any job.
R13: Do you live from your music or do you have a job back at home?
MT: Depends on the time off that we have. If we have time off we get a job. Some guys deliver pizzas.
R13: Isn't it too hard to cope when you got to get back to reality?
MT: You know...it's refreshing to have a job. I remember I got a job and I used to wake up every morning and I didn't mind it and it was a nice changing, you kinda welcome it. You just enjoy something more concrete.
R13: Your last album was much more melodic, how was the reaction from your fans?
MT: Erm. We did get a lot of slap about it actually there was some kids that understood it right away. But there were loads of people who didn't like it. Some didn't like it when it first came out but they listened to it and started to really like it and that's a great compliment. Now they seem to like it a lot and the fans are grown up.
R13: Did you have make a conscious decision on how you wanted to evolve?
MT: It was not like we consciously decide to evolve. We decided that we wanted to write something a little bit more structured from the bones and Jay wanted to sing a little more and so it's a combination of these two. We wanted to make a record that WE wanted to listen to. It's just who we are as a band.
R13: What is your favourite song on the album?
MT: Errm I really like the One ..
R13: So tonight will you play a bit of your old songs or mostly those of your new album?
MT: We play a bit of everything. I mean we're not trying to cancel the past and people like it. We play about half and half.
R13: There were loads of changes in the band. What happened and how do you cope with it?
MT: Erm all the changes have been pretty.. ermm all the guys were pretty tired of touring. You know when you're on tour about nine months a year, erm you're just burnt out. It's never been like a drastic thing but it settled right now, we're pretty happy.
R13: But you have to start all over again...
MT: It's such a pain in the arse. When somebody arrives you have to teach them the songs but you'd rather do that and help the one who's there than be there and have a terrible attitude. It's everything about touring so it's worth it. It's all about attitude. Somebody who hates you will bring the whole band down.
R13: Are you working on your next album already?
MT: We're gonna start we have a lot of stuff to play with but nothing concrete I guess. We go back for a few weeks and then we're gonna start writing most the record.
R13: Are you all involved in the writing?
MT: We're very complementary, we're all involved. Sometimes you gotta compromise. There are fights sometimes but we all get along at the end.
R13: Who would you like to collaborate with on stage or on your album?
MT: Stage? I don't know I never thought about that question. Snoop doggy dog (laughs). To do the thing like Jay Z and Linkin Park.
R13: You worked with Steven Haigher on your latest album. How was it to work with him?
MT: It was great. He's a very good ear. Very focused on making a good record and he helped us with the writing, well not the writing but he helped us with our ideas. He just made us better players all together.
R13: Will you work with him on your next album as well?
MT: We might work with him yeah we're talking about it. As we're writing more songs we'll see what directions it takes I guess. We liked how it worked out with the last album so we might get back to him. We'll see.
R13: Will you be at any festivals this summer?
MT: No I wish. I wish we could but we'll be touring in the US.
R13: Thank you very much for taking the time and good luck with your gig tonight!
MT: Thanks! It was lovely.
Be sure to catch the guys as they're touring the whole month in the UK!