Following a hugely successful 2009, we caught up with Remedy to talk past, present and future.
R13: Starting pretty broadly, can you give me a brief description of what Remedy is all about…
R:Sure. Hello, we’re Remedy! We’re basically a band that’s about fulfilling your dreams, your desires. We don’t desire to work a 9-5 office job and live for the next pay-check until the day we die etc. We’re about doing what you enjoy the most and not letting anyone tell you that you can’t do it.
We started out a few year back covering classic rock songs in pubs and it developed from there. Our dream is to write music and make people happy by performing it for them. Remedy is about playing the music you love.
If you want a genre to sum it up, basically it's rock fuelled by emotion.
R13:Where do your influences lie?
R:Obviously there are different influences for each particular member, but collectively, music from the late 60’s and 70’s would be where the basis of our inspirations lie; music we we’re forced to listen to when we were kids, which we ended growing up to love.
As we’ve each grown older, we’ve found our own musical tastes from our own generation and they’ve become integral to our overall sound, so take elements of Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Jeff Buckley; mix them with the modern-day likes of Incubus and The Foo Fighters and you’ll have a general idea of Remedy’s music.
R13:What made you want to form a band?
R:The passion was there, the desire. Like I said, we don’t want to be stuck in the rut of what today’s society dictates we must do; get a job, get a wife, a house, kids… etc. I guess we just don’t want to resign ourselves to that just yet. We’re young, we love music, so why not give it a go?
R13:What's going on with Remedy right now?
R:Right now we’re writing new material for our debut album, which we’re hoping to release in spring 2010.
We released an EP, ‘Strange Fast Now’ in February 2009 and it received great press and started gathering support for the band, so that’s spurred us on to go to the next step.
We’ve supported the likes of The Quireboys, Pearl Aday (Daughter of Meatloaf), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Voodoo Johnson, Heaven’s Basement, Logan, Beyond All Reason and Dear Superstar; we organised our own headliner tour of UK last June, which was certainly an experience!
So armed with a new album, ideally we’d like to get on the coat-tails of a European tour and get ourselves ‘out-there’. We’re eager and pretty much up for anything!
R13:How do you see things developing over the next few years?
R:We understand that in this business nothing is guaranteed and that it could take 10 years before we get to where we want to be, but we also believe the destination isn’t everything; the journey getting there is all part of the fun and we wouldn’t want to miss out on any of it.
We believe with dedication and an optimistic outlook that eventually we’ll get that elusive record deal and be on that world-wide tour. It will happen, one day!
R13:What has been your biggest achievement to date?
R:I guess manufacturing your own CD and organising a headlining UK tour is an achievement in itself, right? We’re proud of it, I mean, it’s something to show your kids when you’re old (laughs)!
We’ve played a few bike rallies in the past which meant a lot to us ��" Stormin’ the Castle 2008; we performed to about 4,000 dedicated souls who turned up despite the foot-high mud! Helmsley Farmyard Bash 2008, we played to around 7,000 lairy bikers on this huge stage as the sun was setting, it was pretty amazing!!
R13:What were Remedy’s best bits both on and off stage at HRH 3?
R:On-stage at HRH was a bit of a blur, it all happened so fast, but it was great fun!
Phil dropped his sticks, twice!? With it being a general set-up for all bands to use, the cymbals were a bit too close for him, he flipped one stick off the crash, managed to catch it, but then did exactly the same thing again, straight away ��" In the style of Jimi Hendrix; if you play a mistake, do it again, make it sound like it was meant to be there!
Off-stage, seeing Terrorvision ��" they were just so damn fun, we seriously enjoyed their set and generally we just got wasted and random funnies occurred often throughout the course of the night!
R13:Finally, can you tell me something random about Remedy that not many people know?
R:Hmmm, okay…
Bassist, Lee hates performing on stage with his shoes on, and always kicks them off as we start.
Jen’s a mean cook, even when drunk.
Drummer Phil, can’t break the World Record for eating 6 Jaffa Cakes in under a minute, but can attach 38 pegs to his face.
Graham’s guitar-playing powers are an extension of his hair; if he were to ever lose his hair the band would cease to exist! Ha ha!
R13:Do you have anything else you want to add?
R:Keep an eye and an ear out for Remedy in 2010. Please check out the websites: www.myspace.com/remedyrocks | www.remedyrock.co.uk ��" feel free to leave comments and say hi!
Cheers very much!!