From winning this year's Red Bull Bedroom Jam to tales of porn star teachers and comparing certain parts of the anatomy with Liam Gallagher, things are certainly far from dull in the Page 44 camp. We caught up with the guys as they were coming to the end of recording their new EP to talk about their upcoming tour with The Blackout and just how one of the hardest touring bands in the UK survive life on the road.
R13: For those who do not know about Page 44, can you tell our readers a little bit about yourselves?
Adam Vygus (AV): We are a Pop/Rock band from Birmingham, who are all about big hooks and harmonies. We have myself Adam Vygus on vocals/ guitar, Adam Stanford vocals/ guitar, Zach Phelps bass and backing vocals and Jay Brown on drums.
R13: Who came up with the band's name and what is the meaning behind it?
AV:The band name comes from myself and Stanny's time at High School in Redditch. There was always a rumour that one of the teachers was in a porn mag, and one day a tatty magazine appeared in the playground and there legs akimbo on Page 44 was the aforementioned teacher or at least it looked a lot like her!
R13: Describe your music in five words?
AV: Melodic hook laden catchy epicness.
R13: Tell us about the Red Bull Bedroom Jam competition, how did you find out about it, whose idea was it to enter and how difficult was the whole experience?
AV:We found out about it through our friends band MakeThisRelate , we were touring with them in May of this year and they told us about entering, they also made it to the festival stage of the experience. We thought in a bit of a cheeky way we couldn't have them make it to the festival stage and us not so we entered. Getting through the first buzz chart was intense and took a 24/7 online campaign from ourselves and the hardcore fanbase we have but two of the other rounds were judges choice so we were always confident we could be picked.
R13: Having won the initial rounds you were given the chance to play at some of this year's best festivals including Download and Sonisphere. How nervous were you about playing the festivals? Were you very aware of the fact that you would be playing to an eclectic mix of music fans that might not necessary be fans of your music genre?
AV:We were massively excited and of course we were nervous, having not played any festivals before to suddenly be playing festivals the size of download was daunting. We toyed with the idea of changing our set and playing heavier songs but at the end of the day we decided to play the best songs we had and have faith in them and we picked up a lot of fans. We went down really well so there was nothing to worry about its helped us pick up a lot of confidence in our songs and in playing live to crowds who are not necessarily made up of our fans.
R13: The festival season was long and you did play quite a few sets over the course of the summer. Any advice on how to survive the festival season?
AV:We had a tour in the middle of the festival season too so we were stupidly busy, we don't really have any tips on surviving, because we partied hard and didn't get much sleep! You get a bit more used to it after a while but when you finally get home it took us all some time to recover. The fact there was always copious amounts of Red Bull around helped though!
R13: What were the best and worst things about doing the festival circuit and are there any memorable moments you can share with our readers?!
AV:The best things were obviously playing some of the biggest festivals in the country we played to a lot of new people/ potential new fans and it helped us gain a lot more exposure, we were suddenly being offered more gigs and a new demographic of people were listening to our music. Also getting to go to all these festivals for free, using the VIP toilets is a big plus! We got to meet some massive artists too especially at T in the Park, we casually bumped into Dave Grohl, Blondie, Bruno Mars and Stan took a wee next to Liam Gallagher and he did have a cheeky look to compare penis sizes (and yes Stan's is bigger!)
R13: You ended up winning this year's Red Bull Bedroom Jam and are now actually recording in the Red Bull Studios. How is the process going?
AV:Well I'm typing this from the Red Bull studio control room, in-between tracking guitars for the final track we are recording. It's been a great experience, the whole process has been more relaxed in terms of there is no rush to get everything laid down, but when we are working we are working hard and it can be quite intense. We have a few more days left to finish the odd lil subtleties but things are starting to come together now.
R13: Can you give us any sneaky inside information? You posted on your Facebook that the track listing had some surprises, can you elaborate?
AV:Yeah, we had the chance to do some pre-production this time and Ben Humphreys and John Mitchell gave us some critique on the songs, and one of the older songs we are recording has completely changed but all for the better, there is a few other little things that have changed to how we would play the songs live as well.
R13: As part of the competition prize you'll also get to tour with The Blackout across the UK. Are you excited/nervous about this and are there any special plans for the live shows to win over those Blackout fans that might not have come across your music yet?
AV:We are excited but obviously nervous as well these are the biggest shows we have ever played so we want to impress. Again we decided to just choose our best songs for our set as we will play them better and more confident in them, we have seen the Blackout before and their fans are awesome and friendly so I'm sure we can get them onside as soon as we step out onto the stage. We are proud of our live performance so we are confident we will be a great addition to the line up.
R13: For those who haven't seen a Page 44 show before, what can they expect?
AV:We have a lot of energy, and we really enjoy what we do and that comes across by the bucket load, we see too many bands that go through the motions and look like they are concentrating hard on what they are playing and never look like they are actually enjoying what they are doing we are all big smiles and laughter, we just have fun, there is a bit of banter between us all and a lot of passion into the vocals, we always come off stage knowing we couldn't have given anymore, it's the best way to pick up new fans and change the minds of any doubters.
R13: The Red Bull Bedroom Jam is a fairly unique competition for helping UK bands. How much has it benefitted you and would you recommend it for all bands?
AV: Well obviously as the champions its helped us massively, we have had more press in the last few months than the rest of our band career and this will be the biggest tour we have ever done, playing the festivals and giving us the chance to play them again next year because we went down well. Just being involved with people from Red Bull who have done this before has meant we have gained valuable experience too. All of the bands that got to the festival stage have all gained masses of exposure and all moved onto the next levels of their careers so I would highly recommend other bands to enter next year.
R13: We run a regular feature where we pick out some unsigned bands that we feel people should be checking out. Are there any bands that you would recommend that might not be getting the recognition they deserve at the moment?
AV:Well all of the other Red Bull bedroom Jam festival bands need more recognition MakeThisRelate, Acoda, The Hype Theory , Autumn in Disguise, Hill Valley High, The Ocean Between Us and Floods. They are all getting more exposure now but still deserve more
R13: Together with your own tours, the Red Bull Bedroom Jam festival gigs and the upcoming The Blackout tour, you'll have shared the stage with a lot of bands by the end of the year. If you could pick 3 bands to tour with, big or small, signed or unsigned, who would they be and why?
AV: Oooh this is a difficult one, we recently saw You Me At Six play Brixton Academy and I think we would go down well with them and Lower than Atlantis I'd love to tour with them, really looking forward to the 3 bands that we are touring with on the Blackout tour to so any 3 of those 5.
R13: You've started to get some airplay on Kerrang! Radio recently. How exciting was it to discover that your music is reaching people who may not have seen you live before or even heard of the band?
AV:It's great our social networking sites have been a lot busier since the airplay, we are just hoping we will pick up even more with these new recording as they are to a much higher standard than our previous recordings. We want as many people as possible to hear our music so it's great to know people are listening to us
R13: Who would you say was your greatest influence?
AV:My greatest influence was probably R.E.M, they were the band that made me start writing songs and the first songs I started to tentatively sing. Stanny has been heavily influenced by Coldplay he is a major fan. Zach and Jay owe a lot to the Spice Girls and 5ive!!
R13: If you had to pick just one 'go to album', the one that you never get tired of listening to or which has effected you the most, what would it be?
AV:
Viggy: "Bleed American", Jimmy Eat World
Zach: "White Butterfly", Inme
Stanny: "Word Gets Around", Stereophonics
Jay: "What's The Story Morning Glory",Oasis
R13: You actually ended up at this year's Metal Hammer Awards. Was it a bit strange to be at what is ultimately a metal awards event considering that you're more of a rock band?
AV:It was extremely strange but there was a free bar so we coped!
R13: Finally, 2011 has clearly been a great year for the band. What are the plans for the next 12 months?
AV:Well we have the blackout tour, the EP we are recording is going out in Rocksound in Dec/ Jan and we are hoping to have a live EP recorded from the London Roundhouse show, we are hoping to get some headline dates in February too and then who knows?
A little over six months ago Page 44 were like so many other unsigned bands touring across the UK trying to get a break but now with an EP all but recorded, a tour with The Blackout and even talk of recording a live show at London's Roundhouse, it's fair to say that the lad's from Birmingham have certainly come a long way. It's been a lot of hard work and by the sounds of it, there is still so much to do but Page 44 are a band that won't throw in the towel, who deserve all that is now coming their way and who are definately on the right page.
Page 44 are currently on tour with The Blackout playing the following dates and venues:
OCTOBER
27, Bristol, O2 Academy
28, Leeds, Leeds University
29, Edinburgh, Picture House
30, Hull, Hull University
NOVEMBER
1, Lincoln, Engine Shed
2, Portsmouth, The Pyramids
4, Birmingham, O2 Academy
5, Manchester, O2 Academy
6, London, The Roundhouse