The Blackout

The Blackout are from Wales in the United Kingdom, we last spoke we them back in 2009, this time we get to catch up with guitarist Matthew, about giant inflatable fingers, Limp Bizkit and a new album titled Dog Porn!

How’s it going? Let’s start off with your name and what you do in the band?

I'm Matthew and I play guitar in The Blackout.

I spoke with Sean back in July 2009, since we last talked, what’s been going on with The Blackout?

Last July we'd just finished warped tour so after we'd recovered from that we did a few UK festivals, learnt to surf for a TV show that was filmed at a surf festival in the UK, headlined a stage at Reading festival which was a massive honour for us and also played two songs in a hotel room in London before being shut down by a court order from Westminster council! We also played a live lounge session, where you play two live songs live on the UK's biggest radio station to a few million people, which was the most nerve wracking thing we'd ever done.

This year we co headlined the Kerrang! tour in January/February with All Time Low and also went to Australia for our first ever time with our good friends in Lostprophets.  We had a total blast there, the country and weather was beautiful, the shows were a lot of fun and were treated so well by everyone we met out there, especially the Soundwave guys.  The surfing lessons we'd had came in handy too as we managed to get a few days off on Manley and Bondi beach in Sydney. 

You guys have just been announced as one of the bands to play Soundwave 2011, being a regular to outdoor festivals throughout the UK and newer to Warped Tour, what can we expect from The Blackout, in the amazingly hot Australian sun?

We're not used to the boiling hot weather, so you can expect 6 sun burnt welsh boys, puffing and panting on stage trying to put some kind of energy into our live show.  It was hot enough for us in Australia when we experience your autumn so we're dreading the summer sun!   It got pretty hot on warped tour last year, especially in Texas and Arizona, Sean even passed out on stage one day so hopefully no repeats of that!

Sean mentioned on a Kerrang Podcast that you guys are working on a new album tentative entitled Dog Porn, what can we expect from the new album?

We're a few months into writing the album and so far everything is coming together really well. We've got about 14 songs together so far and dozens of ideas still to work on, which is a position we've never been in before writing, where we've been able to choose the best songs from a huge batch to make an album, which is exciting.  It feels more comfortable writing this time, less pressured and that we've learnt a lot and become better songwriters from our making our last two albums.

How do you think it differs from The Best Night In Town?

It’s not a huge step away from The Best In Town, it’s not like we've decided to make a Jazz or Hip Hop album all of a sudden. Some of the music feels slightly darker than things we've done before but we always end up chopping and changing songs up right until they're recorded so how a song sounds now may be completely different when we have a final version of it on a CD next year. 

So you guys have been able to tour with bands like All Time Low and Lostprophets – which have almost the same fan base, to touring with Limp Bizkit in a couple of months, do you think the fans will differ?

We're expecting the Limp Bizkit crowd to be a lot less receptive to us than a Lostprophets or All Time Low crowd but we're excited to go out every night and work hard and try and win them over.  We had done a few shows with Linkin Park a few years ago where the crowd were there just to see them so we're expecting a similar kind of thing.

Same topic again, how the fuck did you land the support for the LB Europe jaunt?

We've got no idea! We had an email from our agent that we'd been put forward for the tour which we  expected nothing to come from and a few weeks later heard we'd made a short list of bands that got sent to Limp Bizkit for them to hand pick someone from. We really didn't expect anything to come of it so were just excited that Fred would be sat somewhere checking us out but a few weeks later we had an email to say that we'd been picked! We've got no reason why they picked us above anyone else, but we're extremly grateful for them giving us the oporunity to go out each night and share a stage with them.

You guys have chucked a few covers from The Biz in your set as well; can I expect to see a Rollin’ cover on Youtube after one of the shows?

Yeah we've got a lot of love for the Bizkit! We've covered a few of their songs down the line, from our first show we ever played to a Kerrang! complitation CD.  I don't think we'll be covering any of their songs on the tour mind, as much as we'll be tempted.

Last year you guys played Download and Guilfest – any experiences you would like to share with us?

We always try to do something special at big festivals if we get the chance too.  At Reading Festival 2008 we had some storm troopers escort us on stage and guard us during our set and James our other guitarist dressed up as Darth Vader.   Download festival this year we played with two drummers and two 20ft inflatable hands giving the crowd the middle finger. We've also had 4 girls breathing fire when we played Give It A Name festival 2008.  We just love trying to put some kind of show on and make the event special and different to another show.  

Festivals are always fun as you manage to catch up with loads of your friends in other bands, whether you’re in the UK, Germany, Holland, USA, Japan we always end up bumping into other bands we know and hopefully Soundwave will be the same. 

What’s on the agenda for the rest of the year?

We're just gonna continue writing through August, then Limp Bizkit in September, back to writing in October and then the plan is to record the new album in November and finish of the year by supporting You Me At Six in December, a busy end to the year!

Thanks so much for taking the time to catch up with us, any final words you can give to the readers of KillYourStereo.com in preparation for Soundwave next year?

We just can't wait to get back to Australia. We really loved our last experience there and we can't wait to come back and spent a little more time there, see a few new cities and meet a hell of a lot new friends.