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44 INDIE / ROCK www.guestlist.net Issue 37 / MARCH 2012 Issue 38 / APRIL 2012 LOST PROPHET Growing up together in a small village in Wales, this rock band have come a long way. Just about to drop their fifth album 'Weapons', we spoke with keyboardist Jamie Oliver about the key to their success. So you've got a new album coming out. Tell us about the writing process and how your sound has changed over the years? We started working on it about 15 months ago; we went into a house in Norfolk and started jamming and writing ideas down. It takes us a long time. It should be getting easier, you would think and quicker. The problem with our band is that we get bored and so we mix it up but the beauty of that is that it keeps the passion and it keeps it honest. It gives us challenges and keeps it interesting but the drawback is that it doesn't always go as smoothly as you would anticipate. How long have you been going for now? With this record it has been 12 years, but we've been together for 15 years now, we've been friends since we were kids and we grew up together in the same town. We can't turn our back on who we were when we started this. The people that were going to see our band five years ago and loved us for what we were back then, so if we sud- denly changed and started play- ing what was hot you could lose those dedicated fans. But at the same time you can't keep doing the same music because people would be like awww okay it's like a band from the past. It's a very fine line you walk to staying relevant but still being true to on our own internal quality and judgemental values, the essence of who we were as people and all our inspirations came through subconsciously rather than anything being forced. inspiration to be responsible to them to give your best. You've got the new single out too 'Bring Em Down'? Yeah it is pretty mental because needs right now so we were like "Yeah man, why not? Bollocks to it". Nobody buys singles now anyway. Rock bands aren't charting anyway so its pointless for us to pamper to the safe thing so we just went "Balls to "We're very humble and very grateful. There's a lot of luck involved that we're actually retaining relevance in such a competitive market that comes a lot down to the fans." yourself as well. With this record I feel we managed to achieve that as was we stopped paying attention to what was going on around us and just focused on the record. Nowadays I very rarely listen to new music, I kind of feel like we are qualified and justified in trusting our own instincts now. Believing in that feeling when something is genu- inely good, it's good. It doesn't matter if it sounds like this or like that, if it's good just believe in yourself and I think with experience and wisdom and also just growing as a band and respecting the other members of the band comes that kind of confidence, you don't second guess yourself anymore. So I think what happened is we were more confident and we relied Do you think that's been your key to success? Maybe, yeah we're very humble and very grateful. There's a lot of luck involved that we're actu- ally retaining relevance in such a competitive market that comes a lot down to the fans. We saw people last night at the show that have been there since day one our fans are so commit- ted, in the UK especially that has supported our career and have grown with us. We are so grateful to have such amazing fans they actually enable us to try all these changes, to grow artistically and creatively. They have enabled our lifestyle and our ability to be in a band and for that we are eternally grateful I think that actually gives you it's not a safe thing to do. We could of brought out a big rock anthem a big Lostprophets song which we've got. Somebody once said to us back in the day when we first started that Lostprophets was compared to all these different bands. They sound like this, they sound like Linkin Park. Nobody compares us anymore but new bands get compared to us which is really amazing. It blows my mind. Other bands are bringing out Lostprophets songs, if you bring out a Lostprophets rock anthem it's going to get lost. You're going to end up having a sound that sounds a little bit like them and a little bit like you so why not bring out a Lostproph- ets song, something that's got some teeth. That's what radio it!" So we put out the song and put out a menacing video to go with it. Something people can get their teeth into and some- thing people can talk about and they're talking about it. Youtube has gone up like 400,000 in the last 2 or 3 days. It's like really catching on people are digging the video and digging the song so I think it was a good move. What is your relationtship like with each other, you all must be really close? We were friends before we were in a band and that really helps in us maintaining this kind of unity that we have. We were drawn together as people when we were teenagers because of our likes. We also know each other's limitations we all grew up with the same sort of ethics and we had the same sort of upbringing and values it's in our bones, it's an unspoken word and respect that we have for each other. So even when things get tough creatively we're banging heads, we always know that under- neath all of that we're fighting for the same team and that we love each other like brothers. You know, think about it the last sixteen years I've probably spent more time with these five other guys than I have with my family, it's a thing that's unique. We never even contemplated the idea of not doing this so to still be going on holiday with our mates day in, day out, playing in front of people and having a party every night, even though the parties don't consist of us getting wrecked and drunk off our faces but going on stage and playing for people is a party to us. That's the dream lifestyle. That's the dream and we don't take it for granted. We know we're lucky to be able to do this daily. Have you got any exclusive? We've got something special planned in our show in Cardiff and we're really excited about it. I can't say what it is but it's