INTERVIEW: Page 44

Having appeared at an array of high-profile UK music festivals and opened shows for likes of The All-American Rejects and The Blackout over the last 12 months, Birmingham’s Page 44 seem to be on the cusp of bigger and better things. Shortly after a weekend of Donnington madness, they were kind enough to answer some questions for Bring the Noise.

Firstly, congratulations on being booked to open the second stage of Download last weekend. How did you feel your show went?
We personally thought it went really well, we had a big crowd and they all got involved and seemed to enjoy it, we were a little over awed to start with, but soon settled into it. We weren’t as tight as we would have wanted, but that’s probably due to the extra excitement of playing a stage that big. I think we did ourselves proud.

Playing the opening slot must have been hard-going; do you think you got a good reception from the audience for that time in the morning?
Yeah we thought we would be playing to quite a small crowd, but the weather helped us out, it was dry and the sun even came out for our set so everyone was in high spirits and they gave us a great reception, we got them all clapping along and we were told we had a much bigger crowd than most bands who open that stage.

Prior to Download, you’ve had slots at other big festivals such as Sonisphere and T in The Park, how would you say these kind of big shows compare with the intimate headline shows you’ve played? Which do you prefer?
They are completely different, the festival slots are great fun for the prestige and to enhance our reputation but you are playing to a crowd that generally don’t know us or our songs, so it’s about winning over new fans so guess there is a little more pressure. The Headline shows, we are playing to people who know us and know our songs, so we get people singing/ shouting the words back at us, which is the greatest feeling ever, you also get to see and speak to the fans after and see how much it means to them which again is quite humbling and it’s good to do as it’s our fans that have helped us get this far. I’m not sure I could say I prefer either, I personally love playing live, whether it’s to 200 people or 10,000 they are both awesome for different reasons.

For readers who haven’t heard your music yet, how would you describe your sound? What should fans expect from your live shows?
I guess we would describe ourselves as Pop/Rock we like good melodies and hooks. We are lucky to have 2 of us sing so we have two contrasting voices that give the songs a lot more texture. We love playing live, so our shows are normally filled with a lot of sweat and energy. We always enjoy ourselves on stage and think that comes across and generally rubs off on the fans who then have a great time themselves .

After winning the Red Bull Bedroom Jam competition last year, you had the opportunity to record an EP at their studio in London, how was that experience for you?
It was great the people we were working with really knew their stuff and wanted us to make the best of our time there. It was the first time we had a reasonable amount of time in the studio so we didn’t have to rush and we think the results show that. John Mitchell and Ben Humphreys really helped us in pre-production understand what we were trying to do with each of the songs and I think the experience has helped us with our song writing. It’s also nice to be based down in London for that time and get a taste of what it would be like if we work hard and make it up a few more rungs of the music industry ladder, so it’s also made us more determined.

Do you have any plans to release a full-length album in the near future?
We are currently in the process of writing some new songs and then hopefully we can tour them, see which ones work etc and then it’s a matter of funding the plan is to record again before the year is out though.

Being from Birmingham, you are blessed with residing in one of the country’s best cities in terms of its music scene. Which up-and-coming bands would you recommend our readers check out?
There is well too many to mention to be honest. The music scene here is really great at the moment, partly because of how many great venues there is, you can find great local bands playing every night. The likes of Octane Ok who are off recording their album are worth checking out and Strangle Kojak who are in this years Red Bull Bedroom Jam too.

You have obviously gained a wealth of achievements in a relatively short space of time. What advice would you give to local bands trying to break out of their hometown and get the kind of opportunities you have had of late?
You just have to go for it, really push hard, no point regretting things later in life because you didn’t push yourselves. We worked hard to get a fanbase, flyering, taking every gig we were offered in the earlier years of the band. Just don’t give up, if you believe in your music and you have some hardcore fans who believe in your music too then you can achieve anything.

Finally, we are really sorry to hear that you have had to pull out of your headline tour due to Jay’s injury. Hope he gets better soon! For readers who were planning on going, can you give them any indication of when the rescheduled dates might take place?
Thanks, he is still resting up and should be able to start practicing with him in a couple of weeks. yeah it’s annoying that it happened but these things can’t be helped. we were looking forward to the tour and at the moment we aren’t sure if the tour will be rescheduled with all 3 bands involved or if we will be going out on our own. We are however working hard on putting some shows together and hope to get back to the cities that we had planned to do on this tour around later autumn.

Interview by: Lauren Macready

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