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We were lucky enough to snag some time with Son Of Dork earlier this week, but before we go to dinner with the cheeky five-some we had to find their rehearsal studios. We wandered down a road lined with warehouses and felt lost, indeed we would've been if it hadn't been for the trails of fans, or rather Dorkettes, that lead us straight to them! After an exclusive three song min-set, we were whisked off for burger and one too many chips with the boys.
Here are a few of the things that we learnt over the course of our dimly lit dinner:
Steve Rushton (bass/vocals) is THE BIGGEST Green Day fan in the ENTIRE WORLD. We kid you not! We tried really hard to out-geek him with Green Day knowledge, but quickly bowed to his supremacy!
James Bourne (you know what he does) is very proud of what he achieved with Busted and he's excited about all the doors the band opened. Now it seems he can collaborate with anyone he wants!
Chris Leonard (guitar/vocals) used to play with Brian McFadden - but don't hold that against him - he worships Guns 'n' Roses and even had the drummer back to his for a drink.
Dave Williams (guitar/vocals) is obsessed with Blink-182 and talks faster than a Vicky Pollard on Red Bull.
Danny Hall (drums) is the pretty quiet but that's only compared to the other blabber mouths. When he does open his mouth he's invariably hilarious and he has a wicked Scouse accent! Bonus!
Here's the first half of our Son Of Dork special...
Do you guys secretly want to be American what with the way you sing and your video full of cheerleaders and American footballers…
James: It’s easy for people to think that now, but it’s because it’s our first video and it just so happens that our first single is called ‘Ticket Outta Loserville’ and when you think loserville you picture that Stepford wives town. It’s like when Busted did their first video, the theme of the song was school and that’s what was in our video. And besides that, every band that we’re heavily influenced by comes from America. Everyone talks about the way we pronounce our words, but every single band does it!
Look at the All Saints: “The alphabet runs right from A-Z”. Which English person ever says “Zee”? I don’t even say “Zee”! It comes down to songwriting because sometimes to create a hook you need to sing a song a certain way and bearing in mind the bands we listen to – it’s a combination of reasons why we sound the way we do. It’s not fake, it’s not like I’ve only just started singing like this.
Did you have any arguments over who was going to be in the scene with the topless girl?
Steve: Well, I got to kiss the fit one at least 15 times!
James: He kept getting it wrong.
Steve: I did actually! I bet you wish you were kissing me. You can see it in your eyes.
Chris: I get real live texts from the cheerleaders in the video.
James: I’ve got real, live numbers of the cheerleaders too!
Dave: That’s because we had a piece of paper with everyone’s numbers on it!
Steve: I’ve got a real live video of me kissing the girl!
But James still saw the boobs.
Steve: Yeah but I saw them in the video.
James: I was there in real life though! They drew the curtain and turned all the monitors off so no one could see!
There’s a Son Of Dork fansite (www.sonofdorkonline.org) and on the forum there’s 40 pages discussing the idea of James naked. How does that make you feel?
[James looks very pleased with himself]
Dave: You can see his head swelling as we speak! I have Dave’s Dorkette’s – have you seen that?! The most reviewed page on our forum – 98 pages! It’s awesome!
What do they do then?
Dave: Nothing! I don’t know! I don’t get involved. I met one of them once! Nice kids.
Chris: Real live texts from cheerleaders!
Keep coming back to that one! It’s a good one… James, what was it that you saw in these guys that made you want them in the band?
James: I didn’t want to add anyone. The thing is I know how much I bring to the band and I didn’t want to add anyone if they weren’t going to bring anything that I couldn’t already bring. So I was very adamant that anyone that made the band, really has to have their place. I didn’t want to just add another guitarist or another singer, I wanted a singer that was as good as, if not better than me.
Obviously I can’t play drums, so Danny is better than me, but he is a really good drummer. Steve plays bass and sings and that’s why we need him in this band. Dave is the biggest Blink-182 fan that I know, he really bends our style in that way and that gives our sound quite an American-ness to it. And Chris is probably the most awesome, solid guitarist. He’s never going to make mistakes. He’s the solid member you need. If you fuck up, you know he will be there. I wrote two songs on the album with Chris so I knew I could work with him already. The whole band works and when one of us isn’t there it isn’t as good.
Let’s talk about ‘Murdered In The Mosh’.
Steve: That’s my favourite song! The thing I love about that song is the lyrics are so coming from the heart.
Dave: It’s about all the wannabe kids who bond with their friends and their friends really like that music so they pretend they do too. Like, 'I’ll wear this hoodie just because it makes me look cool.'
James: And they slate other bands because they think it’s cool too and they don’t actually know anything about the band. The song starts off saying, “This goes out to all the fakers! You know who you are!” Then it goes into a story about this girl who kept turning her nose up at my band when she’s into all these other bands who are just like my band anyway. It’s about how she jumbles up all these facts about music history – like she thinks Kurt Cobain is still alive and it was Dave Grohl who died, but she says she into all this music. There’s millions of people out there like that.
Danny: So if she actually went into a real mosh pit she’d probably die.
Dave: She’d be slayed.
Ever been seriously injured in a mosh pit?
Steve: I’ve had bloody nose.
James: Every single gig I’ve been to for the past three years I’ve always been watching from the VIP area. [He says a little smugly]
Oh, la, di da! Lucky you!
Dave: Yeah, I know tell me about it!
Do you have any comments on the Michael Jackson ferago?
James: No, not really! I went and I met him. It was cool.
Did he request your presence?
James: No.
You just thought I want to hang with MJ?
James: Yeah and I did and they invited me to the studio. The Son Of Dork album was being mastered at the Metropolis which is the same studio where he was recording! They thought I’d gone to pic up a copy of the album, but I was just there to see Michael Jackson.
What would you say are the prevalent themes of the album?
Dave: It’s just one story.
So it’s a concept album!
Dave: It’s not a concept album, we didn’t plan it that way. ‘Ticket Outta Loserville’ is about a guy dreaming of getting some girl and then he wakes up and he realises none of it is real. ‘Eddie’s Song’ doesn’t really fit in.
James: ‘Holly, I’m The One’ is about giving it all and telling someone what to say. Like in the movie Roxanne. You’re the friend who is there when your mate says, I really fancy such and such. You’re there saying, you should do this and that. You should really be with the girl.
Are you drawing from personal experience here?
James: Something similar happened to me when I was still at school although it wasn’t anywhere on that scale. ‘Slacker’ is about the fact that sometimes it doesn’t matter if you’re not good at school, because a lot the people who grow up and do really well in life were such slackers at school. It’s proven in so many cases! I used to be a slacker for instance.
Gil Norton [producer of the Pixies, Jimmy Eat World, Foo Fighters] produced your album – that’s an incredible coup.
J: I know! It was a magical moment! Imagine not knowing what it was like not knowing if he was going to confirm while I was playing songs acoustically!? It was worse than my driving test. Gil probably wants to do our next album as well, and the one after that! Maybe he’ll become our resident producer!
Steve: Like Green Day have Rob Cavallo.
Dave: And Blink have Jerry Finn!
Chris: Or like Kylie had Pete Waterman.
Dave: Touche!
Steve: Like Lisa Scott-Lee produces herself because she’s that awesome!
Dave: And she co-produced us!
James: Gil said there was only one woman in the world that could take us to where we needed to be!
Son Of Dork: Hahahahahaha!
James: She was there in the mixing, there in the mosh, she flew to NYC to help us master it.
Oh my God! I had no idea she was soooo talented!
James: Yeah! Lisa we love you!
Dave: Thank you Lisa – we owe you our lives!
When was the last time you guys were star-struck?
Son Of Dork: When we met Lisa Scott-Lee!
Chris: Matt Sorren [formerly the drummer in Guns ‘n’ Roses, now drums in Velvet Revolver] back in my flat! It happened about four months ago. I just bumped into him in a pub and I said that I’d seen their gig the week before and we had a few drinks and then came back to mine!
Are you guys musical pioneers? I’m thinking you’re not.
Dave: I say if it’s not broke don’t fix it!
James: We’re doing what good pop bands have been doing for years, although not so much recently. There was a time around three or four years ago when it was only boy bands. There was nothing in the mainstream that could be a stepping stone to bands like Green Day and Blink. This is a continuation of what happened with Busted. The sound has moved on, but the songs are great pop songs!
James you said you prefer playing stadiums – is that because it’s a bigger ego trip?
James: Look, I would rather play stadiums than play to twenty people in the pub. Big venues kick a**! The kind of buzz you get when you’re waiting under the ramp and all the pyros are going off and you’re about to play in front of 30,000 people who’ve bought tickets just to see you – that’s the biggest buzz ever!
Dave: I’d play any gig!
You’re not picky.
James: I do want to give the big venues their credit though because so many people go on about the whole small venue thing is better! It’s like the difference between playing snooker and pool. When you play on a smaller table it doesn’t take the enjoyment out of the game.
That is a terrible analogy!
James: Everytime I want to go stand in the crowd, whoever I’m with doesn’t let me.
Why not? Do you have minders?
Dave: Yeah he takes his Dad with him everywhere! Haha!
James: Well when me and Matt (Jay) went to see New Found Glory we weren’t allowed to go anywhere.
Don’t you find that a bit irritating? How do you meet normal people?
Dave: He doesn’t know any normal people!
James: Well it kind of is irritating, but it’s good too. You get given t-shirts and you get to meet the band afterwards. Last New Found Glory Show I was backstage hanging out with the band
Why isn't Matt Jay in Son Of Dork? James didn't you want to write with him anymore?
James: I was the person, saying ‘Oh Matt, come and do the band.’ After Charlie left I thought that it would be a given that we would stay together. Matt said, ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to keep doing it because we’re 2/3 of the biggest pop band for the last two years and it wouldn’t be a new band, it would just be Busted without Charlie. There are so many pop bands who continue once members have left and it’s just not the same. Also we’re capable of doing our own thing. He’s going solo, he is backed by a band and he’s mixing the album now.
So is his solo stuff really like Robbie Williams?
James: If you like Robbie Williams earlier stuff, picture that, but rocked up. It’s better than his recent stuff.
Chris: It’s more like ‘Let Me Entertain You’. He’s been working with A as well. It’s a big sound. Lisa Scott Lee has contributed as well. She’s drumming on his live stuff!
Next week we talk total nonsense with Son Of Dork: find out when they last got dumped, why they're attracted to mannequins and why Dave pissed all over himself just the other week!
KTB
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AJÁNLOM AZ OLDALT
