Interview with Lost Prophets

Interview Interview with Mike Chiplin from Lost Prophets . Interviewer: Oliver . Cologne . 2004 . label: Columbia

Lost Prophets - Last train home

Punk76: You seem pretty exhausted today.

Mike: Yes, I am so tired. The last time I checked out the clock it was five in the mourning!

Punk76: Where did you play last night?

Mike: We had an day off.

Punk76: Oh that’s relaxing. So did you do some sight seeing?

Mike: I saw the cathedral (Cologne), that’s about it.

Punk76: It’s a huge building.

Mike: Phenomenal!

Punk76: Cologne is famous for being a party city. It’s very exciting here.

Mike: Oh, man, I just layed in bed. The most exciting thing is that we finally could wash our laundry!

Punk76: Ha-ha.. where do you wash your stuff?

Mike: They have a washing machine here in the venue.

Punk76: Are you sleeping in Cologne tonight or are you continuing on your tour?

Mike: No, we’re going off to Frankfurt.

Punk76: Have you ever been to Germany before?

Mike: Yes, we’ve been to Cologne before too. We played four times in the last three years, in a venue, called Prime-Club. It’s always full of people there. And when the band starts to play the kids come up very close to you. You can see directly in their eyes. That’s always fun.

Punk76: Mike, which function do you have in Lost Prophets?

Mike: I am the drummer.

Punk76: How did you get involved in playing drums?

Mike: The one who introduced me in playing drums was Jason ….. from Korn. He got me started.

Punk76: Hmm.. but they are from the US and you’re from Europe, or?

Mike: NO! I was just listening to their first album. I got a copy back from 97´ and I sold all my guitars and bought a drum-kit. And then I played in Lost Prophets.

Punk76: But how did LP find out about you?

Mike: I was listening to their album. I was just a fan. Afterwards they was interested in me and I made it into the band.

Punk76: Could you tell me how you made it to Sony records? I wonder because I’ve listened to punk rock music for ten years, and normally I watch bands grow. But I have never heard anything from your band before. And suddenly you were being played constantly on TV.

Mike: We signed the deal in 2000 with independent record label, called Visible Noise and almost instantly went into the studio, to record “The fake sound of progress”. That was our first album and we put it on the internet. And we put it on a site called The PRP, which is Punk Rock Palace. The guy who runs it is a big mogul in the music industry. And the next thing we know was we flew over to America and there was this big “huh-hah-thing” and everyone wants to sign us. Unlike 30 major record label…

Punk76: Wow!

Mike: Yeah, we had labels, that we never heard of before. In the start there was Sony, there was Interscope. The next thing we knew: Every record label came knocking on our door.

Punk76: Dumb question, but can you get rich through making music?

Mike: I think you can.

Punk76: And? Do you?

Mike: Me? Personally? No! Not rich when we first did our very first album, we’re still working. Signing to Sony-worldwide is allowed us to make enough money to call this our job, so we can live.

Punk76: I just ask because I had that prejudice: I saw Blink on TV some years ago. I was always a big fan of them and then they suddenly got signed to a major label. Since then I’ve felt distanced to that band.

Mike: Do you think, that signing to a major label is a reason to not be a fan of a band?

Punk76: In the past I had another attitude- I was always disappointed, when a good band got signed on a major, but then I recognized, that majors signed them to introduce those bands to a larger audience and not to make the most money with those bands.

Mike: That’s the point that we were looking for when we signed it, because we are proud of our music. On a small independent you can´t get your music out to so many people but on a major, that actually likes you, you can get it out to everyone. And I´m not worried about, who listens to my music as long as they like it for the right reasons.

Punk76: I realize that you have had this discussion a couple of times before, right?

Mike: We had it more with fans, asking us, cause we were accused to be “sell-outs”. Everyone’s pre-conception is, you sign to a major and you just get money and get rich- but that’s not true. We work hard to satisfy all the different world-wide Sony companies. If you get on a major label and you’re doing it for the right reasons; play the music, that people want to listen to, then there is no reason to stop loving that band. Ok, I understand when people say “their band”- what they call their band, is shared with millions of people. But I think this is good for the music.

Punk76: I need to tell you, that I was stoked that you’re an UK band that got signed to such a big label. Because I think England does not have such a big hardcore/emo/punk community. I just know about bands like The Hurt Process, Three Colours Red and Funeral For A Friend.

Mike: I think the music scene, especially in Wales is really doing good at the moment. We used to play in London- and if you play in London you didn’t get any press or anything like that. It moved across now and there is a very good scene now in Wales!

Punk76: I didn’t expected that, really!

Mike: I think it’s moved away from London a lot!

Punk76: Another theme: To be honest, I don’t know really much about Lost Prophets and also not much about your lyrics. So could you tell me, what LP is talking about? Is it that “normal girl stuff”, or are you even political?

Mike: No politics!

Punk76: Why? Is it to maintain the fun in your music?

Mike: We’re always been a band that talked about growing up and fun we had together when we used to be in school. LP is a positive thing. We don’t wanna talk about all this fucking shit like “I was raped by my father” or so, no we’re just positive. We talk about relationships and how we been together as friends…But we’re a band since July of 97´and we did three demos. After the demos we got packed up by this independent label in London, called Visible Noise and they signed us and they released the album “The Fake Sound Of Progress”. Then we put it out on the internet. It got packed up by several American labels and half of the year 2001 we signed to Sony.

Punk76: Do you wonder about how you gained so many fans worldwide? People in the US know about you, cause you played at some huge festivals there.

Mike: Yes, we played the Ozzfest in 2002.

Punk76: That one is pretty huge I think.

Mike: It’s massive! 35000 people every day.

Punk76: You also played in Japan for example. So, people there know about you. So what do you think about all this because you started as a small band from Wales.

Mike: Every mourning I wake up and I have to pinch myself. The music business is really weird. You never know, where you gonna end up, so I just think we had a lot of luck and I thank God everyday!

Punk76: Do you believe in God? (I do)

Mike: Yeah, I do certainly.

Punk76: Here comes a real stupid question: Where do you see yourself in ten years with your band?

Mike: Hopefully working as hard as we’re working today! I hope our music can change from album to album to keep us and the people interested. We have several new ideas for the new record. We finish our world tour on the 8th of January and then we have six weeks off. Then march 1st we’re gonna start and putting all the pieces together. And hopefully May 1st we start recording.

Punk76: I think your actual album was recorded in L.A., is that right?`

Mike: Yes.

Punk76: Did Sony invite you to come, or how did that worked out?

Mike: We had Eric Valentine as producer, who worked with Good Charlotte before. He is a big producer, but he doesn’t work like a big producer. There is no one else working in the studio but him. He sets everything up, he sits down with us and talks about our songs.

Punk76: Does he tell you how to play any passage or are you free to decide?

Mike: I think it depends in which band you’re in and how much control you have of your music. He is like a brother to us. He sits down and we play trough the song and he asks: “Do we think, that we need that part in the song”? Instead of telling us, he asks, which is a much better way!

Punk76: Have you made any other experiences with other producers?

Mike: Our old producer sat down and he let us do whatever we want and said nothing. If you can find someone like Eric Valentine, then it’s very good for your music, cause he is pushing the whole band. Because as a band you start jamming, playing 8 minute long songs and he gonna asks: “Do you really think people wanna listen to that?”. To have someone like that is very good for your music, I think.

Punk76: Indeed it´s pretty tiring to keep listening to the end of such a long song. So maybe it was a good advice to shorten your songs a bit.

Mike: Yeah, definitely! I think if you built a song and get what you need done in under 4 ½ minutes, then you got more chances to grab someone’s attention. I think Metallica can write a 16 minutes song. Because if you are a huge fan of Metallica you’re gonna listen to that song…

Punk76: Are you?

Mike: Hm… (laughing)…I never really got into them! I went down the other path: I went down the Mega-Death path and not the Metallica path. Well, we played with them in Europe- three months ago with Slipknot. They are a phenomenal band live.

Punk76: Do they have normal faces, when they put up their masks? (laughing)

Mike: Who, Slipknot? (Laughing) Indeed they have. We got on really well with Slipknot.

Punk76: Could you tell me about some bands that influenced you?

Mike: We started off with…

Punk76: Dead Kennedys, right?

Mike: No! We started off with The Police and Megadeath and The Cure.

Punk76: I need to interrupt you here to tell you, that Thursday shared the stage with The Cure in the states, did you know that?

Mike: So did we! We did a radio show in Washington DC. and The Cure headlined!

Punk76: Yeah! Great!

Mike: So we shared the stage with them.

Punk76: My brother was always listening to The Cure, when I was young, so I was really influenced by that band.

Mike: They are a good live band- a very good live band.

Punk76: Please tell me about some bands, that you have already shared the stage with.

Mike: We done everything from Linkin Park, Deftones…Deftones, wow!

Punk76: Man, I really love their old release so much- “White Pony”. This album rocks, or?

Mike: Yeah! But everyone hated that!

Punk76: Really?

Mike: Yes! In the UK, in America… Me personally think its one of their better albums. Who else did we played with? Metallica, Slipknot, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath…

Punk76: Did that guy (Ozzy) even recognize you?

Mike: (laughing) He didn´t recognize anyone! He is in another world!

Punk76: Is it true, that the singer of The Used was Kelly’s boyfriend?

Mike: Yeah, they was together for 6 or 7 months. I remember when they got together on Ozzfest and six months later he dumped her- it was Valentines day. So I just think they had some fun and then it burned out.

Punk76: What do you think about The Used?

Mike: I really liked their first album.

Punk76: First album- that’s a good cue. I heard your first release ( The fake sound of progress) was a pretty hard one, in comparison to your actual one. What was that about? I don´t know that one. Was it HC or just screaming or what?

Mike: Oh, that one was really, really heavy. We listened some days ago to that and it almost sounds like “Kill Switch Engage”. Nearly five years ago we recorded that. But it´s really heavy and really brutal.

Punk76: If you compare both releases. Do you like or dislike your old release now?

Mike: No, I love that one now! The first album was mixed in two weeks the second almost took a year! The second one is really high-polished.

Punk76: I like the fact that you used violins, keys and Glockenspiel on your actual release.

Mike: We had an Orchestra coming!

Punk76: Really?

Mike: Yes! We had a musical director coming in and score it! And then we had a full Orchestra playing.

Punk76: Where did they came from?

Mike: They were based in the US, from LA.

Punk76: Professional ones?

Mike: Yep! We talked about that and then we did and it just sounds so much better!

Punk76: There are many bands out there, like Bad Astronaut, who adds so many instruments into their music, which makes it sound so much more mature!

Mike: Yeah! If you do a song with only guitar, drums and bass- there is only so far you can take it. But with an Orchestra or any other instrument makes the atmosphere grow so much more.

Punk76: In my opinion the song becomes more interesting.

Mike: Indeed, it does..

Punk76: And I think such songs even talk to people who are not really into punk rock. So they are able to discover so many special parts in your music.

Mike: Right, I think it´s the way forward! We did some TV with an Orchestra in the UK as well.

Punk76: It´s an exciting mixture: Classic parts vs. Punkrock.

Mike: But I think anything unusual like that can make a song sound bigger and bring more atmosphere.

Punk76: Did I mention bands like Underoath or Emery- what do you think of those?

Mike: Emery? My girlfriend got me into them.. but Underoath, man!

Punk76: They will tour through Europe soon and they will play here in a small club around the corner! But this is something that makes me sick, cause here in Germany we don´t have the chance to see so many good bands. In the UK you often have great bands like Something Cooperate, Atreyu…

Mike: You don´t get many in Germany? Because Germany is really set up for Rock music.

Punk76: Yes, I know. But often those bigger bands like Bad Religion, YC, Agnostic Front, Boy sets fire or your band play here. I know that Germany is know for Rock music…

Mike: Yeah, because when you come to German clubs you have a lot of fun. From all European countries I would say Germany is the biggest for Rock.

Punk76: Germany- let´s talk about history. Maybe your grandfather or your dad told you something about Germany and the second world war. So, when you first came to Germany, did you have any prejudices?

Mike: No, we never had anything to do with that. I never grew up with it and it´s in the past. And when I came I really wanted to see the Berlin Wall. And I wanted to see, if there is still any difference between the east and west.

Punk76: So, what do you think about the people from the east and west now? Do you see any differences?

Mike: I would say in the West there is a whole lot more money. But the people from the east are really open minded and really nice.

Punk76: One thing that I would like to add here, a positive aspect, that I often recognized in Punkrock: There are not many people with prejudices- it doesn´t matter if you´re from Spain, UK, Italy, Japan…

Mike: Hmm…..

Punk76: Ok, maybe some bands have some prejudices like: “This band sucks” or something like that, but when it comes down to the people, it doesn´t matter where you´re from.

Mike: Ok, that´s right. But I don´t think it should either! It just blows my mind, that people can have a problem with someone because of his colour of his skin or what they believe in. There is plenty enough space on this planet. If you don´t like someone- just move! Simple as that!

Lost Prophets - Can't catch tomorrow

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