Southampton based rock band Afterparty had recently toured UK supporting The Last Carnival. It was a pleasure speaking to Nic (vocals) and Dave (bass, backing vocals) before their show in Camden Barfly, London! (very nice dudes…J)
If you have never listened to their music, well, you should, especially their recently released mini-album ‘Distances’, which has received a lot of attention publicly. Already being well known and recognised in the music scene, Afterparty are ready to conquer the world and hearing what they have said during the interview, they won’t stop until it’s done.
First of all, Can you introduce yourselves and tell us more about the formation of a band?
Nic: Hi, I am Nic and I sing.
Dave: Hi, I am Dave and I play bass and do backing vocals.
Nic: Yeah, we formed about 3 years ago now, in Southampton. We’ve all been in previous bands before.
Dave: We knew each other from local scenes, and we were all in previous bands that weren’t quite right for us. Then we did this and it seemed to work okey.
For people who are not familiar with your music, what colour would you say describes your band?
Dave: That’s a different question! NOT BLACK!
Nic: No, not black.
Good4Ears: It can be a mixture.
Dave: Ohhh, the colour scheme.
Nic: I don’t know…what am I wearing right now?
Dave: You are wearing red, red shoes.
Nic: I think red describes us.
Dave: Lets go with red - we are passionate (laughs).
Nic: We are dangerous. We are passionately dangerous (laughs).
Dave: We are dangerously passionate! Here we go! (Both laugh).
Your mini-album ‘Distances’ came out recently. Are there any future plans for a full-length album? If yes, when can we expect it to be out?
Nic: Distances came out couple of months ago. So we are planning on touring as much as we can for a next year, or so. But we are still writing demos, working on where we are taking an album and exactly what direction we want to take it. I think it’s mainly going to be planned for next summer.
Dave: It’s a bit up in the air at the moment. It is what we are aiming for. We are aiming, you know, for a nice summer release. Everyone likes summer releases.
Nic: It’s our music – a nice summer release. Yeah, I think that’s the plan.
Is it going to be a lot different from ‘Distances’?
Nic: I don’t know… It might be a little bit too soon to tell. We have done a couple of demos. And so far, couple of demos are slightly different – a little bit more positive. I think it’s going to be quite a nice mix though. And it’s going to be some elements of ‘Distances’ and a little bit of experimental things. It is still going to be very rocky, you know. We always want to write catchy songs – whatever direction it goes, it’s going to be catchy.
Dave: One thing that we are looking forward to at the moment is the fact that, because we have so much more space to play, as opposed to the mini-album - we are looking forward to playing with things around, experimenting, and kind of just going with out extinct. Because we have plenty of time for demos to write and plenty of space on the album – we kind of look forward to that.
Why Afterparty?
Nic: We get this question a lot. The only answer that I’ve got is, this is a while ago now that we decided this name – we wanted something that sounded really fun, and described who we were at that time. At that point in time we were like 19/20, we were going out and drinking a lot…
Dave: We weren’t (laughs)
Nic: We were…
Dave: The way I think we started out was that we wanted to have every gig as a night out for us. The show was basically pre-drinks for us, and getting drunk after the show. It is not that we don’t do it anymore – we are not boring!
What do you think of another band called AFTERARTY?
Nic: Yeah, there is an American band called Afterparty – spelled a bit different, I think they have broken up now. But, occasionally, we still get people asking us whether we are playing THAT song? And we are always saying it is not us! Check us out, if you don’t like us then don’t bother coming!
Nic: I think I quite actually like them…
Dave: They have got one massive tune that I have definitely downloaded off iTunes…
Nic: I would love to have toured with them before they have broken up. We could have gone to America!
Dave: I think they came here at one point and I really wanted to go and see them…
Tell us more about the Tour that you are on right now.
Nic: It’s nice that we have such a busy tour. A lot of bands – it’s getting harder and harder nowadays, especially on our level. Since we dropped ‘Distances’ things have started to pick out, which is good.
Dave: London Barfly is our first show and it looks like it will be sold out, which is great!
What is your set list for tonight?
Nic: This is actually a proper test! Okay, we are playing ‘Cover Up’, which is on ‘Distances’. Then we go on playing ‘Open Road’ and then we’ve got ‘So Much To Say’ which is from our first EP, then ‘Lost Cause’ which is from also ‘Distances’, then ‘When The Lights Go Out’, then we finish off with ‘Liar, Liar’ and that’s it. I nailed it!
Have you ever been out touring Europe?
Dave: No, but we would love to!
Nic: We had offers but as we are paying everything ourselves – the cost! It is an expensive thing to do.
Nic: We heard a lot of interest from the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, which is quite strange!
Which festivals have you already played?
Nic: In our time we have done Hevy Festival and Download Festival…
Dave: Also, Takedown Festival.
Do you prefer concerts with smaller crowds or festivals with bigger crowds?
Dave: I think it is hard to compare. I, personally, have never been to a big festival except the Download and I have played it –so I would love to know what it’s like to actually go to a big festival as a paying costumer.
Nic: Well, I’ve done that with Reading Festival. I think our band - we thrive on playing big shows. The more people, the bigger the better; big stage…
Dave: We like to run around. We like nice things basically! We are just bunch of Divas!
Nic: I think some bands just suit small venues, especially punk bands. I like going to those kinds of shows. But performing wise, I think we, as a band, also seem to work better when there are a lot of people in the room, so I would say the bigger the better.
What releases do you recommend for people to listen to that came out this year, especially any summer releases?
Dave: Friends of us from Southampton, they have just released a new EP, which I think is pretty different and cool, and they are called Creeper. It is very punk kind of thing, but it is very melodic as well. It seems like it has a lot of energy and it has Goth vibe, but not overpowering.
Nic: I can’t think at the top of my head but I love the Yellowcard’s album ‘Southern Air’, We Are The In Crowd’s album ‘Weird Kids’ – that’s a really cool album. I can’t think of anything else at the top of my head!
Dave: There is something else I’ve been listening to…
Nic: The State Champs album.
Dave: That definitely needs to go on that list. There is also another band called Morain that recently released a new EP – yeah, they are good.
What was the craziest fan experience?
Nic: we haven’t had particularly crazy things thrown to us on stage. We seem to have the reputation – all of us, we love mini eggs. We went on tour over Easter time and we had fans turning up with boxes of mini eggs – unlimited amount of chocolate! Yeah, the mini eggs thing is pretty mental.
Dave: we do get cakes as well. There’ve been times on tour when I was personally so poor that when someone has turned up with a cake, I have just given them a big hug and I really meant it. We will never say no to a cake! Cake and beer actually! Who doesn’t like cake and beer?
Final question, who is your favourite person to follow on twitter?
Dave: Tweet of God is quite good! It sounds super religious – it is somebody on twitter pretending to be God. It is so funny – he gets involved in like gay rights and just says He doesn’t care!
Nic: I am not a fan of James Blunt, but he is hilarious on twitter. He literally destroys his fan base – quote tweets it and puts like the most sarcastic comment. I think I actually like James Blunt now because of the way he is on twitter!
Is there anything that you would like to add?
Nic: Thanks for interviewing us. Check us out, our music and tours!