I was asked to interview Fightstar before their show at The Cockpit in Leeds, having only seen them perform before I didn’t know what to expect…

Ok, Hi, How is everyone?
Charlie: We are well, we are well, but we haven’t been well, we’ve been ill. On the first bit of the tour we were very ill. So, that was annoying but now we’re better.
Back on form?
C: Back…on…form.
Your new album has just come out; did you go in a new direction for that or stick with the same formula?
C: We took what we did with the last album and expanded it either way. The heavier bits went more brutal, the softer more chilled bits went even further. So we took the last album and expanded it.
When you write an album do you start with the music or the lyrics first?
C: We always start with the music; we find the melody because the melody is the key ingredient.
Al: Music, melody, lyrics generally.

So your new single is going to be coming out as CD/Vinyl…
C: Yeah I read about that I didn’t even know that was happening.
Yeah, it was in The Guardian the other day.
C: Yeah we didn’t get told about that, we saw it last night, the actual product and it looks pretty cool.
Al: The label got really excited and decided to tell people, without telling us first but it sounds cool.
C: Yeah, it’s a song called ‘Deathcar’ it’s a very angry song.
Al: We saw actually the format with the vinyl on the back of the CD it looks pretty cool.
Yeah, aren’t they supposed to be doing USB singles soon, do you think it’s a good idea?
C: We’re doing that for our next single, we are the CUTTING edge!
You seem to be at the moment! So do you think a lot of bands will be using these new formats?
C: I think it’s moving that way I think CD’s unfortunately, against my world, I don’t want to say it…It’s all going down though.

Although they said vinyl is coming back for some reason.
C: Oh really?
Al: It’s for the collectors really, I think people just like collecting things.
C: I used to collect beer towels; you know at the bar you have the towels, different brews.
Dan: I collect sparrows.
Sparrows?
C: Yeah, he’s weird.

Right; moving on, So Charlie you did that recent appearance on the ‘This is menace’ album…
C: Is that even out yet?
Yeah it came out the 24th September.
C: Shit! I’m going to go buy it!
Was it different?
C: It was cool they basically sent me the song and said do whatever you want over it. So I just spat some rhymes. It was a cool thing to do; it was cool collaborating with other people. And when I went down to record they were really cool guys. There are some really good people on the record; I haven’t actually heard any of the other songs.
Yeah, like sikTH?
C: Yeah and the guy from 36 Crazyfists and stuff, so I’m actually going to purchase that tonight.

Well, you know the front cover of the album was banned in Germany and Poland for being blasphemous?
C: Was it banned anywhere here?
No, what do you think to that?
C: I didn’t actually know, I hadn’t seen the front cover.
Al: You wouldn’t really like it would you?
C: Um… yeah well they didn’t tell me they were going to do that.
Yeah they swapped the heads in the last supper scene for Elvis and stuff like that.
Al: and Princess Diana.
C: The thing is I thought the inlay was going to be cool, you know showing everyone as dead people, and I thought it was going to be something to the approach on the cover. I had no idea they were doing the whole last supper thing.
Al: It’s only a bit of artwork at the end of the day.

So how has the fans reaction been to the new album?
C: Amazing, unbelievable.
Al: Yeah, I mean I think they sing the new songs louder than the old songs.
C: They sing ‘Deathcar’ as loud as they sing ‘Paint Your Target.’ It’s so great that they’re so familiar with it already.
Al: Sometimes you watch a band and they play a new album and it really doesn’t go down as well as the old stuff, but it seems to be quite instant with our new songs.
So, are you looking forward to tonight then?
C: Yeah. Leeds has always been good to us; I don’t think we’ve ever had a bad show in Leeds. We did a Uni show, like a Uni night, back in the day like ages ago.
Al: Yeah like our first tour.
C: That was one of the best shows. But Leeds is always a crazy crowd everyone always goes mental. I was at Soulwax here years ago. Ever heard of a band called Soulwax?
Yeah.
C: Yeah I saw them here like… must have been ’99.
Well Leeds seems to break a lot of bands, like at The Cockpit you’ll see a band and you’ll think man I’ve heard of that band now but they played here like 2 years ago.
C: Well, Leeds is quite a happening place to be honest with you.

Well that’s it thanks; don’t want to take up too much of your time!
C: Awesome man thanks a lot. You sticking around for the show?
Of course!