Date
of
interview - Monday 23rd May 2005
Place of interview - Tiny little office somewhere at City
College Norwich!
Time of interview - Was supposed to be at 16:00, but it
was actually about 17:15!
Persons present - Tonie Spencer and Jamie Smith, and somewhere
far away, was Omar on the phone!
Interview
with Omar
Tonie:
Right, if we get the boring one out of the way first...!
Who are you and what do you do?
Omar: I'm Omar, and I'm the drummer. Dan - he's the bassist,
and Charlie - obviously he's guitarist/vocalist and Al is
guitarist/vocalist also.
Tonie:
How did Fightstar come about?
Omar: Well, Charlie was obviously in Busted and me and Al
were working together for quite a while, like, a couple
of years before-hand. Al wanted to move down to London so
we could do a lot more work. Basically, we met Charlie because
Al's sister was living with Charlie's girlfriend, and it
just started off from a social thing really. We all started
jamming together; we'd all been in bands prior to that.
Yeah, it just sort of kicked off really.
Tonie:
How long has the band been going?
Omar: Our first gig was December 2003, so roughly about
18 months we've been going.
Tonie:
What inspired you to call yourselves 'Fightstar'?
Omar: 'Fightstar' was a weird one... We were were really
stuck on the whole name thing, and basically, I think someone
came up with 'Evenstar', which I think is a reference to
Lord of the Rings; someone came up with 'Time To Fight',
and it kind of just worked it's way into 'Fightstar'.
Tonie:
Who or what are your musical influences?
Omar: It's quite broad! We each bring slightly different
influences to the band, but personally I'm into a broad
range, I mean, I listen to metal music like, hardcore stuff
all the way through to like, chilled out stuff like Sigur
Ros, but I think generally, band influence-wise, definitely
Taking Back Sunday and Planes Mistaken For Stars, people
like that - a big mixture of emo and post-hardcore in there
as well.
Tonie:
A good mix then?!
Omar: Yeah! It's good fun to play!
Tonie:
What's the best thing about being in a band?
Omar: Best thing about being in a band? Just playing really,
doing what I love doing everyday as a job, and being able
to call it a job. It's the most amazing thing in the world
because when you love doing something so much, it doesn't
feel like a job, but then it is a job really, when you start
thinking about it. That's probably the best thing for me
about being in a band.
Tonie:
Do you have any interesting or funny stories about playing
live?
Omar: God.. funny stories... Not really, I mean there are
a few interesting days on tour, but nothing ultra cool to
write about I don't think! Sorry to be disappointing!
Tonie:
Ah well, we tried! So, what's the best thing about playing
live?
Omar: Oh definitely... Oh, I don't know! The crowds are
amazing! Generally just playing in front of people who want
to see your music, you know, and hear it, and be a part
of what you're doing. That's probably the greatest thing
about 'live' - it's just such a rush really. Obviously,
when we started there wasn't the reception that we get now.
Now, when we go on stage and we play some of the tunes off
the EP it's like, people are singing some of the lyrics
back to us, and that has to be, like the best thing about
it; people just, like, actually knowing the songs, singing
back to you, and you just sort of stand back, and you're
like.. 'Wow!'
Tonie:
What have you been up to these past few months?
Omar: The past few months we've been sort of getting together
the new single - 'Paint Your Target' - and the video for
that, or videos - one of which got banned, so we've been
working on that. At the moment, we're just in Northampton
working on the demos for the new album, so just getting
a few of those tracks down roughly and getting a feel for
the album really. We're gonna be in the studio... mid-June
to go in with Colin Richardson to start the album. That's
when things are gonna start getting really exciting I think.
Tonie:
What did you do to get the video banned?!
Omar: It's a weird one - the banned video is actually going
to be playing next week because... The only reason it got
banned was one company didn't want to air it, and they own,
I'd say, about half of the music channels out there! It
was basically, it's a video concept... it's about the mind
of a child and how... the innocence of child's mind. If
you look at the video, it's a playground scene with kids
running around pretending sort of 'cowboys and indians'
style shooting. But what we've done, is we've given them
CGI effects as if there was muzzle-flares coming off the
tip of their fingers and really really took it to a fantasy
level - the innocence of a kid and war and how it's inherently
within human beings and stuff. It was a deep concept. Lots
of people liked it; some people didn't like it and didn't
go for the main air-play, but we did another performance
video to sort of cover up that fact. Now, a lot of companies
have come back to us, because there was big press about
it in 'Music Week' and they've said how they want to play
it now, so I think from next week after 7pm, they've said
that they will play it.
Tonie:
How's the tour going?
Omar: The tour hasn't started yet, but it's starting on
Wednesday (25th May 2005) and we're all looking forward
to it. We're doing a bit of rehearsal for that as well at
the moment. Generally, we're looking forward to it. Armor
For Sleep are coming over from America to join us on tour
- amazing band! We all really love and respect their music.
It's just gonna be another great experience hopefully. We
had fun on the last two tours, so let's try and make this
one a fun one as well!
Tonie:
Are you looking forward to playing Norwich on Thursday (26th
May 2005)?!
Omar: Oh yes! We didn't do Norwich yet, but the whole tour's
gonna be great and I'm sure Norwich is gonna be one of those
great nights!
Tonie:
Norwich is a great city!
Omar: Yes, I've heard so much!
Tonie:
When is your album going to be released?
Omar: We're looking for, sort of, early to mid-October for
the release date for the album. I think that's a good time
to release really, just after summer.
Tonie:
Finally, what's next for Fightstar?
Omar: Well, once we've got the album finished, I think we're
just gonna be doing lots of touring - hopefully going abroad,
trying to plug the album in the States and just see how
things go really, and push it as far as it will comfortably
go.
Jamie Smith and Tonie Spencer wish to thank the following
people:
Thanks
go out to Mark at Wild Promotions for sorting the interview
out. We owe you!
Omar, for agreeing to do the interview and for being a sweetie!
We luff you!
Also thanks to Derek Williams of City College Norwich Media
department for helping us out of a tight spot, setting up
the equipment, for letting us invade your office, and for
putting up with us when the interview ran late! Oops! Sorry
Derek! We owe you too!
Finally our thanks go out to the rest of Fightstar for providing
sound effects during the interview!
