Ben caught up with Dear Superstar back stage before their show at the Academy in Manchester to talk about how 2009 has been for them and what they have planned for 2010.

Firstly, can you tell us who you are and your role in Dear Superstar?
Hi, I’m Micky, and I’m the singer in Dear Superstar. I generally throw myself around the stage, that’s all I do!

We last spoke to you in April, what have you been up to since then?
Obviously April was the Papa Roach tour I guess, since then we toured Europe, we did a few festivals linking up with those guys and Buckcherry. We got back from that and we did Download Festival, then we actually went back out to Europe with Papa Roach, then we did a tour with Buckcherry, then Sonisphere, and then we’ve had a bit of time off recording stuff! It’s definitely been an eventful year, it’s been awesome!

As you’ve just mentioned, you played Download Festival this year, how did it feel to play such an iconic festival?
We’ve chased Download for so many years, thinking ‘This is going to be our year’, but always found ourselves on the other side of the fence, which is great, because we get to see all those bands that we know, love and admire, but to be blessed with the fact that we’re sharing a spot on a stage is great! We get to go out there and show people what Dear Superstar are made of, it still hasn’t sunk in that we’ve played on such sacred rock ‘n’ roll ground!

Did you get to see many bands whilst you were there?
Yeah, we met up with a lot of friends, and got to meet a load of cool people. I got to have a beer with Joe (Elliott) from Def Leppard, which was pretty awesome! It was just a great day of meeting people that we love, being out in the Sun with a few beers and watching some kick ass bands. As far as I’m concerned that was the best Download line up ever! It was great!

Your album Heartless came out in the latter stages of 2008, can we expect a new record any time soon?
Without a doubt! The aim is to get an album out next year, we’ve obviously experienced a complete rollercoaster of a ride in 2009, so we’ve learnt a lot from that and we’ve grown both as musicians and as people. We’ve got a lot more to sing about. As I’ve said we’ve had a bit of time out, and in that four months we’ve been writing the best stuff we’ve ever come out with, and if we can continue to grow like that then the next album is going to reach the expectations that we’ve got for it, and hopefully what the fans have for it. We know a lot’s riding on the next album, Heartless was great, and I still love that album, but we’re going to have to kick it in the arse with the next one! We’re not going to rush it, I think one thing with Dear Superstar is that we’re so eager to be on the road all the time, that we sometimes rush things to get out there, but this time we’ve got to kick back and use what we’ve learnt this year to make the best album we can, and I can guarantee that’s what we’re going to do!

Tonight you’re playing in Manchester; do you see this as a bit of a homecoming gig seeing as you’re all local lads?
Definitely! Manchester’s our home and it’s always awesome coming back here, there are always friendly faces in the crowd and we always know it’s going to go off! We haven’t really done that much in Manchester this year, I think we’ve played one show, obviously Heaven’s Basement have got a good pull here as well, so I think tonight’s seriously going to go off! We’re Mancunians at heart and always will be. We can’t wait!

You’ve toured quite a few times with Heaven’s Basement, what makes you keep going back for more?
I overheard what Chris (Rivers) was saying before, and we’re just like a big family now! We did the Buckcherry tour together, we hooked up with each other around Europe, we just go out and get drunk together all the time! We’re just all the best of mates! In Dear Superstar, we’re quite a tight group of guys, it can be quite difficult to let people in, but we’re really met a bunch of guys with the same personalities as us, and the same goals. There are no egos, it’s wicked! They’re pulling big crowds, and so are we, so it’s giving us both the opportunity to play on bigger stages.

Do you think that your particular genre of music often gets overlooked or overshadowed by American bands that do a similar thing?
A while ago I was talking to a big agent from the UK and he was saying that we’re in a really difficult place with Dear Superstar, because we’re playing music that the Brits want to hear Americans play, which is a weird concept really. I think the best way to overcome this is to accept it, the way that we look at it is that we’ve just got to be as good and as big and as brash as the Americans are and say “Listen, we’re home grown, and we can do this just as well as they can, if not better!” I think it helps that we’ve been on these big tours with these big American bands because it gives people the chance to see what home grown bands can do. When we go out to the States and Europe it’s the other way round, they want to hear what us Brits can do! It’s all good!

What are your personal highlights of 2009?
2009 has just been like when you think you’ve hit a horizon, there’s always another one on the way, it keeps going up and up and up! There have been so many highlights, like when we were in Copenhagen with Papa Roach and Buckcherry, Tommy Lee came down to the show and Mötley Crüe are my all time favourite band, he just epitomises rock ‘n’ roll, so that was a great night partying with him, he was very complimentary about us! Obviously Download and Sonisphere, just the whole year has been crazy and without a doubt the year has been a highlight of my life.

What does 2010 hold in store for Dear Superstar?
2010 is going to be 2009 on drugs! It’s going to be everything we did in 2009 but time ten, we’re going to be on the road longer, on bigger tours, we’re going to do as many festivals as we can do! We’re not going to leave any stone unturned; we’re going to make the UK love us, or be sick of us!

Interview By Ben Connell