Thom caught up with the ladies from McQueen at Southampton Joiners for a chat about the bands album, the current tour and many other things.

How's your day been?
(Leah) It's been long but it's been good.
And where have you come from?
(Leah) Brighton today, we played in Wolverhampton last night which was good.
Are you looking forward to tomorrows album launch?
(Leah) Are we fuck.
(Hayley) Oh yeah.
(Leah) It's going to be a classic. I'm going to have a few too many I think.
(Hayley) Celebration time.
(Leah) Home town as well.
(Hayley) Yeah, home town. Quite a messy night I think.

Has this album been in the pipeline for a long time?
(Leah) Erm...
(Cat) It's been about two years.
(Leah) Two years in the making yeah.
(Hayley) Because, we've like, been touring so much and just getting out on the road, so we didn't record it in a big chunk, we just kinda recorded a song at a time, which is kinda cool I think.
(Cat) I prefer it that way, cos you kinda get to live with it and take influences.
(Leah) Plus you can test out the songs on different crowds, you know, if you write a new song you can kind of test it, people in the room, you know.
Did you write a lot more than you actually put on the album?
(Leah) Yeah, there's a few that haven't made it onto the album.
(Hayley) Under the old chestnut tree.
(Leah) Yeah, under the old chestnut tree. Hopefully not to be seen again, but they may be crept in now and again.

You've already toured with quite a lot of big name, like the Foo Fighters...
(Leah) Yeah we did a show with Foo Fighters and Queens Of The Stone Age, we went out and toured, probably four or five days with Juliette and the Licks, went out and toured with Wasp, did The Almighty just before Christmas, and also went out with The Executioners, which was good. So yeah, we've been around. Been around the old rock block.
Is there anyone in particular that you really enjoyed playing with?
(Leah) There's loads.
(Hayley) Juliette for me. Really fucking great girls. I think we sort of shared the same kind of sound as well.
(Leah) Worked well together, we set them up nicely, and ended up coming off quite nicely for ourselves.
(Hayley) Yeah.
(Leah) All of them, we just have so much fun. Whenever we're out on the road we just have so much fun. You know, and we're always with bands that we tend to get on really well with, and everyone's really cool, and it's a good fucking laugh man.
(Hayley) Just talking about crowds though, the Wasp crowds were fucking mental.
(Cat) I was just thinking that!
(Hayley) They were fucking brilliant, there were some classics in there. Like some true fans.
(Leah) Like Pam, she was a top fan wasn't she. Seventy-five year old rocker, literally.
(Hayley) And she went to every single Wasp date. She slept in phone-boxes, train stations, I mean, she did, you know, smell a bit, but I think the Wasp guys helped her out every few nights with a shower. But Pat, we do love you.
(Leah) Her head-banging was far better than mine. Much more energetic than mine.
(Hayley) And every night she turned up with a McQueen tshirt on. She had a ball gown on and trainers and then a McQueen tshirt on over the top. I will never forget her for as long as I live.

If you could support ANYONE, who would it be?
(Leah) I'm going to have to say, it would be very cool, it's probably never going to fucking happen, in a million years, but, if it was the original line-up, or let me say, the Use Your Illusion tour line-up of Guns 'N Roses, that would be really good.
(Hayley) Yeah.
(Leah) OR, Pantera, but unfortunately that's not going to happen. OR Velvet Revolver. I mean, we'd play with anyone. I mean, I'd love to play with System Of A Down as well, that would be fucking awesome, Deftones, I'd love to just play with everybody you know, there's so many bands that I like, it would just be awesome to be on the road with them.
(Hayley) I'd like to go on the road with Avenged Sevenfold.
Yeah they're good live.
(Hayley) I've been listening to their album a lot actually.
Which one?
(Hayley) The one with Beast and Harlot on it.
(Leah) City of Evil?
(Hayley) Yeah their second one.
That's their third one.
(Hayley) Third one is it?
Yeah, little bit of information for you there.

Your new single is Running Out Of Things To Say?
(Leah) Well I think that one's sort of been released, we're selling it at shows, but I think possibly it's going to be The Line Went Dead. Possibly. I mean, we could release Running Out Of Things To Say, officially.
I think you should, it's my favourite.
(Leah) Is it?
(Hayley) Aww.
(Leah) Wicked, well we'll play that one for you tonight.
(Hayley) I'll try and pick you out of the crowd, and be looking at you.

Are there any tracks you're really really happy with or is it just all like “oh my god!”?
(Leah) I would say, I mean, you know, there's so, all the songs.
(Hayley) Yeah all of them for different reasons.
(Leah) It is all of them for different reasons, because there's so many different flavours, and you don't just, when you buy the McQueen album you don't get, you know, the same song, just with different lyrics and melodies over it the whole album, there's different flavours, you know there's like a punky feel to some of them, a heavier moshier feel to some, there's an erratic feel to some of them. Erm, I would say though, that I'm really really fucking loving at the moment, Neurotic. Cos it's just, it's just, honestly, it does what it says on the fucking tin. It is a crazy track and I fucking, I just love it, and love playing it live. And when we recorded it, it came out so fucking good, and as soon as you whack on the album, Neurotic's the first song, and it just hits you. And it's just like, totally like...
(Cat) ...I just thought I'd say the Chili Peppers.
(Leah) Yeah, well done.
(Cat) Yeah I'm a bit slow, sorry.

I asked this to Ghost Of A Thousand as well, how would you describe Brighton's music scene?
(Leah) It's rocking yeah.
Would you say it's an exciting place to be a band?
(Leah) Definately.
(Hayley) It is an exciting place.
(Leah) I mean I haven't spent a lot of time in the scene at the moment, because like, we've been away, so much. Like over the Summer...
(Hayley) ...Holland, Belgium...
(Leah) ...and Brighton goes through loads of trend, you know. Like when I moved there it was heavily indie, kind of indie-rock base, but there were some hard rock that we kind of found. But it's picking up, it really is picking up
(Hayley) I think it is everywhere isn't it, just the rock seen.
(Leah) Yeah, the only shit thing about Brighton music scene, I must say this because I'm mortified, it's just that they closed the Freebuck, because I fucking loved that venue. And I loved playing that venue, cos it's small and it's intimate, but it was just fucking rocking you know. It was a really really cool venue to play, and yeah, it just got shut down.
Was it noise complaints?
(Hayley) It was after we played. Haha.
(Leah) We got that place shut down. But I think...
(Hayley) It should open again. We should start a campaign.
(Leah) We should! We should. Re-open the Freebuck. But yeah that's really cool, and there's so many bands that are going in and out of the Concorde at the moment, and that's equally cool to play. It's much bigger, but it's really cool, you know. The venues tend to be pretty cool.

Do you prefer playing smaller gigs?
(Leah) I tell you what, I do like the bigger stages, and I like the festival stages, because I've got these boots you see, you can't really fucking see them on the tape of anything, but these boots are made for walking man, for strutting, and it's just like, I like a bit of room where I can run to one side of the stage, run to the other, and you know, give it a big of headbang. But equally smaller gigs are better for like, people being *right here*, and festivals people are way back, but the smaller gigs people are right in your fucking face, and I like that, I like that intimacy.
I love it here, the sound's really good as well.
(Leah) This is our first time. We are virgins to this place. Joiner virgins.
(Hayley) Sounds good though.

You're at the start of your tour aren't you.
(Leah) Yeah, second date.
How long does it go on for?
(Leah) Another seven days I think.
You looking forward to it?
(Leah) Of course we are! We fucking love it. We're just one of those bands who loves being out on the road. That's what it's all about. When you're out, traveling around, going to different places, you know, we went to Finland, Holland, Belgium, just last year, and we're going to Vietnam for a festival.
(Hayley) Fucking Vietnam, man!
Is it for anything in particular?
(Leah) Erm, well, it's certainly for something, but I'm not quite sure what. But it's fucking cool I mean, going to Vietnam to do a fucking show, that doesn't happen in normal life, you know what I mean, and to travel with your job is just fucking awesome. This is just a job/hobby/lifestyle. It's just great. If I wasn't in McQueen, I'd probably be doing some really boring job. I'd actually like to work in a crematorium, that'd be fun. I did go for a job, but I had a personality, so. And they're all really dull in there, you know, like respecting the dead, but I'd just poke fun at coffins. And open it up and trying smoking human bones, like Marilyn Manson, just to see what he went through. Nah, just kidding. I wouldn't. That's just too wrong. I couldn't touch stuff like that. But yeah it's just so great, we're taking our music out, and we're playing all over the UK, playing all over Europe, think we've got Australia coming up in the middle of this year, it's just like, fucking hell, we're doing shit that we love, which is great.

If you could describe yourselves, the whole band, in three words, what would they be?
(Leah) Fan-fucking-tastic. It's hard isn't it. I don't know, I can't sum us up in three words, I mean, we're multi-dimensional, there's so much to McQueen, three fucking words, I don't think we'd be doing ourselves justice. If I do say so my fucking self. Nah you know, I just think we're a fucking rock band, and we're just out there doing it. How would you describe us in three words, huh? Ahh, turning it round, see how I did that?
That's not important, is it.
(Hayley) Yeah...
(Leah) It is important. How would you describe us in three words.
Hmm.
(Leah) See, you're stuck.
I'm never going to ask that to anyone ever again, you've ruined my dream.

Do you still get nervous before you play gigs?
(Leah) Nah. Not really, I just get hyped up. You know, you just get into that mode of going on stage, and you just want it you know, and the longer you have to wait to go on stage at a venue, the worse it is.
(Hayley) And it feels really fucking weird, having so much time before you play.
(Leah) We're usually rushing our arses off, putting on the old make up.
(Hayley) Yeah, it's just weird having time. I've lost the point of the question.
(Leah) Where were you taking that?
(Hayley) I don't know.
(Leah) Yeah... What was the question?
Do you get nervous?
(Leah) No.
(Hayley) No.
(Leah) We do it so much. And it's everything. The music, the visual performance, and it's just so much fucking fun. And I just can't wait to get up there. I get to the stage where, fifteen, twenty minutes before we go on I'm incapable of having a conversation, I'm in the zone. And it's just pointless having a conversation because I'll just talk shit. Or I'll be like, “can you repeat that?”
(Hayley) Are you trying to say you only talk shit twenty minutes before going on stage?
(Leah) Well I actually, am a compulsive shit-talker.

What's your stage show like? Obviously I haven't seen you. You like to strut around, might be a bit hard on this stage...
(Leah) We just get into the music and throw ourselves around, have a fucking good time and get the crowd going.
(Hayley) Just have fun.
I'm looking forward to it.
(Leah) Me too, me too.
(Hayley) Is that all?
That is all...

Interview by Thom