Laura caught up with Dear Superstar back stage at Rock City in Nottingham to talk about plans for a new album, current touring plans and much more.

Hey Guys we last interviewed you back in December, you have been pretty busy since then, can you give us a brief update on what you have been up to?
December we were out on the co-headline tour with Heavens Basement which was pretty cool and it went so well that as we were on that tour we decided to book another one for February/March so we took a bit of time out, spent a bit of time in the studio trying to get some new stuff written for the next album and mix the set up a bit. Went out in February/March with another killer run with Heavens and went straight back in to the studio ‘cos we’re kinda like, really itching now to get that third album written so that’s kind of where we’ve been angling at the moment and you know spending time with family ‘cos it’s like a bit of a commodity that we don’t usually have the blessing of. So we’re seeing our parents, brothers and sisters and friends from home for a while, you know kept ourselves chilled out but worked our asses off on the new stuff and got ourselves ready for this headline tour. It’s been a long time coming!

You headline UK tour starts tonight in Nottingham, who are you bringing out on the road with you? And what can we expect from the show tonight?
We’ve got New Device, who we toured with back in December. We’ve got a great friendship with those guys now so that was a natural choice to bring those guys out with us. What we’re doing on this tour is we’ve brought back a load of old songs; some we’ve never played live, some we haven’t played for six years from the original album years and years ago and some new tracks as well! So we’re really trying to mix it up. We toured so much in 2008 and 2009 that we got to the point where we were almost playing the same set over and over again and we didn’t a) want to bore ourselves but more importantly we didn’t want to bore the fans so we’ve massively mixed it up, we start with Brothers in Blood instead of ending with Brothers in Blood and it’s a complete change for us so it’s going to be fun to see how it comes out on stage.

Are you looking forward to playing some shows more than others?
Erm…yeah naturally the hometown show. We haven’t played at home for a long time, especially a headline show anyway. It’s been years so I’m massively excited about getting in there and seeing my old friends and showing them what we’ve achieved over the last few years and even out family as well it’ll be cool for them to come see us and see the development of Dear Superstar and also the party afterwards because we’ve now got a day off the following day so it’s gonna be a good party night. But to be honest, at this stage in our career to have the opportunity to be doing a headlining tour we’re just savouring every second of it so every show is as important as the next. You know Nottingham is testament to that, we love this city and we love this venue so it’s an honour to be able to put our name above the door for once!

You are playing some shows in mainland Europe with Papa Roach in July, it must be an honour having such an amazing band inviting you back out on the road with them?
Yeah you know we got to tour with them last April and we thought you know we’re working with them for four or five days and by the end of it they’ll either; hate us and never want to see us again or we’ll be like brothers and luckily we came out the other side alive. Since then we’ve got a great friendship with the Papa Roach boys and they invited us out to tour Europe with them last year and it was a great experience. We got to some of the most amazing places in Europe, saw some great sites and played to hell of a load of people and it’s a complete honour and a priviledge to be offered that again. This time around we’re doing some wicked shows for the US troops based out in Germany and Italy which is again a massive honour. The shows out there, you know, we’ve got a great experience of it from last year but I think the shows are bigger this year, we’re a bit more experienced and I’m really excited about killing it out there.

I actually saw you in Birmingham with Papa Roach last year…
That was the best show of the tour! I know it’s a cliché to say it but it was the last show of the tour. It was a bit of a send off and yeah it was awesome, definitely my favourite.

You are down to be playing Sonisphere in Switzerland how do playing festivals abroad compare to ones back in the UK?
Well it’s our first festival abroad really this year. Last year obviously we did Sonisphere UK and Download and they were our first major festivals. Download was a massive shellshock you know, we’d always go and watch the bands at download and to be on the other side of the stage was just a massive achievement personally for us. But like I say we were kind of shellshocked and overwhelmed by the whole thing and it was hard to really take it in when we were there ‘cos you know we had such a great slot and such a good stage as well and it was like almost too much to take in. When we got to Sonisphere UK we kind of knew the jist, we kinda knew what was going on and we had an amazing time at Sonisphere, really relaxed and we made some great friends and all the rest of it. This year to be going back to some of those stages and also taking it out to Europe, now we know the situation we’re just gonna go bezerk, it’s gonna be insane I just can’t wait.

Will you be checking out the big four at Sonisphere Switzerland?
Yeah of course. I mean we were lucky enough to watch Metallica at Sonisphere UK last year and at that point I’d broken my ribs in a stupid accident earlier in the day so I was in pain but trying my hardest to enjoy it! So I’m really glad to see them on that kind of stage with that kind of crown again without having broken ribs this time…hopefully.

You have toured with so many big bands such as Papa Roach, Buckcherry, Bullet for My Valentine, Hanoi Rocks and many other but who have you enjoyed touring with the most?
It’s kind of like a scale I guess. When we went out with Firewind, I guess that was one of our first major tours, it was weird. The whole dynamic of the tour was weird, we got on so well with the Firewind boys but it was a power metal tour and you’ve just got these five dirty mancunians throwing themselves around stage, not really much care for themselves or anyone else out there. It was a weird tour and like Gus G. from Firewind we talk to him now and laugh about that tour it was just bizarre. At the time that was the greatest thing we’d ever done and then we went out with Bullet and that was the most amazing thing we’d ever done and then we got this great friendship with Papa Roach and we were with Buckcherry on that tour as well around Europe it was Buckcherry and Papa Roach and I don’t know, it just seems like everything we do, the next thing is more amazing. It’s just the way that year went, it seems egotistical but it’s not it really is just the way it went. So everything that we’ve done has a massive place in my heart, but you know the tours and shows we do with Papa Roach are so much fun and we connect on such a great level with them that they really stand out.

It has been nearly two years since you released your album ‘Heartless’ and I know you have spent some time in the studio recently is this definitely for the new album?
We haven’t been recording anything for the new album per say, it’s just we’ve been demoing tracks for the album you know going through track after track after track just laying it down, demoing it, seeing if we like it, taking a bit from these, laying down another track trying to develop the band a bit further. We’re all about moving on and bettering ourselves, we don’t want to release another Heartless because we’ve done two years of solid touring since then and we’ve grown as people and grown as musicians. We wanna a) make this album as best it possible can be and b) give the fans we’ve achieved over this period a new edge on Dear Superstar. I’d like to see a good maybe 5 or 6 of the tracks we’ve come out with through these recording sessions we’ve been doing on the album but now it’s just up in the air we’re definitely going to have a third album this year we just don’t know what tracks will be on it. We’re just going to keep demoing until we find the right ones!

MySpace seems to be a big tool in the music industry these days with artists communicating with their fans over it and some even ditching their own website and having just a MySpace site, what are your opinions on MySpace as a tool in the music industry?
Over the past few years Myspace has been pivotal to the success that we’ve seen because it’s a way of reaching out to anyone in the world they can get a connection with you and talk to the band directly. Ten or fifteen years ago, back in the 80s, they didn’t have that! There was a whole brick wall between the artist and the fan and in many ways that’s what created such a mystique about rock stars and all that. Whereas now it’s more real and I’m all for that, I guess moving into more recent times Myspace is dying off and we’ve seen such a decline in Myspace, everything’s all about facebook and twitter now. Which I totally endorse because I’m a total twitter freak! I’m always on that thing like especially when it’s on your iPhone…”Micky’s taking a shit” “Micky’s finished taking a shit” “Micky’s wiping his arse” it just kind of goes like that I just feel compelled to tell everyone my every move. I love it, I love that kind of thing I know some people frown upon it but anyone who frowns upon it is just missing out on the trick I think.

Where would you like to see yourself this time next year?
Still doing this. If we could be still headlining venues like this I’d be happy. We’re all about growing and bettering ourselves so I’d love to see us headlining the Apollo, headlining the M.E.N. or whatever but as long as we’re still making music and can still make a living out of this and put food on the table and keep ourselves in a tourbus, I wouldn’t like to say a home! We’re all pretty much homeless! As long as we can keep ourselves in a van or whatever I’d see that as a success. I just want to get this next album out and keep touring.

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a Zebra and a Giraffe which one would you be and why?
I’ve had this before! I was a giraffe. I don’t know why, I just think having a long neck would be really useful. And I’d like to have…oh no I wouldn’t like to have spots because I’ve actually achieved one and I’m pretty upset about it. It’s a really prominent one. So yeah, a giraffe.
Stew: You’re like a budget Lemmy
Mikey: I am a budget Lemmy!

Thanks for your time, do you have a message for your fans reading this?
Yeah definitely. Heartless is two years old but don’t see it as an old dog! Go get it, spin it, come see us at a show ‘cos that’s what we’re all about touring and making connections with the fans, come out and see us we’re not horrible people!

Interview By Lauren Dauny