Kim caught up with A Loss for Words to talk about supporting Set Your Goals, their Motwon classic album and also news on their next album.

Can you give us a brief history of the band such as how you came together and came up with the name A Loss For Words?
Matty - Well I’m Matty and I sing for the band.

Lee Preston - And I’m Lee Preston and I play drums and I kinda just got thrown in this band two months ago.

Matty - We basically re-incarnated ourselves about two months ago, so we’re gonna leave those ten years behind us and start again.

Lee Preston - Now we’re gonna change the face of rock and roll!

Who would you say your main musical influences are?
Matty – I’d say my main influences… well we’re actually a very diverse band. I personally like old Motown stuff like The Temptations, Lionel Richie and like Saves The Day, Alkaline Trio, and New Found Glory. But then we go to Lee-Preston who listens to the weird music which I have no idea what it is…

Lee Preston – Ha ha, I’m a music history nerd y’know Gregorian funeral chants – big fan so.

You have recently signed a co record deal with Velocity Records and Rise Records, how did this come about and how have they been treating you so far?
Matty – We met Dave Shapiro who runs Velocity Records. He books like A Day To Remember and stuff like that, and he booked our friends The Wonder Years, and he just came to one of our shows with like nothing to do about signing us or anything and we made good friends with him and basically we needed to figure out something for the new record and we talked to him and he was like ‘let me call Craig from Rise’ and he was in – so we signed the deal and here we are.

I understand that you have been busy working on a new album, what can you tell us about it?
Lee-Preston - It’s gonna be different. I’d say we’ve changed into a high octane rock assault unit!

Matty – It’s cool, um I’d say… I dunno, I don’t even know how to explain it.

Lee Preston – It’s more rock and roll.

Matty – Yeah, definitely more rock and roll.

Lee Preston – More rock and roll. More focus on the song writing. Just keeping it simple and straight forward.

Matty – And having lots of fun!

When are you hoping to release the new album?
Matty - We record it right after this with a dude named Andrew Wade. He’s done stuff like Veara, VersaEmerge and hopefully it’ll be out September time at the latest.

The last album you released was a Motown Classics covers album how did this come about and how did you go about picking what tracks to feature on the album?
Matty – Basically just a few of the dudes in the band like love Motown music and we’d thought we’d make a record so we could keep the kids entertained with the music while we were focusing on our new record. We just wanted to do something different that no one else has done before. So we just did our favourite songs. My grandmother likes it so, mission accomplished!
Ultimate approval if the grandma likes it!

Tonight is the first show on your UK tour with Set Your Goals, how excited are you to be back in England touring?
Matty – This will be our third tour over here, and this is the first time that we’re doing a support tour ‘cause we’ve just done small headliners before. Set Your Goals and This Time Next Year are some of our best friends and to be in the UK, in a country that we love with our good friends… I think there’s gonna be a little bit of trouble if I’m honest with you!

The tour runs right into the start of June, are you looking forward to certain shows more than others?
Matty – Honestly I think it’s cool that we got Slam Dunk Festival, I mean obviously. I begged and begged Ben last year to get us on it and this year he was finally like ‘alright we’ll put you on it’. I talked to him after the show we played at the Electric Ballroom with Four Year Strong and we talked at this little after party thing and he was like ‘we’d love to have you’. So here we are. We’re playing a lot of places that we’ve not been to before so I’m interested to see how those go, I’m pretty excited.

What do you have planned once your UK tour comes to an end?
Matty – We’re gonna go back home and hug our Mum’s! Then say goodbye again to head to the studio in Florida for about three and a half weeks, then we leave for tour with Vanna. Then we go on another tour after that so… we’re pretty busy.

What’s your take on the digital revelation killing off the music business?
Matty – Preston this one’s for you!

Lee Preston – Well I think lots of people are probably not gonna like me but musicians didn’t make money until like a hundred years ago and before that the whole history of music was y’know if some king or something was like you’re sick, come into my castle, play for me. So if it dies, it dies but music will keep on going regardless.

Where do you hope to see A Loss For Words in a year’s time?
Matty – I think we’re just gonna take a steady path, hopefully we’ll get to play in front of some new people and make some new friends and extending our friendship all over the world.

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?
Mike – Let me answer this one!

Matty – This is Mike our bass player by the way.

Mike – I’m sorry, I came in late. Man, I’d probably be a zebra! Galloping with the wind through my mane, it’d be glorious.

Lee Preston – The thing is if we were a giraffe, chocking on something would be so inconvenient or oh my god a sore throat! It’s like give me a break. But yeah zebras are way more fashionable.

Matty – See, I’d be a giraffe just so I could be like (makes giraffe impression) and just like, munch on tall trees all day and just hang out.

Thanks for your time. Is there a message for your fans reading this?
Mike – Don’t do drugs. Wear your seatbelt. Don’t kiss on the first date.

Matty – I’d just say thank you to everyone in the UK for supporting us and you rule! Buy us some drinks at the bar!

Interview By Kim Horsley