Thom caught up with the Reuben for a litte chat at Southampton, Joiners before the bands headline show at the venue.

Thanks for taking the time out to do this.
(Guy) It's alright.
(Jamie) To be fair, we're eating at the same time so thank you for coping with my big cheeks full of food.
(Jon) Thanks for coming down, missing the Simpsons, to interview us.
(Jamie) Yeah!

How's your day been so far?
(Guy) Boring.
(Jamie) We had to go into Southampton.
(Jon) I stayed here and tuned some guitars, went on the internet, answered some emails, and then, I phoned people up.
(Guy) It was boring. Normally we'd be spending most of the day travelling, but it was just a short distance from where we stayed last night so we got here really early, and enjoyed the nice day. Cleaned up our equipment, made things work, you know, fixed things that were broken from last night.
(Jamie) What did you fix that was broken?
(Guy) Guitar strap, tightened that up a bit.
(Jon) Wasn't broken, just a bit loose. I restrung a guitar.
(Guy) I had a nice chat on the phone to my friend Benny. He's back in the country now. They said he plays too loud and too heavy, he's a drum and bass DJ.

You're coming to the end of your February tour, you've got two more gigs in London after this?
(Jamie) No, just one.
(Guy) Well there is, but it's not really part of the tour.

How's the tour gone?
(Jamie) Yeah, alright. It was difficult the first week because I had food poisoning, and Jon had hurt his back, quite, it was quite a big hurt back. But also the food poisoning was quite a big food poisoning, so it wasn't like oo-er, it was like, in the toilet, can't move.
(Jon) But we soldier on, the shows are great.
They're all sold out aren't they.
(Jon) They're all sold out.
Tonight is sold out.
(Jon) Yeah tonight is.
(Guy) Been pretty much a sell out tour!
(Jon) Apart from Plymouth, that was a bit funny.
(Jamie) Apart from the west-country, all sold out.
(Jon) Plymouth's always a bit funny, to be fair. Exeter was great yesterday, but Plymouth...
(Guy) It's nice to be playing all the small places we started out in.
You've played here before...
(Guy) Yeah, twice
(Jamie) There was a poster but they took it down a while ago. Got us to sign it. We were like "oh thanks this means so much" and they were like "well we'll put it up." And then we came next time, taken it down.
(Jon) They do that a lot. A lot of the old ones have been nicked. Coldplay was nicked.
(Jamie) Really?
(Jon) Big gaps as well, where people take them down. But to be fair it probably gets a bit sweaty in here, probably just fall off don't they.
(Guy) Are they laminated? I just noticed they've got a shiny glimmer to it.
(Jon) They're painted in PVA glue, like a varnish of sorts.
(Jamie) I like that one where we played with McLusky. That's fucking vintage, mate.

You've got your September dates released as well. What are you doing between now and September?
(Guy) Releasing a new album, doing the festivals, albums out end of June, single's out before end of June. And we're going to do loads of festivals.
Do you know which festivals?
(Jamie) I don't know, whichever ones will take us.
(Jon) Whatever festivals there are.
(Jamie) We might go to Germany.
(Guy) Yeah we'd like to go over to Europe, do a whole load of stuff over there, that'd be cool. We'd like to release the album out in Europe as well.
(Jamie) Do some in-stores.
(Guy) Yeah, the in-store tour. Play some stores, do some signings, around the release of the single.
(Jon) And a lot of one-off shows.
(Guy) And, erm, yeah general promo. That kinds stuff, I dunno what else.
(Jamie) That's it, that's quite a lot.
(Guy) Yeah it's quite a lot. We will be quite busy because we've got our own label as well, and we're about to release our new album, and we're about to release a DVD. We're selling it on the road now but it gets released March 19th. So we'll be busy taking care of that, because it's basically just us three and our manager. You know, Reuben, are the label. We've got a lot of admin-istration stuff. I was going to say admin. Thought I'd go for the full word. And it turned out like admin... ...istration. Erm, so yeah we'll be doing a lot of that kind of stuff.
(Jamie) Is he still talking? Ask another question.

What's going on the DVD, is it just a live show?
(Jamie) It's already on there.

Yeah. What IS on it, to be sold?
(Jamie) Well, it's a film that we made about being in a UK band, underground, and having to do your job at the same time, and then there's lots of studio videos that we recorded while we were in the studio filming our progress. And then there's lots of little bits and bobs, short films, little comedy things, then on the other CD there's a live show that we filmed at the Meanfiddler, and there's a band commentary so you can find out where we did wrong chords and stuff.

How was your Billy Talent tour last year?
(Jamie) Really good.
I saw you.
(Guy) We did too!
Well I went to two, the one in Cardiff was the one you didn't play.
(Jamie) We'd already agreed to do two other shows and we couldn't really blow them out.
(Guy) Yeah so that was amazing, and then they were amazing enough to invite us back and support them again in September/October, and then we went over to Europe and went to Germany and Italy and then finished back in the UK to finish off the rescheduling.
Was it good fun?
(Guy) It was amazing, a really good experience. It was lovely to get around and play all these lovely places in Europe; Germany was really nice, and just to hang out with all the German crew, was really nice. They supported us and we got treated really well out there.
(Jon) Over there, Billy Talent are like, huge. Like, number one album selling.
(Jamie) Also if you're Evanescence because they're goth.
I'm not an Evanescence fan.
(Jamie) It's alright, I wasn't blaming you. But Germans, they love the goth.
(Jon) It's cool though, to have that as the mainstream type music.
(Guy) I hate Evanescence.
Really.
(Guy) Yeah, they're really really bad. Yeah I think they're terrible. Not my cup of tea. I don't have sugar in tea.
Were you at Billy Talent's gig in Brixton, were you there handing out flyers, is that true?
(Guy) That was true yeah.
(Jon) We go to shows all the time, we went and saw Billy Talent, why would we get people to hand out flyers for us when we can do it ourselves? Thing is, there are a lot of bands who try and pretend that they're driving round in big cars and living in country estates. But we're not.

Do you like it here at the Joiners?
(Jamie) Errrrrm, kind of.
Kind of?
(Guy) It's very cold today.
(Jamie) It's in a bad part of town. It's a really bad part of town. They've been very good to us at the Joiners. Ian, who puts us on here, very kind to us. And he makes good pasta.
(Guy) I like all the posters are just the band names and doesn't make any band look better than any other.
I'm going to steal one. Can I get you to sign it?
(Jamie) If you want, yeah.

What's the best gig you've ever played in your opinion?
(Jamie) Do you mean most fun, or when we were the best?
Most fun.
(Jamie) Oh right.
(Jon) I had a lot of fun the other day. Trouble is, when the show's really good and there's loads of energy and stuff, we fell rubbish, like we're in an endurance test. You know, sweating, feeling rough. I had a really good time in Manchester last week.
(Jamie) Yeah that was alright.
(Jon) Sweat dripping from the ceiling, it was really cool.
(Guy) I tell you what, I was very nervous when we played our first gig in Germany. And I think it was in Munich, and I thought that show was a lot of fun. That was really exciting.
(Jamie) Especially because they were so nice to us and we'd never played a gig in their country before.
(Guy) Such a loud reception from the crowd.
Did people know who you were?
(Guy) No I don't think so, no. Yeah it was amazing, really really good fun.

What are your favourite songs?
(Jon) Ever?!
Of your band.
(Jon) Of my band...
(Jamie) Errrr...
(Guy) I like the song "Lights Out" off of our second album.
(Jon) I like the song "Rock Star" but we don't play it very often.
(Jamie) I like the song "A Short History of Nearly Everything" off of our new album "In Nothing We Trust." Tis my favourite, I think it's the best I done.
(Guy) I like that one.
Do you have a different song that you prefer to play live? A favourite live song?
(Jamie) I like to play "Keep It To Yourself" live, because it's well easy.
(Jon) It's a good song to get a reaction from as well.
(Jamie) Yeah. People seem to like it a lot.
(Jon) "No-One Wins The War," same reason.
(Guy) I like "Some Mothers Do Have 'Em" live.
(Jamie) "Moving To Blackwater" is nice, people like that these days. We used to play it and people went, "boring!" but now we play it and they go "yeeeeeaaaahhh! It's slow and slightly mellow, aaahhhh!" and start a pit.

I was on your MySpace, as you do...
(Jamie) Is this a question?
Yeah. I saw a thing for Corned Beef, your, are they your official covers band?
(Jamie) Yeah.
Official?!
(Guy) Yeah!
They seemed quite happy about that.
(Guy) I think it's amazing.
When did you play with them?
(Jon) Last night.
(Jamie) We hadn't met them til last night and they asked if they could play a song, and we said alright.
What did they play?
(Jamie) They played "Our Song" which is off our first album. But we never play it so it's fair enough.
(Guy) Yeah so they wrote to us and asked if they could cover our songs, and I wrote back and said "yeah, go on then." And then they actually filmed their gig, and put it on YouTube, and sent us the link, and I watched it. We watched it in the studio while we were doing our album, actually that video ended up on the studio diary video on the DVD. But err, yeah it's the first we knew of them really. And then last night they came down and were like "oh my god!" and I was like "oh my god!"...
(Jamie) ...and for ten minutes went "we're really excited."
(Guy) "We can't wait."
(Jamie) For ten minutes. And we went, "play the bloody song," and they did.

Do you like to keep actively involved with your fans?
(Jamie) What does that mean?
Like, meeting them after gigs and stuff.
(Jamie) It's not something we make a point of doing, but if they're there we aren't going to say go away.
(Jon) Yeah I always wander around anyway, see the bands, and if people say hello then I'll have a chat. You know if someone recognises you, and want to have a chat...
(Jamie) ...as long as they're polite about it, it's like any people, the only difference is that, if people know your band, sometimes they try and, you know, impress you maybe, by being a bit 'craaazy' or maybe they'll try and act like they don't really care that they've seen you on the telly, and try and act a bit off with you. It just doesn't work. Why would that be cool? Some people get it really wrong.
(Guy) They think about it too much.
(Jamie) Yeah they think about it too much.

Your support bands tonight, I don't know them but I can read them. Do you know who they are or are they local?
(Jamie) Yeah.
(Guy) Yeah yeah yeah.
Have they been with you all tour?
(Guy) Yeah, we...
(Jamie) We invited them, they didn't just turn up.
Quite a lot of bands don't know the support bands, they don't bring them with them.
(Jamie) Well yeah this is a small kind of venue isn't it. This is one of the smallest on the tour, but usually when you get to things a little bit higher up on your tours, you tend to pick your bands. We used to do a lot of shows with local supports, which is cool, but our agents said "do you want to put these guys Red Light Company on?" and we were like "yeah why not!" and we asked if we could put our friends Sucioperro on and they said ok. So that's how it happened.
(Guy) Yeah we've been friends with Sucio for a while. And they've got a great album, and I think they're really good, so we phoned them up and said, "do you guys wanna come on tour? Lovely to support us." And they said "amazing, yeah!" So they did and here they are. It's been really really good.

Awesome. I think that's about it. Anything else you'd like to say to the wonderful people who might read this?
(Jamie) Buy our album when it comes out. Because it's going to be good.
(Jon) It's a good album.
(Jamie) Really good. You'll probably like it. Thanks for coming down. Sorry you missed Simpsons, I missed it too, DON'T MISS SIMPSONS, anyone at home, stop reading this, and watch Simpsons instead.

Interview by Thom