Marc managed to catch Rob Damiani for a quick chat before their show at Bristol, Trinity supporting Lower Than Atlantis.

How are you finding the tour so far? You've done the first two gigs already.
Rob: Yeah, Amazing. We had a sort of warm up in Gloster slash first date, it was Underground festival. All of the bands on this tour where on that as well as Canterbury, Proxy and some other bands, which was wicked. Properly got into it in Exeter, insane. And Southampton was even better. A lot of the crowds know us which is great, there singing along. Meeting new people as well. Hopefully it continues tonight.

So Priorities is going down well?
Rob: Yeah really well, a lot of people know the singles already because Priorities and Actors had already come out. The nice ones are when you start playing two songs on the album Whole Truth and our next single Hold On and people know those already. People have definitely heard the album and know the tunes already which is good.

It's a good album and it seems to be going down well when I've seen you this year. I caught you at NASS festival in the small tent and it was incredible.
Rob: Yeah that was a sick show, it had a proper DIY hardcore feel about it. It was mental.

Saw you at Reading as well, was that a really good gig for you.
Rob: Yeah Reading was the highlight of our summer. Probably the highlight of the year so far. Couldn't really ask for more. The crowd were insane , everything went right more or less. I lost my in ear monitors that I'd just bought. They came out half way though and I was really pissed off at the time because there so expensive. Yeah, sometimes I get a bit carried away and jump into the crowd. I don't really think about it.

I don't think I've seen you not go over the barrier.
Rob: Yeah, I'm having to be a little more carful now because I've got this equipment on me and if that breaks its a lot of money. But I think now and then a cheeky little ferray into the crowd's definitely a lot of fun.

Can we expect to see one tonight?
Rob: I think I'm guna judge it, see what's going on.

Depends how much you drink before.
Rob: Haha yeah.

What would you say is your favourite track off the album.
Rob: That's a tough one. It changes every day, but at the moment I'm lovin Yeah Man quite a lot. It's quite a different one for us. It's sort of more straight up, a bit simpler, with less heavy guitars. It's got a sort of folksy vibe to it and the lyrics are quite personal as well. Meant a lot when I wrote them, its maybe more of, well not a darker side but a more i guess emotional side than some of the more arrogant bullshit lyrics that i come up with. But that's at the moment, it changes all the time. I go back to it and I'm like "I remember this one its cool".

What would you say is your favourite song that you've done so far, is it that or what you did before Priorities?
Rob: It's definitely Priorities. Priorities as the single that is still one of my favourites. It's got everything, it's fun to play live, you can jump around to it. It's got a lot of different sections going on but it's still very simple, one or two idea's in the song. It's easy to get the first time you hear it, but the more you listen to it there'd different layers to it. I remember in the studio where we wrote half of it, the feeling when we actually nailed it was the best thing. We had a few riffs and it wasn't really working and then it all came together and the moment it did we were all high fiving in the studio.

It's quite a relatable song as well. I think most people have had a friend do something like that.
Rob: Yeah, I think that's probably why it's done so well as a single. Everyone's got a mate of knows someone like that. You can play it to them and be like "Clean up your act".

Haha. What was it like shooting the video, was it fun?
Rob: Yeah. It was the first big budget video we'd done, with Sony backing it, it was pretty serial. Normally we do the video's ourselves, or grab a mate with a camera, but this one had a proper camera crew, real actors a makeup team and all that sort of stuff. We'd never done anything like it before, but it was a really good experience.

How much input did you have as a band on the video?
Rob: We came up on the initial idea, and then worked with a director. Bounced around idea's with him. We never actually knew how it would look, because you film loads of stuff and it gets finalised in the edit. But that one we came up with an idea, sent it, met and got on really well with him and when we got the edit going back and forth. We'd never give up having our input in stuff. Video's are almost the funniest part, the music's almost the hard work. When you've got that nailed the video's just a promotional tool, but if you can have a bit of fun with it.

It gets you a bit of individuality as well.
Rob: Yeah, a lot of the time it's the first time people see you.. If you show people you can do something different in the video it sticks in their heads more I think.

How did you find doing the bedroom live acoustic version?
Rob: Yeah that was fun, i think we're going to do a lot more of them now because it's quite fun taking a song that you know and have written and re-working it. It came across really well, we got loads of great feedback about it. A lot of people love it more than the real single, so yeah i think we're going to do some more acousticy stuff with the other tracks.

Are you thinking of releasing an acoustic studio version of any tracks?
Rob: We could do. We've done acoustics now for Actors, Yeah Man which is on our VEVO channel. Fancy Dress we've got an acoustic for, it's a real sort of cheesy lounge version. Really chilled out, that was a lot of fun to do. We've just done an alternate version of Hold On which is the next single. I think that's our favourite yet. We've just slowed it down, and turned everything about the studio album version on its head. We do a few more and we'll have a full album of it, so why not.

I'll move on to the last question and let you get back to drinking.
Rob: Haha.

Would you rather be a Zebra of a Giraffe?
Rob: I'd rather be a Zebra, because I like speed. I think their a bit faster than Giraffe's so you could run around more. Giraffe's I think I'm quite a clumsy person anyway so the neck would get in the way of things.

That's a pretty good reason. Have you got a message for any of your fans that read this?
Rob: Yeah thanks for buying the album if you have, if not go and get it now. We are going on tour later this year, can't announce anything just yet. Then we're going to be doing out own headline tour next year, that's the big one so we'll see you on the road I'm sure.

Interview By Marc Rich