Rob caught up with Micky and Minge from Dear Superstar just after they finished their set supporting Papa Roach at the academy in Birmingham to chat about the tour, their current free single release and so much more that we couldnt quite post yet.

Hello and thanks for taking time out to do this interview.

You last got interviewed for Alternative Vision last September, how have things been since then?
(Micky) It has been a fucking rock n roll rollercoaster! We did the Hanoi Rocks farewell tour, put our album “Heartless” out kept on touring our asses off and now here we are on tour with papa roach – it’s been absolutely amazing. Touring with Hanoi Rocks was amazing because were huge fans, but wandered how we were gonna top that! So we just kept going at 110mph fitting as much in as we can!

‘Heartless’ features ten tracks, what themes and stories do you cover on the album?
(Minge) Basically it’s about drinking and fucking, hah! The term heatless, is all about fucking off the conventional life that people are so eager to submit to! It’s a graphic confession about life on the road and how no matter what - were gonna make this band a success! When you get into the album you can feel that passion.

(Micky) It’s not so much we don’t give a fuck, its more we give SO much of a fuck about our music and ourselves that other things become secondary, like our family, girlfriends, and doing the right thing. Which is kind of wrong and heartless of us.

If you had to pick a favourite track from ‘Heartless’ what would it be and why?
(Minge) Brothers in Blood, I’ve got it tattooed across my neck! Basically as a band we’re blood brothers, we ride together and we die together!

You played Manchester on Thursday, London on Friday and Birmingham tonight, which of the shows was best for you and why?
(Minge) Tonight’s show in Birmingham has been off the hook! Obviously we love our home town but the kids in Birmingham are fucking insane, I have a new found love for this place.

(Micky) Being an emerging band, is fucking hard at the moment, people are always looking for that thing overseas and become dismissive of rock kids in the UK! Sometimes I wonder where the fuck they all are - but coming out on this tour and seeing each show sell out, is a fucking huge positive and a good sign for us!

You have been playing two new tracks on tour recently which are ‘Never Surrender’, and ‘Glitter Like Gold’, how have the gone down with the crowd?
(Micky) Fuckin Killer!! Glitter like Gold and Never Surrender are being well received out there. We haven’t recorded them yet and performing them live for the first time on tour of this calibre is a big risk! But we wanted to mix it up and make the show as lively and energetic as possible, and these songs outshine everything we did on heartless! Things are just getting better for the band not just physically but musically, we’ve been touring relentlessly for the past two years which has really helped us mature as people and as musicians.

As you have been working on new tracks, can we expect a new Dear Superstar EP or some other release soon?
(Minge) We haven’t pinned anything down yet, but what we will release next will be a full album!

(Micky) We’re very excited about the tracks were working on right now, so it will be sooner rather than later when we release a new album. We’re that sort of band that as soon as we’ve done it we get it out there!

In a couple of days you are heading out on your own headline tour which is sponsored by Big Cheese Magazine, are you looking forward to getting back to playing the more smaller club sized venues?
(Minge) We love playing the smaller clubs, but these 3000 capacity venues have been fucking awesome. I guess we are just really looking forward to getting back out on the road. Because we spend so much time together, it’s weird if we don’t see each other for a few days, so it’s wicked to be staying out on the road.

(Micky) It’s always strange playing to 3000 people on night, then playing to 200 people somewhere the next night but as long as were touring - were happy!

Who will be supporting you on your headline tour?
(Minge) We talked about taking someone out with us then we confirmed the tour with Papa Roach, so we didn’t want to let a band down by cancelling. We’re giving local bands a chance to get on the bigger stages on this tour. It’s a nice way of doing it, coz we meet new people every night and see loads of different bands perform.

You also have a couple of one off shows coming up soon, one with Heavens Basement and the other with Ginger from The Wildhearts, are you fans of both of these artists music?
(Micky) Yeah totally – Heavens Basement are great guys and are a wicked live band. And of course we’re all fans of The Wildhearts – so hooking up with Ginger will be fun!
We reserved a lot of dates on this tour, then we started getting calls from bands like Heavens Basement and Ginger saying we want that date. So we said well do it together and Dear Superstar will support, it mixes the tour up for us a little which is wicked.

(I had to turn the tape off here!!!! SECRET STUFF!!!!!)

Can we expect to see dear Superstar at any festivals over the summer period?
(Minge) Hell Yeah you can! We fully intended to be festival whores this year, we love that shit! We will be at Download 2009 and doing smaller festivals too. If you’re at a festival this year you’re probably gonna see us!

You have toured with some huge bands such as bullet For My Valentine, Hanoi Rocks, Wednesday 13, Papa Roach and many others, who has been your favourite band to tour with so far?
(Micky) Papa Roach so far is a huge highlight to our career. We’ve been fans from the early days, and there such nice guys. They’ve got a lot of time for us and know how to party; this tour has been a dream bro!
But recording our album – hooking up with Bullet For My Valentine in Helsinki and just living on the road has made the past 2 years a fucking blast!!

You have recently released ‘Brothers In Blood’ as a free download only single, what made you decide to release it as a freebie and has it been downloaded as much as you expected?
(Micky) It isn’t actually free everywhere like at Amazon and iTunes, but 7digital and a fuck load of other places are putting it out for free.
Money isn’t great at the moment for anyone - so we thought we would release something for free.

You have also made a video for ‘Brothers In Blood’, what was it like to make?
(Minge) To all the people out there, go watch the video and then you'll understand, how much fun it was to make

(Micky) It was a long slog to shoot for just 3 minutes, but it was fucking great! It was freezing cold in a derelict building with no electricity, the girls were great though!

Most bands get presents from their fans, have you had any weird or wacky presents presented to you yet?
(Micky) I was once given some Dear Superstar underwear, actually embroiled on there!! We’re so lucky to have a crazy-ass fan-base – we’ve had macaroni stuck to cardboard in the shape of Dear Superstar. I’m not sure what to do with it, put it on the wall or eat it! But we keep all the stuff we get given, we have a huge box for it all and we go through it every now and again – great memories!

Thanks for your time, is there a message you would like to give to your fans reading this?
(Minge) We don’t care how you get our album - just get it, listen to it, then come see us out on tour! Ohh and bring Rum!

Interview by Rob Lawrence