Young Guns
As I find my way round the Media Garden at Download Festival 2009, I stumbled across the little foxes in Young Guns, and grabbed them for a quick chat to see how they were enjoying their time at the festival.
How are you enjoying being here at Download Festival?
It’s incredible, and it’s an amazing day too! It’s actually a pretty surreal experience really, and I’m just battling with hay fever at the moment too which sucks… I’ve taken these tablets and it’s let me drowsy! Bad times. But just to be here at Download is brilliant and makes me feel better, it’s a real honour.
Aww, so have you got any other festivals lined up for the summer?
We’ve just played Slam Dunk and hopefully we’ll have some other stuff locked down for the rest of the year, but fingers crossed we’ll be playing more stuff later on in the year.
Who are you most looking forward to checking out this weekend?
Well, we’ve got quite a few friends in bands here that are playing, so it’s great to be here and see them as well as huge American bands like Slipknot, Limp Bizkit and Faith No More. It’s going to be rad to see then and some great UK bands like Architects, The Blackout and even great bands on the Red Bull Stage like Outcry Collective.
Like I said, we’ve been coming to Download for a few years now and you usually only see US bands who come over here and headline, but to be honest, there have been some really good UK bands that have emerged and it’s great to see them playing here.
So, you’ve been here before, who has been the best band you’ve seen here at Donnington over the years?
You know what, I’m going to say Kiss, I thought they were so good. I was extremely drunk, but when Detroit Rock City came on I just lost my mind and it was at that really cool point in the evening where everyone is ‘peaking.’
Metallica was awesome here in like 203 when the deconstruction stage was set up and they made a guest appearance there.. It was the worst kept secret here ever! But it was still awesome.
Do you prefer the atmosphere at a festival or at your own headline shows?
I think they both offer different things really, to be honest, we’re going to treat our part of playing today as if it was one of our own shows so that we can try to ‘own’ that half hour as best we can. I love the vibe you get when you play a festival… you hook up with old friends, everyone is here for a good weekend, but playing a small club is more intimate and there’s more of a personal vibe so I do hope we can bring that to the stage later.
Who would you ideal festival headliners be?
That’s a tough one, I don’t know! I’d probably plump for Metallica, I also love The Police so I’ll go for them, and with it being my dream festival I would have to plump for Michael Jackson.
Now, you’ve also got your EP Mirrors coming out in a couple of weeks, Fightstar reviewed it and loved it!
We know! We read that review and we were so psyched. T was really nice of them and we know them a bit and I think it’s really cool that an established band digs what we do, it means a lot to us, and they put their neck out and vocally supported us. It was really cool to read, I was very touched.
And what one song would you tell us to check out so we’d love you?
I’d say one they haven’t heard yet. Probably There Will Be Rain because I think it’s short and sweet and it shows the heavy riff side as well as the more melodic side to us. Whereas In The Night showcases more of the riff-based side of the band and The Weight Of The World shows the lighter side.
So, what does the rest of 2009 hold for the band?
Lots of touring! We have a heavy tour ahead of us because we want to push out EP to the max and get it out to as many kids as possible! We’re hitting loads of venues in July for a month long tour, then we’re lucky enough to be going out with Lost Prophets in August for a couple of shows which is crazy! We’ll just try, in the nicest way possible, to shove ourselves down everyone’s throats!
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison
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