Against Me! have been one of the most successful and revered punk bands in recent years. Having just come off a UK headline tour, the band took to the road with Frank Turner. Before the show we chatted to, bass player, Andrew Seward about the band’s transition from major label to self distribution, how the band had taken to Turner’s crowds and the possibility of re-recording Vivida Vis.

You might know them better as ‘Frank’s Band’, but those four guys bringing that extra bit of umph to every Frank Turner show are The Sleeping Souls. Nigel, Matt, Tarrant and Ben have been touring and recording with England’s favourite singer/songwriter for years. We sat down with them to chat about the ever lasting tour, playing bigger venues and firework displays.

© 2011 Greg Nolan

“…he’d stand stock still, with a single tear rolling down his face, as all these eight year olds punched him, repeatedly, in the balls.” – Frank Turner

Ahead of his sold out show at Manchester’s O2 Apollo, we had another chat with Frank Turner. It’s been quite the year for the singer/songwriter: He and The Sleeping Souls completed their first headline tour of America, he’s scored a show at Wembley Arena and his latest album, England Keep My Bones, is bound to be cracking a few ‘Album Of The Year’ lists.

We talked to Frank about what it’s like taking to the road with a folk band and a punk band, who’s going to support him at the Wembley show, and he reveals a few details about his forthcoming hardcore band.

Emma Hallows is an up and coming singer/songwriter from Manchester. She’s created quite a stir in the UK acoustic scene, so it was great to get Emma in session like this. On top of a Manchester car park, Emma performed the title track from her debut solo EP ‘Anchors Up!’ and a cover of The Gaslight Anthem’s ‘Great Expectations’.

‘Anchors Up!’

‘Great Expectations’ (Gaslight Anthem cover)

I hope you enjoyed that. Come back next week for another Moon & Back Session!

It’s fair to say that, for us, Chuck Ragan is somewhat of an inspiration, so we’re always honored to sit and chat with him about…pretty much anything. After six years of trying, he finally managed to bring his, highly successful, Revival Tour across the pond and was loving it, taking everything in his stride. When you consider that the man has released a two new records, worked on new material with Hot Water Music and toured the world extensively in 2011, it’s hard to see how he can cope. That’s what we were there to find out.

Though he might be best known to some as frontman of The Loved Ones, Dave Hause has recently been carving out a career for himself as a solo artist. His debut long player Resolutions was released to wide acclaim, causing it to be picked up by Xtra Mile Recordings in the UK, but that hasn’t left him resting on his laurels. We chatted to him before the Manchester leg of the, first ever, European Revival Tour – where he’s appearing alongside Chuck Ragan, Dan Andriano and Brian Fallon – about his signing to one of the UK’s most exciting labels, his forthcoming 7″ record releases and his plan for the next Loved Ones record.

Louise Distras is one of the most exciting, up and coming, artists in the UK at the minute. Her brand of acoustic punk has drawn comparisons with that of Brody Dalle and it’s hard to disagree. Having been bestowed such high acclaim, we thought we’d drop in on her for a quick chat about everything from playing shows with Tim Barry to her fear of fish.

“It’s crazy how full circle it’s come…” – Tom May (The Menzingers)

The Menzingers were in the UK for a little while a few weeks back, so we couldn’t resist going and bothering them again. Having played in London with Make Do & Mend and Leagues Apart the night before, and played awesome sets at Reading and Leeds festivals, the guys were in good spirits. We talked about what playing that festival means to them, their recent switch to Epitaph Records and grilled them about some forthcoming new material.

“Oh, it’s Moon & Back!” – James Hull (Leagues Apart)

Leagues Apart recently embarked on a short tour in support of The Menzingers. Having already toured with the band last year, the Manchester-based punk foursome were happy to be touring with their friends again, as well as just playing shows. We caught up with the guys to talk new material, ‘side projects’, singing with Hot Water Music at Reading Festival and playing Fest 10. We also found out that they’d, inadvertently, ruined our surprise for Chuck Ragan. Bastards!

Below is either the best, or the worst, interview we’ve ever done. Decide for yourselves and let us know in the comments.

Before their show with Taking Back Sunday in Manchester, I caught up with Murray and Jordan from The Xcerts to talk a little about the tour, playing to an audience of Charlie Simpson fans, any future recordings and what one man from Plymouth did for twenty quid. You also get a deep discussion about fishing (thank god we’re retiring that question soon).

Murray Macleod: It’s good.

AB: So, you’re on tour with Taking Back Sunday. How has that been?

MM: Good so far. We’ve only played one show, but it was in our homeland. It was in Glasgow and we were pretty blown away by the response. There was a lot of people singing along, which is kind of unusual for us when we’re supporting a band. Taking Back Sunday were phenomenal last night and they are some of the nicest guys we’ve ever played with. That’s always a plus.

AB: Yeah, that’s always good. How did the tour come about?

Jordan Smith: Well, there’s kind of a Long Island connection: We did our record in Long Island last year, the guy that produced it is good buddies with them from way back and they got to hearing our record. Adam liked it.

MM: I think, at the same time our producer played it to them, one of their best friends, who we had met when we were in New York, also was plugging us to the band. So i think they were getting it from two different people in New York saying “take this band out on tour.” And then, from what we gather, Adam Lazzara bought our record, which is bizarre.

JS: We’re still so pensive about saying it, because it doesn’t seem real. He owns our record and he listens to it. It’s in his collection.

AB: That’s got to be pretty cool?

JS: Very cool.

MM: It feels weird talking about it. He was talking about us on stage and we were looking up listening to him talk about our band. It was like: “What is going on?”

AB: Do you think you guys are received well by the Taking Back Sunday crowd then?

MM: I think so. I don’t think we sound like Taking Back Sunday, but there’s definitely similarities, I think. There’s a lot of common ground there, from what they’re into and what we’re into. I think, from the crowd’s perspective, we’re probably not too far away, as a support band, from what they do. But it varies, in Nottingham it was a cold crowd. And I don’t think they warmed to us all that much. But we played in London and Glasgow with them and both of those shows were great. I don’t know, it’s a tough one. Depends on a lot of things, I guess.

AB: No one asking you to play Reuben covers then? *laughs*

MM: No

AB: *laughs* Just me then. You’ve been on some pretty big tours this year, the Charlie Simpson tour being the last one. It must have been hard on you guys dealing with that kind of crowd.

JS: They are an interesting crowd. Especially as Charlie has a lot to deal with anyway from fans of his previous incarnations and everybody’s at the show. There’s people there who’ve just heard the record, and people who know him as Charlie Simpson. To go up and face that kind of crowd, especially considering that none of them had ever heard of us before, definitely.

AB: You guys played acoustic for that tour too.

MM: Yeah, it was kind of stripped down. I mean, we had electric guitar and some drums and percussion, but it was nice to tour like that. It was a lot more laid back for us, not that we stress about full band shows, but we really want to play as well as we can every single night to whoever.

JS: There’s a lot more to worry about with full band shows.

MM: Yeah, on that one we were relaxed, which was nice. It felt weird, it kinda felt more like a holiday.

JS: It was casual.

MM: Yeah, it was casual.

JS: There was no gear. It was a really easy load in. It was good. We really got into it after two or three shows.

AB: Has it affected your fanbase being on these tours?

MM: Yeah, the Charlie tour was a resounding success, in fact. It was bizarre. We couldn’t really gauge it on stage, it was weird. I did a lot more talking on that tour. On our own sets or these shows I barely talk, because I just want to make noise. On the Charlie tour we did a lot more talking and a lot more interacting with people, which was really interesting for us. And we could only really gauge it by how many records we were selling at the end of the night. But we spoke to a lot of people, a lot of people have joined us on the social networks and that’s really the only big tour we’ve done this year. So it’s weird. We did the Rocksound tour, a headline tour, and Fu Manchu in Europe, but it’s weird that that was a big tour for us and we weren’t even doing what we usually do.

AB: You say that, but would you have rather done that tour as full band?

MM: No

JS: With respect for Charlie and what he’s doing, to come on as full band and blow the roof off the place before he comes on and plays his really sweet, Bright Eyes sounding, acoustic music would have been a little inappropriate.

AB: You could have totally stolen the show.

JS: Yes. We could have.

MM: Only because of noise voice.

JS: Yeah, decibels.

AB: *laughs* You’ve said you’ve seen an increase in people interacting with you online and buying the record, do you think these people will now be expecting a new full length from you or something along those lines?

MM: I don’t know. I think the people who are just getting into us are probably excited about the fact that we have two records out.

JS: Yeah, they can go back and get into both of them.

MM: It’s seems like, from what people have said to us, they’re just excited to be getting into us now.

JS: It’s more the hardcore fans that are badgering us for new stuff.

AB: Well, you’ve released the cover of ‘Drinking In LA’. Is that the new direction? Is drinking in LA just de rigueur for you now?

JS: *laughs*

MM: Basically, we’re re-releasing our song ‘Slackerpop’ and we recorded four tracks stripped down, like we did for the Charlie tour, because a lot of people who didn’t see us on that tour were asking about it. So, basically, when you buy the flexidisc of the single, you get a code to download four stripped down tunes. As an incentive to get people’s email addresses we decided to do a cover and that one came up, and we’re all big fans of that song, and we thought we could do a pretty cool cover of it.

JS: It’s a cool song, despite the kinda nihilistic lyrics and stuff.

MM: The guy raps in the verses, so I didn’t have to rap.

JS: You rap.

MM: I do rap.

AB: You should totally rap.

JS: He’s got mad rhymes.

MM: We did contemplate it. The first take I just had a microphone, and we did it pretty raw, and I was like “should I rap?” I was like no “sing it”.

AB: *laughs* I’m disappointed you didn’t rap now. Aside from that you did release the EP in March, any plans for something like that again?

MM: No. We’re going to release this single, and then we’re going to be touring until the end of the year, with that. Then we’ve got some plans to keep touring in the new year and then we’re going to make another record.

JS: We’ll do the same as last time, just do it whenever we find the space.

MM: The first record lasted, basically, going on a year. This seems like it’s going to last longer, which is cool, because it’s going to give us time for the new stuff. When we went out to the States for the second record we kind of had bits and bobs and loose ends with us. I think this time we want to make sure every song is perfect.

JS: It’s better for you, because it’s such a classic scenario for a band that’s just on the road all the time. When they finish touring they have to record their album there and then, so they try to write songs on the road and maybe that’s why you get shoddy second records, or whatever, because a band has toured to death. They’ve got to rush out ten songs or whatever.

MM: You don’t want to write a record about being on the road.

JS: Yeah, no one wants a road record.

AB: Speaking of writing records on the road, you’ve got this new single coming out and you’ve been saying how your fanbase has grown so me, my colleague and Geoff Rickly from Thursday were wondering if we could get bands to donate a percentage of their profits from releases towards a Chuck Ragan fishing show.

JS: *laughs*

MM: Geoff Rickly?

JS: He wants Chuck Ragan to have his own fishing show?

AB: He said it was “his dream”.

JS: How much are we talking?

AB: Whatever you want.

MM: You’re going to be hard pressed to find a band with any record profits *laughs*. I would love to see Chuck Ragan on my telly talking about fishing.