Ahead of their return to Solus, Jack Glasscock and Louis Browne sat down with The Blackout‘s two vocalists to talk Merthyr and models.

YouÔÇÖre almost halfway through your tour and yesterday you were back at home in Merthyr Tydfil, how was that?
Sean Smith (Vocals): It was lovely ÔÇô 2008ÔÇÖs third roughest town in Britain.
Gavin Butler (Vocals): Although, some of our crew spent the day there and said it was ÔÇ£all you could need from a townÔÇØ [laughs].
SS: Yeah, it was lovely.┬á I got to see the most important woman in my life, my mother. She washed my jeans – thank God, they were smelling.┬á And I got to hang out with some of my friends who are coming tonight, so it should be an excellent evening.┬á Because you see, none of the band get on anymore, itÔÇÖs difficult to be here sitting next to him [Gavin].┬á We donÔÇÖt hang out much at home because we were put together by Simon Cowell you see, so we find it hard to talk to each other [laughs].

How are you all still such good friends then?┬á ItÔÇÖs coming up to 10 years youÔÇÖve been together.
SS: Yes, it is 10 years, somehow.┬á I donÔÇÖt know how weÔÇÖre still friends, itÔÇÖs very difficult.
GB: I think itÔÇÖs because we were friends anyway.┬á A lot of bands get together and have to get to know each other on the road, in a small van, with no respite or personal space.
SS: Yeah, IÔÇÖve known him [Gavin] since he was 3 and everyone else in the band we went to school with, apart from our drummer who we found working in Giles Sports, and we havenÔÇÖt changed the line up since.┬á Despite us trying to change the members ÔÇô they just wonÔÇÖt leave. [laughs]

So you grew up in Merthyr Tydfil, was there a good music scene around you?
SS: I think there was and there were some good bands, but we still werenÔÇÖt hearing the music that we wanted to hear.┬á I think the moment that changed it for me was seeing Lostprophets play a tiny room in Blackwood to 200 people.┬á They played five songs and it was unbelievable because it was my first ever ÔÇÿalternative-rockÔÇÖ gig I suppose.┬á The first band I ever saw were Stereophonics and that blew my mind too, but seeing Lostprophets, who were from 15 minutes down the road blew my mind.┬á So I was like, ÔÇ£I want to try thatÔÇØ, and I did, not as successfully as Lostprophets, but we had a bloody go!
Our first ever gig, we covered a Limp Bizkit song, a Faith No More song and a Lostprophets song.┬á Since then weÔÇÖve ended up singing with Lostprophets and Limp Bizkit on stage, so itÔÇÖs only Faith No More now [laughs].
GB: I canÔÇÖt see that happening to be honest.

Is it surreal playing with bands that you grew up listening to and have been influenced by?
SS: I suppose every day of my life is surreal because it just blows my mind. When we started, I never even though weÔÇÖd put a CD out, I thought weÔÇÖd be like a live, local band. Our first ever show was in a place called RMs in Merthyr Tydfill, which a year or two ago became the UKÔÇÖs biggest ever cannabis factory.┬á The gig sold out, but I think the majority of people there were there to see us fail, like ÔÇ£letÔÇÖs see what this knobs going to do, heÔÇÖs going to be crapÔÇØ.┬á I think they were sadly surprised that we were alright.┬á WeÔÇÖve always just wanted to play live.

Now you play all over the world!  How was the music video in Ibiza?
SS: Oh, it was crap.┬á We hated that ÔÇô women in bikinis, people drinking, hanging out with Pritch (Matthew Pritchard, Dirty Sanchez) in the Mediterranean, oh it was terrible! [laughs]
GB: That said, it was hard work at points!  Just trying to keep going!
SS: We only had four days there, and had to shoot two videos.  After the boat party, we carried on partying with Pritch until like five in the morning.
GB: We started shooting the video for ÔÇÿRunning ScaredÔÇÖ at 9 oÔÇÖclock in the morning and finished at about 9 oÔÇÖclock at night and we ended up just going straight out!
SS: We ended up at Pikes Hotel, which is where Freddie Mercury used to stay.  It was us, Pendulum, Pritch, Example; one hell of a party.

Was it the same mental, party atmosphere when you went on tour with Limp Bizkit?
SS: With Limp Bizkit, we didnÔÇÖt think that we were ever going to see them.┬á Either that they would have security all the time or that weÔÇÖd be ushered away from them, because were like super fan boys ÔÇô when we got there I was like ÔÇ£I canÔÇÖt believe itÔÇØ.
IÔÇÖd loved Limp Bizkit since I was 16, IÔÇÖd only seen them once at Download in 2010, but since 1999 onwards I was obsessed.┬á We walked in and he [Fred Durst] was just like ÔÇ£Hey man, I love your Twitter pictureÔÇØ and I was like ÔÇ£Ah, he knows he I am, this is fucking mentalÔÇØ.┬á ThereÔÇÖs a video of us on YouTube playing the first song we ever covered ÔÇô ÔÇÿCounterfeitÔÇÖ by Limp Bizkit ÔÇô with Limp Bizkit! It was one of the best moments of my life.
GB: It was mental because we went in thinking that weÔÇÖd never see them.┬á But, John [Otto, Limp Bizkit, drummer] came into our room on the first day and we couldnÔÇÖt get rid of him [laughs].
SS: In Italy, they have this massive fake merch industry, where the merch outside is probably better than the merch insideÔǪ and itÔÇÖs cheaper! [laughs] I was just about to buy a ÔÇÿI fucking hate Limp BizkitÔÇÖ T-Shirt, when Matt [Blackout, guitarist] called and said ÔÇ£You need to come to Limp BizkitÔÇÖs dressing roomÔÇØ.┬á So, I went in and it was literally wall to wall Vogue models and Fred went ÔÇ£Hey Sean, this is how we roll!ÔÇØ.
GB: You canÔÇÖt do the accent [laughs].
SS: No, no I canÔÇÖt.┬á But yeah, I was just like ÔÇ£No itÔÇÖs not weÔÇÖre 12 dates in and IÔÇÖve never seen any of thisÔÇØ [laughs]. But what a tour, what a lovely bunch of guys.

Did Fred have the red cap?
SS: No [laughs], but he had several other caps, but he never wore a red one.  He had white, green or black.  I think he might be trying to step away from the red cap.

How does playing as a support act compare with headlining your own shows like the one tonight? Is there one you prefer?
GB: Obviously when you do your own shows, itÔÇÖs your own fans there – you donÔÇÖt have to win anyone over and youÔÇÖre just performing. TheyÔÇÖre enjoying it, youÔÇÖre enjoying it and everyone just feeds off each other.
SS: Yeah, when youÔÇÖre on as a support you do have to win people over. In the older days when we played smaller venues, you have to go into the crowd and get in peopleÔÇÖs faces, even steal peopleÔÇÖs drinks [laughs]. Like during that Limp Bizkit tour ÔÇô I didnÔÇÖt even think once about us playing for their fans until the day we got there and suddenly realised we sounded nothing like them. We heard that prior to us, theyÔÇÖd had European tours where the support bands had been booed off. So we were like ÔÇ£Oh, here we go..ÔÇØ and chucked a Beastie Boys cover into the second song of our set.
GB: ItÔÇÖs really rewarding when you do these support slots though. Like on our tour with Yellowcard in Europe earlier this year, people would come up to us at the end of shows and say something like ÔÇ£IÔÇÖve never heard of you guys before, but I thought that was wicked.ÔÇØ That makes it all even better, just winning people over like that.┬á

Regarding supports, you took Hyro Da Hero on tour with you. Do you get much influence on the supports ÔÇô can you get bands youÔÇÖre friends with involved or are certain acts suggested?
SS: Yes, well Rat Attack who are opening for us on this tour, we got them involved because weÔÇÖre mates with Mike Lewis [ex-Lostprophets] whoÔÇÖs their manager. WeÔÇÖve been lucky because weÔÇÖve probably chosen the majority of our supports, IÔÇÖd say like 95%.
GB: ThereÔÇÖs a lot of bands that weÔÇÖd love to take out still but thereÔÇÖs always timing issues ÔÇô theyÔÇÖll be somewhere else or have something scheduled.
SS: Or they live in America and it costs too much to get over here! Yeah, weÔÇÖve been quite lucky ÔÇô we took Kids In Glass Houses on their first ever tour and look at them now! Have we got a penny of that?! No ÔÇô Kids In Glass Houses owe us money, tell them! [laughs]┬á┬á

YouÔÇÖve played to some huge crowds on the main stages at Reading & Leeds and Download Festival. Do you feel the same need to win the crowds over for these shows and does it intimidate you?
SS: I donÔÇÖt tend to get nervous anymore because I think weÔÇÖve got the songs there to win people over. IÔÇÖd like to think weÔÇÖve got ÔÇô I hate the word ÔÇÿbanterÔÇÖ because it makes me think of ÔÇÿladsÔÇÖ, but I think weÔÇÖve got the onstage personas to win a lot of people over. I either want people to love us, or hate us ÔÇô I donÔÇÖt want anyone to be like ÔÇ£Yeah, theyÔÇÖre alrightÔÇØ, IÔÇÖd much rather have them saying, ÔÇ£HeÔÇÖs a fucking prickÔÇØ or ÔÇ£Yeah, heÔÇÖs quite funny.ÔÇØ Our drummer still gets nervous whatever the show is though, to 10 people or 10,000.┬á

ItÔÇÖs seems like you play your live shows without pretention and donÔÇÖt take yourselves too seriously on stage. Is this approach important for The Blackout?
GB: Yeah, but one time we had to take down our backdrop [Fuck The Blackout] because the BBC were filming our show.
SS: WeÔÇÖve never taken ourselves too seriously, because at the end of the day, weÔÇÖre just six boys from Merthyr Tydfil who are somehow travelling the world. Every day I just go ÔÇ£Ah, how have we managed this?ÔÇØ

Finally, youÔÇÖre coming up to your ten-year anniversary as a band. How do you plan to mark this and is the tourÔÇÖs name ÔÇô ÔÇ£The Final PartyÔÇØ ÔÇô anything to do with it?
SS: No, the tourÔÇÖs just named that because itÔÇÖs the last tour weÔÇÖre doing for this album, but weÔÇÖve thought of something else. Our first two records [mini-album ÔÇ£The Blackout! The Blackout! The Blackout!ÔÇØ and debut album ÔÇ£We Are The DynamiteÔÇØ] came out on an indie label called Fierce Panda. ItÔÇÖs their 20th anniversary this year so we were thinking about maybe playing a special show where we just play songs off those two records.

Just a couple of days after this interview took place, Gavin was taken ill with a hemiplegic migraine. The remainder of the tour has been postponed until further notice. We wish Gavin a speedy and complete recovery.