It’s Halloween in London and the Koko in Camden is rammed full of people in their best fancy dress ready to catch Wednesday 13. Their support tonight comes from Fearless Vampire Killers. Ramzine caught up with Lawrence and Drew from the band before they headed out on stage.
Team RAM: Are you nervous about playing such a big venue tonight?
Lawrence: It’s definitely the biggest venue we’ve played.
Drew: And it’s the venue where you look out and there’s like people everywhere and it’s just like shit.
Lawrence: We actually played the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool which is absolutely massive.
Drew: Oh yeah that was our first show with our drummer Luke. It was absolutely hilarious because it was massive and there were like twelve people.
Lawrence: That was definitely more terrifying, playing to no one in a massive space. I know tonight’s going to be a lot of people. So that’s easy, the more people the easier the show is I think.
Drew: We’ve just been playing all these shows on our own whereas tonight it’s more of a mix. Like we know there’s a lot of people we know here but there’s also going to be a lot of people who have never heard of us. They’ve probably got their opinions of us already. So we’ll just try and go out and shake our tail feathers!
Team RAM: Is it quite nice doing a support show after you’ve finished a whole headline tour?
Laurence: Yeah it’s nice to be able to like leave our gear onstage and be able to just go straight on cause the past few nights like everything’s just been manic. Like we’ve always said we’ve never really wanted to be a headline band. We weren’t ready to be a headline band and so every night was just like sitting around.
Drew: Yeah like we always want to go out and watch ‘The Day Lay Waiting’, but just before you go on you want to warm up and get ready so it’s been a bit of a juggling act and then you don’t get to really relax afterwards because as soon as you get off it’s like try and sell some merch, met fans and then the security rush you away.
Team RAM: Did you manage to catch ‘The Day Lay Waiting’ much then?
Drew: I went to see at least a bit each night if I could.
Lawrence: We would always watch their first song and then depending on like if I could get out, like sometimes if we go out fans would come over and start talking to us and ignore ‘The Day Lay Waiting’.
Drew: So when ever we could get side stage that was better.
Team RAM: Do you think both FVK & TDLW have a similar fan base?
Drew: Yeah we have a cross over, and we didn’t want people to look at us and be like ‘Ohh it’s them’ and ignore the other band. But I did watch nearly all their set last night because it was the last night and fuck us they’re good.
Lawrence: Yeah they’re an awesome band.
Team RAM: Were there any particular tour highlights, or anywhere that surprised you?
Lawrence: There were quite a few.
Drew: I quite liked going back to Southend just because that was a place where we didn’t quite hit success but we got our first sort of fans in that area and then it kind of dwindled, and then we came back and it wasn’t like we’d rammed out a venue but it was a really good gig. It had a really nice vibe.
Lawrence: We sold out a few venues which was nice, like Sheffield. It was crazy. That was a good night. Birmingham was also good, and it’s weird because we’ve only played there once before and then there were loads of people there which was odd. Hmm where else, we sold out like Leeds and Andover. But Bristol.
Drew: Yeah Bristol, yeah that was really good. Playing that with Ashes to Angels, some guys we know which was fun. We had a few people we knew aswell, again that was a nice atmosphere.
Team RAM: Did you play with a Slipknot tribute band in Milton Keynes?
Drew: Oh yeah we did. Knotslip, that was hilarious.
Lawrence: It was awesome
Drew: It went a lot better than how we thought it would go, cause originally it was meant to be Knotslip and then a Lamb Of God tribute band and a Cancer Bats tribute band, then us at the start. And we were like the pussiest band and thought we’d get eaten alive by the people there. But in the end it was fine because I Divide filled in in the end as the other tribute bands cancelled so it was quite cool going on after them.
Lawrence: And the knotslip guys were really cool aswell.
Drew: We were just jumping about at the back. It’s a weird venue.
Lawrence: Yeah last time we were there (On the William Control tour) we got into a fight.
Drew: Yeah someone started on Shane our guitarist, and then Will then basically assembled a possy which was quite funny.
Lawrence: Going back there was nice because Milton Keynes is a tough place to play. So there’s only a certain amount of people there.
Drew: All the people who came were brilliant
Lawrence: To be honest the whole tour was great, as we said some sold out and some weren’t even half full but that’s just the way it is.
Drew: and were still finding our legs. And some people have this perception of us that we’re like too big for our boots, and we just want to get out there and play.
Lawrence: Like we haven’t really had much chance to play support tours so we had to just do it ourselves. I guess that’s why we were headlining, like we didn’t want to, it was our last resort.
Drew: We were like no one wants to play with us, lets go out.
Team RAM: Does that mean that the Kerrang tour for you guys is a massive deal?
Drew: Oh yes, it’s so brilliant. Like playing with those bands. With all of them. Like tonight alive, chiodos we’ve wanted to see them for year which is awesome. And of course BVB. So it’s going to be mad, and we’re on first. So we can just get our stuff off and relax and enjoy it. Have some drinkie-poos watch some great music.
Team RAM: Are you nervous about being the opening band?
Drew: No! That’s our thing.
Lawrence: Yeah. To be honest most of the people there are going to be up for it cause they’re going to be BVB fans. Cause everyone’s been slagging off the whole tour but none of those people are going to be stupid enough to buy tickets. So it’s going to be quite easy for us. And I think BVB have got some pretty cool fans. I think a lot of their fans are like our fans. Like most of our fans hadn’t heard of ‘The Dead Lay Waiting’ but they stood there and watched their whole set. And they always go straight to the front and watch all the bands. So we’ve got really great fans so I’m sure BVB ones will be the same.
Drew: We’ll probably see some really dedicated BVB fans which will be awesome.
Team RAM: Is it going to be odd playing venues that big?
Drew: Very strange, even this is weird. I think the strangest one for us is we’re going back to Norwich to the UEA which is where we grew up and saw all our first big gigs.
Lawrence: All these bands we grew up with.
Drew: So it’s going to be like our home coming.
Lawrence: And Brixton, that’s like the dream come true.
Drew: The golden egg.
Lawrence: It’s a big deal as well cause the last couple have been at the roundhouse. So Brixton is like a step up.
Drew: And Brixton I think is probably my favourite venue.
Lawrence: It’s weird to think we’re playing it so soon as well. Cause we kind of wanted as a band to play loads and loads of tours, smaller tours and cut our teeth. We wanted to do it ourselves, like play everywhere and anywhere which we’ve done to an extent over the past four years.
Drew: It’s only been with wider coverage, like we always drove about in our van after work at the weekends and just play anywhere. It’s only recently we’ve had much recognition of that.
Lawrence: We’ve played churches.
Drew: We’d play anywhere, we were gig whores.
Lawrence: Like Kier would just say we’re going here, and we’d play to like twenty people and hopefully we’d convert like a few people each night. And it wasn’t really until Will Control came on board where it all started kicking off. But this Kerrang tour like if we don’t fuck it up could be massive.
Drew: Yeah it’s a big leap to what we’ve done before. The coverage of it.
Team RAM: You’re about to release your new single does this mean you’re writing again?
Lawrence: That’s for the next album.
Drew: That was the first one we wrote after we recorded the album.
Lawrence: The idea is it’s showing people what the next album which sound like but at the same time that’s not going to be like what we next do.
Drew: Like a taster.
Lawrence: Like we’re going to release something else before the next album comes out, which will be more like ‘Militia of the lost’ stuff, or maybe even older stuff.
Drew: Like what we tried to do was make something more cohesive almost and this time we all wrote together where as before we’d all write separately.
Lawrence: Yeah all the songs on ‘Militia of the lost’ are pretty much written by me or Drew.
Drew: And we’d just do that on our own with an acoustic guitar. Arrange it with the band afterwards. But this one we just wrote sections. Everyone wrote something.
Lawrence: And that’s how we want to do the next album, but the next thing we’re going to release will be an EP which will be the old way again.
Drew: It’s even more interesting because people are almost writing a song each. So there’s going to be like new voices coming out. As everyone writes different styles. So there will be much more diversity.
Lawrence: Yeah I think we’re going into the studio in a couple of weeks.
Drew: As soon as tour finished it was going to be a mad rush to get everything finished.
Team RAM: Do you think you’ll play some new stuff on the Kerrang! Tour then?
Lawrence: It might have come out by then. If it has we might play the singles because I think there should be like two singles from that from EP. That’s the plan. Yeah then we don’t know what’s going to happen after the Kerrang! Tour. Yeah we’ve got some things lined up, like we’re pretty sure we know where we’re going to record the next album. That’s going to be exciting.
Drew: Yeah we’ve got a lot of time after the next spat of recording.
Team RAM: Do you actually get a break now before Christmas?
Lawrence: Yeah but a boring break like we’re not allowed to play gigs before the Kerrang!
tour.
Drew: Yeah we’ve got to hold off. It gives us time to write and practice.
Lawrence: Obviously we’re all still at work too.
Drew: Like we have one show, a Christmas show with lost alone supporting those guys. So that will be cool.
Team RAM: Thanks for chatting to us guys, good luck with the show tonight!
Fearless Vampire Killers released their debut album ‘Militia Of The Lost’ , performed at Download festival and were nominated as Best Newcomer at this years Kerrang! awards. So it’s been a pretty big year for them. They’ve just released a double A- side single featuring ‘Palace In Flames/ Exploding Heart Disorder’ so grab yourself a copy now.
