Not everyday one finds oneself face to face with one of these bands capable to make you feel, just by listening a single minute of their music, they are going to reinvent rock and roll. Without any doubt, Liquid Fuse is one of those bands. With a frontman as talented and charismatic like a young Freddie Mercury and a bunch of inspirational musicians playing at the same level as Guns N’ Roses when they were writing the songs for “Appetite for Destruction” (Geffen Records, 1987) at the Hell House, it is sure these boys would set people talking about LF in the future.
The Band
Joe Wareham - Vocals
Jamie North – Guitar
Lee Bentley – Guitar
Dwight Brady – Drums
Will Carroll – Bass
Dan Kelly – ex-Bass player (played with them at Surface)
HB - When did you realised you wanted to be part of this crazy world of rock‘n‘roll? What was it that attracted you in the first place and how did you start as a band?
Individually, we’ve enjoyed rock music since we were young, and people don’t need much persuading to want to be rock stars! There’s a timeless awe around it: the stadia, the thousands of people, the crazy performances. While other fashions come and go, rock ‘n’ roll is always is cool.
The band started with Jamie and Lee meeting at college around 5-6 years ago – they’ve played and written together ever since. They got through a metric tonne of other band members until Joe came along and started putting some lyrics to their music; everything just gelled. After that, it was just a case of finding a rhythm section, which came in the form of Dwight and Dan (and now Will, replacing Dan).
HB - I guess this is a usual question for you guys, but ¿where does the name of Liquid Fuse come from? What’s behind it?
Funnily enough, Jamie was messing around with a random name generator online…he got one random name with “Liquid” in it, and another with “Fuse” in it, and he put them both together and liked them. That simple! It is a unique name though, and if you search us on Google you’ll find we’re most of the top results – tip for new bands: make sure your name doesn’t have any competition!
HB - After listening to tracks like Loaded Gun or Sands and finding out that you include extracts from AC/DC’s “Back in Black” and Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” in your live shows, it’s clear your influences are based on old school rock’n’roll, but ¿How would you describe your music? ¿Do you think it was a good idea to come back to the basics?
We wouldn’t say we’d gone “back to basics” as such. Our music is clearly influenced in a lot of old rock ‘n’ roll, particularly 80s hard rock, but we feel (and critics seem to agree with us) that though our influences are clear, we do something new and different to that sound. When people hear us play, people tend to say less that we “take them back to those days” and more that we are refreshing, which confirms our belief that what we are doing isn’t just re-hashing the same old stuff people have heard before – in the words of Bruce Lee, we are absorbing what is useful, discarding what is useless, and adding what is uniquely our own.
HB - Talking about the mainstream musical scene and shows like XFactor and Britain‘s Got Talent, what’s your opinion about these kind of “artists” aired on prime time radio who come from this kind of “musical” background? Do you think LF could change the perspective on emerging British bands?
We don’t have any beef with individual artists – they’re doing what they can, and good luck to them. The problem is the music industry and the media machine, which combined have put increasingly lower emphasis on talent and more on churning out talentless stars to be built up, consumed, and thrown away. Liquid Fuse would be a refreshing breath of rock ‘n’ roll air, focusing on what is important: real music from real musicians, and great performances. Emerging as a real rock band is a much harder, longer route, but like we said before, rock ‘n’ roll has an amazing longevity about it, from the music to the fans, and it is not as disposable as mainstream pop.
HB - Just give our readers an inside look about “Loaded Gun” Ep. ¿Where do the lyrics come from? ¿Where do you find the inspiration to write your lyrics?¿Is there any special/hidden meaning in them?
Joe writes most of the lyrics (though the song Loaded Gun was a joint effort between Joe, Jamie and Lee), and a lot of the songs have the classic components – girls, rock and having a good time. It’s no secret that there’s a fair bit of innuendo around the chorus and verses of Loaded Gun; Now It’s Time is a more straightforward song about a “Carpe Diem” or grab-life-by-the-balls approach; Sands is about finally finding a particular girl after a long struggle.
HB - You were crowned winners of Cravin' Tunez Worthing Battle Of The Bands 2011, winners of Surface Festival Regional Final (London & South East), and finalists on Surface International Showcase, which took place last October 1, ¿What it is your opinion about these kind of competitions? ¿How was your experience in them?
These competitions aren’t the be-all and end-all, but they certainly have their place for any emerging bands – they give you exposure, recognition and the possibility of some prizes. On of the key things is that it gives your fans and friends the opportunity to rally behind you…as long as you don’t do too many and wear your fanbase out by begging them to help you all the time, you’re giving everyone a sense of joint purpose…winning is a nice boost. The other main thing is that competitions (and later, judge feeback) force you to look at your band critically, build on what you do well and work weaknesses. We’ve enjoyed our experiences with these competitions, and we’ve met some great people and bands along the way.
HB - ¿What is the coolest thing about being a member of/ in LF?Writing songs, playing live, the groupies, performing with other bands…?
There are a million great things about being in Liquid Fuse, like the fact that we’re a second family, having a lot of fun, writing songs…but really, nothing comes close to playing a great gig. Being on stage in front of loads of people who are going crazy, screaming and singing your lyrics back to you is the coolest thing in the world. So we’d like to thank everyone out there that’s done that for us, and for all their support – love you!
Second best thing would be writing a new lick or line and getting those butterflies in your stomach because you KNOW that’s a new song right there.
“We'd love to play with AC/DC. We think we would suit each others’ style.”
HB - Why should someone who's never heard of your band check you guys out?
Because listening to our music will put a smile on your face. We challenge you to listen to our EP (or, even better, listen to us live) and not enjoy yourself. If not, find us and comment on our page and tell us why!
HB - You played at Indig02 and other festivals on the search for new musical talents but ¿What would be the perfect/dream venue/festival for you to play?
We all have different answers, from Download Festival to Wembley to Madison Square Garden to Rock in Rio….ultimately, we just want to get up in the biggest place possible and look upon a sea of faces in front of us, ready to rock. That’s the dream – proper stadium rock.
HB - ¿Which band/artists would you love to share the stage with? ¿And what band/artist would you love to hang out after a gig? ¿Why?
There are a load of bands we’d love to play with but none with a bigger, more timeless appeal than AC/DC. Have you ever heard anyone say they don’t like them? We think we would suit each others’ style.
In terms of post-show, we’d love to hang out with some of the crazier guys – the old GNR line-up, Mötley Crüe, Steel Panther. Chickenfoot would be great to hang out with too! Really, we’d love to play with any of these bands.
HB - How do you see yourself as a band, say, in 10 years time?
Playing at Wembley and changing people’s ideas on how good a live show can be. Seriously!
HB - We give you carte blanche to say whatever you want to let our readers know about what’s going on in the LF universe.
Why thank you! Well, it’s an exciting time – we’ve just got a new bass player, Will, and we’ve just taken on some great management so the rest of the year is going to be spent getting ourselves together and getting a website done. We’re also in the process of recording a charity single, Fiona, which we plan to tour across the UK to raise some cash. Oh, and did I mention a show with Black Spiders in April?
By early next year, we’ll be looking to have everything ready to go (website, image, new material) and play a showcase in London to get noticed by the industry. We’re serious about taking this to the next step.
For more information about Liquid Fuse you can visit the following websites:
Entradas
