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 Raised on a diet of old-skool hard-rock and
all that goes with it, supercharged rockers Supamodel have gained a
reputation for putting on intense, exciting live shows. Hardly the
biggest fans of new artists such as Bullet for My Valentine or My
Chemical Romance,, Tubbz, Twix, D and Fezz sat down for a chat with The
LINC about where they fit in today’s rock ‘n’ rock climate.
Starting at the very beginning, how did you all get together?
Tubbz: Me and Twix were already in a version of the band first, with a
different spelling, ‘Super Model’. Two guys left, which was their own
misfortune, and then we got Fezz in on guitar and D answered an advert
to become our singer/guitarist. That was about two and a half years ago.
How long after this line up came together did you set out and play your
first gig?
Tubbz: It was about three months, not that long. Before D came along, we
all played together, just played anything to keep it going, and then D,
I think he can just go into any band, slide right in and make them sound
pretty good.
We used some songs from the older band, and added about three or four
new ones until we had about half an hour, forty minutes worth of stuff
and played our first gig at the Roadhouse in Manchester.
How did that gig go?
D: I was a bit nervous
Twix: I wasn’t. I mean, I’m nervous for every gig for about the first
verse and chorus, but after that… To be honest, I can’t really remember
much about that first gig.
What have you been up to then in the past two and a half years?
Tubbz: Demos…
Twix: Two CDs
Tubbz: Videos, we did two or three of our own videos of our gigs.
Fezz: We’ve toured up and down the country.
Tubbz: We’re now looking to do a tour of Europe next year. Tony, our
manager, has got some contacts over there so we’re hoping to pull that
one off.
Picked up any Spinal Tap stories along the way?
Fezz: Yeah, we had one at the Night & Day Café in Manchester. I thought
the gig was downstairs in the basement, so I started following it (the
way to the basement), and it was like that scene were they get lost
backstage!
[The rest of the band crack up laughing]
Tubbz: There was actually a sign saying ‘stage this way’, so Fezz led
the way and we all followed him. We ended up in the toilets, there’s
some guy in there and we come walking in with our bass drums and guitars
and stuff.
Where would you say you fit in with the local music scenes?
Twix: I don’t think we do, because if you look at the bands in Bolton
and Wigan, you either get indie music, or really, top-end of the scale
heavy stuff, and we don’t really fit into either of those categories.
Tubbz: I don’t really think there’s a band out there like us. Round
Wigan, the scene is mainly made up of indie music, but Wigan Rock
Promotions who are putting on more metal bands, are they’re helping us
out a lot more.
Fezz: I think the thing with indie music in Wigan is to expected. You
know, with the whole ‘Verve Richard Ashcroft thing and that. Whereas I
think if a metal band from Wigan broke it, it’d be a different story and
this place would be full of metal.
Tubbz: There’s also the thing that when rock and metal bands are booked,
you can get the really extreme type of metal, and we’re not really like
that. You can tell what we’re singing and what we’re playing, but yet
we’ve still got the attitude of being in a good rock band.
How would you describe your sound then?
Twix: It’s hard rock, the sort of hard rock you don’t really get much
anymore. It’s the kind of stuff from the Guns n Roses era, that sleazy
LA rock sound.
Tubbz: With some of the songs, you get the sleazy LA rock but then you
also get the tightness of early Metallica.
Fezz: There’s all different influences in here that come from all
different eras of rock music. I’m the youngest in the band so I’ve grown
up with the likes of Slipknot and Cradle of Filth, D’s more Guns n Roses
and Queen, Tubbz is Metallica, Twix brings Motley Crue and it all sort
of comes together to form this supercharged rock sound.
And what are your songs about, what influences the lyrics?
Twix: The stuff that comes easiest to me is to write about stuff like
horror movies and zombies and stuff like that.
D: I think we’ve got two different sorts of lyrics. I usually write the
first thing that comes off the top of my head that rhymes.
Tubbz: I always imagine Twix sat at home watching some zombie films and
then writing songs about it, whilst D’s sat at work getting annoyed
about things and writing about what he sees.
So would you say there’s a kind of mix between fantasy and reality?
[All in agreement] Yeah.
Twix: Well, fantasy in that sense of personal fantasies, not as in
goblins and demons and that.
What attracted you all to rock ‘n’ roll and playing in a band?
Tubbz: For me it’s been the one thing I’ve always wanted to do since I
was 12 years old. Ever since I heard [Metallica’s] Master of Puppets,
that’s what I’ve wanted to do.
Fezz: I never really fit in with the other kids at school. They were all
listening to Eminem and Dr. Dre and that, and one day I went into Andy’s
Records back when that was around and saw this album with these masked
nutters on the front. I bought that, went home, listened to it and asked
my dad to buy me a guitar. That’s how it all started for me.
Twix: I was into bands like Kiss, and they all seemed larger than life
and I really got into that. I was like, as soon as I leave school I’m
gonna grow my hair long! Cos they always made you cut your hair at
school!
D: I did it because my Dad liked Guns n Roses and that. GnR and Iron
Maiden and bands like that were always on at home, so I just listened to
that sort of stuff and it stuck.
Tubbz: I think that’s the same with a lot of people. If you’re a kid and
someone like a mate or an older brother has got videos of Iron Maiden,
Judas Priest, Metallica or whatever, you end up watching them and sooner
or later you think ‘I wanna do that!’. It looks like a great thing to
do, and it is.
Fezz: It feels so raw, so brilliant, it’s not like anything that’s
around music wise.
Twix: One of the earliest things I can remember is my Dad taking me to a
record shop and buying me Kiss on tape, and then taking me out of
primary school to go and watch them in Birmingham at the NEC Arena.
You’ve got some pretty old-skool influences, what do you make of the new
music that’s about today?
D: It’s rubbish.
Fezz: Everything went sour for me after Slipknot did their ‘Iowa’ album.
Everything sounds the same, all this Bullet For My Valentine and that,
it’s all the same. You either get bands all doing something melodic or
doing all that screaming and shouting where you can’t really tell what’s
going on.
I mean, when Slipknot came out, they had an edge on it, they were doing
some different, but since then everyone’s come out to try and copy them.
The only band who’s out at the minute who have stood out to me is
[Eurovision Song Contest winners] Lordi. They remind me of how Kiss
would be if they came out today.
Twix: I pick up Kerrang occasionally, and whenever I read it, there’s
Trivium, who are OK, Bullet for My Valentine, My Chemical Romance,
Mastodon, and there’s just nothing to tell them apart, nothing that
makes you recognise them as soon as they come on. As soon as a Guns n
Roses song comes on, you know it’s a Guns n Roses song, Metallica come
on, you know it’s a Metallica song, and I don’t think there’s a band
like that around right now.
Tubbz: I don’t think there’s a single band out now who I’d personally
want to go and watch.
Fezz: Look at Murderdolls. When they came out, they were like how Motley
Crue would be if they came out today, and that was something different.
Do you see yourselves as offering something different to the music
that’s out there today?
Tubbz: I’d like to think so, I certainly hope so. I’d like people to
watch us and think that we don’t sound like the other bands on the bill.
I think we’re different because we’re not influenced by the bands that
are around today, whereas there’s new rock and metal bands around who
listen to stuff like My Chemical Romance and Bullet For My Valentine, so
they’re going out playing those sort of songs.
Twix: It’s not original in the sense of never having been done before,
it’s original in the sense of taking something that’s not been around
for a while and doing something different with it.
What would you rather do, remain underground or take it to the highest
level?
D: I think you’ve always got to progress.
Fezz: When we play live, we play as if we’re playing to a stadium, no
matter if there’s one person or a thousand. We played a gig in Kendal to
a guy with a sheep!
D: And we played a gig with just my girlfriend and Twix’s girlfriend
watching us but we still gave it everything.
Tubbz: We even rehearse with the mental image of playing to 10,000
people.
Twix: I have 100% faith in these guys that I know every show we do
everyone’s gonna give it everything they’ve got.
Tubbz: I think that if we did ever, fingers crossed, get to play a big
stadium we wouldn’t be shell shocked. You know, if we went from 500
people to 5000 people, we’d be ready for it because we play like that
anyway.
How would you describe a Supamodel show to somebody who’s never seen you
before?
[All] Energy, raw energy.
Tubbz: When I was younger, I wanted to go and see a band where I could
have a good time and then go home humming one of their songs and
thinking ‘that was a really good band, I’m gonna go and watch them
again’. I like to think that we give people that. You come to our shows,
you don’t have to sit there with your legs crossed analyzing every song
like you’re at a prog-rock show or something like that. You’re not gonna
come out with bleeding ear drums or feeling depressed because we’ve been
sat there with an acoustic guitar whining about how bad our girlfriends
treat us .
You’re gonna come out with a smile.
D: There’s a lot of bands seem to just stand around like they’re going
through the motions rather than getting into the show. We enjoy what we
do and we put passion into our shows. We’re not gonna stand there doing
nothing because that’s no fun for us.
Fezz: There’s a big element of danger and adrenalin in our shows.
Has there ever been a time over the last two and half years when you’ve
questioned whether it’s all worth it, and contemplated calling it a day?
Twix: Not really. I mean, I think in any band you get that period were
you may not have played a gig for six months, and then you go on holiday
or whatever and come back and you just seem to have lost something. Then
you have one gig and you might as well go and do this one gig, but then
that sparks everything back up again and you think ‘I can’t imagine a
life without not doing this’.
D: Or you might get a situation were the audience isn’t quite up for it,
like the one we did in Kendal to one guy and a sheep, sometimes that
puts a dampener on it.
Tubbz: Even just going into rehearsal picks things up. I’ve been in
bands were it’s just one guy bringing everybody down, and you don’t
wanna suggest playing a song because you know this guy’s just gonna pull
a face at it.
In this band though, it’s not like that. We all have our own egos, but
they don’t interfere with one another. It’s just a good atmosphere. I
enjoy everything about this band, I enjoy rehearsing, being with them on
stage, off stage...
What would you class as the highlight so far?
Tubbz: I think the gig we did in London. It was the first time we’d
really been out of our area.
Fezz: There were three Bolton bands going down all together, everyone
took a bit of each other’s gear and we drove down in the morning, played
a good gig and just had a really good day. It was like a bit of a mini
tour really.
Do you get on well with a lot of the other bands who are at your level?
Tubbz: Do we get on with bands? No.
[The band crack up laughing]
Tubbz: Yeah we do. We’re friends with The Hicks and The Psychedelic Gods
of Rock and a band in Bolton called Phantom. If they need someone to
help them out with a gig, we’ll do that. I even lent Phantom my drum kit
once when we weren’t even playing.
It’s one of those ‘you scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours’
situations.
Fezz: We’re doing a show with the [Psychedelic] Gods of Rock and
there’ll be a few of the Corrie stars there, Candice [Nikki Sanderson]
will be there so that’ll be fun!
What would be the ultimate achievement for Supamodel?
Fezz: World Domination.
Tubbz: When you aim high, you’ve got to keep on going high. I mean, I
don’t want us to get lazy, you know, I don’t want us to get to a certain
level and then say ‘right, we’re happy here’, because then we will get
lazy. We need to always be looking at going to the next level…. I won’t
be happy until we’ve played a gig on the moon.
What advice would you give to any young people looking to form a band?
Fezz: Just keep at it.
Tubbz: If you can start off with you and a mate, one on bass and one on
guitar, then you’re half way there. If you’ve got two guitarists, I’d
suggest one of you pick up bass, then if you find a bass player you can
always go back to guitar.
I think it’s really important though to play with people you can get
along with. If you’re in a band with people you can’t stand being in a
room for twelve hours a week with, then you’re not going to enjoy it.
Even if you know that the guy down the road is the next Steve Vai but
he’s a bit difficult to get along with, then go with the other guy who
might not be as good, but at least you can get on with him.
The other thing is, play with a smile. If you’re not enjoying it, then
you can’t expect the people watching won’t enjoy it either.
Even if you know that the guy down the road is the next Steve Vai but
he’s a bit difficult to get along with, then go with the other guy who
might not be as good, but at least you can get on with him.
Fezz: It’s all about determination after that really.
Final question, why should people who are reading this who may not have
heard of Supamodel before come and check you out?
Tubbz: We offer something different, a good time.
Twix: And if you don’t like it, Fezz will give you your money back!
No, seriously. I’d say that if you like rock ‘n’ roll music, come down
to a gig. If you don’t like rock ‘n’ roll music, still come down, you’ll
still enjoy it.
Tubbz: If you want a band where you can come and have a good time, have
a sing-a-long even to songs you don’t know and go away with a smile on
your face, then that’s us.
Recommended Links:
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www.supamodel.co.uk
►
www.myspace.com/supamodeluk
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