How did Reagan come
about?
It really started out with our old singer Alan, Steve and I
who all knew one and other from college and it originally started
out as mates just having a bash around, we had a basement flat
and we just kept setting the equipment up in there and just
playing through songs, gradually it just got more and more serious
as we went along. I think we did our first gig early 2000 after
doing a small recording session, we were still at college for
about a year and a half and once we left college things began
to get a lot more serious and we all decided what we were producing
was good enough to move on and actually make a career out of
playing in Reagan. We all went and got really rubbish jobs so
we could all fit our jobs around the band.
For someone who hasn't heard Reagan how
would you describe your sound?
It's kind of hard rock with a lot of electronic influence,
there is an element of most dance genres there and we are
quite happy to skip around different genres. We have used
so many different elements from drum & bass, techno, house
even some ambient. At the moment are sound is changing a lot
we are always trying to maintain a hooky edge and have good
melodies in there, I think a lot of bands to try and do dance/rock
crossovers where there is often a lack of melody and we are
trying to make the crossover yet trying to keep a distinct
melody involved.
What bands are you listening to at the
moment?
All five of us have pretty different music tastes, I'm listening
to a lot of ambient electronica, some older ambient stuff
like Brian Eno also Nick Drake and Blur the Libertines is
another one of my favorite bands of the moment, for the sheer
Brit pop and catchy melodies and things. I bought the album
off the cuff but it is really good. I think you have to listen
to music that inspires you, that first feeling when you listen
to great track, that's why we do it. When you're sitting there
and you write a song and play it for the first time it's like
a million times better than when you first hear a song that
connects with you, it's the biggest Buzz
Who are your general influences?
Band influences are Primal Scream, Blur Radiohead and people
like Underworld, there are elements of bands like Sunnyday
real estate, our bass player is really into them. When you
have five people in a band and we all have quite different
music tastes we put a lot of individual influences in, what
comes out at the end is hopefully not sounding too much like
anyone else.
What can people expect from you when
you play live?
Lots of energy, we share a lot of energy with the crowd, the
band works as a tight unit, and that reflects onto the crowd,
the music side is often a lot more guitar based than the recorded
version. It's a lot more noisy and it rocks, I usually end
up by the end of most gigs bleeding, Steve usually sings his
voice to shreds…. it's a high energy stage show, it's
not overtly serious.
Who would your dream collaboration be?
Each member of the band would be able to name about 15 different
people they would like to collaborate with. Myself production
wise, I think it would be someone like the Chemical Brothers
I would love to work with Brian Eno or John Lecky. If I was
asked to be in a different band though I would like it to
be the Libertines but I think that has more to do with the
going out side of things.
How do you go about writing tracks?
Writing usually consists of two main things, one of us could
be sitting at home and come up with something and work on
the vocal melody and then we will all bring it together in
a rehearsal session and it will launch of from there when
everyone add there own bits, or we could all be sitting down
and playing away and we often come up with an instant hook
and take things from there. We don't have a main songwriter
in the group it is literally everyone putting in an equal
effort.
At your ideal after show party who would
you invite?
Definitely Ainsley from Fame Academy, we made it are new years
resolution to meet him, so far we are doing pretty well, I
think we have some leads on his address, so we are gonna go
and hunt him down, he was the only one on the show who would
kiss another guy and he pulled the nicest looking girl in
there! I think I would have Graham Coxon there maybe Audrey
Hepburn to add a touch of class and perhaps Marilyn Monroe,
we may be able to get them to have a fight or something. Jack
Nicholson would have to be the abusive bar man. I am always
quite weary about meeting my idols because they never seem
to live up to expectations, I think people build up a different
person in your imagination then when you meet them they completely
don't fit.
What are your ultimate goals?
Currently we are with the idea of writing the best album ever
and them splitting up. We don't want to be like so many bands
out there that have passed their sell by date. A 10 out of
10 review and world wide acclaim then I think it is time to
quit. But saying that we will probably totally sell out!
www.reaganised.com
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