So I’ve come to interview new cool kids on the block Hadouken. As I turned up a bit early, I thought I would waste a bit of time in the union shop. As I browse the magazine section I get knocked into by a bright green hoodie, orange Nike Air trainer wearing tall youth who bares an uncanny similarity to the lead singer of the band I’m just about to interview.

Shaking all notions that it could be him just casually strolling through the aisles unknown to fellow shoppers I depart to the Stags to meet the band. Yet surprisingly I am welcomed by that exact same guy and it turns out that not only were NME and the Independent a necessity buy but deodorant as well. It seems incredibly odd that as I sit with the front man, James, not a single soul recognises him yet as entered the gig later that evening hundreds were calling his name.

Hello. How are you really to begin with? You must be knackered with the tour?

I’m ok. Feeling quite refreshed actually. I just had a shower in your student showers.

Do we even have student showers (clearly I wasn’t aware of these onsite facilities)?

Well we found one yeah. ..My tour manager showed me one, which was pretty good.

So how is the tour going? You’re doing mostly universities venue. Are the crowds treating you well?

Yeah they’re usually pretty good. Are we a Friday today? Yeah (answers the question for himself) yeah it is….that will make all the difference especially because of the drinking thing on Friday. Saying that with students it doesn’t really matter, it doesn’t have to be Friday or Saturday to drink but sometimes it helps the crowd if they’ve had a little drink, to get them going really.

How about the Japanese leg of the tour? Have many stories to tell?

It was pretty intense actually. We played to like 20,000 people which was kind of unreal….kind of ‘Oh My God…are we gona pull this off?’ After the first song it was completely silent, we were like oh my god and then everyone just started clapping. There was no cheering just everyone started clapping and then they just stopped. We played our next song and it turns out, when we came off stage, we were told that the Japanese people are just really respectful and they don’t talk. They’re completely silent during the whole time that you’re playing and then when you’ve finished they just clap and cheer a bit and then just stop clapping entirely. It’s so weird. Like 20,000 people all just silent. It’s just the most weird feeling.

Now I did read on the forum that amongst trying Japanese food sushi etc eating off the back of a naked virgin’s body was one of your aims for the tour. Is that true?

Yeah that was one of our tour managers saying that in some places you can do that and it kind of became a rolling joke within the band. We were like ‘Oh yeah yeah we’ll go there. We’ve gotta do that’. And yeah we just put it up there (on the forum). A few reporters have said that and we’ve found it quite funny.

So it didn’t really happen then?

No. No.

The new single ‘A Leap of Faith’ is extremely different to the previous singles and I have read on the reliable source that is Wikipedia you are going through a reinvention. Is that what you’re aiming for with the single?

It kind of is yeah. I think it wasn’t a massively conscious issue to do it but once we’d done it we realised we had changed quite a lot in the past year and we kind of just banded about the phrase ‘Reinvention 2.0’, which was a joke, but it certainly wasn’t that we needed to do it. It just happened really ‘Oh yeah this is version 2.0’. It’s also about just saying that a lot of people have put us in a box already and said "We’re this. We’re that". And we just wanted to show people we’re not just a one trick pony. We are prepared to go out on a limb and do different things. Sometimes it will be successful and sometimes it won’t, but as long as we can try we will be happy in ourselves.

Yes well you are ‘chav-hop, grime-wave, grime-fakers, grimecore, grindie. Do you like the fact that you can’t really be narrowed down to any specific genre?

Yeah. Well we don’t really focus on it when we make music, we don’t go "Oh they won’t be able to call this that". We just make it organically and then its’ up to the journalist to try and give it a name. I like it when they can’t say "Oh they sound like Oasis or they sound like Artic Monkeys". The closet thing we get is Prodigy or Rage Against the Machines but I don’t think we have a million things in common with those two bands.

Now with ‘Mixtape’ did you want to give something back to the fans before the album came out or was it a bit of fun to see just how well it would be received?

Yeah, it was exactly giving something back before the album and buying us a bit of time. Because we want to get the album right but we don’t have much time considering that there are a lot of bands that want to hear something that is here and now. So we thought if we did the Mixtape it would enable us to create a bit of time before the album comes out in April.

Well you do have many loyal fans or ‘Indie Cindies’ as they call themselves. Have you had many tag alongs/groupies? Obviously not yourself, what with the other half being in the band, but have the other boys had much luck?

They’re there if you want them but it’s not as glamorous as it would seem. It’s usually the psycho ones that tend to knock on your dressing room door.

Ahhhh nice. But they’re not always the attractive ones?

Yeah, yeah exactly.

Obviously a lot of these fans have discovered your music on Myspace. Has it been easy crossing from Myspace to mainstream ‘Jo Whiley’ friendly? Or do you even want to become known as a mainstream band?

Well we want it on our terms. So if we get it we’re not prepared to bow down and make a radio friendly pop hit or something like that. We just want to make what we like and if that connects to the mainstream then fair enough. We’ll just carry on doing what we do. People like Jo Whiley have been quick to jump on it which is fair enough, we respect her and nationwide radio stations support, like Radio 1, they are really important.

There seems to be a great deal of allegiance to Leeds University within the band. With other members of the band coming from different towns, is there a sense of getting rid of the Surrey tag?

Well there’s only two from Surrey and its really just a case of Leeds was the only place where the three of us lived, so that was the place that we came from. We’ve moved away since and we’ve never claimed to be born and bred Leeds, it’s just where the band was formed, its birthplace.

Well I hear from a Leeds Uni mate of mine that drinks a ridiculously cheap. So who’s the lightweight of the band?

Well we all like a drink, drink is our tipple of choice. Errr well I like to drink. Nick likes to drink. Chris likes a drink. We all like to drink basically. Alice is probably the biggest lightweight, she doesn’t know when to say know.

Any drunken antics on the tour bus? Done anything outrageous?

Chris got really drunk and thought that Pilau’s (his last name is Rice) bed was a brick wall to go for a wiz on and pissed on his duvet cover. Wasn’t very happy and kind of got woken up.

Ahhh that’s lovely. So moving on from the wiz. The neon thing is often associated with yourselves. Who came up with the whole DIY, colouring in the vinyl element to your bands merchandise?

It was a natural thing really. We just did it ourselves and didn’t really think it would take up but it did. It just kicked off and we just ran with it.

So you haven’t got a Lily Allen inspired clothes line in the pipeline? New Look haven’t approached you?

No. I think its more focus on the music at the moment.

Obviously with the band name originating from a video game move is it true that a lot of the music and sounds within the tracks are influenced by Nintendo games?

Yeah we do sample Gameboy in some tunes, which is pretty cool. There is definitely a video game element to it.

Now the guys in my flat, when they get drunk, come home and play Mario video games to about 5am in the morning. Is that a regular occurrence in your tour bus?

Errrr we played a lot of MarioKart, that’s what we play. Kind of similar I guess.

Now I know you’ve been featured in a bit of Mike Skinner’s ‘Beat Stevie’ TV programme. Is it nice to be associated with that kind of celebrity?

Well He’s a legend. He’s an actual musical legend. He gave us a bit of advice from the start and has been pretty sound to us. We’ve definitely got a lot of time for him.

Finally my flatmates a bit of a weirdo and made me promise that I would ask this question. If you were a kitchen utensil what utensil would you be?

(Looks at me as if I’m a twat)…..Errrrrrr……(Long Pause. Note to self never ask flatmate for questions again).....Trying to think of the good ones……A lemon squeezer.

Thanks very much.

 

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