EastScene

East Scene caught up with Matt Kean, bass player of the U.K powerhouse Bring Me The Horizon.  After having won Kerrang’s award for Best British Newcomer in 2006, and being voted Rock Sound’s Reader’s Poll for best British band, this is one group not easily boxed into the deathcore genre, and proving that true musicianship has no age.

ES: You’re heading into pretty extensive touring schedule playing the festival circuit in Europe this summer and having been on Taste of Chaos, how do you keep yourselves pumped and your energy every night?

Matt: I guess you try to eat well. Its one of the things you can rely on when on tour you’re eating fast food every day. So we all take vitamins every day. For myself I know that as soon as someone gets ill I try and avoid them as much as possible.

ES:  You’re all pretty young, did you all know that you wanted to play music for a living?
Matt: We all started the band just for fun and to have something to do really. We never aimed to be a huge band or to do this full time. It just sort of happened.

Es: and now that it has?
Matt: Well it’s great really.

Es: How does each member’s individuality shine through musically?
Matt: We all have loads of different tastes and I guess we sort of just mash them all up together. Like with our last c.d. we never really sat down and said this is what we want to do or sound like. We just go with it and whatever comes out does and we take it from there. But of course you have to try and have some sort of feel to the album.

ES: So it’s never a conscious decision as far as an idea of how you want it to sound like?
Matt: No we just kind of sit down on a room and play all day.

ES: So I know most bands don’t like to discuss where they get their band names but I heard something interesting about you guys. True or false you got your band name form a line in Pirates of the Caribbean?
Matt: {laughs} This was before I joined.  But they just wanted a name that sounded good really. At the time there were a lot of bands that had names that you would associate with this kind of music. They just stayed away from all the pretentious or predictable stuff. And they were sitting around one day watching the movie and heard the line and thought it would be a laugh.

ES: What did you feel you wanted to change going into the recording of your latest album Suicide Season from Count Your Blessings?
Matt: We just wanted to sound a little more grown up and decided on the first c.d. we thought oh we can’t put that on because it has to have a certain sound with the rest. But on this release we just went with whatever we wanted. Everything goes!

ES: What is your favourite thing to do as a band together?
Matt: Just playing. We all enjoy each others company. We’ve been the best of friends since being in this band. When we go home we’re pretty much the only people we hang out with just because a lot of the time when you go on touch u lose touch with people. A lot of our crew are friends we had back home. We just decided brought on tour with us. Like our lights guy he s a friend from back home. We told him if he learned something wed take him on tour with us. So he’s been learning lights for the past year. It helps when you’re on tour to be one big gang of friends.

ES: What’s one of the best experiences you’ve had on tour? And pranking is pretty notorious when you have larger tours or on any tour really. Can you tell me the best prank you’ve pulled off or had pulled on you?
Matt: We toured with Killswitch Engage and during the last show everyone dressed up like waiters and served them wine and sat down while they played, everyone got a laugh out of that.

ES: What do you have lined up for the rest of the summer?
Matt: Were doing a lot of festivals in the U.K. and Europe. But we’re going to be home for a while just writing a lot and gearing up for the next record.

Es: Have you noticed anything different between European and Nor American Crowds? Do you find yourselves having to change the way you play or act?
Matt: Yeah. I think that in Europe the crowds can be a lot more reserved when you’re playing but after the show they’re a bit more crazy  towards as you as a person. I think that in the US and Canada you have a lot of bands that are touring here a lot of the time but in the U.K. it’s not rare but it’s not so often that huge bands come out and because its so small they’re out there for like a week or whatever so I think people tend to put them on a pedestal it’s a bit weird sometimes.

ES: Can you tell us about your work with Peta 2 and how that came about?
Matt: It’s mainly our lead singer Oli who started it all. Hes really into Peta and what they do Through Drop Dead he did a joint venture with them where profits went to Peta.

ES: Tours can sometimes become long no matter how much fun you’re having. What I one thing you like to do to kill time?
Matt: We like to play football, rather I guess you’d say soccer but really its football{laughs}. We play Xbox and explore towns a lot of the time we just get out and try to find something to do. Find a bar kill time.

ES: The music industry has changed so much. Can you tell me what is one thing you’ve noticed and if it’s a positive or negative for musicians and the industry in general?
Matt: I think really positive thing is you don’t need to be signed. In a space of a day you can form a band, record and literally have millions of people hear your music. Like with us I think that we kind of got onto the whole MySpace and music over the internet thing as it kicked off. Labels knew that kids were into us through MySpace. I think that the way things are going with music today; it could come to the point where labels may become non existent and not needed anymore.

ES: Do you think that it makes bands work harder or make sit a little easier?
Matt: I think a lot of people in bands do focus on promoting over MySpace a little too much. I think you need to get out and play shows and get people like that. But I think that MySpace is still great for getting your music out there in the first place but you definitely need to get out and play.

ES: What are 2 bands together or defunct that you’d love to tour with?
Matt: I think Pink Floyd, Queen. They’re legendary.

ES: Do you think that people ever look at you being young and maybe doubt your musicianship or your ability as a band?
Matt: I think that a lot of people see us and may judge us because we’re young. It’s happened on tour as well like when we went on tour with The Cure, I think a lot of blokes looked at us and thought “who are these people? they should be in school” and were kind of skeptical towards us, but I suppose that can happen with anything really.

ES: Have you then managed to convert anyone over?
Matt: I think so. We were 16 -17 when we started when we’d go on stage people would just look at us but then we started playing and showed them.