How did you start the band in the first place?Gracie: We started the band when we were at school. We started to do covers and little graduation shows.
Mafro: From that we went onto doing more gigs and a tour.
Gracie: We now play all our own music. Doing covers gave us the inspiration to write our own music. So we formed the band from there.
Mafro: We have been going about 3 or 4 years now.
How would you describe your music? What are your musical influences?
Gracie: Well people class us under rock or indie because we are quite catchy and youthful but I would say that we've got more rawness to our sound. The lyrics are a lot more rocky and feisty, kind of bringing old rock back.
Mafro: We always get compared to the older, classic rock. We have been compared to Jefferson Aeroplane in the past. Whenever we do a gig we never fit in with the other bands. If it's an indie night we won't really fit in. If we are put on at a rock night, we still won't fit in.
Gracie: It was like when we got played on the Bruce Dickinson show on BBC 6 radio. The DJ had to decide, while he liked our track, how to fit us in. But because it's not fully metal rock and it's not totally indie it means it's got that edge to it.
You were recently featured on a compilation CD brought out by a new label from Castleford called Murderous Traffic. How did this come about?
Gracie: On the Sunday night we used to play at the Loft at Xscape. All the local bands would put a night on each week, we always got to headline. So this group had also set up a label called Murderous Traffic. They decided to put a full compilation CD together of local music. It got distributed to quite a few stores like Zavvi and they got Calender from Yorkshire TV also involved.
What have you got planned for the coming months, more recordings, gigs?
Gracie: After this tour we are hoping to build on what we have achieved so far. I know big agents are coming to watch us at the London gig on this tour. So hopefully from that a label will look at us. Hopefully we can extend on that and maybe go on to do an album. Maybe then a bigger tour and hopefully next summer do some festivals.
If you could have your career pan out like any artist, who would it be and why?
Gracie: It would be between Gwen Stefani and Blondie for me because they are iconic figures. Obviously I liked Gwen more when she was in No Doubt. I'd just love to be that successful and passionate. I don't know about you Matthew?
Mafro: I think it's easy being a lead guitarist to have grandiose ideas to be Slash or Jimmy Page. I don't think I'll be like that. But I just hope that someday I'll get recognition for what I do.
Gracie: I think the rest of the band would say Kings of Leon as a general consensus. We all really like them, they do great music and they are bringing out successful albums out each time. To get recognition for one album, then get the same recognition for another, is what we all want.
Band such as Deep Purple also influence me, I like classic rock. David Coverdale from Whitesnake, I really like him.
Mafro: I'm into rock and blues and things like that whereas Will and Dale are a lot more into indie.
Gracie: I'm more into my metal as well. It's kinda weird when we try and put our influences together.
Mafro: The fact that we all like different things has given us, not necessarily a new sound, but something different than what's around at the moment.
Gracie: That's why you can either love us or hate us.
I heard you nearly got arrested while shooting your video for "Dare I", what happened?
Mafro: It's not as bad as it sounds. We did it on an abandoned public owned bit of land. The police came up to us because they thought we were gypsies.
Gracie: We had checked for the rights to see who the landowners were, I think it was old council land so nobody had any rights to it. We couldn't get arrested. We were there with all our equipment lugging it over walls. The police turned up and we tried to get a photo with them, then they just replied to us with a "no comment" and moved on.
It was illegal, apparently, to have a picture with the coppers! At the time we thought it would be ace.
What has been your worst and best gig?
Mafro: I don't think we have had a disastrous gig as such. We had a gig in Liverpool recently and just played to the support acts. We have played lots of gigs where no-one is there or we've been put on too early or it was out of town. You wonder why you bother.
Gracie: I can say that one of the best gigs has been headlining the Cockpit. In the City at Walkabout, that was good too. We have also played with Goldie Lookin' Chain at Midgefest. It pissed it down though, bit of a wash out. But still people turned up and it was a laugh. We got drunk so all was good.
What's the music scene like in Castleford?
Gracie: We're not really from Castleford, we're about 10 minutes away. The music scene is getting there now. Obviously Murderous Traffic are pushing bands from around this area. We've had our local spot there for a quite a few years. We started in this local area, it's not too bad.
Mafro: It's surprisingly good actually. Pretty much every day there is a gig around the Castleford and Pontefract area. Around Yorkshire since you've had bands coming out like the Arctic Monkeys and that, there seems to have been a lot of other bands bounce off the back of this. In Castleford in particular there are loads of little groups that have been offered signings.
Have you got any favourite bands from Yorkshire?
Mafro: We are close to a group called The New Delamores. We have supported them quite a lot over the years. They have always helped us out and they are a great band if you want to go look them up.
Gracie: Yorkshire, obviously you've got your main talents like the Kaisers and the Pigeons. All respect to them because they have done really well for themselves. They have got catchy songs and are inspirational. I don't know, I can't say of any unsigned bands who are my favourite. I do agree that The New Delamores are good.
What do you think the UK music scene will be like in 2040?
Gracie: I think with this whole MySpace music thing, it's getting to the point where it's a lot harder to get recognised because there are so many people making music, so many people in bands. By 2040 I think music, it will be the same, but at whatever style is the in thing then.
Mafro: I think styles will have changed quite a lot, just for the reason that, now we are getting into more sub-genres and sub-genres. Things like the older genres like blues and funk, it's come back nowadays but has been mixed up a lot. By then it will be so much different because all the original styles will have been lost in the mix.
