Interview with The Plight

Posted on Feb 26, 2008 by DevotedToMusic

Yorkshire boys, The Plight, have had numerous good reviews and lots of praise from fans. They have just finished touring alongside bands such as The Ghost of a Thousand, Hexes and Blackhole on the Atticus Flip the Bird Tour.

I Alexandra McLoughlin got given the opportunity to have a chat with John and Lewis from The Plight about the band, their influences and much more…

Can you introduce yourselves please?

John- Hi we’re The Plight- I’m John and I play the drums.

Lewis- I’m Lewis and I play guitar.

Are you all from Leeds?

Lewis- Yeah pretty much. We all live in Leeds apart from Sean basically he’s from Liverpool and Stoz is from Wales but he lives in Leeds.

That’s a pretty random mix. I bet it makes the band more exciting….

John- (Laughs) it’s hard to organise practice and pretty much everything else but it’s worth it in the end.

You have been given excellent reviews by numerous publications. How does that make you feel?

Lewis- It’s nice to read what people say about us. We’re not one of those bands that…that’s not our ambition to get good reviews. It’s cool if people like it.

What is your ambition as a band?

Lewis- Well personally I don’t make those kind of plans because you kind of jinx yourself when you do.

John- Just to play music and have a good time when you’re doing it. Whatever happens happens. Just take it as it comes. Just have fun while you’re doing it.

You’ve been tipped off to be something special. I bet that makes you proud?

Lewis- Who said that?!

(Laughs)

John- It’s a weird thing like a 14 year old girl could say ‘You’re going to be something special’ then a 40 year old music maestro could say ‘Your going to be something very special’ and you just don’t know how to take it. It’s been said about so many bands that’ve just been forgotten about.

I think your music is very exciting and imagine your gigs are pretty hardcore. How hardcore are your gigs?

Lewis- Erm..sometimes. I think it’s cool when people are into us and they know the songs…

John- Like we played London 2 days ago and it was sold out and loads of kids where singing along. It’s good to have that sort of feeling when you’re on stage of people appreciating you being there and we’ve all been in bands where we’ve like played to 1 person. You’ve got to do that sort of thing to earn your stripes and learn how to be in a band really but yeah when people are into it and you can see that they appreciate what’s going on its really good.

I bet it feels very odd playing to 1 or 2 people in a crowd…

Lewis- Yeah but it’s got to be done. It’s just something that we’ve all been to. We’ve all been involved in the punk scene; we’ve all been involved in playing in bands to 1 or 2 people and it’s not a big deal. It’s not why we started in a band in the first place.

John- I’d rather play in a room to f**king 2 people that gave a s**t then 1000 people that didn’t give a f**k.

So talking a bit more about your music…Who writes all the songs and why you named the band “The Plight”?

Lewis- That was actually our old bass player called Liam and I don’t think there is a great deal behind it to be honest. That’s the best I can do for that (laughs).

John- The only definition I can put to the name is the plight that he rained over our band when we…basically he met this girl on myspace and…

Lewis- Ah this is in every interview.

(Laughs)

John- and ended up flying to America and living there and for like a year the band was quite a hard thing to do.

Lewis- Basically he didn’t want to do it but he didn’t want to quit either.

John- Yeah it was kind of hard for him but yeah I guess it’s got a definition now.

I read that some of your influences are Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath and AC/DC. Have you met any of them yet?

Lewis- Nope.

John- Oh I’ve met Phil Collins!

Lewis- He weren’t mentioned.

John- Didn’t you mention Phil Collins? I’ve met Phil Collins before.

What’s he like as a person?

John- He’s awesome! He was really friendly. I met him at a 24hour Asda…

(Laughs)

In an Asda?! What a place to bump into your hero?!

John- …Right by the dairy counter.

Did you give him a demo or anything?

John- (Laughs) I gave him a slap on his back.

(Laughs)

When did you meet him?

John- When was it?

Lewis- It was like 2 years ago.

I don’t actually hear any Phil Collins in your music…

John- Really? We did a live session on radio 1 and covered 1 of his songs. He’s a really good song writer so you respect him for that. If someone’s good at what they do you can see it.

So it’s the last date of the Atticus tour today. How was the tour?

Lewis- It’s been great, a lot of fun, a lot of being foolish with Blackhole. We get along pretty well with those guys. Everyone is cool on this tour to be honest.

John- Yeah it’s been good. A few really good bands to play with that are really fun. I’ve met a few new faces. It’s just been really good and from day 1 everyone’s just got along really well there hasn’t been a time where everyone just got to know each other it just seems like..

Lewis- Everyone was straight in there.

.

Are you going to miss the other bands?

Lewis- Yeah it’s weird because you’re just suddenly going to be thrown into real life again. And not hanging around with them all day is like a social experiment, just seeing the same people and the same kind of venues across the country. It’ll suck yeah but hopefully it won’t be the last time we see them.

John- Yeah hopefully we’re going to meet up with them again doing tours and stuff in the future. It’s been really good.

I’ve read some really great comments on your myspace about you guys saying’Ahh yesterday was excellent’ ‘Aww I met you and you were so lovely, I can’t wait to meet you again’. How does that make you feel?

Lewis- It’s to be expected really we are..Good old Northern charm.

(Laughs)

John- It’s really weird. I remember when I was a little kid like I still am kind of inside but meeting bands I think I met people more worth meeting then others like good bands. It’s a bit weird but it’s really cool when people are into it and appreciate it.

Lewis- Pretty much all of the band is approachable. We like hanging out and meeting new people. I think we manage to do that most places which is good.

So what’s in the pipeline for The Plight?

Lewis- Well we’re writing some new stuff and are hopefully going to record at the end of summer and we’ve got a tour in April with Poison the Well which should be fun.

John- I’m really excited about the Poison the Well tour and there will be a full length album on Visible Noise Records hopefully by the end of the year if not at the beginning of 2009 so that’s very exciting.

Thank you for letting me interview you.

Lewis- No problem. Cheers for having us.

Interview Information

Taken At:

Brighton Freebutt

Taken On:

February 23rd, 2008

Interviewees:

John- Drums
Lewis-Guitar

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