HTF hooked up with Road Runners new recruits Revoker on their UK tour in January this year. We went to Reading Face Bar to catch up with them and see how the tour is going and what their plans for 2012 are. We spoke to front man Jamie Mathias and lead guitarist Chris Green to find out all the juicy gossip and what makes this band tick.
We also wanted to know a bit more about the bands success how and they managed to get their foot through the door with Roadrunner Records, and a few tips for any unsigned bands out there looking for a label to go to.
If this all sounds very appealing, just watch our exclusive video interview here!
You can find out more information on the band via their website www.revoker.net or follow them on Facebook and twitter.
HTF: Have you got any tips for anyone in a band trying to get a label?
J: Just gig really y’know it’s all you can do and just enjoy it. Just believe in yourself and if you’re in a band and a label decides to sign you just keep going.
C: Keep going until someone does.
J: Nowadays a label is not really a big part really as much people think y’know but the way it’s going in the next few years..
C: God knows what’s gonna happen. iTunes will probably rule everything.
J: Exactly.
HTF: So you’re with Roadrunner Records, that’s quite a big label, how did that come about?
J: Well we were just doing our album first and we call it now like a demo album and we just sent it off to a few record labels and our management as well and y’know Roadrunner took a really good interest in it.
C: Like they came out to see us, and then I think we had a letter telling us that they were interested. Which was a bit mad.
J: Email not a letter haha.
C: Stuck in the 50s I am haha.
J: Letter haha.
C: Sent to us by pigeon haha
HTF: So who’s your favourite band to tour with because you’ve done quite a lot of tours with quite a lot of big bands like Rob Zombie?
J: that was a good tour
C: That was a good tour in the sense of you played with so many people every night, but then like we’ve toured with some of good bands, do you know a band called Gio medicine, their now good mates of ours and their always good to tour with because they like to party as well. So that was a good tour as well.
J: Barnsley they’re from aren’t they.
C: Yeah Barnsley
J: Check them out they’re a really good band.
HTF: And so Benji from Skindred he ended up producing your album, how did that happen?
J: Like I said we were in the studio and it was in Newport and since Wales is so small everyone knows everyone so we were just recording our EP in the studios and Benji just popped his head through the door and said ‘I like this’ so we became really friendly with Benji. We just sat down and from a producers point of view he was giving us tips and stuff and like I said we just got the album together and sent it off to a few record labels and that’s how we got noticed and it actually became time to record the album we thought why not just do it with Benji. We was all on the same page.
C: He had a lot of good advice from a lot of experience so you know we definitely wanted to take that on as it was our first album. And he was a friend as well so you don’t have some guy you don’t know telling you what to do and everything else.
J: And everything like we said in the studio was a good vibe and everyone was on the same page. It was all having a laugh and stuff.
C: We’d already done an album with everyone in the studio anyway so they knew what to expect from us and we knew what to expect from him so it was just a perfect situation.
HTF: So you spend a lot of time on the road, any cure for home sickness?
J: Not as much no.
C: I think the only cure for homesickness is to stay on the road until you get over it. Just keep going it’s easier. We don’t get homesickness though do we? We just enjoy being on the road.
J: Obviously it’s nice when we go back and we see all our friends and family and stuff and y’know after a couple of weeks we were just like itching to get back out there.
C: Yeah we start itching and all like ‘we got to get back out’. The first few nights sleeping at home doesn’t work.
J: If you’re in a band there’s no point just sitting around on your arse doing nothing you need to be out there in front of people and picking up those crowds and bring in your fan base you know what I mean your sat in the house doing nothing what are you doing? So we just love being on the road.
HTF: So you never get tired of it then?
C: No, not at all.
HTF: So how do you come up with your lyrics? Who’s the genius behind the song writing?
J: That’s Jack that is.
C: Yeah Jack.
J: One of us will come up with an idea like a lyrics theme and Jack wrote the lyrics for ‘The Great Pretender’
C: It just goes from there really.
J: It’s just Jack that’s what goes on in his head really.
C: Yeah that’s Jacks head basically.
HTF: One of the fans come to us and said he wants to know how you came up with your name?
C: From years and years of arguing about our name. I think every band goes through that trying to find a name, and it’s the hardest thing they’ll ever do. And we came up with so many rubbish ones. So we was in Shane’s house trying to come up with a name, and I said “Revoke” and I was thinking of a different word trying to be intelligent when I’m not haha but we went on an online dictionary and it gives you the meaning for that and it gives you like the noun and it was “Revoker.” So it sounded pretty cool anyway and we always wanted a one word name. You got band now whose name is so long, you forget them. So we just wanted something simple and it’s to do with cards and we’re always playing Poker so we was just like “that will do.” We’d had enough.
J: It looks good and it sounds good and no other band has got it.
HTF: Finally, you got any juicy stories?
HTF: Thanks for talking to us guys!
Interviewer: Louisa Smith
