Hiya Lee, thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
What made you decide that music is a thing for you?
I guess I can’t remember a time when it wasn’t. I always wanted to write, and I was trying to write song lyrics from a super young age. I didn’t actually start writing songs until college, where I met Alex, and we’ve been in a band together ever since.
Introduce us to you all and your musical history.
My name is Lee, I sing in Launch Control and I play bass. Alex J plays guitars and sings, he also records and produces our records, and we’ve got Seb on drums. As I mentioned Alex and I have been in bands together forever. He’s also produced some great punk bands, while my side hustle is releasing solo music under my own name. Seb is also in an incredible metal band called Confessions of a Traitor, who I highly recommend you check out.
What’s the live music scene like in Reading right now? Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
It’s actually awesome right now. Pre-pandemic it was in a bit of a slump, especially for punk music, but we’ve got some great promoters in town now. A big shout out here to Shadow Promotions who are putting on an insane line up of shows in a few venues across town, building an incredible scene. We also put on semi-regular gigs ourselves called A Punk Rock Outlook, and we’re looking at putting a few great lineups together this year.
Band wise, you should be listening to Tape it Shut, Masquerader, Almost Aliens, and Skinhawk. They’re all killing it right now.
I’ve seen a lot of people struggling for support recently online. What’s your view on the industry?
Yeah, I mean, it’s really hard to get support. Getting someone to take the time to stream your music, engage with your posts, or especially physically attend a show only ever gets harder. We’ve all got a thousand things to do, and we’re surrounded by content and music and people like us are the tiniest drop in that ocean. My view on our position is that firstly we should be super grateful for anyone that takes the time to listen to us, and most importantly, we just have to keep doing what we’re doing. We have a new album coming up we are all really proud of.
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
We’re not in it. What even is it? If you’re worrying about that stuff then you’re not concentrating on what is important.
Tell us two truths and a lie about you.
I was named after Bruce Lee, we once played a show with Frankie Muniz from Malcolm in the Middle, and Seb can crush a watermelon with his bare hands.
Do you ever worry about people taking things the wrong way or cancel culture? Discuss….
No. I’m a subscriber to the theory that if you’re not a dick, you’ll probably be fine.
Do you sign up to any conspiracy theories? If not, why not?
I like to pretend I don’t believe in the moon landing, just to annoy Alex. But on the whole I don’t believe anyone is organised enough to be complicit in a mass conspiracy.
What was your best experience on stage?
We’ve played a couple of great venues, with O2 Oxford supporting The Interruptors being a highlight. But for me the shows we’ve played over the last year in Reading have been my favourite. We played a tiny venue called the Castle Tap about a year ago – it’s not much bigger than a living room (but much more awesome and the beer is great), and we had a mosh pit going on and it was crazy. I think that might be my current favourite.
What was your worst experience on stage?
Any time I’ve lost my voice. Hate that.
What are the next steps you plan to take as a band to reach the next level?
We have the album coming up. We’ve been around for a long time, but this is the first full album we’ve put out. I think that’s big for us, having something to promote ourselves with. Other than that it will be about trying to get out and gig further afield.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
Our new single is called Hedge Fundamentalism. It’s basically about the way that we’re all trapped in this capitalist culture and there is nothing we can do to get out from under it. From the big despotic CEO’s down to the minimum wagers, we all find ourselves driven by and controlled by money. It’s the one religion we all subscribe to, whether we know it or not.
What was the recording process like?
It was great. We self record, with our guitarist Alex in charge of production / mixing duties. We did a couple of studio sessions where Seb did an incredible job on the drums for the album, and since then we’ve been chipping away recording when we can. It’s been a really long process, but I think that’s worked well for us. The songs have all evolved over time, and every time we’ve come back to them we’ve brought fresh ideas.
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the new tunes?
I think the collaborative approach. Not that we haven’t had that before, but it’s worked so well this time around. I recorded a basic demo that we used for tracking, but listening back now the songs have taken on so much more life. With time and fresh ears I think that Alex has been able to put a lot of his personality and musicality into the songs, and that’s been awesome.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
No, we’re still in the honeymoon phase.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
If you like this track, please do go back and listen to our back catalogue. And head to website and sign up to our mailing list, we’ve got some great music, merch and live shows coming up to share with you. Plus the occasional boudoir shot.
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