They wowed everyone on the introducing stage last year and this time around Rumkicks did the same again on a much bigger scale playing the mighty Empress Ballroom. At this rate they’ll be headlining in no time. Gary Trueman chatted to Yeawon, MJ and Pulse about their return to Rebellion and where they’ll be touring next.
Hi, it’s great to see you back again this year.
“Thank you. We are enjoying this awesome Rebellion Festival.”
Last year you played the introducing stage and that was quite an emotional experience for you, so what was it like this year on the Empress Stage?
“This year was highly emotional too. Last year we played the same festival as Cock Sparrer and this time we played the same stage as them. It means a lot to us.”
It was a huge audience too. How did it feel for you to play in front of all those people?
“We couldn’t believe it because it was so early in the afternoon and we thought the Empress would be too big for us. We just expected maybe 300 people but there was so many more and we feel overwhelmed. We’ve never played in front of that big crowd before.”
You engage with the audience so well too. You make people feel for you and have an instant connection with them. All three of you just engage with people of all ages so well. Is that something you get when you play in other countries as well? Are you as popular in other countries?
“We don’t know why. We can’t speak English very well, so how can we do that? The other countries we play, especially Indonesia, we are popular there too, but we don’t know why.”
You project yourselves so well as people and that seems to be why people will listen to you. Then you can get your message across. You speak English in a way that is endearing you to fans Do you think that’s maybe why people like you?
“We have no ideas why, we just write songs we want to play. It’s not an intentional thing. We speak lame English haha.”
You’ve just released your first full album ‘Born Rude’. That has some older songs on it and some new ones too. Do you feel that the latest recording have brought you right up to date now?
“Yes because our vocals were changing and we rerecorded with a new band member. We wrote seven new songs too. In five years this is our first full length album.”
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How do you write? Do you have sessions where you specifically sit down to write new songs or do you write all the time in little pieces when you get inspiration?
“Normally we just write a song when we have an idea. But this time we had a deadline for the album so we had to write new songs as soon as possible. It was quite a hard time for us because nothing would come up in our brains.”
Did you find it good in some ways to have that pressure to make you focus on writing?
“Yeah, because of our laziness, a deadline is good for us, haha.”
Your songs are punk and heavy but they still have great melody. The vocals are mostly clean too so you appeal to a wide audience. Do you think that’s something that works in your favour and helps you to be popular with a lot of people who like different music?
“We don’t think so because many punk fans like harder and heavier music and screaming vocals. Maybe our songs are too pop for these people.”
What are you doing for the rest of the year? Do you have plans to do more touring?
“Yes we have a Japanese tour next month. We’re playing in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. We’ll be touring with Star Club supporting them and it’s our honour. We’re really excited.”
Do you often get booked to play with other female artists in other countries? It’s something that tends to happen quite a lot in the UK.
“Bands like 18Fevers yes. If we have any chance then we prefer to play with other female artists. It’s good to share the emotional experience with them.”
You mentioned Cock Sparrer earlier and we know you love that band and now you’ve played on the same stage as them. So apart from them is there another band that you would love to do a tour with if you had the opportunity?
Pulse (bass) : “UK Subs, I really like their music.”
MJ (drums) : “The Descendents”
Yeawon (guitar and vocals): “I’d love to play with Rancid….. or Lady Gaga haha.”
Interview and photos by Gary Trueman