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 If you love music and/or live in London, then you’ve probably encountered The Metro Riots at a good venue near you or at least you’ve heard of them.
With newly released single ‘When You’re Gone’ on the shelves and their constant touring with some of the best, their star is firmly on the rise.
The Riots are singer Damo and brother Danny on guitar, drummer Ollie and bass player Sammy and they deliver a fine Rock/Blues fusion hard to find anywhere else.
They claim to be 99% music and 1% style but also have to content with a reputation as ‘hard nuts’ from years far gone.
On the 13th of September they will play the Coronet in London with good friends The Dirty Pretty Things, and I thought it was about time I spent an afternoon with charming chatterbox Damo.
Sorry, I mean hard man Damo who did not hesitate to dish out the dirt on well known bands, his first encounter and subsequent relationship with Carl Barat, his darkest dreams and secret fantasy of dressing up in a nurse’s uniform and much worst. Unfortunately for you that was for my ears only however we talked about so much more....
 Florence: Your single ‘When You’re Gone’ was produced by Pedro Ferreira aka Pedrock, also associated with The Darkness, who died a well deserved but nevertheless painful death...
Damo: Yes! I absolutely hated The Darkness and it really put us off when we heard that he wanted to work with us but then we realised that he was quite special and a party animal!
A party animal from Portugal who would let us do what we wanted in the studio. We could try our own ideas.
We became friends so it always seemed so easy to work with him.
He also produced Joe Strummer, Duke Spirit, Tokyo Dragons...he’s very much a Rock’n Roll guy, then he found us and we’re very Bluesy!
Florence: Exactly, you’ve got this very powerful Rock/ Blues sound that’s quite uncommon right now.
Tell me about the band’s influences.
 Damo: Sonic Youth as a contemporary influence or The Velvet Underground.
To me The Velvet Underground, MC5, The Stooges, Richard Hell and The Voidoids ...that’s Punk music, The Sex Pistols isn’t [I didn’t really buy into that safety pin, punks on postcards malarkey...].
and we’re really into old Blues like LeadBelly, Robert Johnson, Sonny Terry, Charley Patton, Big Bill Broonzy...they can all do something for you that Eric Clapton never could!
But Jimy Hendrix came along and he did what we are trying to do now, mutate Blues.
Take something that is in its purest form and mutate it to what we think it should be and of course give it a British spin.
When people think they know what’s gonna happen next, we want to take them the other way.
Alan McGee once said to us, “I’ve heard the Blues played forwards and backwards but you lot play it sideways”.
Florence: Wow! That’s a great line from Mr McGee.
Damo: We will use basic Blues but when we’re in the studio each one of us will scrutinise the others, trying to come up with something new.
We will drill holes into our heads with our thumbs trying to think of something new and we’ll probably end up killing ourselves if we don’t stop doing that.
Look at me, I haven’t shaved or slept in days....trying to make the songs sound better.
Florence: Yes! you do look a right mess!
Anyway...Metro Riots have never been compare to any other band.
You don’t sound like anyone else and you’re not the new ‘anything’.
Is that a positive or negative thing?
Damo: Maybe that’s why it’s taken us years to get to where we are today.
When we first started touring on our own or with Dirty Pretty Things, we’d start our first song and people would just look at us blankly like it’s totally gone over their heads. And we’d play one more and one more while they’re trying to digest it but we wouldn’t let it affect us.
By the fourth song they couldn’t help it and would go crazy.
Whenever there has been a ‘scene’ we’ve left it behind, and then another scene comes up that all the other bands will follow, so we’ll go sideways....we won’t be pigeonholed!
It makes us look pompous and arrogant but we’re not!
We just live and breathe it, we’re genuine poverty stricken council estates kids while a lot of bands will say they are when they’re not.
We’re often playing for our next meal.
There has been times when I’ve seen bands on stage and it looks like they’re bored and can’t wait to get back stage to their rider and the girls.
We have a rule where we won’t even have a drink before the gig but not naming anyone, I know bands who only do it for the perks.
Florence: The Riots have been going for a very long time, properly gigging since 2001....
Damo: Back in 2001/02, it was a different group with a different line-up and an extra member playing guitar, also it was more or less straightforward Punk with a hint of Blues. We started touring with The Libertines who had a lot of influence on us.
At the time we were a vicious ball of energy, gigging all the time, getting into fights, getting a reputation as trouble makers but all we wanted was to play.
But eventually we grew up, saw some of the bands coming through and thought “our way isn’t the way to do it” .
The bands who look like they can’t wait to get off stage?
That’s how I feel we were at the very beginning.
Also back in 2001, I don’t even feel we were a proper band. We’ve all got criminal records [nothing major, just antisocial stuff like being ‘drunk and disorderly’...], apart from Danny who’s a good boy, and we’d need to go and do our community service!!
To me the band really started in 2003 when we decided to do this seriously, earn our wings and then fly. Build our reputation.
That’s when we started the ‘no drinking before we go on’ rule.
Of course that took a while to come into effect!
I haven’t heard in a while someone mention our first gigs in 2001, and I always forget about those days as we were all so fucking drunk...
All I know is that it was a learning curve, we’ve made our mistakes and we’ve learnt from them but the way things are now we’ve got our heads screwed on and we’re firmly looking for the top.
Because we’ve been going so long we’re so tight and we know each other so well. If Danny or I am writing a song we know what Ollie is
capable of or what Sammy will want to do...
Florence: Metro Riots have been on the scene for so long, chosen to support guys like Graham Coxon, The Libertines....did you not expect to be signed by now?
Damo: We got passed over a few times.
We lost out a Mercury deal to Boy Kill Boy, Universal to [I think it was] The Automatic...
but we demoed for every single record company. Actually that was only a year ago and it has to be said that labels don’t like taking risks anymore.
Florence: When they’ve got a winning formula they just won’t budge...
Damo: Exactly, look at the way the industry goes, from The Libertines to Arctic Monkeys to nothing else really. They’re still trying to follow that cycle and stay safe so they’ll sign The Bravery, Boy Kill Boy or anything else with that little ‘poppy’ hook.
Also because we play with guys like The Charlatans, The Subways, Dirty Pretty Things, The Sex Pistols... some A&R guys automatically assume that we’re already signed but whatever happens we’ve had to set up our own label and release our single, which has been picked up by Xfm Radio, Radio 1 over here but also the biggest label in Australia who are promoting it even before they release it!
Sometimes we think about it and it does feel like a kick in the teeth but then again The Libertines struggled for six years before getting signed...
Whatever happens we wouldn’t change for anyone.
We will stick to our guns and even though we don’t get any money for that, we do get some respect.
It’s important to us to always give a good performance, never let the kids down, deliver songs and never cheat people.
Florence: You gig a lot in England but you’re also going to Europe in October.
That’s a major step forward for The Riots.
Damo: And the USA is going nuts for us now.
It’s all thanks to our single. We’ve got the exposure we were expecting and at least the fans can buy something on top of the downloads we give away when we’ve legally recorded gigs.
After every show the kids would ask us when we were gonna release something and sick of waiting for big record companies to pick us up, we decided to do it ourselves so at least people can listen to us at home.
It’s only been released a couple of months but ‘When You’re Gone’ is one American football team’s mascot song.
We’re on about six or seven computer games and that’s also very welcome revenues!
We were ‘top of the playlist’ at Chicago radio station WRZD and as we don’t have a main outlet over in The States, they asked us for a lot of cds to send to Bomp Records and all the universities....
I love Bomp because of the Brian Jonestown Massacre.
We could spend two months in a studio and come out with three albums and that’s why I value the way Anton does things...
Florence: One day and $20....
Damo: He’ll come in, does his thing and get out.
That’s the kind of way we would like to work.
Sometimes big producers can suffocate you. They’ll tell you to do this and that, go drink some lemon and honey, go warm up but that’s not how I do it at gigs!
Maybe now it’s all about DIY.
We recorded ‘When You’re Gone’ live in the studio apart from the vocals, that was done in a shed at the bottom of the garden.
The newer tracks we’ve been writing are so fucking out there, we’re really pushing ourselves and losing hair over it.
The way we’re writing now is about focusing on lyrics, trying to move away from simple Blues, getting something more complex.
Florence: Apart from your dates abroad you are also touring England once more aren’t you?
Damo: Yes we’ve got a little tour with DPT again, I think and another one with Charlatans, our own one to include the European dates and we’re also trying to get to The States.
In fact we’re touring until the end of the year and trying to finish our album in between tours.
Florence: On the 9th of September you’re playing the ‘Love Music Hate Racism’ mini festival and on the 13th of September you’re on stage with DPT for the ‘Make Roads Safe’ campaign.
You’re not going all Coldplay on us are you?
Damo: No no no no!
Really we’ve done lots of charity gigs and that’s because we know people or our own family have been affected somehow.
We’d always do a show for the Cancer Trust because my mum died of cancer.
Racism? That affects everyone.
I didn’t know about racism until I went to secondary school and heard words I knew I didn’t like.
Personally I blame the government and parts of the media for the way people’s minds are.
Florence: They only talk about asylum seekers and terrorists.
Damo: They have to keep the masses scared.
Governments are the biggest fucking terrorists on earth.
I’m probably gonna get shot down for saying that but I don’t believe that
The US government didn’t know about 9/11 before it happened.
Florence: You couldn’t be racist and choose to live in London.
Damo: Exactly!
England, music, films, art...it’s all a multicultural melting pot and if it wasn’t it would be shit.
Florence: 2005 has been a very important year for Metro Riots, where you’ve supported some big bands, got some excellent reviews...
What is the highlight of 2006 so far?
Damo: Trafalgar Square ‘Love Music Hate Racism’ show in front of thousands.
That was back in April and we did three gigs in twenty hours.
One night we played Leicester in The Midlands with DPT, the following morning we had a gig at 10 am for Carling 24 and after that we drove to Trafalgar Square to play LMHR. We only did three songs but it’s a highlight for me because of the crowd, young and old, kids, people of different cultures and races.
Also touring with The Charlatans and doing arenas.
Smoke machines and lasers, assistants asking you what you wanted to eat...we looked at each other thinking “yeah! we could get used to this!”.
Florence: Tell me about a song you wish you had written?
Damo: ‘Venus In Furs’ by The Velvet Underground or Pink Floyd’s ‘Careful With That Axe Eugene’. It’s from one of the most random album ever, ‘Ummagumma’, really avant-garde stuff. No singing except for a scream, and it kind of builds up. It’s one of the most beautiful piece of music I’ve ever heard.
That’s the track I want at my funeral!
Leadbelly’s ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night?’ and maybe...
Florence: Damo stop!
The question was ONE SONG!
Damo: Ok then I’ll say The Velvet Underground.
Florence: A message to the world please!
Damo: God that’s a good one, I’m stuck!
Learn to get along, enjoy life while you can, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, don’t have any regrets.
Be like Damo, be motherless, penniless and senseless.
Words: Florence ACHERY
www.metroriots.com
www.myspace.com/metroriots |
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