The Strypes' interview Bonus and Giveaway

The Fandom Menace: 20 questions from fans to The Strypes - Bonus & Giveaway

When I started this music blog a couple months ago, I had no idea that I would soon have the opportunity to interview one of my favourite of bands, THE STRYPES. I was happily surprised when their management allowed me to organise it and so in the interest of doing something different I asked fans to send me their own questions. This is an interview by a fan for the fans. I would like to thank all you guys for sending them in and I do apologise if yours did not make the cut. The video quality might not be great as I have never filmed nor edited a video interview before, yet I am quite pleased with how it turned out. Prepping and editing this interview was quite a lot of work (and loads of fun!) and I really hope you will like it:

Fellow French/Breton fans might be happy to know that I brought them crêpes from Brittany (I was home the previous week) as a reminder of the Vieilles Charrues Festival, which they confirmed again to me as being the best gig they have ever played.

In my hand luggage every single time I fly back from Brittany. #BretonExpatIssues

After the interview, I actually stuck around as one of my mates had won two places for the third Universal Fan Session with The Strypes and had asked me to come along. I had not heard about it before so I did not really know what to expect but Universal made it into a really cool experience for the five fans selected and their plus ones:

We were first brought into a room with snacks and drinks on the table and given goodie bags with a hard copy of Little Victories, a few postcards, a sticker and a ‘Universal Fan Session’ mug and badge.

The lads made their entry to the ‘Imperial March’ music from Star Wars (which gave me the idea for the intro of my interview) and played three acoustic songs:

Get into it

84

Cab fare home

They also asked someone to play a song for them, and a girl (sorry but I don’t know her name) stepped out and beautifully sang a tune that I did not know. Respect!

In between these, we did a short Q&A which I will try to summarise for you:

- Meeting famous people is impressive but in the end everyone is fairly normal

- Their favourite Elton John album/track: ‘His next album’ (Josh), ‘The Lion King Soundtrack’ (Pete)

- The songs they haven’t covered yet that they would like to cover: ‘It’s raining men’ (Josh)

- Which band they would like to cover them: Rage against the Machine covering ‘Now She’s gone’ and Tinie Tempha covering ‘I wanna be your everyday’ (Josh), Bono covering all their songs (Pete or Evan) or Madonna (Ross).

Then they asked us a question: who else do we listen to except for them? We all answered one by one. If you care at all, my answer was the French band The BB Brunes, which I explained are a bit similar to them (in the sense that when I was 14 they were a band of 17 year olds that quickly became the national Rock’n’Roll sensation. Great lyrics and really good live too! My personal favourite track is ‘Sixty Eight’ but the lyrics are in French. They also have an EP in English called ‘EP’)

After that the lads signed the CDs/posters from the wall and took selfies and group pictures.

I then just had time to go home to drop off all of my stuff and went straight back out to The Academy for the (sold out) gig. The Mighty Stef opened the show with their usual kick ass energy (while The Strypes were watching from the balcony), followed on by BP Fallon’s poem/slam ‘I believe in’ received with an enthusiastic response from the audience. Then The Strypes went on for an outstanding performance in front of a delighted moshing crowd. What a crazy day!

Setlist:

Now she’s gone

What a shame

84

Best man

What the people don’t see

Cruel brunette

I’m the man

I don’t wanna know

3 Streets and a village green

Cab fare home

Queen of the half crown

Get into it

Scumbag city

Mystery man

Hometown girls

BCJ

Still gonna drive you home

I need to be your only

(Encore:)

Kick out the jams

Rollin & Tumblin

You can’t judge a book

GIVEAWAY

I am starting to have quite a collection of signed items by the lads (one of the perks of liking a local band!) and thought this time I could give YOU the chance to get one. Hence I bought the September edition of Irish Hot Press magazine and made The Strypes sign it when I met them for the interview. I am also throwing in a few postcards from the Fan Session goodie bag with it.

To WIN, you can play on Twitter and/or Facebook using the links below. The winner will be randomly selected. The giveaway is open worldwide. A participation on each social media gives you one chance in the draw, hence you can play play on both to double your chances.

As a bonus, you can also subscribe to my brand new Youtube Channel!

PLAY ON TWITTER

PLAY ON FACEBOOK

Cheers to @prlydrwnstrypes for this amazing fan art! Just love it.