INTERVIEWS
Kat Humphries talks to Elliot Minor’s Ali Paul (keyboards) and Dan Hetherton (drums).
Dan - In the first place it was kind of a mainly girl based fan base, and their average age? I guess about sixteen, seventeen. Apart from other bands, what other styles of music have influenced you? Ali - I think certainly individually in the band we all have very different tastes. Like, Teddy (Hetherton) the bassist is really into his hard rock stuff. I’m cheesy and just love pop music. Dan - He likes Cascada. Ali - Yeah… and, Alex, the main songwriter, he’s kind of very involved in the film, more experimental stuff. And then it all goes back to the Beach Boys and all the early sort of pop. I dunno, it’s just very varied. Dan - You haven’t said my name yet. Ali - Yeah well I don’t know what you’re interested in. What are you interested in? Dan - I’m not telling. What’s your opinion on being compared to bands like Busted and McFly? Ali - Well, if people want to then... I think what it is about Busted and McFly is that they’ve got that kind of American pop punk sound going on and it’s kind of, they somehow get compared to us because there’s a lot of bands out there that sing kind of pop punk with a similar sort of accent and stuff to us. But we’re a hell of a lot more than that. Dan - We’ve been compared… I dunno, it doesn’t actually make much of a difference really. People can compare us to whoever they want. We’ve been compared to Fall Out Boy, Muse, McFly… I dunno. Ali - Any huge bands can be compared to us. What’s been your favourite venue so far, that you can remember? Ali - I think the best venue for me was Mean Fiddler. Apart from that I’d say Simple Plan in Amsterdam. It was amazing. Dan - That’s just because you were so stoned. Out of all the bands you’ve toured with, who’ve been the most fun? Dan - Simple Plan. We have a similar fan base and they’re just awesome people. They’re so much more chilled out than the British bands. Actually, British Band we like Electric City. They were great fun. But yeah, Simple Plan, it was weird. We’d only been with them for four days but the vibe they have is so cool. They play to a lot more people than us and they’ve been doing it so long. It was just amazing because all their fans were so reactive. Unlike a lot of bands, you really make an effort to interact with your fans. Do you think you have a responsibility to do this? Dan - It’s not our responsibility. Ali - It’s not something we have to do. We choose to do it. It’s something that we’ve done from the beginning and in the end, we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for our fans. You’ve got to give something back, you know? In the end, they’re paying money to come and see us and you have to remind yourself how lucky you are. What song on the album do you think best represents the overall sound of Elliot Minor? Dan - I think Broken Minor is the track on the album that will tell the most about what Elliot Minor could be. Probably songs like Parallel Worlds and Jessica. Ali - I’d say Parallel Worlds. Dan - The original sound is more like that but if you listen to Broken Minor then that’s what I think you’re going to see a lot more of. Do you prefer large venues or small venues, and why? Dan - Some of my favourites have been down in Brighton playing to like two hundred people, and it was really amazing. To be fair it doesn’t make a difference. It doesn’t matter how many people are there. It’s all about how you put it together. Ali - We’re all looking forward to London at the end of this tour. Last night in Birmingham there were like six hundred people and we were on stage playing and it was just really cool. OK, last question – What’s your favourite Jessica Alba movie? And have you seen The Eye yet? Ali - Sin City. I haven’t really seen many others… Is she in The Eye? I think I saw an advert for that. Looks good. Dan - Sin City, for sure.
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