"We'd listen to The Police but on the same tape, we'd have Anthrax on the other side." - Ian Watkins, Lostprophets. LOSTPROPHETS Interview by Stephen Jewell. Meet Lostprophets: self-described town freaks from a small Welsh town called Pontypridd. For the past five years they've proved, according to lead singer Ian Watkins, that not all British musos are "crap, thousand-generation rip-off metal bands". While their peers sloshed themselves silly in the Ponty pubs, Lostprophets would gather late at night and burgeon one another with their loud multi timbres. Now, five years since they first played together, they're signed to both the Chili Peppers' management and big-time US label Columbia Records. They've played packed gigs across the States with the rock 'n' roll cognoscenti trailing after them, popularised the straight-edge movement and sold xx million copies of their new album. But like fellow Brit rockers Bush and Republica, Lostprophets had to make it big in America before their album thefakesoundofprogress made any impact in their homeland. With Britain's music press working itself into a lather over the Strokes, White Stripes and the more dubious Andrew W.K. ,Watkins - along with Mike Lewis (guitar), Stuart Richardson (bass), Lee Gaze (guitar), Mike Chaplin (drums) and Jamie Oliver (decks) - could be forgiven for sounding bitter. "It took an American bidding war to even spark interest in us in the U.K," he reflects. "We were signed by an American major label because the U.K. wasn't interested. They didn't even care. They didn't even know we existed. It took America to make them aware of us. It's weird because we've had to come over here to get recognized over there." But to his credit, he sounds resolutely upbeat on the line from New York during a brief respite from their latest U.S. tour. SELECTOR: How did Lostprophets form? IAN WATKINS: We all grew up together, lived in the same town and went to the same school. We always loved music. There was nothing else to do in our town other than drink pints at the weekends but we weren't into that. We kept to ourselves, stayed in our rehearsal space, watched movies, played Playstation and jammed. We got an education while, at the same time, having a laugh. Then we started playing shows and sending out demos. SELECTOR: Three of the band are straight edge - which entails not smoking, drinking or taking drugs - is the name 'Lostprophets' inspired by your beliefs? IAN WATKINS: It's not actually connected to straight edge. People are surprised when we say that it comes from a Duran Duran album but we all grew up listening to Duran Duran and The Police. It inadvertently influenced us. We thought it sounded cool so we took the name. But we don't want to pin a really contrived meaning on it or give people a message. SELECTOR: So is your music influenced just as much by pop groups like Duran Duran and The Police as it is by hardcore acts like Anthrax? IAN WATKINS: When people ask us what we sound like, we say 'expressive, melodic'. Lostprophets is basically the product of people who grew up in the '80s listening to new wave and thrash metal mixed in with punk rock and hardcore. Because we're from a small town, we had no taste-makers, nobody to tell us what we can and cannot listen to or that we can't combine these two things. We'd listen to The Police but on the same tape, we'd have Anthrax on the other side. We like the melody of The Police and the aggression of Anthrax. It all came together. It's a part of the naivet� when you write songs. We're not worrying about what we're doing. We combine everything we like. SELECTOR: What's the idea behind the album title, thefakesoundofprogress? IAN WATKINS: We'd always read about these new bands that claimed to be the next new thing, were doing something different and combining different styles. Or established bands when they have a new album out were always saying 'the melodic parts are more melodic and the heavy parts heavier.' You'd think you've got to get this album and check them out. But when you do, it's the same crap they'd been doing for the last five years and the progress they'd been talking about was fake. It came out of our frustration of knowing that when we came out, we'd have the same criticism levelled at us. We knew people would label us as 'rap rock' without even listening to us. So we did it to take the wind out of their sails by saying it before they did. SELECTOR: Any plans to tour New Zealand? IAN WATKINS: Not at the moment but I'd love to see New Zealand. I've never been there in my life. I've always loved Shihad as well. I saw them last time they played in London and when Churn came out, it was one of my favourite albums ever!
