| The bands current position on the cusp of world wide success with the re-release of their explosive post nu-metal debut album The Fake Sound of Progress on October 8th, was first imagined in Ponty's hottest skateboarding hang-outs like the precinct and the univercity, where the band met and grew up together. Going to the same schools (hawthorn, ferndale and Coed-y-lan comprehensive) reinforced their friendships, although the boys were never accepted because they didnt confirm to the stereotypical rugby playin student. Lee Gaze (guitar) was told by his teacher the he'd end up in prison; and Stuart Richardson (bass) would faint to get out of playing rugby. They grew up on films of John Hughes, The Karate Kid, Indiana Jones, The Lost Boys and Star Wars. While their musical influences range from similar 80's icons like Duran Duran (Lostprophets are named after a Duran Duran live bootleg album.), the police, Dire Straits, Anthrax, Metallica and Depeche Mode. Ian and Mike Lewis who plays guitar in the band, were the first to make music, forming a hardcore band called Public Disturbance at the age of 16, but soon Mike Chiplin (drums), Lee and later Jamie wanted to be more than just their Playstation competitors, and Lostprophets were born in 1997. Preferring to hideout at the Frontlines demo studio in Caerphilly where Stuart worked, than go out, boozing and clubbing like the rest of their peers, Lostprophets experimented with their music before coming out to play incendiary gigs in any Cardiff venues they coould find. But despite being different from anyone else on the Cardiff scene at that time, they found getting gigs a real struggle. "We've never been part of a welsh Band scene. We're the black sheep. It seems like if you're an indie band in Cardiff it's easy to get a gig because their mates book them into all the slots at the Welsh club. They would just ignore us, so we did it ourselves," explained Stuart. "We're not embarrassed by being welsh, but we're not going everywhere shouting about it and draping Welsh flags over our amps, unless we want to be tongue in cheek." Ian added: "Just because we're born in a certain country has nothing to do with it. It should come down to the music. We're not going to use the fact that we are Welsh to our own advantage or jump on peoples coat tails. When people ask us where we are from we say Pontypridd. We're not a "welsh band" in the sense." Without an awful lot of support or promotion, Lostprophets have had to work hard for their success, touring non-stop for almost a year, and working in their full time jobs in between times right up until June. Their popularity at Reading was achieved through word of mouth, not NME front pages, and the boys are obviously massively proud of that. At last things seem to be going right for the Lostprophets. After a transatlantic bidding war earlier in the year, the band have been signed on a worldwide deal to Columbia Records, While remaining on the Physical Mouse (I have no idea why...im guessing they mean Visible Noise) label in the UK. They've also got the same managment as the Red hot chilli Peppers and the approval of many of their contemporaries. They're great friends with America's nu-metallers Linkin Park and Papa Roach, and worked with the legendary producer Michael Barniero (cypress hill, guns n roses, metallica) to re-mix and re-edge The Fake Sound of Progress album which was recorded and originally released last year. As for the immediate future, the boys are supporting Muse in Germany and Austria, and recoring a live session for Radio One's Evening Session. They're also releasing a single - Shinobi vs dragon ninja on November 19th. Lostprophets are defiant and they're winning, and as Lee put it: "We're the ones travelling all over the world, playing our music and doing what we want to do. Where are all those other people now? They'll all probably be working in call centers in the week to pay there mortgages then going out clubbing in Zeus in Cardiff on the weekend. "We've just come back from Germany where we've played to thousands of people. They dont seem to have any dreams or ambitions. But we've never done any of this for retribution revenge, we've done it for ourselves." |