Interview with LostAlone

You have been away for a long time. The German audience is a hard audience, you have to come back and play all the time to be successful long term.
Is it hard for you to see people go away?

Mark: I think with any band if you are not in the line like in magazines and stuff like that there is always a certain amount of people that won't come to your show because they don't read about it in a magazine. But I think one thing that tonight has proved for us is even though we have done nothing in Germany, we haven't produced any new music cause we have been working on a record, we have still the kind of real hard-core fan base. And whether that’s 50 people at a show or whether that’s 5 people at a show, it doesn't matter to us. When we do something new then we start again getting in magazines and stuff like that. That’s when people start “I'm remembering you guys, oh ya I like that band”. Then they are going to turn up and people come.

Alan: The feedback we have had today I appreciate so much.
Every band assumes to seek time out when working on a new album.

Mark: We want to make the best record that we can, so we don't mind it takes a bit longer.


All the shows I have seen of you were amazing. But do you remember any really bad shows?

Mark: I probably got no bad memories of any shows in Germany; they all seem to be really good. There have been shows when things break and there is nothing you can do about, it's just embarrassing. I don't mind if the audience doesn’t get into it a lot, it doesn't bother me, I'm on stage having a good time, that’s why I play a show. But when things break or something happens and really messes up the whole show it's just annoying when it's out of your hands as a band.

What about support bands? Do you choose them by yourself?

Mark: Yeah.
Alan: This one was a radio competition and I think there's the top 5/top 3 bands and Steven picked the band.
Mark: If we got to do it ourselves we like to pick a band that we like.

Is there a special place or venue in this world that you always wanted to play?

Mark: I like places where classic gigs have been like a place called Knebworth in England. Milton Keynes Bowl I always liked. It would be such an achievement to do your own shows in that size of place and that is something that we aspire to.

So you like playing big venues?

Mark: We love playing big venues. It doesn't mean we like it more than small venues. We love playing small venues like tonight, it was amazing, and we loved that a lot.
Playing big venues, we feel like playing home for like 70 000. It feels good to us.

Do you have any confirmed festivals for the summer?

Mark: Not yet because it all depends on how fast we get our record done.
There is no point of doing loads of festivals if you haven't got a new album.

That means you haven’t got a date for the album coming out yet?

Mark: No it's getting finished and as soon as it is finished then we can have more of an idea what we are going to do.

Do you know any German bands?

Mark: I know Beatsteaks...
Alan: Tokio Hotel...

They are famous all around the world and nobody knows why.

Alan: I'm not I'm not, it's just a German band (making sure he is not a fan)
Mark: …and a band called Heartbreak Motel they are friends of us and I always see a band called MIA.

Yeah you played with them in Bochum.

Mark: Yeah yeah they were cool.
Alan: (searching for band names on random fliers on the table)

Mark: I think Germany got a really strong music scene. People kind of say 'Well people in England haven't heard of German bands because if German bands are singing in their own language they won’t really do well in the UK'. But why would you want to sing in a different language? That’s like me suddenly going to start singing things in German; I wouldn’t want to do that, I'm English. So I totally respect the German bands that say we are going to just sing in German.

Do you like watching other bands? Do you go to concerts?

Alan: (nods)
Mark: Yeah yeah. I like watching bands, I'm going to loads of shows but then it creeps over that I want to play, so I want to be on stage. Not in a weird way it just makes me go 'I want to play'.

So festivals are best for you. You can play and watch other bands in between.

Mark: Yeah that’s the best thing. Like when we played Download Festival, we played and then we watched Iron Maiden.

Is there something that you always wanted to do in life? A crazy thing maybe, like Bungee Jumping?

Alan: I don't think I would do that. Something crazy?

Doesn't have to be crazy.

Alan: I’d like to wave up a huge mountain, Everest or something like that. Yeah that'd be amazing. I'm just seeing that note I'm climbing Everest.

Mark: I'd like to, Ah no I'm doing what I want to do. When I was a kid I wanted to travel around and play music.

Do you have a favorite childhood memory?

Mark: My sister hit me in the face for attention.
Alan: I remember I must have been 4 or 5 years old and I watched TV, my sister poured a bowl of cereals over my head, so it was a funny one to think of.

Is there a band you really would like to play with?

Mark: We really liked to play with Billy Talent. We really like them. We loved playing with Enter Shikari, we want to play with them again. Bands that we played with like Paramore, MCR were brilliant and we really like those bands.
Yeah I think Billy Talent and maybe for you Biffy Clyro (pointing to Alan).

Alan: Yeah Biffy Clyro, I'd like to do a tour with those guys.

I think it won't be a problem :-)

Mark: That’s what we'll see.
Alan: Yeah that'd be good.

It's going to happen someday.

Alan: Would be amazing.

If I'm allowed to ask, who is going to produce the new album?

Mark: We're talking to quite a few producers. We don't really want to say things like this, that I look like an idiot - “they are talking to much“ :-)
But we are talking to pretty good producers.

One last question. If you could time travel, where would you go and what would you take with you?

Mark: If I was to travel back in time I’d go back to the middle ages in England and steal all their cool clothes!

Alan: I would go back to my 8th birthday! It was a great day! I got the new Glasgow Rangers top and won a bouncy castle competition at school! Good times! Haha!