Style 43

I managed to catch up with No Use For A Name’s frontman Tony Sly and bassist Matt Riddle on the second date of their UK leg of “The Feel Good Tour of the Year” which has and will see the band hit up the UK, USA, Europe and Japan, promoting their latest release “The Feel Good Record Of The Year”.

As I ducked through a very small man sized hole I thought to myself “Shit, this is No Use For A Name. My first interview”.

I met the guys and took a seat next to Tony and opposite Matt, and this is what happened…

Hey guys how you doing? For most, a new record will bring in new fans. Do you still get this at No Use shows despite your long time as a band, are the fans still consistent or do you see a lot of new faces at your shows?
We do see a lot of new faces a lot of times I think it has a lot to do with older brothers and sisters bringing their younger brothers and sisters. Parents bringing their kids, so yeah we do see a lot of new faces for sure.

That’s cool.
Yeah that’s great actually! We’re glad we can keep doing that you know.

So What bands are you guys listening to these days? Do you get a lot of inspiration from the newer bands or does that still come from your classic favourites?
Actually I’ve gotta say I don’t see a lot of bands nowadays that are very inspirational its been like this for years but its all kind of been done, so inspiration at this point needs to come from maybe your surroundings and not necessarily the music you listen to, because I think all the best stuffs already been written. Maybe the way its represented sometimes is cool, the way its done differently.

How do you think your sound has evolved throughout your career, especially in the recording of the most recent album?
We got better on our instruments, haha, so we were able to learn to do cooler things over certain parts, but we think the song writing on this record is probably the best so far.

You’ve toured with some incredible bands. What has been your best tour experience so far and why?
Oh we like touring with ourselves more than anyone, WE RULE! (laughter) No umm best touring experience? God there has been a lot, we always go back to 1997 with the Swinging Utters as one of our favourite tours ever, but we’ve had a lot of good times with other bands since then, but at that point that was definitely the best. I think maybe it was a really good time, it all depends on time, because I think of that as the best tour, most fun, I dunno if it was the guys or if it was just the alcohol. The thing is the scene then too was such a cool thing, it wasn’t as fucked up as it is now with all the scene bands, we were still at the forefront of a really cool scene. So we had a really good time on that tour. One thing I can say is I’m glad we’re a band that are doing the best we can to roll all the punches, we’re still going, it makes us kind of proud I guess.

How much do you think your live shows define you as a band?
That’s what makes a band, you know what we’re saying, especially nowadays where everybody can record anything at any time, it all comes back down to us just playing live, that’s something that we’ve just started getting a grasp on lately, its not just about the records anymore its about the shows and tours, we’ve really been stepping it up a lot lately so I think its defining us a lot.

If a band that had split up/died/or disappeared off the face of the earth came back for a one night only show and asked you to support, who would it be?
I think we’ve all got a different answer on that one, mine would have to be Iron Maiden just so I could see them live again (laughter). Can the band be dead or alive that we’re playing with? If we were dead or disappeared?

Yeah!
Jawbreaker.

Whats your fondest memory of being on tour?
This gonna sound boring as hell but to actually do this is something I knew for a fact I’d never do, was walk through Red Square in Russia. We were just walking around and checking things out and then the same day playing a show to like 8,000 kids in the middle of the street, it was awesome. There were military police there and they were worried about a riot and things getting out of control. They would beat the shit out of kids in the audience, so we were told not to incite anything like “Lets see all you kids go crazy”, it was like “Everybody have fun!” That’s all we were allowed to say. But yeah that was pretty awesome.

It’s safe to say as you’ve progressed, each albulm you’ve put out is better than the last, what would you lay this success down to?
We think getting better, refining our, I wouldn’t say talent, ability to play instruments and we think the song writing has gotten better for sure. Looking for angst, you know when you’re a teenager you have so much more angst against the world and I guess we are just looking to find some of that, before writing the songs just kind of finding a way to get pissed off about something again, instead of just keep writing about life, its time to write about someone else’s life.

As you guys have been going so long, you must be tightly knit, do you ever have any big arguments?
Yeah we have arguments for sure.

Whats the weirdest place a fan has asked you to sign?
I definitely signed a boob last night, and I also signed a guys ass, right between the hair and stuff. It was right after a show and you know its all sweaty and stuff. That was pretty weird. Lighters, a lot of kids asking us to sign lighters, I’ve signed a car. In Japan they bring you the tiniest little things like picks and stuff and sometimes they bring you this tiny little piece of paper and it makes you go cross-eyed because its that small and all four of us have to sign it. Japan is weird like that but its awesome.

Interview by Tom Williams.

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