EXCLUSIVE! INTERVIEW with THE AUTOMATIC

interview by Andrea Clarke

WHILE many 20-year-olds are returning to university this month, four lads from the Welsh town of Cowbridge have swapped the classroom for the stage rocking their way to the top of the charts.
James Frost, Rob Hawkins, Iwan Griffiths and Alex Pennie left school two years ago determined to make it big with their indie rock band The Automatic - and with a record deal, a top ten single and a debut album entering the charts at number, the boys are sitting pretty.
“For the last three years we always thought we could do it”, said guitarist Frost.
“When it happened it was really weird to think that we just always, not expected it, but worked towards it, and then it actually happened”.
The four-piece decided to defer university to really concentrate on their music.
Frost said: “We took a gap year and focused on the band then we got part-time jobs so we were working a lot more than we ever had, also rehearsing a lot more as well.
“We rehearsed as much as we could, so a few times a week, we started gigging a lot more and got a deal, it all happened quite quickly. It was a bit of a fairytale story”.
The band started when the boys were still at school as a hobby and then as they grew more experienced they became more serious, and decided to make a go of it.
They were spotted by record label B Unique, home of the Kaiser Chiefs and the Ordinary Boys, and signed a record deal, releasing their debut album Not Accepted Anywhere in June this year.
And the album reflects the band’s reluctance to settle into a nine to five automatic lifestyle.
“I guess it’s a bit cliched but the album is just about what we were going through in the year we had off from school and having to work all the time and getting a bit scared of having to get into that adult life of nine to five everyday”, said Frost.
“We could see ourselves slipping into that gradually, even if we went to university it would be a similar thing, just wasting your life doing something you don’t want to do. We definitely didn’t want to arse around with jobs.
“I think the sound is exciting in that way, up and down in the teenage mind. The tempos of the tracks are quite similar and it doesn’t really let up, it doesn’t really go into a slow song, it keeps up the pace”.
After the release of their second single, the hugely successful anthem Monster, The Automatic was the name on everyone’s lips, playing the Reading Festival and touring with the Kaiser Chiefs.
But according to Frost they take it all in their stride.
“We don’t really get much time to think about it because we are so busy all the time so we don’t really think about what’s happened to us.
“But then there are moments in the day when you wonder about it all. I don’t think about it too much, I just let things happen, it’s amazing”.
While these boys are maybe too cool for school they are getting a different kind of education.
“We’ve probably been touring now for about a year, since we started our first tour in September last year”, said the guitarist.
“We definitely know a lot more about the industry now than we did, we got so much experience in that time.
“It can take a lot of bands a long time to do what we’ve done in a year, we just crammed it in basically, no days off”.
Being young in such a cut throat industry doesn’t phase them at all as Frost says they are only 20 and still want to have fun.
“I think the kind of image we like to put across is having a laugh, we don’t take ourselves too seriously.
“We’re not moody, we don’t write sad songs, we don’t mope around and look really pretentious, and I’m sure if we did we’d get taken a lot more seriously but we’re really not into that, we’re just a lot more up for having fun.
“So when people don’t take us seriously it’s our own fault”.
But it’s not all fun and games. The band have already started working on their next “slightly heavier” album and are about to embark on another tour.
“We are recording some new tracks that we’re just writing at the moment which are sounding pretty cool”, he said.
“Slightly heavier than what we’ve done before, a little bit more serious sounding but it’s still fun.
“We’re just about to start a month long tour in October. It’s going to be the longest tour we’ve ever done and definitely the biggest shows we’ve done”.
The rockers are also playing their first Belfast show in Mandella Hall on October 7.
Frost said: “ It will be out first time playing Belfast, we’ve played Dublin and Cork before, we’ve never been to Northern Ireland before. I’m really looking forward to it.
“Apart from anything all these places we go to, it’s a chance to see the place. Like going to Japan and Ibiza, I hadn’t been to those places before so it’s like a holiday at the same time.
“We’re quite lucky that we get to see places like that in our job”.
It seems for these Welsh lads ditching the books has paid off and for Frost there’s nothing else he’d rather be doing.
“When I was growing up it’s the one thing I wanted to do, I want to play guitar in a band, I haven’t had any other ambitions.
“We just worked hard on the band for two years, we got a deal and now we’re doing exactly what we want and it’s much more rewarding than anything we’ve ever had.
“Things move so fast and before you know it people will start forgetting about us so we just want to hit it with another album. Hopefully we’ll stay around forever”.

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