Paige

http://www.myspace.com/paigeuk

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Victoria Harrison marched on down to The Loft in Cambridge to check out and interview the Hertfordshire based Pop Punk band known as Paige. This humorous bunch consisting of Lewis White(Guitar/Vocals), Alex Tillbrook(Drums), Adam Taylor(Bass), Aaron hunt(Guitar) and Michael Jennings(Keys/Vocals) gave an outline of their background, their influences, their goals and much more…

Who are your influences and in which ways do you think they appear in your music?

Lewis: I’d say Hit the Lights probably, maybe a little bit of Taken Back Sunday.
Some people probably say we have a bit of a metal thing when we have beat downs, but we’re mainly pop orientated.

Adam: I think all of us have a lot of different influences, each of us likes something different and I think that comes through in our music, I think it’s evident in what we do.

Michael: I like Jesse Johnson from Motion City Soundtrack.

How old are you guys?

Lewis: 18, 19.

The story of how the band came together?

Lewis: Started out just me and him (Alex) in his bedroom just playing guitar and then we thought we want to start a band, play live and that so then we got Ad and we had another member before but it didn’t work out so then we got these two guys. I mean Erin’s only been in the band for about a month and Mike for about 3 months and we’re going on tour next week.

Where are you going on tour?

Lewis: Scotland, Wales, all over the UK

So have you got management?

Michael: Nothing official and massive.

Do you plan on finding management?

Michael: I think we’ll need it sooner or later, just trying to climb the ladder.

And can I ask what is with the shorts?

Lewis: Don’t know just helps us move more, jeans are tight and it keeps cooler as well.

Alex: He ripped a hole in his jeans

Lewis: Yeh I’ve ruined so many pairs of jeans just by moving around.

Michael: It’s the warmth on stage as well because of the lights and heat.

But you don’t want the lights burning your knees!

Have you been to any English festivals and are you planning on going to any?

Lewis: I want to go to download festival this year, maybe try to get everyone to go.

Adam: I went to reading last year and it was really good, I went this year too.

Michael: I went to Download and Reading and this year I’ll probably go to Download.

Alex: I haven’t been to a festival I’ve kind of got a problem with tents.

You have a tent phobia?

Alex: Yeh.

Lewis: He’s claustrophobic.

(Banter about Glastonbury!)

Michael: Festival watch!

How do you travel about when you’re gigging?

Lewis: We’ve got a van, well if you can call it a van anyway.

Alex: Love wagon.

Lewis: It’s basically just wheels and rust.

Alex: We call it Betty and it’s our love wagon.

Michael: It’s stolen wood, rust and wheels

Adam: The breaks don’t work, the tyres are bald, don’t tell the DVLA yeh.

And your plans for the future?

Erin: We’re going to rule the world, take over the world.

Michael: For me its not really getting signed, I can’t really be bothered with getting signed it’s just touring a lot. Its good to get paid obviously but I’d rather just get paid a decent amount to live on.

(Pub quiz begins)

Lewis: Just put the interview has ended because Paige ran off to do quiz because they know east Enders very well!

Michael: I’m more Holly oaks!

Why the name Paige?

Lewis: Favourite girls name.

Michael: It was either that or the Home stretch; we had to pick it out of a hat.

Michael: To be honest it’s a lot easier it rolls off the tongue as well, as she did!

Alex: How original - a girl’s name.

When you record where do you record and how much are you involved with this process?

Adam: We go to Whitby studios in Elsmere Port near Liverpool, the guy Ian is very good producer, studio engineer and we do try and get involved, these guys have done music technology at college, they know what there talking about. We all chip in, we’re all there everyday for 8 hours a day and we all chip in and help out.

Lewis: It’s a good atmosphere at the studio because it’s the mans house and like the front room is the practice room and his kitchen…its homely I guess

Alex: It’s not too in your face.

Michael: Well I haven’t been there before, these 3 have all recorded there but because we’re new we haven’t but from what I can gather from this lot it’s a really friendly atmosphere.

Lewis: And we’re doing some new songs in April, April 1st, 3 more songs.

Will you stay in your genre or would you ever change or incorporate other styles?

Micheal: We incorporate so much into music its like with beat downs its more of a metal side because we all like metal, Alex loves his metal, he dresses in black all the time! And Lew and me are really pop punky, like he loves million dead and English rock and all that jazz and he likes anything we tell him too.

Alex: We don’t try and say we’re going to write this or that we just play and see what happens.

Michael: Anything that sounds good is pretty much a must as long as it sounds good and it’s catchy enough that we can all walk out the rehearsal studio and be singing it.

Adam: We all keep an open ear and if we like something we’ll incorporate it and nothings left out.

Lewis: And we’ve said incorporate 10 times!

Michael: Incorporation

Adam: We’ll get the thesaurus out!

Which effects do you use?

Alex: Clean and distortion.

Michael: With guitars especially its really just amp settings, clean and situation because getting mixed up with pedals is just boring. We have enough trouble with keyboards and just not knowing enough about electrical so we just try and keep it simple.

You have keyboard and synth right?

Michael: It’s a synthesizer, really it’s just the same an s the keyboard just with lots of different sounds. Its pretty basic stuff. Except for my keyboard but that’s new.

What sort of synthesizer?

Michael: Microkorg, its quite generic when it comes to pop punk loads of people have them now but I just bought a new keyboard which is a korg K61 controller keyboard with a Nano Piano Module which is from Alesis and its really good and really expensive and I still can’t afford it.

Why did you choose that synthesizer?

Michael: That synth was the cheapest one on the market and did what we wanted it to do and the piano is because the Module that’s used the Alesis Nano Piano Module is the one that Jesse Johnson uses from Motion City Soundtrack which is a big influence which ties back and I got them just because they sounded really good and the reviews on them are incredible, there used for the West End and stuff like that. So it’s great for playing small venues like this.

Adam: I like fender guitars, is anyone wants to sponsor me give me a call.

Michael: Yeh any sponsorship, we’ll take food, woman, clothes, promotion, fans.

Adam: Tyres, shoes

Lewis: If Quikfit want to sponsor us, let’s drop a line to quick fit to give us some tyres and breaks.

Alex: We need some new breaks for the van man.

Michael: Safety first.

Lewis: Maybe someone will donate them if we leave a number!

Alex: Seatbelts

Michael: Yeh we need like a licence as well!

Have you been compared to anyone or any bands?

Michael: Na we’re totally unique!

Lewis: Err Chaz n Dave

Michael: We’ve been called a pile of shit a couple of times if we’re aloud to say that… compared to dog excrement...but apart from that. If you listen to our music you can definitely hear influences because we’re all friends and love the same music so it’s like Hit the Lights and stuff. It’s really poppy and its jumpy stuff but there just really good. You can pretty much hear it all in the influences.

Lewis: And the new songs you can tell have matured more than the old stuff because the old stuff is just like a totally different band and now these two have joined it’s just a different sound

Alex: Everyone’s music tastes change.

I liked the break-downs with the keys...

Michael: You see a million different bands everyday and you add a bit of synth in it and everyone’s interested all of a sudden. I don’t mean to be mean but it sounds generic without keyboards and things behind it and if I could play piano it would be better! But its pretty much synth and stuff, anything that can go behind it, little melodies that go along with vocal lines as well as riffs, its just good.

Last question...girlfriends...any girlfriend stories, do you have girlfriends?

Adam: How long you got?!

Alex: Tell the story from last night.

Adam: NO NOO

Lewis: Let’s just make one up

Michael: To be honest we’re all married!

Adam: I’ve got a third baby on the way!

Michael: We like boys, just kidding. No we’ve all got girlfriends of some sort or partners.

Lewis: Mistresses and all that.

Michael: We’re single at heart

Lewis: We’re open to offers but I didn’t say that!

Michael: But no we’re all married and we love our girlfriends a lot who ever they may be!

Lewis: And all our kids wherever they are! There is stuff we would say but we’d probably get arrested.

Michael: We’re up for offers on woman, wives, anyone from Bulgaria!

Adam: New guitars.

Michael: Why do you keep coming back to that?

Adam: Because I need a new guitar.

Micheal: He has just bought a brand new Fender Jazz Bass and he wants a new guitar.

That’s it unless you want to add anything?

Michael: I love the Zine, I’d like to put a shout out to Meich whose Lou’s mum and all our mothers, parents and everyone who helps us out, especially Sherman’s dad that’s got us out of quite a bit of legal trouble and he’ll probably hate me for saying that.

By Victoria Harrison

1. Band Name - PAIGE

2. Why so called - Favourite Girls Name

3. Where From - Hertfordshire (hoddesdon/harlow)

4. Line Up - Alex Tilbrook (drums) Lewis White(Vocals/Guitar) aaron hunt (guitar) Jason Webb (Bass) Mike Jennings ( keys/Vocals)

5. Average Age? 20

6. How long have you been together? 1 year

7. You are influenced by, or would appeal to fans of….? Hit The Lights, Drive Thru Records Bands, Taking Back Sunday

8. Your fans are mostly… Lovely people

9. Any recordings? on myspace.com/paigeuk and soon to release a 4 track e.p from a tba label

10. What makes you different? we're not anything new, just enjoy playing music, and putting on an energetic live show which can get the crowd moving, just cause chaos really.

11. A song you wish you’d written? A Day To Remember - Shot In The Dark

12. Which of your songs is most likely to be a hit? Actions

13. Career highlight? Touring Uk With Luke Pickett

14.Any good gig stories? Many drunken nights, some involve running through moss side (roughest estate in manchester/uk) in nothing but leopard skin thongs at 1am. OR Being totally drunk, ripped t.shirt, covered in blood and sweat from where a member fell down stairs in a club and still not going home.

15. So the moral of this story is.... dont get drunk with us

16. Gigs coming up? all on myspace.com/paigeuk touring for months

17. website & myspace link - www.myspace.com/paigeuk