My Passion's guitarist, John Be gives us his top 10 guitarists of all time:
1. Matt Bellamy (Muse) Matt is my number one because he combines every aspect that I like in guitarists! He has everything! He has also written some of my favourite riffs EVER! Origin of symmetry is riff after riff after riff, the man is like a melody machine! Everything he touches is tuneful, and that’s what I like in a guitar part. On top of all this though he also has an amazing voice and is a phenomenal pianist and all round musician! Some people are worth of jealousy!
2. Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit) The reason I’ve got Wes so high, is because he has come up with some of the most amazing riffs of the age, usually simple but executed brilliantly, along with having an amazing guitar sound! And then what really puts him above the rest is the stage show he puts on! All the makeup and mental-ness on stage is phenomenal! I LOVE a guitarist with that kind of charisma!
3. Van Halen Do I even need to give a reason? As far as technical ability no-one can match Van Halen! Just listen to eruption! Amazing!
4. Tom Morrelo (Rage Against The Machine) His riffs just can’t be beaten! He has such a unique style, which has been a massive influence to the My Passion guitar sound! I listened to rage a lot when I was growing up and still now when those riffs kick in it sends shivers down my spine.
5. Mick Tomson (Slipknot) He has one of the best guitar sounds I’ve ever heard! Just listen to All Hope is Gone! I can't even imagine how they get guitars to sound so fat, maybe it's all in the tuning! I think that metal guitar can get a little dull, as far as most of it is the same old same old, but Mick seems to get something fresh and new and exciting out of it, I got into slipknot quite late on, Duality was the song that caught my ear, but since then he has been a big inspiration to me!
6. John 5 (ex-Marilyn Manson) When I was just starting to play guitar I used to watch videos of Marilyn Manson live and was just amazed by john 5. He doesn't move around a massive amount but your eyes are drawn to him on stage. Technically speaking he isn’t far away from Van Halen, you have to YouTube him!
7. Mick Ronson (David Bowie) The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust had a massive impact on my life. Mick had a lot to do with that! Watch any footage of Bowie live at this time and you'll find him as big a character as Bowie himself! Along with his stage presence he also has a great voice, and has come up with some of the most famous guitar parts of that age!
8. Billy Howerdel (A Perfect Circle) I was a bit of a goth child, still am at heart I suppose, and A Perfect Circle are probably the best that dark rock has offered up in my lifetime, especially in Mere de noms, Billy has such a good guitar sound! when using plain distortion it's phat as any metal band achieves but then when he starts using affects it swirls around your head and is one of the most beautiful guitar sounds I’ve ever heard.
9. John Mitchell John is one of the best guitarists I’ve ever seen play live! He produced our album at Outhouse studios and every now and then would grab one of our guitars and just shred! But that was nothing compared to when we went to see him live playing in his band Itbites! At points in the performance his hands were just a blur! The man is a Genius! And not just at guitar as a producer singer and all round musician! I’m in awe!
10. Jonny greenwood (Radiohead) Jonny has written some of the most beautiful guitar parts I’ve ever heard, street spirit and paranoid android etc, and he deserves to be in my top ten just for that, but he also has such a weird way of looking at the guitar, his solos are pure feel! He manages to make guitar solos, (which let’s face it can be boring as!) weird and exciting!
The My Passion bassist gives us his top 10 horror films of all time:
1.The Shining It’s a classic and it still has the power to scare you so much you want to jump behind the sofa, no fancy effects just dark, sinister suggestions that leave you fearing everything!
2. Donnie Darko This is another film I find so disturbing, but you can’t turn it off! One of the oddest films I've ever watched!
3. The Happening When I watched this movie I had no idea what to expect, and it was so chilling in a way that you didn’t notice at first, left you feeling a bit numb and scared but you didn’t know why. It’s so brutal in a way that’s so realistic.
4. Saw 1 The first one is just groundbreaking, when I first saw it I was cringing and recoiling almost every scene, Love it!!!
5. Hostel I remember me and the boys watching this one together in Laurence’s house and all being so freaked out by the whole movie, I love the way it starts off as almost a teen flick and then just flips! Then you’re in this whole world of fucked up people!
6. Wolf Creek This one is on par with No.5, It’s a totally fucked up film that pushes you that little bit too far.
7. Shaun Of The Dead I know it’s not a real horror movie but I love it! It’s so funny, I don’t think zombie movies are ever that scary anyway so it’s great to make fun of them!!
8. Bubba Ho-Tep This one you gotta see to believe! Elvis and JFK versus The undead! It’s so bizarre but I love it.
9. 28 Days Later I love British films, and when you combine that with the whole country being wiped out and overrun with flesh hungry zombies. It’s always going to be a winner.
10. Rec. This Spanish film was so good, it’s everyone’s worst nightmare being locked up in a place with the undead chasing you. No escape. I love the way it all starts off as an innocent documentary and soon turns south.
Four childhood friends; Laurence Rene (Vocals, Guitar), Jonathan Gaskin (Drums, Vocals, Electronics), John Be (Guitar) and Simon Rolands (Bass, Synth) collectively My Passion, have shot up to the forefront of British underground bands.
However, their story has not begun in the past few months. They emerged from quiet London suburbs back in 2006 and through determination, hard work and most importantly, ‘passion’ they have racked up around 400 shows so far with a rabid cult fan base emerging that share the same energy and desire as the band.
Despite set backs such as their tour bus exploding and destroying everything but their instruments, the hard work is finally paying off. After their headline Sheffield gig, we caught up with lead singer Laurence Rene and asked a few questions:
How did the gig go tonight?
Tonight was our second ever time in Sheffield, the last was supporting Kill Hannah at the Academy so it was different coming back to headline a one off show. We were just so pleased that a bunch of people came out to see us at a show that has not been majorly advertised and was not part of a tour. It refreshing to do this kind of gig now and then.
What do you think of Sheffield? and Corporation?
From what we have experienced, it’s a city with a lot of people searching for something fresh. I think we have found that a lot across our UK travels. People are really taken in by the show and I think these will stick in their memory forever. We were in the small room at the Corporation tonight and the stage is so hi it’s like performing from the moon down to your audience. It’s lucky we pull some big shapes and have a light show that can be seen for miles. We’ll definitely be back!
Which venue that you have played has had the best atmosphere?
This can depend on who is in the room. We have played some small shows like the railway club in Watford that are packed and have that manic vibe to them and they can be the most fun. There are also the bigger venues like the Newcastle and Birmingham academys and performing on a stage like those is really thrilling, it’s definitely where we see my passion heading in the future.
You are all very energetic onstage, is this something you planned or is it natural?
I guess we plan to be exciting visually but the energy comes from the music we create and how we feel about what we do. Something is unleashed from inside us and we are practically taken over. I think that although the music can be quite dark it is also very exciting and for us it’s also a great time to feel like you are part of the future of the music industry. This all comes across when we play the songs live.
With all the movement when you perform have any of you had any accidents or suffered any injuries?
Ha, we’ve had our fair share of collateral damage… There’s always minor cuts and bruises occasionally a bit more but we’ve toured together lots now and we generally know how each of us performs, it’s like a sixth sense. I did break my knee just over a year ago though that wasn’t anyone’s fault other than my own. Jumping from a 12ft speaker stack can be dangerous. You learn what not to do...
How does it feel being touted (like in Kerrang!) as one of the new up and coming bands in the UK?
It really feels like we are on the edge of something big… We’re still a bit of a secret to many but that is something that will begin to change this year I think. It’s great to have magazines picking up on us now after working so hard and it makes me proud to think that we have come up high in the readers polls and gained pages in the mags just on our own. We’ve got to the point where the fan base had grown enough to be featured in the top mags not by licking anyone’s toes but purely because the demand for my passion is there. It’s a great feeling to be achieving things on our own label in our own way.
What bands do you look up to and aspire to?
We don’t really look to bands of a similar size to us I guess it’s because we see My Passion being far bigger than this. I always admire a band like Muse who can fill a stadium in such a way as they did a year or so ago. Three men making a sound that is out of this world really impresses me and to mix so many elements into that is just amazing. We definitely look to reaching that kind of level.
You’ve said that your favourite bands are a ‘bunch of weirdos’, can you give us some examples?
Well we always grew up with bands that stood out and were never really your standard band. I guess growing up you want something exciting and different. We always wanted to be entertained and wanted people to match the music they wrote with a show and performance that fitted it. My dad grew with the band and definitely had a huge influence on us as well as introducing us to bands like Iggy, Japan, Bowie and The Cure. We grew up with extremes of weirdness from Marilyn Manson and Slipknot to radiohead, bloody weird visually and musically in their own right. Once you’ve grown up with some of the characters from the 80’snd a load of Tim Burton films anything can seem normal. It has helped us keep an open mind.
What impact have these bands had the sound of my passion?
I think they have had more of an impact in the way they enhance what they do visually and the way our favourite bands have never been part of a specific scene but have gone on to become legendary because of that. We have always done things because it is what we love and feel like doing at the time and not because it’s fashionable. The sound is probably a combination of all our influences from the last 60 years the thing is that is so broad that we could sound like anything and it will evolve as we grow and experience more. It’s a very open mix with My Passion and we hope that’s something we can play with in the future.
What do you think of other new emerging bands like Bring Me The Horizon or Rolo Tommassi?
It’s funny because although we are making modern rock music and have a vague idea of what other bands are up to we don’t really pay much attention to it. I guess unless a band is really special we don’t even blink and we don’t come across many of those. We are so driven and comfortable with what we are doing we don’t really look sideward or behind us, it’s much more into the future. We are following our dreams and battling a dinosaur known as the music industry so it’s all about carving out our own path right now.
What are your hopes with the upcoming release of your first album?
For as many people to hear it as possible! We just can’t wait to get it out there! We hope by that point our name will be starting to spread. We want people to pick that album up lock themselves in a room turn it up really fucking loud and travel through it with us. Then we want them to come out and see on the album tour, see it come alive.
This must be a very busy time for you, what doe’s a typical day in life of Laurence Rene involve?
I don’t think there is a typical day and that’s what makes this so interesting. In the last week, we’ve played a few shows, recorded a video, remastered an album, invaded a 5star hotel with redbull and broadcast a live webcast, broke the internet and escaped another fire this time from a vending machine. There is lots of travelling and little sleep.
You have the beginnings of a cult following of fans, is this something you thought might happen?
I think we have always seen ourselves as that kind of band. I think doing this ourselves and forming a close relationship with fans means they have more respect for us and feel part of the growth of My Passion. We toured with inner party system and although they were selling out the shows and we were first on we would arrive at venues to see 20 people already camped out in the pouring rain and we would meet people who had travelled from all across Europe to see us play 30 minutes as first support. It amazes us and we feel proud that we are having a big impact on these peoples lives, its these times and memories that will stick with us all.
In the future when you look back at my passion, what do you hope to see that you have achieved?
I want to be as successful as the music allows My Passion to be. We see that as huge but no one can know exactly how things will turn out. We want to look back and see that we have worked hard for any success we have achieved and feel proud of it. At a bare minimum, we want to be making a living and making the music that we love and as long as that continues, we will be very happy.
Sheffield had its chance to see rising alternative stars, My Passion as they brought their rebellious metallic punk sound to Corporation. This was My Passion's first headline show in Sheffield and it follows recent acclaim from 'Kerrang!' and 'NME' magazine as well as a top 3 spot in the Kerrang best of 2008 Readers Poll and a Number one spot in 'Rocksound' magazine, My Passion are emerging as potential stars.
The night begins with Freefold (with a rather embarrassing typo of 'Freehold' on the schedule sheet). They do well to generate an atmosphere which was very relaxed, the other bands watching amongst the crowd, with only thirty to forty people there. They are followed by Here's To Tragedy who again maintains the level of entertainment but the crowd seems to saving themselves for the headliners.
The audience step up the energy as My Passion emerges, for such a small venue the room and freedom prove useful to jump and dance around. The music, whether you like it or not, it's undeniably infectious. The band looks to be enjoying themselves screaming, singing, punching and kicking their way through songs Play dirty, Day of the bees and new single Thanks for Nothing, amongst others. The only complaint from the audience would be of the short 35 minute set. Still My Passion end on a high with Never Everland showing why they deserve page space in Kerrang and Rock Sound. It hasn’t gone to their heads as they come straight off stage and into the fans, having chats and signing anything put in front of them.
The band and fans await the release of their first album, 'Corporate Flesh Party', the album comes after years of support slots from artists such as; Jeffree Star, The Automatic, Kill Hannah and most recently Innerpartysystem. So tonights headline slot could be a sign of things to come.
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My Passion's guitarist, John Be gives us his top 10 guitarists of all time:
