Video Exclusive: The Scottish hot-tips reveal the rocky road to Against The Wall – and the rewards of making music their way.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 (rock music)
00:02 - I mean, do you think rock and roll
00:15 can still surprise people?
00:17 Do you think it's still got juice left in the tank?
00:20 - Rock and roll will always be there.
00:22 - It's like, it's always sort of been the villain,
00:24 but everyone wants the villain.
00:26 It's like Batman, you know, he's in the shadows,
00:28 but everyone wants him to be there.
00:30 It's like the hero of music rock, almost.
00:32 ♪ I'm running out of time ♪
00:35 ♪ I know I die today ♪
00:38 - Yeah, it's the underdog, isn't it?
00:40 It's always, it's just waiting in the wings
00:42 for the next big artist.
00:44 Rock ain't dead, rock's got some fighting to do.
00:47 ♪ I'll find my way back home ♪
00:52 ♪ I feel it, I dream it ♪
00:55 ♪ Can't walk away from it ♪
00:57 - What did you want this album to be?
00:59 Did you have a vision of how you wanted it to turn out?
01:03 - We didn't want it just to be the straight
01:05 rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, you know?
01:06 We just wanted to try and add different things to the songs.
01:09 - At the start, we overcame a lot,
01:11 and this album sort of like is an impression
01:14 of what our life has been like
01:17 over the last sort of five years.
01:18 So there's been bad times,
01:19 but there's been really good times.
01:21 And the message of like being against the wall,
01:24 but breaking free from that wall,
01:26 and you know, being who you think that you're meant to be.
01:29 That came about quite naturally.
01:31 - Another song that has been really standing out
01:41 for people is "DNA".
01:43 I mean, what's that one written about?
01:45 - The music that James and the band had provided
01:48 was so intensely addicting that I had to sort of
01:52 kind of try and find this metaphor for it.
01:53 And what I came to was DNA.
01:56 And that was in my core,
01:58 and it's in the core of this album.
02:00 It's in the core of everything that we do.
02:02 We're addicted to this.
02:03 I don't know if we can do much else,
02:06 so we got to do this.
02:07 And it's just an overall kind of,
02:10 this is what we love.
02:11 This is it.
02:12 Please join us.
02:13 ♪ Oh, we're stuck ♪
02:15 ♪ With our backs against the wall ♪
02:19 ♪ No strength to carry on ♪
02:23 ♪ Get out, set me free ♪
02:27 ♪ You're dead ♪
02:27 - Who would you say are the kind of cornerstones
02:30 of your sound?
02:31 Who are the guys who you're really channeling?
02:32 - The core people that usually is who we grew up with,
02:35 you know, like your older bridge,
02:37 and "Shine Down Blackstone Cherry",
02:39 like "Slippin' Up, Stone Sour".
02:42 To a degree, we wear our influences on our sleeve,
02:44 you know, for me, rhythmically,
02:46 when I'm trying to bring something in,
02:48 I'm coming from different angles as well.
02:50 I used to listen to a lot of hip hop
02:53 and sort of funk music.
02:54 So yeah, there's so many different things coming in,
02:56 but at its core, it's modern, melodic rock, you know?
03:00 - We don't particularly want to just, you know, copy it.
03:03 And almost like we've stolen someone's homework
03:06 kind of thing, you know?
03:07 We want to make sure that we're just,
03:09 it's just seen as an influence.
03:11 ♪ Just let me go ♪
03:16 ♪ So we're stuck ♪
03:18 ♪ With our backs against the wall ♪
03:21 - We have some catching up to do,
03:22 so our plan's to get three years of touring
03:25 into one year, basically.
03:27 And we're gonna try and hit the roads,
03:29 try and get as many kind of missed opportunities as we can.
03:33 You know, the world has to pause right now
03:35 to keep as many people safe.
03:37 But the moment the government and everyone lets us go,
03:40 we are, we're gonna do what the Beatles done back in the day.
03:43 They just played like 200 shows a year.
03:45 Just gonna make up for lost time, get out there,
03:49 have some fun, 'cause it's been a tough time on everyone,
03:54 including ourselves, including all of the watchers.
03:57 And we just want to give some joy.
03:58 We have joy to give.
03:59 We just want to give it.
04:00 ♪ See ♪
04:02 ♪ Dancing with the devil in me ♪
04:06 ♪ Yeah ♪
04:08 ♪ Yeah ♪
04:10 ♪ Yeah ♪
04:12 (music fades)
04:14 [BLANK_AUDIO]