Scouting for Girls' Roy Stride interview
Adam Morton speaks to Scouting For Girls lead singer Roy Stride ahead of the band's performance at the Villa Marina on Sunday, October 20
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00:00Hello everyone, today we're speaking to the popular band Scouting for Girls ahead of their Villa Marina show on Sunday, October the 20th.
00:07To start off, do you mind introducing yourself, Roy?
00:10Yeah, hello, this is Roy here from Scouting for Girls, on tour at the moment and coming to the Isle of Man very soon.
00:18Perfect. What will the show involve? Is it a mixture of your classic and newer tracks, or is it just exclusively from the place we used to meet, the new album?
00:28Like all our tours, we always play all our big songs, because we know that people want to come and hear all the big hits.
00:35I think we're playing only about four or five songs from the new album.
00:41These days it always seems to be hitting anniversaries.
00:47Last week was the 17th anniversary of our first album, so we're playing a few songs from that.
00:53We're coming up to the 15th anniversary of this single, Love Song, so we're putting that one in.
00:58It's basically all our big songs and our favourite songs from the new album.
01:03It's a great show and it's just been like a party every night.
01:08I'd normally ask people who are visiting the island if it's the first time they've been,
01:13but I know for a fact that it's not the first time you've been, because I was in the crowd in August 2010 at the Villa to listen to you then.
01:22It's actually the only gig I've ever been to, which is kind of crazy.
01:26No way!
01:28I've been to sort of local ones, but I've never been to the ones that you actually pay to go and see.
01:33So yeah, Scout For Girls is the only gig I've ever been to.
01:38So I know you've been here before. Does that make me your biggest fan? Maybe?
01:43Possibly not. I don't think so. Sort of.
01:48I think with Scouting, it's a mad fan base, because this tour we've sold more tickets than we've ever sold, ever.
01:57And obviously that is 15 years on from when She's So Lovely came out and we were arguably at our biggest.
02:04But I think we've played live every year for the last 25 years, so we're really proud of our live show and it's about getting everybody involved.
02:14We do find that people who only know maybe a couple of songs come along.
02:18People who've never even been to a gig come along and they're like, oh my god, this is what live music is about.
02:24And venues like the Villa Maria, they're like my favourite. I still remember that gig really clearly.
02:30They're my favourite venues. They've got history. The size of them is perfect. It doesn't matter where you are in the building.
02:36If you want to, you can be right up close. You can be literally metres away from the band.
02:41Even if you're at the back of the venue, you can still see everything. You don't have to watch the screen.
02:45You've got an amazing PA. We've got really good lights, a really good PA system.
02:50You're hearing the sound and you're feeling it and you're in the moment.
02:54I'm actually buzzing to come back for the Old Man. We've had a couple of big gigs because we did a festival with the TT once as well.
03:02Brilliant, yeah.
03:03So yeah, we've played a few times and they're always really good gigs, so you can't wait.
03:08I've got to ask as well, is it a case of coming over and just doing the concert or do you like to come over and sightsee and explore the Allemann as well?
03:15Is there any part of the Allemann that you've been that you liked in particular or anything like that?
03:20Every time we've come, we've never really had a huge amount of time.
03:25Yeah, of course.
03:26Because I'm literally flying back out in the morning.
03:30When we played the TT, we actually got to go in the pit lane for an hour, which was absolutely amazing.
03:39We all generally do travel. What would you recommend?
03:43If you had an hour, where would you go?
03:47Well, what I would say is if you're performing at the Villa, then that whole strip on Douglas Promenade is fantastic.
03:55It's got loads of good pubs and bars and things like that.
03:58And there's some really nice places to eat as well.
04:00So I can't recommend any places in particular, but just that whole area would be really, really nice.
04:06I think we're getting in fairly early doors, so we've got a couple of hours before soundcheck and after.
04:12So look out for us about town.
04:14There'll be a group of lads wandering around trying to keep out of trouble before the show.
04:21Is there a particular song that you all like to perform the most?
04:25That's what I wanted to know.
04:27You say, obviously, She's So Lovely is probably your biggest hit.
04:31Is that the one you like to perform the most?
04:33Have you got any personal favourites?
04:35Our drummer always jokes that She's So Lovely is his favourite song because he knows it's the end of the concert.
04:42It's always the energy of the crowd.
04:46The shifting energy is mad when you play She's So Lovely.
04:49But I love playing this end of the song.
04:51I love playing Heartbeat and there's a couple of songs on our new album.
04:55We've got a song called Razor Glass, which we're filming the video for at all the shows on this tour.
05:00So we're going to have a little snippet.
05:02So if you come to the show, you're going to be in the final video.
05:04Oh, brilliant.
05:05And so that's a really fun, ridiculous song.
05:10So, yeah, we're looking forward to playing that one as well.
05:14The great thing is, because I put together the set, I just get to put all my favourites in.
05:22There's not really any...
05:24I know some people complain about playing their biggest songs, but for me, it's about building the energy around those songs and making them work really well.
05:35So I love playing the big ones.
05:37They're my favourites.
05:38I've got to ask, my personal favourite is Elvis Ain't Dead.
05:41Are you going to perform that on Sunday?
05:43Is that in the set for Sunday?
05:44That's definitely in the set.
05:45Ah, fantastic.
05:46It's never not been in the set.
05:48Elvis Ain't Dead, She's So Lovely, this end of love song, have never, ever not been in the Scoutin' For Girls set.
05:53Brilliant.
05:54Longer than half an hour.
05:55Yeah.
05:56I'm excited for that then, that's brilliant.
05:58I've wondered this since I was young and I probably could find it out online.
06:02I've just, I've not gone to the effort, which is poor journalism from me.
06:06Where did the name Scoutin' For Girls come from?
06:10So, the name came from, well, so we've been going for a long time.
06:14Yeah.
06:1517 years for our first album, but we were friends for about, God, nearly 15 years before that first album came out.
06:21And I met Pete, the drummer, when we were about five years old in the Cub Scouts.
06:25And so, and we did like the full tour of Duty.
06:28We grew up together.
06:29We were in the Beavers, then the Cubs and the Scouts and eventually we became leaders.
06:33And so we were like, we loved Scouts.
06:36And so the book that started Scoutin' was a book by Baden-Powell called Scoutin' For Boys, which was published in 1908.
06:43And we thought it was quite funny at the time, 20 years ago, when we were single men,
06:47that a band called Scoutin' For Girls, two guys who met in the Scouts, was quite a funny name.
06:53So that's where it came from.
06:54We were actually Scouts back in the day.
06:57No, that's brilliant.
06:58Yeah, I'd never realised that.
07:00I wanted to ask as well, what's the reaction been like to your newest album, The Place We Used To Meet?
07:05Has it been a good reaction?
07:06Have you had loads of positive reviews?
07:08What's it been like?
07:10It's been amazing, actually.
07:12I saw a couple of things which people had said recently where they were saying it's like their favourite album we've ever done.
07:18So it's, you know, I think it's really hard once you've, you know, I think every band gets like this moment in the sun.
07:27And, you know, you try and make that last as long as possible.
07:30It doesn't matter which band you are, whether you're Coldplay or whether you're, you know, Scoutin' For Girls.
07:34You get a moment where you are at the biggest point where you are.
07:38And then after that, no matter how good your music is, it's harder to reach that audience, to reach a bigger crowd, a bigger audience.
07:46And so, but it doesn't mean, you know, for us, we've never stopped.
07:51The whole point was to get out there and write the best music we could.
07:54And so we spend as long, we probably spend even more time writing and recording the music now than we've ever done.
08:00So we, we've got like a really quite strict quality control.
08:04And so, you know, we work and we only put an album out every like three or four years.
08:09So there's like a real strict quality control process in there.
08:12And then we worked with this album to like make it flow as an album.
08:16And thematically it all links back to like growing up and, you know, the, you know, from being a kid, all the fun stuff you used to do,
08:23to like growing up to being an adult and like having children yourself.
08:26And so I'm super proud of it.
08:28And the reaction has been amazing.
08:30It's that highest charting album.
08:32Yeah, that's great.
08:3312 years as well.
08:34So yeah, it was amazing.
08:36And this is, again, is poor journalism.
08:38Did you have an earlier album called Scouting for Girls?
08:41Is that right?
08:42Yeah, the first album was called Scouting for Girls because we couldn't think of a title.
08:46I will never, ever forget that album because my mum and dad had it on CD and used to play it all the time in the house.
08:52So I listened to it this morning and honestly, just the memories came floating back.
08:57It's absolutely fantastic.
08:58Have you got a personal favourite album yourself that you've done?
09:01I love, I do love that album.
09:05And I hear that story a lot because it was the last big sort of year of CDs, 2007.
09:12Because after that you had like, you had Napster and then you had Spotify and like, you know, the CDs, they, you know, they went from that.
09:20We sold a thousand, a million CDs of that in the UK.
09:25So there were just millions, hundreds of thousands of them floating around.
09:29And so there are lots of kids who come up and say, we listen to your CD nonstop in the car.
09:35We, my favourite album, I don't know, one of my, I love the new one.
09:41I think you always got to say your new one.
09:43Yeah, you have.
09:44Yeah, that's true.
09:45Yeah.
09:46I think every artist does because that's the one you've worked on.
09:48But then also it's a love-hate relationship because by the time you put it out, it's quite interesting because by the time you put out that album, you've listened to it.
09:55Because we, you know, I write it, I produce it, I mix it.
09:59By the time it comes out and you've promoted it, you've heard that album so many times.
10:03Yeah.
10:04You don't know whether it's amazing or absolutely crap.
10:07Yeah.
10:08And what's quite good about the new album is now it came out over a year ago.
10:12This is like part two of the tour.
10:14And so I've had a year where pretty much I haven't really listened to it.
10:18And then to start promoting this tour, I went back and listened to it.
10:22And I was like really, I was like, you know, really pleasantly shocked at how good it was.
10:27Yeah.
10:28So this definitely is my favourite one at the moment.
10:30That's great.
10:31In terms of new music, have you got any plans to make new music in the years coming up?
10:36What are your plans for the future in general?
10:38I think we've got this tour runs till November.
10:41Yeah.
10:42And then I don't even know what I'm doing.
10:44We've got, I've got a load of songs.
10:46And I think we've got like an album penciled for maybe 26.
10:50Right.
10:51And then so we might release an album there.
10:54In 27, it's the 20th anniversary of the first album.
10:58So we'll probably do something for that.
10:59Yeah.
11:00But I'm always writing.
11:01So I try, it's never not been a year.
11:04We've never had a year where we haven't released something.
11:09Sometimes it may only be like, you know, an EP or like a little standalone single.
11:14But there's never been a year where we haven't released a new piece of music.
11:18And I think, you know, until I die, I think that's probably a good way of going about things.
11:24As long as the quality is good.
11:26Yeah.
11:27It's just nice to touch in with like, you know, both your creativity and, you know,
11:31the fans who let you do what you do for a living.
11:33So.
11:34Yeah.
11:35We're really lucky.
11:36So, yeah.
11:37Look out for some new music.
11:38Perfect.
11:39Right.
11:40Thank you very much, Roy.
11:41I really appreciate your time.
11:42And I'm really looking forward to it.
11:43I'm looking forward to it on Sunday.
11:44It should be great.
11:45So, yeah.
11:46Your second ever gig.
11:47I know.
11:48Yeah.
11:49My name is Adam.
11:50Adam Morton.
11:51I'm going to give you a shout out.
11:52Oh, brilliant.
11:53Thanks, Roy.
11:5514 years between gigs.
11:56I know.
11:57I very nearly went to the Kooks a few years ago, but it didn't work out in the end.
12:01So, yeah, this is Mike.
12:02That is absolutely brilliant.
12:05That's made my day, Adam.
12:06It really has.
12:07It's kind of crazy, isn't it?
12:08It's kind of crazy.
12:09But, yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
12:10So, yeah, I'll see you then.
12:11See you then, Roy.
12:12Brilliant.
12:13Cheers, Adam.
12:14Take care, mate.
12:15See you later.
12:16Cheers, mate.
12:17Bye-bye.
12:18Bye-bye.