Part two of our interview with Blackout vocalist Gavin Butler.
Last updated: 23 January 2009
Do you think labelling of bands like The Blackout as 'emo', 'screamo' or even 'hardcore' is fair or redundant these days? Do the labels people ascribe to you mean much?
We don't really care what label people box us in. The fact is, we just sit down and write good old songs, we don't try to stick to one genre. If there's a bit in a song that's straight-up pop, we don't care. Same as if it's a brutal chug; if it fits the song it stays.
The only problem I have is that some of the tags we've been given may scare some people off us. There have been plenty of times when people have come up to us after a show and said 'I thought I wasn't gonna like you, but you're pretty good'.
It just goes to show you should listen to, or watch, a band before you pass judgement and not rely on what box they're put in.
You, like other bands, have benefited from being helped along the way by other local bands, most notably Lostprophets. How has the local 'scene' impacted on you?
Most of the local 'scene' have been really cool with it, like you said a lot of them also were asked out on the road by Lostprophets. And it was a cool thing for them to do: they could have brought over some band from the States but instead they showcased some of south Wales' best bands.
What's gutting is that there are so many more amazing bands in south Wales at the moment that didn't get the chance: Dignity Dies First, Shaped by Fate, Anterior, The New 1920 and Said Mike to name a few.
The only flak we do get from home at the moment are from people who aren't even in bands or people that can't be happy for anyones elses band but their own doing well. Which is a shame. Not for us but for them.
Who in the local area would you most like to help out or tip?
I think I listed most of them above but I could add Dopamine, Kids in Glass Houses and Guns who were on the Lostprophets tour, oh also Jump The Underground.
