Pure Rawk - Accept no substitutes.

100% Authentic

Mike from The Authentics interview with Nicola “Nix” Crichton

Leicester rockers The Authentics seem to be everywhere at the moment. Their hard sleaze/metal type riffs and turbocharged rhythm section seem to be grabbing them a lot of attention. Its quite easy to spot some of their influences (Metallica, The Wildhearts, Iron Maiden to name a few), they don’t replicate what’s gone before. Theres metal, rock, punk and trash in there - whatever they're doing ... they seem to be going the right way about it and enjoying it.

Its undisputable that they are a very hardworking band and relentless tourers, clocking up a lot of time on the road and also creating some interesting tour stories on the way. Their DIY nature extends in to the production of their tracks - all releases that they’ve released have been self produced and self released and have been received with appreciation by fans and critics alike.

Frontman Mike Authentic talks to Nix about how The Authentics started, their first full album “Blondes Make The Best Victims?”, punch ups, Alfred Hitchcock and playing Trash-Stock 07.

Nix: How did it all start with The Authentics?

Mike: I knew the guitarist Jon from a previous band that we were part of in Leicester and the bassist from that band introduced us to a drummer he knew called Dave. After playing with previous guitarist Ross for a year, he decided to leave and we auditioned some friends. In fairness we should have had a Rock Idol style compo but we chose Gray who was the most committed to what we were about. He embodied Rock!

Nix: A little bit about you?

Mike: Well, we are an unsigned 4-piece rock outfit from Leicester who love to play live and enjoy the buzz you get when it all clicks on stage and try to recapture that every night with new crowds and rock like mutha’s!

Nix: To anyone who’s not heard you guys before, who would you say were your influences?

Mike: This is such a difficult question as we’re all into different styles of rock and think our music reflects that. We love The Wildhearts obviously but also like the funk and reggae of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers and The Police. We have been compared to everyone from Thin Lizzy, The Descendents, AC/DC, Iron Maiden and Trivium! Currently it’s bands like Aerosmith (who rocked Hyde Park recently), Coheed and Cambria, Metallica and eternally Guns n Roses who we constantly look for inspiration whilst giving our music a unique British edge with Terrorvision and 3CR thrown in there too.

Nix: Why should anyone else come and see The Authentics over any other band at the moment?

Mike: I think you should see us cos you never know quite which way the gig is gonna go. Sometimes we are on the verge of falling apart but that makes for an interesting show. With some shouting, crowd participation and unfortunately some punch ups all happening at our shows you’re guaranteed a great night and unlike more “indie” bands we do like to move and jump around which gives the audience some visual excitement.

Nix: What’s your take on the current music scene?

Mike: With the Internet, the music scene is more fragmented than ever but allows the smaller bands to take on the bigger bands using things like MySpace and iTunes. It’s a shame to see so many indie bands fill the charts when rock and metal have such a healthy fan base and if one of the current bands could push through then I think it would open up the doors to a lot of other bands in the genre to do the same.

Nix: How would you describe your live show?

Mike: An adrenalin, booze-fuelled goliath riding on the back of a rock leviathan!

Nix: You're doing Trash-Stock this year, how did that come about and what's to expect on the night?

Mike: We’ve known the organiser James Riot for a few years now and I think our music has evolved from our pop punk roots into something deeper and heavier and I think it will be a honour to kick the whole weekend off on the Friday. We’re gonna be playing some new tunes that we’ve written during the summer so look forward to debuting them and then partying the night away with the rest of the bands and DJs afterwards.

Nix: Your latest release - "Blondes Make the Best Victims", tell us a bit about that?

Mike: Fans were asking us when we were we going to do a full album after releasing a catalogue of 4 track E.P.s so started putting together plans for the album in early 2006. We had lots of problems with the E.P. Supercharged so we actually recorded that at the same time as the album tracks and released it in autumn last year. It was recorded locally in Leicester and the feedback has been great. As a band I think I can say it’s one of the proudest things we’ve done. The tracks verge on every facet of rock that has influenced us and the title is from an Alfred Hitchcock quote that we adapted as we get asked that a lot.

Nix: You've had excellent press for all of your releases so far... Favourite gig to date?

Mike: Again, this differs from band member to band member but for me, the last gig in our hometown at DeMontfort University Student Union was brilliant –– we headlined, packed the place and played as well as we’ve ever done and the night just went to plan. Other shows at The Bulldog Bash, various CD launch nights and the 12 Bar Club in London have been cracking shows. I think any show, big or small is made when both us and the crowd get that vibe and you feed off each other.

Nix: Favourite song you play?

Mike: At the moment I think our closing song in our set “Face the Writing on the Wall” is great as the drums push it along, it has a sing-along chorus and some heavy and twin guitar riffs and the reaction from the crowd has been awesome.

Nix: Strangest or worst gig to date?

Mike: Haha, we’ve had a couple and although no worst one sticks out we’ve had shows where band members have clashed before, after or even DURING the set which creates an atmosphere and any gig with technical problems can be annoying for band and crowd alike. We’ve also played a couple of shows where we played twice in one day, at people’s private parties, for charities or completely wasted and were pleasantly surprised when people couldn’t tell!

Nix: What are your plans for the rest of this year?

Mike: We’ve had a break for two months so are itching to get back playing live so we have over 20 dates booked running through summer and autumn all over the UK. With the new songs coming through I suspect we’ll head into the studio to put those down and we’ve been planning to go to Europe for some shows there so stay tuned for Internazionale d’Authentique!

Check out The Authentics’ official website on www.theauthentics.co.uk and their MySpace www.myspace.com/theauthenticsuk for up-to-date tour and release information.

Words by Nix, images courtesy of The Authentics’ MySpace.