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Six Foot Nothing Interview

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Here is the almighty Six Foot Nothing interview! Sadly the band did not manage to get any answers out of Ross but nevermind - everyone else gave their answers so that is cool - 3 answers for the price of one interview! (Yes, I do realise that they're free to read.)

Hey there, introduce yourself to the people - who are you and what do you do in the band?

Dan - Hey Hey! I’m Dan; I play the Sea Bass and forget songs!
Jonny – I’m Jonny, I play the drums and come up with cunning plans to advertise the band
Mark - I'm Mark I play guitar, sing 'woah' in a high pitch voice and deal with the bands legal issues!

How long has Six Foot Nothing been in existence - and have you always been the same sort of genre?

Dan - Me n Jonny joined in November 2002 but we created all new songs so I guess since then. We haven’t always been in the same genre! We started off as "Shit Rock" then with a guitarist change we moved up to "Average Rock" into what you hear now.
Jonny – I used to be in a metal band before Ross asked me to join as their original drummer kept letting them down. They’d organised gigs and everything so it was a bit of a rush job for me but I just ended up staying after my ‘fill in’ slot. We started off a bit pop-punk, the songs were really basic but very catchy. Nowadays we play a bit heavier, a bit faster and the songs are a lot more technical than they once were!
Mark - The six foot nothing as you see it now was established in May... when I joined! I don't really think that you can put us into one category as we have all individually taken influences from lots of areas and we have thrown them together to make six foot nothing... we seem to have kept the same style (since I joined), but we have just developed it!

A lot of bands start off with a group of friends just messing about on their instruments and thinking it would be cool to start up their own band and make the kind of music that they want to hear - was it the same with you?

Dan - Well when I joined we only had about 2 weeks before our first gig so we didn’t really have time to mess about!!!!!
Jonny – I think it was the same, we did have gigs organised so it was a hurry as we had to put a deadline on writing songs which is never good, but we did mess around a bit, having fun is the most important thing because if you don’t have fun writing these songs then it suggests you won’t have fun playing them either! We had the odd game of football, wrote a few tunes and took the piss out of Dan a lot – a regular source of amusement.
Mark - I joined at a later date, so six foot nothing were already quite established in the sense that they were playing gigs and had got past the stage of just messing about. So I joined because I wanted the opportunity to play music alongside some big name bands like Route 215, Howards Alias, Not Katies. Six Foot Nothing enabled me to do just that!

Has the band suffered at all due to members leaving the band and moving on to different things?

Dan - It’s slowed down due to 3 members going to uni now. But no ones left yet. (Touch wood)
Jonny – I wouldn’t say suffered as such, like Dan said we haven’t done much for a while as 3 of us have just started at uni. Luckily we’re all in Sheffield though so it could have been worse. We’ve had one guitarist change, bringing in Mark to replace Smit, but it’s made us a better band I reckon, the whole idea was to start writing better songs and to change direction a bit, and I think we’ve done that. The original bassist and drummer both left so SFN ended up with me and Dan instead!
Mark - I think the changes that have been made, have been made to push the band forwards... but I would say that as I'm the latest addition to the band... But the reviews we got when I 1st joined were positive saying that we were a lot better with this current line-up.

I recently reviewed your CD, 'Six Sides To Every Story' on the site - what do you personally think of this CD and how do you think you can improve on it for the next release?

Dan - I am very proud of this cd. Considering we had been together about 8 months when we did it, I think it is good and shows to people that saw us when we first started how we have improved. And how we continue to improve!
Jonny – I really like it! If I didn’t like them I wouldn’t have wanted to put them on a CD. They are the 4 songs we enjoyed the most at the time so we decided to put them all together. It can definitely be improved on. I think it sounds a little weak and the production is poor, if we can make it sound heavier, more powerful and get a better sound quality it’d be great. I’d love to re-record a couple of the tracks with some new ones too.
Mark - Recording quality!!! We actually recorded the music LIVE... it was all done in one take except for the bass line in 'Everyone needs someone to blame and I blame you!' (haha)... I suppose you get what you pay for though, it very cheap to say that we produced a CD with over 18 minutes of music. I think we could do with recording a couple of the tracks because they deserve much better quality recording and with a bit of work songs like 'Sky Came Falling,' could be really special!

Are you a band that prefers the recording side of things or is gigging more your thing?

Dan - Definitely gigging! As I said we had a gig before we even had a band! And we have had more gigs that some bands that have been round twice as long. As soon as I come off stage I want to play another gig!
Jonny – gigging all the way. Our EP was the first time we’d recorded so it was a new experience for us. I found it all a bit boring, it was great to finally get the songs on CD but its not as good as gigging, there’s more energy involved in gigs and you have people reacting to your music which is great.
Mark - We are a band that realises through experience you cant have one without the other! To produce a top quality CD you need to spend alot of time in the studio spending alot of money. The majority of our funding comes from gigs (or our own pockets) so the more gigs we play the better the cd we get... at the same time to get alot of gigs (like doing a full UK tour) you need a demo to send to promoters! Its a vicious circle so really we have to enjoy both or it wouldn't work!

Do you have any main gigging buddies or do you try to play with a large range of bands?

Dan - Well we have friends that are in bands, so often we end up playing with at least one of them. But we do try to play with different bands. We'll near enough take any gig!!!
Jonny – We’ve played with so many bands its untrue, but when we play locally we always try to play with some friends as the local bands tend to stick together and help each other out with gigs.
Mark - We played in various places in England this summer, so it was difficult to stick to gigging with one band... But when we play local shows we usually play with other Dronfield bands such as Neighbourhood Watch

Having never been to one of your shows before - how would you summarise what goes on at them?

Dan - Well we get there sit around then play! One person said we talked more between songs than any other band he’s seen! Which is good cus it’s not just about music at gigs, I wanna be all-round entertained at gigs.
Jonny – Four guys having fun playing the songs they’ve enjoyed writing. Plenty of on stage banter, plenty of crazy behaviour, a fun sort of an atmosphere and some pints getting sunk!
Mark - Different each time... we always take good memories from each gig so go and check us out!

What is the best gig that you have ever played, and what made that gig so special for you?

Dan - Has to be the punktastic gig at corporation when we dressed up as women! Made for a good talking point! Skirts are so much more comfortable! Anyway! Closely followed by the gig where we took energy tablets before! I couldn’t actually stand still!
Jonny – We played at the local sports and social club, we were the ‘headliners’ and it was great as it was packed with all our friends and family, and although its nice to play to new faces, playing them sort of gigs is great as the atmosphere was great, it was like they were playing with us rather than us playing to them.
Mark - August 6th Sheffield Corporation, My Awesome Compilation, Buzztone, Fallout 40, Snatchback and Neighbourhood Watch! This was a hometown gig in arguably the UK's most established alternative club and we was playing with our buddies NW, which is always fun. what made is so special was playing alongside Fallout 40 and My Awesome Compilation! and My Awesome Compilation! You can just tell that these two bands are DESTINED for great things and playing with them is a real honour! Our set went well we sold a lot of CDs and i enjoyed our in between banter which made it a night to remember!

Do you have any advice for people looking to start their own bands on how to go about getting gigs/getting the word about?

Jonny – I’d say the most important thing is not to be afraid to share your ideas. If the band doesn’t like them so be it, but if they do then you’re away! Try and get regular practises and just blitz through any ideas you have. Also, go on any music websites you can find and advertise like crazy, your CD’s, your gigs etc. that way at least you can say you tried!
Mark - Really you just have to get out there... Start gigging early, make mistakes, recover do better next time! Also look at people you admire and find out how they got to be where they are now!

On one final note... Do you have anyone that you would like to thank?

Dan – Yes, yes I do. Firstly it would have to be my parents for actually buying me my bass! And also Ross for asking me to be in the band in the first place and giving me the opportunity. Plus fans and bands we've played with Blar Blar Blar! All the standard people!
Jonny – Jess for being hardcore, anyone who has listened to our music either at a gig or on CD, any bands who we’ve played gigs with, my family for buying my drums and letting me annoy the hell outta them by practising, Punktastic for giving us somewhere to spread the word and giving us gigs, and Alt-UK for taking time to give our music a go!
Mark - Mike and Rob FDK for being an inspiration to all the local bands... and in particular mike who fed me info on six foot nothing before I joined them... and then told me all the stuff I should have known early after I'd joined!