Over the weekend, we were given the opportunity to meet and interview four-piece British band Lawson. The boys, Andy Brown, Ryan Fletcher, Joel Peat, and Adam Pitts were in Malaysia for the very first time for a showcase at Stage Club, Kuala Lumpur. But thanks to our friends from Universal Music Malaysia, we got to see the boys (Adam and Andy) a day before their show!
Here’s what went down:
The current music trends seem very hip hop-y and dance-y but Lawson is very guitar-driven. Do you think that makes you lose out or stand out?
“I think it definitely makes us stand out in a way because there’s not much of that type of music around. Although, it has always been our favourite type of music and that’s what we’ve always wanted to play. But you know, like you said, the trends very hip hop-y and dance-y at the moment – it’s just the way they kinda come in and out of the charts. Oh, we did a cover of Swedish House Mafia recently – we like that type of music as well. It’s great!”
What has been the most memorable feedback to your album, “Chapman Square” so far and which one is your favourite track?
“We’ve had some great feedback on ‘Chapman Square’! Probably the best feedback was when we did a gig in London. We got backstage and Taylor Swift came over to us and said..I thought you were fantastic and I really love your song, ‘Standing in the Dark’. And we’re like, wow, that was pretty amazing. Bon Jovi also said that he was a big fan of us so, you know, it’s great to hear feedback like this from our album.”
Are you looking to dabbling with other genres or music or are there any interesting collaborations coming up that you can tell us about?
“Um, we’d definitely love to do some collaborations and we’d definitely move with the times and stuff like that but we don’t think that we’re ever going to switch genres. It’s because the productions are getting more and more modern. We’d love to work with Taylor Swift on a collaboration – also because she’s very attractive, that always helps! Or Jessie J. We just did a gig with her and she’s really great.”
Are there any rituals that you guys would usually do before you go on stage?
“We don’t really have rituals but it’s more just like..when the adrenaline starts going we’d usually do a chant. So it’d be like, wherever we are in the world, we get in a huddle and our hands in. We kinda just get together and talk about what we’re about to do. It’s always good to remember where you came from, you know? It’s like..we came from such a small background, doing gigs to about two or three people a night. And now we’re in Malaysia and about to play to a thousand people – we can’t believe we’re doing this considering that we came from a small town in the UK and now we’re branching out to the rest of the world. Sometimes, it also helps to do a shot of JD to, you know, warm the throat..”
Last one for the road – what has been your craziest fan moment so far? Have you guys had any?
“The fans are pretty wild, yeah! Especially back in the UK, it can get pretty funny sometimes. Like, one time the fans actually broke into the back of our van without us knowing. So when we arrived at our next gig, we opened up the back door and there were fans in there! Which is quite bad, really. There was actually a story about that in the papers too. And also we had a funny moment in Thailand where the fans were on mopeds chasing our van – not actually looking at the road, literally no helmets or anything and they could’ve killed themselves. We were just like, look at the road!”
Haha! Oh, the perks of being a popular UK band, huh? Thank you, boys, for speaking to us! And again, thanks to our friends from Universal Music Malaysia for organizing the interview session.
For more information, visit Lawson’s official website. Don’t forget to LIKE them on their Facebook page or send them your love via their Twitter account.
