Lawson - Interview

Joel Peat– Guitarist
Adam Pitts – Drummer
Ryan Fletcher – Bass
Andy Brown – Vocals

Guitar pop four-piece Lawson will soon be embarking on their second tour in support of hugely successful, "The Wanted". Having already done support slots with the likes of Will Young, Avril Lavigne, and doing their own tour prior to setting out with The Wanted again, their heavy schedule so far shows little sign of slowing up!

With their debut single due to be released this Spring, things are most certainly on the "up" for the band, especially if you consider that four years ago, then student Andy Brown, had a life saving operation in which neurosurgeon David Lawson removed a brain tumour (so now you know where the bands name came from!).

We get the opportunity to quiz Joel and Adam from the band.

The story behind the band name is incredible, and we're all very glad that Dr Lawson did such a fantastic job. How has he reacted to the band name?

Joel - We did a news report for North West today during The Wanted tour, they went to the hospital where Andy was operated on and interviewed him! He seemed pretty chuffed to be the inspiration behind the band name, unfortunately I don't think he'd ever heard any of the songs! He did an amazing thing for Andy so it'd be nice to make the band massive and make him proud!

Adam - Amazingly, he got interviewed about it on TV once and we all almost welled up, what a guy!

What separates you from your music peers and where do you get your inspiration from (and given you all have different influences, how hard is it to mix those in)?

Joel - We were quite surprised when we met that we all had very similar music tastes. We all love the American country scene, bands like Rascal Flatts, Lady Antebellum and Keith Urban are a massive influence to our songwriting. I think that sets us apart as it's quite hard to find that music in the UK. We also love Kings of Leon, The Script and U2 massive stadium bands like that, we have the highest of aspirations!!! I think we all bring a bit to the table, I'm massively into John Mayer, Andy's big on The Beatles, Ryan loves 80s rock music and Adam's big on his pop punk scene. It all comes together really well!

Adam - We get inspiration for the music from everyday life as guys, which for us is normally dealing with girl problems. Individually though we all have quite different musical inspirations which is the key to what makes our music unique.

What's it been like touring with the likes of Avril Lavigne, Will Young and The Wanted, and have you learnt anything from them?

Joel - We always try and watch the bands we're supporting afterwards, I think the main thing we learnt from these acts was how to put on a show. We've been so fortunate to support acts that put on huge productions, its pretty surreal for us to play alongside them but we want to be able to hold our own we want to be doing the same thing after all.

Adam - All the tours we have done have been amazing, all the acts we have played with have been really different but they all have amazing stage presence and put on a great show, so there are always little things we can learn.

What can we expect from your debut album? Are there any personal favourite tracks that really stand out to you?

Joel - We've just come back from LA where we were putting the final touches on songs we started in London, we got to hear what the album's gonna sound like and it sounds so catchy! We've really managed to get our own sound with help from the amazing producer we got on board, John Shanks. My favourite track on the album is a song called 'When She Was Mine' we finish most of our sets with it at the moment. It's a big song with a sing along chorus, we just can't wait till people actually know the words!

Adam - We are so happy with how the album is sounding, its more than we could ever have dreamt of when we first started playing the songs in a sweaty rehearsal room in London. For me one of my favourite tracks is Gone, I can't wait to play that at a festival.

What for you would be the ideal event to launch your debut album at?

Joel - We'd love to be able to launch the album in London, we could put on a huge show there and get all the people that'd helped get this album out down for a heeeooouge party! The fans we have in London are amazing too, they always make us feel right at home and go pretty crazy!!!

Adam - Any event with all our friends, family and fans who made making the album possible, then afterwards we could have a massive celebration and get really, really drunk.

There's a great video of you covering Lady Gaga's, "Marry The Night", what made you choose that particular song to cover?

Joel - We've done quite a few massive pop covers on YouTube such as: Bruno Mars - Grenade and Katy Perry's - Firework, but we really wanted to do something that felt like an original take on a song. We really liked the lyrics in the song and felt it connected really well to a slower, moodier song.

Adam - We think Lady Gaga is great and that is such a well written song that we could take it, change the feel of the song completely, strip it back to basics and it would still work as a pop song.

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The music industry is widely know to be a pretty tough one, what lessons has it taught you so far?

Joel - We had a few people tell us we were going to be doing amazing things, they had a lot of promises but never really delivered and it was really disheartening. The thing we learnt most from our experience is that we just had to keep going, we knew this band would work out so we just kept at it. Its also really hard work to get people to hear your songs and they'll never hear them if you don't stick at it!

Adam - So many lessons, we managed to get initially signed with no management so we had to deal with everything and everyone our selves which was a great learning curve as we could learn so much. The most important thing I've learned is to find people to work with who really get the music you are making.

Have you got any funny stories you could share with us from either your time recording or being on tour (that won't get you into trouble!)?

Joel - When we were recording the album we stayed in a house that was meant to be haunted by the guy who used to own the studio. Me and Ryan were sharing a room and Adam and Andy were sharing the other, one night me and Ryan snuck into Adam and Andy's and turned everything upside down… we put mattresses against the walls and scattered things around. When they woke up they couldn't move they were so scared when plucked up the courage they rushed into our room holding their sheets… wish we could have their faces on camera. I couldn't keep a straight face!

And my final question, who would you most like to interview and what would you ask?

Joel - I'd love to interview Eric Clapton. His was the first autobiography I read and I'd love to have like an hour with him to talk about the stuff he couldn't put in there! The man has had an amazing life, or rather it's amazing he's still alive. I'd ask him what his favourite song is to play when he picks up the guitar.

Adam - Ben Stiller and I would ask him to teach me Blue Steel.

You can find Lawson's Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/lawsonofficial?sk=info