Rise to Remain talk Touring, Albums and Cher

After waiting on them to ‘fix their hair’ according to their tour manager, I was greeted by two guys who defy the laws of whiplash with their head banging, ‘Rise to Remain’s’ Austin Dickinson (lead vocals) and Joe Coputt (bass). We chatted in the night’s venue, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, before they played an electrifying gig to their eager Glasgow audience.

You’re touring with ‘Funeral for a Friend’ how are you finding that so far and how have the crowds been treating you?

Touring with Funeral For A Friend has been great, I mean we’ve already toured with them in Europe a lot and it’s been absolutely amazing, so coming back and doing it when we know what we want and we know their crew is fantastic. The crowds have been lively and we’re hoping that the rest of the tour carries on like this, we’re sure it will.

How was Edinburgh last night?

Edinburgh was really cool, we’ve never played there before so a lot of people turned up and supported us, they were just mental, exactly what you want.

You’ve recently signed a record deal to EMI, you must be very excited about the coming year, what are your expectations?

Well signing the EMI deal has been a major step forward for the band, to be on a label is really exciting for us and we just can’t wait to get working, to get the album out, meet lots of new people, tour and just see the world. So yeah, the general vibe is really great and, in the year to come, we’re just looking forward to more touring, more albums and to just keep doing more of what we’re doing.

Your new track ‘The Serpent’ is being offered free to fans on the 22^nd, how would you describe the new song?

Well we wanted to come out with a bit of a companion to the first record from the album, we feel like it’s a sort of balance of the whole album, sort of summed up in one track really. It’s was one of the first that we wrote and we’re still really confident about the track and, like always, it’s heavy as fuck! We just love it and we’ve had the opportunity to shoot the video the other day so that was great, we’ve actually just seen the first edit and it’s looking great, we love it and hope that the fans agree when they see it soon.

There’s been a lot of hype surrounding you guys as an exciting new rock band, how are you finding living up to this?

Hell no! We’re still hungry, you know, that’s the way it is. I mean the hype’s great, winning the Kerrang award and everything, it’s been insane. We’re just doing what we’ve always done, playing live music and getting the crowd going mental. As long as the crowd’s there, we’ll play the music. So that’s all just really exciting for us, we can’t wait for it to get bigger.

Being a Trash/Metal band you must have a pretty intense following, have you had any crazy run ins with fans?

Well one fan travelled from Poland to watch us on the practice stage, one time and yeah that was a bit weird, she turned up for the show and we were like ‘oh, well come and watch our practice then’. It was great, she enjoyed it. I mean we haven’t had too many crazy fans, they’re all really nice guys and girls, it’s great to see them all just loving the music so it’s awesome.

You spend a lot of time touring, what essentials do you have on the tour bus to give you comfort on the lonely road?

Definitely headphones and iPod, also our chairs in the bus, they recline! Crushing the person behind you, it’s great. So yeah, that’s important to us. We don’t really need comforts on the bus, our comfort is touring and being on the road itself, we just love what we’re doing.

The current music scene is saturated with pop acts due to things such as X Factor, what are your feelings on the current music scene, do you feel that more people should see the light and convert to rock?

Well we were listening to the radio the other day with Will and Matt, our tour manager, and we were trying to get into it, but I just had to keep asking, ‘Who’s this, who’s this?’ It just sounded like all the same thing, new bands every two minutes, I just can’t get it into my head. It is interesting though, to hear the different styles of music and stuff but I’m just not that up to date with it all. Oh and I think the XFactor’s bollocks and I never watch it.

What are your guilty pleasure songs?

(Following a previous discussion about Westlife) Probably every Westlife song! Nah, mine’s probably that Kenny Loggins song that he did for Topgun, it’s probably the gayest song you can possibly imagine ever. We also listen to a hell of a lot of Limp Bizkit in the band, but that’s not that guilty, I’ve a lot of love for them. Also, Cher, we like Cher.

What do you guys do between gigs, any interesting hobbies, for example, maybe someone de-stresses by playing the ukulele?

I played a ukulele today actually! But yeah, we pretty much just watch movies, chill out, hang out. We’ll all just pick up each other’s instruments, like I’ll play drums, and we spend a lot of time just practicing really in the lead up to a show to make sure that we’re ready and that everything goes smoothly the next day.

What would you say are your main influences, and who are your role models?

Role models, well I guess we’re a really big fan of …that guy over there (points at a random guy at the bar)! Nah, Mike Patton from Faith no More, he’s a real vocalist, he has a ridiculous habit of joining bands and making like thirty albums in a year, I find that really cool. He’s a bit of an inspiration for me. Joe- Timmy C too, he’s a bit of a bad man. But really Austin’s my inspiration, I think a lot about him every day, in the morning, when I brush my teeth, you know.

What are your tipples of choice?

Jagermeister and Jack Daniels and coke. Oh and Iron Bru, I know it’s not alcoholic but it’s a great drink. Austin – ‘He’s not even Scottish, he doesn’t even go here!’ (Mean Girl’s quote)

What’s the best gig you’ve ever played, even before you guys got big?

We did a great show in Londonderry in Northern Ireland in the Nerve Centre. We’d never played to a crowd that big before as we didn’t even have an album out. We walked on stage and everyone just went mad, people were crowd surfing, crazy kids. And I mean, I was only like seventeen at the time so it blew my mind .

Rise to Remain’s new single ‘The Serpent’ is out now and free to download on the band’s official site http://www.risetoremain.com/.

By Caroline Gauley