Interview with Matt from The Living Daylights.

"But i think the question you should be asking is why is 

Man City's Mario Balotelli such a cunt?!" - Matt

The Living Daylights are a recently re-jigged 4-piece from Lincoln. They're on the verge of releasing their second album, first one with the new line-up and about to embark on a 4-week European tour in June. I sent Matt (guitar/vocals) a few questions to answer.

So, The Living Daylights. Why did you start, and what's happened since you did...

we started up around August 2007, we'd all been in other local bands and thought fuck it.... let's ruin our lives some more and since then it's been a whole shit storm of events! We did our first EP in January 2008, our first album in late 2008 and then 2009 saw us do a whole load touring around UK and Europe until we had a line up change. We spent the last year finding new members, writing a new album and doing a bit of touring and here we are now about to release our second album! - Jeeez! reading this back, i make it sound so awful, but it has been really fun actually!

Your new album "What Keeps You Breathing" is coming out soon. How's that process been for you? 

it's been eventful that's for sure and i know you already know this Kieran, but I'll tell you anyway being an interview and all! We wrote a few songs, then our singer left so we had to find a new singer, Dez stepped in on vocal duties so we re-wrote those few songs. We then went to a place that we like to call "the sweatbox" - a 5 metre x 5 metre room, with no windows, just a door! We spent 12 hours a day practicing then 12 hours a day sleeping for 3 weeks solid. It was insane, we didn't know whether it was day or night but we came out with the majority of a new album! We then went to record in Manchester for 23 days in December, didn't get the mixing done so waited for the results, 2 months later they come back and we're not happy, we send it somewhere to get mixed but apparently it's irreparable so we head to Peter Miles (Who did the last album) and blasted through it with him and his assistant James Bragg in just under 5 days and now we're dead chuffed with it!

Obviously a different lead singer is a big difference, but is this a completely different Living Daylights to the last release?

It is a big difference having a new singer, but to be honest a lot of people say Dez doesn't sound too different to Sam, when we play old songs it sounds similar and the new songs are still us, still the same songwriters! We've been spending a lot more time on our new songs, rehearsing a lot harder and people seem to be buzzing more about us being a 4-piece. We're definitely having a lot more fun!

When and how is the album coming out?

The new album is out on 6th June, it's gunna be released here in UK on Lockjaw Records, Syd is an awesome guy and he's helped us out big time! plus there's quite a few good people in Europe that are teaming up and putting it out in Europe! There's Funtime in Belgium, Shield in Holland, Fond Of Life in Germany/Austria, No Reason in Italy and Bad Mood in France/Switzerland! The guys in The Don Ramos Players have helped us out loads - Johnfold has done an awesome job on the artwork and Dan is putting the album out on 12" through his label BH9! 

It's been a while since you've done an extensive UK Tour, what have you got planned?

It's been too long! We're doing 27 dates in Europe from 7th June until 3rd July in which we'll be hitting France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Holland and Belgium. Then we have 18 dates in UK from 13th July until 30th July then we hit UK again in August in different cities from 8th until 21st and then it's back to Europe from 28th August until 15th September, get home then Johnno goes on some fancy cruise and then it's Russia, Eastern Europe, Europe again and UK (but that's not set in stone YET!)

Crash Doubt Festival. Talk about that, and why you went from stopping promoting shows, to booking every band ever?

Crash Doubt Fest is supposed to be my last ever show so kinda wanted to go out with a bang - it was gunna be called Farewell fest, but if i some how decided to do it again next year then it'd sound pretty stupid calling it Farewell Fest! in total there are 74 bands playing over the 2 days on 3 stages, the venue is quite small so it's gunna be tight but it is gunna be such an awesome weekend (time for a bit of shameless plugging) - if you haven't got a ticket, get one! There are so many good bands playing, all our favorite UK bands and we cannot wait! www.crashdoubtfest.blogspot.com

You've been a band for a fair while now, what have been your main highlights, and low lights?

Highlights - playing Leeds and Reading Fest in 2009, touring Europe and meeting a lot of awesome people! Lows - being robbed by racist German police with our under pants being spread out all over Burger King car park and getting our arses kicked on the fuss-ball table by every European ever. Tip for anyone reading this - never accept to play anyone in Europe when they ask you for a game on the fuss-ball table, you're being hussled! 

From putting on shows for years, what UK bands have stood out as the most promising for you?

Above Them, Crazy Arm and The Arteries - all amazing bands and good guys! A few years ago I'd have said The Freak's Union, Kill The Lights, The Steal, The Down & Outs but most importantly my old band Dead Girls Never Struggle, which was mine and Bilboa's (from Leagues Apart) death metal band! We sung about necrophilia, i think we'd be doing lengthy prison sentences if authorities ever found our lyrics, 7 shows in our success was cut short after the band ended on bad terms - musical differences! One guy thought a riff sounded like Cannibal Corpse, another thought it sounded like Simple Plan, a fight broke out, punches were thrown and the whole thing turned to shit!

You recorded for a music video a while back, what's going on with that?

Well our good friends at Blueprint Production are working on it as we speak, now we've got the final recording back they can get it edited so it'll be available in the next few weeks!

Are you the shortest band in the UK?

I'd like to think so! That's why we kicked Sam out the band, he was bringing the bands average height up by a few inches, we couldn't have that! Interesting Daylights fact: I'm the tallest, drummer Dan is the shortest, there's an inch between us! 

Lastly, why is Paul Scholes such a cunt?

You know what, the other day i wanted to know how many cards Paul Scholes had been been given in his career, started to type it into google, got to "how many cards" and it already came up with the result! haha! apparently in 2009 it was 121 yellow cards and 11 Red Cards! But i think the question you should be asking is why is Man City's Mario Balotelli such a cunt?! I think we can all agree he should just die!

Check out two NEW songs from their upcoming album "What Keeps You Breathing" HERE!