Serpentine Interview with Gareth David Noon (Keyboards) and Gareth Vanstone (Bassist) @ HRH AOR festival 2013

Matt – Hi Guys, so have you guys arrived here today?

Gareth(s) – “We arrived here yesterday and we managed to catch Tesla, FM, Danny Vaughn and Romeos Daughter”

Gareth(s) – “FM, but we knew they were gonna be good cause we’d just done the tour with them, we already knew how tight they were so we definitely wasn’t going to miss that, but yeah FM definitely band of the day yesterday for me”

Matt – And that was the recent tour in March?

Gareth(s) – “Yes  it was”

Matt – I missed that I saw the last FM tour as was in New York, I was a bit miffed why you guy’s couldn’t come over there ( laughter )

Gareth(s) – “I would love to go on a tour to New York with FM!”

Matt – How did Tony Mills get involved with you guys?

Gareth(s) – “ We got introduced to Tony in 2008/2009 and we had a lot of the music done for the first record and we just had problems trying to  find a singer, I mean we went EVERYWHERE looking for  the right guy and at the time he just didn’t exist so we started talking about actual name artists and his name came up cause Chris (guitarist) was engineering a session with a man who happened to be the same for the Drummer from Shy and suggested we send of the music and we were like, yeah right! Anyway we did and  he said yeah and before you knew it we’d recorded an album with him! We made two with Tony and whilst we were doing the second he had a heart attack which was pretty well publicized and it was due to him flying backwards and forwards trying to juggle everything, he was really nice and told us it was time to move one and find another younger singer,. It was nice to end on the note we did, the album was better than the first and it was a nice way to close it. We closed the album off and then we got Matt in just before we released the album. We were looking for a new singer whilst we was  finishing the album, we then toured with Matt which I think for the fans took a little bit of getting used to”

“ we did some rehearsals with Tony but it got pulled”

“ And we did play a concert with Tony in 2011, and we got to be the wedding band for Tony’s friends wedding in which he was the Best Man for Chris Nelson and we did a few Serpentine songs together and that was a nice closing set, he did some vocals and so did Matt”

Gareth(s) – “Yes it is but there was no animosity there at all, even though people tried to make out there was, it was just even from day one Tony told us we should be looking for someone else, it was nice to close the chapter and it worked  out really well. Matt live now stands on his own merit and I think that’s normal, a lot of people listen to the cd and it’s one thing and then when it’s live and heavy people are like  – Now I get it!, I’m like that with some bands, I won’t really get the cd but live I get it, and a lot of people have asked us to re-record the first two records with Matt, which we won’ be doing.  We may do the odd track, and we’ve even managed to record musically today some new stuff, because we are recording a new album in the summer and anything live we can mix together. Tonight’s being recorded so there may be a live cd through the site”

Gareth(s) – “Busy! Lol, we are on the verge of finishing the new record, we are currently doing all the preproduction, luckily for me as keyboard player I don’t have to do anymore because I’ve done it already in my house, I can just now grab the beers and sit in the studio telling the guy’s to hurry up! (Laughs) so I can’t wait it’s gonna be good. I have to say that the Demos sound really good, we’ve been writing it over a year and sometimes it can sound old because you demo’ed it back then. I’m looking forward to it all coming together and people to start to hear them live. It’s weird the track’s that people ask for live you wouldn’t think, tracks like “Heartbreak Town” and “Best Days” and you’d think others would be more popular. That said it’s gonna be nice to play some new stuff too and Matt will have something that’s his to sing too.”

Matt – At the minute you guys are receiving a lot of attention how does it feel?

Gareth(s) – “We’ve been really fucking lucky! Lol, we pay our dues though we work hard. We’re just lucky that everything has snowballed we did a show with Vega and Houston and it’s just got bigger, we then toured with Ten, Romeo’s Daughter then FM so it’s got progressively bigger, Firefest, Rockfest Madrid etc, but we try and make the most of every opportunity”

Matt – Who do you guys rate then as up and coming bands like yourselves?

Gareth(s) – “Nobody, we’re the best! Lol, we’ve gigged with Vega like a million times and hat’s off to those guy’s they are doing what we are, working the hell out of it. Plus we like annoying the Martin brothers, just ask them for their top three in any category cause they just ask that constantly. But they are great and good lads to tour with. We’ve got a point now where more and more bands are coming out all the time and it’s great people are embracing it instead of just listening to the same stuff. When we supported FM, people came to watch us and we did well”

Matt – I think that music’s started to get interesting again from a rock point of view, yesterday we just stayed at the main stage as it was so good

Gareth(s) – “You’d better not do that today! Lol”

Matt – Don’t worry you are definitely on our agenda for today, we’ve seen the stuff on youtube and definitely looking forward to it

Gareth(s) – “Sometimes it’s hard to impress on youtube, you ask anyone and you have to take the fact that the sound isn’t that great”

Matt – True but what I saw was good, plus I’ve seen the reviews before  so I expect great things!, what can we expect then and don’t just say the hits!

Gareth(s) – “We haven’t had any! Lol, although we nearly had a hit in Japan, we’ve got an hour today so it will be a good mix of the first two albums, I think a nice rocking set”

Matt – And can you sneak into Download?

Gareth(s) – “There’s actually a campaign to get us on there on twitter do get on and hammer it!”

Lol, after seeing these guys live think I may just do……