We caught up with the lovely Oli, who plays drums in Me Vs Hero after their brilliant show at Nottingham Rescue Rooms and had a good old chin wag, check it all out below;
Please introduce yourself
"Hi, I’m Oli and I play drums in Me Vs hero."
So, whats it like to play drums in Me Vs Hero?
"Um its good, its hard work, lots of things to sort out as we can’t really afford a tour manager at the moment, and everyones well organised, so we’re the ones that turn up like “Right, where do we put ourselves.” But no its really fun, I've lost quite a few jobs through it and stuff but I love doing it so its cool."
So you guys work whilst being in the band?
"Yup, we all have full time jobs, mike works for the council, Ross is a web designer, Pook runs a recording studio, er, I work for an energy broker."
Well, we’re very impressed with that, we thought bands were all about going on tour and being all rock'n'roll.
"Yea, its weird in America bands can tour like 7 or 8 months of the year and from that can afford to tour so much. In UK a month long tour is huge, in America a month on tours like nothing."
So whats it like touring for you guys?
"Good fun! Like this tour we’ve got showers and stuff and nice food stuff like that, Deaf Havana have really looked after us loads, we met at sonisphere as we played on the same day as them, and theyre all really nice, they all like a drink, and we all like similar kinds of music and stuff, so yeah good fun."
So who are your idols/favourite bands.
(At this point we got interrupted by a chap called Dan, who introduced himself to Oli as he also lives in Blackpool, after an awkward moment that Dan hasn’t realised we’re recording we then get back to the interview!)
"My favourite band of all time is a band called Bouncing Souls the early 2000 stuff, Saves The Day, a lot of pop punk and a lot of hardcore, I really like Chain Of Strength, Champion, even thought I'm not straight edge, but I like a lot a straight edge bands, It's all good. Um, I like a lot of hip hop stuff as well, main idol ever though, I would say, Travis Barker. Hes the main reason I play drums. ML – Have you heard his new song? Oli – I haven’t, no, I have been meaning to check it out recently, but since we have been on tour I have left my laptop charger in Newcastle! But I will check it out, I promise, Travis! (If you ever hear this, I love you!)"
Who has got the dirtest habits on tour?
"Well the last time I showered was yesterday, morning, but I feel disgusting, I need to get clean I feel horrible ML – Oh did you play yesterday night? Oli – Yea played in Glasgow, I know! There was no shower or anything yesterday so, Danny our acting tour manager and our driver Ben, we ended up sleeping in the van, and woke up with the worst hangover ever, everyone else went and got hotels, but we stayed out and partied like full. I was feeling it this morning but, its ok."
So do you guys get up to a lot of Rock'n'Roll antics as a band?
"Ross is straight edge for a start and has been for 5/6 years, erm, Sam likes to rest his voice, mines comes out every now and again, I am probably one of the worst and probably the reason why most things go wrong because I'm so hungover or something! Its really god fun though, we always get there."
Whats your favourite gig of all time that you’ve played.
"We played a festival in Sweden, in 2008, we were still a well small band, and had done a couple of tours and that, we got asked to go out there, they couldn’t pay us for the festival but they could pay for our hotels and flights etc, and we were just like "Yeh!". It was awesome, I never thought we’d get to travel outside Manchester so when we got to Sweden for the weekend that was amazing."
(One from the readers!) Where did the name come from, Me Vs Hero?
"Our old guitarist, Alex, he played in a band with Sam called Roses on your Grave, a bit like a funeral for a friend, but really really bad, they wanted to start a new band, Alex rang Sam and was like "Ahhh Walls of Jerico, listen to this song, and he thought the lyrics were ‘Me Vs Hero’ but they were actually something completely different, but thanks anyway Walls of Jerico!"
Favourite girl celeb?
"Ummmm ummmmm, OK so I completely fancy Hayley Williams, but who doesn’t?! Who is it that I thinks absolutely amazing? She's an actor from Idol Hands, years old, Oh! Jessica Alba!"
OK, so give us some gossip, who gets the most girls in the band?
"Everyone apart from Pook has a girlfriend, ML – Oh really, so touring and groupies side of things is quite boring? Oli – Yeah like, we all chat to girls but we really here to play the music, so!"
Have you got a party trick to show us? (Being a drummer we really thought Oli would have something up his sleeve!)
"Errr, I really haven’t, Ross can do that thing, with your hand and your ankle and you jump and put your whole leg through it, Ross can do that, I'm sure Ross can do the worm as well."
Are you endorsed by any clothing companies?
"We used to get some stuff from Paper Stars, but not so much any more there a company from the south east called Sadpanda Clothing, you should definitely check them out, they do really nice stuff as well. Not got a huge one though, no." sadpandaclothing.co.uk
Please can you draw a band portrait
We will have the photos and a review from the Me Vs Hero, Deaf Havana and There For Tomorrow show in Nottingham up very soon! So make sure you check back!
Find out more about Me Vs Hero on their myspace or facebook.
