So, what are your ambitions for yourselves individually and for the band?
Johnny : We're all determined to make this band a success and we all know that we've got the talent and the determination.
Stu : We just wanna get enough money for a decent chippy.
Lee : For the band I don't set ambitions too high, first off it was to write a good song, then to play a gig and I just take each step as it comes but hopefully we'll keep up the good pace and success we're getting
Robbie : My main ambition for the band is obviously just to keep getting stronger with a larger fan base and hopefully get signed at some point. I don’t really wanna be the biggest band in the world (although that would be nice) I’d just be happy to be able to make a living doing what I love and with my best friends. Personally I just wanna become the best singer and all round performer that I possibly can.
Whose idea was the name of the band, Aces High. What was the influence behind it?
Johnny : I think me or Stu suggested it. When we were looking for a new name for the band we wrote down a big list of names we liked and narrowed it down until we were left with a few.
Lee : It's pretty obvious we like Maiden so no huge story behind it
Robbie: plus it’s an awesome Iron Maiden song
How do you feel about each other as musicians?
Lee : I think we're lucky we all came together really because even thought we've never really had lessons we're all competent with our role.
Johnny : Everyone in the band is talented as fuck in my opinion. That may sound arrogant but fuck it, it's true. We may not be able to play to the level of the drumming or guitar virtuosos, but we play from our heavy metal hearts and have plenty of individual talent, that when put together explodes into something fucking awesome.
Jacko : they are all my brothers, john and Stu really tear it up on the guitars, not only do they play excellent solos but they are charismatic. Lee stands there looking solid like “dinnae like my bass, I’ll knock yur heed in likes, ken”.
Stuart : Robbie … Holy shit …. He sings fairly deep, but turn you’re back and he’ll scream til your ears bleed…. He’s deceivingly amazing and he owns the stage, nobody else could ever front Aces High.
Who is it that writes the music?
Johnny : It depends. Sometimes I'll write the whole structure of a
song, then take it to the band and we'll fuck around with it until we're all happy. Sometimes Stu, Lee or Jacko will do the same.
Lee : when we're writing at practice we just throw ideas back and forward to build up on the basic riff so I'd say we all do our part in the overall song.
Stu : drawing the line on solos is always the hardest part.
What about the lyrics?
Robbie : We all help with the writing really and have our own inputs, I pretty much always write the lyrics
Johnny : Yeh, Robbie writes lyrics and figures out melodies for the songs.
What does the band mean to each of you?
Robbie : Haha this is a fucking gay question ask me it when I’m drunk!
Stuart : A fun way to raise chippy funds,
Johnny : True metal, chippys, and brotherhood.
How many gigs have you played so far?
Stu : most gigs have been really poorly organized, but we have had the chance to play with some cool bands
Lee : we've played 11 so far. At most gigs what we hear is that we rock and have good crowd interaction, which is good for us because we always try and get the crowd involved as much as possible
Robbie : With each gig we just get better I think. It makes sense, the more you play the better your confidence will get and the better performance you’ll give. We’re all about the performance aswell really I’d rather go out there and go fucking crazy and make a couple of mistakes than go out and play perfectly but spend the whole set fucking looking at my feet, those bands are gay.
Jacko : It’s hard to get people into unsigned bands, especially so in fife. There is next to no music scene here. But we played a few gigs recently that were pretty well advertised and a bunch of people showed up and they seemed really into it.
What sort of turn out do you get. What are the crowds like? How does the response actually make you feel?
Lee : We've played to some small crowd but also some big ones but no matter how many people turn out we rock out asses off and crowd seem to appreciate that.
Johnny : People seem to get into out set because we go up there and have as much fucking fun as we can, but we still play tight. We pose, rock out, raise our guitars above our heads, high five, solo on top of tables or amps, and just have a great time. I reckon the crowd sees how much fun we've having and if they already enjoy our music then the rocking out adds to their overall enjoyment of our show.
Robbie : Every crowd is always different aswell sometimes you’re playing to 15 year olds and others they’re like 30 odd it’s pretty crazy.
Have you had any weird experiences at a gig?
Robbie : At our last gig the sound engineers were being all weird and not letting me use my wireless microphone so I had to use one of theirs, which sucked. So halfway through The Wickerman the fucking cable falls out of the mic!! I was pretty pissed off about that and then it happened again later on in the set.
Lee : only 1 really and it was our last gig at the doghouse in Dundee when we were playing pool before the gig and a Chinese man tried to sell us copied porn DVD’s
Johnny : The last three gigs we've played I've been drunk so I can't really remember much about them except we had loads of fun.
Have you recorded any songs? When will they be available to buy on CD?
Johnny : We recorded a demo at Q10 studios when we were Rock Fist, but it turned out to be a pile of pish so we haven't sold it or given it to anyone.
Stu : We have a few songs recorded in Jacko’s dining room with a Ł6 mic, I wouldn’t say its not good quality enough to sell but I think it’ll be good enough when it’s finished to download………hopefully. Live is where it’s at with Aces High !!!
Jacko : Damn this demo, we recorded it in my living room with the single most basic setup ever. It doesn’t sound too bad for how it was done if I don’t say so myself. We’ll have them ready for our next gig in Dundee I think.
Visit the band's offical website
To listen to some of the band's MP3s then go to their Myspace profile Make sure you add them!
Content © Lou Rae 2005
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