the-raft.com (local) - first for music, music news, features, competitions and reviews

About Petrol Records

Janet Jackson Interview

Daft Punk Return With 'Musique Vol 1 1993-2005'!

The Magic Of Disney

Jesse McCartney Talks About His 'Beautiful Soul'

BRMC - Salvation or Sinners???? Cracking the Truth About ... Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Van ... Faith and Foundation From ... Do Not Wash Your Hair - Advice ... Time to throw some more shapes as ... Brian Explains All At Placebo's ... IMA ROBOT Interviewed! Swinging axes and grinding ... About Petrol Records Janet Jackson Interview Daft Punk Return With 'Musique Vol ... The Magic Of Disney Jesse McCartney Talks About His ... Yellowcard Back In Action! The Band: A History Of Music Out ... Up Close And Personal With Hilary ... John Cale Talks Us Through His New ... The Return of Liberty X! The Raft Talks To Brooke Valentine The Roll Deep interview Wire Daisies Interviewed by Us! Killing Joke's Jaz coleman Takes ... A couple o' Kooks... Deep Dish in Ibiza... Turin Brakes interview 10 Unbelievable Years for Cream in ... Raft Festival Guide 2005 It's all gone Pete Tong, or has ... Chris Coco Remasters the ... All hail...Micky Finn Glastonbury (Mike and Emily Eavis) ... The Best Gigs......Ever! The Real Slim Shaky! Glasto 2004 - Read the Raft review ... Just Don't Ask 'Em What Their ... We Caught Up with Kelis Down St ... D Debates the New Massive DVD JB and Nicolas Reveal 10,000Hz ... A New Janet Delivers Us a New Album Natasha and Liz Look Back on The ... The Memory of Aaliyah The Future's Bright The Future's ... Agent Sumo Interview As If Soundtrack - Music For ... Canadian Music Trio Bran Van 3000 ... Cortizone Discuss Nu-Metal In All ... Armstrong Returns with 'As If To ... Conversing With D-Note Genius Matt ... David Gray: A Century Ends I Love 70's Soundtrack Danny and Richard Talk Exclusively ... Thank God It's Haven!! I Love 90's Series Soundtrack Twilo Time with the man Vasquez Popgoss's Exclusive Glitter ... Kissin Time Returns Marianne ... The Best Of Tubular Bells With ... Mr Dan Reveals All... I.G Culture Flips The Script Remixing Classics with Nicolas Of ... Ozzfest: 2nd Stage Photek Interview Meet Techno's Own Kosmic Messenger ... Tank Fill Us In On The World of R ... Victoria Reviews 2001 and Gives Us ... Emma Bunton's Live Webchat With ... Music Forever With Immortal ... What's Up Manu? Mobile Ringtones Get on Your Knees for the Church ... Marianne Talks Exclusively to The ... Coming Over to My House? Dimitri's A Night at the Playboy ... Dimitri on the Blower Exclusive Peter Gabriel Interview ... Goldrush Interview Yann Tierson Subconscious Talks to ... Victoria Reveals All to Popgoss! Gomez Got 21 Minutes to Kill Agent Sumo Interview The LOUD - Crescent Interview Gomez Get Their Guns Out Heron Gets the Jasper Stone ... Craig Explains The Whole Deal on ... Gabriel Gets Animated about the ... Help Future Forests To Plant One ... Robin from UB40 Talks About the ... All You Want Is Bellefire On The Couch With Atomic Kitten YOu Will Learn to Play the Piano! Breaking Ground With Fallacy and ... Joseph Arthur Comes to Town Carter bugs out! The Raft Lifts the Lid on ... It's raw in the frontline. Cassius Give Us The Lowdown on ... UB40 Present The Fathers Of Reggae! Gemma Hayes Has the Heart and Soul ... NER*D on the road to discovery...

Vex Red Breeze Through the UK Rock Scene

Is it a true story that you sent in a tape to Ross Robinson after an advert in Kerrang!?

Nick: 'Yeah, basically there was this little thing in Kerrang! from Ross saying that he was bored of the American scene and that he wanted to hear a few more British acts. So I sent off the demo... I sat at the computer for about three hours writing a really short message which he didn't even get anyway. We sent it off with a plain cover and no fancy folders or biogs or anything, just the CD how it was and we didn't expect to hear anything to be honest. We're not as heavy as what he's previously done so...'

So what was your reaction when he picked up the phone?

Ant: 'It was one of those typical Sundays just sitting down watching a film and getting really depressed. And I thought it was like one of our mates winding us up but when it clicked I just got really shaky and stuff and my girlfriend was rolling me a cigarette and when he realised who it was as well (pointing to Nick) he was the same. He was really cool though he was asking us loads about the band and our backgrounds and stuff like if we were drug addicts or we were really as young as we said we were!'

And what was the response?!

Ant: Just that we weren't. None of us are really drug addicts apart from Ben! It was just really easy chatting to him and stuff. And the next day he had his manager - who's now our manager - phone up and after that they had a lawyer out the next day and then within three days the whole thing just went crazy. It's something you only read about... we couldn't believe it.

How long was it before you met up with Ross?

Ant: Around the end of July last year, he was coming over for the Kerrang Awards. We were basically supposed to meet him that night and hang out and stuff but we couldn't do it because we couldn't get tickets for the Kerrang! awards. We booked a rehearsal studio and he came the day after and he turned up with Casey Chaos from Amen and they listened to us play.

I heard you had a bit of a bombing session with Casey. That must have been hilarious? What was Casey like?

Ant: 'He was really nice. Very scary but really nice!'

Keith: 'We were just playing really badly in front of him.'

Nick: 'Every time he turns up he just seems to fuck everything up! (laughs) I don't know what it is, none of us are really in awe of him or anything it' s just that when he turns up we play really badly.'

How would you describe your own sound?

Ant: 'Well it's just controlled noise ain't it, really.'

Nick: 'That's a really difficult one.'

more...

		Protection - we do a lot of it these days. Sun cream for our skin, sunglasses for our eyes, condoms for you know where - but do you remember to protect your hearing? Click to find all the information you need to look after your hearing now so you can enjoy music for years to come
		The Raft has discovered The CarbonNeutral Company They help business, government and individuals to tackle their contribution to climate change. In addition to forestry projects, their work includes carbon emissions reduction, renewable energy and biomass schemes, as well as carbon management and risk consulting And that can't be a bad thing...

contact the-raft

www.pro-music.org - everything you need to know about music online