“I don’t see the fuss about us, were just six welsh scumbags.”
Quirky Sean Smith wonders into Southampton Guildhall’s wine lounge all set for his interview with dripping wet, dyed blue hair. Looking like a smurf gone wrong. From then on I realised this wasn’t going to be any ordinary interview. Welsh funny man Sean Smith tells Hype magazine his feelings about stepping in for Sum 41 for the Kerrang Relentless Tour and reveals laugh out loud moments from his experiences since being in The Blackout.
Are you enjoying the Kerrang tour so far?
Sean Smith: Really good, the first date in Dublin was fantastic. The second one was the first one to sell out before we joined the tour, so we thought it was going to be quite tough. We spent all of our sets trying to win the crowd over. We did a Sum 41 cover as well which went down quite well. Wale’s had just beaten Ireland at the rugby which we hadn’t mentioned through the whole gig, but at the end someone through a rugby ball into the crowd and the Welsh national anthem started playing. Everyone was booing for 10 minutes after that.
What Sum 41 cover did you do?
Sean Smith: Obviously Fat Lip as it’s a fantastic song.
Has it been hard taking over the Sum 41 title?
Sean Smith: We haven’t come across any problems yet. It’s been fun. I think people realise they’re a fun band and were a bunch of t**t’s who think they’re funny. We we’re going to do the Fat Lip cover anyway as a joke but we we’re only going to do a bit of it, then we decided let’s just do all of it! We do this brilliant intro where we play Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, by Elton John. Basically we are asking for forgiveness for replacing Sum 41. Halfway through that we come onstage and play one of our own songs. Then I say only joking we are Sum 41 and Sum 41’s Fat Lip starts.
Are you getting along with everyone on tour?
Sean Smith: Katy P from Kerrang was DJ at a club so we all went out. We did the Kerrang tour before and on the first couple of days everyone was sizing each other up. But on our first night this year we all went out and the song Drowning Pool came on and instantly everyone bonded over it. It was like yes, nu metal, everyone get drunk! It was a good night, everyone is lovely.
Were you fans of the bands before?
Sean Smith: Definitely, I saw While She Sleeps on tour before and have known them for a few years. I saw them with Silverstein and they were awesome. Letlive’s new album is one of my favourite albums of 2011 and New Found Glory are the Kings of Pop Punk. Blink 182 are more pop than punk. We’re going on tour with them too.
How do you feel about going on tour with Blink 182?
Sean Smith: We’ve never played with them before, we got offered the dates and usually if you get offered something like that you snap it up, but for a second we thought this might be tough. We thought this would be tough, but you’ve got While She Sleeps and then Letlive so it breaks it up. It’s not all Pop Punk. But with Blink, they are only there to see Blink, so I’m going to have to make loads of d*** and fart jokes.
Do you think touring with a variety of different bands has improved your fan base?
Sean Smith: The reception we had at the second Dublin show was fantastic. Both were fantastic, but I think the first one was better, as our fans had brought tickets. The second one was sold out before we got on the bill and everyone seemed quite kind, so I think we probably are winning people over. I guess there’s some sort of stupid, childish, charm to us in-between songs. People either go I like these they’re funny, or they’re trying, or think I absolutely hate that fat, blonde, t*** and I want to kill him. As long as we’re sparking an emotion, it’s better than them just going I don’t like them. I’d rather be loved and hated, than just forgotten about.
Is this tour better than Kerrang tour 2010 when you toured with All Time Low, My Passion and Young Guns?
Sean Smith: I've watched the bands every night and they’ve been great. But that was the same as 2010, it’s a tough one. Not sure how to say this without offending anyone. Basically if it wasn’t for New Found Glory, I don’t think All Time Low would exist. Even to the point that they’ve got their name from a New Found Glory song. To be on tour with the Kings of Pop Punk is fantastic. I watched them the other night, every song I was like that’s brilliant, brilliant, s*** brilliant again. There was us playing before them like follow that you f*****’s and them like alright yeah. There lovely guys, sadly I can’t talk s*** about them because they’re too nice.
Tell us about the pledge system, did it help a lot with your new album?
Sean Smith: At first we weren’t sure. The way we had it first described to us and the way everyone thinks about it, is that it sounds like your begging to your fans. But imagine your favourite band when you were 16 years old. And I told you for 20 quid you could go meet them and hang out with them. You would go f*****g mental, right? Because we were jaded old men, we were like no way we don’t want to do this. But they explained that the kids get it in their ticket price, they come to the gig beforehand, we’d all hang out and have a laugh and they’d be over the moon. I don’t see the fuss about us, were just six Welsh scumbags. But to some people were their favourite band. If Limp Bizcuit when I was 15 years old said, if you pay a thousand pounds, you can meet us. I would have made my mother sell the house. I was obsessed with the band. It was basically selling experiences to people and nobody was forced to buy it, if you didn’t want to buy something then you didn’t have to buy it. There were loads of things that weren’t sold; there was a drum kit, a guitar.
We had a ball and we met loads of people we didn’t even know liked the band. We thought it was going to be the same 5 or 10 kids every time. But every house party was completely different; we went to a pool party. We played at someone’s house and she was like, do you want to come in the pool? Course we f*****g want to come in the pool, what a stupid question. Let’s get in pool why are we even talking about it? We had a blast doing it!
Did you get any strange fans that put their money into pledge?
Sean Smith: Surprisingly we didn’t. We’ve got a lot of right weirdo’s that like us. A lot of strange nerds like us that are quite scary. But no it wasn’t that bad. I’ll give you a highlight; there was a DJ pledge, where we had to DJ at parties. There was one at this girl’s house, the parents were quite wealthy and as I walked in Rhys went, yeah you go up, past the stripper poles and we DJ on the balcony.
We went in laughing. There are 3 stripper poles for pole dancing exercise or some b*****k’s like that. Whilst we were playing we had to stop in the middle of our set so they could play a Destiny’s Child song, so the birthday girl, her instructor and one of her friends could do a routine. I was like Pledge is the best thing ever! I get to watch 17 year old girls dance while I eat cake. I felt like Roman Emperor, bring me cake and grapes. Dance for me young children! Probably shouldn’t have said children. But yeah there was that, then she was like were going into the pool now, she opened the doors and there was a massive pool with slides and all that s**t. We were driving for like 10 minutes and was like ok were lost in the countryside. We were like perhaps it’s that big castle building over there. She answered the door, no parents in.
Since you played Reading last year, was it completely different from 2009?
Sean Smith: Yes, Reading Leeds the next day and that was brilliant. Most probably one of our best Leeds performances, as you know Reading beats the hell out of Leeds cause it’s a better lay out but so Leeds was better this year. Looking back on it wasn’t that bad but at the time we were f***ing livid.
Was it better playing in front of a bigger crowd then the Festival Republic stage in 2009?
Sean Smith: I think with the Festival Republic
What’s your favourite song that you’ve written on any album?
Sean Smith: Higher and Higher (HOPE – 2011), I think because I love the rapping bit. I love rap and I love Hydra he’s a lovely guy. We found out on our last tour that when we played it last it just made me people go mental, you know when you’re out and you hear House of Pain Jump Around and everyone’s like I must jump around so when we play Higher people are like it’s the last song I must go mental. So it seems to be that at the moment otherwise it would be The Storm as well, I can’t really remember any other of our songs I’ve never really listened to any of our songs back. That’s a lie.
How did you come about meeting Hyro Da Hero?
Sean Smith: How did it come about? DJ Daniel P Carter from BBC Radio 1 Rock Show, he introduced me to him because he has a mix tape out called Belo Horizonte and it’s basically Hyro rapping over a bunch of rock songs. He did Refused, Killswitch Engage and Circa Survive, he did a load of stuff over normal songs as well and he’s just brilliant. When we were in the studio recording the vocals for it I started rapping The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air rap in the middle bit and Jason who produced the album said “Yeah let’s do that.” And I was like we can’t do that, that’s Will Smith and he just went “Yeah you can, will just give him a credit,” and I was no, you can’t just take someone’s rap Jason and he was “Do you know any rappers?” and I was like I know of a rapper. So we called Hyro’s manager and we sent him a song and he came back and we sent him our lyrics, we didn’t give him anything he had to put in or anything and he just came back and pretty much did it in one which was pretty crazy. He’s on tour at the moment.
Are you working on any new material?
Sean Smith: Yes. We’ve done about ten or twelve new songs for a new album which at the moment is titled Everything is F****d, Let’s Party or Everything is F*****d, Let’s Have a Laugh. We’re not quite sure yet but it’s better than the title we had for the album last time which was Dog Porn 2 cause we already did Dog Porn 1 but we never released it. So yeah at the moment it’s everything is F*****d, Let’s Have a Laugh. Our management asked us what vibe are you going for on this album and Gavin answered in the most bored tone said “Party”. It’s an overall rocky, party vibe I guess, more than usual.
Since you’ve collaborated with many big names, do you think it’s boosted your fan base?
Sean Smith: Yeah, probably since they’ve all come about by accident (laughs). When we did High Tide with Ian Watkins (Lostprophets), he was in the same studio as us not that he wasn’t going to be in the same studio as us and he was like “Can I, Can I sing on a song?” and we were like “Yeah sure.” So we gave him a song and he did his part and was brilliant. Then we had Josh Franceschi from You Me At Six, who texted us and asked to be on a track, luckily he was in the same time as us and we just let him have a go, and then that Hyro thing with the Will Smith track, but yeah I think it has helped us because we’ve performed with all of those people as well. If we had someone bizarre that we could never perform with then I think it’s a bit pointless. We were talking about sending an email to Brian May and we met him at Reading and he was unbelievably lovely which goes to prove that no matter how big your band is, you’ll never be as big as Queen, and he’s a lovely, lovely guy. So you know it’s nice to be nice to people and we’re also trying to get Andrew W.K. involved cause apparently he likes partying.
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