Mansize Roosters?

Rooster are currently in the middle of their first UK tour, having recently hit the upper reaches of the singles chart with their debut ‘Come Get Some’.  But there’s a lot of debate as to whether they’re the latest manufactured guitar band or if they really rock, so Gigwise caught up with vocalist Nick Atkinson and guitarist Luke Potashnick to discuss the band’s origins, their V2004 performance, and comparisons which vary from Aerosmith to Busted.

Gigwise:  How did you get the name Rooster?
Nick Atkinson:  It came from a racehorse that I bet called Rooster Booster on and it won me £250, but Rooster Booster didn’t quite have the ring I was looking for in a rock band name.  There are a few connotations like the Stones’ song ‘Little Red Rooster’ and Eric Clapton’s first band was called The Roosters.

G:  How did the band come together and how long have you been playing for?
NA:  We’ve all been playing since we can’t remember, Ben (Smyth, bass) started around 11, Dave (Neale, drums) even younger at 5, and I’ve always been singing.
Luke Potashnick: I started playing around 10 on the guitar.
NA: Luke and me went to school with each other so we’ve known each other over a decade.  I was in London in bands, going into record labels and getting kicked out.  I remembered Luke, and we started writing, and after a few weeks we thought it was going well.  Luke knew Dave from some gigs in Cornwall; he played a couple of times with us and was good.  As for a bassist, we put an ad in the music press and saw about 50 bassists in a day – Ben was the best of a bad bunch!

G:  You’ve been described as Oasis meets Aerosmith…
NA:  I’m not sure where the Oasis thing comes from; maybe it’s from our live performances where we just go out to have a good time regardless of what happens in the audience.

G:  How would you describe your music?
LP:  Someone came up with ‘griff’ rock, which I quite liked.
NA:  Groove, bass, riff-driven rock!  It’s all about big guitars and a big chorus for us.

G:  Who are your influences?
NA:  Influences is a funny word because we look into so much music that doesn’t come through here.  But in terms of what we’re doing, for me it’s Aerosmith, Free, an early 70’s band, ACDC, bands like that.
LP:  Cream, from the late 60’s is a favourite of mine.

G:  What were your expectations for your debut ‘Come Get Some’, and what was your reaction to it going top ten?
NA:  All indications were it was going to do alright, so we would have been happy with top 20.  So it blew us away to hit top ten, a very pleasant surprise!

G:  Has an album been recorded yet?  What are your favourite tracks on it?
NA:  It’s all been written and recorded, just being mixed at the moment.  It’s untitled as yet, but it should be out around February/March.  I actually like all the songs, because I wrote all of them!  We sat down with the music we had and 12 songs picked themselves.  ‘You’re So Right For Me’ has a great classic 70’s rock sound…
LP:  Big riffs, big chorus and a big guitar solo, we always end every set with it.
NA:  ‘Staring At The Sun’ is also becoming a favourite for me, a mid-tempo rock track big ballad thing.

G:  How are you finding your first tour?
NA:  We’re having a ****ing great time!  We’ve been all over the place – Cardiff, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Aberdeen – we’re being received really well so we’re having a blast!

G:  What’s the Rooster live experience?
LP:  A lot of bouncing up and down, lots of movement and feeding off the energy.
NA:  We’re a really energetic show, so it’s all about jumping up and down and having a good time and getting sweaty.

G:  What was playing V2004 like?
NA:  The first day we were in awe of it all, parked up in a bus next to The Thrills, The Strokes, and The Pixies!  It was also our first time on a big stage, but by the second day we were having a blast with free beer and a backstage pass!

G:  Is the festival circuit something you want to do more of next year?
NA:  Yeah, people who go to festivals just want to hear music, new music too, so it’s awesome playing to that sort of crowd.
LP:  They’re far more accepting, sometimes you play gigs where people stand there waiting for you to impress them and festival crowds are not necessarily like that.  They just want to have a good time.

G:  Are you worried about coming across as a pop-rock boy band?
NA:  There’s been a lot of that in the press, and as far as I’m concerned the people writing that haven’t been to see us.  Ok, we’re young guys, and some may say good looking guys, but Ben, Luke, and Dave can play their instruments.  They’re not open bar chord musicians, they’re proper classically trained musicians who are awesome.  We write all our own music, and I don’t think we can be compared to Busted or McFly because musically we are totally different.  I don’t see them doing barfly tours - we consider ourselves to be a live, working rock act.  If they want to call us out fine, they just need to see us to understand we’re not that.
LP:  There’s a pop sensibility to our tunes, big choruses that people can get into.  If that means we can get top ten success then bring it on.
NA:  We’re not afraid of melody, and unfortunately if you have melodic songs you get categorised.  People want to categorise everything, instead of just going, ‘you know what, this is good, we like it’.
LP:  There’s no one out there doing what we’re doing at the moment.  There are a lot of young guys with guitars, but they’re not playing the classic rock music that we’re playing. 

Rooster believe that they’re a full-on rock band, and go a long way to proving the point at the gig later that evening.  They’re confident in their ability and their songs – and they challenge anyone who doubts their rock credentials to check them out in person.