Hundred Reasons - Interview

  by Peter Liddle

published: 13 / 1 / 2002

intro

Hundred Reasons are one of those bands that have made it big before they have made it at all. Formed in the South of England in November 1999, the five piece metal group, which features in its lin

Hundred Reasons are one of those bands that have made it big before they have made it at all. Formed in the South of England in November 1999, the five piece metal group, which features in its line-up singer Colin Doran ; guitarists Paul Townsend and Larry Hibbert ; bassist Gilmour and drummer Andy Bews, recently won a Kerrang magazine award for Best Newcomer. It has also played support slots and dates with Idlewild, Seafood, Stapleton, The Crocketts, Rachel Stamp and The Dumdums. Despite this, Hundred Reasons' record releases to date have been limited and other than two tracks on a Blank Canvas compilation album 'Commercial Breakdown # 2', their only other release so far has been a single 'Cerebra' which was released on Fierce Panda in July of last year. Pennyblackmusic caught up with Hundred Reasons in Edinburgh on the last leg of their first headlining British tour in December and spoke to both Colin Doran and Paul Townsend.The band have particulary enjoyed this latest tour, as for the first time all its members have been able to take holidays from work and to finish a gig without having to travel back to do their ordinary jobs the next day. "Most of us work full time. It's been good not to have to get up and go to work." Doran tells Pennyblackmusic. " Sometimes we've driven back for six hours after playing. It's been nice to have a bit of time after gigs. But most nights we've just been having early nights !" It is a surprising thing to hear this. Hundred Reasons have gathered a reputation. like their recent touring partners Idlewild, for being wild on stage. Have they always just been this quiet, rather than conforming to rock stereotypes? Doran reasons that it's more to do with the fact they haven't had a chance -"It's been one of the biggest letdowns - like when we were touring with Idlewild we'd have to come back after the shows and we missed out on all the parties." Wow. The world of Hundred Reasons doesn't seem to be the rock'n'rock rollercoaster we might have expected. Until, of course, they come on stage, where they combine their blisteringly loud riffs and energy with a softer-tinged edge. It's easy to see why they've gained a reputation for their live performances. Do they think this live energy reflects in their studio work? "We always try and play to our best" Doran says. "We just try to do what we do. Live we jump around a lot on stage, but in the studio we still try and get something good from it. I prefer it live, but Larry prefers the studio. Wherever you are though you've still got to get a vibe." "We need to get a lot more studio experience" Townsend adds "You can write a loud song and everybody loves it, but then then you take it to the studio and you realise it sucks. Going to the studio has made us better musicians." "We started off being really into just metal" he continues "As we went in the studio, we had to stop rocking out. We used to just go in and rock out - double bass, drum action and everything, but then we started listening to more melodic bands . Without melody it's just thrashing out." Metal for Hundred Reasons is a past genre which is in dire need of revamping. "Everyone's sick of nu-metal" says Townsend. " People want to listen to hard music but not something that gives them a headache, so people are getting into bands like At The Drive-in." "Metal is also becoming just pop. Every label gets themselves a metal band like they get a boy band, and it's been done to death. Then it is not alternative" It seems that Hundred Reasons want to be different, to break the mould that so many metal bands gladly fill, and give something new to their audience. To put it simply they are like a guitar indie band, but one which has been raised on metal. They know both sides of the coin, and this seems to be to their advantage. Not only do their songs have emotion, melody and beauty, but , while never losing meaning through excess, they also rock out with the heaviness of which metal fans remains so fond . With such an attitude and such a psoitive energy, it seems that Hundred Reasons' continued rise is assured.

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