Morning Runner

Virtual Festivals: So who are you and how did you form?
Fields: I'm Fields and I play the keyboards.
Tom: I'm Tom and I'm the bassist.
Matthew: I'm Matthew and I sing and play guitar.
Ali: And I'm Ali and I play drums! We formed in Reading. We were in different bands playing music for other people and we knew we all wanted to give it a proper go.

VF: Did you all know each other before that then?
M: I was in another band and I was writing songs for them and I just didn't really feel like I was able to do what I wanted to do. I wanted to sing, and once me and Ali got together I just knew from that moment I wanted to be in a band with him.

VF: So are your musical tastes quite similar?
M: It's all a bit different really. I'm into more heavy stuff but we like a lot of bands. Fields is into Elbow, Tom likes REM and Ali likes stuff like Kings Of Leon

VF: You played at the V Festival this year. How did it go?
Fields: We had a good time, it was wicked. We played Chelmsford first, then Staffordshire on the Sunday. They were both pretty good.

VF: The Kooks were on before you, weren't they?
M: Yeah, we got on pretty well with them and they really blew us away.
A: Obviously they didn't blow us away as in........yeah.
M: I just think as far as live bands go they're just incredible.

VF: How was T in the Park then?
F: That is a great festival - probably our best festival experience.
M: They just go mad for it, don't they?
T: They pack into these real small tents - about the same size as the V ones, smaller than the Glasto ones and when we first went on there wasn't that many people in the tent. Just people sat down and stuff.
M: Then we realised there were actually people coming to see us. They were just late from seeing other bands.
T: Yeah. Suddenly it happened, didn't it? Everyone came in and everyone went to the front and they went mad.
M: I've never seen people go that mental.
A: It's a really well organised festival. It's just good, innit?

VF: Are you hoping to do the Reading festival next year?
A: With my black hoodie?
M: I hope so. I think the Reading festival is great with the bands they've got, but it's just the atmosphere. It's horrible. It's a very hostile environment and when I went I thought I was gonna get my head kicked in.

VF: You supported Coldplay this year. What was that like?
F: Great.
M: Good.
A: Really good.
T: Big.
A: There were probably about 30,000 people at each venue so it was huge.

VF: The word on the street is they rewrote 'X & Y 'after they heard your album.
T: There was a rumour, we heard that as well. Chris Martin did walk on stage right in front of us when we were sound checking and he said 'you're the best thing I've ever heard. It's much better than any of our stuff' and I was like, 'yeah, cool.'
A: Do you reckon they'll rewrite it again when ours comes out?
M: It was really weird, and we were like, 'shut up.' It was quite funny.

VF: So you didn't spend that much time with them?
F: We saw them around a bit. We saw them backstage and it was nice to just occasionally have a chat.
A: They get one or two more people wanting to interview them.
M: Even the way their dressing rooms are. After the gigs they just get swamped.
F: It was a great experience overall. It was always going to be. When we found out we'd got it we started going nuts 'cause you knew it would just be a surreal experience. It was weird the first couple of times but actually, like anything, you can get used to it quite quickly and I think we did get quite used to it. It became our norm for however many days we did it for but you realise you're a bit of an idiot when you walk out there and you don't really feel anything.
A: You're not even nervous. You don't feel a thing and I'm always grumpy. And that's when you realise you're a kind of an idiot.
T: But when you make a wrong note and you hear it echo around, you're like 'ooooh, this is quite scary! There's a lot of people listening to that wrong note.'
T: We kind of treated it like it was probably the only chance to play stadiums so we decided to just enjoy it.

VF: So what plans have you got for next year?
F: Put an album out. That's our big thing next year.

VF: When's it due?
F: Start of the year we're thinking. It's probably more February than it is January but it's probably more March than we'd like to let on. Just because we want to get everything in place and everything just right.
A: We wanna get it right.
F: And personally, I feel we've got a lot more touring to do to make sure people don't see us a as a band who just get opportunities beyond their ability.
A: We're on the verge. We've played with other big bands and we're doing Top Of The Pops next week and all that sort of thing. So we're having all the right things happen but if we don't work hard we're going to end up looking like we're a bit spoilt.
M: 'Cause other bands don't get these opportunities.

VF: So what were you all doing before you 'went pro' so to speak?
T: As little as possible.
A: I was a builder.
F: I worked on a farm.
M: And I was a student nurse.

VF: So you've given that up completely now?
M: Yeah, it's a funny feeling. Halfway through my first year of being a student nurse it looked like we were gonna get signed and it just took ages. I was like, do I leave now and just do whatever. So I had to stay on and do another six months because at least if it all falls through then I've done my first year and I can carry on. You try not to think about your biggest dream coming true because otherwise it just drives you mad.
A: Looking back, we were quite fortunate because at the time, we really got the impression from what everyone was saying, that we were gonna get signed. So the logical thing to do was gradually jack in your job, like go a bit more part-time and put more into the band. But looking back on other bands' experiences, they've had exactly the same things told to them and have been completely screwed. They never got the deals at the end of it and lost all their jobs.
F: It's all about timing because you see some bands where it doesn't happen quickly enough and they are kind of waiting and the interest drops off. And what do you do then? I guess you just go and write more songs. It was never clear cut enough where we said one day 'okay, I give this up today and I start that tomorrow.' It just all merged into 'well I've got to quit work at some point so I'm gonna have to pick a date, like there.' So then you go and get by for a while and then the deal's sorted out. We've probably been full-time for a year now and were part-time for about a year before that.

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