When you have the son of Iron Maiden front man Bruce Dickenson in your band, you’re bound to draw in the crowds. But metalcore five-piece Rise To Remain have still managed to hold their own. The band formed in 2008 after two different acts merged.

“Pat (Lundy, drums) and I we’re in a band called 12 Ton Method and Will (Homer, rhythm guitar), Austin (Dickinson, lead vocals) and Ben (Tovey, lead guitar) used to play in Halide. They were the two bands that collided and quite a few Halide songs are on the ‘Bridges Will Burn’ EP” bassist Joe Copcutt to me.

Pat feels that this has helped to shape Rise To Remain’s sound, “I think everyone in the band came from separate musical backgrounds and had different upbringings as well. We definitely have a mix of everyone’s best bits. There’s always something new and fresh on the table. It does take a bit of consolidation but it’s good for the writing process.”

Rise To Remain’s debut gig was a somewhat daunting set at 2008’s Download Festival, “I’ve never been so nervous before a show. We were all pooing it” said Joe. It took a whole month of rehearsals to make sure the band were ready for their opening slot on the third stage.

“We had about 4 weeks to get tight. I was only 17 at the time so we really had to get our act together and step up a bit” says Pat.

“It also taught us a lot because we saw all of our favourite bands that weekend and we were like “shit, so this is how it goes down”. So it made us just knuckle down all through 2009 and 2010 and its made for a pretty good 2011 hopefully, fingers crossed.”

Since their debut gig, the band have supported some pretty big names including Whitechapel, Hatebreed, Bullet For My Valentine, Trivium and, of course, Iron Maiden on the Indonesian leg of their world tour. “It’s funny because loads of the bands that we’ve had the privilege to tour with were our favourite bands when we were growing up. They were all a massive influence and it’s great because we get to learn a lot from touring with them” said Joe.

But it was the band’s support slot for Korn on their UK tour last year that really sticks out for Pat. “Korn got us in the biggest rooms that we’ve ever played in the UK so that was a bit of an eye opener”

Rise To Remain have recently finished recording their debut full length album which is due to come out at the end of the summer. “We got to record with Colin Richardson (who has worked with Machine Head, Bullet For My Valentine and Slipknot amongst others) which was a dream come true” said Joe:

“We also recorded it in Chesterfield which was really peaceful. We’re all from London and it’s a bit hectic there, so it was nice just to get in the middle of nowhere and zone out for a couple of months. We’re really proud of the outcome and we think it sounds great. We just hope everyone else does, but we’ll find out soon enough.”

Some of the new material has been aired during their stint supporting Funeral For A Friend on their UK tour, with new single ‘The Serpent’ – currently available as a free download – being used to open their set. “It’s been nice to play some of the new stuff and we’re really looking forward to playing a whole set of the new album” said Joe.

Pat adds; “It’s nice to change it up a bit. We’ve been touring the EP for a long time so when we do our headline tour, getting to play the majority of the new material is gonna be great for us.”

A busy summer awaits for Rise To Remain as they will be playing various European festivals, including Download and Sonisphere in the UK, where the band are becoming regulars on the line-up. “I love festival season” said Joe; “every time it comes around we always get really excited because the weather is always nice and you get to meet up with loads of mates from different bands and stuff which is always a good laugh”.

The boys are now festival experts and have some top tips for the festival going public.

“Bring baby wipes, its gets messy” said Joe, while Pat believes the best advice is to pace yourself. “Just stay hydrated. If you’re at a festival and you start to feel a little woozy, it can make for a pretty shit evening. Just take an hour off drinking and have a water. You’ll blow out at about 2:30pm if there’s a heat wave at any English festival. You’ll be stuffed”

Festival season will be followed by the band’s next headline tour for which the dates are yet to be announced. Or course, the lads are pretty used to travelling the world now and list ‘company, music and a positive attitude’ amongst their tour bus essentials Joe said:

“We just listen to music and Pat chugs barrels of Lucozade” .

So with a high-powered set of brutal metalcore anthems – and the DNA of a metal legend – Rise To Remain are sure to continue to climb the festival bills in 2012.

By Jo Stass

There is something in the air and it is certainly student revolts and as part of TNC’s ongoing series of features and stories on student protest we are really lucky to have been give the opportunity to talk with UMN Soclidarty at University of Minnesota. This interview was finished just before they where raided and kicked out by the police, A full statement of this and other events can be found on their Facebook page HERE.

It’s clear that UMN have conducted themselves with pride and honour and many great lessons for occupations and groups in the UK can be learnt from their example. There is a clear message and an even clearer understanding of what they are doing and what needs to be done for their to be effective change. Reading though this interview all at the University of Minnesota should be proud of the UMN and what they are doing.

TNC supports the peaceful and UMN Solidarity Occupation.

How has the occupation been going, has there been, has moral been good?

The occupation began on Monday, March 28th at 1pm, so as of writing this, it has been going on for 3 days, 4 hours. Morale has generally been good. It is an open occupation, so people are free to come and leave as they choose. As a result of long negotiations with police, we are allowed to have 12 students spend the night in the space without getting arrested. Relations with police and security staff have been particularly positive and cooperative.

How did the occupation come about, who started the ball rolling?

Last month a general assembly was called for on campus in response to issues around the world, including but not limited to the attack on collective bargaining in the state of Wisconsin, political unrest in the Middle East as well as frustrations with the University of Minnesota itself. A moderate-sized group of students, community members and faculty gathered to discuss responses to frustration. One of the ideas brought up was an occupation on campus.

In response, a rally was planned for March 28th. Students and community members gathered outside of Coffman Student Union on the East Bank of the U of M. We marched around the East Bank and over the Mississippi across the Washington Avenue Bridge, carrying signs and chanting in favor of soldarity and equity for U of M students and staff. We gathered again at the end of this march at the Social Sciences Tower on the West Bank. Here we collectively decided through consensus we wanted to and were willing to occupy the building. The first thing that we did in the occupation was to change all “men” and “women” signs on the bathrooms to “all-gender”. The university didn’t like that, and the signs have been taken down a couple of times, which was incredibly frustrating, but we just keep making new ones.

What has the feedback been like, how has the wider student community/academic staff taken to the UMN Occupation?

We’ve receieved a broad range of support, criticism and downright surprise. Students and staff have stopped in and had constructive conversations at our info table, as well as with other occupiers scattered throughout the first floor. Speaking broadly, we’ve been complimented on our peaceful, democratic process and presence here. A few dissidents have commented that we seem disorganized and directionless. We disagree there, we have a list of demands and our over-arching, unifying goal is to involve students and staff directly with the control of resources and policy at the U of M. Since we are in the Social Sciences building, we have been getting a lot of good feedback from professors who work in the building, and many of them have invited us to speak to their classes, or even brought their classes to the occupied space.

What advice had you sought before your occupation, and what advice would you give other student bodies hoping to follow your lead?

We read some zines made by various other student occupations, specifically from students who had occupied their schools in California, as well as “The Occupation Cookbook” put out by Croatian students who had occupied their university in Zagreb. There had not been a successful occupation on our campus for years, so we didn’t have any recent activities to base our actions on. We mostly have been learning as we go, which has its pluses and minuses. In terms of advice for other students hoping to occupy their schools, we would recommend getting demands finalized immediately after occupying the space, pushing hard with outreach to students, and not forgetting to have fun. An occupation is really hard work, and some of us are really exausted right now, but by having fun activities has kept us going. “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to part of your revolution.”

In the UK we have NUS (not a very good national Union) in the US is there an equivalent national or state level Union for students?

We do not have a student union. There are not many in the US, and most students here don’t even know what they are, unfortunatly. We have the MSA (Minnesota Student Association), which functions as a type of student government, but it is very much tied to the University administration. There is nothing like a Student Union in the European sense that functions more like a labor union. One of the hopes of some participants of the occupation is that this action will be the first step toward the creation of a Student Union, hopefully based on the principles of Solidarity Unionism.

What has been the response from your University?

We sent out a letter to administrators, and yesterday the chief-of-staff for Vice Provost Jerry Reinhart came to us at the occupation to discuss our demands and the nature of our occupation. We talked with him for about an hour and a half, and he was hoping to get us to say when we would leave the occupied space. That didn’t happen, and we just discussed the ways that we see the university could solve its issues. We told him that we believe that the entire university community should have direct, democratic control over university resources. Obviously he didn’t like that too much. But he did say that we were the most respectful group of protesters he had ever met, so that was nice haha.

Tell us a bit about your occupation, what your hoping for, what your hope to gain from this?

Our occupation, unlike many occupations of the 60′s and 70′s in this country, is open. We have no barricades, and people are free to come and go as they please. We are hoping to build awareness of occupations as a protest tactic, as they has been largely forgotten in the state of Minnesota. We are also hoping to build awareness of the budget issues facing our university. Many students see how their tuition has risen, but they don’t see how workers have been facing cuts, or how administration has been giving themselves raises. We are hoping to build this movement upwards and outwards in preparation toward a larger and more militant action surround university issues.

How has the press coverage been, have you been getting support from your students?

We have received a good amount of coverage on leftist and progressive blogs, as well as in smaller newspapers and the university newspaper. Our first night of the occupation, some TV news channels showed up hoping to get some footage of students protestors getting arrested. When they realised that we weren’t going to be arrested and that that was not our goal, they did a couple of interviews, left the building, and didn’t do any stories. We weren’t necessarily expecting them to, but it was still a bit frustrating. But our goal is not to gain coverage on the 5 o’clock news. We have gotten our message our through social networking and through word of mouth for the most part. The message from students has been mixed: those who come in and talk to us generally have a really good response and some of them have joined the core group of organizers, but some students who have not even come in to see what were about in person think that an occupation is unnecessary. A big reason for that is apathy and general indifference to current political and economic issues affecting us today.

Are you all continuing going to classes, what has the moral been like?

We have been continuing to go to class (or at least trying to), which can get stressful having to do work with the occupation while getting school work done, and while going to actual work. The positive thing for students who commute to school is that it is easier to get to class in the morning now that we are living on campus!

What would you like our readers to know?

We stand in solidarity with students and workers worldwide in the search for democratic, non-hierarchal solutions to everyday problems at institutions of education and workplaces everywhere.

So this was written earlier today before we were raided and kicked out by the police, so maybe you could have a small update on there about tonights events. We have a statement up on our blog about tonight’s events, and we have a shorter statement on our facebook. If you have any other questions, we would love to answer them (and I promise we will be more timely next time!)

This is part 2 of our incredible interview with Dananananaykroyd. More information on their new album and future dates can be found at the end of Mark’s interview. Their new song off their album “E-Numbers” is available now:

Dananananaykroyd – E Numbers by WorkItMedia

Would you let Matt Cardle cover Infinity Milk?

Ha, it’d be more funny than troubling for us. So yep, cool with me!

How did the two drum kits live set up come to be?

During a break at our first rehearsal, Calum sat down behind the kit and started playing. 
So the idea came up, and because it was ridiculous and funny to us, we just went for it. 
Our initial expectations for this band were pretty small, so that we didn’t worry much about the choices we were making then (see also THE NAME!)

What do you think of the Scottish Indie scene, now and when you started?

When we first sprung up, there was a glut of Orange Juice style bands, I guess in the wake of Franz Ferdinand. So part of us starting was a reaction to that. 
But even then there’s interesting things going on at the sidelines. We’re either touring, or don’t have much money for going out, or living away from Glasgow. So we might be the absolute worst people to ask about what’s happening in Glasgow right now. Remember Remember’s album is beautiful, and the latest transformation of Golden Grrrls is lovely.

Did you used to do any live covers?

Nothing live ever. When we have technical problems on stage, whoever can still make a sound will play something though. Ryan works a good line in retro arcade game music. And on our last tour I was obsessed with the intro guitar line from Diana Ross’ I’m Coming Out’. 

Basically the only way we’ll get round to doing a proper cover, is at the end of a very long tour, where we’ve had lots of technical problems. We’ll have developed those moments into a full cover just from memory.

Favourite ever place to play?

Barrowlands, Glasgow! Often rumoured to be closing, a bouncy springboard for a dancefloor, and the scene of all my first gigs.

 
Worst ever gig and why?

Annandale Hotel, Sydney. John broke his arm.

Favourite tour food?

I can do a few of these from memory, for Calum it’s and Egg and Cress Sandwich from M&S, and a bottle of their Florida orange juice. 
I’ve developed nice way of cooking fresh pasta in a Travelodge, using some Tupperware and a kettle. A little bit of pesto, and you’re all set! All set for confused looks from your band mates at least.

Where do you see yourselves in 5 years time?

A bald robot. I had to draw that in the last interview I did.
More seriously we’ll all have dogs. If the dogs like touring, we’ll be fine as a band, if not, we’ll work on procreating so our band can exist forever, handing the mantle down ESG styel.

Their album There Is A Way comes out in June on self-made record label Pizza College.

Since 2006 these Glaswegian guys have been a mainstay of the UK festival scene and have toured the UK non-stop it seems. As well as having their music featured in Fifa video games the band have been hard at work in LA producing their 2nd album to be released in June. Not bad we say and how many Scottish bands have you heard of with a the name of a Ghostbuster.

Dananananaykroyd Are: Duncan Robertson, David Roy, Calum Gunn, John Baillie Junior, Paul Carlin & Ryan McGinness

So you recorded your new album in L.A. Why there and why with Ross Robinson?

Well Ross lives and records in LA, so the question is really just “Why Ross?”
There is a very small number of albums that all six of us really love. Ross recorded two of them – At the Drive-In’s Relationship of Command, and The Blood Brothers’…Burn, Piano Island, Burn. The possibility to work with him came up, and it made perfect sense for where we wanted the band to go next.

What can fans expect from the album, and what would you tell people who’ve never heard you to expect?

There are a couple of songs on the album that will surprise people. There’s one that, to us at least, sounds like Prince. And one that sounds like Gwen Stefani. Even those ideas that start that far away from our comfort zones still get mushed through our collective brain wrong, so you can still tell it’s us! Basically, people can expect to dance more, and mosh less.
For people who haven’t heard us before, I wouldn’t know where to start!

Where did you draw inspiration from?

One of the biggest factors affecting this album was 2010 – a pretty weird and tough year for us. For many awkward reasons, we didn’t do very much. 
All of these songs came from that time. 
But the recordings, and the way we’re playing the songs now, has a lot more to do with letting 2010 (and everything negative connected to that) go.

What is your writing process?

Usually David will have songs ideas at varying levels of completeness. They get demoed, and sent over to us. Calum and John worked up vocal parts, some as collaborations, some separately. We all live with those demos for a while, head in to a rehearsal room, and everyone adds the extra parts that’re needed, and knock it into shape. 
Even with 6 people, it’s not half as hard as you’d imagine. I reckon we know what we’re doing now!

Did you guys enjoy L.A? Get up to anything exciting?

I had some epic plans for sight-seeing, and exploring different parts of LA. But Venice Beach, and Ross’ house had everything you could possibly want. Lots of skateboarding, eating (too) well, getting to know all the dogs in the neighbourhood. Just putting the album together, and everything that was involved in that was straight up fun. So there wasn’t that much need to take breaks, or escape from the working environment.

Are you going to be doing anything extra special on tour this time round? Will the ‘wall of hugs’ still be part of it?

Does “giving every gig 100%, like it’s the last you’ll ever play” still count as special if you do it every single show?
 We talk a bunch about retiring the ‘wall of cuddles’. And we stopped for a while. But in the heat of the moment, when the feeling is right, it gets resurrected…. But if you’re at one of our gigs, and it seems like it’s not going to happen, you can just start hugging everyone around you. You know it’s the right thing to do.

There’s quite a few of you, and you don’t exactly stand still when playing live. You must have had some fairly cramped stages in your time…

Things have gotten even worse now we have decent (ie big) amps! We’ve always managed to make it work somehow. We’re pretty good at thinking outside the box. But in this situation thinking outside the box, always translates to “just stand in the crowd”
At the risk of over romanticizing the situation, when the gig is going well, even in cramped conditions, we almost never collide. I sometimes think that we’re in an excited Zen state, where we’re all interweaving. 
But when we do smash into each other, I love how visceral that is too.

By Mark Allen