How do you describe a band
like Cytota? Brummie? Melodic post-hardcore? Young? Although they are all of
the above, I'd like to highlight two missing words which, in my opinion, sum
them up most accurately; unashamedly talented. Some may choose to focus on the
fact that they have come particularly far for a band of their age and while
this may be true, I'd like to point out that their music should be the main
thing that matters and everything else, be it their age or their home town, is
merely a triviality when listening to their music. Other than that, what I really want to say is
that Cytota is a band that is most definitely going to make its mark on the
music industry if it hasn't already begun doing so. You better keep your eye on them folks as I'm certain you'll be reading about them in a music magazine near you soon enough. Anyway, enjoy the interview and if
you like, you can access their Twitter here and their Facebook here to drop
them a like or a follow. The official interview is here.
2. Were you expecting to get as much exposure as you've currently received?
3. How would you describe your genre to someone who hasn't heard it before?
4. As a result, some of the songs on your EP "TheProsecutor" are quite contrasting, for example Scars in comparison to Between Jokers And Jesters. Was this deliberate or were you trying to see what you could naturally create?
5. How young were you when you first started playing in bands?
6. Would you put it down to living in Birmingham, the home of metal, influencing how young you started playing in bands or was it to do with the people around you?
7. Would you say that being in a band from such a young age has had its disadvantages?
8. On the flipside, does it have any unexpected advantages
9. Now tonight, you guys supported Finch at a sold out show at Brixton Academy but it wasn't just a one off as you played last night as well. How do you feel?
10. This isn't the only time that you've supported a band that have influenced you. What would you say has been the best thing about playing all these shows?
11. You guys released your EP The Prosecutor last September.Are there any plans to release an album sometime soon?
12. How do you feel about playing Download as you guys also announced this a couple of weeks ago?
13. Can we expect anything else from you this year? I know you guys talked about the singles but is there anything else?
14. What's your pet peeve?
15. Do you guys have any guilty pleasures that you wouldn't mind sharing?
16. Finally, what's your favourite word?
Joby: To be honest, I
think it's a bit of both because it is our hobby yet we'd all love it to be our
job. There's nothing better than enjoying what you do, enjoying your work. I
think to be honest it's always been a dream - I'm speaking for myself but I think everyone
else here agrees as well.
(Everyone chimes in no)
Youssef: It's such a
strange one because if we had set out to do that we'd have not got anywhere. It
just happened spontaneously and that's a really cool thing.
Harry: We're really
thankful for it as well. I think what some people don't realise is that we
notice that we're getting this much attention. Even we, still being basically
kids ourselves, like listening to bands and so going in to do gigs is a bit mind
blowing.
Youssef: It's a shock.
Harry: Yeah, it's a shock
but we're loving it and we hope it carries on.
Joby: Describe our genre?
Well..
Youssef: So difficult!
Joby: I don't know. Being
a young band, we're developing all the time. The stuff that we're writing at
the moment is different to what we've done before.
Youssef: We're the same
band but we have matured.
Harry: I think we're
always maturing to be honest and I think over the next few years it's going to
keep progressing and progressing for us all, individually and as a band.
Joby: So at the moment
it's under the umbrella of..
Ryan: Shall we say metal?
Harry: It's under a metal
umbrella. It's one of the many options out there.
Ryan: Because we all come
from different musical backgrounds. I think that's one of the best things about
working with each other because we can all just bring what we've done before
and what we've experienced to the table.
Joby: To be honest, "The
Prosecutor" is a mix of a lot of different influences because being a
young band and just starting out, those songs were the first songs we wrote. We
all have different influences and I think it shows our different style, the
difference of our music.
Youssef: They all
naturally come out. We never set out to write a song that sounds like "this"
- we take influence and start writing songs and they naturally progress,
naturally develop. For example, one of the new songs we're working on at the
moment, I mean how many different versions have we got of that song?
Ryan: Yeah, it's just been
reworked and reworked.
Ollie: I think we've
settled on a version now though. The thing about "The Prosecutor" is
that it shows the way that we've progressed as a band; it's got our work since
we've started, all the way to now so it's just got a mixture of everything that
we've learnt.
Youssef: Well, me and
Harry have been in a band since Year 7 so we must have been 11/12
Harry: I met Youssef back
in secondary school and then I met Joby when I was in Year 10 so when I was
about 14. We've just been a band since then really.
Ryan: I joined when I was
16 so I'm about a year and a half into the band. When I first started playing
in bands, I was in Year 5 so about 9/10 in talent shows.
Ollie: Same age as like me
and Joby because we were from the same area as well. We were doing some band
stuff and Joby was doing some stuff with other people and it's all just come
together now.
Harry: For me, it was more
like growing up around music and around other musicians that made me want to do
that sort of thing. I don't think it was necessarily to do with where I was
from, it was just the surroundings.
Ryan: When I started the
band, it coincided with me starting in college at Birmingham so I think moving
into that area where the scene is such a big scene, it must have had an influence
on me. I started playing in the band and
because the scene is big in Birmingham as well, it's really helped me get into
it.
Youssef: The metal scene
really thrives in Birmingham.
Ollie :There are a lot of
great bands in Birmingham.
Ryan: They're hard working
bands.
Ollie: You know, it's so
great to be around all these bands.
Joby: Like the guy who was
teching for us tonight is in a band that we've played with before. We know a
lot of the bands around Birmingham and we help each other out so it's a great
environment.
Ryan: Yeah, it's a nice
network.
Ollie: One of the first
things we said as a band was to try and get into that community really.
Youssef: Like if we came
through, we'd all push through together so we'd bring other bands through as
well.
Ryan: Like when we did our
headline show, giving people the opportunity to support us. We believed in
their music and we were like " Yeah, they need that chance."
Joby: Yeah, I think so
because when you go on stage say, anywhere, being so young, I mean...
Youssef: First
impressions.
Ollie: They're all
expecting to see some up and coming great band and some 15 year old kids turn
up on stage and they're thinking "What's going on?"
Harry: It's been a big
problem as well in terms of touring and recording stuff. For instance, we were
supposed to be recording the drums for our two new singles next week but
there's just been so many things. If we were older, it just wouldn't be a
problem but because we've got college, we're really struggling to find dates to
do the next two singles because people are like " No, I've got college
going on, I've got this, that and the other" but I suppose when we leave
in the summer, we'll be able to do more touring and do what we want. Hopefully,
it'll start getting a bit more crazy!
Joby: Stay tuned for the
summer.
Ollie: We do our odd
dates, you know we've had the headline date, the Rise (To Remain) tour and then
odd dates in Birmingham everywhere but we can't get onto a full tour until
we're away from college.
Harry: We should be
definitely jumping onto a substantial tour before the end of the year which
we're so keen to do because it's been over a year since we toured with Rise To
Remain. We need it!
Ryan: It is difficult when
you're young because you've got all these responsibilities like college and a
lot of us work as well and then you go on tour and you're just in the band for
like two or three weeks. Then you have to go back to doing all the boring stuff
like "I've got to do all my essays," and it's so hard to keep focused
on that but our aim is to just get through our education and at the end of
that, we can do that as our thing. We don't have to worry about those things
anymore.
Joby: Just live and learn.
Youssef: A good band
amongst bands.
Ollie: Respected.
Harry: It definitely
brings a big advantage though because if you think about it, if you heard a
band and then someone turns around and says "Oh, you do know they're all
16," then you'd be like "Oh, oh shit! That's cool, man."
Joby: But we're not 16!
We're 17, 18.
Youssef: We played in Birmingham yesterday which was awesome.
Ryan: It was nice because
it was our own town as well.
Ollie: It was incredible to
play with a band of that size and calibre. To be playing Brixton itself, well not
many bands ever get that opportunity.
Joby: As I said onstage,
it was a dream for all of us. If you ask a lot of bands what do you want to
achieve as a band, a lot of them will say I want to play Brixton Academy.
Harry: It's like While She
Sleeps have only just played it and they've been pretty big for the past 4
years so for us to all of a sudden to be told " Guys, in three weeks
you're going to be playing Brixton," it was like what.
Joby: I was smiling for
days.
Ryan: Just to put it into
perspective we'd been going to each other close up "Man, we're playing
Brixton in like so many days" and then we'd just be like counting down.
Joby: Getting permission
from college was one of the funniest things because it was like "Why are
you going to miss two days?" "I'm playing Brixton Academy."
Harry: I dunno. It's one
of these things, like the Finch dates, I don't know about you guys but when
you're all here, you're thinking before "Oh my God, I'm playing with
Funeral For A Friend, I'm playing with While She Sleeps" but then when you
get there, you realise that they're all just normal guys and they're all really
nice.
Youssef: It's quite
humbling.
Harry: Yeah, so it's like
if you say to them "I've loved your music for years," sometimes they
feel quite awkward because they're not expecting it.
Ollie: We've been really
lucky with a lot of the bands that we've played with. Everyone's been so nice
to us. We've fortunately managed to play with a lot of decent sized bands to be
honest.
Youssef: Bands that we
love. Bands that we listen to, like genuinely I have them on my iPod. Like I'll
be at home, listening to their music and then the next day, I'll be playing a
show with them. It's kind of surreal, like what's going on!
Joby: Well, I think an album is inevitable at some point.
Harry: It's on the
horizon.
Joby: We're going to do the album at some point but there's no date as of yet.
Joby: Oh man, I'm
absolutely stoked.
Ollie: For me I've never
even been to a full festival so to be playing Download as my first festival.
Ryan: It's incredible.
Ollie: It's mental.
Harry: Download's always
been just one of those things where it's like... I don't know, it's Download!
Youssef: Prestigious. So
prestigious. I think if we weren't playing I'd be buying tickets anyway so to be
playing is again surreal as I said earlier.
Joby: There's so many
bands that we love as well like I've never seen Jimmy Eat World live. I love that
band and I've never seen them live before and I'm so stoked to go see them. So
many amazing bands are playing so I'm just going to have a fucking hell of a time!
Ollie: I think it's going
to depend on this year goes really, until we urgently release anything big.
Joby: As far as releasing
stuff and like the stuff we do, we just get told.
Youssef: We have a vague
plan.
Harry: It's not that we
get told, it's more like we come to them with an idea and they're like "Ok
then, it's a good idea if you release it here because of blub blub ba" but
for the next single we are doing a music video for it. As of yet, there are no
teasers to that or anything.
Joby: If you like the
stuff by Cytota already, you'll like this track too.
Harry: It's a level up.
Joby: I've never been so
excited genuinely, like I've never been
so excited about going into the studio and recording a track before in my life.
Joby: People who walk on the
wrong side of the escalator, no stand on the wrong side of escalators. In the
morning it's the worst thing ever. I go to college in Birmingham with Ryan and
Ollie and I have to get a train every morning to New Street in Birmingham and
there's always some dickhead standing on the wrong side.
Ryan: It's not got the sign though like on the tube though.
Youssef: To be fair, I
didn't know for years that that's the rule. (Cue laughter all around)
Joby: Can we add that
Youssef's one of those dickheads.
Youssef: I'm one of those
dickheads. I don't have a clue.
Harry: I'd have to say
lateness. (Cue knowing laughs) Because I'd like to think I'm a freakishly
organised person. At least I'm admitting it!
Ryan: Freak.
Harry: Really, I hate it
when people are late. Like if you say be here for that time, it means get here
for that time, not 10 minutes after, not 5 minutes after. It means get there
for that time!
Ryan: I've been like once,
it was because my burger was late.
Harry: If you've got a
good reason for being late then it's cool but if it's just like "I got up
late", it's like fuck you. Other than that, hipsters.
Youssef: It's not really a
pet peeve, it's genuinely an annoyance.
Harry: It's a pure hate!
Ollie: I can't really
think of anything off the top of my head, other than when people brush their
teeth in front of me. I just don't like that, at all.
Youssef: That was funny on
tour, so funny.
Harry: I didn't know that.
Ollie: I don't like people
brushing their teeth in front of me, it just freaks me out.
Ollie: If we're going
musically, I really really like Ellie Goulding still.
Ryan: Oh no! You're going
to get ruined for that man!
Youssef: Musically? It's
not really a guilty pleasure, probably an unexpected pleasure. I listen to a
lot of rap and grime and hip hop and that sort of thing.
Harry: I've got one; I
like having a bath. I don't know, I just think they're cool.
Joby: You didn't mention
that you like listening to Abba classics while you're in there.
Youssef: Abba classics in the bath.
Joby: I don't know.
Ryan: Busted?
Harry: Stroking cat tails?
Joby: I like My Chemical
Romance. That's not really a guilty pleasure but a lot of people would consider
it as a guilty pleasure. Especially the fact that " The Black Parade"
is my favourite album.
Youssef: No but that
genuinely was a sick album.
Ryan: That is a sick
album.
Harry: It was amazing.
Joby: I don't know about
guilty pleasures...
Ryan: We don't really want
to know this!
Youssef: Don't ask you!
Joby: What's a band I like
that would be considered a guilty pleasure...
Youssef: Musically it's kind of difficult because it's not really guilt, it's not really guilty.
Ryan: Can I just say I'm a
massive fan of The Rolling Stones. (Cue several "What? That's not a guilty
pleasure!)
Harry: Who's that woman
who sings The Power Of Love?
The next 7 seconds were
spent trying to figure out the singer's name until we realised it was Gabrielle
Aplin. Unfortunately, my ears weren't able to comprehend what was going on at the
time as all 6 of us were talking all at once. What I can say is that in those seven seconds, there was a lot of
talking, finger snapping and someone started singing. Make of it what you will.
Harry: Gabrielle Aplin,
yeah, that's the one.
Ryan: She's hot.
Harry: Chills me out in
the bath.
Ryan: That's a cover you
know, though?
Harry: Yeah, I know. From
Frankie Goes Hollywood.
Joby: Oh, guilty pleasure!
I love that programme "Real housewives of Beverly Hills".
Ryan: Oh my God.
Joby: It's fucking
awesome. It's just so funny though, you wouldn't expect it. They're just such
dicks. It's amazing. You just sit there watching like wow.
Ollie: So do you enjoy
watching it or do you enjoy laughing at it?
Joby: Oh, I enjoy laughing
at it.
Ollie: There you go.
Youssef: But he also
enjoys watching it.
Ryan: I enjoyed every
series of Diary of a call girl. What can I say.
Youssef: Is that the sexy
one though?
Ollie: Yeah, it's the one
with Billie Piper.
Youssef: She's very sexy
though. (Everyone
agrees.)
Ryan: Fitzjellywobble. (At
Joby) It's your second name!
Joby: He only said that
because we recently had to do a college assessment. They were recording it and
we had to say our names to make it valid. He was like " Right, go round in
a circle." "Ryan Hamilton." "Joby Fitzjellywobble." I
kept a straight face.
Ryan: Now it's on loads of
pieces of work; his name is Joby Fitzjellywobble.
Youssef: I've got one. A
shout out to mine and Harry's mate Jonny who's favourite word is probably
credentials. It's like the ingredients to something, like have you got any
credentials?
Harry: I've got a couple.
Firstly jokes. And then, more recently, keen. Like I'm so keen. Before I
thought being keen was a bad thing but it's not a bad thing man. When you're
keen, life's good, man.
Ryan: See, I thought I had
a good vocabulary but when I'm put on the spot, I find it really hard to think
of words.
Ollie: Well I can't think of
any off the top of my head. I'm pretty basic with my language.
Joby: We've booked so many
restaurants under the name Fitzjellywobble.
Ryan: Infinitesimally. It
means very very. Like infinitesimally small. Such as Ollie is infinitesimally
small.
Ollie: I don't even know
what that means so I'm cool.
Joby: I think recidivist
maybe as well for me because of our song Recidivist. The name came from when I
was at school and the teacher called me a recidivist and I was just like what
the fuck does that mean?! And he told me; it means a repeat offender. I thought
it's a cool word, I'll use it in a song. Middle finger up to him.
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