Exile Parade at Hot Cat Club Tonight

"...we're not sitting around waiting for someone to hand it to us on a plate or standing in front of any judges."

Today is the last day of Midi Music Festival, as well as the scheduled date of the Mao Livehouse gig from Manchester rockers Exile Parade. Since we all know what happened to that place on Gulou Dongdajie, the show has been relocated to Hot Cat Club (46 Fangjia Hutong). Following is our interview with the band's frontman Daniel Lomax (conducted before the Mao closure and after a warm reception given to the band from the Chengdu audiences on Zebra Music Festival), talking about the band's musical influences, their upcoming album, and things they were planning to do to China...

the Beijinger: Morning/afternoon/evening! What’s the local time and what are you normally doing at this time of the day?
Daniel Lomax: Good evening! It is now 9pm, most nights I would be rehearsing or writing with the rest of the band, tonight we went through some ideas for our show at the Zebra festival.

tbj: How did Exile Parade come together?
DL: We’ve been together since 2006 although we were not called Exile Parade at first. My place in the band came about from singing in a local bar and the lads came in looking for a singer, I knew who they were when they asked me and my gut told me to do it. Dave and Phil are brothers, Dave was playing football in America but it ended suddenly through injury, Phil and Boon (Chris) needed a bass player as they had been jamming together for a bit trying to get something going, so they just threw one at Dave and said PLAY THAT! Mutchy our drummer came later on, we had to sack our first drummer for not believing.

tbj: How’s the album recording going by the way?
DL: The whole process since we began has been a combination of, all our dreams coming true, losing our minds then finding them again, losing our money and then repeat that process about a thousand times, the album is all but done, you can never account for people putting mountains in your way, and there is no endless pot of gold to dip into, we’ve always talked about our debut album being special, so when it is; it will be done.

Exile Parade play "Still Number One"

tbj: I read that you are a fan of The Rolling Stones, but honestly, what was the first album you’ve ever bought?
DL: The first ever album I bought was Michael Jackson Bad when I was very small, the first CD I ever bought in my teens was Park Life by Blur!

tbj: I feel like there has been more and more of The Verve than Oasis in the blood of Exile Parade. Mostly because of the increasing amount of psychedelic guitar licks and reverberation on the drum, whereas Oasis sounds less volatile. Despite Owen Morris’ (former producer of Oasis and The Verve - Ed.) involvement in your recordings, which of these two bands would you consider as a major influence and why?
DL: Overall I would have to say Oasis, that band spoke to a lot of people, to people like me and the rest of Exile Parade it was the sound track to our teenage years, it felt magic at the time and it just made you want to be part of it, somehow get yourself on that gigantic rock n roll family tree, my record collection was never that varied when I was younger so there is a lot of Oasis and that mid 90’s brit pop vibe buried within, music is a lifelong pursuit and every time you go through something in life, or someone hands you an album you’ve never heard it’s another piece to the puzzle. We like lots of influences but life should be your fuel.

tbj: What made you choose Suburban Records (from Netherland)? Why didn’t you sign with a British label?
DL: Choice never really came into it, Suburban approached us with a lot of enthusiasm and belief in what we were doing, its no secret that the music industries are on their arse. We want a major label with all the backing that goes with that so we can spend every second creating and putting it out to the people, but with no one paying for music anymore its not like theres a fat man in a raincoat giving out blank cheques. Suburban are our saving grace and hopefully will be for a long time.

tbj: How much do we have to spend for ticket to go to an Exile Parade show in the UK?
DL: Well, that depends on where we are playing, who we are playing with and what kind of promoter has put the event on, you wouldn’t pay more than £10 to see us.

tbj: Can you make a living by playing music?
DL: Make a living? That is the summit of our dream, we're not sitting around waiting for someone to hand it to us on a plate or standing in front of any judges. We do work outside the band, we get on with it like everyone else but instead of putting all of our hope in a lotto ticket or a promotion, we put it into our sound.

tbj: What are you listening to right now?
DL: I almost said the voices in my head, oh, I did! To be perfectly honest I can’t say there is a standout answer, if I have the time to listen to music then I have the time to pick up my guitar, usually there is someone being passed around within the band, one of us usually unearths some amazing relic or discovers something new, Neil Youngs Harvest Moon is a favorite at the minute with us, oh and Bob Dylan Shelter from the storm, stunning songs!

tbj: I know you are all Manchester City fans, what are the aspects in Man Utd that you don’t like?
DL: This makes me laugh, I have been instructed by our first guitarist Chris, to make it clear he is not a city fan, he is an Everton fan, we don’t know why he is so keen for everyone to know this.

tbj: Fucking burn down Mao Livehouse, will you? (obviousy that's no longer possible now, somebody has already done it for them. - Ed.)
DL: Thank you for your kind words, we will blow the fucking roof of my friend, very exciting times for us, and for you. Many thanks and we’ll see you very soon.

Exile Parade rock Hot Cat Club tonight (May 4). RMB 120. 7.30pm. 46 Fangjia Hutong (just south of Guozijian Jie), Dongcheng District (6400 7868) 东城区方家胡同46号艺术园区(国子监南临)