Sonic Boom Six

L-R : Barney, Jess, Ben, Laila, Dave

 

Manchester based 5 piece Sonic Boom Six have recently signed to Moon Ska Europe and have been touring with some of their most well known bands. I got the chance to talk to vocalist Laila, vocalist and saxophonist Ben, and guitarist Barney at the Rose Theatre in Rugeley on their recent tour, supporting Moon Ska favourites Whitmore.

How's the tour been so far?

Laila: It's been really good.
Barney: It's been great.
Laila: Everyone's been ill, though.
Barney: There's been lots of illness, lots of flu going round. It's been going from one person in one band to another person in another band.
Laila: Every day it's someone different who feels ill.
Barney: It's been a really great tour, though. There've been a few sold out shows, Ska punk isn't dead, despite what some people may say!

What's it like supporting Whitmore? Do you get on well with them?

Laila: Yeah, we do. They're really, really good.
Barney: Well, they've got this reputation as being the bad boys of UK Ska punk and they're not! They're nice lads.
Laila: They're big softies.
Barney: They got this reputation because of the videos with page 3 models and stuff, but they're not like that.

Had you met them before you did this tour?

Laila: Yeah, I didn't like them when we first met them.
(Barney laughs)
Laila: Am I allowed to say that?
Barney: Yeah, we were on the 'Smash It Up Tour' with them.
Laila: No, on the Smash it up tour I liked them.
Barney: We really sort of got to know them on that tour, with King Prawn headlining. Then it was us, Not Katies, Fletcher and Whitmore, and that was really good. That was like our first proper tour.
Laila: It was only a week but we all got to know each other really well.
Barney: Then we've been doing this tour for four weeks, and we've all been ill, but we're learning how to stay on the road and stay fit and healthy.

Out of all the bands you've played with, have you got a favourite?

Barney: King Prawn.
Laila: Yeah, King Prawn, just because I listened to King Prawn before I toured with them, they were one of my favourite bands. It's always good touring with a band who you like anyway.
Barney: That was their last UK tour, so it was great to support them on that. They were one of our biggest influences in terms of UK bands.
Laila: Them and Capdown, yeah.
Barney: But they (King Prawn) have split up now, so it was good to go on tour with them. R.I.P King Prawn!

Are there any bands you'd like to tour with?

Laila: I'd like to tour with Capdown. We've only ever played a couple of gigs with them. And Farse, too.
Barney: Anyone that's good, really. Maybe some American bands that are coming over.
Laila: We're not really fussy, are we? God, we're touring with Whitmore, we can't be! (Lots of laughing)

What music are you into at the moment?

Laila: All sorts, what tapes have we got in the van? We've got some drum n bass.
Barney: Queens of the Stone Age, Jay Z. There's a wide range of music that we listen to, it's a lot like our sound. There's hardcore punk, but it's mixed with hip hop and stuff.
Laila: That's it, 5 of us are in it and each of us are into different kinds of music.
Barney: That's part of the whole thing, we do listen to a wide range of stuff and try and stay different to other bands. We don't listen to that much punk, really. In terms of the hardcore stuff we do, we take our influences from 'Bad Brains' and 80s bands like that. But there's a lot of good bands in the UK that we listen to.
Laila: And there's a lot of American bands, like Less Than Jake. I listen to them and Blink 182 and stuff like that.
Barney: I don't.
Laila: Yes you do, you liar! Are you telling me that you don't have a Blink 182 CD?
Barney: I swear to God I don't have any Blink 182 CDs!
Laila: You've got Less than Jake CDs.
Barney: Well, yeah.
Laila: He's trying to keep it underground! (Laughs)

How would you describe your music?

Laila: Jungle punk! We're going to nick King Prawn's 'Wild Style' as well.
Barney: Yeah. We've been described as 'Nelly Furtado fronting King Prawn' and 'Miss Dynamite fronting Capdown' but really it's just Ska core with sort of female MC-ing over the top of it, mixed with a bit of hip hop.
Laila: And with two vocals as well, rather than just one. Ben is vocals, too.
Barney: Manchester Wild Style, that's what we'll call it. London Wild Style's dead.

You're now signed to Moon Ska Europe. How did that come about?

Barney: It was through Ace, the guy that produced the E.P. As far as we know, they had our demo and they liked it, but it was between a few labels at the time. But then Ace saw us supporting a Japanese band and he really liked us and spoke to Lol from Moon Ska.
Laila: He said he wanted to do our E.P and Moon Ska thought it was good having Ace.
Barney: Ace had worked with King Prawn and we respected what he did in Skunk Anansie and everything, so we said yes. And we really liked how it came out, so we're going to use Ace again to produce the album.
Laila: We're going to use Ace for every single thing we do until we're about 80! He's just the coolest, best guy ever. He totally gets what you're doing and he's just so chilled out in the studio. The first day we had I was really shitting myself because I used to love Skunk Anansie and I was just like, "Shit! Ace is going to be doing it! What if he thinks our songs are shit?!" But it was so good, he made it really fun and it wasn't stressful at all. We didn't get stressed at all, did we? Well, maybe I did a bit.
Barney: Yeah you did. (Laughs)
Ben: I got a wobbly eye!
Laila: No, that was last time. He got this mad, bong eye! (Laughs) Because he was too tired.
Barney: His eye pops out of his socket when he has lack of sleep.
Laila: He gets a giddy eye!
Ben: It's always a bit strange.

So have you got an album planned?

Laila: Yeah, we're recording it in January. Hopefully.
Barney: Well, not necessarily. There's no point in saying that if we don't, but we're aiming to finish writing it by Christmas, basically. The first songs we'd written for it, we put them on the E.P so it means we've got to write 4 new songs by Christmas, which we're well on the way to doing. We just want to get as much out as possible, rather than taking ages touring between every record.
Laila: In between record tours are weird, like Whitmore are in between records at the moment, so even though there's a lot of people every night, people want to hear new stuff.

Do you have any favourite venues?

Laila: Last night, Tunbridge Wells. That was amazing. Leeds was really good, as well.
Barney: York.
Laila: Yeah, York. We've played there 3 times now and it's really good. Cardiff Barfly's good in the day because it's all ages and they don't serve beer or anything, so all the kids come in. But in the evening you get a mixture of adults and some kids.
Barney: Tunbridge Wells was the best overall, I think.
Laila: Aberdeen was good.
Barney: Wasn't as good as Tunbridge Wells, though.
Laila: Yeah, there was sweat in my eyes and it was just really, really good.

What do you usually do after a gig?

Barney: Well, we would get drunk. We normally get in the van and it breaks down and we have to repair it and get stressed about it. All this tour has been vans breaking down. We're in a hired van today, but for the rest of the tour we're in a car.
Laila: We bought a van less than a year ago, we spent nearly a grand on it, fixing it for this tour, then every day on this tour for the last few weeks, it's broken down. Every day with out fail it's either broken down or hasn't started. Then we spent another £300 on it and the other night it just committed suicide and died. Like, totally died. So it's R.I.P van as well.
Barney: Not R.I.P.
Laila: No, not R.I.P, that can go to hell! It's given us so much shit, that van has! Never buy a van, if you do, by a brand new one, get a loan from the bank if you have to.
Barney: Hopefully, one day, we'll have someone driving us round and then after gigs things will be different, things will be more fun.
Laila: That's it, we don't really get that pissed after gigs, anyway. We just about keep it together when we're sober, never mind when we're dunk.

Do you have any idols or role models?

Barney: Mike Park from Asian Man Records, the founder of it. At the moment he's talking about expanding his operation and not doing it from his garage so he might not be an idol for much longer.
Laila: I don't know, I've got a lot of respect for people, but I don't know about idols.
Barney: (mumbles something to Laila)
Laila: No I don't! I do not idolise J-Lo!
(Lots of laughing)
Laila: That is just a myth! I don't know where that's come from. I wouldn't mind her bum but I don't idolise her.
Barney: I wouldn't mind her bum!

Is there anyone you'd like to meet?

Barney: Jay Z.
Laila: Jay Z, yeah.
Ben: Father Christmas.
Laila: You met Dickie Barrett.
Laila: Yeah, I would have said Dickie Barrett before I met him. I'm rarely star struck, and I've got this thought in my head that I'm making a fool of myself but when I met Dickie Barrett, Ben and Paul were there, and I just couldn't even speak. He came out of this room, he had a cardigan on, but he was Dickie Barrett, and he spoke in his gravely voice and I was just completely star struck, it was so pathetic. I love Dickie Barrett.

Do any of you have any weird hobbies or habits?

Laila: I've got a rat, I don't know if that's weird. He's evil.
Ben: He's like the most evil rat you'll ever meet.
Laila: Yeah, he's addicted to meat and blood, so that's a bit odd.
Barney: We've got rats and mice in our kitchen, but not pets. It's like 'The Young Ones'.

Do you annoy each other on tour?

Barney: Yeah, fucking hell.
Ben: You need to talk to Neil about that.
Laila: Yeah, I'd say Neil annoys everyone. But me and Barney bicker loads, Ben and Barney bicker, me and Ben bicker, Dave snaps now and again, but when he does, he really snaps. It's because we're all mates, we've known each other since school, well except for Ben. We argue even if we go to the pub.
Barney: If we go to the pub and its like 2 meals for however much, it's hell, because there's five of us.
Laila: I usually just go in a mood and don't eat anything to make a point!

So how did the band form? Have you been together long?

Barney: Well, we were in a Ska band, in the Manchester Ska punk scene, although there wasn't really one then. We were in that band for about 3 or 4 years.
Laila: Since we were kids, basically.
Barney: Then we split up.
Laila: Sonic Boom Six is two years old in November.
Barney: Yeah, our first gig was with Capdown in April 2002.
Ben: April the 4th, it was.
Barney: Yeah, we've all known each other a long time, we just haven't all been in this band for that amount of time.
Laila: Nearly a couple of years, then.

If you could pick any bands, past or present, to play a one-off gig for you, who would you choose?

Laila: King Prawn, The Clash, Operation Ivy, I wouldn't mind seeing. It would have been good.
Barney: It depends if it would be a festival gig or a punk gig.
Laila: Jane's Addiction.
Ben: I'd love to be transported to Madison Square Gardens and watch Led Zeppelin play this gig in the 70s. I've got the video, if I could be there, I'd be happy.
Laila: See, I don't like Led Zeppelin.
Barney: If it was punk, it'd have to be like us, King Prawn, Bad Brains. Yeah, and Operation Ivy.

What have you got planned after this tour?

Barney: Basically just writing the rest of the songs for the album, recording it, and more touring next year.

Thanks to the band for letting me interview them, they were really nice and their set was great, despite everyone being ill! You can find out more about Sonic Boom Six by going to their website, www.sonicboomsix.co.uk.

Originally conducted for www.justwannarock.com