I interviewed Jon (bass), Guy (drums) and Jamie (guitar/vocals) of Reuben last October in their little van parked outside the Sugarmill in Stoke, and we talked about BOOM! Rock, the Kerrang! Awards and stealing clothes off celebrities. This time, Suzi and I spoke to them in the dressing room of The Little Civic before their gig, and got talking about movies, moustaches, Neighbours and screwed up birth certificates.

Jess - What have you been up to since we last spoke to you in October?

Jon: We signed a record deal,
Jamie: We mixed our album,
Guy: We had Christmas,
Jon: And I had my birthday, which was nice.
Jamie: What did we do? I went to Cardiff for a weekend, stayed with my brother. Jon's decorated his room seven times.
Jon: It's true.
Jamie: Guy?
Guy: I can't really remember much! We finished the tour and everything, and the single came out, 'Stuck in my Throat' was released. That was in November I think.
Jamie: What have we been doing since January?
Guy: We've been writing a lot of new stuff for the next album. We spent the Summer doing our debut album, which is coming out June 21st, in about two weeks or something?
Jamie: Don't ask them, man. They don't know.
Guy: It is, yeah.
Jon: They might know more than we do, actually, with the press releases and stuff.
Guy: Yeah, so we've been rehearsing quite a lot and getting the songs ready for our next album. We're way ahead of ourselves.

Suzi - How did you come to sign to Xtra Mile?

Jamie: They asked us!
Jon: Yeah, they've been really good. They've never interfered with the recording or anything, they've just let us do our own thing. It's refreshing.
Jamie: It is refreshing, it's a bit like this. (Takes the cap off his water bottle and throws it over his face.)
Guy: You've got water everywhere, this is a digital camera, man! (Taking his camera away from the soaked Jamie)
Jon: Why'd you do that?
Jamie: It's refreshing! (Laughing)

Jess - Have there been any particular highlights of this tour?

Jon: Middlesborough!
Jamie: Yeah, we played Middlesborough One Live, it was wicked.
Guy: With 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster.
Jon: Yeah, we played the Hall. The Town Hall, or something like that?
Guy: Yeah, the Town Hall. There's loads of stages all the way around the town and it was so cool. We just went onstage and we played to like, a thousand people or something.
Jamie: It was big.
Guy: It was one of the most exhilarating performances, it was amazing.
Jamie: Guy was higher than all of us.
Guy: It looked really 80s, I was on this really high platform.
Jamie: I think you were the highest person in the room.
Guy: Yeah?
Jon: Yeah, impressive.
Guy: That was definitely a highlight.

Jess - What are The Holiday Plan and Septembre like to tour with?

Jon: Lovely chaps! Really nice.
Jamie: They're in separate vans. They just turn up after us and go (waves) "Hello!" and we go (pretends to play guitar) "Hello!" in the sound check.
Jon: It's wicked. We knew Septembre before, even before we toured with them, for years and it's really nice to go out with your friends and they've been really nice, really cool guys. It's nice to be able to go to a venue and know that the people are going to be nice,
Jamie: (Cutting off Jon and pointing to his wet T-shirt) This was my dryer T-shirt for later.
Jon: (Who's being blinded by the sun coming in through a big window) You need to put it in the Sun to dry. It'll be alright. (Pats Jamie on the head)


Suzi - Your new single is 'Freddy Krueger'. Is it out now and what reactions have you had from people so far?

Guy: It's not out yet, it's coming out next Monday. It should be out now, you're right, but it's been put back. It's coming out Monday 7th, wait, what day is it today?

Jess - Wednesday.

Guy: Wednesday? Next Monday it comes out, so yeah, it's been amazing the responses we've had from radio and TV, in that they've been playing it. So yeah, it's been really good and hopefully people will go out and buy it.
Jon: Get us on Top of the Pops! And meet Fearne, that's Top of the Pops Saturday.
Jamie: Yeah! She's cracking.
Jon: She is cracking.

Suzi - Are you all horror movie fans?

Jamie: Horror movie fans? Yeah, I'd say I was a horror movie fan.
Jon: Yeah, me too.
Guy: I like a bit of everything, I'm not just a horror movie fan.
Jamie: It's got to be a good horror movie, you can't have rubbish ones like the Freddy Krueger ones, they're rubbish!
Jon: We watched Evil Dead 3 the other day, it was brilliant! He chopped off his hand and replaced it with a chainsaw, it was ace.

Jess - Who came up with the concept for the 'Freddy Krueger' video?

Jamie: The 118 adverts. They're the boys!

Jess - How many moustaches were used in the making of that video?

Jamie: I think it was 3 and a half million!
Jon: I think it was about 300.
Guy: I think we've got a few left.
Jamie: We should have brought them on tour! (Gets his water bottle and tips it up over both of his eyes.)
Guy: That's it…refresh your eyes.
Jamie: It's like a surprise, for each of my eyes!
(Laughing)

Suzi - You've got an album coming out soon, what stage are you at with the writing and recording?

Jamie: Well, it's finished. (Laughing) I'd say it's pretty much done.
Jon: The artwork just needs to go to the printers and stuff.
Jamie: It's all communication, it's not just a Beastie Boys album.
Jon: It's a way of life.
Jamie: It is a way of life, yeah. No one knows what the other ones are doing. Guy, what are you doing?
Guy: I'm twitching my legs and going like that (shakes head from side to side.)
Jamie: I didn't know that. Jon, did you know that?
Jon: No.
Jamie: See, there's no communication.

Suzi - What's your album going to be called?

Guy: Racecar is
Jamie: Racecar
Jon: Backwards!

Jess - Can you describe each member of the band in just three words?

Jamie: Jamie Edward Lenman. (Laughing)
Jon: Jonathon James Pearce.
Guy: The Guy Davis!
Jamie: You don't have a middle name?
Guy: I don't need one! My name's so strong that I don't need any backup. It's just solid: Guy. Davis. It gets to the point, you know?
Jamie: It's like a sandwich without the filling, just two slices of bread!
Guy: (Laughing) What?!
Jon: (To Jamie) Don't you have two middle names?
Jamie: I do, actually. See, (pointing at Guy) you can have one of my middle names. My full name is actually 'Jamie Edmond argh! Edward Lenman' because my Dad made a mistake when he registered me in the baby office and put me down as 'Jamie Edmond Lenman'. But my Mom went (in high voice) "That's not right!" so they had to literally cross it out and write Edward over the top. My actual birth certificate, I've seen it, is Jamie, Edmond, crossed out, Edward over the top, Lenman. (Guy laughs and looks questioningly at Jon) That's my official name, and if I ever want a replacement birth certificate made, they have to officially, legally, they were told at the time, write Edmond, cross it out, and write Edward over the top. So now I've got four names!
Jon: Jamie was special at an early age.(Jamie puts his hands up and hits Jon and Guy in turn, in the face.)

Suzi - What kind of music are you into at the moment?

Jamie: Emo! (Laughing from all three.) Anything emo!
Jon: What is emo?! It's one of these questions that will never be answered.
Jamie: It'll never be answered, apart from 'it's fart'.

Suzi - What are your current favourite bands?

Jon: The Holiday Plan and Septembre, at the moment!
Jamie: I like Glassjaw and Every Time I Die and Simian and Supergrass.
Guy: Yeah, Supergrass.
Jamie: Supergrass are very nice. And Elbow.
Jon: Yeah, I like that album.

Jess - What is your favourite film and can you do a quote from it, or an impression?

Jon: That's a difficult question! I dunno.
Jamie: What is my favourite film? I keep going, "Oh my god! This is the best film in the whole world!" but I can't actually remember what it is.
Jon: There's The Goonies.
(All the band do their best impressions from The Goonies)
Jamie: There's Buffalo 66,
Guy: (Out of the corner of his mouth) Chocolate bar?
Jamie: What?
Guy: Chocolate bar?
Jamie: (Laughing) What?!
Guy: Do you want a chocolate bar?!
(This leads to the band doing a lot of impressions, that although were very funny, I can't type up! This eventually stops when the band are laughing so much they can't say anything else.)
Guy: The Goonies is actually one of my favourite films, so there you go.
Jamie: I like Buffalo 66 and Fight Club!

Suzi - Do you still have a van full of bananas and crushed biscuits?

Jamie: We actually do!
Jon: Yeah, it's one of those things that we take, thinking it's a great idea, but we never eat them.
Guy: Yeah, you kind of go, "Wicked", but look, check it out, I don't know if you can get the camera on that, but we've got our rider there, we've got like bananas and apples and oranges and stuff. We think, 'that's wicked!' to have a rider that keeps us healthy, but does anyone ever eat it?
Jamie: I eat it! I had some for breakfast this morning, I had two apples and a banana. Chopper, also, is a film about the Australian killer Mark Reed, starring Eric Bana. (Looking into the camera) Close up! Chopper!
Jon: Do an impression of Chopper.
Jamie: (Pause, and then in Australian accent) Mate!
Guy: (Laughing) Mate!
Jamie: (Still in an Ozzy accent) Hello! Hello! Goodbye!

Jess - If you were the Ruler of the World for a day, what would you do?

Jamie: Find out if Michael Jackson did have sex with them kids.
(Laughing)
Jamie: I'd just go, "Look! Did you or did you not?" and he'd go (mumbles in Jacko style voice). "Did you or did you not?!" and he'd go "maybe…" and I'd go "That means yes! Rubbish!"
Jon: At the moment, I'd probably ban colds, I'm really annoyed with mine. It's rubbish.
Jamie: Erm, I dunno, I'd probably…erm, yeah. (Laughs) I'd move Durham closer to London so I could see my girlfriend really easily.
Jon: But if you were King of the World, you'd just have a really big palace and she could live with you.
Jamie: That'd be really cool.

Suzi - If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

Jon: I'd go to Australia, I reckon, because everyone says, (in Ozzy accent) "Mate!"
Guy: Mate!
Jon: We went to Liverpool yesterday and everyone went, "Ay?"
Guy: Yeah, "achhh!"
Jamie: It's not a lot like Australia. I don't think, going to Liverpool, you're going to get the feel for Australia. If I could go anywhere in the world, I'd go to Durham.
Guy: I don't know, I'd like to go to Tattoo Inn!
(Laughing)
Jon: That's not in the World, guy.
Jamie: It's not, is it? You've been caught out!
Jon: Trying to be clever.
Guy: But The World is everything…
Jamie: No, world wide is the planet.
Guy: But which planet? You didn't specify the planet!
Jamie: She said 'the world'. She didn't say, "where would you like to go, on any planet, given a choice". No!
Jon: (Laughing) All the world!
Jamie: The whole world, meaning…
Guy: Bugger that!
Jon: (Laughing) Spain. He wants to go to Spain.
Guy: Yeah, Menorca.

Jess - What have you got planned after this tour, or after this show?

Jon: After the show, we're going to drive home, we're going to stay at my house.
Jamie: I'm gonna put this on (indicating his wet T-shirt) and I'm gonna go (in disappointed voice) "oooh" and Jon's gonna go, "Well, Jim, you will put water on yourself" and I'll go (hangs his head in shame.)
Jon: Yeah. And then we're gonna go tomorrow to Xfm and play on the show. (Jamie does the 'thumbs up' to both cameras.) What else are we doing? We're doing something else. Oh yeah, the photo shoot.
Jamie: We're going to do a photo shoot for Kerrang! They said, "We'll wait 'til you're off tour when you look the worst possible and haven't had a bath for 2 weeks, and take pictures off you with people in rubber gimp suits". And we said, (in gormless voice) "oh, ok…!" (Jamie then tips the water bottle upside down, with his thumb in the end to stop the water coming out) It's dangerous but he's done it!
Guy: (Ignoring Jamie) And then, apart from that, we've got a few promo things we're doing, like a couple of in-stores here and there, for the single and when the album comes out. We're not doing any music festivals because we never get put on. I dunno…album comes out, we'll probably do a few shows,
Jamie: Get slagged off in the music press, get dropped, go to university, get a career…
Guy: Yeah, or sit at home and watch TV, watch Neighbours…
Jon: Neighbours, I need to catch up on, I haven't seen that in a while. I'm a bit concerned that Harold might have gone evil.
Jamie: It's got so boring, I can't be bothered with it anymore!
Jon: It's when they made Lou go bad, which was rubbish.
Jamie: Well, they've got that Irish guy, and the Mafia's in it, Helen died and all that.
Guy: (Laughing) Yeah!
Jon: Helen died a long time ago!

Suzi - Is there anything else you'd like to promote or add?

Jamie: Tic Tacs, probably. Two hours of freshness in just two calories, imagine that! I dunno…erm, also, don't take drugs!
Jon: Stay in school.
Guy: Don't eat yellow snow!
Jamie: School meals are cool meals. There's no child like Max Wild.
Jon: Stay in school, you'll get 30 quid!
Jamie: You do get 30 quid a week.
Guy: What?!
Jon: When we were kids, we didn't get paid to go to school, we just went!
Guy: Who in particular, does anyone get paid?
Jon: Yeah, if you're naughty, especially. The naughty kids get away with it, they get more money.
(Jamie's phone goes off so he leaves the interview to answer it.)
Guy: So, doesn't that encourage people to be naughty?
Jon: To be naughty, yeah.
(Jamie walks out the room)
Jon: That's Jim gone, I apologise. But you've got the brains now (indicating him and Guy), he was just mouth.

Suzi - That's it, actually!

(Laughing from Jon and Guy)
Jon: Oh well! Thank you.
Guy: Yeah, thanks!
Jon: And sorry if I was looking at you in a squinting fashion, it's because the sunlight's coming through!

Thanks a lot to the guys for taking the time to answer our questions, (and not minding us film them!) you can find out more about them at their website, www.wordsfromreuben.com. Make sure you grab a copy of their new single, Freddy Krueger, out next week, and their album, Racecar Is Racecar Backwards, out June 21st.