The Start were in town supporting The Offspring along with all-American guys Rufio (see interviews section.) I got the chance to ask front woman (which was nice for a change!) Aimee Echo and drummer Billy Brimblecom Jr. some questions before the gig at Manchester Carling Apollo. So, sitting in amazingly comfy chairs (for a venue dressing room) and with Sabrina the Teenage Witch starting on the TV in the corner, I got ready to ask them about The Mighty Offspring, the troubles of being a girl on tour, and their dog, Eno.

Billy: Is this an all female oestrogen-powered interview?
Aimee: Well, I was the request but you're welcome to be involved!
Billy: I'll stay here to make sure she doesn't, err...
Aimee: Fuck up?
Billy: Fuck up and misrepresent the band!

How did you come to be supporting The Offspring?

Aimee: We are on Dexter's Record Label, Nitro. We were finishing our record up and they were looking for a band to tour with them, so they decided they wanted to ask us, and we said, "of course, with bells on!"

Are you fans?

Aimee: Yeah, definitely! I think that they're...how do you have a career like that? It's amazing what they've done, and it's going to be really cool to watch them play every night.

So you're going to stick around to watch their set tonight?

Aimee: At every show that I ever play on, I usually, unless I'm absolutely exhausted or terribly busy doing something work-related, I always watch all the bands. It's just good to get a good perspective on everything, whether it's like you or not like you.

How did you come to be signed to Nitro?

Aimee: We did a couple of weeks on Vans Warped Tour in the United States, and there's an amazing band called Hot Water Music, and Jason Black, the bass player of Hot Water Music, happened to be a fan of ours. And his friend Mitch, who happens to be an A and R Rep for Nitro Records, came to the Warped Tour and said, "Jason, what band do I go see today?" And he's like, "You know what? I honestly don't even know who's playing, but you should check out The Start." So that was beginning of it, and after talking to Mitch and everybody at the label over and over and over again, we agreed that we have a unified vision for The Start.

When did you sign to the label?

Aimee: We signed in October, early October. But we talked to them for a couple of months, just to make sure that was the place we wanted to call home. A lot of bands will sign to a smaller label, looking to jump to a bigger label; they use them as a stepping stone. But we were really looking for a home.

And when did you form?

Aimee: Jamie and I, along with 2 other members, started The Start (starts laughing). The Start began in late 1998, after I quit my previous band, Human Waste Project. We started rehearsing together and we bought a record deal really quick, I think partially on the success of our previous bands. We made a record in '99 and then that record label that we were on kind of folded and ceased to be a working record label, so another record label bought our record from them, and then we put that record out in 2001, two years after it was made! It came out just before September 11th, 2001, enough said. That record label closed (laughs) and then we just sort of toured as fiercely as we could. We decided we were going to build on our own, and try to get an understanding of who we really were as a band. Basically we just toured and toured and toured and then the original line-up sort of disintegrated as we went; it's a really hard thing to do, to be a self-supporting rock band, especially in America where it's so big, and there would be weeks when we would have to drive coast-to-coast like we're going to have to do next month! (Laughs.) But, last year, in 2003, we did coast-to-coast drives in a period of 2 days. We'd be driving for 51 hours straight, like 5 or 6 times, literally. From top corner Seattle, all the way down to the bottom of Florida. Ridiculous.
Billy: San Diego to Virginia.
Aimee: Yeah, which is like here to I don't know where, Germany. And fast. Like, "Ok, you're playing here Friday night and you have to be here Monday night to play again." So, with that, we were self-supporting, so all the money we were making was going in to getting us from place to place, and basic survival needs. A couple of guys that were in the band weren't really up for the long haul, or the rough part of it at least (laughs), and along the way, we met Erik, who showed us Billy (laughs) and they were in it for the long haul and decided to join before anything was happening again, other than us being always busy, and then Nitro came. So, from then to now. I bet I answered a bunch of other questions that were in the middle, I like to do that! (Laughs).

So, how do you deal with being on the road? Is there anything you can't do without?

Aimee: There's a lot of things that I can't do without and I've learned to make them really small and bring them with me, like our dog! (Laughs). We just threw him in the dryer, shrunk him! We're totally a self-contained unit, now. We've got down to the bare minimum, like this time, I think this is the least that I've ever brought anywhere. I'm down to a very large backpack and that, as a girl in a band, is really good!
Billy: She has a smaller bag than I do on this tour! And I play drums!!

Have you been to the UK before as The Start?

Aimee: Yeah, we came in 2002, we self-supported, flew ourselves over here and we supported Strung Out. We did a week in the UK, started in Brighton, it was sort of a zig-zag tour, you know? We did Brighton, Manchester, London, Glasgow, Cardiff, basically up and down back and forth; it wasn't very functional but it was very fun.

Is it a lot different playing over here compared to the US?

Aimee: Yeah, it is. People in the States are a little bit slow to react to something until they've heard about it a bunch of times. I don't know if it's because there's such a heavy media saturation and not that people have a lot of time, but basically, in the States, it's very rare for people to see a band they've never heard of before and grab onto them at first sight. Whereas, I think here, people take the music at face value, they don't have to hear about it first. If they enjoy you, they enjoy you; they don't care if they've read about it in whichever magazine.

Do you play the same kind of size venues or is that different too?

Aimee: No. It's odd, though, because we support so many different bands, we've done everything from our headlining shows which are like, club-sized, 500 seaters, to 11,000 tomorrow at Wembley. I think the biggest thing as The Start that we've done was about 13,000 people in New York with Weezer, and the smallest thing we've done was probably 50-people capacity somewhere along the way. That place in Phoenix! When it was like 119 degrees.
Billy: Oh yeah!
Aimee: Fahrenheit! (Laughs.)
Billy: And not the Bon Jovi record!
Aimee: Go you!
Billy: Yeah, good thing I'm here!

Do you find it overwhelming when you play big venues?

Aimee: I think it's less overwhelming. It's always overwhelming being onstage, (pretends to throw something at Billy and waits) Oh, you didn't catch it!
Billy: Oh! I was looking around! Yeah, you know it is, because the stage, I'd like to quote my friend Neil Diamond,
Aimee: (Laughs)
Billy: "The stage, she's the most god-damnest woman I've ever seen!" (Lots of laughing)
Aimee: I'm sorry, I had to do it for you!
Billy: Thank you.
Aimee: It's always overwhelming seeing people, and having to open yourself to people watching you, whether they're being critical or not. Well, there's obviously going to be a judgement, that's what we're up there for; to be judged (laughs). Enjoy it or not, you know? It's your choice. I think, for me, it's more intimate in a club situation, especially when there's not a barricade and I can be touched or touch people and I can be closer sometimes to people than I am with you right now. With the barricade in a place like this, right now where the microphone is set up, I'm going to move it to the edge of the stage, if they let me. (Crosses fingers) Please! It's so not intimate, the first person I'm going to see is going to be past that door (points at the door to the dressing room, about 15 feet away), and I wear glasses for distance, so basically I'm playing to a wall that makes noise (laughs) at that point!
Billy: Hopefully it makes noise!
Aimee: Well, hopefully it will make happy noises, positive, life-affirming noises! So smaller venues, when there's a person right there and you can see their reaction and the judgment and that is much more overwhelming than when I can't see the facial features.

Do you get nervous?

Aimee: Yeah, totally! Completely nervous, often. Frequently. Right now; it'll progressively get worse until my stomach's doing flip-flops. It's get better about the beginning of the last song, (laughs), and then for, like 3 minutes, I have the best time of my entire life! And then it's over. Is it like that for you?
Billy: Yes and no. I mean, for me, the fact that we're playing such big places is cool. To me, it's like I'm less nervous and more nervous at the same time, you know? It's more exciting, for me, because I've never been out of the States. So for me to have my first show in England be playing to a sold-out Offspring crowd, it's pretty cool! I get nervous. I'm nervous at the thought of tomorrow, because there's so many people.
Aimee: Is that the biggest crowd you've ever played for?
Billy: Oh, definitely. By far. I've played a few thousand people. What's the capacity tonight?
Aimee: About 35 hundred.
Billy: I've done around this size before, not a lot, but some. Tomorrow, I'll be nervous, but it'll be fun. Not many people get the opportunity to play to that many people.
Aimee: I've never really thought about how far away you are from the crowd.
Billy: Yeah. Fortunately, I play a loud instrument.
Aimee: And it's lucky you don't need 'glasses for distance.' (Laughs)
Billy: I just used to think of what my drama teachers used to say; "Play to the back of the house."
Aimee: Aww, you're such a good boy!
Billy: So I just try to project as much as I can.

You've been described as, "Souixie and the Banshees if they were Nirvana." Do you agree with that and have either of those bands particularly influenced you?

Aimee: Oh, definitely. Whole-heartedly. Both of those are in the top 5 influences, always, every day.
Billy: And I think being described as that is probably one of-
Aimee and Billy at the same time: The biggest compliments we could ever receive! (Laughs.)
Billy: By far.

Does music tend to take over your life?

Aimee: What life?! (Laughs) Life is music.

Do you get any spare time to do other things? Do you have any hobbies?

Aimee: Rarely. Very rarely. In the last year, I'd say absolutely not. My life has been relegated to music, doing things to support music, and sleeping. And not sleeping very much, lately. It's all about doing this. Maybe in a while, it won't be so hard. Right now we're pushing the rock up the hill, hopefully it will get to a point where it rolls on its own.

Do you get annoyed when people put labels on your music or have you just kind of accepted that it's part of being a band?

Aimee: You know what? I've gotten to the point where, on an honest level, I'd have to say yes, it initially irritates me. I had an interview the other day when somebody said, "Well, are you guys a punk band? Because I know you were in a metal band before." And I just went, "Ok, stop."
Billy: (Laughs.)
Aimee: "My old band wasn't a metal band, it was an art rock band. This band isn't a pop band, it's more like an art rock band." But then, immediately after I get the tightness about it, I immediately let go, and it's like, "Whatever, everybody has an opinion, it's theirs." It's not my business to form their opinion for them of what they get out of us. I would love it if everyone got exactly what I want but that's not the case. If it was, we wouldn't live in this mad, crazy world!

You've played with a pretty impressive list of bands. Have there been any bands in particular who you've got on really well with?

Aimee: I thought you were going to ask the opposite! (Laughs). We had a really good time with Alkaline Trio, who I'm wearing now (points to her Alkaline Trio top). We tend to get on with most of the people who we go out with, we've never had a bad experience. It's either been, like, a neutral experience or a positive one. It's also individuals, too. You can't name, like, an entire band. I think it's different for each member, it's funny. One member can be friends with a different member and you're friends with that one, so everyone makes their own little friendships. They're buddies! Tour buddies.
Billy: Yeah, there have been tours before where there have been a lot of elements to it that could be better...
Aimee: (Laughs.)
Billy: To say the least.
Aimee: It's not usually a personal thing, though. It's always circumstantial.
Billy: There have been tours before where the circumstances have been kind of rough, like it's not put together as well as it should be, and that makes it hard. But you've always got to try and find the bright side, because the bottom line is: travelling and not sleeping much, driving constantly and being in a different place everyday, really, when you break it down, sucks! But, you get to go and play music, which is what you like to do, in front of a different group of people, and meet this whole new set of people every day and get to see the world, that is great! So you've got to not think about that fact that you've slept 5 hours in-
Aimee: 3 days. I've slept 5 hours in 3 days.
Billy: Yeah, I've slept, like, 5 and a half.

Do you get to know the bands you tour with really well?

Aimee: Some you do, some you don't. It depends, it's just like anything else or any other job. Some people are more outgoing in different bands, I think we're all really outgoing as a group, but there have been tours when I haven't even met the other band. It's also circumstantial, though. I mean, we're sharing a van with Rufio so we're obviously in a confined space with them, when we have no choice about that, not that we're having problems. We're getting on really, really well. But it's different because we are sharing that tiny space, whereas we haven't seen the Offspring yet today. It depends on what's going on, and the other band's levels of busy-ness.

Do you stay in touch with the bands when the tour's over?

Aimee: Oh, yeah.

Do you find that you get to play with the same bands a lot?

Aimee: Yeah, and people from the same bands. Adam, who plays drums for The Offspring, used to play drums in a band called Moth, that was his last band before, well aside from Special Goodness (laughs). It's basically a big, incestuous, giant family where people jump from band to band and Adam and Moth toured with us, The Start, and now he's playing with the Offspring. It's basically like that, over and over and over again.

Who designs your website?

Aimee: Ooh! The website is designed by a girl from Orange County, California, and she really wanted to do it so we let her.

Is the little animated dog supposed to be your dog?

Aimee: Yes. He's the same dog, the one who barks at the end of our record, too.

Is that something you tried to do or something that just happened?

Aimee: I think we'll try and get a part of him on everything we do forever until he's not around anymore. His name's Eno.

What have you got planned next?

Aimee: We've got home and then we're going to be finishing our new album, which is tracked and 99% done, and then we go and do a week of shows by ourselves in America. Then we go out with The International Noise Conspiracy and the Offspring in the States.

Do you think you'll be coming back to the UK this year?

Aimee: Oh yeah. I expect we'll be here in the Summer sometime.
Billy: Hopefully.
Aimee: Yeah, that's the plan. There's talk, there's rumour of a Summer release for our next album, round July/August.

Would you like to play the festivals over here?

Aimee: There's rumours that that might be on the agenda, but like I said, everything changes. That's one of the interesting things about being in a band, especially this band. We leave ourselves completely open because we never know what's going to happen exactly, and we make a kind of broad outline and fill in the blanks on the way. We have an idea of what our year will be like and then there's various surprises that come up along the way. Like The Offspring tour, which we didn't expect to be on this time, we actually thought we'd be on a different tour because we were up for several, but this one came first.

Is there anything else you'd like to say or promote?

Aimee: (Laughs) There's many things I'd like to promote!
Billy: Yeah, new album! We have an E.P that's in the stores at the moment, that's really good!
Aimee: (In her best PR woman voice) And our new album will be called 'Initiation' and it will be coming out in mid to late Summer on Nitro Records.
Billy: We're very excited about that.
Aimee: And we'll be back!

Thanks a lot to Aimee and Billy for the interview! For more info on The Start, check out their website, www.thisisthestart.com.