Live4ever Presents: Alias Kid

Who?

Maz: Main Vocal / Guitar
Sean: Main Vocal / Guitar
James: Backing vocal / Lead guitar
Nick: Bass
Col: Drums

Where?

We’re all from Manchester except Col – he’s from Newark but he’s the drummer so nobody cares…

How?

It was a weird one really. Went through a phase where me (Maz) and Sean thought none of our mates were up for going out to the pub. We got sick of it (probably because it meant we had to sit and talk to each other), so we thought, ‘We’ve got some top tunes there, we’ll put a band together and drag them all out’. So we did that – we got Sean’s cousin James in to play lead guitar and his mate Chris to play bass (Nick replaced him a bit later on). Then we heard Col was at a loose end so we pulled him in too. The first gig was to about 20 mates in The Ducie Bridge in town, and then the third gig was to about 100 people, again at the Ducie. It all went off in there that night, stage invasions and that. Alan McGee had come down for another look after watching us at District on our second gig and he was like, yeah, there’s a record deal lads.

Why?

We have so many influences it’s impossible to tie down. Sean’s into the Sex Pistols and that, I’m into Lennon but loads of other stuff. Nick and James are pretty much into the same as me in the main, Col is well into his punk. But there is loads of cross over for us all. We get tagged with the ‘Oasis thing’ because we’re signed with McGee and from Manchester; I don’t think me or Sean would have picked up a guitar if it wasn’t for them, but truth is we aren’t the ones saying that, we say we’re Alias Kid. There are other Manchester bands like the Happy Mondays, Black Grape, the Stone Roses and loads more that influenced us too. I can’t list all the influences though, I love loads of bands.

Past?

We’ve all done jobs all over – factories, office work, road work, building sites. Just the normal stuff I suppose. I think the best one is Nick our bass player used to test toys for a living. I’ve got no idea what that involved. I’ll ask him next time we’re on the tour bus.

Present?

It’s what we grew up calling rock and roll. That kind of vibe anyway. We’ve changed a bit since McGee signed us and after we went to record the album in Glasgow. When McGee got the album back he rang Sean and said we reminded him of The Clash since the record is quite pop, whereas playing live we’re quite punk. In terms of what our sound is though, I don’t really ever say it’s this or that. Just have a listen and decide.

Future?

I’ve got no idea. 18 months ago our ambition was to get our mates to come out to the pub. Now the national press are writing about us and we’re going on tour with bands like Black Grape. So ambition wise it’s like we just keep pushing it. The minute you lose the drive to move on to the next level then you should probably fuck off. It always annoys me when I hear a band moaning about the pressures and that. If you don’t like it don’t do it. I’ve seen 50 unsigned bands this year who are good enough and hungry enough to walk right in there if the ones moaning all get out the way.

Did you know?

It’s funny you know, we’ve been tagged as ‘bad lads’ and that because of a few things we got up to. We aren’t angels but we aren’t that bad. We just have a laugh. When you’re doing it as a band you get tagged with that, but it’s no different to what 90% of people I know are doing when they go on holiday. In fact those holidays are worse normally – beds in swimming pools at breakfast time. Probably half the people reading this have done worse. Saying that, my own favourite memory was seeing Sean fly like Superman out of the front door of a place we went to after playing with Black Grape in Edinburgh. Fuck knows what happened in there, I’m sure it wasn’t his fault, but he must have flown 15 feet when they slung him! Then me and James got dragged into the whole thing with a bucket of KFC. It was like the O.K. Corral, but with chicken instead of guns.

What’s next?

We’ve got quite a few more supports, gigs with Cast who we’re all fans of, so that’s going to be top for us. Then a couple more big supports we can’t announce yet. That’s all working in with our own headline gigs since we’re getting a lot of offers now. The national press have really taken to the band so that’s pushed us out there much quicker than we expected. The album is doing well and we are laying down demos for the second album at the moment. To be honest the way things are going I don’t know where we’ll be next week, let alone next year.

Live4ever:

It seems so churlish, crushingly boring, obvious, to immediately mention the words ‘working class’. Here we are doing it though, and it nevertheless seem pertinent to do so. Not because such a peculiarly British obsession, filled with increasing ambiguity, defines Alias Kid. Or at all defines their music. But simply because a band who – as they’ve told us in this very feature – formed simply to ‘get our mates to come out to the pub’ thus stands out in the current music industry not so much like a sore thumb, but like a thumb that’s swollen to double its size, turned purple, and is in imminent danger of amputation.

Delve into the music though, and it’s all quickly irrelevant. Irrelevant thanks to the deep bass, classic pop chimed framework of ‘Zara Henna‘, or the dirtier power of ‘Messiah‘. Especially irrelevant thanks to new single ‘Smoke and Ashes‘, enticing as one of those tracks which feels instantly familiar, takes inspiration from such recognisable places, yet is very much the band’s own, and stamped in their image. This in particular is a quality which already binds them to 50 years of rock and roll. 50 years of retelling the story. It should absolutely be celebrated – it’s a story the world needs reminding of.

From here on then we’ll forget the background, or any bubbling media pretence at an ‘attitude’ (simply because they’ve been happy to point out that a lot music around today is a bit shit).

We’ll forget it all because Alias Kid’s tunes are doing the talking. And that’s why they’re starting to stand out.