Photo: Steve Gullick
Tape the Radio are Malcolm Carson (vocals and guitar), Ben Caruso (bass) and Bryan Mclellan (drums). They've been compared to bands like the Stereophonics and the Manic Street Preachers. When he's not touring Europe with the band, Ben Caruso works at PRS for Music. He tells Chinwe Ojielo more
I read that you moved to London to join the band?
Actually I was living in Rome, Italy, at the time, but was planning on moving here anyway. A few months before I moved up, I’d been looking for bands and I came across Malcolm who had some music online, so I got in touch with him. Before I moved here we had planned on getting together and playing some songs.
How long have you been playing bass for?
I played bass in one band when I was 17. I used to play guitar, then I decided that I wanted to play bass because I thought it would be easier.
Is it easier?
No (laughs) It’s just different; it’s fun though, I like it. I prefer it to the guitar actually.
Your debut album Heartache and Fear was released in May. What’s the reception been like?
It’s been good. We’ve had some really great reviews from Uncut, Artrocker and the Daily Mirror. It’s been pretty small as we’ve only released it in the UK and it’s coming out in Europe in September, so we’re going on a tour in Europe.
Have you played in Europe before?
Yeah we’ve played in Norway and we did some touring in Italy, which was really fun.
How do you guys come up with your songs?
The three of us come up with the tunes; we just jam on a riff and then once we’ve got a song, Malcolm will go away and write some lyrics. Brian and I will start jamming and Malcolm will join in, and if it sounds cool, then we try and work on that.
How did you get Stereophonics producer Jim Lowe working on the album?
It was through the record label that we signed to Hi-Tone. Basically a former head of Virgin started his own label, and he had signed Stereophonics and bands like that. He had Jim Lowe come down at one of our shows at The 100 Club and check us out. He liked us, we talked and basically the record label hooked us up.
Ok last question. I hear that you’ll be filming your first video. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
Yeah, we’ve been playlisted on the big radio stations out in Germany and our record label over there need a video, so we need to shoot a video. They need it straight away because Our Love Is A Broken Heart just got released as a single there.
Catch Tape The Radio on the first date of their European tour at Paradiso Amsterdam, Netherlands on 22 September.
www.tapetheradio.com
Tape the Radio are Malcolm Carson (vocals and guitar), Ben Caruso (bass) and Bryan Mclellan (drums). They've been compared to bands like the Stereophonics and the Manic Street Preachers. When he's not touring Europe with the band, Ben Caruso works at PRS for Music. He tells Chinwe Ojielo more
I read that you moved to London to join the band?
Actually I was living in Rome, Italy, at the time, but was planning on moving here anyway. A few months before I moved up, I’d been looking for bands and I came across Malcolm who had some music online, so I got in touch with him. Before I moved here we had planned on getting together and playing some songs.
How long have you been playing bass for?
I played bass in one band when I was 17. I used to play guitar, then I decided that I wanted to play bass because I thought it would be easier.
Is it easier?
No (laughs) It’s just different; it’s fun though, I like it. I prefer it to the guitar actually.
Your debut album Heartache and Fear was released in May. What’s the reception been like?
It’s been good. We’ve had some really great reviews from Uncut, Artrocker and the Daily Mirror. It’s been pretty small as we’ve only released it in the UK and it’s coming out in Europe in September, so we’re going on a tour in Europe.
Have you played in Europe before?
Yeah we’ve played in Norway and we did some touring in Italy, which was really fun.
How do you guys come up with your songs?
The three of us come up with the tunes; we just jam on a riff and then once we’ve got a song, Malcolm will go away and write some lyrics. Brian and I will start jamming and Malcolm will join in, and if it sounds cool, then we try and work on that.
How did you get Stereophonics producer Jim Lowe working on the album?
It was through the record label that we signed to Hi-Tone. Basically a former head of Virgin started his own label, and he had signed Stereophonics and bands like that. He had Jim Lowe come down at one of our shows at The 100 Club and check us out. He liked us, we talked and basically the record label hooked us up.
Ok last question. I hear that you’ll be filming your first video. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
Yeah, we’ve been playlisted on the big radio stations out in Germany and our record label over there need a video, so we need to shoot a video. They need it straight away because Our Love Is A Broken Heart just got released as a single there.
Catch Tape The Radio on the first date of their European tour at Paradiso Amsterdam, Netherlands on 22 September.
www.tapetheradio.com
