by Alexander Bradley
on the
Following a hiatus in 2010 Fightstar made their return last December for their 10th anniversary. This week the group played three U.K. shows and have a fourth scheduled at London’s Brixton Academy tomorrow night (27th Feb 2015). Now confirmed to appear at Download and with plans to return to the studio, the alt-rock four-piece seem to be here to stay. We caught up with guitarist Alex Westaway to find out if they are.
You’re set to perform a massive show at Brixton Academy tomorrow, are you excited?
Yeah, really excited. This tour is the best thing we have ever done and getting to headline Brixton is dream come true for us.
You’ve supported bands at Brixton Academy in the past right?
Yeah, we’ve played there four or five times supporting other bands and so to come back after five years and play it as our own show is a dream come true.
That show caps off your week of ‘return’ shows, how have you found it?
Really good. Obviously Charlie has been touring with his solo stuff since we stopped but for Dan and me, we haven’t really toured at all so, for us, it’s a bit more like a ‘lad’s holiday’ than work like when we did it full time.
Does it feel any different now?
I think so. We’re all a bit older and feel so grateful to our fans for sticking with us. It’s really humbling to play in front of all these people who haven’t seen us for five years and they seem to have learnt the words better than they had before and we’re getting some great sing-a-longs. One of the greatest feelings, when you’re performing live, is people singing back the words that you wrote in your bedroom.
What has your approach to the setlist been like?
We wanted to play something off every record a good cross section really and we have our own personal favourites which we like to play.
What’s your personal favourite?
What I am really enjoying is when we play the entire first EP [‘They Liked You Better When You Were Dead’] which goes down really well; kind of finishing where we began, which goes down quite nice.
I also like playing ‘Amethyst’ that song means a lot to me. I wrote that song before I met Charlie when I was 16 and he polished it off as it was just an idea that was lingering for years and years. We just play that acoustically two guitars and the audience sing the chorus on their own so that’s a really good part of the set.
Are Fightstar back for good now?
Well yeah. The plan is to get back in the studio before the summer and see how it goes. We have got a couple of ideas floating around so we will get together and thrash out some songs in the next few months, book some studio time in and take it step-by-step.
Do you think Fightstar will ever become a full-time band?
Fightstar will never be a full-time thing for us but I don’t think we will ever split up. There is a rough plan at the moment, we have a few festivals lined up for the summer then we’re hoping to do a big tour towards the end of the year; hopefully. The only thing set is stone is that we are playing Download as announced yesterday!
Yeah, the lineup just gets better and better.
Yeah, it’s a seriously good line-up this year. We are pretty honoured to get to play such a good slot on the third stage; we’re quite blown away by that.
Was the plan always to do more than just the one-off anniversary show?
We knew we were going to do something but it was just getting the timing right. Charlie wanted to do his solo stuff and Dan and I have a production company and an album coming out in a couple of month’s time with Gunship, which we are quite excited about so we are all so busy. After putting the Forum show on sale and it sold out, it got the buzz going again for us all and we realised people still wanted to come and see us and that ignited a spark inside us all.
So you’ve had that conversation about balancing your other commitments?
Yeah exactly, we are all very understanding of each other’s situations but also equally willing to make sacrifices to make it happen.
As family men how do you juggle it all?
Juggling family life - with Dan and I both having kids and Charlie has one on the way - gets more and more complicated but we thrive in the chaos.
