Interview: Lostprophets

Having only just released their latest fourth studio album, 'The Betrayed', we were fortunate to speak to Lostprophets guitarist, Lee Gaze, about their latest release, plans for the rest of the year, working with John Feldmann and more.


Alter The Press: How was 2009 for you?
Lee Gaze: It was busy working up to the release of our new album, 'The Betrayed', but very positive.

ATP: The new album 'The Betrayed', why did it take nearly four years to release?
LG: We wrote the whole thing around 2007 before going to a producer, as I’m sure it’s well documented that didn’t work out for us. It was really frustrating cause after years worth of work so we had to go back to square one, we tried to work with another guy but our schedules just didn’t match up so that just left us to do it.

ATP: Why did you choose to self-produce the album?
LG: For those reasons really, basically when you’re in a band and you’re on a major label, you just presume that’s the way to do it; just to go into the studio with some guy…I mean when you think about it it’s a weird way to go about things, especially if you know what you’re doing because it’s like saying ‘I’m having some guy stand over my shoulder saying I shouldn’t do it like that, I should do it like this.’ We’ve worked really hard on this band and learnt what we were doing so we were like, ‘why are we having this guy direct us and obviously he’s not necessarily going to have the same ideas as us.’

Working with another person worked well for the first record to help us get a feel for the whole thing, but after the failed attempts of working with other people on this record we started to think that if we couldn’t do it ourselves, should we be doing it?

ATP: How would you describe the new album in your own words?
LG: It’s a dark record, I mean, it’s still uplifting in a positive and musical sense, but it’s got a lot of balls to it.

ATP:What happened to the material you recorded with John Feldmann?
LG: It’s in the best place for it – the bin!!!

ATP: How would you compare the new album to your previous releases?
LG: I suppose it’s a lot darker for a number of reasons. One of them is from Ian’s (Watkins - vocalist) lyrics he sings a lot of his own personal stuff and has been more open and honest on this record. I guess the other major thing is all the crap that we had throughout the process, when we started out it wasn’t so dark but after all the crap we went through it just took that tone.

ATP: Why did you choose to release two singles prior to the album release?
LG: We argue so much about which singles to release, so we always let someone else choose the best ones for us! It gives everyone a taster of what the album is going to be about.

ATP: A lot of fans will still say to date it is their favorite release from the band. Can you ever see yourself doing another, 'Fake Sound Of Progress' style album?
LG: I think the new album is the best thing we've ever done, I truly believe that. It was wholly inspired by our personal experiences; everything we have learnt in the last 10 years is in the new album. This is the first time that we totally self-worked the album, used my own guitars, my own pedals – everything. This album is us, through and through.

ATP: What are your plans for the rest of the year?
LG: We want to tour and make sure as many people hear our album as possible – it’s going to be a good year. Hopefully we’ll hit some of the festivals and have a great time along the way!

'The Betrayed' is out now on Visible Noise.

- Jon Ableson