Fueled by the sound of Mod British guitar rock of the past and coupled with the attitude of today, Britain's All The Young have the perfect recipe for what makes a good band tick. The band, which formed when the Dooley brothers had enough of hearing nonsense on the radio and decided to do something about it, from there, All The Young was born. The band, which is a quintessential British band pull no punches and because of that major labels like Warner Bros. took notice as did NME, hailing them as one of 2012's best new bands. Now, as the new year unfolds, we spoke to singer and guitarist Ryan Dooley about the bands background, sound, and their style that would make Ben Sherman himself smile.
Does the name of the band come from the Bowie penned song for Mott the Hoople, “All
the Young Dudes?”
The song that came to mind was
All The Young Punks (new boots & contracts) by The Clash. The Bowie song is
relevant too though I guess. We really liked the collective vibe in the songs
so it started the ball rolling with the name. Names like Gang of Four and World
Party are really inspiring titles for groups too as they unite the band and the
audience in the same way. That's what we were trying to do and 'All the Young'
kept sticking with us.
The band’s sound is very slick, who are some of your influences?
Bands like The Clash, The
Manic Street Preachers and Joy Division have influenced our look I guess but as
a whole it's many of the great UK guitar groups like The Cure, The Smiths and
Oasis. These were guitar bands but they had brains, stories and they mattered.
Too many of the recent guitars bands talk shit and don't play the guitar
properly in my honest opinion. We want to change that...
Hailing from Stoke, England – how as the city influenced your music?
It's a pretty un-inspiring
place these days as a lot of its industry is no longer there, but I guess that
in turn has influenced us as people and as musicians. There are two choices for
us and that's All the Young or the abyss. We chose All the Young!
In your music, you hear a deep root and influence of 90’s Britpop (which, on a
personal level excites me), who of that era had that greatest impact on you on?
Oasis had such an impact on us
all as kids. They were heroes. They were untouchable to most young lads in the
UK back then. Along with that came some of the bands I name in question 2. The
Stone Roses, Blur and Suede were big for us as well. Oasis were most
definitely the beginning for a lot of young guitar players though. We were like
11 years old and we would be buying all of their CDs and tapes with our pocket money
Growing up was it team Oasis or Team Blur?
I guess it was team Oasis but
I never hated Blur. They've done some great albums and the fact that the two
used to row a lot made the whole scene that bit more special! We need more of
that!
In many ways the 90’s Britpop seemed to make a bit of a comeback in terms of
sound with bands like The Horrors, Viva Brother, Sulk, Arctic Monkeys, Borne
Blonde and yourselves all releasing material in 2011 with some inspiration from
the past. Do you ever think it will ever be as big as it once way?
We're not britpop and we're
not lad-rock. These terms have been coined to pigeon hole some of the guitar
bands of late. We could be compared to a lot of Heavier Rock bands too at
times. We just play real songs, play solos and create massive endings to our
live show. Britpop and lad-rock bands can't do that. Rock n'roll bands can!
In 2011, Morrissey asked you to open for him and has been singing your praises,
what was that experience like?
It was such a crazy few weeks
really. He came to one of our first London shows at The Proud galleries and he
was waiting in our dressing room after the gig. It was so weird at first but he
was a lovely bloke. He wouldn't talk about The Smiths or his own material he
just wanted to know about us and that was really exciting. He was quite the gentlemen!
The style and look of the band seems to be just as important as the music, do
you feel that the same amount of time of looking sharp goes into sounding good?
Ha ha. No way. Ironing a shirt
and combing your hair is nothing compared to writing the songs and making the
gigs great. We do conscientiously present ourselves well though. When we play a
gig, we want great lights, great sounds.....great everything! That includes
outfits...
Your live reviews have gained you much praise back home, what is it about your
live gigs that has people talking?
We do things a bit differently
at a gig compared to our CD. That's a must for any guitar band for me. We throw
lots of extra parts in to our songs and play our songs with a different
intensity. I think we come across better at a gig. We want to give people their
money's worth!
What has been
the best thing about playing in All the Young?
The best thing has been the
reception we've had here in the UK so far. We've done some busy shows and the
reaction we get is that we're giving guitar fans something that they haven't
had for a while. That feels good because this whole thing was born of
frustration. We're sick of this over-tuned and over-hyped pop music that
pollutes the airwaves the moment. It's time to take the power back...
