Ahead of the release of their new album, Planet Loud grabbed a few words with rising Brit punks Blackhole to chat about the said album amongst other things.

Planet Loud – Hey, thanks for taking the time to talk to Planet Loud. How’s the tour been so far? You gave yourselves one hell of a busy schedule this month, so how are you all holding up?
Blackhole – Yeah, it’s been really good… It’s been tough because it’s our first headline tour and the crowds have been kind of varied through each night, and it’s been nineteen dates, no breaks or anything, no days off. Everyone’s alright, there’s a bit of tension towards the end of the tour, which is understandable, but other than that it’s been really good. We’ve been getting a lot of response from the crowds…

Planet Loud – Considering the standard of Support that you’ve brought on the road with you (The Plight and Throats) have you felt any pressure to be on particularly top of your game at the moment, or do you just give it your all every gig irrespectively?
Blackhole – I think we just go out there and give it everything we can. We’re not really a competitive band, we just play because we enjoy it, and they’re all lovely guys. We’ve known The Plight for quite a while now and they seemed like the perfect bunch to tour with. Throats are great too, they add something… well we didn’t really want a clichéd line up, rather something different, and Throats are kind of something different for the tour.

Planet Loud – Cool. So ‘Dead Hearts’ has hit stores, (and of course, the net,) to a highly positive reception… Is it a relief to have the album out, and before the album’s release, what would you say were your hopes and expectations for its reception?
Blackhole – Well it’s been a really long wait for it to come out… we recorded it in November… November last year, so it’s been a long time. I think that we were just happy for it to be out in the shops… and like, we knew it was going to get a lot of attention purely because of the fact that Richard being brothers with Frank from Gallows and stuff like that, so a lot of people might go out and get it purely for that reason, which is wicked, but we kind of want them to look at our music for itself.

Planet Loud – Tracks like ‘Forever’ and ‘Scared to Change’ from ‘Dead Hearts’ seem to lyrically draw on pretty personal experiences, and indeed not in the sense of ‘warm reminiscence.’ Would you say that you draw on personal perspectives for your lyrics, or are they more of a semi-fictional account of, say, things that you have witnessed?
Blackhole – I think that all the lyrics that Rick Writes are about something in his life… Like telling a story about something that’s happened to him in the past or something like that. He tends to write about stuff that annoys him, he doesn’t really write about anything good (laughs) but…

Planet Loud – It often makes for the best lyrics (laughing)
Blackhole – Yeah you’re probably right about that, all the best bands tend to write about shitty stuff, so… (laughs.)

Planet Loud – Could you tell us a little bit about what records you’ve been spinning in the van over your current tour? I’d imagine that you’ll have got through quite a few… any recommendations?
Blackhole – Ah we’ve listened to everything, yesterday our tour manager but on the Beach Boys, we’ve listened to Every Time I Die’s new album, Killswitch’s new album… Michael Jackson, we’ve played a bit of him. But other than that I’ve just been listening to my IPod. I’ve just been listening to Brand New, their new album. I’ve only just got it and it’s fucking awesome.

Planet Loud – The idea of ‘Dead Hearts’ appears to run through your debut album, notably in the album title and closing track, ‘We Are the Dead Hearts.’ Does this relate to a particular idea or have a special significance that you could explain?
Blackhole – Yeah it’s definitely not just a cool name… Rick was like, looking at all the lyrics all together and thinking about what each song was about, to try and come up with a theme. Most of the songs are about Rick, just hating, like, life pretty much (laughs.) I think that’s what it is; you’d have to ask him that question to be sure.

Planet Loud – Yeah of course, that’s great. Going back to the current tour, have there been any highlights, crazy experiences, or disappointments, and if so, what happened?
Blackhole – Not really… well there’s been some really good shows, and then some really crap shows. We played in Plymouth to about ten people… It was like at this bus station, such a random place, and it just didn’t work out, but that was the worst experience. But we had fun, everyone just got into it, it was cool.

Planet Loud – And If those ten people enjoyed it…
Blackhole – Yeah… And I always love coming to Brighton. We came here last night so we’ve literally just had a day to ourselves, and it’s always good to see family and stuff… so for me that’s a highlight.

Planet Loud – When you were growing up, which bands really motivated you to start up a band yourselves, or continue to do so?
Blackhole – I mean, I listen to everything, I’m not a guy who listens to one genre of music and won’t listen to anything else, because that’s just unfair, but I listen to pop, Hip Hop, stuff that’s number one in the charts… loads of underground bands. But I think that… well, I’ve been in like two bands before this, and have always thought being in a band is such a fun experience, I love playing guitar, I have good friends that I’m in a band with. It’s a good outlet for life.

Planet Loud – What are your plans for the immediate future… more UK touring, taking the band overseas, writing a follow up to ‘Dead Hearts?’
Blackhole – We’ve got lots of stuff in the pipeline, that I can’t really tell you about (laughs.) I think after this tour we’ve having about a month’s break, I’m still doing my university course, in my last year, and all the other guys have jobs and stuff like that. I know we’ve got about five dates with CKY in November, which should be good and after that we’ll have to see…

Planet Loud – Confidential.
Blackhole – Yeah confidential stuff.

Planet Loud – Finally, is there anything that you would like to say to people reading this, who are either into the band or interested in checking out your music in the future?
Blackhole – Just buy the album, (laughs.) Buy the album, download the album, do what you want, I don’t mind as long as our music gets out there and people listen…

Planet Loud – Cheers for your time.
Blackhole – No worries man, thank you.

Interview by Rob Sayce