Who: pop-punk band Testosterone
It’s been an excitingtime for pop-punk pranksters Testosterone. Support slots with Kerrang Award nominated The Ga*Ga*s, record deal offers, and now they’re debut album is due out anytime.
The LINC with singer/guitarist Dave Costello, rhythm guitarist Ian Graham, drummer Kev Brown and bassist Matt Highton before their much-anticipated Co-headline slot with Wigan’s angriest girls Hatemale at the The Tavern,
So you’ve just finished recording your debut album, what should people expect from it?
IAN: Catchy little songs
DAVE: It’s all about Ian’s love life basically
IAN: Or lack of one, rather!
MATT: I just hope people aren’t too offended by it.
Why would they be?
MATT: Erm, the lyrical content, we’re just a bunch of idiots really!
During the recording, you were having problems coming up with, or at least agreeing on a title for the album, have you sorted that out yet?
DAVE: We have, it’s gonna be called Let’s Grab A Sock, It’s Time To Rock! It’s actually a line from a song by a band called Zebrahead called Playmate of the Year
IAN: We just thought it was funny, ‘cos we like rockin’… and we like socks!
How does the song writing work in Testosterone?
KEV: You’ll have to ask Ian about that!
DAVE: I’ll give you the low-down. Basically, Ian goes for a night out, has a drink, meets a good lookin’ girl who dumps him the next day. So then he writes a song about it, brings it to me, then I do the music, record it and send it back to him for him to tell me whether he likes it or not. That’s pretty much how it works.
KEV: And then six months later, Matt and me get told about it!
IAN: Yeah, that’s it!
MATT: Yeah, like at band practice a week before we’re supposed to be playing it!
One thing that’s always noticeable at your shows is the little tiffs between Ian and Dave. How much of that is genuine tension, how much is stage show?
IAN: It’s all real! I hate this guy, seriously!
DAVE: Yeah, and I hate you, you *****!
IAN: The only reason we’re in a band together is because we need each other.
DAVE: Pretty much…Nah, we do get annoyed with each other, but I think that’s natural, because in terms of the band, we’re quite close and we write the songs so sometimes there’s a battle between us to get what we want in terms of the songs, but on stage we do exaggerate it a bit. Like at The Ga*Ga*s gig, we did milk it a lot.
Another noticeable aspect of yours shows is how heavily their success depends on the crowd. If the crowd are up for it, you’re whole show works better, if they’re not, then it seems like you don’t perform as good…
DAVE: That’s pretty much how we see it.
MATT: I think it’s just that you get more relaxed when there’s more people there, especially if it’s people who you know. You just kind of get into the swing of things easier.
IAN: It’s like, when you’re playing a song, if people aren’t reacting to it, you just think ‘Why the hell are you here? Are we doing this right?’
Have you got many people coming down for your gig with Hatemale tonight?
DAVE: I hope so!
IAN: Matt’s got to wear a skirt as well tonight.
OK, you tell people that you play ‘Spunk Rock’. What on earth is Spunk Rock?
DAVE: It’s rock… but spunked up, that’s pretty much it.
IAN: It’s like the next level of rock. A lot of bands will go ‘Oh, I like a girl, I want to hold her hand’ we just take the lyrics a bit further.
DAVE: And talking about getting caught in your girlfriend’s underwear!
The simplest way to describe your music is ‘pop-punk’; the pioneers of which were Blink 182 and Green Day. Green Day have grown up and Blink 182 have split up. Is ‘pop-punk’ a dying genre?
IAN: I don’t think so, I think it just needs another band out there that can do that.
DAVE: I don’t think pop punk will ever die out because when you here it you’ll like it, it’s just fun.
MATT: There are a lot of bands out there though who play this sort of music. It’s not just Blink 182, the only reason people liken us to them is because they were the big mainstream band. There’s loads of pop-punk bands out there, they just stay a bit more out of the mainstream.
KEV: I think people are always gonna like it too, because there’s loads of bands out there who jump on the bandwagon going ‘Ooh, we’re all miserable, let’s go and write some really depressing songs’, our music is just fun and upbeat, and I think people will always want that.
IAN: I think the closest thing around now is Bowling For Soup. Their last album was amazing.
What would you each say is your favourite Testosterone song?
MATT: I suppose mine’s The Thing About Love it was the first song I learned to play with the band.
DAVE: Yeah, probably mine as well. It’s just class; I love doing the little solo in the middle!
KEV: I’d probably say High School, because that’s one of the first ones that I learned with them and, well, I just like it.
IAN: Ok, mine’s either Hot College Girl or High School.
DAVE: Hi, I’m Ian, my favourite songs are the ones about me.
IAN: Yeah! Any song about me has gotta be good! Nah, seriously, I like Hot College Girl because it’s got a really cool riff in it, and when it kicks in I just feel really good. And High School because I finally got to tell everyone I hated at school what I thought of them.
A lot of your songs, like you said earlier, are about failed relationships and girl troubles, how come you can take all that and make it sound really fun, rather than, as Kev said, being all miserable about it.
MATT: We don’t wanna be ‘emo’, that’s why! We hate emo!!
IAN: DOWN WITH EMO!!
MATT: It’s just rubbish.
IAN: Ian-mo isn’t though. Ian-mo is the way forward. Nah, to be honest, when I’m writing, I just don’t wanna be too depressed about it. There’s gonna be other people going through the same thing, and I think if they can here one of our songs, then maybe they’ll think ‘Oh, it’s not that bad, let’s dance!’
DAVE: If we arrange the songs differently though, with acoustics and stuff, they do come out depressing, but the music behind it, that’s what really makes ‘em happy.
What’s been the highlight for you guys so far?
MATT: For me, it’s just been joining the band, them letting me be in it. I think Kenfest (Free summer outdoor gig in Wigan) as well. That was pretty cool.
DAVE: The Ga Star Ga Stars gig was cool, all the kids going ‘Wooo! Testosterone!’
What was so good about that gig?
DAVE: Well, I’ve been in a few different bands for a few years, but I’ve never really played on a big stage, with people dancing to our music in front of us and then cheering for each one of us when I introduced the band. Then they didn’t even really enjoy the other two bands that they’d come to see, and didn’t seem to bother. That was ace.
IAN: There’s a few for me. We played a gig with The Gods Of Rock at Christmas at The Topspot, which was cool; everyone was up for that. The same when we played The Presidential in Ashton, everyone was dancing and it as just really cool. But yeah, I think The Ga*Ga*s definitely was a big thing for us, it was just amazing.
KEV: I think the highlight so far was the last gig we did at The Presidential in Ashton. IT was packed, and everybody got really into it. All you could see was people dancing, which was awesome.
Speaking of The Presidential, you played a big charity gig there on September 25th with nine other bands. Do you think it’s important for bands to get involved with charities?
DAVE: I think so definitely. You have all these bands that go out and make loads of money for themselves, surely they can take one night off to play for charity and help out.
IAN: I think bands are important for charity, because they can help to raise awareness, but I don’t like these bands that dedicate themselves to one charity and shove it down people’s throats. If you do that people just stop listening.
KEV: Like U2?
IAN: Yeah, Bono’s an idiot.
What kind of fans do you attract?
DAVE: Teenagers… and immature adults.
MATT: Guys and girls who basically just don’t want to grow up, so people like us!
DAVE: I think the main core of our fans are really the people who ‘get’ our sense of humour and aren’t offended by what we say!
IAN: I think we really speak out to Hatemale as well, they’re probably our biggest fans!
You’re playing with them at The Tavern in Wigan tonight. A band called Testosterone with songs about girls and a band called Hatemale, it’s a bit of a battle of the sexes isn’t it? You looking forward to it?
IAN: Yeah! I can’t wait for it!
Has the show been deliberately booked that way?
DAVE: I think so, I think it’s a good idea.
IAN: I’m playing a pink guitar tonight though, so that just makes everything a bit confusing!
A lot of bands from the Wigan area tend to venture out and try their luck on the Manchester and Liverpool scenes, yet you’ve stayed pretty close to home so far, why is that?
DAVE: I think we’re going to get ourselves a name round here, and then try and take it a bit further.
IAN: We’ve only been together for a year really, some bands are together for a whole year before they even gig, but I think we’ve done pretty well for ourselves so far, supporting a signed band…
DAVE: Getting offered a deal, which Ian turned down.
Why did you do that?
IAN: I just didn’t think it would do for us what we wanted it do. We got offered a deal to get our CDs in shops, and possibly work with Warner Bros. on soundtracks, but they didn’t seem to know what they were gonna do with our music, how to market it. They were gonna take a way our creative freedom, and I didn’t want to sign a deal just for the sake of saying that we had one.
Do you think that’s what a lot of bands do?
IAN: There are a lot of bands out there who just want a deal and want to be famous rather than play music, we’re not like that. We’re gonna hold on till we get something that’s right for us. I mean, I hear they’re looking for a new Busted, we could do that.
Do you think you’ll get what you want?
DAVE: I hope so.
What’s the most rock ‘n’ roll thing you’ve ever done?
KEV: It depends how you define rock ‘n’ roll. I went for a pee in the corner of a pub because I was drunk. They threw me out, and I got banned from my Student Union at Uni.
MATT: I was involved in a satanic ritual drinking something vulgar and worshipping vegetables.
DAVE: I was there too, I killed the vegetable.
IAN: The most rock ‘n’ roll thing I’ve ever done was standing on Matt’s amp at the last gig!
KEV: That’s rubbish!
Right, where do you see yourselves in five years time?
MATT: Smouldering on the ashes of history.
DAVE: Still rocking out. We’ll probably still be trying to make it and cursing Ian for turning that deal down!
IAN: I see these guys backing me up in my new band, Ian & The Banshees.
KEV: Rehab.
And finally, any message to your fans?
DAVE: Basically, to everyone who’s supported us, we just want them to know that we are very, very grateful to all of them, they show up to pretty much every gig, they put up with Ian’s ego, and I hope that they’ll keep doing it and don’t get bored of us. Thanks guys keep on rocking!
By Chris Skoyles
So you’ll understand that we were fairly chuffed when those kind folk at the Wigan Music Collective saw sense and booked both bands on the same bill.
Wigan Music Archives 