My Passion – 03-10-2008

Interview with: Lawrence René
By: Sabine van Gameren

My Passion’s vocalist Lawrence René took time to answer our questions!

Hi, Welcome in Amsterdam!
You are on tour with Kill Hannah now, for those who have not seen you yet, what can we expect from a typical My Passion gig?
Lawrence: “It is very exciting! It’s very energetic; it’s just like with Kill Hannah that the atmosphere is getting created by the people. Everyone is having a good time, loads of jumping around, sweating, a bit of blood… We like people to get a bit forward, but if you are scared, you should stay a bit in the back. You might get a guitar to your head or something like that. That is part of the show. You can get the injuries for free. That comes with the energy”

“Days of the Bees” is your latest release. I have read the statement “Taster of the monsterous album due early 2009” about it. Can you tell us something about that upcoming release?
Lawrence: “We released Days of the Bees in springtime and then we recorded the rest of the album in September, before the Kill Hannah tour we started in the UK. We recorded another ten songs. It is gonna be called “The Cooper Flash Party” and it is due to start next year. It is gonna be on our own label Style Suicide Records. We are not sure about the exact date yet but it will be early next year. I can’t wait until it gets out and people can hear it. We are definitely very excited about it. I
It is produced by a guy named John Mitchell, recorded in Outhouse studios in the UK, Reading. He did Funeral For a Friend, Enter Shikari bands like that. They are quite different to us but they have been very successful in the UK. It is good to work with someone like that.”

In what way will it be different from earlier releases?
Lawrence: “It has got dark moments and then… really light moments, so it’s like heaven and hell. There is that contrast in it. That is the way we are. A love and hate thing. “Days of the Bees is definitely is a good taster for the album but there is a lot more to offer on the album as well. A lot more atmosphere, darker moments but then there are pop moments as well. It has got everything in it. Electric stuff, rock, metal, a bit of dance music as well. A lot of different things. You have to hear it next year to see what we mean and of course come to our live shows as well.”

How do you come up with all those funky song names?
Lawrence: “We write songs in a different way to most bands. The things we come up with are usually about our dreams or nightmares we have. It is usually twisted to an optimistic side. There is a good side amongst the darkness. The names are usually playings on words and ideas. Some crazy thoughts that came on mind. If you see us live, you will see that we are a bit insane.”

You were already talking about your own label. But you also have your own fashion line and a club night. My Passion seems to be more a brand than just a band…
Lawrence: “Yeah, we do everything on our own. That is the way we do it. Especially now that big record labels… not everyone get signed up as it used to, so you go out and do things on your own. The more things you do with merchandise, the more people get involved and get into the whole brand you are creating. They love it even more when they can be a part of it. It is just another chance to see us, see what we are doing. It makes a stronger fan base as well, having all this behind you. I think Kill Hannah had done something similar and they done quite well. It is only recently that we found out that they had a Chicago Suicide club. We started up our own label that is called Style Suicide which is a line in one of our songs. We tour with Kill Hannah now; we have done a lot of the same things. It has been successful for them so it sets us definitely up on the right track with the right things.”

In several articles on the web I have read you get compared to My Chemical Romance. What do you think about that?
Lawrence: “I think that is just about the outfit, or maybe the fact that our guitarist looks a bit… *loads of protesting in the background*
They have the same parents… *laughs*
There is not that much similar to My Chemical Romance in us. Maybe it is written by people who don’t know much about us or My Chemical Romance. Than just the black clothing is enough to compare. I think we have a lot more to offer than My Chemical Romance. They have been well, they have been a very big successful but we are a slightly different band. It is not a bad comparising because they did what they wanted to do. It is a good thing I guess.”

A newspaper named bands like them “suicide cult”. Since a 13 year old girl commited suicide after listening to their music. Does it bother you that you get connected to that?
Lawrence: “I think they should not see it that way. The lyrics are never about commiting suicide. It might be about a sad time in your life, but in our songs there is always the optimistic side. Our songs are really uplifting. So there is a dark side, but when you read our lyrics it is not always obvious where it is about. There is always something positive, which is something that some bands don’t do I guess. We are different in that way.”

I have seen you recorded a couple of video’s. I think you did those yourself?
Lawrence: “Yeah we did those ourselves as well. At the moment that is a budget thing. We are really happy with the video for “Days of the Bees”. We are not gonna spend thousands of pounds which we don’t have yet. The money we make we put back in merchandise, promoting ourselves, getting My Passion out there. The video is done with student stuff, we found a friend with an underground carpark, invited some fans. We did not pay any money for it so it was on a zero budget. All we did was free pizza’s for the people that came out. We did not let them go home hungry. We just had a good, fun day. We did not need a big budget. It did the job for us. We would love to do a high budget video some day. Because that is how we see ourselves. With a lots of lights, effects andeverything. That one might come as soon as we get the success we are looking for. The Kill Hannah tour is definitely helping with that. Itw as massice in the UK so hopefully it will be in Europe as well. It is definitely heading into the right way. So hopefully we’ll do some big budget video’s for MTV in 2009. Let’s see what happens.”

You will be playing with Sexydeath in Sweden in a couple of days.
Lawrence: “Yeah they are opening for us on the Swedish dates, I don’t know too much about them. Their name sounds interesting, let’s see what happens.”

Earlier this year they told us in an interview about them being an online band, since they got a great kick off on the internet.
Do you feel like that is a description that fits My Passion too?
Lawrence: “We do well online. MySpace was massive for us. Right from the start, about 2,5 years ago we decided to form My Passion and release it to the world we decided that we are gonna be a hard working band. There are a lot of bands on MySpace who promote online and get their music out there. That is a great thing, but we believe in going out and working hard to grow a fan base. We have done over 350 shows. After this Kill Hannah tour more than 400. We really tour constantly, so I would not really call us an online band, but it is definitely a great way too stay in touch with fans. They really appreciate it when you write back to them. Being online is a big part of it, but it is not all. If you just do that and not go out on tour it won’t work.”

So, what is the plan for after the Kill Hannah tour? America, Europe?
 Lawrence:“The world! We want to go everywhere. Europe is a great part of it. This tour is our first proper tour of Europe. We have played in Paris before but that has just been us on our own. It’s more for a band that really got a name and a fan base already. We wanna go to play in places like Japan, we want to tour America, Australia. Anywhere where are fans of our music. We want to get out and tour the world. We are gonna do a tour around christmas back in the UK, which is in some smaller venues we have already been playing before. We are doing our album, the Kill Hannah tour, so then we’ll do a lot of places in between, the little towns We are going back to those places, now we had a little success on this tour. These people are supporting us for the last two years. I think it is quite important to get back to those small places and play for those people who supported you first. And then hopefully next year we’ll have some more tours supporting other big bands, it is just a great opening for us and pushes us to where we want to be.”

Thanks for the interview!

My Passion and their cup of Rock n Roll before the gig:

Links:
My Passion MySpace