It's impossible to pin Noisecandy down to any identifiable pigeonhole. Try as you may it's just never going to happen. Noisecandy are a bundle of obvious contradictions. A band who can on one hand support the likes of Blue and Atomic Kitten to over 20,000 people and then rock it side by side with emo rockers Funeral For A Friend. Oh yeah, and they're a Welsh band who have rejected the flag cos they're sick of all the connotations that it holds. Designer Magazine caught up with womanizer and lead vocalist Ash and guitarist Dan to find out about Welsh's Pop Revolution.

Q: Noisecandy, the first great Welsh pop band. How did you guys come together then?
Dan: We all live within a couple miles of each other in Newport and we were all in different band. We just drunk in the same places and got chatting. Ash had just left the band that he was in and the singer had just left the band that I was in so we just kind of merged together like that.

Ash: We rehearsed 2 or 3 times the first week and it just clicked. It normally doesn't happen like that but everything just slotted together. The first 3 months we were rehearsing about 30 hours a week before we'd play a gig and now the last 10 months has just been pretty much constant gigs.
 

Q: In Wales we've got the Manics, Super Furries and Funeral For A Friend. And then you've got H from Steps, Noel from Hear'say and the guy from Fast Food Rockers. You just don't fit in do you?
Ash: Were kind of bang down the middle really. In Wales there isn't much to be influenced by except sheep, there's not a lot of inspiration really.

Dan: I think it's just that were all really upbeat guys and it comes out in our music. Were not a pop band. Were not a rock band. Were not a punk band. Were just a band who play music. We didn't set out to be what we are. It's just the songs we write and plus Ash looks like he's in a boy band.

Ash: The music that we play and the way that we look people just wanna hate us. They don't wanna give it a chance because were young and without sounding arrogant I know we play well. People wanna put you down, especially in Wales.

Dan: It's weird because Chris (Bass) and Tim (Drums) are well into their Jazz and Funk and they're really very good musicians, Ash is into Muse and Oasis and according to the press release i'm into BB Mak. Just all these different types of music so god knows why we play the music we do.
 

Q: I'd imagine it must be quite hard getting a live bill together around you guys. How is it getting gigs sorted?
Ash: We've been playing the real indie rock circuit, the Barfly's and all the dingy clubs, and it's not like we are out of place. But then we have played pop concerts and we haven't been out of place there either. We've played 60 or 70 gigs in a year and I don't thing there's one where we've had a hard time.

There's is an mentality in Wales which is such an ignorant mentality by people in the music scene which  is Nu-Metal, Emo or nothing. No disrespect to bands like that cos I listen to it all the time, but there's more to life than it. It's a cool thing. People thing their too cool to like us.

Q: So how does a band go from playing with Funeral For A Friend to playing with Blue?
Ash: It baffles me, but we seem to do it. I think the thing that does appeals to the FFAF market and the Blue market is that as a general basis most people want to smile and be happy. We try and make everyone leave from a Noisecandy gig with a smile on their face and it seems to be happening.

Dan: If were playing to a room of Slipknot fans we'll try our best to rock up the set as much as we can. Play everything faster and hit the distortion pedals. A gigs a gig though. If you do gigs like the Blue one, or Atomic Kitten cos we've played with them as well, it just becomes the same as far as nerves go.
 

Q: How do you feel about the Welsh Busted tags you've been getting from lesser members of the press?
Ash: Were gonna get that. We play commercial poppy rock and that's what Busted do or Busted's writers do. We write our own stuff and we play it all live and that's what we stick by really. Were not trying to be a second Busted, we've been going longer than Busted have been around like, before they ever came on the scene and they've f**ked us in our asses really

Dan: Until they came around it was like wow this is new and they do it and we get linked into this whole boy band with guitars thing. I do wonder who actually plays guitar on their album cos they don't and there's actually some good playing on there. We would totally win a fight with Busted if we didn't get caught in that guys eyebrow or something.
 

Q: What's the worst thing you've read about yourselves in the press then?
Dan: We got an article through today from Just 17 reviewing the single. It started off by trying to compare us to the Strokes and it was like what, are you mad? And it finishes with the line Watch Out Busted. They clearly didn't have a clue what they were on about, but that's what some of these critics are like. They slagged off the Darkness for 4 years and Travis took 10 years before anyone took them seriously. No matter what put downs we get from the industry we know were giving 110% and if the Darkness have won that's the way you look at it.
 

Q: Finally, how would you like Noisecandy to be seen?
Ash: We wanna be seen as a serious band. We write our own songs from our heart and we play them with all the passion we've got. But you only live once and you've got to pull as many women as you can.

Dan: In America we'd be a rock band like Matchbox 20, they're a credible rock band. And over here it's like Busted. I didn't practise this instrument for 10 years to get compared to Busted.