After impressing audiences around the country on various festival slots, last month saw the band head out to play their biggest audiences to date on the Ocean Colour Scene tour. After discovering frontman K, the band formally known as These Animal Men have been in the studio blending together classic soul music with more traditional guitar music as heard previously on the single "Personal Saviour". This month they are out on tour in their own right and later in the year we can expect the debut album.

Q: I guess the OCS fans will be into the same sort of music as yourselves?
A: It has been really really good. That's one of the things we have to do to get our music across. People have become very cynical about being told that such and such a band is good. We know as soon as people hear it they will get into the groove.

The music does tend to lend itself to these bigger venues. I remember when we played London someone came up to us and said it was like seeing Bon Jovi, not that we sound like them or anything.
 

Q: Do you get miffed when the hacks mention the words retro?
A: No, because that's the sensibility that we represent. To look for something cutting edge really doesn't exist because if you look back to 30s blues players that still sounds as fresh and as cutting edge as the Prodigy does. Its just a mindset really and its us kind of finding our fighting style. Some people call that retro and I think that's more of a problem for them that it is for us.

Music is about sound and people are always going to make a sound. No one says a poet is retro because he writes in a similar style to what Byron did.
 

Q: Do you still believe in the power of music?
A: Its an important thing to test the limits of freedom. Like rock & roll has always been about pushing politicians and pushing the elders of society to say that were free. It constantly test that thing not necessarily by being dirty, but it just lets the people in power know that everyone still exists. Rock & Roll is always going to be important.
 

Q: You've talked before about bringing some much needed sexyness to rock & roll?
A: Not that OCS are lacking any sexual attributes, but when were called to we can. I just check out the great frontmen - Prince, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Bruce Lee - I spent years trying to emulate them and eventually you start to make it your own. It is possible for me to stand still but when were on stage you've got to entertain them.