So after being slightly over excited everytime I have seen the new Lucozade advert, I decided to take a better look at this skateboarding, buggy riding feeder cover band…and found that they were far from that!These boys have got serious talent that goes further than being able to skateboard and play at the same time. To get a bit more into the band, I have been chatting to Martin and asked if he would do an interview for you lot, so here goes…
Full name:
Martin Lieu Ruffin
Role in the band?
Shred the guitar, hammer the keys and wail on the vocal chords in a background capacity.
How long has the band been together?
Around 4 years now, give or take.
And how did you get together?
We actually all met as strangers at a Simon Amstell autograph signing. By sheer chance we all surrounded him for a conversation at the same time, and after he managed to escape through a trap door leaving us accidentally talking amongst ourselves, we discovered a mutual love for snowsports, sandwiches and rock music, and things just took off from there.
Where did the name come from? (which is brilliant btw!)
It was a name we found of a local salad chef and author which fitted pretty well with what we’re all about.. but we’d like to keep a little mystery behind it’s full implications..
What has been your best memory or moment in the band so far?
I think seeing our drummer attempt to rap battle a dog one fine sunny day is hard to top, but life wise any show we ever play or tour we go on together Is always awesome. Sometimes it’s pretty hostile, sometimes there’s a lot of love.
How did you get involved with the lucozade advert?
We’re all skateboarders or at least involved in that world, so when we heard about the shoot we thought we’d check it out with little expectation, then in a bit of a whirlwind one thing led to another and here we are! The whole process was actually the first time as a band we’d EVER played a cover, so new experiences all round.
It looks like it was great fun to film, what was the best bit?
Just riding that hill in general was so much fun, but the best moment is probably a tie between having Jimmy’s buggy totally unexpectedly fire loads of pink smoke out of the back of it for me to navigate through(cheers for the warning Dom!) or getting to the bottom of the hill after finishing the track early and having a 300 strong group of extras cheering us playing an impromptu Slayer cover.
And lastly why do you like Monkee genes? (The shameless plugging part here)
Aside from being fully into how they look/fit, It’s rad seeing a company actually committing to an ethos of non-sweatshop labour and succeeding in existence; especially considering the financial climate and however many other companies are cutting costs wherever they can. We reckon that’s something worth supporting!
I’m really excited for this band, they have so much about them and I hope we will be seeing a lot more of them…
But don’t take my word for it…Check them out for yourselves here http://twitter.com/#!/TheJCQ here http://facebook.com/thejcq oh and here http://www.myspace.com/thejcq
L.M x
Tags: lucozade, lucozade advert, Martin Le Ruffin, monkee genes, Simon Amstel, the james cleaver quintet, TheJCQ
