Double page spread artcile

1. My article for my DPS
24/03/17 James Borland
The PhaseInterview
Sincestartingto climb the indie-rock ladder to stardom,The Phasehave been very busy.From an EP launch
to a UK tour. I met with the duo in the day of the final legof their tour in their home town of Birmingham.
George, the lead singer told me to meet them in the café in Digbeth, a small placefilled with teenagers and
young adults.George quietly stepped through the door and walked towards me, as he looked over his
round sunglasses.Hesmelt of cigarettes and day old beer. He quietly whimpered “Joe’s gonna be a
bit late”. I asked him why, wondering the possibilities.George satdown and put his sunglasses on the table
“He justoverslept.” he said,I found this hard to believe but justcarried on making some small talk.Joe Starr
and George Clarkeare 19 and 20 respectively, so I was not surprised to see that one of them would not
show up. As I ordered both of us a black coffee, Joe burst through the door “Alright,” he yells “Sorry, I over
slept.”
There was a bigdifference between Joe and George, George was quiet in person and did not talk much but
Once he was on a stage he went wild.Joe was a loud, friendly more open guy but can be quite quiet on stage
and a bitmoody. George was a littlemore colourful wearingbluejeans and white Adidas superstars.
Joe stomped towards me with his Dr Marten boots, he was wearing almostall black.
Joe grabbed a chair and satdown. “So when’s this getting started?” he happily said.I justasked atfirst
how lifeon the road was going and how they felt about such a big tour. “We couldn’t be more pleased with
how this is all going.”George mumbled then Joe rushed to state “It’s our dream come true, you know. Not
many get the chanceto … well,livetheir dreams, all in all it’s a pretty good job.” They both were very humble
and that factseemed to be very importantto them, that they stay humble. Even Joe as boisterous as hewas
still spokefondly of his pastand was friendly. They are of a similar agebutJoe is the younger which maybe
explains hislouder attitudeand latestart.

2. “We justtried to work as hard as we can to gain some popularity acrossthecountry makingsure are social
media accounts were all well used,”George stated. “People will say thatwe are justlucky but we have worked
as hard as we can for the lastyear making sureto build as biga fan baseas possible. “Now that we areback
home it puts this whole year into perspective.” George mumbled, “England feels way smaller now.” Joe
laughed. They had started to conquer England so I brought up whether or not they were trying to make itin
America. “I’m hopingwe get out there soon, we are tryingto push the trip on all of our social medias,try and
make surethat everybody knows about us soon.” They seem to have a good idea of what they aretrying to
achieveand how they will do it.
After a sold out tour across theUK, you would expect the duo to have started actingtoo big for their
boots and a bitcocky but they were actually quitethe opposite. They both were friendly and rather
understated, no designer brands justpretty plain clothes in a dinky café. They won best new artistatthe NME
awards lastyear and also started recordingwith help from Johnny Marr from The Smiths.
“The NME Awards were a bigshock to us we did not expect to do as well as we did, we used to watch the
show (NME Awards) onlinejusta couple of years ago.” Joe exclaimed.George said “Being nominated boasted
our onlinepresence even more and got the attention of John (Johnny Marr), recordingwith himwas an
amazing experience, he got a great sound out of the two of us and helped to layer it all together.”
“He’s a real inspiration to me as a guitarist.”Joe said.“His records were my dad’s favouriteand made me want
to play the guitar.”
Their musical stylewas clearly influenced by the big names of indie-rock and Brit-pop.I wondered why they
had such big 90s influences as they didn’tlivethrough much of the 90s.“Well everyone loves Oasis don’tthey?
I guess my parents both listened to a largemix of music and we both justlove music and arealways lookingfor
new sounds,to help inspire.”Joe said.
They have had a big year as far as gigs go. They have played atvarious differentfestivals and on various
different stages includingthelikes of T in the Park and the BBC Introducingstage at Readingand Leeds
Festival.

3. “Reading was a dream come true for us both, we have been going to watch the bands ourselves each year
from 2012 onwards and this year we got our chanceto perform.” George spoke a littlelouder due to his
excitement. He started to brighten up. They clearly both loved this work and could not wait to see where it
would take them next. They were ready for the future as it was now all fallinginto placefor them.
After such a bigyear I wondered how they could make the next one better. “It will behard to top” George
said.“Well… We’re back in the studio.” Joe casually mention with a grin on his face.“2017 will bebigger and
better.” Joe claimed.
I see an even brighter future for this group they have started out well but the question is can they maintain
this growth. They seem to think so and I think that they will manageit. They seem to know what they are
doingand I guess next up will beconquering America. Watch out for this duo in 2017 and onwards.