Music
Ticketmaster meets… Mallory Knox
With their single ‘Ghost in the Mirror’ tearing up the radio right now, we caught up with Mallory Knox before their set at Reading to talk dream line-ups and makeshift toothbrushes…
What was your first ever festival?
Mikey: We did some sort of smaller indoor ones like we did Give It A Name in 2006 & 2007, but for me, my first real actual festival experience was Download in 2007 when we played, which is crazy! Quite a weird first experience.
In the summer I was always lacking in funds so I never really made it before then, so I’ve got kind of a skewed view of festivals ‘cause we’re on the other side of the barrier most of the time.
James: I feel like a need a month’s preparation before the festival. Honestly I think that’s why I never committed to going to one ‘cause I was always like I really have to prepare for this!
Mikey: It’s a very physical experience isn’t it?
What about the time to recover afterwards?
James: Exactly! It’s like a month before and a month afterwards
Joe: I could never afford to go to a festival and I still can’t afford to go to a festival.
Sam: He’s only here ‘cause we invited him!
James: We’re helping him out
If you were booking a festival, who would be your headliners?
Mikey: It’s funny, mine back in the day would have been My Chemical Romance and we’re actually in the dressing room next to Gerard Way this year, which is absolutely mind blowing
Dave: I walked backstage and we did that thing where you step left and he steps left, and he kind of went ‘Oh sorry man’, and I was like ‘No no’
Mikey: Yeah ‘Don’t you worry Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance, you go whichever way you want to go!’
Again, that’s the beauty of being at festivals, and being a part of festivals, is that you just get to experience it so fully and really get in amongst the bands. Bands you looked up to when you were younger, it just completely turns it around, it’s amazing.
What if you can have dead acts as well?
Mikey: Oh don’t..!
Joe: Oasis
Mikey: They’re not dead Joe!
Joe: No but they’re broken up
Dave: Queen
Sam: Queen, MJ I’d love to see Michael Jackson
Joe: Queen and Oasis for me
Sam: Not necessarily bands I like, but just people I wish I’d seen – MJ
Mikey: The Beatles, Nirvana, Bob Marley..
Sam: Frank Sinatra, throw that out there.
Dave: Duran Duran, Whitesnake..
Joe: Jokes aside though, I think that’s the beauty of festivals . You go to see or get to see bands that you wouldn’t necessarily go to normally, for a headline anyway
Sam: Elvis, Buddy Holly, all these classics
Joe: Elvis would be insane, can you imagine Elvis headlining Reading!
Sam: D12 are they still a thing? Cause that chap died?
Mikey: Tupac Biggie collaboration
James: I’d like to see Blazin Squad do their thing
Dave: They’re on that program aren’t they?
Joe: Are they?
Dave: Dunno, I don’t watch it
Joe: Well then that was a valid point well put!
What are your thoughts on festival camping?
James: What share a 5-man tent? We probably could..
Mikey: Well we did it at Download didn’t we, the first time we played?
James: We didn’t really, it was just me and you – 2 men in like an 8-man tent!
Dave: Me and Joe opted for the van floor instead of a tent, that’s how much we didn’t want to sleep in a tent. We opted for a van and it wasn’t even a f*cking big one!
Mikey: This is the thing, see Download camping seems tolerable but I went out to my friend’s tent last year and I don’t even know how to describe it. It was like something out of Mad Max, some post-apocalyptic mayhem! I was sat with him in his sweaty, horrible, stinky tent drinking warm cider, as an explosion went off behind me where somebody had thrown a couple of cans of deodorant on the fire. There was this mushroom cloud from behind the tent and I just thought – I’m so glad I’m going home tonight! Not for me unfortunately!
Do you have any festival essentials or advice?
All: Dry shampoo
Joe: Booze, a couple of tinnies of cider
Dave: Wet wipes
Joe: Wet wipes for david
Mikey: A toothbrush. I couldn’t imagine coming out of a day of drinking and waking up and to find you’ve forgotten your toothbrush. That would be the worst!
Sam: Nah just buy those little ones in the travel lodge
Mikey: Yeah but we’re not gonna be in the travel lodge, we’re festivaling
Sam: Then at services, just stop off on the way
Mikey: So you’re going to leave Reading? That’s what I’m saying, you remember in the morning! You wake up in the morning after your night of cider and realise you’ve forgotten your toothbrush
Sam: I’ll tell you what, if you’re lucky you can probably fabricate a toothbrush from the hay that they put down because of how muddy the festival gets
Mikey: You’re such a farm boy, chew on some hay!
Sam: Dave used to just replace a toothbrush with a tic-tac back in the day.
Dave: That’s never happened Sam – That’s never happened in the entire time that I’ve known him!
So what’s next for Mallory Knox after Reading?
Mikey: We just want to get this album out to as many people as we possibly can.
We’re all very proud of it, so we just want to get it out to people and for them to make their minds up about it. So it’s gonna be a lot of pushing that, people are probably going to be sick of us by the end of the campaign!
We’re gonna hit a load of places in November for our tour and kind of cap off the year with as many gig experiences and making as many new fans as possible, so just much of the same that we’ve been doing for the past few years really!
Sam: But on a bigger scale hopefully!
Mallory Knox are on tour this November – tickets are available here.
Their new album Asymmetry is available for pre-order and is out 27 October.
