Steve Overland – FM – Uber Rock Interview Exclusive
Written by Dave Prince
Saturday, 28 March 2015 02:30
Ahead of the April 20th release of FM’s highly anticipated new album, ‘Heroes And Villains’, Uber Rock’s Dave Prince caught up with the band’s frontman, Steve Overland, for another UR interview exclusive. The Prince had already set his air keytar to stun with a glowing review of the album (read HERE), now he gets to quiz his favourite Page 7 Fella…..
How are things in the FM camp at the moment with the release of ‘Heroes And Villians’ imminent?
Fantastic, we are on a bit of a high at the moment. The reviews of the new album have been so brilliant, it just gives you extra enthusiasm. We’re having a great time and enjoying ourselves ever since we got back together. It’s been going from strength to strength. We can’t wait to get the new album out and get back out on the road.
The lead single, ‘Digging Up The Dirt’, paints a pretty grim picture of the media at the moment. Was it inspired by a particular incident or the media in general?
Just look at what’s going on at the moment, I mean, none of us want to read all the bad stuff, just read about celebrities and old drivel.
After the success of the PledgeMusic campaign for ‘Rockville’ I & II, were you considering doing it that way again for the new album or was a deal with Frontiers always on the cards?
Well Frontiers have been going since we came back and they expressed an interest in doing a deal back then, but we didn’t know if we were going to do an album, or just the one-off show. Then we thought it was so good, why stop. The Pledge campaign was an experience that went very well and then Frontiers came in with a great offer and their infrastructure is world wide, so we get to go to the states and spread the net a bit wider. Also they loved the band and are so enthusiastic.
With FM currently riding the wave of popularity for the last couple of years, is there a chance of you touring Overland/SO and Shadowman? Maybe doing double duty with a support slot with FM? Also are there any plans on any new material/releases for either of them?
What are you trying to do, kill me? No, I haven’t really. We’ve actually done a new Shadowman album recently, and finished it about a month ago. So that’s gone off to be mixed and with two of the guys from Thunder on there as well. We’ve talked about taking Shadowman out on the road, as we’re all good mates but Thunder are doing brilliantly and making a big resurgence and I’m writing/recording/gigging with FM, and with all the best intentions, it’s just trying to get everybody in the same room that is the problem. For the future that is something, we’ve thought about doing.
You recently recorded a duet with Issa, for her new album, ‘Crossfire’, titled ‘Raintown’. How did that come about?
Apparently I’m one of her favourite male singers and her partner is one of the twins in Vega, and they supported us a few years ago. So it was initially through him. They contacted me and ask me if I would do a duet and I said I would love to, if I’ve got the time, as that time I’d never heard her. So they sent me some stuff through and she is an amazing singer. So we booked a slot and fortunately she’s on Frontiers as well. It came out great, the two voices compliment each other and the response to the track has been great.
Having seen FM play a number of shows in various sized venues, I see that you are bring another 3 band bill on the upcoming tour?
I think it’s important today, to do that these days as people haven’t got as much money now and I think rather than say we’re the main band and have a couple of local bands, we try and put in proper bands. So that from the moment they walk in they are having a decent bill and value for money. Especially in this day and age, and just look at the tour we’ve done with FM, Europe & Foreigner. So even bands of Foreigner’s ilk are doing that. Offering top quality bands and getting value for money. People made the effort to come out early and catch us and it gave good value. Also the last tour we had Nev and Hand of Dimes on the bill and it was great to hear Nev singing and what a great band Hand of Dimes are. Hopefully we are looking to do more stuff with them in the future.
With the band having amassed such a great back catalogue, is there any chance of an anthology/rarities & B-sides release in the future? Along with the long Out Of Print VHS releases and Acoustic show and Live at Town & Country show?
Believe me, we’ve tried before to do it. The main problem is trying to get the masters, rather than use old VHS. The same with all the old videos, stuff from Jamaica, one in Spain. We shot loads of video that a lot of people wouldn’t have seen, but it’s obtaining them, getting the legal release from CBS/Epic/Sony who we were with at the time. We would love to do it and we have talked about it and if we could do it, it would be great. We’d like to obtain The Town & Country stuff and that may happen in the future and if we could get back all that stuff to do a best of video collage/all the videos we’ve done, which there is a lot of. So that’s something we might do in the future.
Finally… 3 Words – “Page 7 Fella”
Oh Fuck! Ha ha ha… That wasn’t me. It was just a bloke that looked like me! Let me just say that when you’re young and signed to a major record label, the shit they rope you into. They never told me it was Page 7 Fella, they said “The Daily Mirror want to do a piece on you” and I said, “yeah no worries.” I mean, who is going to turn that down? So me and my brother Chris went to the Daily Mirror, thinking I was going to sit down to do an interview with somebody, and the guy goes “the studio is over there.” So I walk in and the cameras are all set up. And he goes “What are you going to do for the shoot, keep your shirt on or off?” I went “WHAT!?” So that’s how that all came about. I had no idea I was going to end up in the paper as a Page 7 Fella. Otherwise I would’ve just got the train back home!
To support the release of ‘Heroes And Villains’, FM will embark on a ten-date headline UK tour from 1st May:
1st May – Bristol, Bierkeller
2nd May – Wolverhampton, Robin 2
3rd May – Portsmouth, Wedgewood Rooms
5th May – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
6th May – Glasgow, Classic Grand
8th May – Newcastle, O2 Academy
9th May – Manchester, Academy 2
10th May – London, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Get more info at: www.facebook.com/FMofficial
