FEATURE ARTICLE FIRST
DRAFT
I’m sat here surrounded by bottles of liquor and overfilling
ash trays, in a small hotel room five minutes away from the infamous Sheppard’s
Bush Empire where new British sensation Riot Act are preparing to go on stage,
supporting hard rock icons; Halestorm. As I look around it seems to me as
though young Gemma, Riot Acts lead singer, is merely a television out of the
window away from the ultimate rock and roll life style. I spoke to her and the
rest of the Riot Act family about rock and roll for newbies!
All good dreamers have an icon, I wondered exactly who or
what gave Riot Act the desire to be the next big rock and roll hopefuls.
‘…I have always been intrigued by the women in rock, like
Suzi Quatro and Doro Pesche. I used to spend hours just listening to their voices
and watching their videos on MTV admiring the power they had in every movement,
so much so I just had to have a slice of the action…’
Being the front woman to such a quickly popularising band, Gemma
is always in the limelight. Given the common stereotypes of women in male
dominated environments, I questioned what it was really like.
‘….At first I was surprised at how demanding the industry
is, you expect to have to flaunt yourself and reveal yourself in ways you never
would imagine, but it is completely not the case! Heck I rarely even get the
chance to show a bit of leg on a magazine cover! The studio is a tough place
when you’re a newbie like us, you become so fixated upon making everything
perfect that sometimes you forget why you even started. But when you see girls
like Lzzy Hale (Halestorm) and Taylor Momsen (The Pretty Reckless) doing so
well in the industry, it just goes to show that there is a place for women rock
stars as there has been since the 1970’s!...’
Riot Act have just released their debut single ‘Rising’ which
has stormed into the charts amiably at number five this week. The track tells
the tale of a person rising to the top, and being triumphant over adversity.
The track was written by guitarist Simon and front woman Gemma, so I asked
Gemma to reveal the message behind the song…
‘….I have a very simple dream. To be remembered and to be
remembered playing my rock and roll, so I guess it (rising) expresses mine and
the guys dream of being big and following in the footsteps of our hero’s and in
my case heroines…’
Every band seems to have a purpose. Iron Maiden entirely reinvented
the genre influencing, along with Judas Priest and other bands, the New Wave of
British Heavy Metal era to begin, bringing some of the most influential music
the world has ever heard. The Who wanted to be the loudest band in the world.
Motley Crue wanted to shake things up, with the big hair and make up to match,
so I wondered exactly what would Riot Act bring to the world of rock. Here is
what Lead Guitarist Simon Riff had to say…
‘…Nothing. We don’t want to bring anything new really. We
just want to bring back fun hard hitting rock and roll that people can fall in
love with again. The music world has completely gone off on a tangent with everybody
trying to outdo one and other, caring more about the money than the music, so
as a band we just wanted to strip it all back and create music that those who missed
the days of old as it were, can experience what music was really like back when
music still had a meaning..’
A very poignant statement. ‘…back when music still had a
meaning…’ something that only really hit home after the interview concluded.
Music has indeed lost its way, more emphasis has been made about the importance
of profit but has the very meaning of music been lost in the process?
Either way Riot Act are ‘the’ next big thing in
our genre. They have the ethic, the ability and the aesthetics to match,
seemingly a formula to success, ‘Rising’ is available for download of iTunes
and Spotify, and the album ‘Unlock The Jukebox’ hits the shelves and downloads
next Monday so don’t miss out!
