We caught up with Young Guns back stage at the Academy in Birmingham before their show with We Are The Ocean to chat about thier forthcoming single and EP, previous tours etc.

Thank you very much for doing an interview for Alternative Vision.

Well guys first of all can you give us a history lesson about young guns?
Well Young guns are a 5 piece from High Wycombe, we have been together in various incarnation, but the current line up has only been together for 10 months, fairly young band

Where does the name come from? And how do you know each other?
Well we have all known each other for about 5 years, but John and I crossed paths because we both decided to flunk university, and then I ended up joining a band with him and his friends in his area.

The band name comes from when we first started we were more of a rock and roll band, more of an 80s vibe. At the time we felt it summed up quite aptly how we were, we had a gang mentality to it, and we just kind of liked it, so kept it even though we changed as a band.

What are your influences? What made you want to be musicians?
Everything really punk, classic rock such as Guns N’ Roses, loads of bands, it doesn’t stop there, we like a wide range of music really, I grew up listening to 80s pop, like Lionel Ritchie, and my brother gave me all the rock stuff to listen to. We also listen to contemporary stuff like Thrice. Some of the stuff we listened to as a band can’t be repeated really,

Come on guys tell us what goes in the van?
Well a bit of Matt Willis, always goes down a treat. Katy Perry we all love pop quite a bit I think there is nothing wrong with well written pop, it’s an art form.

I believe you recorded a new Ep recently can you tell us about that?
Yeah we finished it about 5 months ago, but with mixing and mastering it didn’t get finished till the end of the year. It has 4 tracks and we record with the guys from Sikth, no one knows there shit like they do, and there fucking wicked blokes. The ep is going to be called mirrors and it will be out May/ June time. Which will be preceded by a single which comes out on 2nd of Feb called “Into the Night”

How do you guys write song is it individuals bring songs into the mix or do you guys get together and hash out songs?
Its used to be that someone would bring in a song and we all tried to play it, but it didn’t really work for us, so these days we all get in there and start jamming it can be a laborious process. But it’s good since we can talk and decide what type of song we want to make at that point in time.

How do you feel about the digital release you think its affecting young bands like your selves?
I think with myspace, and stuff like that it’s a wicked way to get your music out there. It gives us a way to distribute and control our music. Also the machinations of getting something released on CD is complex and if you don’t know what your doing it can be difficult, I just think with the digital format it makes it allot easier, you get it out there quicker and it can be gotten, I think its great. You have to move with the times, and I always hope that I will be able to get the music digitally as well as on CD or Vinyl, there always a space for art work, and in fact the drummer for Johnny Truant did the art work for our new single. I just think it would be a shame to relegate that to a small jpeg in the corner of your ipod.

How did you guys feel when Daniel P Carter, made your song daughter of the sea unsigned single of the week on radio 1?
Dan Carter has been really good to us, he has even played our new single, he has played every demo we have done pretty much. I think it was honour to have him play it, he was in a great band A and now he does a great radio show. It validates us, it was like a checkout point the first song we wrote with the new line up and it was played on the radio. We have had a great response and it was an honour for him to do

So guys how has the tour been so far, and what’s it like supporting We Are The Ocean?
, bit messy.
How so?
well when your on tour you don’t have much to do in the day, and when your at a venue you got nothing to do till 8pm so end you sinking a few beers, and inevitably when your 3 bands on tour mayhem happens. There have been a few soar mornings.

How does it compared to touring with Funeral For a Friend and Ghost of a Thousand?
We think We Are The Ocean right up there with those guys. But those bands were an amazing experience and then chilling out with them after the sound checks. Plus I think Ghost of thousands one of the best UK bands anyway. But that was a different vibe it was a one off, this is a tour. We have got to know everyone a bit better on tour.

Now I want to hear about your live performances what can we expect?
Em good times, good music. I think that we put everything into our live shows every night and I liked to think we play quite honest music. Anyone that comes to our live shows I guarantee that they will get 100% from us. We love what we do.

What are your plans after this tour?
Just keep the ball rolling really. I like to have more material for when we release this EP. So going to try and write as many songs as we can, and play as many shows as humanly possible. That’s what 2009 is about shows and shows and shows.

Where do you guys see your selves 2 years from now?
Main stage reading!

Ok if I said to you guys here are couple of acoustic guitars give us a random pop song what would you do?
Get over it, there a band we love relatively unknown but a pop rock band from America. They write pop gems. The song we would do is probably siren 101

Ok one random question if you has to choose animal out of a zebra and a giraffe?
(Gus) I would have to say a giraffe
(Jon) I would have to go with zebra since my neck is already too long.

Thank you very much for doing this interview guys, and is there anything you would like to say to the people reading this?
Please check us out and I think we are doing something different, and we really love what we do.

Interview By Ashik