The lost soldiers
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The lost soldiers

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"Bright future ahead for The Lost Soldiers"

Tomorrow (Saturday) night sees the launch of The Lost Soldiers debut EP, Spaghetti Western, with a gig at G and Ds in Douglas. What Where When editor John Gregory caught up with the band to find out more
INDIE rock band The Lost Soldiers have been making an impact on the Manx music scene building up an army of followers – but the band hope to soon be on the march further afield.

In the New Year the three piece, consisting of Marc Priestnal (guitar and vocals), Simon Gilman (bass and vocals) and Tony Cain (drums) aim to head to the UK and eventually want to base themselves there to further their careers.

It is clear they are serious about their music. 'We all have the same drive,' explained Marc when I spoke to them earlier this week.

Marc is responsible for penning all the songs on Spaghetti Western, although Simon is now taking part in the songwriting process.

The name of the EP comes from Marc too – it was his love of Westerns that led to the title.

'I was going through a phase of watching Spaghetti Westerns,' he said. 'When we were getting the tracks decided for the EP we stuck with that name.

'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is one of my favourite films and the music is good too.'

The EP was recorded by Mark Cleator and the band admitted the recording process was an 'alien environment' – much different from playing live which is something they are used to.

But the effort was certainly worth it and fans of the band can read a review of the EP in next week's What Where When.

Marc said: 'I have written all the songs on the EP, but Simon has started writing now which is a change for us and he is writing really good songs. We have a good chemistry between us because we are mates.

'I think if you do listen to the CD it does have depth. I think we have a good fanbase because people can relate to it. I do get feedback off fans and it means a lot.'

In terms of songwriting he said: 'I always write my songs acoustically and start with the chords and come up with the melody. The melody is the main part of the song and then I write the lyrics afterwards.

'We got together based around being Oasis fans, that's where it all started out, and Noel Gallagher is a pretty good songwriter isn't he? He's probably my main inspiration.'

The band started off with Marc and Tony, who were in a band with a couple of friends, but they struggled with maintaining a line up. They began at the Soundcheck project for young musicians and eventually the band fell through and there was just Marc and Tony left. They had a jam with Simon, who was a friend of the band, and it all fitted together straight away.

I asked Simon why he had taken up songwriting. 'I didn't want Marc taking all the credit,' he joked, but said it was his love of Oasis that also inspired him

'Sometimes I would sit at home and I'd play a few chords and something would just come out, I'd write it down and get the song written in 20 minutes.'

In terms of their plan for the future Simon said: 'After we have got more fans over here we plan on going across a few times and do some gigs.'

The plan then is to find somewhere to move to in the UK.

On the band's Myspace site they cite The Strokes, Kasabian, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines as some of their influences.

And it is perhaps fair to say you can hear some of those influences quite clearly in their music. But The Lost Soldiers will be aiming to fight their way down their own musical path.

Tomorrow's gig is free entry and they hope to see as many people down there as possible and the CD will be available to buy. For more information about the band see www.myspace.com/thelostsoldiersinet or find them on Facebook.
- John gregory


"BBC INTRODUCING"


The Lost Soldiers have picked up a loyal local fan base, using social networking sites to promote their gigs.

In July 2008 they thrilled when they were asked to support The Coral during the TT festival in Douglas.

More recently success came when they appeared in the line up at the Mannifest Music and Film Garden party at the Nunnery.

It was their biggest gig so far and lead singer Marc Preistnal said it inspired the band to do more shows.

"We always promote our gigs on Facebook, as long as we do it in good time we usually get loads of people coming along. The social networking sites are really good to get the word out there.



Marc Preistnal guitar and vocals for The Lost Soldiers, Isle of Man
Social networking

"We are lucky because we have a lot of friends and they have always been interested in our music. They support us and come along to gigs. A lot of the other bands on the Island are starting to come along to watch us too.

"We are definitely inspired by Oasis but because we are a three-piece we have a very different sound. You could probably compare us to a few bands but I don't think we sound like anyone in particular."

All three members of The Lost Soldiers live near to each other which makes rehearsing relatively easy.

There have been a lot of changes for the group over the years but the current line-up is the happiest combination so far.

"Everything is spot on at the moment," said Marc.

"We are all really happy with the line-up because it works. When we made our demo CD we gave it out to our friends and the next gig was amazing because people were actually singing along to the songs. That felt amazing!



Simon Gilman, bass and vocals for the Isle of Man's Lost Soldiers
"To learn an instrument is one of the greatest things you can do. Every time I see someone playing an instrument I am impressed. I think it's amazing. The first time I picked up a guitar I was in school.

"If I'm honest, I took it up to get out of English lessons but I just fell in love with playing.

"It's weird when you play a gig because you can't really hear how it sounds. You have to watch the audience closely to get an idea of how you are coming across. It's like listening to your music from the outside in."

The band have recently been recording together and hope to release an EP of five songs which will be made available locally and online.
- BBC


Discography

We made a Cd with 5 tracks
we sold them at gigs. we were limited to 200 copys. We have had a few airplays on radio across the Uk and had one airplay on a spanish radio station. We supported The Coral lasy year.

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Bio

We are a 3 piece so are sound is straight forward with chords that hit you in the face. We have to lead singers which makes us different a little bit like the libertines but with harmanys. Our biggest inspiraton is Oasis.