The Lucky Nine
Interview on location at the shoot for their first ever video.

Take the bassist/guitarist from the band A, the singer from Hundred Reasons, add the nicest bass player you'll ever meet, a kick-ass lead guitarist and an extremely talented and huge drummer and you have what can modestly be called a real SUPER-GROUP. Introducing The Lucky Nine; the band who've given me a serious addiction...

The Lucky Nine EP is being released in March and they've chosen the song "Hibernate" as the focus for the first video they will ever shoot as a band. The band selected Adam Mason from Brand Mason Ltd to direct the video. I arrive at a bungalow that could have been frozen in time since the 70s (and was currently being frozen by the bitter January temperatures) Within it a half-naked woman covered in decomposing veins and disgusting boils, walls covered in blood/tomato ketchup and the director's wife taking part. Of course somewhere there must be the band. Ushered into the coldest room of the house, I meet Daniel P. Carter, A member, and Colin Doran, of Hundred Reasons. But we are here to talk about this band and the song that is so good, I later become almost addicted to hearing it.

How do you think the shoot is going so far?
Colin: Really good.
Dan: Yeh, really painless. We've been flying through it. The thing that I've found in the past is there's generally a lot of hurrying up and waiting around when you're shooting a video. But it's really great here today. We're ploughing through it and it's going really well.
What do you think of Adam's ideas for the video?
Dan: Yeh, totally cool.
Colin: We saw a show reel the other day at Dan's house and it was really cool. I did a video with him before Christmas and that's turned out really well. So we have every faith in him. He has really good ideas.

So this is the first video you've done as a band - that's really exciting!
Colin: Yeh! Yeh, it is actually! Jay (Jay Rowe, bass) has never done a video before but he's handling it really, really well. He was doing some stuff earlier and it was really cool.
Dan: He's handling it like a consummate pro.
How did the band actually form?
Dan: It started out that I was writing a bunch of songs while A were writing their last album (Hi-fi Serious) and we were sharing a studio in London with Hundred Reasons who were doing their first album (Ideas Above Our Station) In the time that neither band were in there, I'd be in there playing stuff that I was writing but wasn't suitable for what we were doing in A. Richie (Mills, huge man and a drummer) has played with A a bunch of times and we've been friends for years. He's an incredible drummer. The idea came about that we'd get a bunch of people from a bunch of different bands that I know to sing on it. I spoke to Ian from Lost Prophets, Liam who's in a band called This Girl and I sent some stuff out to Daryl who's in a band called Glassjaw and Colin. Each person was going to do one song. Colin came down and he did stuff for three songs. He was just running through it going "how's this?" at the end of a song and we were just like "Mate. That's how it's meant to be." Colin said he'd be up for singing on the rest of it and I was like "Yup!" straight away! We got Jay and Ben (Doyle, lead guitar) and we did the tour with Hell is For Heroes. By that point it'd taken on a shape of it's own. So we decided we'd go and re-record the whole album again! Which we did and it was infinitely better for it.

Where did the name come from?
Colin: (Laughs with Dan) Yeh, where did the name come from Dan?!
Dan: Er, I have a thing about threes and nines. Hence all my triangular tattoos and stuff. Just silly things and what it represents. FFeel free to peruse several volumes on such things (points out a book of symbols and meanings resting on a box in the room) It's always been a significant thing in all cultures; it represents ends of cycles and beginnings of new cycles. That's kind of what is was, or was how it felt to me. I've had lots of weird coincidences with numerological things.
Kerrang! describes you're music as "emotionally intense and written by modern renaissance men". How would you describe your music?
Colin: I don't think we sound like anybody else around at the moment. That's what I really like. We have something new to offer, which is what you should do, I think, if you're guna embark on a project such as this.What we're doing isn't groundbreaking but it's fucking great I think.
Dan: If it moves us whilst we're doing it then that's enough really. At the end of the day, you can't consciously make you're music for other people. It's a cathartic process making music. This for us is like starting afresh. Because of what we do with our other bands, there are very set patterns you follow. You work in a specific way. This is an opportunity for all of us to do things that aren't in those parameters.
How have you gone about the song writing process?
Colin: Dan pretty much wrote all the music for the first record (laughs) we've got most of the second record written already pretty much actually musically. I just came up with vocal ideas really. It manifested itself like that really. Dan's very good at writing riffs that are good for vocals. (Dan at this point touches Colin on his leg in a very sentimental manner!) We can then make the single a bit more challenging without worrying too much about the notes, so to speak! It wasn't even intentional really. He just wrote that, I just wrote my shit and it kind of went together.
You're releasing an EP in March...
Colin: March 7th I believe.
I will mark it down in my diary! You've got five songs on there.
Dan: Yeh, yeh, it's one track off the album, three new songs and kind of a remix but not so much. It's kind of it's own thing.
So, is the album coming out later?
Dan: Yeh, we're still sorting out who's guna put it out.
Colin: It'll be kind of cool to put the EP out so it does a bit of the groundwork. Then just get the album out later in the year really.

Why did you decide to choose Hibernate as the song to shoot a video for?
Colin: For me personally, I have faith in all the songs, but we wanted something that was going to be representative of how we sound rather than one that's too soft or one that's too heavy because there's quite a mixture on there really isn't there? (looks to Dan)
Dan: Yeh. It's one of the more aggressive tunes, initially anyway. So it's a statement on intent really.

So how have you found the reaction from audiences, at the gigs (latest, Jan 15 at Brixton Academy) and from the radio performances (sessions have been recorded at Maida Vale for Radio 1)?
Colin: The reactions at gigs are what I call "An away win" because it's not your crowd but people are into it and that's all we can really wish for. All those people are there to see another band that is headlining. If you can turn a few heads while doing it then it's all worthwhile.
Dan: Everybody seems to have an expectation before you've even played a note because Colin is stood at front with the mic and everyone's like "OK, well I know what he does normally" and we just get on and do our thing which is different. It's the same for me. People know me from playing in A and this is totally different. It's good, everybody seems to be really into it which is kind of cool.

The Lucky Nine has been dubbed "A Project" of A's Daniel and Hundred Reasons' Colin. Do you think this is a project or would you say it's more than that?
Colin: It's a full band, definitely.
Dan: I think in it's initial stages it would have been fair to say that but there's five people now and everybody's got their own input and we've got in site where we want to go with it. The only people who are still saying it's a project are those who aren't fully aware. But this very much has got it's own thing going on. It holds its own very well.
I'm getting excited!
Dan: well I like it!
Colin: I love it!

So what are you're plans for the next few months?
Dan: We're guna put the EP out and see what happens. There are a couple of things lined up. We're doing a show next month in Town, which is kind of like a showcase show I suppose, so we'll see what comes of that. We'll be doing a one-day mini festival thing with Funeral For a Friend, Finch and Brand New on May 2nd I think.
Colin: Yeh, where is that anyway?!
Dan: It's at Ally Pally (Alexandra Palace)
Colin: Oh right, wicked!

Where would you like The Lucky Nine to be by the end of 2005?
Colin: I'd like to have an album out, be doing pretty well and probably be on the road somewhere really. Bands move in cycles anyway, you know, you do a record, put it out, tour it, come home, do another album, put it out, tour it. It's what you do in a band. So if along the way I manage to get a guitar-shaped swimming pool filled with Jack Daniels then I'm well and good! (Laughter)
Dan: I just want to get a chance to put it out and see how it goes, see how people react to it.

What do you listen to whilst hoovering?
Dan: You can't really hear a lot whilst hoovering can you? It depends on whether I'm going for the mellow hoover...
Colin: Whether you've got the Dustbuster out or the Dyson! (Laughter)
Dan: It's gotta be loud whatever it s because otherwise you're not guna hear it! I listen to Tool, constantly. Vigazi, Deftones, Biffy Clyro.
Colin: The new Helmut record's really good. I'm listening to Ghostvibe quite a lot at the moment.

Chips or cream buns?
Colin: Chips, for me.
Dan: Chips FOLLOWED by cream buns, if we're guna be honest.
Colin: I don't have the sweetest tooth in the world.
Dan: Oh, I do.
Colin: I only really eat cheesecake! That's my sweet problem.
Maybe at the end of a long day shooting a video you might want to have both?
Dan: A portion of chips with an eclair on the top.
Colin: No, a chip-FILLED eclair!
Dan: Yeah, a nice chou bun stuffed with some chips and gherkins.

So, there you have it! Dan's got a sweet tooth and strange cravings, Colin wants a JD-filled guitar-shaped swimming pool and the band is definitely much more than a "project". All the guys are very talented and seeing them have epileptic fits along to their music for the camera was a treat. The video looks awesome and I'm genuinely excited about their EP. Listen out for their music and you will be excited too.
And if you see the video, there's a half naked girl in there to get you boys even more excited...good music and topless women?! What else could a man ask for!

Juliette Burton

The Lucky Nine EP is out in March.

Check out www.theluckynine.com for downloads, news and pictures.

Many thanks to Adam Mason, director and all-round great guy and to Owen Packard for being the coolest press officer and Osamar Bin Laden look-a-like (Richie Mills quote) I've ever met.