Getting to Know… Alien feelings | Interview 🎤

For the 117^th interview on The Musical Hype, we get the lowdown on the North Wales band, Alien feelings.

“We don’t dance around subjects that are whispered; we scream it at your face!” Wow – that’s pretty epic stuff right there, Alien feelings 👽! Definitely the spirit! Alien feelings’ backstory is quite interesting, as tends to be the case in all of the interviews in the Getting to Know… series (this is #117 BABY!) It’s amazing to hear about the progress that this Welsh band been made since they first forming.  So, who’s in this band? That would be Josh Evans, Dale, Ryan, and Tim. So, without further ado, let’s get right into Getting to Know… Alien feelings: Interview #117.

Starting things off right, for those who may not be familiar with Alien feelings, what would you say makes your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

Our music really is a representation of who and what we are, we touch upon real life problems, we don’t dance around subjects that are whispered, we scream it at your face! We love what we do and play and the energy that follows that is explosive.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did your band form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

The band formed when I (Josh Evans) was working on a little home demo and quickly realized I had no clue what I was doing. I had the tunes, just no real knowledge of music production. I got in touch with Dale, a friend of mine and a really talented musician with a passion for recording. The two of us recorded a demo of “Good looking.” in a single session at Dale’s house. From there, we decided that this was no longer a Josh Evans project, but the start of something else entirely. Ryan and I had played together a couple of times before and attempted to get something going, but time after time it just never worked out. So, when he joined Alien Feelings he just felt like an instant fit to the band and added that something that was missing. Tim followed shortly after having never even played an instrument before, so to say we threw him in at the deep end would be a bit of an understatement. Thankfully he did not drown beyond the point of resuscitation nor was he eaten by sharks and is still with us today and continues to make leaps and bounds as we carry on this journey together

Let’s talk more about goals. Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

When starting up Alien Feelings, the main goal was to be as good as we could be – pushing ourselves and [pushing] each other further after each milestone was hit. Of course, when starting out, we would joke about playing massive arenas with our favourite bands, but I think that each of us still hold on to that dream and will push for it. We are amazed at how far we have come with our time together.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

Josh: John Lennon taught me that you can be fluid as a songwriter. That you don’t have to put a cap on your artistic possibilities, and to just do whatever you want.

Ryan: Fat Mike, he taught me to just enjoy what we’re doing, no matter what others think, no matter how many are at our shows, as long as we enjoy it who gives a fuck.

Dale: Keith Moon. It was his style and his energy that made me want to sit behind a kit. I just loved how he was so creative with his beats, his grooves he didn’t play by the book so to speak.

Tim: Joe Stump. I first heard of Joe Stump while playing on an online flash game back in 2004. The game itself is not important, the music that I was about to discover through some internet digging was that of Joe Stump. I hadn’t really put much thought to music before this point, but the notes and sounds he was able to create really triggered something in me, let me feel the music.

Ah, the fun stuff. What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance? Feel free to be creative.

Well, we spent 4 nights away in London to record our debut EP. We found a local community boozer with some cheap ales in and decided to make it our local for our time down in the big smoke. And it was chaos! The amount of alcohol consumed in those 4 days was astonishing to say the least, Numerous nights ended with Tim falling into something or someone before passing out, people being clowned; sketches being produced, this is just all the antics that we remember (thank you Instagram stories) we’re sure we got up to more mischief, but we don’t remember.

The funniest time at a gig so far was probably from Liverpool when during our set a member of the audience jumped on stage during the end of our set holding a rubber dick… Yes that’s right, a rubber cock n balls, it wasn’t till we watched some footage back that we actually noticed this, but my word it was some funny shit.

Wow… I’m speechless, lmao! Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

Again, there’s going to be four different answers here. 

Dale: “Lie to me.” It’s simple and funky like.

Ryan: “Radio” because it’s fast. It’s more like the stuff that I listen to.

Josh: “Scream” – it’s just a good release to let it all out.  It’s crazy and I love the crowd’s reaction when I say, “Chain me to the bed and piss on me.” Some older people find it shocking and I love it.

Tim: “Dirty water”. I love the rhythm of it and it’s psychedelic. Although we don’t know when we’re going to be recording it properly, it’s a great addition to our live set.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

Well to name but a few talents we have, Ryan can smoke more weed than any other man I know, like he is the Red Eye Jedi. Dale can play almost any instrument, but due to his deep internal rage he stays on the drums as a way to tame the beast within. Josh, even when not writing songs for Alien feelings, comes up with mad story songs while we are out having a laugh. From a jaunty tune about a lovable local, to an angry ballad about some prick. Tim has a more hands-on creative spark, having made multiple guitars parts lying around including a cigar-box guitar.

Closing things out, what is Alien feelings currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

Haha, well it’s hard to keep secrets when your practice space is above a busy pub, so We’ll let you in on our secret. Since lock down, we’ve been tucked away writing a ton of awesome new songs. We’ve demoed 4 of the tracks recently in our home studio and we’re looking to demo the others in the upcoming weeks and build a new set with our new and existing tunes ready to melt some faces when this pandemic has calmed down.

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Photo Credits: Alien feelings, Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype; Icons made by https://www.flaticon.com/authors/freepik (Freepik)