Interview: Tom Loose from Smokescreen

Many teenagers sit in their bedrooms playing guitar, longing to play in bands. A handful will fulfil the dream of being in a band, but few will find themselves playing anything other than their local club, nevermind a UK tour!

But the guys in question are certainly not part of the norm. Oh no! This is Smokescreen, one of the best young talents in UK metal today, a band who have been playing together for a good number of years, who are about to embark on a Spring Tour at the start of next month.

So before they headed out, I managed to grab an interview with resident guitar god, Tom Loose.

How long have you been playing guitar?

"I’ve been playing music since I was about 4, but started guitar 7-8 years ago when I was 13."

When did Smokescreen get together, and how did you meet?

"The original lineup all met at school and I played in a different band with our original drummer called ‘Nemo.’ Just before that, I played in another different band (didn’t really have a name!) with the current SS singer (my brother) and previous other guitarist back then. Me and Sam (singer) are the only 2 original members now, Oli (current drummer) joined after a year back in 2002 and Dave (current bassist) joined after about 2 years in 2003."

Have you always wanted to play in a band?

"Since I was about 13 and heard Iron Maiden for the first time, yes! I played in bands on the tuba (which I started at 12) then also in a jazz rock band on guitar, but Smokescreen’s music is more where the heart lies for me, nothing gives the same buzz or gives me the same focus. Plus it’s cool looking back after 6 ½ years and see that we haven’t yet joined the ranks of the hundreds of local bands who folded after 5 minutes."

What equipment do you use?

"I have quite a bit of gear now, especially working in a music shop! But in Smokescreen, I use Jackson guitars with Seymour Duncan pickups, Marshall Amps, Dunlop picks, Tattoo Johnny guitar straps, Planet Waves cables, D’Addario strings, Digitech Whammy pedal and Korg tuner. On the last recording Regret Redeem Refine I also used a Crafter electro acoustic and an Ibanez classical guitar for the intro track Contemplation. That was my branching out a bit on that recording rather than just distortion all the way through!"

Do you have a favourite guitar?

"My Ibanez classical is very special to me, my Dad gave me it and it’s about 35 years old, which he used to teach on for a living when he was my age, so it’s pretty irreplaceable. I also have a Mexican Fender Stratocaster that I was lucky enough to learn on, which is nicely crazed and aged now and sounding better all the time! The Jackson has been my live guitar for about 5 years now, so it’s got a fair few dents and scuffs all over it, but I love playing it and I know every inch of it I guess. It also has some intriguing Japanese writing down the bottom near the jack input, you win a prize if you can tell me what it means, ‘cos nor I or the Japanese guy I went to school with have any idea!!"

How are you are you preparing for the upcoming tour?

"I usually try to get in an hours practise a night, but not just the songs we play. I usually do about 30 minutes warm up, play some scales and finger exercises (time for any not guitarists to get bored and fall asleep...!) then run through the live set. Also I try and come up with new bits as much as I can and record them all so I can work on them with the rest of the band when we have a full practise. I also practise to click tracks to keep on my toes and sometimes play along to the CD to make sure I’m playing it all right! I also go to the gym 3 times a week and run quite a lot which helps me not get quite so knackered as I used to back in the day!"

What song do you look forward to playing on stage?

"I love playing our newest track the most The Art Of Revolution, for a few different reasons. Mainly because I love to keep things fresh and play newer material, it keeps it from getting stale for me and the other guys too, and also because it has some really chuggy riffs in it, along with a really fast thrash section at the end with a manic lead break, so that’s very challenging and fun to play, especially when we play it right near the end and the audience is really responsive, it really goes down well on a good night. The newer songs we are currently writing I think will be even more fun to play live, they are in the same kind of vein as the Art of Revolution, I think we have found our feet a bit more now in terms of style. Over 3 EP’s we’ve progressed a fair bit I think."

Do you have a favourite town or venue to play?

"Rock City was awesome to play, we’ve done the basement 3 times and it’s always been killer. The Underworld in London has been great the 3 times we’ve been there too. The last time we had the honour of opening up for Prong so that was probably the most nerve-wracking gig we’ve ever done! But it was a great experience and it helped us kick it up another notch, ‘character building’ and all that!"

And finally, do you like milk?

"Milk is awesome, straight from the cow or whatever....."

A huge thank you to Tom for the interview!

If you want to know more about Smokescreen, then these are the links you need!

Official website: www.smokescreenweb.co.uk
Myspace: www.myspace.com/smokescreenuk