In their relatively short career South London punk-rocksters Linchpin have done and achieved more than many more established artists do in many a year. Championed by the likes Dave Grohl, Kerrang, Metal Hammer and even the Independent they seem to have everyting going for them. Even though each of the band members are a mere sixteen years old, they are currently in the middle of their first nationwide tour and all set to release a new single, 'All I Want' on March 26th. Jackie Rull caught up the quarter prior to their recent show at Colechester Twist to find out just what a bunch of teenagers are doing in the cut throat world of rock and  roll....

Linchpin

I guess the obvious first question is, how did you meet & form the band?

LP - It all started when our local skate park was closed down along with many other things locally & we decided to get together to form a band. Joey & Mike are twins & we knew Olle from the youth club so along with Paul we formed a band & started writing song’s . We might be a young band but we have been playing together for a few years now.

What were you listening at that time that influenced your sound?

LP - Nirvana & other older stuff, we did not really listen to the pop of the day but we all had varying tastes.

So was that the type of music you were aiming to make?

LP - We never said we wanted to sound like anyone & as we all listened to different music we wanted to create our own blend.

This is your first full length tour, how are you coping being out on the road for so long?

LP - At present we are a third of the way through the tour & it’s been quite a mammoth job getting organized as most of out previous live performances have been fitted in to school holidays or local gig’s & weekends only. The nice thing about this tour is we are now able to play further a field. We are hoping to build up quite a wide following. For us it is important to get our music out there.

I guess your playing reasonably small venues this time around, do you feel that works in your favour rather than say opening in massive halls fro another band?

LP - Yeah,  the advantage of playing venues such as this one here tonight  is that we are able to make eye contact with people and judge the reactions.

In saying that, judging by the number of downloads from MySpace you seem to have built a up a reasonable following already?

LP - Yes

So would you say you have an 'average fan'?

LP - We do get a lot of teenagers at our gigs but we do get older people coming as well & it’s really great when they come up to us after a gig & say we have done well.

Have you managed to play outside the UK yet, or are you sticking with this country for the moment?

LP - We have been to Madrid with Bring Me The Horizon, 100 Reasons & Juliette & the Licks on a private charter – That was great. In fact the flight home was delayed as there was so much clearing up to be done after the outward journey.

I believe you've all left school now, but which of you was expelled as I have read differing reports as to who it was?

Olle – it was me, I refused to cut my hair & had it tied back.

Having just listened to a new song, 'All that Glitters', in sound check, how do you go about writing your material, and is this something that's ready for public consumption yet?

LP - We really split the writing credits equally, but no All That Glitters is still a work in progress at the moment.

Is song writing something you still find difficult, or does it come naturally?

LP - Well 'All that Glitters' only took a day. A lot of bands seem to take a long time over writing an album but we seem to be able to write song’s quickly as all four of us contribute to each song.

So writing together, touring together, you must be sick of each other by now?

LP - We all hate each other !!! Seriously if we do have an argument one of us may go into a corner & be quite for a while but normally anything is over in five minutes. We do actually get on really well together, it’s like we are all brothers.

Being so young do you feel any outside pressures when it comes to making decisions about the band at all?

LP - No, all our families are totally behind us when it comes to any decisions. It's down to just the four of us to make them. When we were 14 we wrote what could be called a very commercial song & many people said that was the route we should take but we knew it wasn’t our style so chose not to pursue it.

You've obviously made good impressions on a whole host of music bus types as well, how did you get people like Dave Grohl to take notice?

LP - We are all very good at blagging our way into situations to pass over our demo’s, so it was something we were aiming to achieve.

And What was Mr. Grohl like?

LP - He was as every one says a really nice guy. We gave him our demo & he took us out to his limo with Taylor to listen to it. He is so good with his fans it has had a big effect on us. In Tonbridge a lot of fans could not get into the venue so we went outside & spoke with them & gave out lots of posters etc. We were really pleased top see a positive feedback on the forums after that.

I believe you also worked on your EP with Benji from Good Charlotte, how did you manage to hook that one up?

LP - About 2 days after we gave him our demo he phoned us about working together. He is a really nice guy & both he & Joey have given us loads of good advice & he has taught us loads. One of things was to never stay the same & constantly challenge yourself

You've also just shot a video for the track Hypochondriac, how did that go?

LP - We had just played a gig in Basingstoke & we stayed at a large house & the next day it snowed so we were able to have a lot of fun with snowballs, singing up a tree & jumping out of bushes etc. It was really cool the way it just happened & it was so handy to have a small camera & be able to film what we wanted.

On a slightly more serious not I heard that you were recently involved in a car crash – hopefully not to bad?

LP - We are fine. A young lady just came out in front of us. We don’t think she meant it, it was like her brakes had failed or something but it was really bad as she was coughing up glass after the impact. The other vehicle was badly damaged, but our van got away with only a small dent. In fact we just got it back today.

So with the tour underway, what's next for Linchpin?

LP - We have a new single coming out on the 25th March which will be download only. You are able to pre order it via text on 78789 & then you are sent a code straight away that you will be able to enter on the day & download it. Now that digital downloads count towards the charts it's good for new bands like us and hopefully it's an area we will be able to exploit.

Many thanks to Linchpin for taking the time to talk with HardRockHouse.  To find out more about the band, their tour dates and upcoming released you can check out the following websites:

www.myspace.com/linchpinrock
www.linchpinrock.com