PipemanRadio Interviews Change Persona at Download Festival 2025

0:04 Hey, you have done too, Yes, that's true for see wow crazy young. Hello, this is pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four cy Radio and I'm here. With Change persona. Nice here at Download Festival. Why I know, first of all is how the fuck did you even get the Download Festival? Oh well, there was a form that we had to fill in to get onto the takeover stage and yeah, it's a competition and it was our drama that put us up. And when we got the message that we were chosen, we thought it.

0:47 Was a scam. We thought it was just someone just trying great. Yeah, yeah, wasn't it like how many bands was it it was out of? Was it like thousands? Three hundred and sixty? Was that right applied? Or we're in the consideration process and like we got the slot and we just couldn't believe it when we found. Out, Wow, how many did they even pick at the three sixty? Do you know? Is it like six or something like us? Yeah, something along. That's amazing. Yeah, we'll absolutely gas. It's an insane incredible opportunity. Right like this is like this is like hollow ground here, you know, and to get win that competition three hundred and sixty other bands. Man, Yeah, like, either you're really really good or they all really really sucked.

1:37 Oh them. That could be true too, but I doubt it. I think it's that you're really really good. Oh thank you. Yeah, I hope. So. I mean I think we just get really lucky sometimes. You know, well sometimes luck plays into it, but you still have to have skill to get the luck. We've had some great compliments whilst we've been here, Like people have been like really really bigging us up. It's been lovely. It's been really nice to see. Yeah, I want to hear about your experience here a download and you know, so you performed that district X right, that's right, Yeah, And what was that like? Like described to me how that felt, what it was like, how people reacted all that good stuff.

2:22 Well, I was shaken through the whole thing. I don't know about the guys. But yeah, I think the thing that really stood out to me was after we played our second song, we had a slight little gap just to talk to the crowd, and I was just like, hello, download and everyone's like I was like, oh my god. The feedback was just absolutely incredible. Oh my god. It's like I say, it's the biggest thing we've ever done, and we just like have a taste for it now and we just want to continue this. Can't go back, no, no, now, you gotta get inside here in the arena, absolutely work your way to headline. Yeah, that's that's next on the list. Yeah, yeah, what's our best? So, describe your music to me as the artist, not a genre, but how you the artist would describe your music.

3:09 I guess like before people have used this kind of description of us. They've said, if like rise Against and Billy Tallon had a baby and raised it in South London, that's changed persona. That's what we're kind of like. So yeah, that kind of like punk rock. A little bit of a rock mixed in with it too, but yeah, mainly that kind of fast, angry punk rock sound. I think I love that and I love that there's uniqueness of the blending because if I live bands nowadays that are like dialing it in with formulas, they all just sound the same. You need bands like you that are gonna use the influences but then create something unique.

3:50 Yeah, one hundred percent. It's just I think Connor, you're the songwriter, aren't you. So it's just a case of we write what feels, what feels right and go with that rather than try and be pigeonholed into a certain and sound under a certain box. I mean you can probably elaborate. Yeah, to be fair. When we first sort of started, I felt that when I was writing music, I felt quite limited because it was like, you're punk rock, so you need to stay in this box when you write. Yeah, And after a while it's just like I've stop that. Yeah, just be yourself. Yeah, I just want to write what sounds good. Well, I like to write, and you know, and the others have really jeled of it as well. They really enjoy it. I think that's the best way to do it, because that's what makes you last. That's what makes you authentic. You can't last trying to be something you're not.

4:33 Yeah, that's very true. That's why bands don't survive or breakup or whatever, because you start hating what you're doing because it's not your passion, or. You have albums where it's the same thing again and again and again, and you might just get burnt out doing the same sorts of things. Just you know, experiment have fun with it. I think, yeah, kind of like Ali when they have some about the music changing for bringing a rise and he's like, I want to write the same song over and over again. That's fucking boring. Yeah, no, absolutely, and then the songs that they're making is fantastic. Yeah, so more power to them. And it doesn't mean they didn't do the other stuff, but they already did the other stuff. And if you're an artist, you want to grow, you want to evolve, and as you learn your craft, war you are experiment with other things. That's what keeps you interested.

5:23 I think also just allows you to gain skills. Yeah. Just yeah, as you grow, like you've said, it's just like if you stay in a narrow little box, you only learn within that small little area. But then when you start getting influences everywhere else, go oh yeah, like that's how they do that, and that's how they do that, and you can really incorporate that into what you do and just continue to gain knowledge. Yeah, Like, if you're a punk rock band, how do you learn the fourth chord? If you don't expand. We have now. Yeah, it was very like powercord, power cord, power chord. One thing I love you. Status Quo actually have an album that's called in Search of the. Really as funny as well then, because it's true why it's three chords, it's because punk was basically developed so people that didn't know how to play music could be in a band. But then you learn how to play, so then you have to play the fourth chord because you only learn the three chords. Absolutely, oh man, that's great.

6:26 What does he want to say? Yeah, I mean if we just stuck to a formula and done what we're quote unquote supposed to do, but we just sound like everyone else exactly. I think we've got a unique sounds and I think that's maybe why we were picked to do takeover in the first place. Another advantage we've got we're just making from school. We decided to start a Band's at wage Werry fifteen sixteen, and you're still friends and it's just stuck and we haven't killed each other yet, which is nice. Yet it's rare that that happens too, you know that, especially when you start out in school. You know how many people are even friends with their schoolmates?

7:08 You know, absolutely, yeah, there's so many people that just drop off at your life. I think, like you've said quite a lot, is we're friends first, Yeah, and then we're in a band after and that connection has just allowed us just to continue being a band just because we love to do it. We love each other. Yeah, that's the one jevity right there. Yeah. I think that's why, Like when we started out, there were so many other bands on the same circuit that a year or two in would kind of drop out stop being a thing. I think because we've always had that foundation of the first thing as we're friends first and bandmate second. That's what's allowed us to It's like, what sixteen years now, we've been going. That's what's kind of kept us going and not to fall apart like other bands eventually do because they.

7:51 Or they started hating each other and you can tollly tell even if they stay together, Like I love watching being on stage where they're having fun, they're fucking around with each other because then you know they're a family. Well at the end of the day as well. Like, the one thing that everyone needs to remember is when you're playing music, it's also about having fun. It's entertainment, yeah right, and you're also entertaining yourself. And if you're not having fun, how am I having exactly? It all? Reflects you can tell, like you say, you see bands are just sort of there for a paycheck maybe or they're just there just to fill the gap, and it really reflects on the show, I.

8:32 Think, or you end up like James addiction exactly. Yeah. Oh man, that's insane. But that's what happens when you drive force it. There's a reason they didn't play for many years. Don't force it. You have to be friends first, like you guys are smart. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That just keeps the glue together, right, that keeps everything together. You have your foundation now because you have that friendship totally. Yeah, and just well your oyster after that, right. That's right. I love your tattoo with the cassette tape. Oh thank you. There's not many people in your age group that would want a cassette tape tattoo. Yeah. Man, I've had a lot of cassettes that look just like that and or that I had just spliced together. And okay, so for those of you don't know what I'm talking about, he has a cassette tape tattoo, but that has the tape part out of the cassette tape all twist it up and any of you that ever had cassette tapes you look at and you know exactly what's happening there.

9:36 It's good. Yeah, the cleff was a nice idea, I think. Yeah, I just I love, you know, physical media generally, and yeah, there's just something about a tape. It just feels good to open and look at and feel and just slightly in the it's wild, right, And luckily I don't have to get my pencil in and start rewinding it right right right. I'm a little bit after. That, but yeah, I just I did that. By the way, did did fun? No? But what was even less fun was I had Blizzard of Oz on a track, oh wow, And I had to take a match book you remember what those things are? Have you ever seen one? Because like they don't really exist anymore. And you had to put under the tape in the machine because otherwise it would be like cray really weird.

10:29 Because I put my tape in the other day and it was doing that, and I was like, what the hell is going on? I pressed because there's it's like a double cassette player, and I pressed pause on the other one that had nothing in it. Then it all came back to life. Look at that, and I was like, what happened? See that? And that's what life was like. It's like, shit just s fucked up and you're like, what the hell? And then here was the most of name part. Okay, it was you had four you had tracks. Four tracks. It would fade out in the middle of a song to change tracks and then fade back in. So if I some chance, you can find something on YouTube or somewhere that has mister Crowley from an eight track literally in the middle of mister Crowley, it does that, and that's fricking annoying.

11:21 It sounds very annoying. I can't listen to the whole song, yeah, because there's no way to. It's like that was a way. It's wild so fun, I know, right, Yeah, So the cassette tapes were a step up from that, you know, but then like on your arm when it started eating your cassette, Oh my god, that was not fun. Yeah. I did have another type that got eating. I was like, all fantastic, Yeah, here we go again, right yeah. Plus I come from the tape training days, Like we didn't have Spotify. We we had there was like a little magazine Ze black and white paper magazine and you rode in and they would send you a cassette tape and like, I still have Metallica's demo tape. You can't tell what it sounds like at all because it was recorded over fifty times because to tell where you just took, somebody got one recorded, another one sent in. That's how the tape train went. So by time you got it, it was like nothing. It was like, wow, kill them all well, time fantastic, you know, right.

12:37 I like remember taping songs off the radio as well, right in the day, and you'd be like they're poised to just waiting for the like the precise movement to start and the like you walk over the track and you'd be like, this is the best part. Man. I remember back in the day there was n L a station that had They used to play live concerts and you would record them. So you had a bootleg tape, but it wasn't bootleg because it wasn't the actual live show. It was on the radio you were taping it from. I see, yeah you can. I mean maybe you could do that now. You put something on Spotify, connect your Spotify to your cassette player and record it onto cassette. Yeah, why not that's what you should do for your next album, all right, okay, and then you could sell the cassettes. I mean metallicasknew this album, they sold cassettes. COVID brought back cassettes. Did you know that?

13:36 Yeah, I mean I know vinyl was becoming a thing. But he had the shortage of the final and they couldn't get the vinyl out, so they start. So many bands were making cassettes from the COVID shortage of vinyl. I've just noticed as well, go into shows checking out the merch beef, Like there are so many more bands selling cassettes now. And I think there's like a real nostalgia about it as well. Like people, I think you grow up in this era, you don't. Have physical media as much. Yeah, I like even the next generation that just never even had CDs or whatever, they now see things like cassettes and it's suddenly cool because it's retro. I think the kids are missing out of luck, because like when I was a kid, you bought an album, let's say an album it was with cassettes too, with Cee these two, and you would just listen to a whole album while you read the lyrics that came with the album. You didn't have to google it, and there would be sometimes prizes in there, like you could get who's playing behind us?

14:38 Was a bullet sounds like it could be billet. So that's gonna be your background for your let we go. You know, that's a pretty good background. But yeah, I mean, and then you would just look at all the artwork and some of them would come with booklets, and like it was just a whole sensory experience that kids today did not experience. So that's why they do track track track track track. Yeah. I think also as well is have it, Like you say, having the book looks to go through and just you can feel a bit more of a connection to the band or the music that you're listening. White you're connected to it and you feel like you're getting your money's worth. Two absolutely, And I think like the other thing, it's almost lead now because like the streaming way of doing things, people just want singles, they want individual tracks. Like we grew up from a generation you'd listen to track one all the way through to track ten. That's not such a thing anymore. So like even for us strategically, like our last album, Perfect Fate, world you can find on Spotify everywhere else. But we've done that like typical album style ten tracks or however many it was. But our next release we're going to do, We're going to start recording again in September. We're kind of having a rethink and we think maybe we released in smaller batches but more often because that whole listen to track one through to track ten thing isn't what kind of listeners are doing anymore, which is a shame.

15:57 It's a shame. It is a shame. And you know why they or not because they don't have to pay for this shit. Okay, I'm a teenager. My money, I'm scraping together like pennies to make sure I had enough money to buy the album. You make sure that you listen that whole album many times to get your money's worth, and so you don't respect free Who cares. I'm not losing anything from it. Some of my favorite bands came from that because I didn't like the music at first, but I listened over and over and I'm like, your on you exactly, and they don't have the experience. Now, I think it's because you also just don't really have a choice. Yeah, right, choice is limited. So, like you say, if you use the money that you scraped up to buy an album, you're like, not the best album, but.

16:47 What else are you gonna listen to? Exactly? So you're just gonna keep repeating, repeating, and go, actually, you know what, He's growing on me. And the music does do that. I think a lot of music out there, if you don't like it to begin with, if you kept on listening, it would grow on you. Perfect example, there's one album totally unpopular opinion that when I first heard the first time, like oh this sucks, and now it's like one of my favorite albums ever. And that's Back in Black by ac DC. Oh yeah right album, yeah right, But at first I was like, what the fuck is this? I just threw my money away, you know, And that I think it's part of the experience, you know. And yes, nowadays you have exposure to many more artists and may moraors can put music out there, but that loyalty to the band and that like really loving music, Like anybody gets in the car with me, every song that comes on the radio, I know every lyric and my kids will be like, how do you know the lyrics? Because I listened to shit over and over again while I had the lyrics in front of me and just kept doing it over and over and over and over again. Absolutely, you know whereas I wonder if you ask kids today there listen spa by how much of the lyrics besides the main like chorus line, would they know the actual lyrics.

18:06 To all the song name? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because you're just like, oh, it's just some one mixers in my pocket. I've just got headphones on. I'm not looking at what I'm listening to. Like the maddest thing for me. I went to see Bring Me to the Horizon in London, like, I know, in the winter, like half a year ago whatever, and bad Omens were supporting, and I was like, oh, I don't know who bad Omens are. And then as they were performing, I was like, oh, no, wait, I know this one from Spotify. And then they're doing other three or four songs, another one come up and I'd be like, I know the chorus of this and everything, and it's because it's just an algorithm that throws this thing at you periodically. And I finished that set and I was like I knew like six. Of their songs right, and yeah, I went into the gig like I don't know who they are. I'll check them out. And that's that's the crazy thing about streaming.

18:51 I was there first of all, and I was with some of my and Incubus was playing, and every single song they played, Oh, I didn't know this was them. Oh that's what you're saying. I know this was them. I know this was them. I had the exact same thing with Incubus. I really love the bands, but I'll listen to a song, I'll go, what's this called? I do the exact same thing. Yeah, see, there you go. We live in the shuffle generation. Now, totally totally. Now, how do people reach out to you on socials on the web by your merch because they can't listen to my show? And let's say buy merge because then you can't play anymore? Absolutely, you know.

19:32 I mean we're on every social it's change persona apart from YouTube, which is changed persona band. Now we've got merch on our website, change persona dot com and that's got updates and and. It's key to stress because everyone gets our band name wrong. It's change not changed. There's no d Everyone's like, oh, you're changed persona. No, no change that type of it's changing person person some other kind of variation on our banding. Yeah, change persona. Yeah, and you know what, it does make sense to me because I'm like thinking that would be a good gimmick. Like somebody said something you change persona, Like you're telling them to change their persona, but just say it like that, you know, it could be like a new thing.

20:17 Yeah, I mean that was kind of what the band name was kind of about. It was a case of kind of like a middle finger to people who change who they are depending on who they're with to get. The reaction they want and like Lanning like that. Yeah, and it's like you should just be. Your authentic self, don't change who you are to fit in just like if people don't like you, that's fine. Yeah. And you know what, it's the same it's music. What happened in the eighties they change the persona of these metal bands to make them hair metal, and it killed the metal scene. Yeah, it's a massive shame, isn't it. Yeah, tot, And like you say, the more that you just do what you want to do, the more exciting things can be in the more interesting things easier and easier. Yeah, although that being said on the whole hair metal thing, I'm super excited to see Stell Panther because they're like the Mariady of that hair metal thing.

21:05 Wait wait wait is the funniest shit ever. Have you seen them before? Not live, but I've listened to them Alaya. Everybody that hated hair metal as an artist is in the crowd loving it. Yeah. Like I've sat stood next to Cory Tailor while he's watching like I wasn't with him. I was just standing there watching him and he was so into it. Like you're the singer of Slipknot and his hair metal parody you're in love with And it's like everybody, like the heaviest people in metal love Steel Panther. Yeah. That's just so good at what they do, are though. They just perfectly like parody it whilst also kicking us at the same time.

21:48 Right, totally. You know, it started out like a joke and it's become they're like one of the biggest pants out there. It's so funny, and that's the hair metal even I can handle. Yeah, right, I think. That's also the interesting spin on things that you can do right when you want to do something you want to do, and just like, you know, not take self so seriously, totally have fun. That's the key. People. If you're not having fun in this industry, it's the wrong industry because there's a lot of shit. Yeah you know, so the only payoff is having fun. Yeah, absolutely, and you're. Not making money so there's not that benefit either. So just have fun, whether you're the musician or the audience. Well, that's what it's about. Yeah. I also think that we need to with all this unrest in the world, we need to have one music festival that the whole world is required to go to because that will cure the whole world's problems. Forget everything else we're trying to do.

22:48 Like when at a festival, are there people that aren't loving each other? Being a family and you're all different, there's no outsiders, we're all the same, nobody's judging anybody, nobody gives a shit what's going on, and you're just at peace with everybody. Yeah, it's all we're all piece. That's the way to solve it, wor old Piece is one big music festival. Yeah, And with that, that's the reason I come here every year. That I've been coming here every year since twenty eleven, the reason being it's, you know, it's the best festival there is in the UK by a mile, and for five days you forget all the crap that you've got going on at home everything, and you just in a field having fun with loads of other people are doing the same.

23:32 Thing and the best therapy ever, it really is, people wouldn't be so pissed off. I think the reason everybody's all pissed off is because we had two years without live music and no outlet to get it out. That was a real difficult two years, no doubt it really was. It was like really hard for us to try and stay relevant, stay in people's minds, and that at that point in time because before we were gigging every week and then it comes to COVID and we were just trying to do like just videos of us miming along to songs and stuff like, just because you've got to keep putting the content out there. You've got to try and stay relevant. But how do you do it when you can't gig, when you can't leave your house and the live. Stream shows are not a live show, It's not the same feeling not the same.

24:15 You can't get the same atmosphere not watching on a screen. You can't. That's just it's not a day between watching something on a screen and actually being in. The bigging through the band. It's like, how do they do it without a crowd that's interacting with them? Yeah, that to me, that's a Nuneare you feed off of it? Like you said earlier? To tie it all together, it's like when they yelled back at you, it's like, oh my god. There's no better feeling. You can't get that through a screen. No, absolutely, So what else do you want to tell the lizards that they need to know about what they need to get from you? To our days, anything that's going on. We're playing kinkson upon Thames in London, fighting Cox on June the twenty first, so it's coming up quick. But yeah, Flying Cocks are such an amazing venue.

25:05 We played a few times. You have a good time. Also doing Rebellion Fringe that's on. The tenth of August. Yes, we're doing that one, and we're also hoping while we're recording in September as well, we've got new music coming nice, so we're really looking forward to that and George has one more. Yeah, we're also playing a punk festival in Uxbridge, just outside of London on the twenty seventh of September as well as like an all day thing, so that. Should be cool. But yeah, just I guess keep an eye on our socials. So it's like we. Said at Change Persona, everywhere on all platforms pretty much. And yeah we've got some new music dropping scene. Love it you guys, fucking rock. Glad you were here at download and thanks for being on the Adventures of paint Man.

25:49 Thank you very much for having us. I really appreciate it. Thank you, you got it. Thanks having us on the show. Thank you, Thanks very much. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Patement on w for c u I Radio