The Approval
After a few years of heading off to concerts multiple times a month and chatting with numerous bands, I have noticed a certain look. Just because you have ‘the look’ doesn’t always mean you have the voice, but in the case of The Approval, the theory holds true. Roland Johnson, current Mr. England, and Simon Harvey brought the band to life after they took note of each others singing talents. Already making a name for themselves in the British music scene, these two have a lengthy career ahead. We all chatted about their music and what’s to come this year.
Arin: What was the driving force behind the two of you getting together to form The Approval?
Simon: Well, in my eyes, me and Roland have been on the music scene for a couple of years in separate bands of the same genre and we were sort of the leading forces of our bands and they weren’t really going anywhere mainly because the others weren’t really pulling the weight that we we’re trying to give so we just decided to come together and make the best possible band we could, to be successful really.
Roland: Yeah, we put a lot of effort into our old bands and really music is what we want to do as a profession, it’s what we love. We live and breathe music. So, Simon and I playing in our old bands, we started playing some shows together and festivals and I could see that Simon was really into it and the front-runner and I guess he saw that in me and we got together and we became very good friends and thought well if music’s what we want to do, lets do it together because we really put all the effort in so that’s what we’ve been doing with,The Approval, giving it 110 percent really and it’s going really well so far.
A: You have an EP out at the moment, but what do you have planned for this year?
R: We just shot a music video for a new track called ‘Three Words’ which was released when we hit 1,000 likes on Facebook, that was a really cool song that we were excited to release, we weren’t playing shows last year, so this year we’ve started playing live shows, we’re doing a couple acoustic versions of our set with percussion and like a few friends helping out on other instruments in the background which is cool just to give it a live element to the band, we’re also, fingers crossed, doing like a fashion tour of England, where we’re playing at all these different venues, that’s later on in the year, like around summer time, but we’re really excited for that because we’ve only really started doing our shows and we’ve already been asked to be booked on tours, playing to big crowds of people.
S: With that, the fashion tour was through our endorsements as we’ve had previous experiences with modeling French companies and companies in England, especially Roland with Mr. England. So yeah, the fashion tour is based through one of endorsements, a jeans company called Illuminati and they want to get us touring around England and cat-walking the clothes as well as playing at these venues up to a thousand people. So, it’s a really cool, media based project really because bands don’t really get the opportunity to do that.
A: What social networks do you use?
R: The main one is the Facebook page, we’re also on twitter and YouTube.
S: I would say Facebook and YouTube are the main interacting sites.
A: Do you have any goals for 2012?
S: We want to try and push it as much as we can and ‘jump the fence’ as much as we can, I think a good aim for this year would be to have supported a chart band, by the end of it is my goal, just to support an artist in the charts at the moment would be a great accomplishment, I think.
R: Yeah, play alongside a mainstream act would be great.
S: And it’s 100% possible I think with the work we’re putting in and the scale of what’s happened so far. I mean we’ve been a band six months or so and to me everything that’s happened in those six months has been very impressive and a very consistent climb, so it’s looking good.
R: Yeah, definitely just play loads. The dream obviously to play big shows with mainstream acts, the dream as well for us is just to grow the fan base, take it up another level; everything to expand would be amazing.
A: If you had to pick a band to tour with, who would it be?
S: On a website called Kings Of A&R which we got put on in America, we found this band called The Relay Company and they are what we see as the American version of us and they’re fantastic, they look like great guys, and even though they’re not big, I think it would be, they would be the kind of band I would love to tour with if they came over here or we went over there. Just because you’re working together and you’re helping each other and feeding off each other’s energy, if it came to a big act, I think I’d have to choose Jessie J, I really admire her, I think she’s a groundbreaking act.
A: Who are some bands that inspire you?
R: We love American pop; absolutely love it, really mainstream stuff, Katy Perry kind of tunes. But we also like English indie bands, obviously the English singers and American musicians, so I guess the English band we could say is a band called, The Kooks, so what we try and do is mix it as two guys who play the instruments and sound English, but we play the American pop, so mixing basically American pop with British indie.
S: I also love the sort of quirky bands, like Empire of the Sun, Phoenix, and bands like that. As a songwriter my musical idol is actually Bon Jovi.
A: Are there any charities you support or want to get involved with?
S: I would love to get involved; they’re so great. I used to do them in my old band, it’s a great thing to get into and it’s a help everyone situation and I think that’s really beneficial to do and if you’ve got the time and you’re up and coming and you want to help people, its great for everyone involved and its always positive, you always get a good vibe out of it. There’s no excuse to not, really.
R: As I’m Mr. England, Simon said earlier, which is a bit different than the music side of things, but my friend entered me into the Mr. England competition last July and I ended up wining it, and through that I’ve been doing loads of charity work with the variety club over here in the England as an ambassador for the variety club charity and they’re helping young, underprivileged children, which I get involved with as much as I can, going to as many events, hanging out with the children, making sure every-one’s having a nice day and just doing what I can. I’m looking at getting the band involved in doing some events for them, just charity gigs and helping where we can. We also work with Beauty With a Purpose, which is the Miss World and Mr. World chosen charity.
