Sweating it out: Population Four

Population Four won the Battle of the Bands

The Preston five who won the Battle of the Bands have conquered Lancashire and now want to rock the world.

Population Four have played in practically every pub in Preston and now they are travelling throughout the UK to promote their EP 2009.

They are hoping to make it big so they can give up their day jobs and stamp out their early starts.

The band talk about rocking it out, after show sweat and how Rick nearly died on a shoot.

How did you get together?

We've all been active in the local music scene and so we had come to know one another through our different exploits over the years.

The history of the band...

Daff, Cooko and Si started writing tunes in late 2007.

Ceres joined soon after and when the original singer left, Rick asked to join the band to take over vocal duties; partly because they needed a new singer and partly because they needed a fat guy so they could appeal to minorities.

After several months of re-recording guitars over and over and frayed tempers, our first record 'Liberate' was finished and we were ready to unleash it on the public with an album launch party.

Shortly after this we replaced our guitarist Daff with a sexier robot version of himself. No one has noticed but we have always had trouble getting his hair quite right.

The Population Four sound...

We do what we know and what we know is rock music.

We're a rock band in the same vein as Alexisonfire, Rise Against, local success story Failsafe, Lostprohets and bands of that ilk. Our band sounds like we're having a great time. That's the most important thing to us: we write songs that we love and that we can rock out to. We have a pretty contemporary alternative sound, crossing elements of punk with metal, and some catchy riffs and choruses that people can sing along to.

WHO'S WHO Rick - vocals Ceres - bass and sings Daff - guitar and vocals Si - drums and vocals Cooko - guitar

What can people expect from a Population Four gig?

An energetic live show backed up with catchy guitar riffs and vocal melodies. If we're not sweating when we come of stage we don't feel like we have tried hard enough and that goes for every gig. If we play to three people or 300 we will put every punch of effort in.

We figure if just one person goes home with a copy our our CD or t-shirt then we have won over one fan and we're going to take over the world even if we have to do it one person at a time.

Best and worst moment so far?

The best was winning the Lancashire Evening Post Battle of the Bands because we were up against far more established bands.

The worst was when Rick nearly killed himself by falling off the top of a quarry at a photo shoot. He was 50 ft up but thankfully a very fortunately placed ledge and a quick thinking Si saved the day!

What have you been up to since winning the Battle of the Bands?

We've done as many gigs as physically possible and we recorded four new songs which are available on our 2009 EP. We're currently travelling round the UK promoting it and we've had really positive feedback.

'I Am' which is based around the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and the 2007 film of the same name, in particular, has proved a hit with fans. We decided to use the prize money we got for winning the Battle of the Bands to film a video to go with 'I Am'.

It was a really interesting experience; great fun, lot of heavy lifting and a harrowing night at a very cold dark factory. You can check it out on our MySpace page.

We've done some new songs since 2009 and kept ourselves busy with a pretty punishing practise regime. We practise a hell of a lot but it pays off when we get on stage.

We do what we know and what we know is rock music. Population Four

What's the band's favourite song?

It's really hard for a group of music lovers to pin down a song that they would call their favourite: we all have a lot of different influences and favourite styles of music. It's pretty eclectic what we listen to; as a band we all like the Jurassic Park theme tune by John Williams (seriously!) and 'Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints' by Alexisonfire because that song title sums up everyone in the band!

We also like Alexisonfire's 'This could be anywhere in the world' because that song could be written about Preston and we do a pretty mean cover of that in the practise room!

What are you most looking forward to if you make it big?

We would love to make it as a band, become world famous and not have to worry about going to work or paying bills. Our dream is to make it as a band and to get to play our music for a living. Si who is a postman, in particular, would love to stop getting up at 5.00am every morning.

Most of all we would just love to get to play festivals and massive shows in front of thousands of people.