My Passion Hit Corporation

There's was small gathering outside of Corporation waiting around in anticipation of seeing My Passion's first headline show in Sheffield.

The night begins with Freefold (with a rather embarrassing typo of 'Freehold' on the schedule sheet). They do well to generate an atmosphere which was very relaxed, the other bands watching amongst the crowd, with only thirty to forty people there. They are followed by Here's To Tragedy who again maintains the level of entertainment but the crowd seems to saving themselves for the headliners.

The audience step up the energy as My Passion emerges, for such a small venue the room and freedom prove useful to jump and dance around. The music, whether you like it or not, it's undeniably infectious. The band looks to be enjoying themselves screaming, singing, punching and kicking their way through songs Play dirty, Day of the bees and new single Thanks for Nothing, amongst others. The only complaint from the audience would be of the short 35 minute set. Still My Passion end on a high with Never Everland showing why they deserve page space in Kerrang and Rock Sound. It hasn’t gone to their heads as they come straight off stage and into the fans, having chats and signing anything put in front of them.



Following their performance we interviewed My Passion lead singer Laurence Rene:

How did the gig go tonight?
Tonight was our second ever time in Sheffield, the last was supporting Kill Hannah at the Academy so it was different coming back to headline a one off show. We were just so pleased that a bunch of people came out to see us at a show that hasn’t been majorly advertised and wasn’t part of a tour. It refreshing to do this kind of gig now and then.

What do you think of: Sheffield? and Corporation?
From what we have experienced it’s a city with a lot of people searching for something fresh. I think we have found that a lot across our UK travels. People are really taken in by the show and I think these will stick in their memory forever. We were in the small room at the Corporation tonight and the stage is so high it's like performing from the moon down to your audience. It’s lucky we pull some big shapes and have a light show that can be seen for miles. We’ll definitely be back!

You are all very energetic onstage, is this something you planned or is it natural?
I guess we plan to be exciting visually but the energy comes from the music we create and how we feel about what we do. Something is unleashed from inside us and we are practically taken over. I think that although the music can be quite dark it is also very exciting and for us it's also a great time to feel like you are part of the future of the music industry. This all comes across when we play the songs live.

Have any of you had any accidents or suffered any injuries?
Ha we’ve had our fair share of collateral damage... There are always minor cuts and bruises occasionally a bit more but we’ve toured together lots now and we generally know how each of us performs, it's like a sixth sense. I did break my knee just over a year ago though that wasn’t anyone’s fault other than my own. Jumping from a 12ft speaker stack can be dangerous. You learn what not to do...

What bands do you look up to and aspire to?
We don’t really look to bands of a similar size to us I guess it’s because we see My Passion being far bigger than this. I always admire a band like Muse who can fill a stadium in such a way as they did a year or so ago. Three men making a sound that is out of this world really impresses me and to mix so many elements into that is just amazing. We definitely look to reaching that kind of level.

You’ve said that your favourite bands are a ‘bunch of weirdos'?
Well we always grew up with bands that stood out and were never really your standard band. I guess growing up you want something exciting and different. We always wanted to be entertained and wanted people to match the music they wrote with a show and performance that fitted it. My dad grew with the band and definitely had a huge influence on us as well as introducing us to bands like Iggy, Japan, Bowie and The Cure. We grew up with extremes of weirdness from Marilyn Manson and Slipknot to Radiohead, bloody weird visually and musically in their own right.
Once you’ve grown up with some of the characters from the 80’snd a load of Tim Burton films anything can seem normal. It has helped us keep an open mind.

What do you think of other new emerging bands like Bring Me The Horizon and Rolo Tommassi?
It's funny because although we are making modern rock music and have a vague idea of what other bands are up to we don’t really pay much attention to it. I guess unless a band is really special we don’t even blink and we don’t come across many of those. We are so driven and comfortable with what we are doing we don’t really look side wards or behind us it's much more into the future. We are following our dreams and battling a dinosaur known as the music industry so it's all about carving out our own path right now.

What are your hopes with the upcoming release of your first album?
For as many people to hear it as possible! We just can’t wait to get it out there! We hope by that point our name will be starting to spread. We want people to pick that album up lock themselves in a room turn it up really really loud and travel through it with us. Then we want them to come out and see on the album tour, see it come alive.

My Passion's debut album is released on the 25th of May, and can be pre ordered now at http://www.mypassionfashion.co.uk/

Damon Fowler, The Steel Bugle