The tongue wagging process has begun. Noel Gallagher has declared himself a fan and The Smokin’ Barrels are set to ignite. Already getting the nod from the man they call ‘Godlike’, this North East three-piece are ready to blow steam and take a ride on the record machine.

Showing they have ability, these guys are lock, stock and barrels ahead with regards to credited backing. Now, they take time out to answer my questions and discuss what they have planned to sweep them away from the Geordie shores. Talking about plans for a new band member and hoping for Soccer AM’s Tube to help them charm a soccerette, The Smokin’ Barrels open up.

Now then, I’m going to mop this up before we start. Noel Gallagher’s a fan….feelings?

Unreal, as you can imagine. He’s an inspiration to us and to know that he approves of our music is massive! We just hope he wants to get us involved more and more.

He knocked on our dressing room door before the Metro Arena gig and cracked on with us….definitely put the shits up me before playing ha.

That would put the shits up me too. So. What’s different about the music scene in Newcastle at the moment? Are we going to have a fresh line of Maximo Park’s splashing their Geordie blood everywhere?

With any luck! We need some Rock n Roll bought back into the charts, instead of all this electro stuff that’s out there at the minute.

When people think of the Smokin’ Barrels, their thoughts should be….

Ballsy? If you can use that term….? Monster anthems. Loud.

Yeah, I’m sure that’s a pretty much usable term. Can you describe how the band have kept it together during a very tricky time for indie bands? Has this maybe helped you, do you think?

Staying together hasn’t been a problem really. The three of us have been mates since high school which makes a big difference. We are hoping to add a forth member, Sam, to the band. Another mate we knock about with, which will definitely bring a lot more volume to the stage with the four of us up there.

Why do you think people have developed a connect with ‘I’m Coming Down’, in particular? Who takes the credit for that song?

It IS a ballsy tune. With it being a song about war, there are a lot of people who can relate and connect to it. It seems to have a heartbeat-like pulse throughout the song, that grabs the listener straight away, whether they relate to the war aspect or not.

Dawson has to take credit for that song. We all end up putting our spin/opinion on each tune which ends up making the final product, but he definitely has to take the credit for creating the tunes.

I love the fact that a fan labelled your sound to be like “A thousand Geordie’s scrapping in a biscuit tin”. That’s brilliant! Does that compliment The Smokin’ Barrels sound?

Haha! Myspace should be banned by now….that came from my college lecturer who was also in a band. I’m sure I Myspaced that a few years ago. I thought it was a piss-take review at the time but it does seem to suit quite well. Check out Smoove and Turrell, by the way.

You’ve got a few gigs lined up. Which ones will be the most rewarding?

The Feeling in London. We played there in February supporting a band called ‘All The Young’, who have toured with the Kaiser Chiefs. This time though we are playing before Soccer AM’s Tubes does his first DJ set for the end of season party. Hopefully we can party afterwards with him and any other Soccer AM staff he brings..

Soccerettes, maybe?

I have noticed your new EP, ‘Mindless Self Indulgence’ features a picture of a monkey with headphones. Random??

Yeah. We had a real battle deciding what to put on the front of the EP. With the first one being just a logo, we wanted to put something different on the cover. It took ages. We had decided on using a monkey after we saw some Banksy artwork, but didn’t quite know what to have him doing. We had thoughts of dressing him like a politician at one point! And the end of it went for trying to make the monkey look arrogant, which was quite hard to explain to a designer ha!

The Smokin’ Barrels. Thank you. Feel free to add any other comments you wish. Go for it…..

Eerrmmmm, watch out for Leslie the magic monkey. He hands out EP’s at selected and buy our new EP ‘Mindless Self Indulgence’ on Amazon and iTunes.

Thanks guys.

Interview by Ashley Spink