SO MARK, HOW OFTEN DO YOU GET YOUR HAIR STUCK IN YOUR GUITAR?
Mark Jansen [guitar]: “Thankfully not that often but it’s very painful, you can’t just stop playing and untangle it. One time, Rob [van der Loo, bass] got his hair stuck in my guitar. He didn’t notice, so he tried to headbang and ripped a whole bunch of hair out! He didn’t look too happy about it, but we managed to laugh about it two minutes later.”
ARE THERE ANY GIGS YOU REMEMBER WITH A SHUDDER OF REGRET?
“We were due to play in the Netherlands and it was raining cats and dogs. The whole stage roof was one big reservoir and the roof caved – with all our equipment underneath. It must’ve been about 500 litres all over our equipment, amps and monitor desk – it was impossible to play when all our stuff was broken. The extra shitty thing was it was a benefit concert for a good cause – we weren’t even being paid to have our things destroyed.”
HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN DANGER WHILE ON THE ROAD?
“Driving through the Rocky Mountains, it was snowing and there was an accident ahead and our bus driver ended up crashing into them. We were all sleeping at the time, and that’s a terrible feeling: waking up to the bus crashing but not knowing what’s going on.”
DO YOU HAVE A FITNESS REGIME TO KEEP YOU BUSY?
“I always try to bring my bicycle with me on tour! But when you’re travelling in a small van, you can forget bringing a bike. The first thing I want to know when we park up is whether it’s a great place to cycle. I love racing on my bike, especially in the Alps, because I have a whole day of free time to do whatever I want. Anything’s possible up on the mountains.”
