“I was thinking I was a big buff guy that wanted to fight people at every show,” Ian Watkins jokes.
On a hot August evening outside a restaurant on the Sunset Strip, the Lostprophets frontman tells stories of Public Disturbance, a mid-90s UK hardcore band who he drummed for. He says shows during that era were “a bunch of cool times” and remembers being in a two-man mosh pit for Vision of Disorder. “It was a good vibe.”
Having sold over 3.5 million records worldwide, released five studio albums, including a handful of hit singles, Lostprophets have managed to maintain their longevity for nearly 13 years. Signed in 1999 at the peak of nu metal, the group quickly found themselves in the U.S. at the turn of the century playing with New York bands like Glassjaw, The Movielife, and Amazing Device (“Everyone [was] from Long Island!”). Today, watching cars pass by on Hollywood’s renowned boulevard, Watkins says the band’s writing approach was the same on their newly-released fifth studio album Weapons as with their 2000 debut Thefakesoundofprogress.
“We still approach songwriting in exactly the same way…Whatever comes out is an honest product. People might like it, people might not — but it’s honest.”
Front page & article photo by Dorothy Gilbert