You toured together in 2012. What do you remember about that?
Dani: “It was amazing. Were we in the same bus? No! It wasn’t buses back then. What was your orange van called, Loz?”
Loz: “Van-gerine! It was an ex-RAC van that we kitted out. We had double-bunks in the back and a trailer, which I think was illegal. There was a little trapdoor in it, so when the driver needed a nap he could just flip the door down and get to a bed.
I don’t remember very much about that tour, though!”
Dani: “You guys headlined. I remember it being carnage, but I won’t bring up those stories because we’re in a new chapter. We went to a lot of cool places in Europe, and I think it showed British music in a really good way, like, here’s two bands who are doing good things. From that moment onwards, it felt like, ‘Okay, these two bands are doing great things,’ and off we went on our own journeys.”
Do you watch each other onstage and go, ‘Fuck, I need to up my game’?
Dani: “I remember one year at Sonisphere watching Sleeps and being like, ‘What the fuck is happening? This is insane.’ And Loz as a frontman – not to flatter you or make you embarrassed – but I’ve always thought, ‘He’s got it.’ I remember watching you and being like, ‘I don’t even know what it is to be a frontman next to him!’”
Loz: “Likewise, when I first saw you guys I remember being blown away by how tight you were, even all the way back then. I remember your clean vocals being so on point as well. Playing with you, it set precedents for us to have to level up. We always used to have a bit of a thing where we really enjoyed playing first, and go as crazy as possible onstage, so there’s almost nothing left for the next band. And I remember seeing you guys and being like, ‘Shit, they’re tight and really good.’ We were watching you and feeling like we didn’t know what we were doing onstage!”
What’s the maddest thing you’ve ever seen one another do at a gig?
Dani: “I’ve seen Loz jump off everything. Anything you can climb on, he’s been up it and jumped off it. At Ally Pally, there’s a warning about doing it, which I’m sure he’ll ignore. There’s a picture at a festival where you had a While She Sleeps flag, and you climbed up the tower and planted it at the top. That was a badass moment. I thought, ‘That’s what they do best.’”
Loz: “That was at Download one year, I think. More than anything, that felt really wild and dangerous, because when I was climbing that scaffolding tower, some of those bars weren’t even tight. I couldn’t believe it. I was climbing up it – and it was a fucking long way – and I’d grab hold of the bars and they’d be spinning. I was like, ‘Jesus Christ, this is dodgy… but I’ve committed to this now in front of people. I can’t stop halfway!’”