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reaches you on some level, beit emotionally or intellectu-ally.

“There are even deaf peo-ple who come to our concertsand enjoy our music becausethey can feel the vibrations.

“We are the fortunate oneswho can serve the music,create and transmit it to somany people.”

By the time Il Divo reachthe Motorpoint Arena onApril 7 they will have clockedup more Air Miles on thistour than most of us do in alifetime. Such extreme travel-ling can take its toll on the

healthiest of us, let alone fourvoices that need to be at theirpeak every other night.

Not much room for party-ing with fans, then?

“You have got a greatresponsibility, so you have tobe very careful how you paceyourself,” confirms Urs.

“But as with everything thegolden way lies in the middle.If you get paranoid abouteverything you very soondon’t have a life any more,and you probably get sick ordepressed much easier.

“I love a big after-showparty, but not if I have three

more shows to sing on thefollowing three nights. Thatwould be not taking yourjob seriously. You have toget very good at listening toyour body and mind and feelwhen they need rest, just aswhen they need to step off thetreadmill and gather somenew inspiration and energy– hey, we’re only human.”

As for what follows the cur-rent bout of globe-trotting?Seb knows how to spina finish to an interview.“The great thing about thefour of us is we do not siton our laurels. We always

look for the next big thing,”he concludes.

“Looking back is great. Itmakes you look to improvebut now and tomorrow is re-ally what is important.

“Maybe a duet with Be-yonce oneday?”

We try as much aspossible to not bepredictable

The Star,Thursday, March 29, 2012www.thestar.co.uk

TIMEOUT

and lovingly distorted guitartextures, bringing added en-ergy and twists to her catchymelodies, such that there’s awanton whiff of glam-rock.

“I always came from arocky background,” she says.“As a teenager I was discov-ering lots of guitar music;heavier stuff, like SiameseDream by Smashing Pump-kins. I must’ve been about 15and it just blew my mind.

“Around the same time Igot Radiohead’s The Bendsand I was obsessed withMetallica’s Black Album,Soundgarden, Stone TemplePilots, Nirvana Then at 16, Idiscovered Jimi Hendrix, LedZeppelin, and the older stuff.”

With little else to do in

smalltown New Zealand, Pipstarted out as a drummeraged just 11, but first playedpublicly as a lead guitar-

ist. She took that further inSydney band Teenager, withNick Littlemore who laterfound fame as Luke Steele’ssidekick in Empire Of TheSun.

It’s been a fairly swift ad-venture ever since, with Pipmoving to London to launcha successful solo career thatbecame all-consuming.

“I was like a rabbit in theheadlights – that had beenrun over partially – so I feltdefeated by the headlights attimes,” she recalls now.

Hence the second album,with all its expectation, iscalled Anxiety with goodreason. “It was a stressfulprocess making this album,but I staggered it across

quite a long period of timeso I wouldn’t go insane. I gotto make the album I reallywanted to make – which isthe whole point, I guess.

“There’s a lot of livinginside my own head going on.I sometimes get depressed. Ihad weeks in between writingsongs. I have terrible anxiety.It’s like it feeds itself.

“Since I finished the recordI’ve been a completely differ-ent person, like this weight’sbeen lifted off my shoulders.I’ve made an album I’m reallyproud of and I can’t wait tostart playing with my bandagain, touring and havingsome fun.”

Ladyhawke plays TheLeadmill, May 4.

Rock chick? Ladyhawke

rock to the new Pip dream

IF you are a regular of teensoap Hollyoaks you mayhave already caught TheManic Shine – making theirSheffield début at WestStreet Live on Sunday.

Their ‘metamorphic rock’nods to past times of heavyguitar blues “but is ampli-fied and entwined withelectronic noises of thefuture... a raucous blend ofprogressive rock but notprog, indie stylings but no

skinny jeans”.Guitarist Orren Karp and

brother drummer Tamir wereborn at the foot of Israel’sGolan Heights where theirScottish mum met theirIsraeli father over a classicPink Floyd record. Ozziewas born in London and Du-bai-raised after his Syrianmother met his half English/Italian/Hungarian father inEgypt.This diversity shineson new album Blindsider.

Rock crosses bordersmusicnotes

CATFISH And The Bottle-men are four lads from Llan-dudno determined to makewhoever is around listen totheir “loud, explosive, sexyrock and roll songs”.

That included The Vac-cines who they draggedalong to see them whilethey were hanging aboutbackstage at an Arctic Mon-keys gig.

New single Brokenarmy

sends them to Sheffield’sFrog & Parrot tomorrowand a revived Room On Firenight. Due on April 23, song-writer Van says it’s “about agirl I used to know who wasfar too good-looking for herown good – the type that iseveryone’s type. She’d lurepeople into mad nights andthen wake up and leave.”Check out youtube.com/watch?v=X-GM6z2EqPA

Frog meets the Catfish

BARNSLEY’SBlack Echo areabout to taketheir music farand wide havingsigned up tothe Don’t Be AHayTour in aidof Huntington’sDisease.

The tour be-gins on Tuesdayin Glasgow andtakes the quartetto various citiesand towns in-cluding Bourne-mouth (wheretheir Shef-field memberoriginally sprangfrom), Doncasterand finishing in Sheffieldat the Leadmill on April 14.The Barnsley gig is at theMetrodome on Wednesday.

Black Echo have just

released a video for Starson YouTube and launcheddébut EP Mourning Sun atDarton College.

Hear that at facebook.com/blackechoband

Hear them again, again