CHARLOTTE: Welcome to Donnington, you’re back again.
RYAN: Thank you very much. Yes.
C: It was your first-time last year, right?
R: Yeah. Yeah. First time playing, but I’ve been here, coming here for years, since 2007, I think. I fucking love it. Different perspective from an artist and I’m sure every band says it with me, it’s an absolute dream come true. Honestly, it was unbelievable.
C: So you performed here yesterday, talk me through, your performance experience and how it compared to last year.
R: Last year we played the campsite, so we didn’t really feel like we played Download, but this year, we got on the Avalanche stage, we kind of felt it was more authentic So we thought we’d just go all out. We just brought in five of our friends that dressed up as Power Rangers and so when we hit the stage, they were all there in cloaks [then] whipped them off, stood there for the entire song, just didn’t move an inch. And it was was banging. It’s amazing.
C: Nice. And you even brought them backstage with you as well?
R: We did, yeah. That was the plan to walk around with him, let them be our entourage and it will look sick.
C: Why Power Rangers may I ask?
R: Well, it is one of our popular songs. We got our backdrop was the Power Ranger logos. We just thought why not go all in? You know what I mean?
C: Well, I’m a big power ranger. I must admit.
R: Oh, there you go.
C: So when I saw you walk backstage yesterday, I was very happy
R: There was a few people saying, oh my God, and thought it was at us, but it was the Power Ranger
C: You recently released a little Mermaid Themed EP Poor Unfortunate Souls and you’ve got a track on there with Alissa from Arch Enemy as well. I assume that this was released to coincide with the new movie release?
R: Yeah, yeah. We knew the film was coming on the 26th of May. So we thought we’d re-record Under the Sea and Remix Poor Fortune Souls and Part of Your World, which you’d done before. And we thought we’d do Kiss the Girl as a new one as well. But then we realized we had Alyssa’s phone number in our phone books and was like, well let’s tap her up, see if she wants to do part of her world. And she was like, that’s my all-time favourite song. She jumped on it and she was amazing. She didn’t just sing a track, she gave like 15 vocal stems, loads of harmonies, and loads of ideas on how the song could be better.
It was amazing. She was class.
C: So for anyone that is a little bit like the Party. Yep. Can you summarize what Punk Rock Factory is, what your sound is and where the idea came from as well?
R: Basically in a nutshell, we’re a cover band, but beyond that scratch, a little more, we are so much more than that. The idea was, honestly, it was a Monday evening thing, a couple of friends who used to be in bands and never made it just recording covers, just for a laugh. Lockdown happened and we went on TikTok with our, I Just Can’t Wait To Be King Cover. And it went absolutely mental. We had like 600,000 views in an hour or something. And it just kept climbing and climbing. It went up to a million. It was insane. So we realized that no one did a Disney album. So we recorded a whole album and I think in lockdown there was so many bands that couldn’t release stuff cuz they couldn’t tour it cuz they couldn’t make money back. But we just did this for a laugh, didn’t expect to be a live band and it went mental. And here we are playing Download.
C: Crazy.
R: Yeah, absolutely crazy.
C: So Download is obviously just one highlight that’s quite personal to you. But what are some of the highlights that have come along with being part of Punk Rock Factory?
R: As cliche and as corny as it sounds every single day, this is our Abso like this is our full-time job. Um, it’s an absolute dream come true. Like we’re walking past and I’m, I’m fist pumping Benji from Skindred cause he’s my mucker now I’m chilling out in the snake pit last night for Metallica because the owner of Bloodstock gave me a band. It’s like brushing shoulders with these people and we are 15-year-old kids who cannot believe what’s happening. We love every second of it.
C: And obviously like you say, you, you technically the clusters are covers band. Yeah. So what are some of the covers that perhaps you haven’t done that you maybe would like to try and test?
R: See, I really want to delve into the boy band world. I think there’s some, we’ve done Backstreet Boys. I think there’s so much more gold in that world. And I, I reckon and then maybe jump over in the girl bands. I reckon I’ll be banging this
C: Sounds like the next couple of albums being built….
R: That’s where my head’s at. I dunno where the other boys have to ask them, but I’m thinking be sweet to do that.
C: I like that.
R: Yeah. Yeah.
C: You’ve got a UK headline tour later on this year and you’re also gonna be performing at Hard Rock Hell in November as well. So what can we look forward to from your performance at HRH?
R: We always try up our game. So what we try and do is bring in as big of a production we can on the budget that we got. But it’s always on a small stage. But now we’re playing bigger stages, honestly, I don’t know. But expects something crazy ,mental and awesome.
C: Possibly the Power Rangers.
R: There’s been talk of it, but we don’t know yet.
C: We’ll keep that one hush. We’ve obviously got this album released, we’ve got the tour. Is there anything else we can look forward to for 2023?
R: Just playing live. I think our main focus now is we’ve got some downtime and just yeah, get these tours all locked in and sell ’em out and hopefully next year bigger tours, we’ve got a few things that are in pencil that will be banging if they come off. We’ve just had a text message from someone today that could be an idea. So a few cool things that could happen, but I can’t say anything yet.
C: So watch this space?
R: Yes, definitely. We aren’t going anywhere. We’re gonna be as busy as we always are, so if you’re sick of us then I’m sorry, delete your TikTok accounts. More’s coming. Much more.
Interview by Charlotte Hooper at Download Festival 2023
