Slam Dunk Special: All Or Nothing

Slam Dunk Festival is fast approaching and there are tonnes of amazing bands playing. Kiki Vs Everything was lucky enough to catch up with one of the homegrown stars of the line up, All or Nothing.
Taking influence from Saves the Day, New Found Glory and NOFX the Birmingham quartet have been spreading their infectious brand of punk rock for six years now. They've played shows with everyone from Cancer Bats to You Me At Six and in locations as far fetched as Russia! This year they round out a UK tour with a spot at the Slam Dunk festivals. 

Here's what Nick (Drums) had to say when we caught up with him:

So you are playing Slam Dunk this year! How did it come about?
Yeah we're all very happy to be a part of this years Slam Dunk, we've done it twice before in Leeds a couple years ago and again at the smaller Birmingham festival last year. But this year is bigger and better and of course two locations now, not to mention the amazing line up so it's going to be an awesome end of tour for us. It came about because The Audition had to pull out for whatever reason, so the line up got switched about a bit and there was a space left open which Ben Ray the 'creator' kindly gave to us.

Are there any plans to play any other festivals this year? What festivals would you love to play? 
We have a couple other festival appearances this summer, nothing major but 2011 will see us in China at Midi Festival if all goes to plan. It's the country's biggest rock festival and it's awesome. We would definitely love to play Reading & Leeds one year for obvious reasons. In terms of other festivals outside the uk, Warped tour would be insane so hopefully we can get to that level eventually. Groezock in Belgium and The Fest in the States always have rad line ups too...

You've also played with a bunch of awesome bands, is there anyone you've not played with yet that you'd love to? 

We've been lucky to have made friends with some great bands over the years. Speaking for myself, I would love to tour with New Found Glory, I think they're just a great band and are all down to earth dudes who you'd have fun with every day whilst going on to play an awesome packed venue every night. I grew up listening to them, they're 10 years down the line and still playing punk rock and pulling in big crowds, and all the kids there for them I'd like to think would dig our music too. On a smaller scale, I've just started listening to F-act who are a brilliant Japanese punk rock band (coincidentally they're playing Slam Dunk too) and I think it'd be really cool / interesting to tour with a band from such a different cultural background, especially if it was a Japanese tour!  

The UK scene seems to be really getting some recognition at the moment, Why do you think that is and what other bands out there would you like to see do well?

Well there has always been great bands from the UK, Captain Everything! is one of them, but with the internet being such a helping hand I think a lot of bands have used it to their advantage rather than before the internet when you would mostly only ever read about overseas bands in magazines like Kerrang - who have also actually began to support homegrown music a lot more now which is great. UK bands that I'd like to see get big - Maycomb, Basement, Save Your Breath, Not Advised.

What do you feel is All or Nothing's biggest achievement so far?
Touring around Russia last year would probably be the band as a wholes biggest achievement so far - unfortunately I personally didn't get to experience that as I was away in China ha, that was pretty annoying but the replacement drummer for the tour said he had a blast and the others said it was the best time of their life so I'm guessing it would be that...

This is already shaping up to be a big year for All or Nothing, what are the plans for the rest of the year?
Well we're heading to Chicago in September to record our first proper full length, at the same studio The Swellers recorded their latest album 'Ups and Downsizing' - so that should be a great month. Also there are a couple other summer tours being booked / finalised right now with some more sweet American bands, keep an eye out for that - Europe too which we've never toured so that will be real fun.  

Any parting words?

Come check us out at Slam Dunk Fest 2010 first on the Relentless Stage! And thanks to all who continue to support our band!

All or Nothing play the Relentless stage at Slam Dunk So make sure you get there early and check them out. They go on at 3.55pm for Slam Dunk North and Slam Dunk South at 3.45pm.

Go and check out their new song, 'You Can't Win This', on their Myspace now.