In their Prime

So how was India? Good times or culture shock?
Ross: It was a great experience — a lot of people have different ideas about it but we came back having had a brilliant time.

Marco: There's a big market for rock music over there. We found they're the kind of fans who, if they support you, they really support you. They're very loyal fans — that's why big rock groups like Iron Maiden keep going back there. They definitely love their rock music down there.

Did you feel the culture difference?
Dirk: In a way yes but, in a way, also no. The support is as good as it is here and could even be better if we go back to the country soon sometime, hopefully. But they just rock out like any crowd would. A good party.

Is there any failsafe way of getting that party going if you realise the crowd just isn't that into it?
Ross: We usually blame the drummer. We just step it up a gear. There's always going to be the tricky shows — they exist for every band in the world — so you've just got to play through it and just try harder. I don't think there's a particular song we fall back on, though.

Neil: We tend to read the crowd pretty well, so if the setlist isn't working too well then Ross will pick up on it and change the songs up a bit.

Do you have a different approach for small and large venues? Or do you always just play all out?
Marco: Five or 5000, that's our motto. So whether it's a festival or a club gig we play with the same energy. Obviously we prefer the bigger stages because they allow us to move better and feel a better vibe as a band.

You've been doing plenty of touring, so how do you keep those band vibes good off the stage?
Dirk: We've been touring so long that if there are any issues, we know we have to sort them out. It's not about me or Marco or Ross, it's about the music, it's about the band. So we have to sort it out to get to the next level.

Marco: Also, we know each other's buttons. We know if something's really going to piss the guy off so we just don't go there. We know when to push each other and when not to, when it's good to joke around and when it isn't. So we try avoid those things because at the end of the day we need to be together on the road, and if there is an issue, luckily we're big enough men to deal with it there and then and get it out of the way.

What about downtime on tour? How do you spend the rest of your day when you're on stage for two hours of it?
Ross: We try to catch up on sleep, to be honest. We catch up with friends and families, stuff like that, but otherwise it's mainly sleep. We live for the stage so it makes us pretty boring in a lot of the personal aspects of things but we traded that wild life in a long time ago.

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In their Prime We catch up with Prime Circle to talk rocking out in India, being recognised, and sleeping.

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