Interview by Geno McGahee
Prime is a rock band from the UK and have been gaining quite the following. Their latest hit “BYE BYE” is turning heads and getting a great response by the audience. Scared Stiff had the chance to sit down with the lead singer of the band, Lee Heir, to talk about their music and what they are about…
GM: Hi Lee! Can you introduce yourself to the public?
I’m Lee Heir, lead singer of a rock, blues and indie influenced band called Prime.
GM: How would you describe your band, your style and your message?
Be yourself, tell the truth, and do it with a bit of grass-roots flash.
GM: What got you into music in the beginning and what musicians/bands were your inspirations in the early days?
I was massively influenced by the likes of the Velvet Underground, early Oasis and Stones, The Sex Pistols, and I’d say listening to people like David Bowie and The Doors made me want to be a singer.
GM: The CD version of this year’s compilation Art / Facts 2014 – 2018 is out on December 13th and the lead track ‘To Be Or Not To Be’ can be heard online everywhere now… Talk about your latest CD. What should the public expect from this material?
Well a lot of this material is from the past, and as we’re about to record again in the new year, this release has been nice to bring out to put a full stop on things. It includes stuff like the IOU EP, that was only released in our early days on Bandcamp and never saw an official release, and it also collects our singles on CD for the first time, ‘In Summer’, ‘Bye Bye’ and ‘To Be Or Not To Be’. There’s also an interview with some rare live recordings on there and they will be never be released on anything but this ‘Art / Facts’ CD. The release is literally bulging with content… we actually couldn’t have fit another minute of music on it.
GM: What has been the best experience you’ve had being in the business since you began playing?
Getting great feedback and followers in great venues and even in different countries… when I started out I wanted to be in a really good band playing good gigs but I never imagined we’d be playing to big crowds at places like the o2 or getting great respect from top ten artists that I grew up listening to, or people in places like Sweden, Holland, Germany, it’s been fantastic.
GM: And what has been the worst experience you’ve had?
Just dealing with lots of unreliable musicians over the years. I was lucky I had people like Kieran Hill, Chris Munton and Chris Bramley – who plays with me now – or otherwise I’d probably be up there with one of the worst judge of musical characters ever!
GM: With the changing mediums in the distribution of music, how difficult is it to make a living in the business these days?
I think you just have to be smart and make sure you’re clued up on publishing, PRS, and stuff like T shirts and CDs that bring another string to your bow.
GM: You’ve recently played some shows with both Chris Helme of the Seahorses and Electric Six and also an indie show at the o2, and also been on a Euro tour with your new guitarist Chris D Bramley who also has a new EP ‘One Of The Boys’ out in December … how are you enjoying things now the shows are progressing in the right direction?
Well it’s exactly how you described it, I’m enjoying these kind of shows very much, you’d be a fool if you said you didn’t enjoy playing these quality shows and big crowds.
GM: Thanks for talking to us Lee, anyone you’d like to thank or anything you’d like to add?
I’d just like to thank myself to be honest! I’ve stuck with this project and I’m proud of the body of work on there. And of course, I have great memories of the people I wrote these songs with. Some of the people that played on the ‘Art/Facts’ CD were good enough to last in music, some weren’t, but the fact of the matter is that we embraced a world of music from blues, rock, indie, punk, ska, funk… Prime weren’t afraid to be a bit different and did our own thing, and I’m proud of that.
Prime UK Band – ‘To Be Or Not To Be’ the lead track from their compilation Art / Facts 2014 – 2018 is out now – The CD version is out Friday 13th December
Prime (UK Band) can be found at primeband.co.uk / facebook.com/ukprime
Instagram / Twitter – @primeukband
