The other night a friend of mine invited me to a bands first ever gig. I spoke to Lee a while back and he told me that he had been shitting it for a few weeks. He told me how he had somehow wrangled his way as the (scream) vocals of a band having had no experience in music. The idea of completely winging it in an industry you don’t know intrigued me so I asked him a few questions. Below is an exchange between myself and Lee Mackley about his first gig with Crooked Royals a brand new six piece metalcore/screamo/melodic-hardcore band from Auckland.
How did you realise you could scream and how did you end up doing it with a band?
So did you approach a band?
Yeah Jake our guitarist posted a YouTube video online of him playing, saying he was starting a band and thought fuck it lets give it a go and sent him a message.
Who wrote the lyrics?
So you recently played your first gig, how did you feel leading up to it?
Remember the playdo machines were you twirl it through the end, imagine that but with brown playdoh.

Dan shredding the a x e
And right before you started. What was going through your head?
It’s too late to back out now, I hope people like it and I don’t fall off the stage, pretty straight forward.
Did the presence of your girlfriend and friends help?
At first I didn’t want anyone there I knew at all but I’m glad they all came it was actually what made it 1000% easier looking at them when I was on.