February 25, 2009
By Atiyyah Khan
My telephonic interview with Panic at the Disco turned out to be a royal disaster, wrought in much, errr … panic.
A last-minute miscommunication with the band's agent had me in a frenetic state the night before, after I was told that I needed to phone California for the interview at 6am.
The panic even involved a midnight argument with a stubborn Vodacom call centre agent, who gave me the old, "No we can't, ma'm, its procedure" crap about making the international call.
Grumpily, I went to bed.
After three hours of sleep, blurry-eyed and sleep-deprived, I phone guitarist Ryan Ross via my flatmate's Skype.
Five minutes into the interview we are cut off. Panicking some more, thinking it's my fault, I call back, but Ross tells me he is stuck in the mountains somewhere in California, so the line is bad. We get cut off about five more times and he apologises profusely each time.
I was more than happy to keep it short and go back to sleep and to my delight he was a man of a few words.
The band, which is originally from Las Vegas, has just relocated to California. Why? "Well, there's nothing really in Vegas. We moved because there's more culture here and the bands we like are here."
About South Africa he says: "We've never been there or heard anything about it, but we're excited to check it out."
The band doesn't have any gigs planned until they come here as they are working on recording a new album, about which he discloses absolutley nothing.
Panic at the Disco is known to have a strong theatrical element to their live shows, with can-can dancers and vaudeville, but for their show in South Africa, Ross says: "We are not allowed to do any of those crazy things unless we are headlining, which we're not, sadly."
Their live shows are also known for including covers, such as Radiohead's Karma Police and Nelly Furtado's Maneater, but for their gig here Ross hints at perhaps throwing in an Isley Brothers cover.
Speaking about the festivals headline act, British rockers Oasis, Ross says: "We have never played with Oasis or seen them live before, but it should be cool."
Short and sweet.
I try to play on his paranoia and freak him out a bit about Johannesburg being voted one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
"Uhhh, I don't mind playing there, as long as I come back with at least some of my limbs," he jokes nervously and with that the conversation ends, thankfully.
  
 
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