Interview with acoustic action-man Mike Rosenberg / Passenger

• 11th Mar 2008

23 year old Mike Rosenberg AKA Passenger (M/P) is steadily gaining recognition for packing an emotional punch behind his music. He kindly took time out to offer us an insight into the man himself!

AS: When you take aim with your peashooter/pellet gun/sniper rifle, you're aiming at?
M/P: My specially crafted target board that I spent 4 months making.

AS: Where do you go when it all gets too much?
M/P: To the police station to hand myself in.

AS: Is bedtime more half nine with a half read paper or more half four with fully red eyes?
M/P: Half 11 with paper eyes!

AS: What do you do in your recreational time?
M/P: Eat Pritt sticks!

AS: Who would be your dream collaborator?
M/P: Erm… Neil Young.

AS: What's the last gig/concert you went to?
M/P: Saw a band called the Boycott Coca Cola Experience last night who were very good.

AS: What's the best music video?
M/P: Anything by Michel Gondry.

AS: If you were a musical instrument what would you be?
M/P: A triangle.

AS: Do you believe in love at first sight?
M/P: Yes!

AS: Where do you draw your inspiration from?
M/P: Everyday life.

AS: Any regrets, missed opportunities or things that might've been?
M/P: No, I think I made the right decisions at the time.

AS: Were/are you aware of your escalating popularity?
M/P: Sometimes.

AS: Will your past come back to haunt you?
M/P: In some form I should think.

AS: Where do you most enjoy playing live?
M/P: Scotland’s always good fun.

AS: Why? What's your biggest why question and has mystified you the longest?
M/P: Why is it acceptable to be racist towards Americans?

AS: Who is most influential on your sound?
M/P: I really don’t know.

AS: Where do you sit in the grand scheme of things?
M/P: On the chair of time.

AS: Why the name?
M/P: Cos it gets confusing without one!

AS: Whose the most likely to go solo or crazy?
M/P: Sozy.

AS: Any choice epitaphs, famous last words or something you'd like to be remembered for?
M/P: Best score in the pea shooting championships (see question 1).

AS: What makes you better than everyone else?
M/P: Absolutely nothing.

AS: When do you plan to take over the world?
M/P: Tuesday morning.

AS: Are you all agreed/in control of the formats for your releases?
M/P: Yes.

AS: Wish you were doing anything else with your time other than music?
M/P: No.

AS: Did you have any heroes when you were a teenager?
M/P: Alan Shearer.

AS: What do you think of the paparazzi?
M/P: They're boring.

AS: What are you listening to right now?
M/P: Joanna Newsom.

AS: Any message to any underachieving or odds facing musician out there?
M/P: Good luck

AS: Any career highs or lows you care to share?
M/P: Playing at V festival was a high and playing to 13 people (including bar staff) in a 500 capacity venue in Carlisle was a low… a real low.

AS: Do you enjoy playing live or are you more at home in a studio?
M/P: Really like both. With recording you can do it in nothing but a cape and your pants and no one would ever know! Not that we do…

AS: Your career defining dream moment would be what?
M/P: Having a song on Match of the Day!

AS: Any upcoming music / bands worth keeping an eye on that are destined for greatness?
M/P: Passenger.

AS: How important do you feel visuals are in relation to music?
M/P: Hopefully not very… we're extremely ugly.

AS: What was the highlight of your summer?
M/P: Going to Croatia, it’s beautiful.

AS: I'm sure you've done a few but, do you know which has been your best ever gig?
M/P: V festival I should think.

AS: What will this year bring?
M/P: Surprises!

AS: Is there more pressure playing live with a band than there is playing solo?
M/P: I think it’s harder in a way because you have to listen more.

AS: Are you unlucky in love?
M/P: I think you make your own luck really.

AS: Best song, movie or LP ever?
M/P: Couldn't possibly say.

AS: Where did you sleep last night?
M/P: In my bed.

AS: What's your secret vice, what are you a sucker for?
M/P: Cribs, lollypops.

AS: What makes the world go round?
M/P: Science.

AS: Where's the place to be?
M/P: My place

AS: What's your weak point?
M/P: Maths.

AS: What's your favourite instrument?
M/P: The Harp.

AS: What inspired the LP title?
M/P: A song title. It’s called Wicked Mans Rest …an extremely clever play on “no rest for the wicked”.

AS: Are you a good dancer?
M/P: Exceptional… I beat Michael Jackson in a dance off!

AS: What kinds of music do you dislike the most?
M/P: Any where image is the number one concern.

AS: Where will you retire to when you're tired of comeback concerts?
M/P: St Ives.

AS: When will the world end?
M/P: Saturday!

AS: Who is the main driving force or do you work as a team?
M/P: There's no I in team!

AS: How important are the charts?
M/P: I don’t know.

AS: What revival would you most like to witness?
M/P: East 17…they were so close!

AS: What era would you have been born in ideally?
M/P: 1920s America.

AS: Are exercise and diet important?
M/P: Yes.

AS: If you could save 1 thing in the world, what would it be?
M/P: Snow Leopards.

AS: Who's the most gifted person alive today?
M/P: Cesc Fabregas.

AS: Have you got any famous relatives?
M/P: No.

AS: Does complaining accomplish anything?
M/P: Only being annoying.

AS: Have you got anybody's autograph?
M/P: No.

AS: Which fictional character would you most like to be?
M/P: Jack Bauer from 24.

AS: Which rules, the digital age or the vinyl/cassette age?
M/P: Vinyl/cassette as musicians could make a bit of money.

AS: If a musical style was to become extinct, which would go first i.e. jazz, folk?
M/P: White reggae (with a few exceptions).

AS: Do you have any unused band names you'd love to use?
M/P: Mikey and the Pea Shooters.

AS: Was growing up and becoming who you are today easy?
M/P: No.

AS: What's the biggest myth about stardom?
M/P: I'll tell you when I know.

AS: Have you ever been conned into or out of something?
M/P: My innocence.

AS: Do politics have a place in music?
M/P: Yes, but only if you know what you're on about. Not just talking vaguely about corporations…

AS: Thanks for your time Mike…

If you wanna read what I thought of 'Table for One', the recent single from Passenger, click the link!
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