Oh nuit - ho la nuit sans fin!

[rachz]

Russell Denym }

o o c brief;

[Hiding behind his strong fringe of black, flecked with white-blonde, Russell's heart-shaped face can appear the picture of innocence when he's thinking, but sadly this rarely happens before the the guy speaks. That's one thing the lead-singer of Hilltop Hiatus doesn't seem to have mastered - it's like the conscience in him has taken an extended holiday. He speaks his mind, regardless, really of the situation and enjoys the chance to make a bad impression as he finds people remember those with attitude more than those who fall into the crowd. His complexion is pale, dusted with a few light freckles and standing at a respectable 5''9, he suits skinny jeans perfectly, infact they are a staple part of his outfits as he finds more baggy clothing makes him appear a bit peaky.

The first thing people always notice about Russell is his wild hair. Choppily cut and intensely styled to messy, ragged perfection, Mr. Foxx's back-combed barnet is instantly recognisable as a rebellion in itself.For the most part it covers up his deeply alluring chestnut eyes which, despite being out of sight are always accentuated with smoky dark eye-liner as if this was not the case. The concealed eyes give him quite a foreboding appearance, usually just his evil-looking grin as though you can't see him, but he sure as hell can see right through you. And that's what Russell does a lot of the time - look through the people who are not of use to him as if they don't exist.

Despite his tendency to speak his mind, he does so with a strange, almost anachronistic charm. His voice is silky and words flow easily from it and so he is very sociable. Unlike his appearance he allows people to catch on to what he's saying in a much more subtle way. He is, however, sometimes enclined to lie, for the pure fun of seeing how far he can go with people still believing all that comes from his mouth. Subconciously he feels like he is better than most people around him and likes to take advantage of this oppinion at every possible opportunity. In some ways he is correct, he is a dab hand at manipulating people into seeing his point of view, or encouraging people to do as he would like, it's one of the main reasons he's got so far in this career of his. ]

mr Denym;
[size=1][b]what is your name?- Russell Foxx.
how old are you?- Twenty Three
what gender are you?- Male
who are your parents?- Stacey and Andrew Fox.
what do they do?- They both work for the RSPCA in central London.
any siblings?- I have two younger sisters, Liegh and 'Rissa.
or other family?- My mother is American and so her side of the family all live in America, and I've met a couple of my cousins on tour there last year, but Dad was an only child and my grandparents are all dead.
when were you born?- 14th November, 1984
where?- Good ol' Camden town.
where do you live now?- In an apartment in Kentish Town, but I'm not telling you where!
any foreign blood?- American on my Mother's side, like I said.
what do people most compliment you on?- I often get compliments, most people comment on my hair, though.
what do you see as your best feature?- My hair.
why?-Stands to reason doesn't it, as it's one of my most complimented things. I like that unlike most of my appearance it is very versatile and allows me to be myself.
what do people criticise about your appearance?- They say I look a bit mental, but I take that as a compliment.
what do you see as your worst feature?- My cheeks.
why?- They're a little chubbier than I would like. I'd much prefer to have a distinguishable face shape.
your appearance in three words- Rebellious. Awesome. Wild.
beauty scale 1-10, 10 being best- 9, if I do say so myself.
what can't you stand to see in people?- Stupidity. Who wants to hang around with people who don't even know which way in their food goes? Oh, and people who take things lying down and let people walk all over them. It's really sad when you see people's lives being controlled by their peers.
what do you love to see in people?- Enthusiasm for life. The ability to laugh things off and a firey temper ready to stick up for what they believe whatever the consequence.
sexual orientation- Bi-curious, but on the whole, straight.
what lengths would you go to to get someone you loved?-[/b] They usually come to me...
would you win a fight?- Yeah! I have gotten into quite a few during my time and I know how to defend myself against twats who think they know what they're doing. Haha.
occupation?- Lead-Singer, HELL YAH!
any pets?- I don't have time for pets!
are you in a band? Oh, don't tell me you don't know. Hilltop Hiatus, mate.
what position, if yes?-Lead, like I said. I play guitar too, of course.
how famous are you, if yes?- Quite. I mean we're not suckishly mainstream, we have a large underground following though.
if not, what [i]do[/i] you do?- I rock out.

d e l v i n g deeper;
politics- Conservative.
religion- Athiest.
god- If there is a God, then why is the world so full of hate, famine, disaster and despair? Surely if God is all knowing and all creating... why did he allow us such ability to become monsters... or are we the flaw in God's plans for a perfect universe? And if we are the flaw, then why do so many worship him when we so adamantly work against his ideals?
friends- True ones are few and far between. I've learnt that people are only around as long as you are of use to them in some way, be it that you can cheer them up, or because you have material things you can offer them. Friendship is a term for the people who use you and, in turn, those you use.
enemies-Keep them twice as close as your friends and never let them the upper hand over you. EVER.
family- They're always around, which is great and they're pretty much obliged to listen to you. Though it used to suck when I had to babysit my sisters when we were younger... they stupid games they made me play - I remember they'd sit for hours playing hairdressers and putting my hair into obnoxious bunches. It was horrendous at the time, but hillarious now I look back at it. Sixteen year old me answering the door to the post-man with my hair in pink ribboned bunches. Hahahaha!
fashion- It's quite important, I mean what you wear is a big part of how people see you and first impressions can often make a big difference. Personally, I think black works well in most situations, so I stick with variations on that colour scheme. Haha.
crime & punishment- Bring back public executions, you know you want to.
sex?- Yes, please!
drugs- Only the mild ones, I'm not an idiot. Though going out and getting stoned really isn't my cup of tea, any more.
life- Is for living. Get out there and make the most of it, it's all you get.
death- Can be a beautiful thing. Make it good, it's the last thing you'll ever do - give the world something to remember.
war- Generally pointless, though sometimes unavoidable.
stereotypes/labels-Pathetic. People aren't born in cans, so why bother trying to categorize them like types of bean?
television- There are some decent things on, on occasion, but there's so much shit on during the day that no one in their right mind would read, I mean who honestly wants to know about the lives of dogs with jobs? It's stupid, it's pointless, and it's a waste of time and money.
education- Beyond Junior school, completely pointless really - the core subjects at least. When on earth am I ever going to need to work out the area of a frustrum in every day life? It's just a way to keep kids rounded up and off the streets... but why put them through the pointless hardship of calculus?
love- Is for everyone, eventually.

ambitions & goals-[now for the lengthier answers]
personal achievements- How cliché would it sound if I said that I wanted to make a difference to the world. Not in a grandfatherish 'Oh I wish I could have single-handedly ended world suffering and brought about peace on Earth.' but more that I want to encourage people to make the most of their lives, use their talents to the full and just generally enjoy themselves. I mean the world today is far too serious, people spend so much time working they forget about having fun. And what's the point in life if you come to your deathbed and can't turn around and smile saying 'Well, it was fun while it lasted.'?

I want the band to gain even more of a following so we can get this message across. Ignore 'The Man' and do what you like, hang out with whoever you like and live like you wanna, not like other people want you to.
turn-ons- Firey attitude and a good sense of fun, not to mention killer looks and a good head on her. I hate girls with nothing but air between their ears. If I were ever to want to settle down in a proper relationship, my partner would need all of these.
turn-offs- A tendancy to giggle far too much at anything and everything. And being a mad, raving stalker - never too good.
skills/talents-[/b] Well, singing, obviously, and playing guitar. I never really did too well at school, mainly because I got myself expelled for making my teacher's chair into a kind of ejector seat, with a big spring I found on the way to school and she got a bit hurt - but really, the concept of Project Eject-a-Teacher worked and I should be commended, at least by the tech department, for coming up with such an ingenious invention... somehow they didn't think of it that way and kicked me out. Though that was quite enough praise for me really, I'd always hated school. Apart from being an inventorous genius, I can draw quite well too, I guess.
strengths- Socialising. A chum of mine at school, Lucy, always used to say I was a social butterfly because while everyone was busy studying and doing homework, I was hardly ever at home. That's still true to this day, my apartment's tidy for the pure reason that I'm barely ever there!

Public Speaking. I've always been quite good at debating things, arguing my point has always been a great hobby to have, and taking interviews like this, on top of being fabulous fun, gives me time to excersise my public-speaking muscles as it were.

weaknesses- Girls. It's always been a problem of mine... I fall in and out of crushes so easily. There was a week last year when I was with five girls in the space of seven days, it was mad - but also awesome!

Lying. I do it far too much, and people don't even seem to notice, which makes it all the more easy to do, don't you think? I remember one time when I fully convinced my sisters that onion bhajis were made out of actual budgies which had been skinned and fried alive in onion-fat. They had nightmares when I ate one. It was hillarious.

fears- I have no fears! I'm a lean, mean, fear-fighting machine! A ninja, if you will. Though I suppose I do have a little trouble with flying, but I have to get over that during tours and stuff, so it's nothing really major. It just seems a bit worrying to me that humans have actually not discovered WHY aeroplanes stay in the sky, only that they do.

habits- Ruffling my hair. I do it so constantly and don't even think about it any more, it's wierd. Oh, and swearing - if I think something's shit, I will bloody well come out and say it, that's just the way I am, really. Hmm, what else? I have a problem with eating food if it's all mixed up; say I had some chicken, rice and peas - where most people would mix them up to get flavours of all three in one mouthful, I would eat the chicken, then peas, then rice all separately.

t h i s is t h e life;>
It's a strange old story, with a strange old beginning and, in parts a strange old middle - it's also quite safe, I think, to say, that when the end comes, it will be equally as strange. Where other bands were created from experienced musicians, trained in the art of composition and music, generally, Hilltop Hiatus' origins lie in a much less... noble beginning. It's fair to say they'd all made a bit of a hash of their lives, none the least Russel, who since his brief stint of home-schooling, which ended badly, had taken a turn for the worse.

He'd been left to his own devices a lot, as a child, rarely told what to do, or how to do it. His parents were busy people after all, sadly animal cruelty is rife in the streets of industrialised London nowadays. "It never used to be like this." His parents would say, each night at the late times in which they returned from thier duties. "London used to be a place of excitement and fun." To this, an sixteen year old Russell turned around, eyes manic, and replied, "Oh, but it IS, Mother!" his voice tinged with a slight glee at knowing something his poor mother did not. "You just aren't looking in the right places." These words confused the woman. What could her darling, if slightly off the rails, son mean? Now that he was out of his schooling, and tutoring was obviously not going to be productive, the boy had gotten himself a job in the evenings, and during the day watched over his younger sisters when they came home from school - or so she and her husband thought.

In truth he'd been spending more and more time with the wrong crowd. Soon he slumped into weekly 'piss-ups' and hanging about street corners until absurd times of night. It was only one night in a local club, with a couple of his closest mates, that he came to the drunken decision to turn his life around. What had ever happened to his enthusiasm for life, to his will to actually do something? It had become asphixiated at the bottom of a bottle which he had to drag himself out of before it ruined him completely. It was the same night one of his mates suggested they start a band. All four of the quartet were completely off their heads on vodka shots when they agreed to the idea - but it was the best of their lives. It was a rather off hand thing at first, but soon the four of them, now under the name Hilltop Hiatus, found themselves taking it a lot more seriously.

By the time Russell was 20, he was putting every spare moment with his guitar writing lyrics. He found in writing songs a talent that had never been forseen by his uninterested English teachers years previously, talents that would soon cause him and the band to rise to Indie-underground punk-rock fame! In two-thousand and six the band released their first album - previously they had worked covering songs at minor shows around the smaller clubs of London. Focussing on this, and improving his skills, Russell was able to pull himself out of the slump which could have so easily taken over his life and get things back on track.

This first album, entitled 'A Bag Of Snakes' was the pure musical incarnation of chaos. The garage-punkers had just one song that made anywhere close to popularity, the stomping anthem 'Last of The Modern Rockers' made it to 69 in the UK singles chart through sales after the band's public shows. Their popularity spread greatly through MySpace over the next year and the band regrouped and changed tactics slightly. Their new album 'A Taste Of Things To Come' was released recently, and is already gaining great recognition among those of the Underground Scene. Could this bring them the break they need?

Spelling problems are probably rife... though I must say it's too early for me to care. I've been listening to RiD for the last hour and 11 minutes and am happily learning les lyriques to LA NUIT as we speak. =) Anyway, Russ-Russ isn't quite finished yet and I haven't read through him for mistakes and whatever, so treat him kindly - but I'd love to know what you think.

Nighto xxx