MUSIC The Lost Prophets make noise with American sound

Faith No More is the lead singer's biggest influence.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
How can a British band make it in America in an era when few U.K. bands do? Simple. Sound as American as possible.
That's the M.O. behind The Lost Prophets, a group from the windy wilds of Wales that sounds like it just stepped off a bunch of skateboards in Southern California.
"Even some fans at home think we're from America," laughs Lost Prophets singer Ian Watkins. "We don't have that Anglophile sound of super moody chords and introspective lyrics."
Instead, they boast the metallic riffs and poppy choruses of SoCal bands like Hoobastank and Incubus, with a lot of Faith No More thrown in.
The result has kept the band's second CD, "Start Something," safely inside Billboard's Top 40 since it was released seven weeks ago.
According to Watkins, the United Kingdom has boasted its share of hard-rocking, America-friendly bands, but the local industry lost interest in them years ago. "There was no market for rock," he says. "You had to be a jingle jangly indie band or college art act."
New direction
Things began to turn around after American heathens like Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit started selling in enviable numbers overseas, he says. That prompted more U.K. bands and fans to get in touch with their inner rocker, bolstering groups like The Darkness.
Watkins and his band mates grew up listening to U.S. metal and punk. Faith No More remains his top influence.
"It's not a conscious thing," he says. "But the notes I choose to sing, and the melodies [we write], come from them because I spent so much time listening growing up."
Watkins did so in the band's tiny hometown of Pontypridd, Wales, "a nice place with horrible weather."
He says the group used to play music and skateboard there as kids because there was nothing else to do.