Third time unlucky. After mentioning that I'd interviewed the Pigeon Detectives a couple of times, I was asked to get them again for Sheffield/Yorkshire music website Square Indie. I felt so bad going back; like they don't see enough of me in their audiences already. However all went well and they seemed fairly relaxed.
I had to edit this heavily because the word count was considerably shorter than I'm used to, which was a bit annoying because I wanted to keep in all their banter and jokey quarrels with each other. Ah well, but I think it reads more intelligently as a result. This interview scared me a bit because it was the first I'd done since early December, almost six months previously.
Dave said he was pleased I left in the bit about his domestic skills because it would impress his girlfriend. I haven't quite worked out if he was being sarcastic.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Square Indie http://www.squareindie.co.uk in June 2008
(c) Square Indie
THE PIGEON DETECTIVES
@ Portsmouth Guldhall, 27th May 2008
I’m backstage with four-fifths of the Pigeon Detectives, in a small room decorated with scattered songsheets. They’re due onstage in just over three hours. Singer Matt Bowman is absent; probably receiving the physiotherapy he’s needed after badly injuring the ligaments in his leg, ironically during a performance which included This Is An Emergency. Guitarist Ryan Wilson is sitting by the window softly strumming an acoustic. Drummer Jimmi Naylor is confusingly also on guitar, while bassist Dave Best is on the iron because guitarist Oli Main can’t quite work out how to un-crease his shirt.
The Pigeon Detectives are currently touring to promote their second album, Emergency. Everyone keeps asking why it’s been released just a year after their debut. “Because we wanted to,” says Oli.
“It’s just because the last God-knows-how-many years, it’s become the norm to have the two year break but we just thought sod it, we can write the songs, let’s do another album,” says Ryan.
The recording studio was in the Welsh valleys and the band relaxed by quad-biking and clay pigeon shooting. “We just didn’t want the distractions of any major city so we just went away,” says Ryan. “And it’s a really reputable studio. Oasis have recorded there, Stereophonics, Black Sabbath. The View are recording their second album right now in there. It had a really good history and good equipment, so we thought, why not?”
Oli has been labelled as the band’s chief songwriter. “Apparently. No, I am.” Are there any themes running through Emergency? “Not particularly. I don’t know what half the songs are about anyway. It’s not like a happy album or owt like that.”
I think it’s a bit more bitter than the last one. “I wouldn’t say bitter, I’d say maybe cynical or something like that.” Is that because you’re a cynical person? “No, I just had a really bad mood for them three weeks we were doing it.”
If you listen to the album’s close, you’ll hear Jimmi get insulted. “I thought we’d finished recording. I was on the phone for about an hour to my bird and come downstairs and I was like, what the fuck’s going on? I went in and started singing when everyone started to whistle, and then I just thought I’d carry on and Matt went ‘Oh, you bell-end!’”
Although their lively, punchy indie rock has won the band masses of airplay and plenty of excitable fans, some critics haven’t received Emergency as warmly as Wait For Me, with the Guardian dismissing its appeal as ‘Granada Men and Motors indie.’ Are the band aware of this slating? “I don’t think I should read it,” says Dave. “I tend to get a bit angry.”
Jimmi’s seen it: “I stayed in a hotel and ordered paper for next morning, fucking opened it up and it absolutely tore into [Emergency]!” he laughs. “I wouldn’t take that to heart.”
“Have you heard the album? Do you like it?” Ryan asks sternly. “That isn’t friendly is it Ryan!” chides Dave.
Oli’s reading what it says about him in the aforementioned review. “Apparently I ‘feel obliged to take someone down a peg or two, which he does using his reliably devastating oh-so technique, ‘you think you’re oh-so clever’ or ‘oh-so petty and so pretentious.’’ None of them were my lines.” We suggest he sues, but he ain’t fussed. “It’s a funny read.”
The Pigeon Detectives won’t be taking it easy this year. “I guess one of the big aims is just to do well outside of the UK,” says Oli. In the pipeline are various festivals, shows in Europe, a month in America around September time, and then another UK tour towards the backend of the year.
How’s the current tour going? “It’s going pretty good actually. I hear every night’s sold out, bar one,” says Ryan. “Crowds have been good so can’t complain really.”
Did you think it would be cancelled when Matt hurt his leg? “We thought it might be delayed. We had to cancel Ireland, we had a couple of gigs up there. We’ll be back again at some point,” says Ryan.
What songs are getting the best audience reaction on tour at the moment? “Take Her Back and I’m Not Sorry.” Out of the Emergency tracks, I’m Not Gonna Take This and You Don’t Need It are going down well, though it always takes people a while to get used to new songs. “There’s a clear difference between the songs they know and the songs they’re kind of listening to,” says Jimmi. “But they’re still giving good cheers after.”
“I think we knacker our crowd out quite early on, like we proper hammer out some big songs,” says Ryan.
The Pigeon Detectives’ walk on song for the Emergency tour is The Who’s Baba O’Riley. The band find it harder to choose their intro music than to pick their setlist.
“You can’t have it build too early, it’s got to kick in as the band walk out,” says Ryan. “And a lot of songs that you find don’t kick in strong enough. We had us last intro music [Telstar, originally by The Tornadoes]. It was quite cool, with all helicopter type things going on at the beginning.”
There’s a sharp intake of breath. “I burnt me finger,” says Dave, who’s still ironing Oli’s shirt. “I feel like singing I Want To Break Free by Queen.” You’re not wearing girly clothes under that coat, are you? “Wouldn’t you like to know…”
“Suspenders,” suggests Oli.
“You need to look after Oli because he comes very scruffy on tour so you need to iron his clothes and hang up his underwear,” retorts Dave.
“I’ve been wearing these same clothes since Cambridge I think,” says Oli. He then realises some items may have stayed on since Manchester, five days previously. He inspects his white t shirt. It looks fairly clean. “It’s not!”
What’s the best and worst thing about being a Pigeon Detective?
“David Best is the worst,” says Oli. David Best looks unimpressed.
“The best is playing big gigs, playing festivals and making albums. The worst is travelling, getting on very early plane journeys,” says Jimmi.
”I think the best can also be travelling as well,” pipes up Dave. “Seeing all different places.” Including every service station in Britain, according to Oli.
“When we used to be in our Transit van, that’s all we used to be doing, going to service stations,” says Jimmi. Occasionally shoplifting from them, because they had no money. “I’ve nicked pasties before, Ginster’s pasties.”
“It’s like Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to feed us, the poor,” Ryan confirms.
“We’d paid for that many pasties that we deserved some free ones,” says Dave. Fair enough.
The band is widely and commercially successful now, but do they still see themselves as part of the Yorkshire scene?
“[The New Yorkshire scene] were just a bit before us,” says Ryan. “Black Wire, The Cribs, Forward Russia and stuff were all part of that but we just missed that boat and so we’ve never really classed ourselves as in that New Yorkshire thing. We got tagged a little bit about it, like “it’s another band from Yorkshire,” like Arctic Monkeys and Milburn.”
“It’s not a scene though, it’s not like we’re all friends or anything,” says Oli. “We hardly know any of them bands. The only bands we know from Yorkshire - we only know them a little bit - are Sunshine Underground, Kaiser Chiefs and Forward Russia. It’s not like we all go out to Joseph’s Well for drinks and stuff.”
Are there any local bands they can recommend? “The Wallbirds, they’re from Doncaster. Although we don’t like Doncaster,” says Ryan, remembering a recent play-off result that saddened Leeds United fans. “They’re pretty good. Grammatics, but I’ve not seen them properly.”
One of the highlights from the West Yorks gigging calendar this year has to be the two sold-out nights the Pigeon Detectives played at Millennium Square in their home city of Leeds. “It were good, weren’t it,” says Ryan. His bandmates consider this a slight understatement.
“First night, it felt like a moment, when we looked at crowd,” remembers Jimmi.
“Summat happened with the PA. So it cut the intro music,” says Ryan. “The crowd started booing, and then we kind of walked on to boos. Not aimed at us!” The first night’s supports proved popular, but the Pigeon Detectives think the second night was a better gig, performance-wise for them.
“We’d not really played that many gigs leading up to that, like now we’re in the middle of a tour and you kind of get used to it. So I got quite anxious and nervous,” continues Ryan. “I think Matt gets nervous.”
Moving on, and lucky Jimmi gets the special Mystery Prize question card which wins him a bottle of Jack Daniels. He’s very pleased. “Thank you very much. I’ll drink that tonight. We’ve had Corona for a while and we’re getting a bit sick of that. We’re moving to Peroni.”
“A lot of bands have weird stuff, but we’re just beer and cider and vodka and red bull,” says Ryan.
Weird stuff? “A lot of bands have a different spirit for each band member, like Kaisers have. Peanut likes rum so they get him a big bottle of rum every gig,” explains Dave, who is now tapping away with a pair of drumsticks.
Do you have any pre-gig superstitions? “We generally stick our iPod on and listen to a load of music before we go on,” says Ryan. “Some bands do huddles and high fives. We’re not like that.”
“I always walk out first,” says Jimmi. “It feels weird if I don’t.” Troublemaker Oli decides he’s going to walk out first at that night’s gig, like he did in Manchester “because [Jimmi] took his time… You can’t stop me.” The drummer makes it clear he won’t let this happen.
“I’m not going to start walking on too early! But it were weird when you walked on, I don’t know why. It didn’t ruin my gig. No-one can ruin my gig.”
Eagle-eyed gig goers may have noticed that night, as Baba O’Riley started, Jimmi suddenly lurched in front of the curtain before scurrying back behind it. It was almost as if one of his bandmates had pushed him on early for a laugh…
The Pigeon Detectives released Emergency on 26th May.
Monday, 16 June 2008
Gig Review - The Pigeon Detectives @ Astoria
I was going to this gig anyway, so was asked to do some work instead of just enjoying myself. I believed the published version was edited down a bit, but this is the full length blah.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Square Indie http://www.squareindie.co.uk in March 2008
(c) Square Indie
The Pigeon Detectives / Black Kids / The Rascals / Grammatics
@ Astoria, London 7th Feb
When you’re sandwiched against the barrier and the call of ‘Let’s go fucking mental!’ goes up behind you, either it’s going to be a good night or an unscheduled trip to A&E is just around the corner.
The NME/Shockwaves gig at London’s Astoria, headlined by the Pigeon Detectives, was the first of the Awards shows to sell out and the band’s first gig since mid-December.
First support came courtesy of Grammatics, whose jerky indie pop is given a strong backbone through the imposing cello. Opening with previous single ‘Shadow Committee’, they also played ‘Broken Wing’ (introduced as their version of a power ballad). Owen Brinley’s high voice seems to float above the rest of the band and they were an interestingly quirky start for the people who had bothered to turn up early.
Next up were The Rascals, whose echoing and pounding lad rock has real potential to get a crowd hurling beer cans all over the place. It’s too early for that tonight however. Their deafening tunes contain psychedelic echoes and swirls similar to labelmates the Dead 60s. They have cracking songs although some have a feeling of ‘did I hear this one already?’ At the moment it’s impossible to mention The Rascals without also namedropping their similar-sounding mates, the Arctic Monkeys. But if you hadn’t considered them in the same breath before, the sight of Alex Turner stepping onto the stage, guitar in hand to join in music and vocal duties on ‘Is It Too Late?’ will change that. The Astoria erupted, but it won’t be the music The Rascals are remembered for tonight.
Black Kids were the scenesters’ band of the night (bright clothes – check. Korgs – check. Topshop/Vice Tour – check). They’ve travelled over from Florida for a handful of key shows to whip up UK interest before embarking on Sons & Daughters and Kate Nash support slots. They were on a mission to get everyone dancing with their optimistic, poppy tracks whose melodies pleasingly reminded me of Operator Please. Sadly the girls’ voices were almost inaudible above the music so that extra dimension was lost, but it was still entertaining.
Last year was an immense one for the Pigeon Detectives and saw them described by hosts NME as ‘band of the summer’ and ‘undisputed dons of the festival circuit’ (and ‘sexist’, but presumably they forgot to mention that when booking for tonight). Joking that The Rascals might have had Alex Turner but they had Bono hidden backstage, they played songs including ‘I Found Out’, ‘Romantic Type’, ‘Don’t Know How To Say Goodbye’ and ‘Stop Or Go’. Singer Matt Bowman pointed out this was their first gig for a few months and promptly forgot the lyrics to ‘Take Her Back’.
After spending some weeks recording their new album, the Pigeon Detectives tried out a handful of new tracks - ‘I’m A Liar’, ‘Say It Like You Mean It’ and ‘I’m Not Gonna Take This’, angrily-named songs full of a darker energy and the band’s trademark singalong choruses.
The band were high-spirited throughout, with Bowman laughing as he untangled the mic lead from guitarist Oli Main and occasionally throwing water at drummer Jimmi Naylor. The audience was equally up for it, with plenty of sweaty crowdsurfing. I got clipped on the head with a stray beer can. It hurt.
The show closed with ‘I’m Not Sorry’, though I missed half of that one because Bowman and a couple of randoms were crowdsurfing on my head. The crowd was bouncing along, I didn’t go to A&E, and it was a good night. May we see more of all four bands this year.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Square Indie http://www.squareindie.co.uk in March 2008
(c) Square Indie
The Pigeon Detectives / Black Kids / The Rascals / Grammatics
@ Astoria, London 7th Feb
When you’re sandwiched against the barrier and the call of ‘Let’s go fucking mental!’ goes up behind you, either it’s going to be a good night or an unscheduled trip to A&E is just around the corner.
The NME/Shockwaves gig at London’s Astoria, headlined by the Pigeon Detectives, was the first of the Awards shows to sell out and the band’s first gig since mid-December.
First support came courtesy of Grammatics, whose jerky indie pop is given a strong backbone through the imposing cello. Opening with previous single ‘Shadow Committee’, they also played ‘Broken Wing’ (introduced as their version of a power ballad). Owen Brinley’s high voice seems to float above the rest of the band and they were an interestingly quirky start for the people who had bothered to turn up early.
Next up were The Rascals, whose echoing and pounding lad rock has real potential to get a crowd hurling beer cans all over the place. It’s too early for that tonight however. Their deafening tunes contain psychedelic echoes and swirls similar to labelmates the Dead 60s. They have cracking songs although some have a feeling of ‘did I hear this one already?’ At the moment it’s impossible to mention The Rascals without also namedropping their similar-sounding mates, the Arctic Monkeys. But if you hadn’t considered them in the same breath before, the sight of Alex Turner stepping onto the stage, guitar in hand to join in music and vocal duties on ‘Is It Too Late?’ will change that. The Astoria erupted, but it won’t be the music The Rascals are remembered for tonight.
Black Kids were the scenesters’ band of the night (bright clothes – check. Korgs – check. Topshop/Vice Tour – check). They’ve travelled over from Florida for a handful of key shows to whip up UK interest before embarking on Sons & Daughters and Kate Nash support slots. They were on a mission to get everyone dancing with their optimistic, poppy tracks whose melodies pleasingly reminded me of Operator Please. Sadly the girls’ voices were almost inaudible above the music so that extra dimension was lost, but it was still entertaining.
Last year was an immense one for the Pigeon Detectives and saw them described by hosts NME as ‘band of the summer’ and ‘undisputed dons of the festival circuit’ (and ‘sexist’, but presumably they forgot to mention that when booking for tonight). Joking that The Rascals might have had Alex Turner but they had Bono hidden backstage, they played songs including ‘I Found Out’, ‘Romantic Type’, ‘Don’t Know How To Say Goodbye’ and ‘Stop Or Go’. Singer Matt Bowman pointed out this was their first gig for a few months and promptly forgot the lyrics to ‘Take Her Back’.
After spending some weeks recording their new album, the Pigeon Detectives tried out a handful of new tracks - ‘I’m A Liar’, ‘Say It Like You Mean It’ and ‘I’m Not Gonna Take This’, angrily-named songs full of a darker energy and the band’s trademark singalong choruses.
The band were high-spirited throughout, with Bowman laughing as he untangled the mic lead from guitarist Oli Main and occasionally throwing water at drummer Jimmi Naylor. The audience was equally up for it, with plenty of sweaty crowdsurfing. I got clipped on the head with a stray beer can. It hurt.
The show closed with ‘I’m Not Sorry’, though I missed half of that one because Bowman and a couple of randoms were crowdsurfing on my head. The crowd was bouncing along, I didn’t go to A&E, and it was a good night. May we see more of all four bands this year.
Track Review - Subliminal Girls
This originally appeared on Native.tv but were also reproduced on 21st Century Music, thanks to the lovely Ray.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in January 2008
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
Subliminal Girls - Hungry Like The Wolf / Self Obsession Is An Art Form
We’ve been told off for not putting Subliminal Girls in our recent Ones To Watch In 2008 section at Native.tv, so sorry about that. They’re on the hunt, they’re after you, so be on the lookout. If you also know the words to “Hungry Like The Wolf” you have either a) been subjecting your friends and neighbours to SingStar Party far too much, or b) you’re a major Duran Duran fan.
I’m not sure what the reasons are for covering this track, but never mind. It’s been turned from a slightly clumsy electropop track into a thoroughly enjoyable, fast paced, fizzy glam Britpop anthem – think Pulp’s “Disco 2000″ (the single version if you’re being fussy) for the general joyful feel. It’s played by some energetic Girls (boys) dosed up on sugary orangeade with a dash of vodka in there.
The vocals occasionally get lost in the hearty cheerfulness, but apart from that it’s three-and-a-half minutes of colourful bouncy pop. It’s a double A-side to “Self Obsession Is An Art Form”, a song which made me think of “Everyday Is Like Sunday”. This track shows a more vulnerable and relaxed-sounding side: “You are going to eat me alive” is set to a warm grey cloud of music. ‘Tis very nice, but ‘Hungry…’ is the most enjoyable of the two.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in January 2008
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
Subliminal Girls - Hungry Like The Wolf / Self Obsession Is An Art Form
We’ve been told off for not putting Subliminal Girls in our recent Ones To Watch In 2008 section at Native.tv, so sorry about that. They’re on the hunt, they’re after you, so be on the lookout. If you also know the words to “Hungry Like The Wolf” you have either a) been subjecting your friends and neighbours to SingStar Party far too much, or b) you’re a major Duran Duran fan.
I’m not sure what the reasons are for covering this track, but never mind. It’s been turned from a slightly clumsy electropop track into a thoroughly enjoyable, fast paced, fizzy glam Britpop anthem – think Pulp’s “Disco 2000″ (the single version if you’re being fussy) for the general joyful feel. It’s played by some energetic Girls (boys) dosed up on sugary orangeade with a dash of vodka in there.
The vocals occasionally get lost in the hearty cheerfulness, but apart from that it’s three-and-a-half minutes of colourful bouncy pop. It’s a double A-side to “Self Obsession Is An Art Form”, a song which made me think of “Everyday Is Like Sunday”. This track shows a more vulnerable and relaxed-sounding side: “You are going to eat me alive” is set to a warm grey cloud of music. ‘Tis very nice, but ‘Hungry…’ is the most enjoyable of the two.
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Interviews - Christmas 2007
Another seasonal question special. This time I asked recent interviewees some festive questions for a Native.tv Christmas special.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in December 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
CHRISTMAS 2007
Greg Gilbert (vocals, guitar) - Delays
Where were you last Christmas?
In Southampton. It’s a total family time for me. I just love it. I love doing the whole cliché thing, I love being with my family eating dinner and getting drunk and sitting in front of crap TV falling asleep, paper hat on my head.
What’s the best present you received?
I got the James Bond DVD set one Christmas. The trouble is with DVDs is I have to be in the right frame of mind. I channelsurf endlessly. Sometimes I put a DVD on and think oh there must be something great on, but Bond is great comfort on lonely nights.
What’s your best and worst Christmas songs?
Best Christmas song is either Roy Wood or Slade, I’m a big fan of all those glammy Christmas, Life On Mars kind of era. I didn’t like Paul McCartney’s Christmas song. That’s not one of my favourites.
What’s your New Year’s resolution? Or have you not got one yet because we’re asking you this on November 1st?
Let me think of one. My New Year’s resolution is to try and find as many things funny as possible. I think when you find something so funny you belly laugh, there’s absolutely nothing better.
Tom Baxter
What are your favourite and least favourite Christmas songs?
You know what, I really like that George Michael song ‘Last Christmas’, I think that’s a really good song. I always feel sorry for the guys in Slade because they’re just labelled a Christmas band. The Cliff Richard stuff I don’t really like, that just drives me up the wall a little. It’s all a little bit insipid and milky for me.
How did you celebrate New Year last year?
Oh God, where was I? For the life of me, I can’t remember. The last Christmas I did, I had a house party so I was very drunk and then I had to go to Argentina the following day so I was a bit worse for wear.
What’s the worse thing about Christmas?
It’s just like a false sense of family sometimes, and I think that’s a real shame. I think sometimes particularly in this country we don’t make enough effort to just be a family. It’s all so split up. So I think that it can be quite a lonely time for people can’t it, if you haven’t got family and if you don’t get on with your family.
Do you have a New Year’s resolution?
My New Year’s resolution is just like everyone else’s, to get fit actually. I just haven’t been to the gym for so long.
Matt Bowman (vocals) and Oli Main (guitar) – The Pigeon Detectives
Best Christmas present you’ve got?
Oli: A guitar.
Matt: Pair of rollerskates.
What’s your New Year’s resolution?
Matt: Mine’s going to be smoke more. Just to say ‘Fuck you’ to those that are trying to ban it.
Oli: Smoke indoors more.
Matt: That’s for both of us, that.
What’s the worst thing about Christmas?
Matt: Buying Christmas presents. Not made of money.
Oli: I fucking hate Christmas, everything about it.
Best and worst Christmas songs?
Matt: Worst one was that Darkness effort.
Oli: Slade’s is the best one.
Matt: Yeah, obviously Slade.
What did you do last New Year?
Matt: Played a gig at the Faversham in Leeds. It was excellent. Drank lots of beer, got paid, and…
Oli: Fell over a wall.
Matt: Fell over a wall. Probably. [thinks] No, that weren’t then...
Stine Bramson – Alphabeat
Best and worst Christmas songs?
[Favourite] Wham! ‘Last Christmas’. That’s always good. I love that, I love Wham! in general. [Least favourite] That’s probably mostly Danish ones. The silly ones that don’t really have a good melody and sung by kids always.
What do you eat at your Christmas meal?
We have duck at home with everything that comes with that.
Where were you last New Year?
I actually had dinner with the friend who’s over at my place right now. Then we went to a big private party at a friend’s house in Copenhagen.
Greg Churchouse – Scouting For Girls
Where did you spend last Christmas?
Last Christmas, I was pretty much working most of it. Myself and Roy both worked in shops, so Christmas time was always the busiest time of the year. We literally got Christmas Day off, and it was working til 10, 11pm on Christmas Eve and then back to work on Boxing Day. This is going to be the first Christmas we’ve both not been working since we left school which is going to be absolutely lovely stuff.
What’s the best present you received?
Blimey. That’s a tricky one. I’d say when I was like 14 Roy persuaded to get an acoustic guitar for Christmas instead of a Megadrive. Quite lucky he did otherwise who knows what would have happened, I’d have been sitting at home, being a computer geek, as opposed to sitting in the back of a freezing cold tour bus somewhere in Scotland!
What’s your New Years resolution?
I would say I’d like to get fitter. But as I’ve never ever stuck to a New Years resolution in my life for more than, say, a day, I doubt it’s really going to happen.
What are you best and worst Christmas songs?
Best Christmas song would be ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! I don’t know what the worst Christmas song would be actually. [laughs] Roy just said ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! It’s a double-edge sword. I was personally going to go for ‘Mistletoe & Wine’ by Cliff Richard.
David Guetta
I’m going to ask you some cheesy Christmas questions, if that’s all right.
Bring on the cheese!
Where were you last New Year?
I was in Dubai.
How do you celebrate Christmas?
Really classic, you know family, tree, my wife is totally into that, she’s like really excited and we have a boy, he’s three and a half years, so we’re gonna wait for Father Christmas to come and say hello and everything.
What are your best and worst Christmas songs?
I think that is more of a UK thing because we don’t have that so much in France. I’ve seen that you have a lot of that here and it’s all a big deal but we don’t really. ‘Baby When The Light’ is number one on the airplay and it will be for Christmas. We don’t have special Christmas music. I think it’s a good thing!
Have you got a New Year’s resolution?
Yes I do. I’m going to go back to the gym, I’m going to eat healthy, I’m going to start some proper music lessons – harmony, piano lessons, percussion lessons, guitar lessons. Today I’ve done this today, it was a great experience, I’ve done this show for Channel 4 called ‘Freshly Squeezed’ and we’ve done an acoustic version of ‘Baby When The Light’. It was really exciting, I was like I wanna do this more, I need to come back home. I programme so I can play keyboard but not that good, and I want to learn how to play the real thing. That’s my resolution for next year.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in December 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
CHRISTMAS 2007
Greg Gilbert (vocals, guitar) - Delays
Where were you last Christmas?
In Southampton. It’s a total family time for me. I just love it. I love doing the whole cliché thing, I love being with my family eating dinner and getting drunk and sitting in front of crap TV falling asleep, paper hat on my head.
What’s the best present you received?
I got the James Bond DVD set one Christmas. The trouble is with DVDs is I have to be in the right frame of mind. I channelsurf endlessly. Sometimes I put a DVD on and think oh there must be something great on, but Bond is great comfort on lonely nights.
What’s your best and worst Christmas songs?
Best Christmas song is either Roy Wood or Slade, I’m a big fan of all those glammy Christmas, Life On Mars kind of era. I didn’t like Paul McCartney’s Christmas song. That’s not one of my favourites.
What’s your New Year’s resolution? Or have you not got one yet because we’re asking you this on November 1st?
Let me think of one. My New Year’s resolution is to try and find as many things funny as possible. I think when you find something so funny you belly laugh, there’s absolutely nothing better.
Tom Baxter
What are your favourite and least favourite Christmas songs?
You know what, I really like that George Michael song ‘Last Christmas’, I think that’s a really good song. I always feel sorry for the guys in Slade because they’re just labelled a Christmas band. The Cliff Richard stuff I don’t really like, that just drives me up the wall a little. It’s all a little bit insipid and milky for me.
How did you celebrate New Year last year?
Oh God, where was I? For the life of me, I can’t remember. The last Christmas I did, I had a house party so I was very drunk and then I had to go to Argentina the following day so I was a bit worse for wear.
What’s the worse thing about Christmas?
It’s just like a false sense of family sometimes, and I think that’s a real shame. I think sometimes particularly in this country we don’t make enough effort to just be a family. It’s all so split up. So I think that it can be quite a lonely time for people can’t it, if you haven’t got family and if you don’t get on with your family.
Do you have a New Year’s resolution?
My New Year’s resolution is just like everyone else’s, to get fit actually. I just haven’t been to the gym for so long.
Matt Bowman (vocals) and Oli Main (guitar) – The Pigeon Detectives
Best Christmas present you’ve got?
Oli: A guitar.
Matt: Pair of rollerskates.
What’s your New Year’s resolution?
Matt: Mine’s going to be smoke more. Just to say ‘Fuck you’ to those that are trying to ban it.
Oli: Smoke indoors more.
Matt: That’s for both of us, that.
What’s the worst thing about Christmas?
Matt: Buying Christmas presents. Not made of money.
Oli: I fucking hate Christmas, everything about it.
Best and worst Christmas songs?
Matt: Worst one was that Darkness effort.
Oli: Slade’s is the best one.
Matt: Yeah, obviously Slade.
What did you do last New Year?
Matt: Played a gig at the Faversham in Leeds. It was excellent. Drank lots of beer, got paid, and…
Oli: Fell over a wall.
Matt: Fell over a wall. Probably. [thinks] No, that weren’t then...
Stine Bramson – Alphabeat
Best and worst Christmas songs?
[Favourite] Wham! ‘Last Christmas’. That’s always good. I love that, I love Wham! in general. [Least favourite] That’s probably mostly Danish ones. The silly ones that don’t really have a good melody and sung by kids always.
What do you eat at your Christmas meal?
We have duck at home with everything that comes with that.
Where were you last New Year?
I actually had dinner with the friend who’s over at my place right now. Then we went to a big private party at a friend’s house in Copenhagen.
Greg Churchouse – Scouting For Girls
Where did you spend last Christmas?
Last Christmas, I was pretty much working most of it. Myself and Roy both worked in shops, so Christmas time was always the busiest time of the year. We literally got Christmas Day off, and it was working til 10, 11pm on Christmas Eve and then back to work on Boxing Day. This is going to be the first Christmas we’ve both not been working since we left school which is going to be absolutely lovely stuff.
What’s the best present you received?
Blimey. That’s a tricky one. I’d say when I was like 14 Roy persuaded to get an acoustic guitar for Christmas instead of a Megadrive. Quite lucky he did otherwise who knows what would have happened, I’d have been sitting at home, being a computer geek, as opposed to sitting in the back of a freezing cold tour bus somewhere in Scotland!
What’s your New Years resolution?
I would say I’d like to get fitter. But as I’ve never ever stuck to a New Years resolution in my life for more than, say, a day, I doubt it’s really going to happen.
What are you best and worst Christmas songs?
Best Christmas song would be ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! I don’t know what the worst Christmas song would be actually. [laughs] Roy just said ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! It’s a double-edge sword. I was personally going to go for ‘Mistletoe & Wine’ by Cliff Richard.
David Guetta
I’m going to ask you some cheesy Christmas questions, if that’s all right.
Bring on the cheese!
Where were you last New Year?
I was in Dubai.
How do you celebrate Christmas?
Really classic, you know family, tree, my wife is totally into that, she’s like really excited and we have a boy, he’s three and a half years, so we’re gonna wait for Father Christmas to come and say hello and everything.
What are your best and worst Christmas songs?
I think that is more of a UK thing because we don’t have that so much in France. I’ve seen that you have a lot of that here and it’s all a big deal but we don’t really. ‘Baby When The Light’ is number one on the airplay and it will be for Christmas. We don’t have special Christmas music. I think it’s a good thing!
Have you got a New Year’s resolution?
Yes I do. I’m going to go back to the gym, I’m going to eat healthy, I’m going to start some proper music lessons – harmony, piano lessons, percussion lessons, guitar lessons. Today I’ve done this today, it was a great experience, I’ve done this show for Channel 4 called ‘Freshly Squeezed’ and we’ve done an acoustic version of ‘Baby When The Light’. It was really exciting, I was like I wanna do this more, I need to come back home. I programme so I can play keyboard but not that good, and I want to learn how to play the real thing. That’s my resolution for next year.
Interviews - Star Students
It was 'going back to school/college/university' time, so I asked recent interviewees some vaguely study related subjects, proper Smash Hits style.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in September 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
STAR STUDENTS
ROONEY
What was your best subject?
Louie: I took some music classes, that was my most enjoyable subject.
Matthew: I did well in English and History.
Ned: I enjoyed Spells and Dark Arts at Hogwarts. I was also into History and English.
Have you got any advice for people going off to university this year?
Louie: Buck up and get it done.
Taylor: Quit your crying.
Louie: Put it behind you, don’t look back.
Taylor: If it takes a few extra years, that’s ok. Don’t get down. It’s not about how long it takes. It’s about completion.
Ned: I agree. Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses.
Did you have any part time jobs when you were students?
Matt: Aside from an internship I have, this is the only job I’ve ever had. We all were pretty spoilt!
Any advice for students?
Louie: Sometimes if you can start a relationship with one of your teachers, that can ease the burden of your homework load a little bit.
Ned: An intimate relationship.
Louie: I’m talking about a full contact relationship with a teacher.
Taylor: Any teacher whose course you may be struggling in is the teacher you should be getting a full contact relationship with.
AMY MACDONALD
What was your best subject when you were studying?
It was geography. My geography teacher was my favourite teacher ever of anything I’ve ever done, it just made me have a passion for the subject by having a good teacher.
Where did you hang out at breaktimes?
We had a room called the Crash Hall, which was just a big massive hall with vending machines and benches where everyone could sit or you could go outside but we always chose to stay in.
Have you got any advice for people starting new courses?
Just keep at it and try not to fall asleep!
KENNEDY
What were your best subjects?
Kennedy: I was really good at biology. And I’m still pretty good at biology.
Did you ever get detention?
Kennedy: I got detention once and I got suspended once. I shot this spitball at this girl, because I had a crush on her – it’s still the way I date – but the wind took it and it carried it and it hit the vice principal on the back of the head. And so I got suspended.
I think that’s something you should be proud of.
Kennedy: At the time I was like ‘This is the end of my life! It’s all over!’ and now I’m like ‘I’m glad I did it.’
You go back to your locker at the end of the year and you find something which you left in there at the start of the year and forgot about. What it is?
Kennedy: Oh that’s probably my lunch. And it’s probably got mushrooms growing in it.
Your mum would be so upset with you.
Kennedy: My mum was the noon duty aid, you know the lady who like punishes people? She’s kind of in charge of the yard while everyone’s at recess. She made my life miserable because she was just punishing everybody. Everybody hated me because I was her son. But then to make it even more amazingly weird, she had some weird surgery on her face, and she couldn’t be in the direct sunlight for about three months, and she wore this bag over her head for three months with this happy face on it. It was like I can’t believe this is really happening.
Have you got any advice for freshers?
Kennedy: Don’t smoke. And stay in school.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in September 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
STAR STUDENTS
ROONEY
What was your best subject?
Louie: I took some music classes, that was my most enjoyable subject.
Matthew: I did well in English and History.
Ned: I enjoyed Spells and Dark Arts at Hogwarts. I was also into History and English.
Have you got any advice for people going off to university this year?
Louie: Buck up and get it done.
Taylor: Quit your crying.
Louie: Put it behind you, don’t look back.
Taylor: If it takes a few extra years, that’s ok. Don’t get down. It’s not about how long it takes. It’s about completion.
Ned: I agree. Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses.
Did you have any part time jobs when you were students?
Matt: Aside from an internship I have, this is the only job I’ve ever had. We all were pretty spoilt!
Any advice for students?
Louie: Sometimes if you can start a relationship with one of your teachers, that can ease the burden of your homework load a little bit.
Ned: An intimate relationship.
Louie: I’m talking about a full contact relationship with a teacher.
Taylor: Any teacher whose course you may be struggling in is the teacher you should be getting a full contact relationship with.
AMY MACDONALD
What was your best subject when you were studying?
It was geography. My geography teacher was my favourite teacher ever of anything I’ve ever done, it just made me have a passion for the subject by having a good teacher.
Where did you hang out at breaktimes?
We had a room called the Crash Hall, which was just a big massive hall with vending machines and benches where everyone could sit or you could go outside but we always chose to stay in.
Have you got any advice for people starting new courses?
Just keep at it and try not to fall asleep!
KENNEDY
What were your best subjects?
Kennedy: I was really good at biology. And I’m still pretty good at biology.
Did you ever get detention?
Kennedy: I got detention once and I got suspended once. I shot this spitball at this girl, because I had a crush on her – it’s still the way I date – but the wind took it and it carried it and it hit the vice principal on the back of the head. And so I got suspended.
I think that’s something you should be proud of.
Kennedy: At the time I was like ‘This is the end of my life! It’s all over!’ and now I’m like ‘I’m glad I did it.’
You go back to your locker at the end of the year and you find something which you left in there at the start of the year and forgot about. What it is?
Kennedy: Oh that’s probably my lunch. And it’s probably got mushrooms growing in it.
Your mum would be so upset with you.
Kennedy: My mum was the noon duty aid, you know the lady who like punishes people? She’s kind of in charge of the yard while everyone’s at recess. She made my life miserable because she was just punishing everybody. Everybody hated me because I was her son. But then to make it even more amazingly weird, she had some weird surgery on her face, and she couldn’t be in the direct sunlight for about three months, and she wore this bag over her head for three months with this happy face on it. It was like I can’t believe this is really happening.
Have you got any advice for freshers?
Kennedy: Don’t smoke. And stay in school.
Interview - Delays
Delays are one of those bands who should be more popular than they are. Singer Greg has an amazingly pure singing voice. One of my colleagues loves them and stole any related CDs off my desk. Cheers mate.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in December 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
GREG GILBERT - DELAYS
It’s been rather quiet on the Delays front since last Christmas. After their fresh summery indie rock/pop streamed into the lives of many through ‘Faded Seaside Glamour’ (2004) and ‘You See Colours’ (2006), not a lot seems to have happened. They sold out Southampton Guildhall last December in a show which one of my colleagues claims is one of his top gigs ever. Then, silence.
But Delays – vocalist/guitarist Greg Gilbert, keyboardist/vocalist Aaron Gilbert, bassist/vocalist Colin Fox and drummer Rowly - have not been in hibernation, far from it. They’ve been scurrying to Spain and back preparing their next album. We phoned up friendly frontman Greg Gilbert for a chat.
Delays are eagerly anticipating their November mini tour and have been playing a couple of low key gigs to warm up, which they enjoyed because of the lack of pressure. First of all was one for Oxjam – they weren’t on the bill but “muscled our way in, we’ve got big friends,” jokes Greg – and then one for their family and friends at Southampton Joiners on Halloween. The night saw an appropriate theme, with the band dressed in neon skeleton outfits, although the hot nylon outfits almost caused a different scare.
“Halfway through the gig I had to call my mate on stage to cut me out this suit because I was going to pass out or something ridiculous,” remembers Greg. “There were a few witches’ hats bobbing about. It was a good atmosphere, it was a good way to do our first gig with a not-too-serious vibe.”
So that meant you avoided hassle from trick or treaters? “I got accosted by some 14 year old kids on the way out and they were like ‘You’re lucky, you’re just leaving’. I went ‘Yeah, I saw you coming’ and they were like ‘Oh nice one!’ I sounded like Larry David you know, proper grumpy. I wasn’t wearing [the neon skeleton outfit] which was lucky. That would have been a bit of a kick in the shins for them really, what with denying the treats and yet wearing the outfit. I was just normalled up.”
If you’re lucky to be seeing them on their mini tour, make sure you grab a copy of super limited EP ‘Love Made Visible.’ “We’re just reintroducing ourselves a little, get back into it,” explains Greg.
If you haven’t seen the ‘Love Made Visible’ video, go and view it. Things got very messy indeed. Was that Delays' proper equipment, because it looked like they might have ruined it? “I was up for that until they actually started to put paint on the guitar, and I started to get a bit ‘Oh shit man!’ I’m not one of them people who likes to trash gear. We didn’t have the money to buy a lot of new gear for such a long time. That’s the guitar I’m actually using live now. Someone stood off camera waiting with a rag ready to wash it as soon as it was done. Ruined our clothes though," Greg says.
Coming up at some point in the future is ‘Everything But The Rush’, the follow up to ‘You See Colours.’ "There’s big change in the fact that everything’s been recorded in a much much rawer, quicker way. We literally went in and just recorded one track each day, vocals and all the little guitar bits just made them up on the day. ‘You See Colours’ was quite laboured over which at the time wasn’t intended, it was meant to be a rawer record, but it didn’t turn out quite like that.”
And no-one lost any discs of tracks this time round? “No, that didn’t happen this time round. So much of it was made up in the studio this time round and you can hear it in the record, it’s a much more vibrant, warmer record.”
Any tracks you like in particular? “I like them all [laughs] ‘Hurray’ is going to be the first single, and that’s kind of about OCD. I found myself tidying up and just doing ridiculous little routines before I was able to go to bed, it got a bit out of hand, and the song’s actually about that, about celebrating getting through a night without it going on. I don’t know if anybody realises that when they’re hearing it live.
”There’s a song called ‘Pieces’ on the album which was actually written ten years ago, one of the first songs we ever did. I don’t know why we didn’t do it previous to this. It’s got an orchestra on it, there’s three or four tracks on the album that had the full orchestra treatment. We’ve got film footage of us playing it like nine years ago and you could put together a really neat video compilation of the evolution of the song. That’s gratifying that that’s on the album.”
'Everything But The Rush' will be their first full-length release on Fiction Records, which they signed to after leaving Rough Trade. Greg tells me why they switched labels: “It just got to the point where we both thought we’d both gone as far as we were gonna go really. It just felt necessary as well. Being without a deal, everything felt fresher. It felt like a whole new chapter opening up, everything just felt like a different colour and Aaron and I had the whole of that from December all the way up to recording this in April. You don’t feel any pressure to write any kinds of songs. It’s a strange kind of freeing up.”
A complete change of tack - I was looking on the Delays' forum and someone started a thread version of Room 101 so I asked Greg what he'd put in there. He starts worrying that he can’t think of any immediate answers.
Place: “Sellafield. I’m kind of an old fashioned kind of a guy. It’s not old fashioned, I hate nuclear power.”
Bands/pop stars: “Thing is all the people you’re unsure about they all turn out to be all right. It’s more the people behind the scenes you’d want to put into Room 101, the Svengali-type people. They’re just manipulative, taking advantage of people with ambition… they’re told what to do what to say what to wear and then they’re discarded. How many disillusioned people do you see on TV, do you know what I mean? Those Svengalis, they’re assholes.”
On the non-Room 101 side of things (if there’s a name for a room containing Good Stuff), Greg has recently been listening to Ray Charles, glam rock such as The Sweet and The Move, and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. “I don’t think that documentary [DiG!] does them much justice actually,” says Greg. “It’s fascinating, it’s like a soap opera really, but you come away from it just thinking Anton’s this kind of loose cannon. The records are absolutely fantastic, you get no idea how good the records are from it.”
Back onto Delays' mini tour in November, which sold out pretty fast. The band had been playing Guildhalls, Leadmills, Sugarmills and Opera Houses around the country, but this new tour takes in Barflys and other places roughly a quarter of the size they were at last year. “Oh man. The weird thing is [there’s] so, so much confidence about this album but at the same time you don’t take anything for granted. And the gigs did sell out super-quick and we never advertised it or anything, just kind of on the website, but I think we’re just desperate to get out there and play the new songs to everybody.” Greg points out that the Joiners gig this time round will not involve skeleton outfits, so don’t wear yours or you’ll feel a little awkward.
Do you think you’ll be back at the festivals next year? “Oh yeah. We’re made for festivals, we’re all about the love.” And the burgers, and the mud. “Oh I don’t know, apparently burgers are cancerous aren’t they? That’s what I saw on the news. Don’t eat any red meat or anything like that. But then you again you hear things like last week tea’s bad for you but then tea’s good for you.”
I’m just going to eat chocolate and have done with it. “Why not. That’s all I’ve got in my house at the moment, I’ve got to go shopping. All I’ve had today is two Triples. That was my breakfast. It’s not good. Triples are amazing, they’re the Pelé of chocolate.”
Apart from stocking up your cupboard, what plans do Delays have for 2008? “My main ambition is to get a full cupboard,” jokes Greg. “Next year’s going to be all totally about the album really. We feel that because of circumstances we never got to do justice to ‘You See Colours’ at all and I think there’s so much belief in Fiction, things are already being put in place, more plans than we’ve ever had, more idea about what we’re actually going to be doing.”
There might be dates abroad, but the band will concentrate on the UK first. Greg says the label organises the tour dates and locations, confessing he’d be rubbish at it.
“I have no sense of geography and no sense of mathematics. That’s why I’m a musician.” Thank goodness for that.
--------
Delays' mini tour starts at Cardiff Barfly on Nov 7th and finishes at Hoxton Bar & Grill on 15th Nov. The 'Love Made Visible' EP is released from November 12th
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in December 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
GREG GILBERT - DELAYS
It’s been rather quiet on the Delays front since last Christmas. After their fresh summery indie rock/pop streamed into the lives of many through ‘Faded Seaside Glamour’ (2004) and ‘You See Colours’ (2006), not a lot seems to have happened. They sold out Southampton Guildhall last December in a show which one of my colleagues claims is one of his top gigs ever. Then, silence.
But Delays – vocalist/guitarist Greg Gilbert, keyboardist/vocalist Aaron Gilbert, bassist/vocalist Colin Fox and drummer Rowly - have not been in hibernation, far from it. They’ve been scurrying to Spain and back preparing their next album. We phoned up friendly frontman Greg Gilbert for a chat.
Delays are eagerly anticipating their November mini tour and have been playing a couple of low key gigs to warm up, which they enjoyed because of the lack of pressure. First of all was one for Oxjam – they weren’t on the bill but “muscled our way in, we’ve got big friends,” jokes Greg – and then one for their family and friends at Southampton Joiners on Halloween. The night saw an appropriate theme, with the band dressed in neon skeleton outfits, although the hot nylon outfits almost caused a different scare.
“Halfway through the gig I had to call my mate on stage to cut me out this suit because I was going to pass out or something ridiculous,” remembers Greg. “There were a few witches’ hats bobbing about. It was a good atmosphere, it was a good way to do our first gig with a not-too-serious vibe.”
So that meant you avoided hassle from trick or treaters? “I got accosted by some 14 year old kids on the way out and they were like ‘You’re lucky, you’re just leaving’. I went ‘Yeah, I saw you coming’ and they were like ‘Oh nice one!’ I sounded like Larry David you know, proper grumpy. I wasn’t wearing [the neon skeleton outfit] which was lucky. That would have been a bit of a kick in the shins for them really, what with denying the treats and yet wearing the outfit. I was just normalled up.”
If you’re lucky to be seeing them on their mini tour, make sure you grab a copy of super limited EP ‘Love Made Visible.’ “We’re just reintroducing ourselves a little, get back into it,” explains Greg.
If you haven’t seen the ‘Love Made Visible’ video, go and view it. Things got very messy indeed. Was that Delays' proper equipment, because it looked like they might have ruined it? “I was up for that until they actually started to put paint on the guitar, and I started to get a bit ‘Oh shit man!’ I’m not one of them people who likes to trash gear. We didn’t have the money to buy a lot of new gear for such a long time. That’s the guitar I’m actually using live now. Someone stood off camera waiting with a rag ready to wash it as soon as it was done. Ruined our clothes though," Greg says.
Coming up at some point in the future is ‘Everything But The Rush’, the follow up to ‘You See Colours.’ "There’s big change in the fact that everything’s been recorded in a much much rawer, quicker way. We literally went in and just recorded one track each day, vocals and all the little guitar bits just made them up on the day. ‘You See Colours’ was quite laboured over which at the time wasn’t intended, it was meant to be a rawer record, but it didn’t turn out quite like that.”
And no-one lost any discs of tracks this time round? “No, that didn’t happen this time round. So much of it was made up in the studio this time round and you can hear it in the record, it’s a much more vibrant, warmer record.”
Any tracks you like in particular? “I like them all [laughs] ‘Hurray’ is going to be the first single, and that’s kind of about OCD. I found myself tidying up and just doing ridiculous little routines before I was able to go to bed, it got a bit out of hand, and the song’s actually about that, about celebrating getting through a night without it going on. I don’t know if anybody realises that when they’re hearing it live.
”There’s a song called ‘Pieces’ on the album which was actually written ten years ago, one of the first songs we ever did. I don’t know why we didn’t do it previous to this. It’s got an orchestra on it, there’s three or four tracks on the album that had the full orchestra treatment. We’ve got film footage of us playing it like nine years ago and you could put together a really neat video compilation of the evolution of the song. That’s gratifying that that’s on the album.”
'Everything But The Rush' will be their first full-length release on Fiction Records, which they signed to after leaving Rough Trade. Greg tells me why they switched labels: “It just got to the point where we both thought we’d both gone as far as we were gonna go really. It just felt necessary as well. Being without a deal, everything felt fresher. It felt like a whole new chapter opening up, everything just felt like a different colour and Aaron and I had the whole of that from December all the way up to recording this in April. You don’t feel any pressure to write any kinds of songs. It’s a strange kind of freeing up.”
A complete change of tack - I was looking on the Delays' forum and someone started a thread version of Room 101 so I asked Greg what he'd put in there. He starts worrying that he can’t think of any immediate answers.
Place: “Sellafield. I’m kind of an old fashioned kind of a guy. It’s not old fashioned, I hate nuclear power.”
Bands/pop stars: “Thing is all the people you’re unsure about they all turn out to be all right. It’s more the people behind the scenes you’d want to put into Room 101, the Svengali-type people. They’re just manipulative, taking advantage of people with ambition… they’re told what to do what to say what to wear and then they’re discarded. How many disillusioned people do you see on TV, do you know what I mean? Those Svengalis, they’re assholes.”
On the non-Room 101 side of things (if there’s a name for a room containing Good Stuff), Greg has recently been listening to Ray Charles, glam rock such as The Sweet and The Move, and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. “I don’t think that documentary [DiG!] does them much justice actually,” says Greg. “It’s fascinating, it’s like a soap opera really, but you come away from it just thinking Anton’s this kind of loose cannon. The records are absolutely fantastic, you get no idea how good the records are from it.”
Back onto Delays' mini tour in November, which sold out pretty fast. The band had been playing Guildhalls, Leadmills, Sugarmills and Opera Houses around the country, but this new tour takes in Barflys and other places roughly a quarter of the size they were at last year. “Oh man. The weird thing is [there’s] so, so much confidence about this album but at the same time you don’t take anything for granted. And the gigs did sell out super-quick and we never advertised it or anything, just kind of on the website, but I think we’re just desperate to get out there and play the new songs to everybody.” Greg points out that the Joiners gig this time round will not involve skeleton outfits, so don’t wear yours or you’ll feel a little awkward.
Do you think you’ll be back at the festivals next year? “Oh yeah. We’re made for festivals, we’re all about the love.” And the burgers, and the mud. “Oh I don’t know, apparently burgers are cancerous aren’t they? That’s what I saw on the news. Don’t eat any red meat or anything like that. But then you again you hear things like last week tea’s bad for you but then tea’s good for you.”
I’m just going to eat chocolate and have done with it. “Why not. That’s all I’ve got in my house at the moment, I’ve got to go shopping. All I’ve had today is two Triples. That was my breakfast. It’s not good. Triples are amazing, they’re the Pelé of chocolate.”
Apart from stocking up your cupboard, what plans do Delays have for 2008? “My main ambition is to get a full cupboard,” jokes Greg. “Next year’s going to be all totally about the album really. We feel that because of circumstances we never got to do justice to ‘You See Colours’ at all and I think there’s so much belief in Fiction, things are already being put in place, more plans than we’ve ever had, more idea about what we’re actually going to be doing.”
There might be dates abroad, but the band will concentrate on the UK first. Greg says the label organises the tour dates and locations, confessing he’d be rubbish at it.
“I have no sense of geography and no sense of mathematics. That’s why I’m a musician.” Thank goodness for that.
--------
Delays' mini tour starts at Cardiff Barfly on Nov 7th and finishes at Hoxton Bar & Grill on 15th Nov. The 'Love Made Visible' EP is released from November 12th
Interview - Scouting For Girls
This interview was delayed by a week or so after the PR originally phoned me when I was on a train. Attempting to put the dictaphone next to my mobile while trying to shut the carriage up wouldn't have been successful, so we agreed I would speak to Roy Stride later on. Imagine my surprise when I didn't speak to him at all. This involved some frantic question rewrites...
Be Prepared – The motto of The Scouts
That’s not the motto of this website though, although perhaps it should be. Having originally been told we’d be speaking to Roy Stride, we answered the phone with “Hello Roy,” only to find that a rescheduled interview date had also given us an entirely different band member, ie Greg Churchouse. Apologies and brief panic flowed from our end of the phone line. Luckily he didn’t sound offended.
There are currently few bands more cheerful-sounding than Scouting For Girls. Made up of childhood friends Roy Stride (vocals/keyboards), Greg Churchouse (bass and vocals) and Peter Ellard (drums). Making charmingly friendly and cheeky, catchy pop, they give off an air of being incredibly nice and polite in general. The sort of band you could invite out for a drink and they’d talk to all your friends, share their crisps and even join in a game of darts, unlike other musicians who would steal your pint before drunkenly relieving themselves on the snooker table. That’s not Scouting For Girls’ style. They’re too well-behaved for that. Or so they sound.
How are you, Greg?
“Not too bad. Please excuse me if the phone goes a bit funny, we’re currently driving from Inverness to Edinburgh. The phone coverage isn’t the greatest.”
How was the gig last night?
“The gig in Inverness was amazing. One of our managers actually comes from Inverness so I think half the crowd was probably made up of his family.”
So long as they all paid to get in.
“Oh yes. The guestlist was rather short surprisingly.”
Scouting For Girls picked up their name partly on the cheeky wordplay, partly on their love of innocent childhood times spent with their Scout chums. Dib dib dib and all that. Surprisingly – nay, shockingly – Greg was not a member of the Scouts. He was however in the supremely cooler Air Cadets “because it was much more fun to fly planes and stuff.”
Did you actually get to fly planes in the Air Cadets?
“Yeah, we used to go gliding every other weekend. And every now and then we got to go and fly those little Chipmunk planes which was quite good fun. But Roy and Pete actually met when they were six at Cubs.”
So they were building their campfires and you were flying overhead laughing at them?
“Yeah exactly. They were camping out in their tents and I’m flying round, having lots of japes and larks.”
You didn’t have to do badges or tasks or anything like that did you?
“We had little exams and tests and things but they were just about performing the basics like about planes stay in the air and how to polish your boots.”
One of the things setting Scouting For Girls apart from their contemporaries is their fanbase in the Wolfcub Club. Greg explains it began as a way of enticing people onto their mailing list “by giving away a little badge and a membership card, much like the Dennis The Menace fan club when we were kids. We were all members of that, and it’s just a really great way of keeping in touch with people, and giving a little bit back and starting a little club and it took off really well.”
Members now also receive a special CD, a handy handbook, and a secret code to write in. “Apparently it’s a lot easier to decipher than it is to write things in the code. It takes us absolutely forever to actually write anything down and then people have figured it out within a couple of minutes [laughs].”
Were you in any band fan clubs when you were younger?
“Not really, I just preferred just listening to the music. Most of my favourite bands I probably couldn’t name half the people in them you know, and yet I can name the songs and the albums. I think Roy was in the REM fan club, he’s a huge REM fan.”
It’s been an incredibly hectic year for the band. Since signing to their record label on Valentine’s Day, their EP ‘It’s Not About You’ managed to become the highest charting limited edition EP – not bad, considering ‘limited edition’ generally means there aren’t that many of them. They’ve been given strong radio support (“Huw Stephens on Radio 1 gave us a Maida Vale session before we got signed, Marsha and John Kennedy on XFM have just been absolutely amazing,”) which can't have hurt matters.
Scouting For Girls are currently busying themselves on tour, from the middle of November to December, across the length of the UK. Most of this tour has sold out, so if you didn’t get tickets, consider yourselves lucky there are plenty more dates around the corner. ”The crowds have been absolutely amazing every night, we’ve been very very well received and we most definitely appreciate it.”
Scotland has been a particular high, with Glasgow seeing the best fans. “Pretty much anywhere in Glasgow, you’re always onto a winner. The crowds are always just phenomenal, I thought my ears were going to start bleeding at one point because of the crowd screaming. And I’m really looking forward to playing KOKO in London, ‘cause that’s like coming back to your home crowd, which is always lovely.”
Support this time round is from The Sonic Hearts, who Greg describes as “a lovely bunch of guys and girls. Nice melodies, nice jangly guitars, which really complements us, and they’ve been well received which is always wicked.”On this tour it’s been really weird because people have been singing along to pretty much every song, and they seem to know the words better than Roy does. Just listening to the guys singing it back to you; you can’t describe the feeling, it’s just amazing.”The newer dates will take in much larger venues. Greg says “I can’t wait it’s going to be wicked.”
The band recently played their first show abroad, at London Calling in Amsterdam. “It was absolutely amazing. We were on tenterhooks as to how the crowd would take to us, but they seemed to really enjoy it. Can’t wait to hopefully get out there and do it again. Hopefully early next year we’re going to get over and do a few dates in Ireland, and then if we’re lucky, we’re still waiting to hear back on South By Southwest in Texas, which would be absolutely awesome. I’ve never been to the States so it’ll be an adventure. Oh God I can tell you, we could do with some sun. It’s absolutely freezing in Scotland. It’s really quite sunny out there but absolutely freezing.”
Scouting For Girls debut album is cleverly titled ‘Scouting For Girls’. This is so as not to confuse people. I once asked my mum to buy me Ocean Colour Scene ‘Moseley Shoals’ and she nearly bought me ‘Ocean Drive’ by the Lighthouse Family. Anyway…
Are you pleased at how successful it’s been?
“Yeah we’ve all been bedazzled by how well it’s been going. We’ve been in bands together since we were at school, and we’re so proud of the album and so glad that people seem to really like it.”
How long was it in the making for, has it been sort of kicking around for a while?
“Some of the songs on there are like a year old and another couple of tracks are like ten years old. It’s been a long hard process but we picked the songs that work quite nicely in the album and we were just so happy with the way it turned out, I can’t tell you [laughs].
“I’m still finding it quite hard to figure out which one my favourite track is, I mean I love ‘James Bond’ but anything which mention James Bond is always a winner with me. I do quite like the secret track ‘Michaela Strachan’.”
Would you be offended if I said ‘She’s So Lovely’ was getting slightly overplayed on the radio?
“Not at all. I heartily apologise!”
It’s not your fault, you don’t do the playlists.
“I don’t listen to the radio too much so it hasn’t annoyed me yet but yeah we have heard a couple of comments [laughs] Hopefully they won’t do the same thing to ‘Elvis [Ain’t Dead]’. We were really surprised at the success and how well ‘She’s So Lovely’ did, we weren’t expecting Top 10 at all. Top 40 would have been nice but to get it up into the Top 10 for six weeks, it was amazing.”
The band are currently doing the rounds to promote new single ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’, which obviously is not really about Elvis.
“No, it’s a common misconception. It’s actually about unrequited love, when someone leaves you and you think they’re going to come back but you’re just deluding yourself. Roy was reading an article in the newspaper about some Elvis fans in America who kind of believed The King wasn’t dead and he was kicking around somewhere in Idaho working in a burger bar, and no matter if you showed them the corpse of Elvis they’d still go ‘No, he’s still alive’. It’s a really nice kind of metaphor for a kind of first love and first loss.
“I think with a lot of our songs sometimes the subject matter can be heavy, but it’s always wrapped up in a nice bouncy sound. We’re a feelgood kind of band.”
Back to Elvis: “It would be really nice if he was [alive] you know. But if you were going to fake your own death, dying on the toilet, you’d pick something a bit more glamorous than that. He’ll always live on in his music because it’s just phenomenal. I think Elvis will carry on being huge for years and years.”
Time will tell if Scouting For Girls do the same, but they’ve certainly made an encouraging start.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in December 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
Be Prepared – The motto of The Scouts
That’s not the motto of this website though, although perhaps it should be. Having originally been told we’d be speaking to Roy Stride, we answered the phone with “Hello Roy,” only to find that a rescheduled interview date had also given us an entirely different band member, ie Greg Churchouse. Apologies and brief panic flowed from our end of the phone line. Luckily he didn’t sound offended.
There are currently few bands more cheerful-sounding than Scouting For Girls. Made up of childhood friends Roy Stride (vocals/keyboards), Greg Churchouse (bass and vocals) and Peter Ellard (drums). Making charmingly friendly and cheeky, catchy pop, they give off an air of being incredibly nice and polite in general. The sort of band you could invite out for a drink and they’d talk to all your friends, share their crisps and even join in a game of darts, unlike other musicians who would steal your pint before drunkenly relieving themselves on the snooker table. That’s not Scouting For Girls’ style. They’re too well-behaved for that. Or so they sound.
How are you, Greg?
“Not too bad. Please excuse me if the phone goes a bit funny, we’re currently driving from Inverness to Edinburgh. The phone coverage isn’t the greatest.”
How was the gig last night?
“The gig in Inverness was amazing. One of our managers actually comes from Inverness so I think half the crowd was probably made up of his family.”
So long as they all paid to get in.
“Oh yes. The guestlist was rather short surprisingly.”
Scouting For Girls picked up their name partly on the cheeky wordplay, partly on their love of innocent childhood times spent with their Scout chums. Dib dib dib and all that. Surprisingly – nay, shockingly – Greg was not a member of the Scouts. He was however in the supremely cooler Air Cadets “because it was much more fun to fly planes and stuff.”
Did you actually get to fly planes in the Air Cadets?
“Yeah, we used to go gliding every other weekend. And every now and then we got to go and fly those little Chipmunk planes which was quite good fun. But Roy and Pete actually met when they were six at Cubs.”
So they were building their campfires and you were flying overhead laughing at them?
“Yeah exactly. They were camping out in their tents and I’m flying round, having lots of japes and larks.”
You didn’t have to do badges or tasks or anything like that did you?
“We had little exams and tests and things but they were just about performing the basics like about planes stay in the air and how to polish your boots.”
One of the things setting Scouting For Girls apart from their contemporaries is their fanbase in the Wolfcub Club. Greg explains it began as a way of enticing people onto their mailing list “by giving away a little badge and a membership card, much like the Dennis The Menace fan club when we were kids. We were all members of that, and it’s just a really great way of keeping in touch with people, and giving a little bit back and starting a little club and it took off really well.”
Members now also receive a special CD, a handy handbook, and a secret code to write in. “Apparently it’s a lot easier to decipher than it is to write things in the code. It takes us absolutely forever to actually write anything down and then people have figured it out within a couple of minutes [laughs].”
Were you in any band fan clubs when you were younger?
“Not really, I just preferred just listening to the music. Most of my favourite bands I probably couldn’t name half the people in them you know, and yet I can name the songs and the albums. I think Roy was in the REM fan club, he’s a huge REM fan.”
It’s been an incredibly hectic year for the band. Since signing to their record label on Valentine’s Day, their EP ‘It’s Not About You’ managed to become the highest charting limited edition EP – not bad, considering ‘limited edition’ generally means there aren’t that many of them. They’ve been given strong radio support (“Huw Stephens on Radio 1 gave us a Maida Vale session before we got signed, Marsha and John Kennedy on XFM have just been absolutely amazing,”) which can't have hurt matters.
Scouting For Girls are currently busying themselves on tour, from the middle of November to December, across the length of the UK. Most of this tour has sold out, so if you didn’t get tickets, consider yourselves lucky there are plenty more dates around the corner. ”The crowds have been absolutely amazing every night, we’ve been very very well received and we most definitely appreciate it.”
Scotland has been a particular high, with Glasgow seeing the best fans. “Pretty much anywhere in Glasgow, you’re always onto a winner. The crowds are always just phenomenal, I thought my ears were going to start bleeding at one point because of the crowd screaming. And I’m really looking forward to playing KOKO in London, ‘cause that’s like coming back to your home crowd, which is always lovely.”
Support this time round is from The Sonic Hearts, who Greg describes as “a lovely bunch of guys and girls. Nice melodies, nice jangly guitars, which really complements us, and they’ve been well received which is always wicked.”On this tour it’s been really weird because people have been singing along to pretty much every song, and they seem to know the words better than Roy does. Just listening to the guys singing it back to you; you can’t describe the feeling, it’s just amazing.”The newer dates will take in much larger venues. Greg says “I can’t wait it’s going to be wicked.”
The band recently played their first show abroad, at London Calling in Amsterdam. “It was absolutely amazing. We were on tenterhooks as to how the crowd would take to us, but they seemed to really enjoy it. Can’t wait to hopefully get out there and do it again. Hopefully early next year we’re going to get over and do a few dates in Ireland, and then if we’re lucky, we’re still waiting to hear back on South By Southwest in Texas, which would be absolutely awesome. I’ve never been to the States so it’ll be an adventure. Oh God I can tell you, we could do with some sun. It’s absolutely freezing in Scotland. It’s really quite sunny out there but absolutely freezing.”
Scouting For Girls debut album is cleverly titled ‘Scouting For Girls’. This is so as not to confuse people. I once asked my mum to buy me Ocean Colour Scene ‘Moseley Shoals’ and she nearly bought me ‘Ocean Drive’ by the Lighthouse Family. Anyway…
Are you pleased at how successful it’s been?
“Yeah we’ve all been bedazzled by how well it’s been going. We’ve been in bands together since we were at school, and we’re so proud of the album and so glad that people seem to really like it.”
How long was it in the making for, has it been sort of kicking around for a while?
“Some of the songs on there are like a year old and another couple of tracks are like ten years old. It’s been a long hard process but we picked the songs that work quite nicely in the album and we were just so happy with the way it turned out, I can’t tell you [laughs].
“I’m still finding it quite hard to figure out which one my favourite track is, I mean I love ‘James Bond’ but anything which mention James Bond is always a winner with me. I do quite like the secret track ‘Michaela Strachan’.”
Would you be offended if I said ‘She’s So Lovely’ was getting slightly overplayed on the radio?
“Not at all. I heartily apologise!”
It’s not your fault, you don’t do the playlists.
“I don’t listen to the radio too much so it hasn’t annoyed me yet but yeah we have heard a couple of comments [laughs] Hopefully they won’t do the same thing to ‘Elvis [Ain’t Dead]’. We were really surprised at the success and how well ‘She’s So Lovely’ did, we weren’t expecting Top 10 at all. Top 40 would have been nice but to get it up into the Top 10 for six weeks, it was amazing.”
The band are currently doing the rounds to promote new single ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’, which obviously is not really about Elvis.
“No, it’s a common misconception. It’s actually about unrequited love, when someone leaves you and you think they’re going to come back but you’re just deluding yourself. Roy was reading an article in the newspaper about some Elvis fans in America who kind of believed The King wasn’t dead and he was kicking around somewhere in Idaho working in a burger bar, and no matter if you showed them the corpse of Elvis they’d still go ‘No, he’s still alive’. It’s a really nice kind of metaphor for a kind of first love and first loss.
“I think with a lot of our songs sometimes the subject matter can be heavy, but it’s always wrapped up in a nice bouncy sound. We’re a feelgood kind of band.”
Back to Elvis: “It would be really nice if he was [alive] you know. But if you were going to fake your own death, dying on the toilet, you’d pick something a bit more glamorous than that. He’ll always live on in his music because it’s just phenomenal. I think Elvis will carry on being huge for years and years.”
Time will tell if Scouting For Girls do the same, but they’ve certainly made an encouraging start.
Interview - Athlete
I think this is one of those times where they say 'You're speaking to Athlete today,' then you turn up to find one solitary person from the whole band twiddling their fingers. That's fine though as Tim Wanstall is very talkative and easy-going. The Lily Allen cutout was from The Simpsons film premiere and I'd remembered seeing it on the BBC website. Wish I'd had my picture taken with it.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in August 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
TIM WANSTALL - ATHLETE
“I’m glad you’re here,” I say as Tim Wanstall from Athlete walks into the interview room at the record label's HQ. “I’ve been trying to talk to Lily Allen but she won't speak to me.”
“Are you trying to get an interview with Lily Allen?” Tim asks with interest, then laughs as he notices I’m sat next to a large Simpsons-style cut-out of the singer. I've checked, and disappointingly they haven't made any Athlete ones. Let’s begin…
“I’m Tim from Athlete, and I play things with the keys.”
We establish that if Tim was in a film he’d choose Geoffrey Rush’s Shine because of the piano skills (“but I wouldn’t want to go mad”), he thinks TV talent shows are ‘shit’ (“what makes good TV doesn’t necessarily make for good music I suppose. I don’t think they’re doing as much harm as everyone thinks”) and that he’s campaigning to get the band covering Robyn ‘With Every Heartbeat’ on Radio 1’s Live Lounge. He’s very cheerful and talkative.
The band also comprises singer/guitarist Joel Pott, bassist Carey Willetts and drummer Stephen Roberts, but they’re not here today.It’s all been a bit quiet on the Athlete front for a while. Debut album ‘Vehicles & Animals’ came out some four years ago and 'Tourist' plus mega single ‘Wires’ exploded onto the scene in early 2005. Since then we haven’t heard that much from the indie rockers; their singles haven’t had the chart recognition many thought they deserved, and they weren’t at any festivals this year.
“The kind of time the festivals are booked we were still kind of finishing off in the studio. Which turned out to be a good move ‘cause we didn’t finish [the record] in time to put it out before the summer, and I think coming back after a year or two off and playing a bunch of festivals without a new record would be a bit weird.”
You don’t want to play all the songs no-one knows. “Exactly. That’s not really what festivals are about are they, they’re kind of about singing along with your favourites, so yeah we saved them all for next summer and we’ll definitely do all the ones we can get our hands on. It almost seems like every other weekend if you wanted to go to one there are some pretty decent ones.“I’m really looking forward to that thing where you maybe play somewhere here, then you head on a bus and go and play a festival in Italy, doing a couple every weekend for the whole summer, it’s brilliant.”
Are you going to any festivals to watch this year? “I’m not, no. The only two which we’ve sort of been free for are V and Carling Reading, the whole malarkey, but just listening to the weather reports come in, it’s putting me off!” From Parlophone HQ we can see the rooftops of London. The sky is currently in a few shades of cool grey, apart from the bits which are depressing clouds. Tim’s phone bleeps.
“The first time we played at Glastonbury we camped for the whole weekend. I feel like my camping days are behind me at the moment. I definitely can’t cope with all that mud. So no, I won’t be there [Carling].”
Got any festival tips? “For punters, you can’t beat the dustbin sacks. And then on top of that I think my tip would be get a decent little hip flask and fill it up with some good single malt whisky, maybe some cognac or something. If you’re drinking beer, you find yourself a good spot and then you need to nip off to the loo – it’s always a real downer. Whereas with a little hip flask, you don’t drink so much liquid, you stay warm once the sun goes down, and you don’t need to go nip off the loo so often so you get to keep your good spot once you muscle your way in.”
And for another thing, they’ve been busy creating their own studio. “Didn’t literally put the bricks in ourselves, no. We’re in a sort of car mechanics warehouse - breezeblock, corrugated iron roof - so we had to build a shell within it so it would sound good but we did pay builders to do that. We did assemble the gear ourselves. It’s definitely a big part of the story of this record, certainly taking the step of recording it ourselves rather than being in a flashy, grand-a-day kind of studio.”
Is that why you got your own studio, you wanted more input into the production side? “I think so yeah. Often when writing the songs we make demos as part of the process, so on both records by the time of going into the studio we kind of normally had a fairly clear picture of how things were going to sound like. We’ve kind of done our own production but the engineering side, capturing the performance and knowing which special box in the studio the drums need to go through to make it sound wicked, they were the things we were a bit nervous about this time.
"Victor Van Vugt - who worked on most of the last record as well as the first one - he was always encouraging us from the beginning to consider that one day we’d get our own place and we’d record our music ourselves. I guess that’s definitely lent something to the change of sound on the record.”
That record would be new album ‘Beyond The Neighbourhood’. “It’s brilliant. You should go and buy it!” he laughs, and then explains a bit about the title. “Someone summed it up quite neatly the other day saying like the first record was written a lot about our little corner of London, the excitement of getting a record deal, you know, full of the joys of life really.
"And then ‘Tourist’ was a darker and moodier record, and I think a big part of that was just getting used to quite a change in lifestyles, and spending a lot of time on the road, and being away from family and friends and learning to deal with keeping relationships going while being away on a bus for seven or eight months of the year. But now we’ve kind of got used to the fact that that’s how life is for us. So we’ve done that touring band record, that’s out of our system, and I think this is the first time that some of the lyrical content has got a bit outside of Athlete’s own little world.
”So like with ‘Hurricane’ you have those little references to that sort of whole environmental thing that is kind of taking up people’s thinking at the moment. It’s not a record with a message to preach, I think it’s just full of a lot of questions. For a lot of us it feels like life is more uncertain than it was even five years ago, you know?”
Any particular tracks that stand out for you? “Definitely check out ‘The Outsiders’, I think that might be our next single. If you come to see us live definitely learn the words to ‘Second Hand Stores’, that feels like it’s going to be a big singalong live tune. They’re my top two.”
I like the sound of ‘Airport Disco’. “It’s a great title. It’s quite sort of atmospheric beginning, there’s some really nice sounds in it. The guitar line that comes in is brilliant.”
What are the keyboards like? “They’re great too. That’s not for me to say!”
But will they be able to live up to the tearjerker that is ‘Wires’? It was a major song, and didn't Athlete win awards for it? “It was a very big song. We won an Ivor Novello award for it which was brilliant. It did well and it got played lots on the radio. I think it’s just one of those tunes that just had a certain something.” It is quite powerful.
“I was reading in the paper about these people that have designed this computer program which tests whether a song’s going to be a hit or not. Apparently record companies, I guess it’s more – I hope it’s more - in the territory of pop artists, they run the tunes through and the computer comes back and says ‘You’ve got an 82% chance of this song.’ And I’m like that’s rubbish, surely it’s not a science! For us [Wires] was a risky single to come back with and no-one would say that it was a surefire radio hit. I don’t think it would tick all the boxes, but it’s definitely got something.”
It doesn’t have to be a radio hit to be a good song though. “Exactly, and that’s really encouraging when a song like that comes through. As an artist having an experience like that, it inspires you to keep searching for those special things.”
I saw a few people started a thread on the forum about should ‘Wires’ should be dropped from the live set. “Absolutely not. I saw that, there was some kind of comparison to Radiohead not playing ‘Creep’ or something like that. I think the thing that was fortunate for us is that that tune happened on our second record, it happened after our first album had eventually gone platinum, which is quite a big deal, but for us we grew and got our foundations as a band just by touring the toilet venues and doing it for ages. I think if that had been our first ever single it would have been quite a frightening experience for us.”
I pause the interview for a second while I try and lower my chair. I’m sat opposite Tim but about two feet higher. He laughs as I battle with the lever.The first release off ‘Beyond The Neighbourhood’ is ‘Hurricane.’ “Ooh, topical,” says Tim. I was going to talk about the single, but we can talk about weather systems if you like. “It didn’t actually begin as a song about hurricanes. The way we write songs, we tend to spend a bit of time at home on our own, kind of coming up with ideas, and Joel had a guitar riff that’s similar to the one that made it to the final tune.
"Joel subscribes to the National Geographic magazine and he was reading an article about hurricanes on the east coast of America; they’re getting more frequent, they’re pushing further up the coast. The opening paragraph, they consulted this scientist they or meteorologist, and he said ‘Oh well, it’s just something we’ve got to get used to.’ And I think it just kind of triggered that thing in Joel’s head.” It’s quite upbeat isn’t it? “It’s definitely upbeat for us I think, the last record was kind of dark and moody. But the first single being ‘Wires’, it was a different kind of first single and this is a very different kind of first single, I guess it’s probably a bit more uptempo, a bit rockier than people might expect from us.”
You haven’t had anyone saying it should be banned because of events like Hurricane Dean? “I heard that someone on our forum suggested that because it was coming out at the same time as a hurricane actually occurring that maybe we should consider donating half the money from the single to the relief efforts, but someone else commented that there probably wouldn’t be very much money at all!”
Tim’s looking forward to Athlete’s October tour. “For us venues are about 2,000 a night, a bit smaller than where we were playing at the end of the last record, which is going to be nice; big gigs but a bit more intimate. We’re going to certainly make sure that people get their money’s worth.”
And you said you’ve taken on Jonny Pilcher? “Yeah, as a live guitarist. When we got to the point of actually recording our songs in the studio we’d often get him to come in for a day or two in the week. It was nice just having someone round occasionally, someone who could just kind of go ‘yeah, I like the vibe of that’ or ‘you should try giving this a go.’ It was always the idea that he’d come on the road with us live because it just frees us up a little bit and gives it a different dynamic.”
At least the road journeys aren’t as long as in the States. “Last year we kind of got into playing poker quite a lot on the bus.” For hard cash? “For small amounts of cash, yeah. Five or ten pounds a night, that’ll be it. And our games usually go on for hours, so that’s quite good value for money really. And then towards the end of touring, we’re all kind of huddled on our laptops beginning to come up with new ideas for tunes as well.”
What merchandise plans have you got? “We’ve talked about trying lots of things. We’ve done quite a lot actually, we’ve had baseball caps, belts, sweatbands, t shirts, we’ve even had French knicker and vest set, bottle openers. This next tour, we’re thinking of doing those sort of shopping/beach bags, you slip it over your shoulder – just like one of them!” Tim says, noticing my bag on the floor. Some people in [Jonny’s] lady’s family work in India with this project where they make bags, so we’re thinking of giving them a go, maybe pressing an ‘A’ for Athlete on them.
“I’m guessing that when you’re a big fan of a band it’s the little quirky extras that get you excited.” I went to see Keane and they had Keane shower curtains. Paul McCartney had incense. “Deary me… The album cover first started life as a poster advertising a run of gigs we did at KOKO, and then some proper screenprints. Not like posters you buy for two quid, they’re amazing, and there’s only a couple of hundred so that’s the one people should look out for because they’ll be worth a fortune in a few years.”
Time for a final bit of musing. “Now we’ve stopped making the record and started putting the radio back on in the last few days while we’ve been decorating, there seem to be about a hundred bands that I’ve never heard of. Life seems to be good for people in bands.” We’re glad about that.
Athlete
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in August 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
TIM WANSTALL - ATHLETE
“I’m glad you’re here,” I say as Tim Wanstall from Athlete walks into the interview room at the record label's HQ. “I’ve been trying to talk to Lily Allen but she won't speak to me.”
“Are you trying to get an interview with Lily Allen?” Tim asks with interest, then laughs as he notices I’m sat next to a large Simpsons-style cut-out of the singer. I've checked, and disappointingly they haven't made any Athlete ones. Let’s begin…
“I’m Tim from Athlete, and I play things with the keys.”
We establish that if Tim was in a film he’d choose Geoffrey Rush’s Shine because of the piano skills (“but I wouldn’t want to go mad”), he thinks TV talent shows are ‘shit’ (“what makes good TV doesn’t necessarily make for good music I suppose. I don’t think they’re doing as much harm as everyone thinks”) and that he’s campaigning to get the band covering Robyn ‘With Every Heartbeat’ on Radio 1’s Live Lounge. He’s very cheerful and talkative.
The band also comprises singer/guitarist Joel Pott, bassist Carey Willetts and drummer Stephen Roberts, but they’re not here today.It’s all been a bit quiet on the Athlete front for a while. Debut album ‘Vehicles & Animals’ came out some four years ago and 'Tourist' plus mega single ‘Wires’ exploded onto the scene in early 2005. Since then we haven’t heard that much from the indie rockers; their singles haven’t had the chart recognition many thought they deserved, and they weren’t at any festivals this year.
“The kind of time the festivals are booked we were still kind of finishing off in the studio. Which turned out to be a good move ‘cause we didn’t finish [the record] in time to put it out before the summer, and I think coming back after a year or two off and playing a bunch of festivals without a new record would be a bit weird.”
You don’t want to play all the songs no-one knows. “Exactly. That’s not really what festivals are about are they, they’re kind of about singing along with your favourites, so yeah we saved them all for next summer and we’ll definitely do all the ones we can get our hands on. It almost seems like every other weekend if you wanted to go to one there are some pretty decent ones.“I’m really looking forward to that thing where you maybe play somewhere here, then you head on a bus and go and play a festival in Italy, doing a couple every weekend for the whole summer, it’s brilliant.”
Are you going to any festivals to watch this year? “I’m not, no. The only two which we’ve sort of been free for are V and Carling Reading, the whole malarkey, but just listening to the weather reports come in, it’s putting me off!” From Parlophone HQ we can see the rooftops of London. The sky is currently in a few shades of cool grey, apart from the bits which are depressing clouds. Tim’s phone bleeps.
“The first time we played at Glastonbury we camped for the whole weekend. I feel like my camping days are behind me at the moment. I definitely can’t cope with all that mud. So no, I won’t be there [Carling].”
Got any festival tips? “For punters, you can’t beat the dustbin sacks. And then on top of that I think my tip would be get a decent little hip flask and fill it up with some good single malt whisky, maybe some cognac or something. If you’re drinking beer, you find yourself a good spot and then you need to nip off to the loo – it’s always a real downer. Whereas with a little hip flask, you don’t drink so much liquid, you stay warm once the sun goes down, and you don’t need to go nip off the loo so often so you get to keep your good spot once you muscle your way in.”
And for another thing, they’ve been busy creating their own studio. “Didn’t literally put the bricks in ourselves, no. We’re in a sort of car mechanics warehouse - breezeblock, corrugated iron roof - so we had to build a shell within it so it would sound good but we did pay builders to do that. We did assemble the gear ourselves. It’s definitely a big part of the story of this record, certainly taking the step of recording it ourselves rather than being in a flashy, grand-a-day kind of studio.”
Is that why you got your own studio, you wanted more input into the production side? “I think so yeah. Often when writing the songs we make demos as part of the process, so on both records by the time of going into the studio we kind of normally had a fairly clear picture of how things were going to sound like. We’ve kind of done our own production but the engineering side, capturing the performance and knowing which special box in the studio the drums need to go through to make it sound wicked, they were the things we were a bit nervous about this time.
"Victor Van Vugt - who worked on most of the last record as well as the first one - he was always encouraging us from the beginning to consider that one day we’d get our own place and we’d record our music ourselves. I guess that’s definitely lent something to the change of sound on the record.”
That record would be new album ‘Beyond The Neighbourhood’. “It’s brilliant. You should go and buy it!” he laughs, and then explains a bit about the title. “Someone summed it up quite neatly the other day saying like the first record was written a lot about our little corner of London, the excitement of getting a record deal, you know, full of the joys of life really.
"And then ‘Tourist’ was a darker and moodier record, and I think a big part of that was just getting used to quite a change in lifestyles, and spending a lot of time on the road, and being away from family and friends and learning to deal with keeping relationships going while being away on a bus for seven or eight months of the year. But now we’ve kind of got used to the fact that that’s how life is for us. So we’ve done that touring band record, that’s out of our system, and I think this is the first time that some of the lyrical content has got a bit outside of Athlete’s own little world.
”So like with ‘Hurricane’ you have those little references to that sort of whole environmental thing that is kind of taking up people’s thinking at the moment. It’s not a record with a message to preach, I think it’s just full of a lot of questions. For a lot of us it feels like life is more uncertain than it was even five years ago, you know?”
Any particular tracks that stand out for you? “Definitely check out ‘The Outsiders’, I think that might be our next single. If you come to see us live definitely learn the words to ‘Second Hand Stores’, that feels like it’s going to be a big singalong live tune. They’re my top two.”
I like the sound of ‘Airport Disco’. “It’s a great title. It’s quite sort of atmospheric beginning, there’s some really nice sounds in it. The guitar line that comes in is brilliant.”
What are the keyboards like? “They’re great too. That’s not for me to say!”
But will they be able to live up to the tearjerker that is ‘Wires’? It was a major song, and didn't Athlete win awards for it? “It was a very big song. We won an Ivor Novello award for it which was brilliant. It did well and it got played lots on the radio. I think it’s just one of those tunes that just had a certain something.” It is quite powerful.
“I was reading in the paper about these people that have designed this computer program which tests whether a song’s going to be a hit or not. Apparently record companies, I guess it’s more – I hope it’s more - in the territory of pop artists, they run the tunes through and the computer comes back and says ‘You’ve got an 82% chance of this song.’ And I’m like that’s rubbish, surely it’s not a science! For us [Wires] was a risky single to come back with and no-one would say that it was a surefire radio hit. I don’t think it would tick all the boxes, but it’s definitely got something.”
It doesn’t have to be a radio hit to be a good song though. “Exactly, and that’s really encouraging when a song like that comes through. As an artist having an experience like that, it inspires you to keep searching for those special things.”
I saw a few people started a thread on the forum about should ‘Wires’ should be dropped from the live set. “Absolutely not. I saw that, there was some kind of comparison to Radiohead not playing ‘Creep’ or something like that. I think the thing that was fortunate for us is that that tune happened on our second record, it happened after our first album had eventually gone platinum, which is quite a big deal, but for us we grew and got our foundations as a band just by touring the toilet venues and doing it for ages. I think if that had been our first ever single it would have been quite a frightening experience for us.”
I pause the interview for a second while I try and lower my chair. I’m sat opposite Tim but about two feet higher. He laughs as I battle with the lever.The first release off ‘Beyond The Neighbourhood’ is ‘Hurricane.’ “Ooh, topical,” says Tim. I was going to talk about the single, but we can talk about weather systems if you like. “It didn’t actually begin as a song about hurricanes. The way we write songs, we tend to spend a bit of time at home on our own, kind of coming up with ideas, and Joel had a guitar riff that’s similar to the one that made it to the final tune.
"Joel subscribes to the National Geographic magazine and he was reading an article about hurricanes on the east coast of America; they’re getting more frequent, they’re pushing further up the coast. The opening paragraph, they consulted this scientist they or meteorologist, and he said ‘Oh well, it’s just something we’ve got to get used to.’ And I think it just kind of triggered that thing in Joel’s head.” It’s quite upbeat isn’t it? “It’s definitely upbeat for us I think, the last record was kind of dark and moody. But the first single being ‘Wires’, it was a different kind of first single and this is a very different kind of first single, I guess it’s probably a bit more uptempo, a bit rockier than people might expect from us.”
You haven’t had anyone saying it should be banned because of events like Hurricane Dean? “I heard that someone on our forum suggested that because it was coming out at the same time as a hurricane actually occurring that maybe we should consider donating half the money from the single to the relief efforts, but someone else commented that there probably wouldn’t be very much money at all!”
Tim’s looking forward to Athlete’s October tour. “For us venues are about 2,000 a night, a bit smaller than where we were playing at the end of the last record, which is going to be nice; big gigs but a bit more intimate. We’re going to certainly make sure that people get their money’s worth.”
And you said you’ve taken on Jonny Pilcher? “Yeah, as a live guitarist. When we got to the point of actually recording our songs in the studio we’d often get him to come in for a day or two in the week. It was nice just having someone round occasionally, someone who could just kind of go ‘yeah, I like the vibe of that’ or ‘you should try giving this a go.’ It was always the idea that he’d come on the road with us live because it just frees us up a little bit and gives it a different dynamic.”
At least the road journeys aren’t as long as in the States. “Last year we kind of got into playing poker quite a lot on the bus.” For hard cash? “For small amounts of cash, yeah. Five or ten pounds a night, that’ll be it. And our games usually go on for hours, so that’s quite good value for money really. And then towards the end of touring, we’re all kind of huddled on our laptops beginning to come up with new ideas for tunes as well.”
What merchandise plans have you got? “We’ve talked about trying lots of things. We’ve done quite a lot actually, we’ve had baseball caps, belts, sweatbands, t shirts, we’ve even had French knicker and vest set, bottle openers. This next tour, we’re thinking of doing those sort of shopping/beach bags, you slip it over your shoulder – just like one of them!” Tim says, noticing my bag on the floor. Some people in [Jonny’s] lady’s family work in India with this project where they make bags, so we’re thinking of giving them a go, maybe pressing an ‘A’ for Athlete on them.
“I’m guessing that when you’re a big fan of a band it’s the little quirky extras that get you excited.” I went to see Keane and they had Keane shower curtains. Paul McCartney had incense. “Deary me… The album cover first started life as a poster advertising a run of gigs we did at KOKO, and then some proper screenprints. Not like posters you buy for two quid, they’re amazing, and there’s only a couple of hundred so that’s the one people should look out for because they’ll be worth a fortune in a few years.”
Time for a final bit of musing. “Now we’ve stopped making the record and started putting the radio back on in the last few days while we’ve been decorating, there seem to be about a hundred bands that I’ve never heard of. Life seems to be good for people in bands.” We’re glad about that.
Athlete
Interview - Funeral For A Friend
Not much to say here. This was an email interview, so you literally put some questions together and send them to the PR, who then pass it onto the band if they remember. In this case they did, so that was nice.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in August 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND
Welsh rockers Funeral For A Friend are currently on a mammoth tour of the United States as part of the Warped Tour. We sent an email interview to Ryan Richards so he could tell us what the band are up to. According to his Wikipedia profile, Ryan "is from Brigend (sic) and rocks at drums. He has many sets of drums." Brilliant. Let's begin...
I don't do email interviews very often. So as a nice warm-up I stole some questions off a MySpace bulletin. What do you have in your pockets?
My wallet, my passport and a couple of dollar bills.
What was the last thing you ate?
Some microwave ravioli.
The phone rings. Who do you want it to be?
Chris Tarrant.
OK, some slightly more sensible questions now. Whereabouts are you at the moment and what are you up to?
We're currently in Dallas, Texas on the Warped Tour.
I'm not sure when exactly you'll be getting this so I don't know how far into the tour you are. But how's it going? What's the atmosphere like?
It's going great. We played the Warped Tour two years ago on one of the side stages but we're on the Main Stage this time so it means getting to play to a lot more people. The atmosphere is always great on Warped. It's pretty much like a rock and roll summer camp.
We were wondering if you receive complimentary Vans…?
We did indeed. I got myself some nice white and green slip ons. Lovely.
Which other bands are you looking forward to seeing?
There's a lot of good bands on the tour. I'm enjoying seeing how the other British bands - Gallows and The Automatic - go down with the Americans, and it's always fun catching Killswitch Engage.
Been doing any sightseeing while you're out there?
Not really, since most of the shows are out of town in fields and whatnot. Most of the sightseeing gets done when we do club tours.
How do American crowds compare to UK ones?
They're a little more tanned, as are we at the moment. For once. I think the main difference is people's perceptions of us in the States, where we're considered more of an underground hardcore band while in the UK we're considered almost mainstream.
Are you going to play 'The Getaway Plan'?!
In a word - no.
Enjoying the American food?
In a word - no.
You're playing Reading/Leeds this summer. Looking forward to going back?
Definitely. We've always had a great time at the Reading and Leeds Festival and there's a really great line up on our day so I'll be enjoying a lot of music that weekend.
It's a pretty busy summer you've got lined up. What on earth are you going to do to relax?
We've actually just got a Nintendo Wii on our bus and that's the popular 'winding down' activity on the tour at the moment. That and Guitar Hero. So basically, video games.
I saw you supporting Iron Maiden at Earls Court ages ago. I just thought I'd tell you that. I enjoyed it but I hear not everyone did…
That'd be pretty fair to say, I think.It's pretty tough playing to Maiden's crowd as most of them aren't quite as open minded as yourself. Or myself. We still had a great time though as Maiden are one of my favourite bands of all time.
I'm afraid I haven't heard 'Tales Don't Tell Themselves'. Got any messages for people like me who haven't quite got round to buying it yet?
Buy it. Or download it, then buy it. Or buy it, then download it.
How does it compare to 'Hours'?
It's a lot more cohesive. More direct. A bit more 'classic' sounding. It's definitely our favourite record we've done, but everyone says that I suppose. You'll have to take my word for it - it rocks.
'Walk Away' is your next single and the video is quite moving. The 'missing fisherman' is the main topic of the album, can you tell me a bit about the story and what made you write it?
It's just something Matt (vocalist) felt like writing about. He wanted to write a story about fear and the thing he's most afraid of is water and being away from everything he loves. So that's basically where the tale came from.
I notice you've got a new MySpace blog up about Skate4Cancer. How involved are you in charity work?
I actually met Rob, who founded Skate4Cancer, on the first day of Warped and was really inspired by his story and wanted to help out by directing our fans to his site. You should check out myspace.com/skate4cancer We've have had quite a bit of involvement with charities since we started the band and will continue to do so.
What are your plans for the rest of the day, are you gigging tonight?
We've actually played already today and it was probably the best show so far. So now I'm winding down and doing some interviews while watching Samuel Jackson's 'Afro Samurai.'
Thanks, and enjoy the rest of your time out there.
Thank you.
--------
Funeral For A Friend release 'Walk Away' on July 16th through Atlantic Records. Album 'Tales Don't Tell Themselves' is out now
Funeral For A Friend
MySpace
Skate4Cancer
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in August 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND
Welsh rockers Funeral For A Friend are currently on a mammoth tour of the United States as part of the Warped Tour. We sent an email interview to Ryan Richards so he could tell us what the band are up to. According to his Wikipedia profile, Ryan "is from Brigend (sic) and rocks at drums. He has many sets of drums." Brilliant. Let's begin...
I don't do email interviews very often. So as a nice warm-up I stole some questions off a MySpace bulletin. What do you have in your pockets?
My wallet, my passport and a couple of dollar bills.
What was the last thing you ate?
Some microwave ravioli.
The phone rings. Who do you want it to be?
Chris Tarrant.
OK, some slightly more sensible questions now. Whereabouts are you at the moment and what are you up to?
We're currently in Dallas, Texas on the Warped Tour.
I'm not sure when exactly you'll be getting this so I don't know how far into the tour you are. But how's it going? What's the atmosphere like?
It's going great. We played the Warped Tour two years ago on one of the side stages but we're on the Main Stage this time so it means getting to play to a lot more people. The atmosphere is always great on Warped. It's pretty much like a rock and roll summer camp.
We were wondering if you receive complimentary Vans…?
We did indeed. I got myself some nice white and green slip ons. Lovely.
Which other bands are you looking forward to seeing?
There's a lot of good bands on the tour. I'm enjoying seeing how the other British bands - Gallows and The Automatic - go down with the Americans, and it's always fun catching Killswitch Engage.
Been doing any sightseeing while you're out there?
Not really, since most of the shows are out of town in fields and whatnot. Most of the sightseeing gets done when we do club tours.
How do American crowds compare to UK ones?
They're a little more tanned, as are we at the moment. For once. I think the main difference is people's perceptions of us in the States, where we're considered more of an underground hardcore band while in the UK we're considered almost mainstream.
Are you going to play 'The Getaway Plan'?!
In a word - no.
Enjoying the American food?
In a word - no.
You're playing Reading/Leeds this summer. Looking forward to going back?
Definitely. We've always had a great time at the Reading and Leeds Festival and there's a really great line up on our day so I'll be enjoying a lot of music that weekend.
It's a pretty busy summer you've got lined up. What on earth are you going to do to relax?
We've actually just got a Nintendo Wii on our bus and that's the popular 'winding down' activity on the tour at the moment. That and Guitar Hero. So basically, video games.
I saw you supporting Iron Maiden at Earls Court ages ago. I just thought I'd tell you that. I enjoyed it but I hear not everyone did…
That'd be pretty fair to say, I think.It's pretty tough playing to Maiden's crowd as most of them aren't quite as open minded as yourself. Or myself. We still had a great time though as Maiden are one of my favourite bands of all time.
I'm afraid I haven't heard 'Tales Don't Tell Themselves'. Got any messages for people like me who haven't quite got round to buying it yet?
Buy it. Or download it, then buy it. Or buy it, then download it.
How does it compare to 'Hours'?
It's a lot more cohesive. More direct. A bit more 'classic' sounding. It's definitely our favourite record we've done, but everyone says that I suppose. You'll have to take my word for it - it rocks.
'Walk Away' is your next single and the video is quite moving. The 'missing fisherman' is the main topic of the album, can you tell me a bit about the story and what made you write it?
It's just something Matt (vocalist) felt like writing about. He wanted to write a story about fear and the thing he's most afraid of is water and being away from everything he loves. So that's basically where the tale came from.
I notice you've got a new MySpace blog up about Skate4Cancer. How involved are you in charity work?
I actually met Rob, who founded Skate4Cancer, on the first day of Warped and was really inspired by his story and wanted to help out by directing our fans to his site. You should check out myspace.com/skate4cancer We've have had quite a bit of involvement with charities since we started the band and will continue to do so.
What are your plans for the rest of the day, are you gigging tonight?
We've actually played already today and it was probably the best show so far. So now I'm winding down and doing some interviews while watching Samuel Jackson's 'Afro Samurai.'
Thanks, and enjoy the rest of your time out there.
Thank you.
--------
Funeral For A Friend release 'Walk Away' on July 16th through Atlantic Records. Album 'Tales Don't Tell Themselves' is out now
Funeral For A Friend
MySpace
Skate4Cancer
Interview - Tokio Hotel
I would say this lot still haven't broken through in the UK, however they're absolutely massive on the Continent. Another email questionnaire, because I think it all had to be translated into German and back again.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in August 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
TOKIO HOTEL
So who are Tokio Hotel? Only the freshest lot roaring out of the German music scene for a long while. There are the twins, the spiky-dressing, androgynous Bill (vocals) and hip hop-loving Tom (guitar), joined by bassist Georg and drummer Gustav to play a dark mix of heavy rock with a lick of eyeliner. The band had a number one album in their homeland which has now gone platinum tenfold, and a few awards for best newcomer and best selling German act last year. Due to the fact the UK doesn't generally follow the music trends prevalent on the continent, they're still fairly unknown around here. They tried to hold a webchat last week and the sheer volume of fans logging on crashed the site. And their oldest member is just twenty. It's a hell of a ride for the exultant rockers of Tokio Hotel...
Let’s start with a random one. If you could go to any planet, where would you go?
Tom: I would like to go to Venus.
Bill: I would visit E.T.
Gustav: I would visit Pluto!
Georg: I would stay on Earth ‘cause there’s nothing really going on on the other planets.
Some slightly more sensible questions now. What have you been doing today
Gustav: We’re actually in London, doing promotion.
I don’t know a lot about how Tokio Hotel started… How did you all meet?
Tom: Bill and I used to do music together since we were seven years old. Back then I was already playing the guitar and Bill sang along while playing the keyboard, which delivered bass and drums. However, if you want to have a real rock band you need some more people and pretty much by accident we meet Gustav and Georg at a gig we played in a small club called Gröninger Bad.
Georg: Gustav and I already knew each other from music school and became friends. That night we went together to the club and saw these two guys perform. There is no denying the fact they needed some help and that is when it all started! (Everyone laughs)
Tom (smiling): Strange, I remember it completely different. I recall Georg and Gustav begging to be a part of our cool band back then!
Do you go back to your hometown very often? When you’re there, do you get recognised by fans a lot?
Bill: Whenever we have the time we go home and spent time with friends and families.
Tom: Sure we get recognised. That’s OK, but going home is very important for us – spending some time with your people, a little time out of the band, that’s important for each of us.
In Europe, you’re massively popular, have lots of screaming fans and have won several awards. How do you cope with all the pressure?
Georg: It does not seem to us that there is that much pressure. Everything we achieved so far, everything that has happened is more we ever dreamed of. We’re not expecting anything. We’re just very excited about what is going to happen next.
What have you done with all your awards?!
Bill: It depends. Sometimes you get four awards so everybody can take one home – These ones you’ll find in all our homes. Sometimes you only get one for the whole band. In that case it’s passed to each band member from time to time.
What has been your best gig so far?
Bill: That’s a tough question! Every country, every city and each venue is different and great in its own way, so there is not really one best gig; they all are very special to us. The biggest one though was on July 15th this year when we performed for more than half a million people in Paris – that was unbelievable.
Tom: Just imagine – you are already standing on a magnificent stage and as far as you can look there is only people cheering. It is overwhelming!
Do you have any superstitions or things you have to do before going out on stage?
Tom: We don’t have a ritual but 1.5 hours prior to a show it’s just us in our backstage room. We spend this time together and we’re usually very nervous. We think about everything that could probably go wrong.
Bill: I always say we are the most nervous band in the world. We go crazy.
Georg: Except Gustav. He is more laid back.
Gustav: That’s true! When I am in the backstage room I just put on my earphones and listen to music. If I had to listen to what the others were saying I would have had a heart attack by now!
You played in London last month and sold out Islington Academy. How was it? How do your UK fans compare to elsewhere in Europe?
Bill: That was very exciting. I mean this was the first time we played a whole English show. So I was especially nervous.
Gustav: Our fans always surprise us. No matter where we go, they are already there, waiting for us, cheering and are very excited to see us. That’s true for the English fans as well. They really knew how to rock the house, which makes us want to come back for some more shows.
It sounds like you’re always busy – what do you do to relax?
Bill: Sleep as long as possible, watch some TV, eat, meet friends and family and go to sleep again.
Your album ‘Scream’ is released in the UK in November. Can you tell me a bit about it?
Tom: After seeing how people react to our music in Europe, we started thinking about an English album. Our fans are really amazing – they picked up our music, started to learn German to sing along with us and to translate the songs into their language. Unbelievable. That’s really special, you can’t expect that. And ‘cause our lyrics are very important to us and we want people to understand what we’re singing we decided to translate our songs for an English album. We picked our favourite songs from the first and second German album for the English version and here we are.
Does it feel weird to be singing your familiar songs in a different language?
Bill: It did in the beginning when I recorded the songs in the studio. I always wrote in German, I always sang in German – it’s my mother language. And then, after singing these songs for such a long time in German, it felt like recording brand new songs. Another thing was, that I wanted them to sound really good. I’m a perfectionist and I wanted them to sound like an English singer sang them. So it took me some time and a lot of patience. Now that it is done I’m really happy with the results and all of us are very proud of the English album.
If you had your own hotel (called Tokio Hotel, obviously) where would it be and what cool things would you have in it?
Georg: There would be only gigantic rooms and in each one there would be tons of plugs for all kinds of electrical devices.
Tom: And every room would have its own wellness area.
Gustav: And there would be full wireless lines everywhere.
Bill: The whole hotel would come in a very modern style – a lot of glass, chrome and steal. Very unique and modern.
What are you doing for the rest of today?
Georg: Promotion, having dinner and going to bed.
--------
Tokio Hotel release 'Ready, Set, Go!' on August 28th. Album 'Scream' follows in November
http://tokiohotel.pop24.de/tokiohotel2/index2_uk.php
http://www.myspace.com/tokiohotel
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in August 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
TOKIO HOTEL
So who are Tokio Hotel? Only the freshest lot roaring out of the German music scene for a long while. There are the twins, the spiky-dressing, androgynous Bill (vocals) and hip hop-loving Tom (guitar), joined by bassist Georg and drummer Gustav to play a dark mix of heavy rock with a lick of eyeliner. The band had a number one album in their homeland which has now gone platinum tenfold, and a few awards for best newcomer and best selling German act last year. Due to the fact the UK doesn't generally follow the music trends prevalent on the continent, they're still fairly unknown around here. They tried to hold a webchat last week and the sheer volume of fans logging on crashed the site. And their oldest member is just twenty. It's a hell of a ride for the exultant rockers of Tokio Hotel...
Let’s start with a random one. If you could go to any planet, where would you go?
Tom: I would like to go to Venus.
Bill: I would visit E.T.
Gustav: I would visit Pluto!
Georg: I would stay on Earth ‘cause there’s nothing really going on on the other planets.
Some slightly more sensible questions now. What have you been doing today
Gustav: We’re actually in London, doing promotion.
I don’t know a lot about how Tokio Hotel started… How did you all meet?
Tom: Bill and I used to do music together since we were seven years old. Back then I was already playing the guitar and Bill sang along while playing the keyboard, which delivered bass and drums. However, if you want to have a real rock band you need some more people and pretty much by accident we meet Gustav and Georg at a gig we played in a small club called Gröninger Bad.
Georg: Gustav and I already knew each other from music school and became friends. That night we went together to the club and saw these two guys perform. There is no denying the fact they needed some help and that is when it all started! (Everyone laughs)
Tom (smiling): Strange, I remember it completely different. I recall Georg and Gustav begging to be a part of our cool band back then!
Do you go back to your hometown very often? When you’re there, do you get recognised by fans a lot?
Bill: Whenever we have the time we go home and spent time with friends and families.
Tom: Sure we get recognised. That’s OK, but going home is very important for us – spending some time with your people, a little time out of the band, that’s important for each of us.
In Europe, you’re massively popular, have lots of screaming fans and have won several awards. How do you cope with all the pressure?
Georg: It does not seem to us that there is that much pressure. Everything we achieved so far, everything that has happened is more we ever dreamed of. We’re not expecting anything. We’re just very excited about what is going to happen next.
What have you done with all your awards?!
Bill: It depends. Sometimes you get four awards so everybody can take one home – These ones you’ll find in all our homes. Sometimes you only get one for the whole band. In that case it’s passed to each band member from time to time.
What has been your best gig so far?
Bill: That’s a tough question! Every country, every city and each venue is different and great in its own way, so there is not really one best gig; they all are very special to us. The biggest one though was on July 15th this year when we performed for more than half a million people in Paris – that was unbelievable.
Tom: Just imagine – you are already standing on a magnificent stage and as far as you can look there is only people cheering. It is overwhelming!
Do you have any superstitions or things you have to do before going out on stage?
Tom: We don’t have a ritual but 1.5 hours prior to a show it’s just us in our backstage room. We spend this time together and we’re usually very nervous. We think about everything that could probably go wrong.
Bill: I always say we are the most nervous band in the world. We go crazy.
Georg: Except Gustav. He is more laid back.
Gustav: That’s true! When I am in the backstage room I just put on my earphones and listen to music. If I had to listen to what the others were saying I would have had a heart attack by now!
You played in London last month and sold out Islington Academy. How was it? How do your UK fans compare to elsewhere in Europe?
Bill: That was very exciting. I mean this was the first time we played a whole English show. So I was especially nervous.
Gustav: Our fans always surprise us. No matter where we go, they are already there, waiting for us, cheering and are very excited to see us. That’s true for the English fans as well. They really knew how to rock the house, which makes us want to come back for some more shows.
It sounds like you’re always busy – what do you do to relax?
Bill: Sleep as long as possible, watch some TV, eat, meet friends and family and go to sleep again.
Your album ‘Scream’ is released in the UK in November. Can you tell me a bit about it?
Tom: After seeing how people react to our music in Europe, we started thinking about an English album. Our fans are really amazing – they picked up our music, started to learn German to sing along with us and to translate the songs into their language. Unbelievable. That’s really special, you can’t expect that. And ‘cause our lyrics are very important to us and we want people to understand what we’re singing we decided to translate our songs for an English album. We picked our favourite songs from the first and second German album for the English version and here we are.
Does it feel weird to be singing your familiar songs in a different language?
Bill: It did in the beginning when I recorded the songs in the studio. I always wrote in German, I always sang in German – it’s my mother language. And then, after singing these songs for such a long time in German, it felt like recording brand new songs. Another thing was, that I wanted them to sound really good. I’m a perfectionist and I wanted them to sound like an English singer sang them. So it took me some time and a lot of patience. Now that it is done I’m really happy with the results and all of us are very proud of the English album.
If you had your own hotel (called Tokio Hotel, obviously) where would it be and what cool things would you have in it?
Georg: There would be only gigantic rooms and in each one there would be tons of plugs for all kinds of electrical devices.
Tom: And every room would have its own wellness area.
Gustav: And there would be full wireless lines everywhere.
Bill: The whole hotel would come in a very modern style – a lot of glass, chrome and steal. Very unique and modern.
What are you doing for the rest of today?
Georg: Promotion, having dinner and going to bed.
--------
Tokio Hotel release 'Ready, Set, Go!' on August 28th. Album 'Scream' follows in November
http://tokiohotel.pop24.de/tokiohotel2/index2_uk.php
http://www.myspace.com/tokiohotel
Interview - The Sheilas
This was an email questionnaire, hence the unusually high number of exclamation amrks which I wouldn't ordinarily allow. I must have been in a VERY good mood.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in September 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
THE SHEILAS
In order to prove ourselves as worthy, intellectual and credible music journalists, we've only gone and interviewed The Sheilas. That's right, the pink and sparkly gels last seen advertising car insurance on TV. Just don't say a word. The delightful Carly Romain answered our questions about Pete Waterman, Pete Doherty, and the colour pink while making some fairly obvious plugs for their new single...
Hi there. Which of you is answering this?
Hiya… it’s Carly here!
How is your summer going, been up to much?
Yeah, it’s great! We’ve been such busy little bees! Out and about promoting the single – gigging, photo shoots, interviews. My hair is suffering badly from all the backcombing and hair spray, if I’m honest! It’s worth it though, it’s been soooo much fun.
The chicken or egg question… Which came first, The Sheilas or the car insurance adverts?
The car insurance adverts definitely. If it wasn’t for ‘Sheila’s Wheels’ we wouldn’t be where we are today. They created such a fantastically catchy and fun campaign. We could see early on that we were involved in something very special, but we never, ever dreamt we’d be signing a record deal with Pete Waterman.
I hear people have been putting their own versions of the Sheila’s Wheels dance up on the internet – are there any you like? How does it feel to have people copying you in this way?
I know… they’re so clever and funny! I love the one with the little hamster riding in a pink car. Don’t suppose the hamster found it that amusing though – poor thing!
How did you girls meet?
I only met the girlies for the first time at the casting for the adverts. It was bizarre though ‘coz we had so many auditions for it, but they grouped the three of us together almost immediately. Maybe they could feel the love!
Can you tell me a fact about each of you?
Errr… I’m the one who always needs a wee when we’re on the road! Emma has recently bought one of those toy ‘Troll’ things with pink spiky hair - she reckons we need a baby Sheila for the band. Hmmm... Cathi wears those strange jelly things in her high heels. Sorry, did you want serious facts about us?
So you’re working with Stock, Aitken and Waterman. Congratulations! How does it feel to be working alongside such musical legends? Are you fans?
Of course I’m a fan! It’s amazing! I still can’t quite believe it. I grew up listening to Kylie, Jason and Rick Astley and remember making up dance routines in my bedroom. Now it’s us! How lucky are we!!!
Are there any of their previous hits you particularly like?
It’s got to be ‘I Should Be So Lucky’. I absolutely adored Kylie and still do!
What are you hoping to achieve from working with them?
Obviously it would be amazing to have a hit record/s and record an album too, but the most important thing for us girlies is to be out there performing and having fun, and we couldn’t wish for better people than ‘SAW’ to achieve this with.
I hear you’re quite popular on the student and gay circuits…
Yeah, most of our gigs are at gay venues or student events and we are still amazed by the reception we get. All of our audiences have been so fantastic. I think we appeal to such a wide range of people because we are so pink, fun and definitely don’t take ourselves too seriously. I think this is why Pete liked the idea so much.
Are you fans of The Pipettes and The Puppini Sisters?
Absolutely. I really love their music and think their styling is wicked too. In fact I have them both on my iPod.
Have you considered wearing colours other than pink?
No way! It has to be pink… or at least accessorised with pink. Scary thing is though, more and more pink is creeping its way into my real life wardrobe too – ahhh!
Are we likely to see any Pete Doherty-type rock and roll excesses from yourselves?
Don’t be daft! We’re Sheilas! The only things we indulge in are pink glitter, gloss and candyfloss!
And to finish, some cheesy Top Three questions. Can you name three things you always carry with you?
1) My secret diary. I have this obsession with logging everything… and I mean every little detail in my diary – freak!
2) Wet Wipes. I hate that dirty London hands feeling - anyone who lives in London will know what I mean!
3) Diet Coke – I’m working on my addiction.
Three Things you would never do on stage?
1) Mime!
2) Wear anything but pink!
3) Not be happy, happy, happy!
and Three Things you often say to each other?
1) “Will you put my lashes on?”
2) “Do we do one kiss or two?” (It’s not what it sounds! How do you know if a person is a one cheek kisser or two?)
3) “(I’m So) Happy Happy (You’re Mine)"
--------
The Sheilas release '(I'm So) Happy Happy (You’re Mine)' on September 24th
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in September 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
THE SHEILAS
In order to prove ourselves as worthy, intellectual and credible music journalists, we've only gone and interviewed The Sheilas. That's right, the pink and sparkly gels last seen advertising car insurance on TV. Just don't say a word. The delightful Carly Romain answered our questions about Pete Waterman, Pete Doherty, and the colour pink while making some fairly obvious plugs for their new single...
Hi there. Which of you is answering this?
Hiya… it’s Carly here!
How is your summer going, been up to much?
Yeah, it’s great! We’ve been such busy little bees! Out and about promoting the single – gigging, photo shoots, interviews. My hair is suffering badly from all the backcombing and hair spray, if I’m honest! It’s worth it though, it’s been soooo much fun.
The chicken or egg question… Which came first, The Sheilas or the car insurance adverts?
The car insurance adverts definitely. If it wasn’t for ‘Sheila’s Wheels’ we wouldn’t be where we are today. They created such a fantastically catchy and fun campaign. We could see early on that we were involved in something very special, but we never, ever dreamt we’d be signing a record deal with Pete Waterman.
I hear people have been putting their own versions of the Sheila’s Wheels dance up on the internet – are there any you like? How does it feel to have people copying you in this way?
I know… they’re so clever and funny! I love the one with the little hamster riding in a pink car. Don’t suppose the hamster found it that amusing though – poor thing!
How did you girls meet?
I only met the girlies for the first time at the casting for the adverts. It was bizarre though ‘coz we had so many auditions for it, but they grouped the three of us together almost immediately. Maybe they could feel the love!
Can you tell me a fact about each of you?
Errr… I’m the one who always needs a wee when we’re on the road! Emma has recently bought one of those toy ‘Troll’ things with pink spiky hair - she reckons we need a baby Sheila for the band. Hmmm... Cathi wears those strange jelly things in her high heels. Sorry, did you want serious facts about us?
So you’re working with Stock, Aitken and Waterman. Congratulations! How does it feel to be working alongside such musical legends? Are you fans?
Of course I’m a fan! It’s amazing! I still can’t quite believe it. I grew up listening to Kylie, Jason and Rick Astley and remember making up dance routines in my bedroom. Now it’s us! How lucky are we!!!
Are there any of their previous hits you particularly like?
It’s got to be ‘I Should Be So Lucky’. I absolutely adored Kylie and still do!
What are you hoping to achieve from working with them?
Obviously it would be amazing to have a hit record/s and record an album too, but the most important thing for us girlies is to be out there performing and having fun, and we couldn’t wish for better people than ‘SAW’ to achieve this with.
I hear you’re quite popular on the student and gay circuits…
Yeah, most of our gigs are at gay venues or student events and we are still amazed by the reception we get. All of our audiences have been so fantastic. I think we appeal to such a wide range of people because we are so pink, fun and definitely don’t take ourselves too seriously. I think this is why Pete liked the idea so much.
Are you fans of The Pipettes and The Puppini Sisters?
Absolutely. I really love their music and think their styling is wicked too. In fact I have them both on my iPod.
Have you considered wearing colours other than pink?
No way! It has to be pink… or at least accessorised with pink. Scary thing is though, more and more pink is creeping its way into my real life wardrobe too – ahhh!
Are we likely to see any Pete Doherty-type rock and roll excesses from yourselves?
Don’t be daft! We’re Sheilas! The only things we indulge in are pink glitter, gloss and candyfloss!
And to finish, some cheesy Top Three questions. Can you name three things you always carry with you?
1) My secret diary. I have this obsession with logging everything… and I mean every little detail in my diary – freak!
2) Wet Wipes. I hate that dirty London hands feeling - anyone who lives in London will know what I mean!
3) Diet Coke – I’m working on my addiction.
Three Things you would never do on stage?
1) Mime!
2) Wear anything but pink!
3) Not be happy, happy, happy!
and Three Things you often say to each other?
1) “Will you put my lashes on?”
2) “Do we do one kiss or two?” (It’s not what it sounds! How do you know if a person is a one cheek kisser or two?)
3) “(I’m So) Happy Happy (You’re Mine)"
--------
The Sheilas release '(I'm So) Happy Happy (You’re Mine)' on September 24th
Interview - David Guetta
David Guetta is one of those people where everyone knows his songs, but not necessarily the name behind them. My, I do like a nice French accent down the phone...
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in December 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
DAVID GUETTA
David Guetta still sees himself as an amateur. The best-selling, stylish and popular house DJ still sees his job as a hobby, which is nice work if you can get it. He’s a lively Frenchman, full of energy and zest. We soon depress him (not really) when he rings from London, where he’s doing the promotional rounds for his latest single. Guetta is facing 12 interviews this day, and has just finished filming an acoustic performance for Channel 4’s Freshly Squeezed. He's hoping to have music lessons next year so he can play more in this style - is there a new direction coming about, we wonder.
With the release of album 'Poplife' this summer - which includes last year's massive hit 'Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away)', a song which managed to get everyone's cars on the dancefloor, as well as recent smash 'Love Is Gone' - Guetta is much in demand to get club nights really going. Recently playing 2020ROCKS in Bournemouth, he's at home in small clubs as well as enormous, spectacular parties. So, let's begin...
‘Baby When The Light’ – that’s your new single with Cozi. Where did you meet her?
In London. I recorded one of the tracks of the album with Tara McDonald who performed on Armand Van Helden ‘My My My’. They were friends and they had the same management. I was looking for this really emotional voice and I was trying lots of different singers, and she proposed to try it and she was perfect. It’s great, I’m really happy with the result.
Is it hard for you to find singers to work with?
Well not really because I’m not like looking so much. It’s always been finding somebody by accident. I met Chris Willis in a bar, JD Davis just came to me because he wanted to work with me. It’s more like a friendship thing for me to hang out with nice people in the studio. I’m not looking everywhere to get some singers. I’m still amateur. No, still! It happens that I’m selling records which is a kind of miracle to me, but I still do this as a hobby really.
You say you’re 'selling records', you won the World’s Best Selling DJ Award at the 2007 World Music Awards.
Yes, and the album is platinum already. It’s great, and it was a huge show so it was really exciting. It was like being at the Oscars, all those big American artists I was like ‘Whoah…’ [laughs] I was impressed. We had dinner and there was Rihanna and Akon, all these huge artists. And me. It’s good. I’m living my dream in the moment, I have to say.
That’s a nice saying.
Yeah it’s great. And the gigs as a DJ, I crave more everywhere I go. It’s magic. You know, all the artistic activities, they’re great when it works. It’s very difficult when it doesn’t work - but when it works, it’s fantastic, it makes you forget everything else.
I read when you first started out in Ibiza people used to laugh at you, especially the English. Why was that?
Yeah, by saying it was a party but French DJs they were like [groans] and I remember actually booking DJs in the early 90s, they would say ‘Really? There’s a scene in France?’ They think that we live in the disco time or something, you know. The island was rammed by all the UK promoters and the American DJs of the time and I came trying to do something different. It was difficult at the beginning, but we’ve done Daft Punk, Laurent Garnier, Cassius and Bob Sinclar and others. It’s a different situation now.
I was reading about your ‘Fuck Me I’m Famous’ CD series, have you got another one coming out soon?
I will have for next summer. Right now I’m really into my album ‘Pop Life’, and this is the most important for me because it took me like 2 ½ years to make it. Actually I produced something like 30 or 40 tracks and then choose only the 12 or 14 best.
It must be quite hard trying to narrow it down.
Oh, that’s the most difficult. The two things I don’t like is choosing because you don’t have enough space on the album, and then choosing the singles. Oh my God, that’s so hard. Because I like all of them, that’s why I put it in the album, but when you have to say okay that’s supposed to be the best, it’s very difficult.
I didn’t know it was you choosing the singles, I thought it was the record company doing that sort of thing.
No because I’m my own producer, so I have my freedom. But they do try, you know. Like they pushed a lot for me to choose ‘Baby When The Light’ as the first single, but I resisted and I’ve done ‘Love Is Gone’ which was a really good move because it was a huge success. But ‘Baby When The Light’ is supposed to be the big one; so, we’ll see.
Good luck with that.
Thank you very much.
Back to your ‘Fuck Me I’m Famous’ club night, you once said your wife brings the glamorous people and you bring the crazies. Is that still true?
Yeah, that’s exactly how it goes, and I like it. I like to meet different people. I think clubs are probably the only place where you can meet people that usually don’t mix, rich, poor, famous, not famous, gay, straight, black, white, it’s great. That’s what we’re doing with ‘Fuck Me I’m Famous’. It’s great, it’s fun. I love to do different things you know, play a big festival for 20,000 people and play for a small underground club of 300.
I was looking at your tour dates coming up and that looks very glamorous, with places like Singapore and Marrakech.
I go everywhere in the world really. There’s Singapore, there’s Marrakech, there’s Germany, there’s America, there’s South America…
…Nottingham. What do you do to relax?
I make music [laughs]
That’s working!
No really, I see it as a way for me to relax and it’s still my hobby.
Do you still go clubbing when you’re not working in one?
Not really. I do this only in Ibiza actually because every weekend I’m playing so I can’t really go. I do this like going out weekdays in Ibiza, so I love to listen to other DJs.
I was reading you were the first DJ to perform a live set on a commercial plane. Was that something you wanted to do or did someone ask you?
I got this mad proposal from this mad plane company. They said play for us, we’ll do the flight on the day of your party, and you can invite anybody you want. So I was like this is great, I can invite all my friends to the party. It was on 14th July which is our independence day and it was crazy, everybody was dancing in the plane. I was not expecting for it to be so good, to be honest. I had two hostesses being my go-go dancers. Perfect.
I was wondering if it was some new craze of extreme Djing, you know, take Djing to these different places.
I’m open to anything! But this one, inviting friends to a party and being there and dancing in the plane, it’s kind of special.
What have been your favourite songs to listen to this year?
I haven’t listened to a lot of music to be honest ‘cause I was really working on my album. I thought the album of Justice was really good, and I love James Blunt also. There’s like a thousand of electronic tracks, I don’t know if you’re interested in that. I’m a big fan of Swedish house like Axwell and those guys, I really love their production.
Are there any other highlights of your year?
The whole year has been a highlight really, I had a baby, I had a new album, I had a really amazing tour, it’s all perfect. I just wish it would never stop.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in December 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
DAVID GUETTA
David Guetta still sees himself as an amateur. The best-selling, stylish and popular house DJ still sees his job as a hobby, which is nice work if you can get it. He’s a lively Frenchman, full of energy and zest. We soon depress him (not really) when he rings from London, where he’s doing the promotional rounds for his latest single. Guetta is facing 12 interviews this day, and has just finished filming an acoustic performance for Channel 4’s Freshly Squeezed. He's hoping to have music lessons next year so he can play more in this style - is there a new direction coming about, we wonder.
With the release of album 'Poplife' this summer - which includes last year's massive hit 'Love Don't Let Me Go (Walking Away)', a song which managed to get everyone's cars on the dancefloor, as well as recent smash 'Love Is Gone' - Guetta is much in demand to get club nights really going. Recently playing 2020ROCKS in Bournemouth, he's at home in small clubs as well as enormous, spectacular parties. So, let's begin...
‘Baby When The Light’ – that’s your new single with Cozi. Where did you meet her?
In London. I recorded one of the tracks of the album with Tara McDonald who performed on Armand Van Helden ‘My My My’. They were friends and they had the same management. I was looking for this really emotional voice and I was trying lots of different singers, and she proposed to try it and she was perfect. It’s great, I’m really happy with the result.
Is it hard for you to find singers to work with?
Well not really because I’m not like looking so much. It’s always been finding somebody by accident. I met Chris Willis in a bar, JD Davis just came to me because he wanted to work with me. It’s more like a friendship thing for me to hang out with nice people in the studio. I’m not looking everywhere to get some singers. I’m still amateur. No, still! It happens that I’m selling records which is a kind of miracle to me, but I still do this as a hobby really.
You say you’re 'selling records', you won the World’s Best Selling DJ Award at the 2007 World Music Awards.
Yes, and the album is platinum already. It’s great, and it was a huge show so it was really exciting. It was like being at the Oscars, all those big American artists I was like ‘Whoah…’ [laughs] I was impressed. We had dinner and there was Rihanna and Akon, all these huge artists. And me. It’s good. I’m living my dream in the moment, I have to say.
That’s a nice saying.
Yeah it’s great. And the gigs as a DJ, I crave more everywhere I go. It’s magic. You know, all the artistic activities, they’re great when it works. It’s very difficult when it doesn’t work - but when it works, it’s fantastic, it makes you forget everything else.
I read when you first started out in Ibiza people used to laugh at you, especially the English. Why was that?
Yeah, by saying it was a party but French DJs they were like [groans] and I remember actually booking DJs in the early 90s, they would say ‘Really? There’s a scene in France?’ They think that we live in the disco time or something, you know. The island was rammed by all the UK promoters and the American DJs of the time and I came trying to do something different. It was difficult at the beginning, but we’ve done Daft Punk, Laurent Garnier, Cassius and Bob Sinclar and others. It’s a different situation now.
I was reading about your ‘Fuck Me I’m Famous’ CD series, have you got another one coming out soon?
I will have for next summer. Right now I’m really into my album ‘Pop Life’, and this is the most important for me because it took me like 2 ½ years to make it. Actually I produced something like 30 or 40 tracks and then choose only the 12 or 14 best.
It must be quite hard trying to narrow it down.
Oh, that’s the most difficult. The two things I don’t like is choosing because you don’t have enough space on the album, and then choosing the singles. Oh my God, that’s so hard. Because I like all of them, that’s why I put it in the album, but when you have to say okay that’s supposed to be the best, it’s very difficult.
I didn’t know it was you choosing the singles, I thought it was the record company doing that sort of thing.
No because I’m my own producer, so I have my freedom. But they do try, you know. Like they pushed a lot for me to choose ‘Baby When The Light’ as the first single, but I resisted and I’ve done ‘Love Is Gone’ which was a really good move because it was a huge success. But ‘Baby When The Light’ is supposed to be the big one; so, we’ll see.
Good luck with that.
Thank you very much.
Back to your ‘Fuck Me I’m Famous’ club night, you once said your wife brings the glamorous people and you bring the crazies. Is that still true?
Yeah, that’s exactly how it goes, and I like it. I like to meet different people. I think clubs are probably the only place where you can meet people that usually don’t mix, rich, poor, famous, not famous, gay, straight, black, white, it’s great. That’s what we’re doing with ‘Fuck Me I’m Famous’. It’s great, it’s fun. I love to do different things you know, play a big festival for 20,000 people and play for a small underground club of 300.
I was looking at your tour dates coming up and that looks very glamorous, with places like Singapore and Marrakech.
I go everywhere in the world really. There’s Singapore, there’s Marrakech, there’s Germany, there’s America, there’s South America…
…Nottingham. What do you do to relax?
I make music [laughs]
That’s working!
No really, I see it as a way for me to relax and it’s still my hobby.
Do you still go clubbing when you’re not working in one?
Not really. I do this only in Ibiza actually because every weekend I’m playing so I can’t really go. I do this like going out weekdays in Ibiza, so I love to listen to other DJs.
I was reading you were the first DJ to perform a live set on a commercial plane. Was that something you wanted to do or did someone ask you?
I got this mad proposal from this mad plane company. They said play for us, we’ll do the flight on the day of your party, and you can invite anybody you want. So I was like this is great, I can invite all my friends to the party. It was on 14th July which is our independence day and it was crazy, everybody was dancing in the plane. I was not expecting for it to be so good, to be honest. I had two hostesses being my go-go dancers. Perfect.
I was wondering if it was some new craze of extreme Djing, you know, take Djing to these different places.
I’m open to anything! But this one, inviting friends to a party and being there and dancing in the plane, it’s kind of special.
What have been your favourite songs to listen to this year?
I haven’t listened to a lot of music to be honest ‘cause I was really working on my album. I thought the album of Justice was really good, and I love James Blunt also. There’s like a thousand of electronic tracks, I don’t know if you’re interested in that. I’m a big fan of Swedish house like Axwell and those guys, I really love their production.
Are there any other highlights of your year?
The whole year has been a highlight really, I had a baby, I had a new album, I had a really amazing tour, it’s all perfect. I just wish it would never stop.
Interview - Alphabeat
At the time of this interview, Alphabeat were so unfamous, we were even given one of the main vocalists to speak to. Now they're proper Radio 1 A-list, fun pop stuff. Stine wasn't one to string out a conversation (well, she was on here way out) so this was over and done with in super-quick time.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in November 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
STINE BRAMSON - ALPHABEAT
Alphabeat – they’re from Denmark. We’re trying to think of some decent Danish pastry jokes but are so far unsuccessful, so let’s move on. In music/toy terms, if Mozart is one of those delicately painted mini cottages and Battles are something complicated in Meccano, then Alphabeat are huge bright stacks of Duplo blocks. They’re loud, fun, colourful, camp Europop. Doing not-too-badly for themselves in their home country (their debut album has gone platinum), they’re still complete unknowns here. Popjustice say they are “the best band in the world ever,” and while we suspect they might have been slightly brainwashed, we’re sensible enough to take a step back and say if you like gloriously cheesy, uplifting pop, then you’ll enjoy them. If not, you won’t. So there. We phoned up vocalist Stine Bramson for a quick chat.
Hello Stine, how are you?
Hello, I’m all right thank you.
Where are you at the moment?
I’m at a house in Stratford.
What have you been up to today?
Today we’re just actually waiting to have a ride to Nottingham, and then I get picked up in half an hour, so I have a friend over.
You go in half an hour and I’m busy talking to you! I feel really bad now.
[laughs] That’s all right.
You don’t have packing or anything to do, do you?
Yeah I do, but it won’t take long.
How’s your UK tour going, you’ve done a few dates now haven’t you?
Yeah, only a couple but it’s going well. It’s fun to come out and see different places, meet new people and show our music to people who don’t even know us yet.
Are they headline shows or are you supporting someone?
Most of them we’re supporting someone. Yesterday we played in Brighton where we were the only band, obviously no-one knows us so not many people came! It was a club night.
I’ve heard you’ve got quite a good live show, what do you get up to onstage?
We love performing live and it’s kind of the main thing for us to do that, and therefore our live show are always quite energetic because we love being up there sharing our love of pop music with a good audience.
You play quite good party music I think.
[laughs] Yeah.
What makes a good party for you?
Well obviously happy dancey music, and some good friends and some new interesting people around.
You were on tour with Mika weren’t you?
Yes, a couple of dates.
How was that?
That was fun, it was a great chance to come out to a big audience in other countries. Definitely a good experience.
Are you big fans of Mika?
I don’t know, we’re fans of good songs, and he definitely does some good songs.
I heard you’re not very big fans of the Spice Girls. It’s been reported everywhere that… I guess everyone’s been saying that to you haven’t they?
[laughs] Yeah. Well personally I have been, when I was a young girl I was a great fan of them, but it’s not a good mix for us to support Spice Girls at the moment. That would put us in a box that we don’t want to be in.
That’s fair enough. Go back to how you started, because I don’t know much about you. You used to be called Sodastar, didn’t you?
Yeah, that was a long time ago. I guess three years ago?
How did you all meet?
All the boys met in high school and started playing indie rock and stuff like that together, and slowly they realised that wasn’t really what we were good at. They decide to have a keyboard player and me, a female voice joined the band, and suddenly we were playing cheesy pop music.
You’re quite big in Denmark aren’t you, you’ve had quite a few singles out there.
Yeah, it’s going pretty well there. Going platinum there.
It must be really weird to be quite well known there and then to come over here to start from scratch again.
Yeah it is, but it’s also like a challenge to try a new country and come out to the small stages again and kind of really convince people that we’re out to do something good.
Have you got an album out in Denmark?
Yes, it came out in March and it’s doing pretty well.
You’ve got a single out at the moment over here, ‘Fantastic Six.’ Are you the Fantastic Six?
[laughs] Yes. It is kind of a joke about us being superheroes and saving the world.
It sounds good fun.
Yeah. It is fun.
But you don’t have any superpowers?
No, I’m afraid not.
Are there any other Danish bands we should listen out for?
I think Junior Senior is a bit known here. I like them, and also Private.
Can you teach me a random word of Danish?
Pæne kjole! – Nice dresses.
Is it Copenhagen you’re actually from?
Not originally but we’ve lived there for two and a half years.
I don’t know much about Copenhagen. What’s it like there?
It’s a really nice city. It’s a great size, not too big so you can bicycle – is that what you say, bicycle? – everywhere in the city in 20 minutes. Everybody has a bike there.
Is it quite different being in London, have you been in London long?
We’ve been here for one and a half months. It’s really difficult to get used to all the transport problems. You really have to pull yourself together to go somewhere.
Are there many other Danish people in London who you’ve been meeting up with or anything?
I have a few friends here but not many, I don’t know that many.
What plans have Alphabeat got for next year?
Well we’ve got our album release and of course promotion around that. Hopefully a lot of good gigs with people who will know us a bit more than they do now, so there’ll be more people [laughs]
There will be loads of people, don’t you worry.
Let’s hope so.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in November 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
STINE BRAMSON - ALPHABEAT
Alphabeat – they’re from Denmark. We’re trying to think of some decent Danish pastry jokes but are so far unsuccessful, so let’s move on. In music/toy terms, if Mozart is one of those delicately painted mini cottages and Battles are something complicated in Meccano, then Alphabeat are huge bright stacks of Duplo blocks. They’re loud, fun, colourful, camp Europop. Doing not-too-badly for themselves in their home country (their debut album has gone platinum), they’re still complete unknowns here. Popjustice say they are “the best band in the world ever,” and while we suspect they might have been slightly brainwashed, we’re sensible enough to take a step back and say if you like gloriously cheesy, uplifting pop, then you’ll enjoy them. If not, you won’t. So there. We phoned up vocalist Stine Bramson for a quick chat.
Hello Stine, how are you?
Hello, I’m all right thank you.
Where are you at the moment?
I’m at a house in Stratford.
What have you been up to today?
Today we’re just actually waiting to have a ride to Nottingham, and then I get picked up in half an hour, so I have a friend over.
You go in half an hour and I’m busy talking to you! I feel really bad now.
[laughs] That’s all right.
You don’t have packing or anything to do, do you?
Yeah I do, but it won’t take long.
How’s your UK tour going, you’ve done a few dates now haven’t you?
Yeah, only a couple but it’s going well. It’s fun to come out and see different places, meet new people and show our music to people who don’t even know us yet.
Are they headline shows or are you supporting someone?
Most of them we’re supporting someone. Yesterday we played in Brighton where we were the only band, obviously no-one knows us so not many people came! It was a club night.
I’ve heard you’ve got quite a good live show, what do you get up to onstage?
We love performing live and it’s kind of the main thing for us to do that, and therefore our live show are always quite energetic because we love being up there sharing our love of pop music with a good audience.
You play quite good party music I think.
[laughs] Yeah.
What makes a good party for you?
Well obviously happy dancey music, and some good friends and some new interesting people around.
You were on tour with Mika weren’t you?
Yes, a couple of dates.
How was that?
That was fun, it was a great chance to come out to a big audience in other countries. Definitely a good experience.
Are you big fans of Mika?
I don’t know, we’re fans of good songs, and he definitely does some good songs.
I heard you’re not very big fans of the Spice Girls. It’s been reported everywhere that… I guess everyone’s been saying that to you haven’t they?
[laughs] Yeah. Well personally I have been, when I was a young girl I was a great fan of them, but it’s not a good mix for us to support Spice Girls at the moment. That would put us in a box that we don’t want to be in.
That’s fair enough. Go back to how you started, because I don’t know much about you. You used to be called Sodastar, didn’t you?
Yeah, that was a long time ago. I guess three years ago?
How did you all meet?
All the boys met in high school and started playing indie rock and stuff like that together, and slowly they realised that wasn’t really what we were good at. They decide to have a keyboard player and me, a female voice joined the band, and suddenly we were playing cheesy pop music.
You’re quite big in Denmark aren’t you, you’ve had quite a few singles out there.
Yeah, it’s going pretty well there. Going platinum there.
It must be really weird to be quite well known there and then to come over here to start from scratch again.
Yeah it is, but it’s also like a challenge to try a new country and come out to the small stages again and kind of really convince people that we’re out to do something good.
Have you got an album out in Denmark?
Yes, it came out in March and it’s doing pretty well.
You’ve got a single out at the moment over here, ‘Fantastic Six.’ Are you the Fantastic Six?
[laughs] Yes. It is kind of a joke about us being superheroes and saving the world.
It sounds good fun.
Yeah. It is fun.
But you don’t have any superpowers?
No, I’m afraid not.
Are there any other Danish bands we should listen out for?
I think Junior Senior is a bit known here. I like them, and also Private.
Can you teach me a random word of Danish?
Pæne kjole! – Nice dresses.
Is it Copenhagen you’re actually from?
Not originally but we’ve lived there for two and a half years.
I don’t know much about Copenhagen. What’s it like there?
It’s a really nice city. It’s a great size, not too big so you can bicycle – is that what you say, bicycle? – everywhere in the city in 20 minutes. Everybody has a bike there.
Is it quite different being in London, have you been in London long?
We’ve been here for one and a half months. It’s really difficult to get used to all the transport problems. You really have to pull yourself together to go somewhere.
Are there many other Danish people in London who you’ve been meeting up with or anything?
I have a few friends here but not many, I don’t know that many.
What plans have Alphabeat got for next year?
Well we’ve got our album release and of course promotion around that. Hopefully a lot of good gigs with people who will know us a bit more than they do now, so there’ll be more people [laughs]
There will be loads of people, don’t you worry.
Let’s hope so.
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