Interview - The Pigeon Detectives (Portsmouth Guildhall)

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.