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.
Showing posts with label wait for me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wait for me. Show all posts
Monday, 16 June 2008
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Interview - The Pigeon Detectives (Leeds)
After being caught interviewing their support band and not them, the Pigeon Detectives politely asked Why? Anyway, after my boss daily ordered me to interview the band I see frequently as a fan (and bribed me with a bottle of rum) I managed to get them. Although they weren't without their suspicions - see Matt's comment about 'is this a real interview?' at the end. Cheers...
It took some organising - with no help from the PR I asked Oli (in Southampton), who referred me to their tour manager. I found out who he was at the next gig (London), asked for an interview the following gig (Northampton), and caught up with them the next day (Leeds). I was in the area for their show the next night anyway. I missed most of the Live At Leeds festival shitting myself in preparation for this, terrified I would come across as an unprofessional idiot, and the Walk Of Fear up the steps of the Town Hall is still one of my most nerve-wracking moments as an interviewer.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in May 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
THE PIGEON DETECTIVES
Matt Bowman - vocals, Oliver Main - guitar, Ryan Wilson - guitar, Dave Best - bass, Jimmi Naylor - drums
It’s Saturday evening in Leeds. A couple of girls wearing band t-shirts are excitedly babbling outside the Town Hall as they shelter from the weather and wait for the doors to open. It’s grey and cold, confirming everything I ever suspected about Yorkshire.
Inside though, it’s much warmer and there’s no chance of being rained on, unless you count the water which is bound to be thrown around during the next gig. Backstage, all five of the Pigeon Detectives are sat in a semi circle, surrounded by posters they were halfway through signing. You can’t blame them for looking slightly confused; usually I’m stuck on their front row sweating and yelling, today I’m sat dry and polite with a dictaphone to one side. To be honest I was trying to avoid interviewing them because as a fan I thought it would be weird, but then The Boss, able to spot a corrupt journalist at a distance of some three feet across the table, bribed me with a bottle of rum if I did the deed.
In just under two hours, the doors will open for the Pigeon Detectives' first sold out gig at the Town Hall. If they're nervous, they're hiding it well. Singer Matt Bowman’s sat to my right, and next to him is guitarist Ryan Wilson, drummer Jimmi Naylor, lead guitarist Oliver Main and bassist Dave Best, who is looking strangely impressed at the coloured question cards scattered at random. He volunteers to go first.
The Early Years.
“We basically all started learning to play guitar when we were about 16…” starts Dave.
“I were 15,” says Oli.
“He were 15…”
“I was 17,” says Ryan. “That was just wrong really, wasn’t it.”
“That’s why I said about 16!”
“You’ve averaged it out, haven’t you?”
“I took a mean average,” Dave continues. “We started when we were about 16. Me and Oli taught each other the basics and then we kind of taught each other from Beatles books and stuff like that. We taught Matt to play guitar but he didn’t have as good technique as Ryan did, not as natural as Ryan, with his little stumpy fingers, so we just…”
They pause. The tour manager is loudly discussing important band things with some other people.
“Get out! We can’t hear a thing!”
“Get in your production office,” orders Ryan jovially.
“Go on, piss off!” They do as they’re told with a chuckle and a shake of the head.
“Ry decided one day we were going to be in a band, he just told me and Oli,” continues Dave. “After that, we decide we were gonna do some covers in Ol’s bedroom and stuff like that. That’s really it, until Jimmi met Ry when Jimmi were about 12. When they worked at Staples together. He’s only 13 now.”
Young Jimmi sits there smiling and points out he was actually about 16 at the time.
“We needed a drummer and we got him down and we decided to keep him, because we instantly fell in love with him.” Ahh.
“We’ve all been mates for quite a long time though,” says Ryan.
“Us four were mates since we were about six years old. Me and Ry were in the same class at school every year since we were about two,” says Dave.
How long has the band been going full time for? “A year,” says Dave instantly. Someone else says two years. They laugh, try to remember when they quit their jobs and think about it.
“Did you say full time?” asks Ryan. Yes.
“Actually pretty much a year.”
“We haven’t got a full time contract yet,” says Matt, possibly eyeing a legal loophole.
“If you go by us quitting our job and then being in a band for a living…”
“We had our first single out in March,” says Matt.
“…so about a year,” finishes Ryan. That first single was ‘I’m Not Sorry’, originally limited to 500 vinyls which didn’t take long to sell out. A few months later came 'You Know I Love You', which also sold out. The buzz had begun.
Didn’t I read somewhere that one of you got sacked –
“That were Oli.”
- because your bosses heard you on the radio?
“That were me,” says Matt. “I’d already handed my notice in, I had like two weeks left on my notice but they just said get out. Dave never even went back. Dave didn’t even have the courtesy to say ‘I’m leaving’.” Dave starts giggling. “You actually went to London and then never returned,” says Matt with a grin and a wave of his arm. “’I’m off to London’ – that’s the last they ever heard of you.”
Are they still looking out for you now? “Thing is they let me have that day off very nicely so I could go to London. And I just never came back,” confesses Dave.
“Coward,” says Ryan.
Oli leans over and snatches up the next card. It's a random one. You’re trapped on a desert island, who do you eat first? The answer is Ryan, because “he’s got the most flesh.” Ryan doesn’t actually look particularly unhappy – or surprised - about having his potential fate discussed this way.
“Unlucky, Ry,” says Matt. “Gingers cook faster as well. They’ve got sensitive skin, like the perfect white meat.” Someone suggests spit-roasting Ryan, and he laughs.
“I’ll leave that there,” says Oli, wisely.
Jimmi takes the next card. Wait For Me. Tell me about your debut album.
“It’s twelve beautiful songs, all catchy,” he says. Got any favourites? “My favourite’s ‘Caught In Your Trap’ and maybe ‘Don’t Know How To Say Goodbye’.”
“I think my favourite’s ‘Caught In Your Trap’,” teases Oli, mimicking his drummer’s pronunciation.
I forgot to ask why a picture of stags was chosen for the cover, but a chance reading of The Fly suggests it’s because stags spend their time fighting and ‘sleeping with other stags’ girls’, much like the late teen experiences of the Pigeon Detectives.
“We recorded it in bits ‘cause we were doing things like supporting Dirty Pretty Things…”
“That’s a lie,” say Matt and Ryan, almost at the same time. “That were well early. Supporting Kaiser Chiefs.”
“Supporting Kaisers…” Jimmi corrects himself. Are you telling me lies, Jimmi? “Yeah, I’m lying to you. We started off, we went in for about two weeks, going in for a few hours, then we went and supported Kaiser Chiefs and went back in; altogether about five weeks, but we spread it out.”
Matt and Dave are sneakily looking at question cards and putting them back on the pile.
“And then we had to go and get it mixed and stuff which took another three or four weeks or something like that,” says Ryan. “Getting it mixed took ages, like you know, it was our debut album, let’s get it perfect in every single way. You’ve got to get it recorded well but you’ve got to get it mixed well as well. Took us a while.”
Matt’s getting impatient and takes a card. Current Tour. They're nearing the end of it now, with loud and sweaty 12 dates across the UK almost complete. How’s it going?
“It’s all right. Picking up some injuries,” Matt winces. He’s very energetic onstage, climbing equipment and forever leaping/being dragged into the crowd.
Ryan starts complaining that they’ve missed his turn out.
“You can go next Ry. Carry on Matt,” says Dave, the voice of calm. He’s wearing a white shirt on which he has sewn a Leeds badge, all ready for the gig tonight.
“Tour’s going well, I think highlights so far are probably Manchester and London Astoria, that were all right.”
“Last night (Northampton) were really good, wasn’t it,” says Ryan, and Jimmi murmurs agreement. “You were at the gig last night weren’t you?” I nod.
“I’m really knackered though. I’ve got the world’s worst fucking dead leg,” complains Matt. Why, what have you done? “Don’t know. Think just a collection of knocks.”
“You know when footballers used to say they were injured for two weeks with a dead leg, I’d be like a dead leg lasts ten minutes, how can you be injured for two weeks!” laughs Dave. They all talk at once about how Matt might have done it. I had to get my glasses straightened out a few hours earlier after a crowdsurfing Matt jumped on my face in Northampton and bent them. The Pigeon Detectives laugh loudly, but don't apologise. It's an occasional hazard of gig-going.
”Headline: Matt Pigeon Sat On My Face,” jokes Matt. “Ry, I’ll get you a card. Which one do you want?”
“Any.”
“So it’s actually… You moan that you don’t get to pick and then…” Matt sighs.
What’s the best lie you’ve told about where your name comes from?
“Fucking hell. The best lie!” says Ryan. I heard somewhere you’re fed up of being asked so you tend to make up bizarre answers.
“The best one’s got to be, there’s a giant pigeon that lives in a shed at the bottom of our garden that writes all our lyrics,” says Matt. “That’s got to be the best one!” he says between gales of laughter. “Or at least the most ridiculous.”
“We do actually come up with some insane things, we find it funny though don’t we?” says Ryan.
“Didn’t we tell someone once we all went to a fancy dress party dressed as pigeons?” says Matt.
“I told someone once that Jimmi were watching ‘The Detectives’ with Jasper Carrott on TV when a dead pigeon fell out the skies outside his house,” giggles Dave.
“The best ones though are when you do the foreign interviews,” says Matt. “And you go (odd accent) ‘There’s a giant pigeon that lives at the end of our garden and writes all our lyrics” and they just go ‘Que?’” He’s putting on an interesting Spanish accent, though a native would probably disagree that it’s Spanish at all. “What? What is it, pigeon and the lyrics?”
“And they go ‘oh, ok’ and write it down!” says Dave. Fools.
Radio 1’s Big Weekend. How was it?
“It were good,” says Dave.
“Big,” says Oli.
“It were big,” confirms Dave.
“It were at the weekend.”
“On Radio 1,” says Ryan, quite rightly. They start chuckling.
“Er… no, it were good, it were like a really big festival crowd, it were quite a good warm up. They were quite a tame crowd but I think that’s because they weren’t generally loads of massive gig goers. But the front ten rows were like really having it, so it were really good.”
“The single ’I’m Not Sorry’, it went nuts right to the back, but I think that’s because it were a Radio 1 song,” says Matt.
“Someone threw a Cornish pasty at me,” remembers Dave. A Cornish pasty? “Well it were still in its packet.” Oh that’s all right then.
“We had a message on MySpace the next day, going ‘oh, I’m sorry if I offended your bass player, he looked really pissed off. It was thrown out of good’,” explains Ryan.
They all start talking over each other again, but I can hear Matt say about Dave “He volleyed it!” Were you upset you couldn’t open it because you were trying to play?
“No, I just picked it up and kicked it, but I really connected with it and it landed right back of tent.”
“I broke a £20,000 BBC TV camera that we’ve not had a bill for yet,” says Matt. “My mic lead got wrapped around it.” Anyone who’s been to see the Pigeon Detectives live will know this is not an unusual occurrence, with the lead often becoming entangled with Oli’s guitar, the drum kit and the mic stand, sometimes all at once.
“It was on them moving runners. It started running away from me and it was pulling me and I had a bit of a tug of war with it. I won and the camera lost and it just went [makes crunching noise] then ground to a halt. All these guys came running over. I was like, ooops-a-daisy.”
What sort of time were you on?
“Half one,” says Oli.
“Which were a shit time ‘cause I got out of bed at one,” says Matt. “So I got out of bed all sleepy-eyed, half one it was just, get on stage in front of three thousand people and I was like ‘Eh… what?’”
Did you have many people going along just for you?
“Yeah the tent were rammed and it emptied when we left,” says Matt. “Who went on after us? Biffy Clyro? No it weren’t, it were Cold War Kids. They looked like they had a bit of a tough time of it.”
Did you stand round and watch them? “I did,” says Ryan.
“I watched a bit,” Matt says.
“They’re pretty good,” says Ryan.
“They made me feel like I wanted to go to bed. I thought they were boring.”
“I don’t know if you noticed, but I watched a couple of bands, and the crowd seemed quite curious towards almost every band, even massive bands they weren’t going as mental,” muses Ryan.
“Best band of the day were Kasabian, I thought they were fucking ace,” says Matt. For some reason he then starts making high pitched noises at Oli, who fixes him with a hard stare before taking a drink.
I’m Not Sorry is Oli’s card, which Dave thrusts at him. “I thought it was your go,” says Oli. It's their third full release on Dance To The Radio, after 'Romantic Type' earlier this year and 'I Found Out'. I hope you’ve all bought copies of it. “I bought six so far,” he says.
“I just went out and bought three,” says Matt. “Me and Ol got busted by about ten kids in HMV buying ‘I’m Not Sorry’, then they followed us around town for about an hour...”
“Were they girls by any chance?” asks Ryan.
“Girls and a lad. Until they got the courage to ask us for photos,” finishes Matt. “Then they went to Ol ‘Are you in t’band?’ and he went ‘No, I’m the fucking guitar tech.’ It was like this 12 year old girl and I was like, oh Jesus!” They all laugh.
“This girl asked for a picture yesterday,” laughs Dave. “Jimmi came in to the end of it and I went ‘Who’s this random?’ and she was like ‘Oh it don’t matter, I love it when randoms come into pictures!’ Jimmi just looked at me and went [grumpy face] and turned around.”
“She tried to apologise later and you were just like, fuck off. She proper offended you didn’t she,” says Ryan.
Jimmi’s being called out on stage to set up the drums, but he stands up and grabs one last card saying “I’ll get this.”
“You haven’t even answered that one yet,” says Ryan. Jimmi dithers.
“Just fuck off, no-one wants you here,” says Oli.
“We don’t want randoms playing this game,” says Ryan. A few kicks are aimed, and poor Jimmi departs for work. Back to ‘I’m Not Sorry.’
“Shit song, shit name,” Matt says, which I don’t believe is the promotional tag they’ve gone with. We have a guess at where it will chart the next day. The band are going with 12, seeing as that’s what they’ve heard today. They were spot on.
“I had a dream last night that us album got to number one,” says Dave.
“I had a dream…” sings Matt, the fifth member of ABBA.
“It were pretty good.”
“What, the dream or the album?” asks Oli.
“The… dream.”
“I had a dream that I were in London and there was a massive riot, so when I woke up the next morning in London I were going, were I rioting last night? It were one of them proper did-I-riot-last-night dreams,” says Matt. And did you riot? “I didn’t. It was a dream.”
“We haven’t actually answered the ‘I’m Not Sorry’ thing yet,” points out Dave.
“We have,” says Ryan.
“Got any more questions about I’m Not Sorry?” Oli asks me. Er, no. “OK.”
Ryan picks up an orange card. “I think it’s going to say South By South West,” says Matt, who is either psychic or has been cheating. “It’s in Texas.” Shedloads of new bands playing to keen music lovers and industry bods, all in the sunny United States.
How was it? “It were ace,” says Ryan. I didn’t hear much about it – I know pretty much everyone in the industry goes, but you never seem to hear much about what happens.
“Well basically like we only played one gig out there, and some other bands paid the NME to go out there and stuff. We didn’t, so NME wrote about these other bands who paid for them to go out and just overlooked us, so you probably wouldn’t have read much about it,” explains Ryan. “We actually played a gig and it were really good.”
Oli is still proudly sporting his sheriff badge, all the way from Texas. “I’m not even sure we went, according to the press,” he comments.
“I’m not sure we did, did we?” says Ryan.
“To be fair, it were a bit of a holiday,” says Matt. “We went out for a week, played one gig and then just sat around watching bands like Kings of Leon, Buzzcocks, Paolo Nutini, Albert Hammond Jr…”
“I think our manager said you’re out for one week playing one gig, enjoy yourself,” says Ryan.
“We got our publishing company to pay for it,” says Matt, “and we signed a publishing deal out there as well, which were nice.”
“Some great burgers,” says Dave, who knows what’s important. Worth going all the way just for that? “I love a burger.”
What do you think of your fans? asks one of my friends. “Tell him I’d like to have sex with the male fans and go shopping with the girl fans,” says Matt.
Dave reaches for the next card as fast as he can while trying to keep a straight face.
“Swiftly moving on…” says Oli.
Favourite film. Dave is happy he’s picked up this card. “Quite funnily enough, I’m the perfect person to ask that question to.”
“Mine’s Pirates of the Caribbean!” shouts Matt excitedly. “Ohh! Ohh!”
“Disregard Matt because he’s a film pleb and he doesn’t know anything about the medium,” Dave orders.
“Pirates of the Caribbean!”
“Mine’s Usual Suspects,” says Oli.
“Usual Suspects is my favourite…” begins Dave.
“I’ve already chose it. You can’t have it.” A few punches are thrown.
“Ow! Or maybe Shawshank Redemption,” Dave continues, between thumping Oli. “Or maybe True Romance…They’re my three.”
“Did you read that in a magazine?” says Oli, who I’d always assumed to be the quiet one, but who has turned out to be something of a cheeky so-and-so.
“Yeah.”
“Or do you have any opinions of your own?”
“I like Gladiator as well,” says Matt. “I like the bit where he goes (does tough Yorkshire Gladiator voice) ‘Husband of raped wife… father of murdered child…’…”
“What, that cheesiest bit in any film ever?” asks Dave.
“Yes. Then he goes ‘I am Maximus Decimus Meridius.’ And then he kills them all. Gladiator. Right film.”
“I’ve only seen it once all the way through. I just don’t like Russell Crowe, I think he’s a dick,” says Dave, and they discuss exactly how awful Master and Commander is.
“I got bored, I was like I don’t really get this,” admits Oli.
“I did but I committed 40 minutes of my life to it, I wanted to find out what happened. And I actually found out what happened,” says Matt.
“So Suzy, level with us, is this actually an interview or did you just want to come and sit in the dressing room and talk to us?” says Matt, looking at me sideways. Yes, you’re onto me. I can’t get enough of stealing Doritos from your crap rider.
Oli quite rightly points out there will be a bottle of rum waiting on my desk when I get back to work, and I think they’re a little jealous they just have warm beer. I get the feeling that after the Town Hall gig in a few hours, it will be a long time before they have to buy their own drinks again.
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The Pigeon Detectives debut album ‘Wait For Me’ is released on May 28th through Dance To The Radio.
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It took some organising - with no help from the PR I asked Oli (in Southampton), who referred me to their tour manager. I found out who he was at the next gig (London), asked for an interview the following gig (Northampton), and caught up with them the next day (Leeds). I was in the area for their show the next night anyway. I missed most of the Live At Leeds festival shitting myself in preparation for this, terrified I would come across as an unprofessional idiot, and the Walk Of Fear up the steps of the Town Hall is still one of my most nerve-wracking moments as an interviewer.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in May 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
THE PIGEON DETECTIVES
Matt Bowman - vocals, Oliver Main - guitar, Ryan Wilson - guitar, Dave Best - bass, Jimmi Naylor - drums
It’s Saturday evening in Leeds. A couple of girls wearing band t-shirts are excitedly babbling outside the Town Hall as they shelter from the weather and wait for the doors to open. It’s grey and cold, confirming everything I ever suspected about Yorkshire.
Inside though, it’s much warmer and there’s no chance of being rained on, unless you count the water which is bound to be thrown around during the next gig. Backstage, all five of the Pigeon Detectives are sat in a semi circle, surrounded by posters they were halfway through signing. You can’t blame them for looking slightly confused; usually I’m stuck on their front row sweating and yelling, today I’m sat dry and polite with a dictaphone to one side. To be honest I was trying to avoid interviewing them because as a fan I thought it would be weird, but then The Boss, able to spot a corrupt journalist at a distance of some three feet across the table, bribed me with a bottle of rum if I did the deed.
In just under two hours, the doors will open for the Pigeon Detectives' first sold out gig at the Town Hall. If they're nervous, they're hiding it well. Singer Matt Bowman’s sat to my right, and next to him is guitarist Ryan Wilson, drummer Jimmi Naylor, lead guitarist Oliver Main and bassist Dave Best, who is looking strangely impressed at the coloured question cards scattered at random. He volunteers to go first.
The Early Years.
“We basically all started learning to play guitar when we were about 16…” starts Dave.
“I were 15,” says Oli.
“He were 15…”
“I was 17,” says Ryan. “That was just wrong really, wasn’t it.”
“That’s why I said about 16!”
“You’ve averaged it out, haven’t you?”
“I took a mean average,” Dave continues. “We started when we were about 16. Me and Oli taught each other the basics and then we kind of taught each other from Beatles books and stuff like that. We taught Matt to play guitar but he didn’t have as good technique as Ryan did, not as natural as Ryan, with his little stumpy fingers, so we just…”
They pause. The tour manager is loudly discussing important band things with some other people.
“Get out! We can’t hear a thing!”
“Get in your production office,” orders Ryan jovially.
“Go on, piss off!” They do as they’re told with a chuckle and a shake of the head.
“Ry decided one day we were going to be in a band, he just told me and Oli,” continues Dave. “After that, we decide we were gonna do some covers in Ol’s bedroom and stuff like that. That’s really it, until Jimmi met Ry when Jimmi were about 12. When they worked at Staples together. He’s only 13 now.”
Young Jimmi sits there smiling and points out he was actually about 16 at the time.
“We needed a drummer and we got him down and we decided to keep him, because we instantly fell in love with him.” Ahh.
“We’ve all been mates for quite a long time though,” says Ryan.
“Us four were mates since we were about six years old. Me and Ry were in the same class at school every year since we were about two,” says Dave.
How long has the band been going full time for? “A year,” says Dave instantly. Someone else says two years. They laugh, try to remember when they quit their jobs and think about it.
“Did you say full time?” asks Ryan. Yes.
“Actually pretty much a year.”
“We haven’t got a full time contract yet,” says Matt, possibly eyeing a legal loophole.
“If you go by us quitting our job and then being in a band for a living…”
“We had our first single out in March,” says Matt.
“…so about a year,” finishes Ryan. That first single was ‘I’m Not Sorry’, originally limited to 500 vinyls which didn’t take long to sell out. A few months later came 'You Know I Love You', which also sold out. The buzz had begun.
Didn’t I read somewhere that one of you got sacked –
“That were Oli.”
- because your bosses heard you on the radio?
“That were me,” says Matt. “I’d already handed my notice in, I had like two weeks left on my notice but they just said get out. Dave never even went back. Dave didn’t even have the courtesy to say ‘I’m leaving’.” Dave starts giggling. “You actually went to London and then never returned,” says Matt with a grin and a wave of his arm. “’I’m off to London’ – that’s the last they ever heard of you.”
Are they still looking out for you now? “Thing is they let me have that day off very nicely so I could go to London. And I just never came back,” confesses Dave.
“Coward,” says Ryan.
Oli leans over and snatches up the next card. It's a random one. You’re trapped on a desert island, who do you eat first? The answer is Ryan, because “he’s got the most flesh.” Ryan doesn’t actually look particularly unhappy – or surprised - about having his potential fate discussed this way.
“Unlucky, Ry,” says Matt. “Gingers cook faster as well. They’ve got sensitive skin, like the perfect white meat.” Someone suggests spit-roasting Ryan, and he laughs.
“I’ll leave that there,” says Oli, wisely.
Jimmi takes the next card. Wait For Me. Tell me about your debut album.
“It’s twelve beautiful songs, all catchy,” he says. Got any favourites? “My favourite’s ‘Caught In Your Trap’ and maybe ‘Don’t Know How To Say Goodbye’.”
“I think my favourite’s ‘Caught In Your Trap’,” teases Oli, mimicking his drummer’s pronunciation.
I forgot to ask why a picture of stags was chosen for the cover, but a chance reading of The Fly suggests it’s because stags spend their time fighting and ‘sleeping with other stags’ girls’, much like the late teen experiences of the Pigeon Detectives.
“We recorded it in bits ‘cause we were doing things like supporting Dirty Pretty Things…”
“That’s a lie,” say Matt and Ryan, almost at the same time. “That were well early. Supporting Kaiser Chiefs.”
“Supporting Kaisers…” Jimmi corrects himself. Are you telling me lies, Jimmi? “Yeah, I’m lying to you. We started off, we went in for about two weeks, going in for a few hours, then we went and supported Kaiser Chiefs and went back in; altogether about five weeks, but we spread it out.”
Matt and Dave are sneakily looking at question cards and putting them back on the pile.
“And then we had to go and get it mixed and stuff which took another three or four weeks or something like that,” says Ryan. “Getting it mixed took ages, like you know, it was our debut album, let’s get it perfect in every single way. You’ve got to get it recorded well but you’ve got to get it mixed well as well. Took us a while.”
Matt’s getting impatient and takes a card. Current Tour. They're nearing the end of it now, with loud and sweaty 12 dates across the UK almost complete. How’s it going?
“It’s all right. Picking up some injuries,” Matt winces. He’s very energetic onstage, climbing equipment and forever leaping/being dragged into the crowd.
Ryan starts complaining that they’ve missed his turn out.
“You can go next Ry. Carry on Matt,” says Dave, the voice of calm. He’s wearing a white shirt on which he has sewn a Leeds badge, all ready for the gig tonight.
“Tour’s going well, I think highlights so far are probably Manchester and London Astoria, that were all right.”
“Last night (Northampton) were really good, wasn’t it,” says Ryan, and Jimmi murmurs agreement. “You were at the gig last night weren’t you?” I nod.
“I’m really knackered though. I’ve got the world’s worst fucking dead leg,” complains Matt. Why, what have you done? “Don’t know. Think just a collection of knocks.”
“You know when footballers used to say they were injured for two weeks with a dead leg, I’d be like a dead leg lasts ten minutes, how can you be injured for two weeks!” laughs Dave. They all talk at once about how Matt might have done it. I had to get my glasses straightened out a few hours earlier after a crowdsurfing Matt jumped on my face in Northampton and bent them. The Pigeon Detectives laugh loudly, but don't apologise. It's an occasional hazard of gig-going.
”Headline: Matt Pigeon Sat On My Face,” jokes Matt. “Ry, I’ll get you a card. Which one do you want?”
“Any.”
“So it’s actually… You moan that you don’t get to pick and then…” Matt sighs.
What’s the best lie you’ve told about where your name comes from?
“Fucking hell. The best lie!” says Ryan. I heard somewhere you’re fed up of being asked so you tend to make up bizarre answers.
“The best one’s got to be, there’s a giant pigeon that lives in a shed at the bottom of our garden that writes all our lyrics,” says Matt. “That’s got to be the best one!” he says between gales of laughter. “Or at least the most ridiculous.”
“We do actually come up with some insane things, we find it funny though don’t we?” says Ryan.
“Didn’t we tell someone once we all went to a fancy dress party dressed as pigeons?” says Matt.
“I told someone once that Jimmi were watching ‘The Detectives’ with Jasper Carrott on TV when a dead pigeon fell out the skies outside his house,” giggles Dave.
“The best ones though are when you do the foreign interviews,” says Matt. “And you go (odd accent) ‘There’s a giant pigeon that lives at the end of our garden and writes all our lyrics” and they just go ‘Que?’” He’s putting on an interesting Spanish accent, though a native would probably disagree that it’s Spanish at all. “What? What is it, pigeon and the lyrics?”
“And they go ‘oh, ok’ and write it down!” says Dave. Fools.
Radio 1’s Big Weekend. How was it?
“It were good,” says Dave.
“Big,” says Oli.
“It were big,” confirms Dave.
“It were at the weekend.”
“On Radio 1,” says Ryan, quite rightly. They start chuckling.
“Er… no, it were good, it were like a really big festival crowd, it were quite a good warm up. They were quite a tame crowd but I think that’s because they weren’t generally loads of massive gig goers. But the front ten rows were like really having it, so it were really good.”
“The single ’I’m Not Sorry’, it went nuts right to the back, but I think that’s because it were a Radio 1 song,” says Matt.
“Someone threw a Cornish pasty at me,” remembers Dave. A Cornish pasty? “Well it were still in its packet.” Oh that’s all right then.
“We had a message on MySpace the next day, going ‘oh, I’m sorry if I offended your bass player, he looked really pissed off. It was thrown out of good’,” explains Ryan.
They all start talking over each other again, but I can hear Matt say about Dave “He volleyed it!” Were you upset you couldn’t open it because you were trying to play?
“No, I just picked it up and kicked it, but I really connected with it and it landed right back of tent.”
“I broke a £20,000 BBC TV camera that we’ve not had a bill for yet,” says Matt. “My mic lead got wrapped around it.” Anyone who’s been to see the Pigeon Detectives live will know this is not an unusual occurrence, with the lead often becoming entangled with Oli’s guitar, the drum kit and the mic stand, sometimes all at once.
“It was on them moving runners. It started running away from me and it was pulling me and I had a bit of a tug of war with it. I won and the camera lost and it just went [makes crunching noise] then ground to a halt. All these guys came running over. I was like, ooops-a-daisy.”
What sort of time were you on?
“Half one,” says Oli.
“Which were a shit time ‘cause I got out of bed at one,” says Matt. “So I got out of bed all sleepy-eyed, half one it was just, get on stage in front of three thousand people and I was like ‘Eh… what?’”
Did you have many people going along just for you?
“Yeah the tent were rammed and it emptied when we left,” says Matt. “Who went on after us? Biffy Clyro? No it weren’t, it were Cold War Kids. They looked like they had a bit of a tough time of it.”
Did you stand round and watch them? “I did,” says Ryan.
“I watched a bit,” Matt says.
“They’re pretty good,” says Ryan.
“They made me feel like I wanted to go to bed. I thought they were boring.”
“I don’t know if you noticed, but I watched a couple of bands, and the crowd seemed quite curious towards almost every band, even massive bands they weren’t going as mental,” muses Ryan.
“Best band of the day were Kasabian, I thought they were fucking ace,” says Matt. For some reason he then starts making high pitched noises at Oli, who fixes him with a hard stare before taking a drink.
I’m Not Sorry is Oli’s card, which Dave thrusts at him. “I thought it was your go,” says Oli. It's their third full release on Dance To The Radio, after 'Romantic Type' earlier this year and 'I Found Out'. I hope you’ve all bought copies of it. “I bought six so far,” he says.
“I just went out and bought three,” says Matt. “Me and Ol got busted by about ten kids in HMV buying ‘I’m Not Sorry’, then they followed us around town for about an hour...”
“Were they girls by any chance?” asks Ryan.
“Girls and a lad. Until they got the courage to ask us for photos,” finishes Matt. “Then they went to Ol ‘Are you in t’band?’ and he went ‘No, I’m the fucking guitar tech.’ It was like this 12 year old girl and I was like, oh Jesus!” They all laugh.
“This girl asked for a picture yesterday,” laughs Dave. “Jimmi came in to the end of it and I went ‘Who’s this random?’ and she was like ‘Oh it don’t matter, I love it when randoms come into pictures!’ Jimmi just looked at me and went [grumpy face] and turned around.”
“She tried to apologise later and you were just like, fuck off. She proper offended you didn’t she,” says Ryan.
Jimmi’s being called out on stage to set up the drums, but he stands up and grabs one last card saying “I’ll get this.”
“You haven’t even answered that one yet,” says Ryan. Jimmi dithers.
“Just fuck off, no-one wants you here,” says Oli.
“We don’t want randoms playing this game,” says Ryan. A few kicks are aimed, and poor Jimmi departs for work. Back to ‘I’m Not Sorry.’
“Shit song, shit name,” Matt says, which I don’t believe is the promotional tag they’ve gone with. We have a guess at where it will chart the next day. The band are going with 12, seeing as that’s what they’ve heard today. They were spot on.
“I had a dream last night that us album got to number one,” says Dave.
“I had a dream…” sings Matt, the fifth member of ABBA.
“It were pretty good.”
“What, the dream or the album?” asks Oli.
“The… dream.”
“I had a dream that I were in London and there was a massive riot, so when I woke up the next morning in London I were going, were I rioting last night? It were one of them proper did-I-riot-last-night dreams,” says Matt. And did you riot? “I didn’t. It was a dream.”
“We haven’t actually answered the ‘I’m Not Sorry’ thing yet,” points out Dave.
“We have,” says Ryan.
“Got any more questions about I’m Not Sorry?” Oli asks me. Er, no. “OK.”
Ryan picks up an orange card. “I think it’s going to say South By South West,” says Matt, who is either psychic or has been cheating. “It’s in Texas.” Shedloads of new bands playing to keen music lovers and industry bods, all in the sunny United States.
How was it? “It were ace,” says Ryan. I didn’t hear much about it – I know pretty much everyone in the industry goes, but you never seem to hear much about what happens.
“Well basically like we only played one gig out there, and some other bands paid the NME to go out there and stuff. We didn’t, so NME wrote about these other bands who paid for them to go out and just overlooked us, so you probably wouldn’t have read much about it,” explains Ryan. “We actually played a gig and it were really good.”
Oli is still proudly sporting his sheriff badge, all the way from Texas. “I’m not even sure we went, according to the press,” he comments.
“I’m not sure we did, did we?” says Ryan.
“To be fair, it were a bit of a holiday,” says Matt. “We went out for a week, played one gig and then just sat around watching bands like Kings of Leon, Buzzcocks, Paolo Nutini, Albert Hammond Jr…”
“I think our manager said you’re out for one week playing one gig, enjoy yourself,” says Ryan.
“We got our publishing company to pay for it,” says Matt, “and we signed a publishing deal out there as well, which were nice.”
“Some great burgers,” says Dave, who knows what’s important. Worth going all the way just for that? “I love a burger.”
What do you think of your fans? asks one of my friends. “Tell him I’d like to have sex with the male fans and go shopping with the girl fans,” says Matt.
Dave reaches for the next card as fast as he can while trying to keep a straight face.
“Swiftly moving on…” says Oli.
Favourite film. Dave is happy he’s picked up this card. “Quite funnily enough, I’m the perfect person to ask that question to.”
“Mine’s Pirates of the Caribbean!” shouts Matt excitedly. “Ohh! Ohh!”
“Disregard Matt because he’s a film pleb and he doesn’t know anything about the medium,” Dave orders.
“Pirates of the Caribbean!”
“Mine’s Usual Suspects,” says Oli.
“Usual Suspects is my favourite…” begins Dave.
“I’ve already chose it. You can’t have it.” A few punches are thrown.
“Ow! Or maybe Shawshank Redemption,” Dave continues, between thumping Oli. “Or maybe True Romance…They’re my three.”
“Did you read that in a magazine?” says Oli, who I’d always assumed to be the quiet one, but who has turned out to be something of a cheeky so-and-so.
“Yeah.”
“Or do you have any opinions of your own?”
“I like Gladiator as well,” says Matt. “I like the bit where he goes (does tough Yorkshire Gladiator voice) ‘Husband of raped wife… father of murdered child…’…”
“What, that cheesiest bit in any film ever?” asks Dave.
“Yes. Then he goes ‘I am Maximus Decimus Meridius.’ And then he kills them all. Gladiator. Right film.”
“I’ve only seen it once all the way through. I just don’t like Russell Crowe, I think he’s a dick,” says Dave, and they discuss exactly how awful Master and Commander is.
“I got bored, I was like I don’t really get this,” admits Oli.
“I did but I committed 40 minutes of my life to it, I wanted to find out what happened. And I actually found out what happened,” says Matt.
“So Suzy, level with us, is this actually an interview or did you just want to come and sit in the dressing room and talk to us?” says Matt, looking at me sideways. Yes, you’re onto me. I can’t get enough of stealing Doritos from your crap rider.
Oli quite rightly points out there will be a bottle of rum waiting on my desk when I get back to work, and I think they’re a little jealous they just have warm beer. I get the feeling that after the Town Hall gig in a few hours, it will be a long time before they have to buy their own drinks again.
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The Pigeon Detectives debut album ‘Wait For Me’ is released on May 28th through Dance To The Radio.
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