Subba Cultcha: What inspired you guys to use Anjelica Huston as a metaphor for a dying romance? And what's your favourite of her movies? I'm quite partial to the Royal Tenenbaums myself.
Kate Harkin: "In a moment that overwhelmed me, that couplet sprang instantly to mind. I wrote it down and upon later reflection I realised that because I couldn't cope with the situation I referenced myself out of it. In terms of the song it's definitely the Adams Family because of the way her face is lit throughout."
Doug Adams: "Yeah, definitely Royal Tenenbaums, although The Witches does have a special place in my heart for being absolutely terrifying as a child - for a kid's film? My god."
SC: There seems to be almost a 'mini scene' built up around bands such as yourselves, Johnny Foreigner and Los Campesinos and I was actually talking to Alexi from Johnny Foreigner about this the other day. I think personally it's just british bands with more American influences than British ones myself, I mean in your stuff I hear more of things like Throwing Muses and Pavement and even more recently Deathcab and Modest Mouse than I do (for example) Joy Division or Gang Of Four. Even your choice of producers has tended to err on the western shores of the Atlantic. Do you agree or am I talking out of my arse?
KH: "It's definitely a two way relationship, I have nearly as many American friends that are obsessed with British bands as those you described, it's a definite dialogue. But yes of course it exists, the Internet has stopped music influence being all limited by location. We wouldn't want to be defined by our geography, but by the ideas that resonate with us the strongest. Sometimes those ideas originate in Burley, sometimes in Bellingham. I think that's a more honest and open attitude to have than just sticking to something because it's local."
SC: Also alot of bands (yourselves included) seem to be quite forward thinking when it comes to promotion and releases what with the blog, and twitter and online releases and what-not. The processes are very sort of early punk rock and early New-York hip-hop in ideology. Do you think it's important these days for bands to feel less segregated from their fan-base?
Nestor Matthews: "I like very much that you referred to bands feeling less segregated from the fans rather than the other way round because that's just it. The internet is a colossal part of the music these days and everyone is online pretty much all the time. Rather than the old concept of bands being god-like kings and queens far above talking to and walking amongst mere mortals. There is a real connection between the bands and the fans now which I think helps the fans feel included in the process and keeps the bands grounded and (to a certain extent) inspired."
DA: "I suppose it is just an extension of the house party/DIY scene, it's a lot easier to have direct contact with the people that buy (or download) your music through twitter but conversely there's a huge tendency to 'over-share' information, hence the need for personal twitter accounts, blogs etc. Despite the undeniable 'usefulness' of twitter there's still some level of necessary detachment I think. I tend to keep my live-blogging of 'World's Fattest Kids on Drugs' to my own twitter."
KH: "I don't have one other than the band account, I think that everything mentioned above is great because it breaks the fourth wall, but sometimes I want to shake people and remind them that all these devices are tools to DO things with, not just for an endless commentary data-stream.
SC: Speaking of American influences, I noticed that on your covers collection with the exception of the Jake Thackray song they are all from American artists and quite an eclectic collection. Have you always played around with covers? Because personally I've always found it harder to make a cover my own than to take a song I've built from scratch.
NM: "I agree that covers can be harder than writing your own material, especially at first when you're still getting used to being inside someone else's song. We made that EP as a kind of stopgap between proper single releases due to our geographical and academic locations at the time. A rule that we quickly established during the recording was a strict limit on the number of listens to the original otherwise we'd have ended up with a poor imitation of the original, rather than our own interpretation. I think that few days was quite important to us as musicians as it involved a lot of thinking on the spot rather than comfortable repetition of a song until it's 'well rehearsed enough'."
KH: "Our new cover is probably my favourite, it has an 80s metal solo rearranged for a brass section."
SC: What's the scene like in Leeds these days? Last time my old band played there was at 'The Mixing Tin' (christ that really puts age on me) and the whole Dance To The Radio thing was just about catching.
DA: "For bands like ours, there'll always be a scene based around the Brudenell. Such a wide range of bands use the space for practising or for gigs, from Cowtown et al to Wednesday night Brass Band practices. There's also The Library (recently started putting on gigs), Royal Park Cellars (recently re opened), Oporto, Nation of Shopkeepers and many more that support their own scene but the Brudenell is definitely the 'hub' of live music in Headingley/Hyde Park."
SC: Do you guys have much say when it comes to things like single choices and album artwork? Because to me that seems to be one of the benefit of sticking to the independent labels. If I might inject my 2 cents by the way to not release 'Shade By Shade' as a single would be just daft.
DA: "Yeah, exactly. We picked the artist for the album artwork and worked with him throughout. Wichita never had a problem with this, as it was what we had done on the first record and they obviously had faith in us to do a good job. For a band our size, to be on a label that completely trusts you with something as important as artwork is a massive thing and something that we probably wouldn't get with a major label."
SC: Do you think it's important these days to keep momentum up when it comes to releases lest a band gets forgotten about and fickle fans move onto the next 'new thing'? You've released your second album only 18 months after the first one but it feels like quite a large step forward so if you keep up the work rate I can't see you guys having any problems.
DA: "Thanks for the confidence! I think momentum's hugely important, I've seen other bands almost ruined by stopping 'mid hype' (horrible term, that). It's a shame that hype can often be more detrimental to a band than a 'natural' progression. For us, it feels like we had a bit of the dreaded 'hype' at the beginning, then we took time out for Uni and came back and have been 'naturally progressing' since then. It feels more comfortable to me, there's not as much pressure; even with the second album."
KH: "And seeing as we have the luxury to not have to do anything else to keep fed/watered/roofed I'd feel like a bit of a bastard if we didn't take full advantage of this time in our lives."
SC: You've played with alot of really great bands like Broken Social Scene and The Cribs, do you prefer your own shows or the bigger support ones though? And do you have any favourite venues (i always really liked Whelen's in Dublin).
KH: "Support gigs are fun because you can play in venues far beyond your own reality (like Brixton academy with the cribs) but they're tough because there's sometime zero familiarity, and in practical terms you don't always get time to eat between soundcheck and stage time. Plus it's always inspiring in a very real-life sense to see how bands you admire deal with the practicalities and stresses of touring."
SC: What have your experiences like touring America? What do you think of the European audiences in comparison to the US audiences? Other than the fact we drink alot more obviously.
DA: "I'm not sure audiences are that different wherever you go, it seems to depend on the night. Having said that, I think playing in Schorndorf, a farming town in Southern Germany was one of those gigs where the crowd was just SO appreciative. Possibly because there wasn't much else to do in the town."
SC: Having never seen you guys live (I was meant to be at the BSS show in Birmingham last month but the fates were against me that night) it seems the new stuff sounds (on record at least) like the work of alot more than 3 people, is it hard to pull off some of it live?
DA: "We tried to limit ourselves when recording so as not to end up with 20 guitar tracks on each song, for the exact reason that, as a three piece, we wouldn't be able to reproduce it live. Because there's only three of us, we're forced to 'fill the gaps' musically rather than sonically."
SC: Are you constantly writing new stuff? On the road especially I know it can be hard.
KH: "I don't really have a blueprint for how write, I'd never want it to become formulaic. I'm always writing words but I've only ever written one song on tour, I think mostly because of the lack of privacy."
SC: Do you guys generally write together or does Kate come in with a rough sketch and you all flesh it out together?
NM: "Aye, that's usually how it works. Katie will have a vision the night before and explain it to us the next day through an interpretative dance which we then sit down and write the music for. Ha, yeah more often than not its a stray guitar part that needs a good home, but there has been the occasional bass boogie or skiffle beat that have set us off too. We've learnt how each of us thinks musically over the last year and a bit of touring, which I tend to take for granted, but is actually a pretty amazing place to be in terms of writing!"
KH: "Our general manifesto is I bring the skeleton and we flesh it out together ."
SC: Do you still think of music in terms of like albums? I ask because the packages you've created for 'Kaleide' are certainly unique and alot of care and attention has obviously been put into them. The way the industry is moving at the moment the 'album' is becoming something of a dying art-form, at least commercially. To me it's feels almost like music in general has almost no value anymore because anyone with even cursory computer knowledge can download it faster illegally than they can legally.
NM: "I think the concept of the album as a physical entity is vitally important as a music creator and as a collector. I find that its in the album where you really see the hard work people put in to doing what they love. A single can be great, sure, but if the rest of the album pales in comparison then the single loses all meaning and purpose. The album binds the ideas and projection of a band together. As you probably know our album leaked a month or so before it was scheduled to be released, which, on top of being a blow, meant that we had to find other ways to persuade people to purchase our music rather than just leech it from the net. First of all we hosted a high quality stream of the entire album on weareskylarkin.com so that curious people could listen to it as we intended it to sound and secondly we made a selection of pre-order options available which included different aspects of the artwork (from the magical pen of Jack Hudson) such as high quality prints of some of Jack's studies for the 'kaleidoscope' front cover. We were also keen to include acetates printed with the same imagery that people can then use to generate their own artwork which can soon be sent to us and incorporated into an ever changing online version of the kaleidoscope."
KH: "Honestly I see music in terms of ideas, and sometimes they're self contained enough to survive in the wild on their own and sometimes they're part of a larger series. So I wouldn't pledge allegiance to either format."
SC: Finally is there any music that's particularly pushing your buttons at the moment?
NM: "At this very moment in time I'm having a little late night groove to the Mount Kimbie album that I picked up just t'other day. That and the new Autolux record Transit Transit will be sure to keep me in good stead for a few weeks at least."
DA: "I've just moved into a house for a month and my stereo is in a lock up, I also lost my headphones in the move so I've not been listening to much music recently (I'm anti-Laptop Speakers) but before the move I was listening to Charles Spearin - The Happiness Project A LOT."
KH: "I love 'Tithe' from the new menomena record, it pretty much kills me when it kicks in."
My thanks to the guys and James from Brilliant Differently for setting up the interview.
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