I read you formed in london after a drunken conversation in 3am. do you remember what you were talking about?
Me and Ollie were just confused about why we hadn't formed a band together and in our drunkeness we were convinced that we could do something we would be really happy with. We knew our voices went well together and we also liked all the same music. That evening I’d attended an indie/unsigned night in the city where I was teacher training. I was so disappointed by what i'd seen and the attitude to the music and I vented my frustrations to Ollie. We just knew we would have to meet up and starting writing/recording and a few weeks later we got together and wrote the first two songs and shot a video. (AJ)
There was some sort of element of “we can definitely do better than this” and a real determination to tap into some current trends and prove we could easily make a name for ourselves. Drunk and delusional. It's since expanded from being a sort of songwriting side-project to a much more committed thing now that we have Thom and Isaac on board. (OJ)
Were you involved in music before the band? what have you studied?
We've all played together in previous bands before TDOP, so we've got a good idea of how each of us works. It lets us work pretty fast. Angus, Isaac and myself have music degrees or are nearing finishing them, Oliver has studied film and George is currently studying fine art. As far as jobs go, Oliver and Angus actually met through both working at a Supermarket....which they've both now left, Angus is a teacher in a secondary school and Oliver works at a digital media agency and as a freelance filmmaker. In between studying and playing I work in a pharmacy. (TJ)
Me and Oliver met working in a supermarket in a small rural town, i started talking to him because he knew "Forever changes" and he asked me if i'd seen "Rumble Fish" which I had. He'd bought the soundtrack on vinyl and I was really impressed. (AJ)
This january you uploaded album "two thousand and thirteen", which is basically every song you released online in 2013. How come you are not signed to a label yet?
Yeah, it's just every track we released in 2013 in the order we released them. It's not an album as such, it's more of an archive, we didn't change any of the recordings or delete anything. It means people can download everything in one go and keeps the Soundcloud tidy without anything disappearing from the internet. But yeah, our debut album is still to come. We've spoken to a fair few labels. It's certainly not a conscious decision not to sign with anyone. it's just a case of waiting until the right one comes along. we don't want to rush into anything, it needs to be true love. (IJ)
Is that your choice to have your music online for free download?
It seems a bit unnecessary to charge people for unsigned digital music at this point and we just want as many people to hear it. The music didn't cost us anything to make because we produced it ourselves. Often people leave us donations on our bandcamp page which is really nice of them and we really appreciate it because they don't have to. Some people are great. (AJ)
It's so nice getting the odd email telling you someone's paid a few quid for a tune, but we get just as excited by the free download figures. It's cool that people are listening to our music! (OJ)
You mention on fb that we should expect your first physical release of 2014 with a prominent South coast based label. More information on that?
That's still happening and it's coming out early July. It's all mixed and ready to go from our end though. We're used to releasing as we record so it's been a bit frustrating. It should be getting announced properly very soon though. Some things are worth waiting for. (IJ)
Between shoegaze and indiepop ... where would you say you stand the most?
I would say somewhere in the middle, which sounds like a bit of a non commital answer but i think we like those genres equally. I think our music often comes out more shoegazey than indiepop because we like to overdub so many parts and we are so loud as a live band. (AJ)
Could you name me a few artists that could be cited as your inspirations?
We're definitely influenced by alot of the music we get compared to. Bands on Creation like Ride, My Bloody Valentine and Teenage Fanclub are a huge influence aswell as other shoegaze bands like Lush, The Telescopes. We're big record collectors so we listen to an eclectic selection of music. We enjoy alot of classic pop songwriting, at the moment we're really into Carole King and Todd Rundgren. We've also been listening to alot of sunshine pop recently with bands like The Association, The Millenium, Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends and The Free Design. (AJ)
How important is the visual aspect of the music? What is your vision on that?
Visuals have always been really important – we knew it would give us a bit more credibility when we started out if we had a visually arresting video and artwork and stuff. George Abram has been with us since day one designing all of our artwork, and me and him have co-directed every video together. George debuted our live visual show in Madrid in December which we're keen to make a recurring feature of our live shows. I guess what we're doing isn't much different to most bands but we're creating all of the content ourselves so I guess it ties in with our music and ultimate vision a little more? (OJ)
Whose idea was the video of "Tasteless"? And do you think it is by any means procovative?!
George came to me with some storyboards for the Tasteless video which consisted of frames of a bare bum, some solid colours, and shots of raw meat amongst other things (George is always pushing for nudity and raw meat). In the editing process we realised that the naked shot walking into the sea should carry the video. It's not really intended to be provocative; we did actually shoot it with our model stripping down to just their underwear but it turned out looking a lot more sexual like that so all of the clothes had to come off. (OJ)
As a band, what would make you happy in 2014?
I'd be happy to have more time to write/record and it would be nice to tour this year. I'd really like a cream tea with Crowded House if anyone could arrange that. (AJ)
Oliver and I used to have a band that formed exclusively to play End of The Road Festival in Dorset, and that never happened so maybe that's still a lingering dream (IJ)
http://thedeathofpop.bigcartel.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment