December2010 - Elevator Studios

CABLE #6
THIS ISSUE:
Miles Kane
Claudia Pink
Wombats
Bicycle Thieves
Mugstar
CONTRIBUTE:
Milky Tea
Studio Liverpool
Owls*
In The Room Print Company
Ditto Music
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[email protected]
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or www.facebook.com/elevatorstudios
MILES KANE RELEASES DEBUT SOLO SINGLE
Last Shadow Puppet and former Rascals frontman Miles Kane has released his first solo single,
‘Inhaler’ after completing a short tour of the UK.
With support from friends and fellow Elevator band, Bicycle Thieves, Miles took his highly anticipated material
on the road. After performing a free gig at Liverpool Music
Week, the tour culminated in Kane’s first lone London date
at The Water Rats.
‘Inhaler’ was released on November 22nd on Columbia records and is a tribute to Los Angeles’ psychedelic garage
group Bonniwell Music Machine - ‘Inhaler’ is an adaptation of their 1969 track ‘Mother Nature Father Earth’.
“I loved the guitar riff on ‘Mother Nature Father Earth’,”
explains Miles. “It’s got a real groove to it and this riff
inspired me to build a song around it which then became
‘Inhaler’.”
The b-side features a cover version of another of Miles’ vintage influences, a dazzling take on Lee Hazlewood’s psychpop classic, ‘Rainbow Woman’.
The record is available as a limited edition 7” vinyl single
and includes a special poster. The track will also be available as a digital download.
Miles has announced details of a full UK tour in January
and March, and will be playing at the Sound City 2011
Launch Party Miles Kane on February 25th at the Kazimier.
For more information, go to www.mileskane.com
Miles Kane caught in a serious moment stood next to a window.
CLAUDIA PINK’S X FACTOR SUCCESS
For most people, a Saturday night in watching X
Factor is rarely life-changing, but for Elevator’s
Claudia Pink, it was a night that has given her jewellery national prominence.
Claudia Windle, owner and founder of Claudia Pink, has
seen her business grow in notoriety after X Factor contestant, Rebecca Ferguson, was pictured wearing one of Windle’s designs on the live show. Seeing her piece on national
television was completely unexpected. “I was watching it
and got a shock when I noticed it! It was hard to miss it as it
was a massive statement ring!”
Stylists on the show liked the ring so much they contacted
Windle, asking her to submit some jewellery to potentially
be used on the show. “One of the head stylists got in touch
and asked if I could send down a selection, mainly rings
earrings and bracelets. I made statement pieces that were
all one-offs.”
How did it feel to be considered for such a high-profile
show? “It feels really good! They have used my jewellery
every week, it’s a buzz to see it on TV, it’s such a big show
so is fantastic exposure!”
Does Claudia find herself rooting for the contestants who
are wearing her items? “Well actually I do a bit,” she explains, “but Rebecca who wears my jewellery the most is
the best in my opinion.
So with money can’t buy publicity under her heavily intricate belt, what does the future hold for Claudia Pink? “Well
ASOS have just been in touch and I will be joining their
Marketplace, it’s a new section launching end of November,
so that’s really exciting! I have just put on a fashion show
with two other designers, it went really well, and was a huge
success, we had 500 guests and it was a great opportunity to
be really adventurous with my designs.
It looks like Pink will be the new black in 2011....
For more information go to: www.claudiapink.com
Trey C wears Claudia Pink’s designs for the X Factor live show
PAGE 1
NEWS IN BRIEF
THE WOMBATS RETURN!
The Wombats have returned to the nation’s consciousness after the success of recent single ‘Tokyo (Vampires &
Wolves)’ catapulted them back into the limelight.
The single was named ‘Hottest Record In The World’ by
Zane Lowe on his Radio 1 show. The track was also selected
as Zane Lowe’s Single of the Week and Richard Skinner’s
Single of the Week at XFM.
The band completed an intimate tour of the UK in February,
selling out all the dates almost immediately. The tour culminated in a homecoming show at Static Gallery, Liverpool,
where demand was so great, the band were forced to add a
matinee to the schedule.
The band have just completed filming the video for the next
single to be taken from the band’s second album, ‘Techno
Fan’, which will be released on January 24th on14th Floor
Records. Immediately addictive and upbeat, ‘Techno Fan’
also features sweetly memorable vocal harmonies and some
characteristically unconventional lyrics.
The single will be followed by the album, ‘The Wombats
Proudly Present… This Modern Glitch’, on February 7th.
The band, who were due to embark on a major UK tour in
January, have decided to postpone their dates after the release of the album was pushed back. “We are really sorry to
those who have bought tickets already but we had to move
our January tour to March,” explained the band. “The album
date moved, which was out of our control, and we want the
album to be out in time for the tour. The atmosphere would
just not be the same if you legends did not know all the
songs.” The March tour includes a sizeable London date at
the HMV Hammersmith Apollo.
Well, we’ve never seen such a grumpy ping pong referee before.
The band’s long-awaited second album features production
by Rich Costey (Muse, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand), Jacknife
Lee (U2, Snow Patrol, R.E.M.) and Eric Valentine (Queens
of the Stone Age, Lostprophets). The collection includes
both ‘Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)’ and ‘Techno Fan’,
as well as ‘Jump Into The Fog’ which was recently made
available as a free download at the band’s official site.
The album follows the much heralded ‘The Wombats
proudly present… A Guide To Love, Loss and Desperation’, which was released back in 2007. The success of the
album saw the band complete two sold-out UK tours, play
the Royal Albert Hall and the Echo Arena, as well as being
nominated for Best UK act at the MTV Awards Europe.
For more information go to: www.thewombats.co.uk
ELEVATOR’S CHRISTMAS FANCY DRESS PARTY
Dear Elevator residents,
The annual Elevator Christmas Party is to be held in the
Novas building this year, in their brilliant function room on
the top two floors. It is traditional Christmas dinner and we
gather in Cains at 12 noon for drinks and then move to the
Beer House for 1.00 pm before moving up stairs to the dining room top floor at Novas.
It’s open to all Elevator residents. Please RSVP via email
before 5th December and please state whether you have any
special dietary requirements. Don’t forget the fancy dress
theme. The meal is on us.
Season’s greetings,
Tim and Paul Speed.
Please RSVP to [email protected]
MILKY TEA RECEIVES BAFTA NOMINATION
Bicycle Thieves released their new single ‘Gallivant’ earlier this month.
Creative 3D illustration and animation studio, Milky Tea
have had reason to celebrate after a BBC programme the
company helped develop has been nominated for a Children’s BAFTA.
Mugstar have released their third album, ‘Lime’, via US
label Important Records.
The single was recorded at The Motor Museum, Liverpool
with Arctic Monkey’s producer Mike Crossey earlier in the
year.
Conker Media’s The Well, created for BBC Switch has already received critical acclaim, winning two Bannf World
Television Awards earlier in the year.
The Elevator based group recorded the album at Whitewood Studios with producer Rob Whiteley last year. The
four piece will also be appearing at this year’s In Between
Days, an exclusive festival held at Butlins’ Minehead site
which is organised by All Tomorrows Parties.
The two-track single follows last year’s much hyped ‘Stop
To Start’, released on Loog Records. The track was featured
as NME’s track of the week and was voted 7th in Teletext’s
Planet Sound’s ‘Top 50 Singles of 2009.
Milky Tea worked alongside Liverpool based Conker Media to create the 3D in-game artwork and say on their blog:
“We are crossing our fingers and toes that the award for
Best Interactive can be added to the awards and nominations already received for this cutting edge production.”
The band will release forthcoming 7”, ‘Red Shift’, on November 29th, on Champion Version Records.
‘Stop To Start’ will be released in Australia on Useless Art
Records later this year.
For more information go to: www.milkytea.com
For more information, go to: www.mugstar.com.
The band have just completed a short UK tour with Miles
Kane.
MUGSTAR RELEASE THIRD ALBUM
BICYCLE THIEVES
For info, go to: www.myspace.com/bicyclethievesuk
Elevator’s control room.
PAGE 2
PAGE 3
INTRODUCING... STUDIO LIVERPOOL
The Studio Liverpool guys snapped by Nicola Leigh, courtesy of Reven Design.
Three months ago, Studio Liverpool was located at the
bottom of a pint glass. Founders Nathan Wilson and Cellan Scott neither lived nor worked in the city and they had
yet to set foot in Elevator.
Skip forward a season, and everything has changed for the
charismatic duo. Studio Liverpool is already up and running, and with a successful launch night under their belts
and a full programme of events booked for December,
there’s no turning back now.
“We’d always talked about the idea of studios dotted about
the country,” explains Cellan. “It’s a unique selling point
for a performance space, there’s nothing like it that I know
of in Liverpool. The idea to get the other ones going formed
during drunken conversation, and suddenly a lot of opportunities presented themselves over a couple of days.
“Cellan and I met up again at a play reading in August and
sat down afterwards to talk about rehearsal space and venues, continues Nathan. “We’d had a couple of beers and we
said ‘let’s just open a theatre, we’ll just find a venue and
open a theatre’. Then, two weeks later we saw a sign on
the side of Elevator saying ‘studio space available’, so we
called the number. As soon as we walked into the space, we
knew this was it. This was where we were going to open.
That was 3 months ago. It’s all moved so quickly. As soon
as we decided, the opportunity just presented itself.
“Since the word about what we’re doing was put out, people
have been very supportive.”
“It’s a good indication for the next 12 months as that the
opportunities were created by people’s enthusiasm, and
people’s passion for it,” furthers Cellan. “Anyone we talk
to has been so excited by it. Word of mouth had been amazing. Studio Liverpool gives people an opportunity that they
wouldn’t necessarily always have. With theatre productions sometimes it can be a bit of a closed shop for new and
emerging work and new writing. There is a long and arduous process that you go through if you’ve written a play to
get that play on. It can take two or three years, it’s to do with
getting agents, and getting it vetted and people in the know.
That’s not what we’re about. If people have a production or
anything they want to bring here, they just have to call us.
Studio Liverpool is a sister organisation to Studio Salford,
an umbrella to five in-house theatre companies that Cellan
states “deserves credit for reinvigorating the fringe in Salford and the North West”.
The premise of both is simple. It’s an outlet for new and
emerging talent, and not just of the theatre variety. From comedians to bands to puppeteers, all disciplines seem to have
a place here, a fact aptly demonstrated during the launch
event which took place earlier this month. Poets, films, and
excerpts from theatre pieces, DJ’s bands, even puppet barmen, all came together to set the out the stall for the one
of the most exciting ventures Liverpool’s theatre scene has
been witness to in a long while.
“There is something quite remarkable and amazing going
on in Liverpool’s creative communities at the moment, it’s
one of the main reasons we came here. We don’t mean to
sound arrogant when we say that we aim to bring them
together, to be this creative hub,” asserts Cellan. “There
are intensely creative groups everywhere, and they’re not
necessarily talking to or working with each other. We just
want to place ourselves where we achieve that. The value of
being plugged into a network that’s buzzing AND is actually producing as well is incredible, the people of Liverpool
aren’t just sitting around talking, and they’re actually doing it.
It’s not hard to see why the duo can embrace so many disciplines so wholeheartedly. With theatre, performance, production, choreography, lighting, and set design all honed
through various stages in their thespian lives, Nathan describes it as “culminated in a ball of me wanting to do this is
and this, so fuck it, let’s just open a theatre!”
The pair met during a stint on a corporate gig. “We realised
we had a lot in common and shared passions,” explains Cellan. “That’s rare. I’ve had a few business partners in my
time, but I really feel that Nathan is the yin to my yang.
“We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t trust each other’s
strengths and abilities,” he furthers. “We complement each
other.”
“Not just in an artistic capacity, but also in a personal capacity,” continues Nathan. “When I’m running around like
a headless chicken, Cellan’s there to say ‘it’ll be fine, and
when Cellan’s running around in a panic, I say ‘don’t do
that that’s my job’!”
“It’s would be an enormous responsibility to take on individually. We need to drive it in the right direction,” says
Cellan. “You can talk about stuff or you can do it, so even
in the middle of a global recession we thought, we’ll open
a theatre!”
The heart of Studio Liverpool is an event called Embryo
which takes place every 6 weeks. The event began at Studio Salford; Cellan was involved with more
thanwet40
of
A veritable
dream.
them. Described as ‘one night of modern vaudeville, lost
beatniks, inspired madness and beautiful beginnings’ and
‘featuring the cream of all that’s new and emerging’, the
event sees acts from all areas try out new material and get
feedback from the audience.
“There’s been 100’s of acts, and thousands of audience
members, feedback is always given, not shouted out, audience members are encouraged o make notes throughout.
It’s invaluable. If you were lucky enough to get a reviewer
coming along to your show, you’d be lucky to get only one
or two lines.
“ There have been some experts that have been performed
at Embryo that have then been picked up by Studio Salford,
it gives them a chance but also the actors involved who
don’t necessarily have representation,” explains Cellan.
“Everybody can benefit from it. I have so much belief in
the night and so many people take the opportunity
if they’re
Ioisis founder Anna
Rosser .
a poet, film maker whatever. It’s not just for actors.”
Bands in Elevator could benefit from the launch of Studio
Liverpool. “Because we’re about new and emerging work,
the majority of the music we’ll be using, house music, and
music at the bar etc, will be local bands, signed or unsigned.
As far as the bands concerned, it’s getting their work heard
without having them to put in the legwork.”
“December is full. We’re looking forward to it with an air of
anticipation,” enthuses Cellan. “The thing I’m most looking
forward to is the first piece of theatre, which will be Macbeth in February. It ain’t going to be pretty, it’s a dark piece.
This is not Disney does Shakespeare.
“We have room for three more in-house companies. I would
like after the first 12 months to have all of them in place, so
we’ll start the next year will be a full programme of theatre.
So how do you get involved? “Volunteers, front of house,
technical staff, people behind the bar, they are all an essential part of what we’re trying to do. If you want to put your
work on, or even get assistance in developing the script
contact us, or just pop in. The more the merrier.
Ladies and gentlemen, the performance is about to begin.....
For more information email: [email protected]
PAGE 3
PAGE 2
INTRODUCING... DITTO MUSIC
The Parsons brothers, co-founders of Ditto music hang out in the street.
Elevator newcomers Ditto are no stranger to the charts.
Since forming in 2007, Matt and Lee Parsons have
notched up an impressive seven Top 40 singles and already
have one world record under their belts. Not bad for two
brothers dropped by their record label before their first EP
came out....
Despite Ditto being born from dreams of rock and roll excess, it transpires that losing their record deal was the best
thing that could have happened to the Birmingham based
brothers. The online music distribution company is changing the way the music industry works, as Vice president Jay
Kerr explains.
“Matt and Lee’s band was big on the Midlands music scene.
They got a couple of showcases in London, got signed by
a label and then dropped shortly after the first EP was recorded,” he explains. “They were stuck with a product to
sell, and a fan base but no way to get it into retail stores.”
While most bands would have at this point returned to their
day jobs with their tail between their legs, Matt and Lee
decided to take the matters into their own hands. The group
decided to put the EP out themselves without the help of a
label. “They learnt how to get CD’s into likes of HMV and
online shops, and they researched how to set up a record
label,” says Kerr. “This gave them a platform from which
to release their own music. So they released the EP, it didn’t
sell very well, and unfortunately, they didn’t make it as rock
stars as they’d hoped. But they realised that they already
had this platform in place and that they could help out other
bands, basically help them to achieve what they could do
when they were signed without being signed.
“Bands were offered services which helped them promote
themselves, market the band, get music on online stores
very cheaply and basically start generating revenue,” Kerr
explains. “The company, based in Birmingham until summer of this year, was started in 2007 and has been developing ever since. We now distribute artists from all over the
world.”
Since Ditto founded, the music industry had undergone
many a facelift. With label funding for bands becoming increasingly scarce, the DIY scene has flourished, and Ditto
has grown with it. “The two main reasons that we are a company are firstly, that bands can do it themselves now. They
can do their recording in their rooms, put on tours themselves, and basically create this network of opportunity,”
explains Kerr. “Secondly, with the way the internet is going
and the way things have developed, there has been a decline
in physical CD sales, but an increase in streams and online
stores. This has helped us achieve what we’re doing. It’s allowed clients to send their music out very inexpensively and
make money from it. The way the industry had developed
in this digital style, and the way acts don’t require the large
sums of money put into them the way a record label would
have done beforehand has definitely changed the industry
and what it can offer to unsigned acts.
While other online distribution companies exist, they’re
not doing it quite like Ditto. “We work with everyone from
bedroom artists to touring bands. At least 30 to 40 percent
of our client base are independent labels, they distribute
through us because we don’t take any commission on sales,
whereas other aggregators take 20 percent of the revenue,
we don’t take anything,” reveals Kerr. “We work with artists
like Marillion who have done it themselves for their entire
careers. They distribute though us because they don’t need
a record label. Another one of our artists, Temposhark, initially went with us to get some sales to get some revenue
and recognition so that they would then get picked up by
a label. They made so much money from releasing their
music through us that they realised they didn’t need that
investment and they could do it themselves.
“Another one of our acts, Whitey, took all the money from
sales and then went over to America and then got signed
by Sony, I guess it all depends on the artist and what they
want to do with their careers. If they’re selling, then there is
no need to sign a deal, if you’re making enough equity and
you’re happy, just do it yourself.”
And it’s not just the Brits who will benefit from Ditto’s
expertise. Plans are already underway to open more offices worldwide, but first, moving headquarters to Elevator.
“We’re opening an office in Nashville, and six months afterwards, in Sydney, we’re expanding across the world. Firstly
though, we wanted to move somewhere where there is a better band scene,” explains Kerr. “We’ve done the distribution
thing for years, that pays the bread and butter. The majority
of the staff have all been in bands and have a very big passion for music, we wanted get more actively involved with
the live scene, helping bands with tours, helping them market and brand themselves and helping them develop their
fan base. We want to get stuck in with Liverpool scene, it’ll
take a lot of effort and a lot of midnight emails but I think
we can do it,” he smiles.
Maybe the promise of free distribution will help them become enveloped in the live scene faster... “We have a promotion on at the moment were any band in Liverpool can
let us know where they’re playing and put two tickets aside
for us and we’ll come down and give you our opinions on
what we think of your band. For doing that we’ll put your
record out for free on iTunes, 7digital, Spotify and handful
of stores where you can market yourself.
A veritable
wetmight
dream.
“A band can come to us at any level. A bedroom
artist
come to us because they want their music on Spotify so
they can share it quickly with their friends. Maybe your
band is looking to break into the charts, we’ve had seven
Top 40 hits with unsigned artists, all you need is to have
already got a fan base established,” asserts Kerr. “We have
loads of little hints and tips on how to chart, it’s a process of
taking time rather than pouring money into it, so if a band
had been touring the country for a couple of years, they can
approach us and we’ll plan for a chart single. We’ll get it in
the online stores and sort out things like SMS keywords and
get their pre-release sorted. This is how we’ve got nearly all
of our top 40 singles.
“If you want to get onto the top 40, these days you need
to sell about 6000 in the 1st week. What we do with our
artists is put them on pre-sale about three months beforehand, because all those sales count for the first week,” he
explains. “The exposure you get from charting is absolutely
founderin
Anna
Rosser
phenomenal. It’s crucial to have your Ioisis
fan base
place
to.
keep the money rolling in. We had the first unsigned band
in the top 40, which was Koopa; it’s in the Guinness Book
of Records. They put their single on pre-sale and toured up
and down the country promoting it. As soon as the Monday
came, they already sold enough o be in the charts, they were
right behind Beyonce.
“If a band is hard working enough, if they have a good fan
base, and are willing to put the effort in, then we provide a
platform where they can push the effort you put in. A band
should put money into recording, practicing and marketing. Distribution doesn’t need to be an expensive part; it’s
just a matter of putting something on sale and getting the
revenue stream back. They should really put the money into
marketing.”.
“Get a fan base set up, work hard, practice hard, buy decent instruments and once you’ve got a decent recording
and you think you could make some money out of it then
come and talk to us.”
Chart success may be closer than you thought...
For more information go to: www.dittomusic.com
PAGE
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PAGE 4
INTRODUCING... IN THE ROOM PRINT CO.
A veritable wet dream.
Hot Club de Paris used to aim their van at cliff tops before they moved into the printing game
The banter is the same. Standing in a room with long-term
Elevator residents Hot Club de Paris and watching them
work, you bear witness to the same quick quips and lighthearted witticism that have seen them heralded on the live
scene.
The movement too is similarly fluid. These are three guys
who have the load-out and load-in down to a tee. Since
forming in 2005, the amount of man hours Paul, Matthew
and Al have spent together is more than the average family
manage in a lifetime.
But the music that they’re moving to is not Hot Club, it’s
early Dr Dre. Al is crouched painting photo emulsion onto
a screen, while Paul and Matthew work together on the carousel.
Welcome to HCdP’s new venture, In The Room. Despite
being in the midsts of recording their third album proper,
the band set up the screen-printing business in Elevator just
over a month ago and already have a slew of successful orders under their belt.
Already noted for their DIY work ethic, the band have
found a new way to fund the costs of self-production, but
still keep it all entirely on their own terms. “We never really
set out to be specifically DIY,” explains vocalist and bassist
Paul Rafferty, “but we realised early on that the only way
of maintaining a band like ours professionally would mean
that we’d have to make cuts in all the areas that cost the
most amount of money: Drivers, recordings, artwork and
more recently, making merch. No one buys records because
it’s too easy to steal them. This means that labels are less
willing to spend their money on bands like us. Merch is
one area that for the most part they’re unable to control,
so we thought it’d be a good idea to offer a service that can
produce small runs at low cost. It helps us afford to make
records, and can in turn help other bands to finance their
practice.”
But with start-up businesses being infamously labour intensive, has In The Room detracted from the album currently underway? “Making t-shirts isn’t fitting in with band
practice at all because we’ve been so busy,” he laughs, “but
we’re hoping to get right back on it this week. For better or
for worse, we’ve always considered ourselves to be men
of business, so we’re adapting perfectly. We’re really excited about the new record,” smiles Paul. “It sounds like
Aerosmith.”
Which came first: the carousel or the concept? “The t-shirt
printing carousel came first. A friend who used to manufacture Hot Club de Paris merch was selling up and I thought
it might be good for us to produce our own merch instead
of paying someone else to do it. I talked it through with
the other members of the band and we agreed that it might
be cool to try and start it up as a business and pay our rent
without having to leave town and do shows all the time.
And how steep was the learning curve? “We put in a hideous
amount of time and got everything wrong until we learned
how to do it right. Now we’re doing everything right and it
feels a lot like magic.
Another service offered by In The Room are the creative
design talents of Paul. Employed by label Moshi Moshi
as an in-house designer, Paul has also worked on national
campaigns for the likes of Crisis. “I like it when we’re printing stuff that I’ve designed,” he explains. “That’s far more
fulfilling, but we’ll seriously print everything apart from
swastikas and sketchy right wing stuff.
How did the group land upon the name? “In the Room was
the name of a club night that we used to run before we got
signed,” he explains. “Unfortunately we got too busy and
were unable to continue doing it, so the night went on an
ultimate hiatus. The name was taken from a song by Joan of
Arc who had taken it from a line from a TS Eliot poem “In
the room the women come and go, talking about Michelangelo.” It’s funny because our second order was for Joan of
Arc. I designed their shirts and it was intensely satisfying
to do that.
Ioisis founder Anna Rosser .
“Our first order was for a load of Mugstar shirts. They really have to be one of the best bands in Liverpool right now.
Their new album is a proper jaw-dropper.
“It’s fun to walk around town and spot t-shirts we’ve
printed. I wouldn’t call it pride, but it’s always cool seeing
people wearing shirts we’ve printed from the local skate
shop, Lost Art.
So while In The Room is a means to an end, do the group
have future plans for the burgeoning business? “I was
thinking it would be cool to move into a more fashion/boutique area and produce our own shirts for sale, as well as
managing band’s online shops with band-friendly rates and
ethical production values. Elevator have supplied us with
an awesome space and a load of work, which we are very
grateful for.
The band will embark on a European tour in January to
promote the EU only album ‘Free The Pterodactyl 3’, a
compilation of Hot Club’s 2010 offerings ‘With Days Like
This As Cheap As Chewing Gum, Why Would Anyone
Want To Work’ and ‘The Rise And Inevitable Fall Of The
High School Suicide Cluster Band’.
For more information or a quote, contact [email protected]
PAGE
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PAGE 54
INTRODUCING... OWLS*
Jennifer Pelligrini pointed her camera at the band in Woolton Cinema
Sometimes silence speaks louder than words. In the mysterious case of Liverpool’s Owls*, an empty MySpace page
created an intrigue that words couldn’t muster. The frustration of having to have actually been there saw the buzz
about the four-piece flutter across the city like wildfire
after just one gig. In an age of impatience and in a city
full of musos, the intangible proved to be a heady mistress,
and Owls* were more than happy to court the fascination.
“It was a conscious decision not to do that kind of stuff,”
explains guitarist Carl Cook. “We don’t like the format, it
sounds shit when you actually play it, it never works and it’s
like an X-Factor popularity contest.
“The irony of it is, I use it to find out when people are playing gigs and to listen to new bands. Everything we should
be doing for our own band but decided not to! The only reason our MySpace exists was because we did a Sound City
gig, they said we needed a MySpace, it was just put up for
the benefit of the brochure, but it had nothing on it and we
decided to keep it like that.”
Owls* only formed in January, but already they have admirers scattered across the globe. You Tube, proving fruitless
for official band material, throws up fan videos created to
the recently downloadable tracks the band reluctantly set
free.
“Primarily what we’re doing is geared towards live,” explains Carl. “The more we can get people to gigs without
downloading tracks the better. It’s never the same twice
when we do it live. We’re still pulling together, by the time
we’ve recorded the album next year we want all the gigs
kicked completely into shape. Even in terms of what we
record, we’ve got quite a big backlog of material as well, we
need to get the right feel for what we’re doing.”
The band is comprised of Tommy, Adam, Carl and Etienne.
Previous endeavours include The Cranebuilders (Tommy)
and The Stairs and Manna (Carl). Adam appeared in the
Echo aged just four for his extraordinary drumming skills.
Carl also turns producer, and has helped create the studio
sound of acts such as John Power, The Suzukis and Edgar
Jones after being ‘spotted’ by John Leckie during his work
with The Bandits.
“I can’t produce our band though,” asserts Carl. “I’ve never
been able to produce myself, anything I’m involved with I
have a weird objectivity to. I’m too involved in it to produce
it, but I can tell everyone else what to do, I’m quite bossy.
The recordings we’ve done so far, we’ve spent no longer
than two hours on one song.”
“On the demos we have recorded you can actually hear Carl
talking through how the structure is going to come together,” laughs Tommy. “You can hear it in the background, so
I take them away and try and pull something together that
suits and is in keeping with the style of the tune. Then we’ll
bring it together, Carl will say ‘I think it would be better if
we did this’, then you discuss and lay it out. That objectivity
is very organic.
Though the hype may have sparked an interest, it’s the dark
melancholy of the band’s sound which keeps the listener
absorbed, layer upon layer of musical craftsmanship, each
dripping with a flair discarded by most musicians long ago.
And there’s a swagger to it, an insolent twist at the corner
of its mouth which acts as a heartening antidote to the foreboding.
“Carl, Adam and Etienne had already decided on the sound
before I joined,” explains Tommy. “There were 11 pieces of
music on the CD they gave me and told me ‘make of that
what you will’.
“We didn’t decide on the sound,” explains Carl. “Past bands
I’ve been in, there’s generally someone who tells other
people what to do, that’s how it works, there is generally
someone who dictates what the other people are going to
play. This is the only band I’ve been in where we do our
own thing completely.
“The music dictates what we do, we trust each other. I don’t
really need to tell Etienne (bass) or Adam what to play and
they don’t tell me. It’s four individual elements. It is organic. Everyone just comes together, the whole is greater
than the sum of the parts.
“It feels lucky, in a sense, because the thing that used to piss
me off about being in a band was the labour process,” says
Tommy. “You had to go over and over what an idea was.
In this group it’s very intuitive. Carl will usually say this is
what I’ve been working on, and it just falls into place almost
instantly. There’s’ been a couple of occasions where I’ve
been able to match that, where the lyrics have just come just
A veritable
dream.
as quickly, and we get a song together in about
twowethours.
I’ve never written this many songs in a year.
“We’re in the honeymoon period,” laughs Carl. “In a year’s
time we’ll probably be killing each other. At the moment,
we’re just weighing each other up, there’s that wanting to
impress but not sticking your fence too far above the fence.”
“It’s like a creative spur rather than competitiveness,” says
Tommy. “It’s like, well he’s doing that, I’m going to do this
to match it. It kicks us all up the ass, but there’s no ego
involved.”
“We’re looking to do the album early next year, February
time,” explains Carl. “It wasn’t planned, but we’ve realise
that momentum is a big factor of what we’re doing. We
know what we need to do before and after it in order to
plan it.
founder
Annabut
Rosser
“It doesn’t feel like there’s anyone thereIoisis
with
a stick
it’s.
all happening very quickly,” agrees Tommy.
“Any album that you make is a reflection of a band at a
particular time,” says Carl. “It’s almost just documenting
where we’re up to, we want to get all the recording done so
we can move on to the next stage of what we’re doing and
progress the sound.
“You get a lot of bands who have their own identity worked
out stylistically before they even play a note, there’s none
of that here. We don’t come at it like that. When we get
asked who we sound like, it’s hard because we’ve done it
inside out, there was nothing in mind. My formative years
were grunge and quite obvious classic rock stuff. When I
was young, I’d learn to play every Dinosaur JR record, that
doesn’t come across fully in what we do but it’s there.”
Maybe, in these super-paced days of Spotify and its ilk,
having access to everything all at once makes you write
things off quicker. When you haven’t heard a band but hear
the hype there’s still some hope they’re just what you’ve
been looking for. For those who took the time to find
Owls*, the hope is very much still alive.
For more information go to: http://owls.bandcamp.com
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