What do you think of the Slade Rooms?

First time here, it’s a bit smaller and more intimate than I expected, we usually play at the Wulfrun. This was supposed to be just a warm up for the Deer Shed (Festival) but it’s sold out!

Are you a Slade Fan?

A big Noddy Holder fan - as a teenager I was the right age to be into Glam Rock; Slade, The Sweet, even Gary Glitter. I met him once but we cant talk about him these days so it’s not good to mention it

When are we going to get the Gedge Rooms?

(Laughs) Great idea but where would it be? I come from Manchester, The Wedding Present are a Leeds band, Seattle and LA are candidates because I’ve lived there and of course there’s Brighton. Maybe we can rename the Concorde II for the day.

Your At The Edge Of The Sea festival is now in its second year, how is it going?

Well basically it’s still The Wedding Present and Cinerama plus a load of our mates.

The Ukranians are a real festival band and we wanted them to play last year but never really got round to getting organised. Paul (Dorrington – Rose Leaf Miner) wanted to play last year as well but again we couldn’t manage it so he’s appearing this year. I’ve always had a soft spot for Klee. They are a huge band in Germany but they’ve never really made an impression here. I think continental bands in general find it hard to get established so they’re that well known over here.

At this point the conversation turned to the Bizarro tour. After touring George Best as an album why did DLG think that doing the same with Bizarro was a good idea?

To be honest although we toured the George Best anniversary first it is my least favourite of our albums. I’ve always regarded Bizarro as our first proper album. It broke us in the United States and it was the first on a major label. Before then we almost thought of ourselves as a singles band, never as an album band. It was because Red Rhino kept asking “when are you going to make an LP” that eventually we got almost all the songs we had in total together and that became George Best.

All our other album releases were thought about a bit more; they had more structure and flow about them. It seems weird to talk about planning in musical terms but that is what we had, particularly with Bizarro.

George Best is about poppy three minute songs whereas Bizarro is darker in many ways with high and low tempo songs, more layers; more intensity. We had developed, the performances were better and we produced some interesting sounds.

Do you have a league table of your albums?

No not really, I imagine it would be like picking your favourite children. George Best is my least favourite but the strength of The Wedding Present is that we have constantly moved on so it’s difficult to compare. Its the same with the fans; for some Seamonsters was their favourite but with that album we lost people. One fan even told me that they thought that Cinerama was a huge backward step so you can’t please everyone.

What’s next on the album agenda?

Well, we’ve been writing songs all the time. We should have enough for a new album, maybe in 2011.

Nothing more concrete than that?

It’s a different game now. The Wedding Present have seen a lot of changes. When we started it was cassettes and vinyl moving into CDs and now iPods and the like have taken over. With Seamonsters we went on tour to promote the album. Now it’s touring that makes the money - we almost release the music to get people to gigs. I think it’s a barrier to the kids coming in.

It’s so easy to get exposure early, get your MySpace and so on but really hard for them to make any money. You need such a big following to keep going that a lot of bands can’t afford to do it anymore.

So as touring’s more important than ever how is the current line up faring?

This line up is there now. Graeme (Ramsey) is more comfortable now in particular. He’s more of a multi-instrumentalist than a guitarist so it took a while to get used to being out from behind the drum kit. It’s not as easy as it looks; getting up there is not just about playing the guitar. All I do is very basic and the other guitarist in The Wedding Present has always had more to do and perhaps been more important - obviously under my direction!

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Somewhat ironcially, and shortly after this interview long time Cinerama and The Wedding Present stalwart Terry de Castro announced that she was giving up touring with the band. A much loved favourite of the fans she will be sorely missed.

The Wedding Present continue their Bizarro tour through the UK and Europe including another local appearance at the Assembly in Leamington Spa on 15th December.

David’s At The Edge of The Sea Festival is on 28th August at the Concorde 2 in Brighton.

Ian Gelling

Lee Hathaway talks to New Young Pony Club about their recent appearance in Birmingham, Ice Cream and their album Optimist

Back in 2006 one of the key components in your brand new PC or Mac was a recently released chip going by the catchy name ‘Intel Duo Core Processor’. Destined to increase the processing speed of computers until the next big thing came along. The chip was so important it had it’s own dedicated international advert campaign. It even had its own theme tune. That song was ‘Ice Cream’ performed by London based multi-sex quintet ‘New Young Pony Club’. We join Andy Spence, Sarah Jones and new band member Lee Godwin on the second date of their headline European tour in one of the O2 Academies vacant dressing rooms. Spying a fridge as empty as the day it was manufactured seemed a great place to start.

I see your riders full?

This isn’t our dressing room I’d be quite disappointed if it was. Just sitting here with an empty fridge. We’ve done tours like that, I’m sure we have with like four beers and a bottle of water. ‘Sunshine Underground’ came on tour with us and they eventually realised what everyone else was had on their riders. They were just asking for a multi pack of Walkers crisps and five beers. Then they saw CSS and Klaxons and they’re like “Shit! We can ask for all this!

What can you get away with asking for?

To be honest you can try for anything you want but they never usually give you everything. If we do some corporate gigs it’s just like phew… They don’t get that bands taking the piss thing so they just give you everything you want. Whereas promoters know all that shit so they just don’t bother, put something really stupid in there and they just go “fuck that”. We used to have kittens on the rider but we never got any.

How’s the tour going so far? Any interesting stories yet?

2nd night, it’s early days… We should have had some gigs in Ireland last week but we’ve postponed them until May now. So last night was the start in Portsmouth at the Wedgewood rooms. Everyone starts there it was good. It’s a bit of an institution now isn’t it?
Quite a strange man accosted Tahita and Lou today. He gave them a soft rabbit and a monkey, he made them kiss him – they were a little bit scared!

Was that here?

Yeah, he was probably one of our biggest fans he might buy all our records for all we know. The one, the only one.

How much of your success would you attribute to ‘ice Cream’?

Quite a lot I guess, it’s the song that most people recognise. It was the first we ever did properly. We used to call it our calling card really. That was why they kept re-releasing it cause they (the label) were like “this is the one, people pick up on this one” and we were like “yeah, but we do have other songs”. You know in a way that worked but we did get kind of dismissed just for that song. If you listen to ‘Fantastic Playroom’ there’s loads of other great songs that show a lot more depth ‘The Get Go’ and ‘Bomb’ and stuff. I don’t think we milked it like a lot of other bands who’ve got their one song

‘Ice Cream’ was re-released three times. Who was the driving force? You or the label?

That was the label. The first release was a 7”. You can’t really count it as a release, it was only 500 vinyl copies. It was a way of getting the name out there, we don’t really consider that a release. 500 copies isn’t a release, it was put out for Dj’s mostly. Then the label put it out on this EP when we first signed with them. We thought it was a bit stupid. This song should be a proper single. The label kind of gave it away straight after they signed us. I remember saying “This is a good song, why are we doing this? We should save it for the album”. And they did it anyway. Then came back to us and were like “Right, we’re going to do it again cause that’s the big one”. You’ve already done it; you’ve shot your load already! One of the many reasons why we started our own label on to be honest.

There was definitely a time when you were the sound of the Intel Duo Core Processor, Nobody knew who you were but everyone knew that song.

That campaign was world wide, you can’t really say “no” to those things. I don’t think you can’t not do them these days. It’s not like it was for ‘Shell’. Everyone’s got them in their computers right? It was frustrating, everyone knew the song but at the same time no one knew it was us. If we had Radio 1 playing it that song would have been massive. But most people don’t normally hear something and take the time to find out whom it is. They need to make that connection, there needs to be that connection.

How did Intel find that track?

o idea, this was the great thing about ‘Ice Cream’, we put it out and it just went around the world. Before we knew it people from Brazil, Japan wherever were emailing us. We only did the 500 copies but it really spread, immediately we had this global reach. It wasn’t a lot of people but it was key people in each city around the world. Obviously DJ’s saying, “This tracks great, haven’t heard anything like this before…” They were playing it and we started building up these little pockets of support in all sorts of countries. When we finally got the album out and started touring we already had a bit of support in these countries. But then of course people didn’t know about any of that, mainly in this country. They kind of said, (in a dumbed down voice “Oh, there’s this new band. They’ve ripped off this amongst other things”.

To date, which song would you say you’re most proud of?

It’s hard. I think something off the new album really; it just feels so much more exciting than the old stuff. I think ‘Stone’ maybe (general all round agreement). We played the album to people before we released it. That was the song that made people say, “This is great”. I was really proud when we finished it. It’s different but it still sounds like us.

I imagine ‘Stone’ being played by a DJ, the track building and building, the break kicks in and the whole room going off bouncing.

I’m envisaging that happening when we play it live. It hasn’t happened yet cause we’re still working up (to bigger venues). I’m imagining Glastonbury 2011, Latitude or whatever, playing it as the sun goes down. Imagine that? It kicks off and people are just going to go crazy. I can see it; it is such an epic track. I just hope the album spreads to that many people. I hope people talk about it, it gets to that level and we have big crowds. Even recording ‘Stone’ was so exciting.

How’s the reaction been to it played ‘live’ so far?

We’ve only played it twice! I think people are a little bit shocked because it’s not instant; it’s quite sparse with the vocals. Not many of our songs are like that, and then it kicks in towards the end. It’s quite atmospheric. Last night was the best time we did it, when it kicked in there was this “Yeah!” You saw people really move.
I think when we get to the festivals and we get some good lighting. A bit further down the line it will really show it off. We’re just testing the water at the moment. We haven’t brought a lot of stage props for all our shows this tour. We’re still a bit tentative. We’ve got some mirrors and stuff but you can’t really use them in a venue this size. It’s really frustrating at the moment. In our heads we’re at the Academy, but in reality we’re at the Academy 3. But you know, it’s good to think big.

Where did the album name ‘Optimist’ come from?

Obviously it’s connected with the album track ‘Optimist’, so called for it’s own reasons. The reason we like that title for the album; we’re optimistic about this album even though it’s a bit of a change. There’s a feeling of nervousness when you change your sound and try something different. It was quite hard to write a lot of this music. When some of these songs came out, particularly Optimist, Stone, some of the more challenging and deeper tracks there was a feeling of relief that we’d got them out and that they worked. There was a genuine feeling of optimism about that.

Would you say it’s important for bands to put out a new sound?

Yeah of course. I think all bands should have that goal. That’s really important for every band to have to try and push things forward, obviously with references to the past. I’ve always been excited by new forms of music. Punk, dance, drum and bass, dub step.
It gets boring for the artists; some artists can actually do that, keep doing the same thing. Great, good for them. At the same time we’re not trying to change for the sake of change. Just natural progression

Look at the bad press Editors received with ‘In this light and on this evening’. But you can’t knock them for moving in a new direction.

That’s a classic example of someone moving on for the sake of it. They’ve looked at reports, DJ feedback, and focus groups. “Indies not in anymore, we need to look at electronic music”. You know they haven’t got any history in that but they’re trying to do this electronic sound and it just falls flat. When you look at a band like Radiohead they had true passion for that music, when they did it, they did it so well because they truly liked that music. You can tell who’s faking it and who’s not.

Tell us about your live sets. Is there a particular feeling you’re trying to get across?

We’re seen as this party band branded with this ‘New Rave’ shit business. “Oh Sarah, is it not possible to do an interview without it being mentioned?” (I’d just like to point out at no point during the interview and gig did I see the slightest hint of neon). We play dance songs but we can calm down and it’s still ok. We don’t need an audience going crazy. This record is so different and we’re enjoying exploring that softer more subtle side to some of these songs. Watching the crowd react to that in a different way. It means more to me than just watching a crowd jumping up and down and going crazy. Who’s hardest, who’s fastest. A lot of the time we would play after DJ’s had been really banging out the tunes. We had definitely been put into that ‘dance’ bracket. We played dance stages a lot in 2007. Now we’re all focused on what we’re doing and we’re just going to do it.

NYPC are definitely a band forging their path along the musical highway without any real care what others are doing. Going about things their way because it suits them to. I couldn’t help but admire the honesty in what they we spoke about either.

The remainder of the interview focused deeper on festivals they’d like to play. Their thoughts on Wolfmother and Jet. And finally touching on but sadly not literally Sarah’s ticklish spots.

Lee Hathaway

John Kennedy talks to Australian band Expatriate about recent support slots for dEUS and Placebo and their new album In the Midst of This

With photo shoot completed on a dismal, twilight evening, we repair to a pub near St Paul’s Cathedral where, contrary to rock ‘n roll protocols, Australian Expatriate songwriter/guitar/vocalist Ben King and bassist, Dave Holland, decline the offer of a great British pint. Now based in Berlin where they composed and recorded their new album, the band are over here for a whistle-stop promo and two discreet gigs in London where, according to their very fine website, they, ‘celebrate the forthcoming UK release of the band’s debut album, ‘In the Midst of This’ on March 1st. French film maker, Bruno Barthas has edited together a stunning promo video for the song, ‘Blackbird’.’ Said gigs are, Saturday, February 6th, @ The Borderline and Wednesday, February 10th, @ The Flowerpot

Recognising influences including The Smiths, INSX, Triffids, Joy Divison (they were rather keen on that one with their admiration for the syncopated beats) and U2 it was of particular note that they cited Dead Can Dance, a fellow compatriot cathedral/ambient ensemble led Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard. The latter having teamed up with Hans Zimmer to create the majestic anthems for ‘Gladiator’ staring Russell Crowe, who, of course is from, yes, you guessed. This antipodean/Germanic fusion seems catching. So, how do they distill all of these and synthesize what has become Expatriate? We eventually agree it’s synonymous with an hour-glass. All the grains are captured above, then channeled through the focus of their interpretations and creativity to shared in to the receptive bowl of the public domain. We also agreed that, given the tortuous analogies, we really should have had that drink.

We move on to the web page design which prominently features a schematic cut-away of a Boeing 737. It’s put to the guys that it could be interpreted as an extended visual metaphor in keeping with the band name. A sense of transient flux. The exploration and baring of their physical and spiritual identities with the diaspora from native Oz to Europe. ‘But, at the same time,’ says Ben, ‘there’s an essential, fundamental aspect that’s important to me.’ And that being? ‘I love planes.’ Ah, right!For the UK, at least, we’re charting new territory with Expatriate. They’ve already cut their teeth with European stadium support gigs with dEUS and Placebo last year. What’s certain is that we have much to look forward to given the already proven strength of Myspace heavily hit sample tracks, ‘Space Between’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘Gotta Get Home’ and ‘Shooting Star’. Intelligent, reflective and devilishly handsome to boot, this is a band in for the long haul. 2010, bring it on.

Just in from their management the following reports that: The band have already been earmarked for success in 2010 after coming 7th in the Rock Sounds reader poll for ‘Best International Newcomer’ and being nominated for Breakthrough Artist of the year at the ARIA Awards (Australian version of the Brits). Following the band’s widely received support slot on Placebo’s European arena tour in 2009, they will be making appearances at a number of the main festivals across the UK and will be announcing both headlining and supporting tours in due course.

J Kennedy 4th February 2010

© Andy Willsher