Yesterday I was lucky enough to sit down with lead vocalist, Marcus for a quick interview where we discussed all things music. After greetings, the interview commenced.
How's the tour been so far?
Really good. We did the new faces tour-we started that on Monday and it's been really great, really good crowds and stuff and it's good to be touring with three other great artists as well. So it's been really good, really enjoyed it so far.
How did the band meet? Where did it all start?
Well me and Clem, the guitarist, we've been friends from when we were really young, and we were starting to make electronic music and as that side started to progress, we started to incorporate more guitars and stuff like that. Kind of sounded like it needed to be a band. We've been in bands with the other boys before so we rang them up. We seemed to be on the same wave-length and we all started making music together, and then the rest is history, as they say.
You originate from the Oxford-area so do you think the area has had an influence on your music?
In a way, I mean, Oxford's kind of our musical home, our first proper gigs and stuff like that were here and I think it got us start playing live so I think that in that sense is kind of a big influence , I mean we're quite a way out of Oxford so the music scene hasn't affected us that much, but we've been lucky. Some bands have taken us under their wing a bit and the early doors of it so yeah, it's been really good. Oxford definitely has been good to us.
How was it that you actually came to choose the genre? I read The Guardian and they were saying that it was quite an indie/ R&B sound.
Yeah, I don't know, a lot of people seem to say that. It kind of happened naturally, I think when you start to think about it too much it starts to be too much about the genre and less about the songs. I mean for us it was kind of just a natural progression of making electronic music and then started making band music and a lot of us, a lot of people started to say it was kind of this R&B thing we never really thought about but it's interesting to hear; I think yeah, just naturally kind of happened, definitely. I think that's the best way.
Many artists have different influences on their music, whether it's a personal experience or inspiration from fellow music artists. Is that the same case for you?
Yeah well lyrically I'm kinda, I know it sounds a bit cliché, more of like in the moment kind of person. I think something has to influence me emotionally for me to write lyrically something about it. I've always admired people who can do it about things that are not necessarily linked to them. But something has to specifically happen to me for me to write lyrics about something.
So with your sound writing process, is that just thinking of lyrics first and then going into the chords?
Yeah it varies. Sometimes I can write lyrics first and it can kind of be just written down things that I like and other times we've been inspired by a certain sample or a certain chord progression you start musically and then write a melody and then lyrics. It kinda varies.
Are there any artists that you aspire to?
Loads! Guitar music's probably the reason we started making music in the first place and kind of wanted to even, you can think about even playing or making music but I think over the recent times electronic music has been the biggest kind of influence for us in the sense of production and everything like that. There's so many I can't really name one but no we're definitely fans of loads, loads of different things
I know your style sounds a little bit , I think some people have said as well, it sounds a little bit on the verge of the 1975, do you like them?
Yeah we get that, they're cool. We were lucky enough to play with them a few times, so yeah I've heard that before
What made you think that, yes, this is what I want to do with my life?
I don't know, I mean we've been doing it now for so long I can't really see my self doing anything else if you know what I mean. I know it sounds a bit weird, but it's what you enjoy the most and you gotta do something that makes you happy. When we started to get more recognition and started to get radio play, and real people are actually coming to our shows I think that was the point when we were like, okay it's actually kind of happening. So I'd like to take this as far as we possibly can.
Social media is a massive platform for musicians such as you and your band. Have you found it easy to use the sites to your advantage or do you think there's been more negatives to it?
No, I think in this day and age you're social presence is your band, so anything you show to people is because before, the only way you could show yourself as a band is live; but now it's your presence online, that's how people perceive you and that's how people recognise you as well as coming to see you live. I think it plays a massive part. Facebook have changed now and you have to pay for advertising and things like that, so we put a status up and like only 600 people see it and we've got 6000 likes on Facebook, so kind of annoying. That's kind of a negative but definitely it's kind of the key now; you have to do it, in this day and age.
Finally, what advice would you give to artists that want to get in the music scene?
I would just concentrate on writing songs and just make music if you love it, and then keep doing it and if it's good you'll start to be able to get opportunities like we did. Just don't think about it otherwise you''ll drive yourself crazy ; just write music, that's probably the best way.
I highly recommend you listen to this band and if you like what you hear, their Running Thin EP is now available on iTunes.
No comments:
Post a Comment