How did you guys meet?
Tom: We all met outside a Weezer concert trying to buy tickets from touts, but non of us could afford it so we decided to go to a cafe and start our own band.
Dan: it was a beautiful twist of fate
Where you musical at school?
Tom: Almost certainly not, the only instruments we had at my school were keyboards. I only like Bass.
Rob: I was in a band that mostly played weezer and oasis covers. Although we never played a gig and I left when the singer got into guns n roses, dressed like Axl and wanted to play november rain.
Dan: i was obsesessed with my dads vinyl collection of northern soul, mod and acid house when i was at school. i didn’t tell anyone though as i would have been beaten up instantly for not talking about football.
Craig: Yeah, we got a brand new drum kit in my last year at school, it was awesome! I spent many a lunch time in the music room, upsetting people with very loud drums!
What is your favourite venue to play?
Tom: ‘The Deaf Institute in Manchester’, hands down. Great sound, great crowd, great wallpaper.
Rob: The 100 Club, the history of that place is incredibly inspiring.
Dan: anywhere with a lot of people who want to have a good time, and forget about work or school or their broken heart.
Craig: We played a show last summer at the top of this building called ‘Empire’ it was hotter than hell in there! Really uncomfortably hot, but it felt good to pour sweat out my my shoes at the end of the show!
Do you have a favourite band/arists living or dead?
Tom: Neil Young
Rob: The Clash/ Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Dan: pavement, blur, comet gain, adam green, nirvana, kasms, the cribs, weezer, the strokes, yeah yeah yeahs, interpol, beat happening.
Craig: Weezer
What has been the best gig you have played?
Dan: the underage festival at scala just before christmas. everyone in the building was in the perfect frame of mind… and we took our collective mind somehere quite special, then we came straight home and wrote a new song! thats how gigs should be! inspiring and liberating.
What city-country would you like to visit?
Tom: Easter Island
Rob: Troy
Dan: I want to go back to New York and get married.
Craig: Twin Peaks (but it’s a town)
What would you say about the music scene now?
Tom: The watered down ‘indie-as-a-commodity’ success of most bands means that the biggest groups in the world are no longer the best. Which is great, because no bands want to imitate them.
Dan: there are a handful of great bands in London at the minute and every time i see their beaiful faces and hear their music i feel a gentle glow wash over me… then i hear some of the other shit out there and want to eat glass to numb the pain.
Where does your music fit in?
Tom: We’re the stick of dynamite on top of a birthday cake masquerading as a candle.
Would you allow your music to be used in commercials/TV?
Tom: Of course, as long as it was for something we liked. It’s not the 70′s anymore, the term selling out is no longer judged and scored by the general public, it’s a personal line that you cross. I’d only feel like I’d sold out if I stopped feeling like an outsider.
Dan: no mobile phone ad’s or fast food joints… or anything that was trying to be ‘cool’.
Craig: For sure, as long as it was for something as a band, we’re all in to.
If there was one person you could work with who would it be?
Tom: I really, really want Harmony Korine to make a video for us. It wont happen.
Rob: Nick Zinner
Dan: one person! thats hard… Gary Jarmen
Craig: Stephen Street
What would you say the worst thing about touring is?
Tom: Having to come home.
Rob: Kidney failure
Dan: i agree with tom, that and getting asked the question ‘are you in a band?’ when your trying to buy some chips.
Craig: Blisters
Who has any bad habits in the band?
Tom: Craig seems to have the bad habit of buying decent clothes before anyone else has the chance.
Dan: I draw eyeballs, skulls, wizards, and hearts on anything in sight if my mind is not constantly given attention. I also text a lot… which annoys me.
Craig: The other 3! Beating me at any card game, all of the time!!
What drives your music and your passion?
Tom: A deep longing to create something lasting and penetrable.
Rob: Self expression, wanting to connect with like-minded people, and the dream of one day being able to quit my job.
Dan: belief that there is something more pure out there than cheap alcohol, a rubbish job, and a loveless life.
Craig: Knowing that this is what i love to do more than anything in the world.
How do you write your music?
Tom: In a bedsit with the lights on.
Rob: By making a lot of noise and then whittling it down to its bare bones so that only the bits worth keeping are left over.
Dan: for me its snap shots of experience dressed in fine robes then pushed down the stairs of my flat until it sounds right. also a lot of sitting around with pens, paper an acoustic guitar and the occasional kiss in the dark.
What have you got planned for the rest of the year, you playing any festivals?
Tom: We’re trying to book as many gigs as we can whilst simultaneously writing the album, hopefully people will come see us at The Great Escape in Brighton and at Camden Crawl.
What advice had you been given before you started this journey and what advice would you give someone just starting out?
Tom: The best advice I’ve ever been given is to expect nothing and write constantly. The advice I’d give? Make your own mistakes not someone else’s.
Rob: Just do it; if you’re proud of your music, don’t worry about what anyone else thinks.
Dan: advice? the only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.
Craig: I had been given no advise. I would say just believe in yourself.
