DIY, Rough Trade, and long term projects

Who knows me during my everyday day-life, and has known me in the last 14 years or so, might still not know some repetitive details about me, hell, my mum does not know how I take my coffee, but if you were to ask any of these people something about me, they would all know what I want to do "when I grow up".
I wanna work at Rough Trade.
Truth actually is, when this started for me I did not know about the existence of Rough Trade, then again I knew that the reason for me to want working in the music industry had not been triggered by the glitters, by the backstage passes or the supposedly exclusive and cool parties, but it all started because I got enchanted by the way some people, working behind the stage, were sincerely moved by good intentions and morals, because they were understanding the responsibility they had to people like me, people they were making and selling dreams to. I decided there and then that I was do to he same in my life, that would've been my way of "giving back" to the world, because to me, what those people made and allowed me to experience is what makes life worth, even up till now.
When I moved to London all these ideas and moral doctrines were some sort or reshaped, but still strongly there, even though most of the things I have seen in the music industry was not exactly a good example of this moral-driven attitude.
But I stumbled into something totally and completely driven by morals, maybe even before the business-oriented mind needed to keep a music label afloat. Cause as bad as it sounds a music label, as creative, artistic and ideological as it can/should be, is still a business. But then again, then there's Rough Trade.
Rough Trade gives me a lot of hope, for the history that it has gone through, for the amazing acts they have signed (being in fact home to my favourite bands such as The Veils and British Sea Power), and for the fact that is the only record label I have ever known to have a moral manifesto based on:

Egalitarianism: doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political, economic, social, and civil rights.
Inclusivity: describes the degree to which non-dominant groups are represented by participation
Leftfield Vision: A position far from the center or mainstream, as of opinion or reason.

To someone like me, it all sounds nearly too good to be true, but the best part is... it actually seems to be true though.
And here's the documentary story of the label and its different incarnations from 1976 with Geoff Travis starting the shop in Kensington Park, to the management of Pulp and Duffy with Jeanette Lee of Public Image Ltd fame, to the company currently existing in Golborne Road...

For a Minor Reflection - KEXP Live Session from Icelandic Airwaves

The lovely FaMR boys did this live session in studio from Rejkiavik during the Icelandic Airwaves festival on the 16th of October 2009. They played songs from their forthcoming album I cannot actually wait to listen to, which promises to be quite a development from their first work, but which apparently will retain For a Minor Reflection distinctive ability to craft amazingly pleasant melodies. The podcast is available from KEXP and here's a list of what they played, interluded by a quick interview.

1. Kastljós
2. A Moll
3. Dansi Dans (the one I used to call the 4-hands piano song for pretty self-explanatory reasons)
4. Coverage

For a Minor Reflection - KEXP Live Session

[Interview] Exlovers @ Borderline, 22.10.09

(originally published on GodIsInTheTVzine.co.uk)

Exlovers are a lovely indie-pop band from London. Their new EP You Forget So Easily has drawn the attention of radio stations (NME) and taste-makers such as Steve Lamacq, and ourselves at GIITTV. Their melodic sound and shy appearance draws us in to try and see from a closer perspective what these five kids are all about...

So tell me, are the record labels crazy? Because I’m shocked that you're still unsigned!?

Yeah I guess so... (laughs) crazy labels!

No, I'm serious. I was talking to this friend of mine about you and I went: "honestly, someone sign them, or I will open my own label and sign them myself!" So, really? That's so weird. How did you exactly get together? How long have you been together?

We've been together for about a year and a half now, we just got together to make a band really, we got to meet each other through friends of friends, stuff like that, and we got together to make a band. I already had quite a few songs (Peter) and I didn't want to play them on my own, and after a couple of rehearsals we got together so... that's how it happened really.

How many of those days together were days when you were playing gigs together, during this year and a half?

(Laughs) a lot! We started tour about 3 weeks after we got together as a band, so we had about 3 weeks of rehearsal and went on our first tour, which was some baptism of fire -I've said it too many times now, I got to stop saying that- (Laurel) but it was! (Laughs) I think it's been 200 so far...

Woah, you’ve kept yourselves busy, guys..

Yeah... busy and broke!

Which brings us onto another question: how does a band like you manage it at the moment? What is the most challenging thing about doing it all DIY and totally independent, unsigned and everything?

Uhm.... finding places to live, that kind of stuff really, we always managed to do somehow band work one way or another but we have to sacrifice things like... a bath or roast dinner (laughs)
Laurel: I work, me and Danny work and it's quite hard to balance with the band because it has to be a job that you can leave in a minute's notice because the band's more important, so juggling it's a bit hard, but we have permanent residences and, food (laughs) but it's quite hard to juggle.

So far you're in it completely for the art side, which is really, really admirable... but how much fun did you have in France? (note: They supported Peter Bjorn and John and Local Natives in their French leg of the tour in October 2009)

A lot! It was amazing! Absolutely amazing! They look after you over there, so well! Like... they feed you and give a warm room and a settee... doesn't sound like much but it's a lot when you're on tour!

Four days it was, it was really good, and every gig was pretty busy, and French crowds are really lovely, they were really nice to us, and the bands were nice to us as well, we got along pretty well with peter Bjorn and John and Local Natives.... they are really good, really nice guys, we played one show with them and the rest with peter Bjorn and John, and they were lllovely.

Talking about other bands, you seem to be well connected in the London underground music scene, Emmy the Great, Golden Silvers; I was wondering, does this connection ever become a creative/artistic one as well?

I guess in certain ways, because we still see most of these people which we originally met through touring with them and then became friends with them, and then after the tour finished we still see quite a lot of them, so yeah, I guess, as you do with all your friends really, you show them your work to sort of see their opinion... I mean, not massively, it's not at the point where we collaborate or anything like that...

Are you (Peter) the main songwriter, are you just writing by yourself or do you share writing duties?

Peter: Yeah, I often start the song and then we basically turn it into what it is through rehearsing, and we put things into the song and then it kind of grows into the next level of song writing instead of me just playing it on an acoustic guitar... and music change in a band, cause before I was writing just on my own and the result was really different.

How much do external things influence your music? I am particularly thinking about the "You Forget So Easily EP" that was produced by Stephen Street...

[Working with him] was wicked! It was really good! He actually approached us, we played in a couple of gigs with Peter Doherty, and he was playing guitar for him on that tour, and the he came up to us after the gig and yeah, got in touch with us, got our email addresses and then it kinda happened from there. So that was really nice, and working with him was great cause he's really, really professional, so it kinda makes you work harder, I think, he's not really strict or anything like that, but he's really professional and he kinda keeps you on board. Instead of getting away, trying other things and then everything start to slightly go off... in tangents, but yeah, he was really good, he kept us on our toes, it was fun.

Do you think he brought something specific to your sound?

Well he was constantly offering sort of... alternatives to what we had done, and we tried them, and often what he suggested, just little things in the songs, just things that kinda made sense in the end when we tried and they seemed to work really well. That was really cool, having someone to give a kind of neutral, different perspective on something that we were already finding ourselves too familiar with, by the time we go to the studio we know the songs so well we kinda get locked into how we want them to be and then if someone else come and listen to them fresh they can see other things you wouldn't necessarily see, and he was really good at that.

You had a VIP producer and you also seem to have some VIP fans from what I've heard...

Really?

Well yeah, Steve Lamacq, the people at NME radio... and you seem to much cooler than I expected...

(laughs) What did you think we would be like?

Well I don't want to say low profile, because it would seem like you're overdoing it now, which is not, but it seems like you are a little bit less introvert than you give the idea to be. I mean before today, I barely knew how you looked, for example, 'cause there seems to be no pictures of you out there, it's all just about the music, even the covers of your EPs - it's pictures unrelated to you, which is unusual. New bands usually want to get their faces out there, to be seen, but it was the opposite thing with you, and I think we had to wait for the [You Forget So Easily] video to sort of see you... so, what about the cover of your latest EP?

As far as our band photos go I think none of us really enjoys particularly that kind of thing that's probably why we don't have thousands of pictures, posing for the camera, because, I for one (Peter) don't really like that kind of thing, I know that you have to get used to that kind of thing but we sort of kept the photos down to a minimum, we're really just done one photo shoot in a year and a half and that was with a friend so...(Lauren) but the cover of the EP was just a friend of mine... and I just really like the picture, at the time, while we were recording, I saw the picture and I just kinda felt hooked to that cause... it's a great picture!

The thing about not being really fond of pictures links to one of the very few quotes I found about you - when asked 'why would people go to the top of a skyscraper just to look down on the ground again with binoculars?', you said something like 'So they can't see you looking at them', and I thought that was such a curious thing to hear from a band, because when you're a musician it usually goes the other way around so you are looked at by people you don't know and you don't see. How do you deal with that?

I don't know how much we’ve had to experience that yet, we're not really that big..

Give it time...

Yeah I don't think we're really that popular to be honest, not big enough to have to worry about that... it's nice to think that people that we don't know somewhere they got an EP, they listen to, they listen to our music, that's really nice, that's brilliant! So it's.... people... they never get to know you until they meet you so it's not really... it does not feel like an invasion...I think we'll be alright. I don't think any of us are particularly narcissistic, we're not in a band for the band's photos, and for people to know who we are necessarily, we're in it more because we still enjoy making music...

The only thing you did really image-wise is the video for You Forget so Easily. Is that your first video? How was the whole shooting experience? Did you take part in the creative process behind that?

Yeah it's the first one we've ever done, first video, and it was really cool. It was really amazing, basically we got there, we were shooting in one of the people's back garden, and we got there at 10am, and they'd been there since 7am, setting up these amazing different sets in the garden, there were like 4 different ones, and they just put so much work into it I was really impressed of what they put into it, especially considering they were working for pretty much no money... yeah it was all borrowed favours and stuff like that but it was amazing how much kind of professional time they put into it and yeah, we are really really pleased, really happy and thankful for the people who did it, it was really cool...

It turned out great, it's a really lovely video. Okay, one last one and I'll let you go: what comes next?

Uhm... I think after this tour I'd quite like to concentrate on writing, recording... over Christmas, there's a lot of things that we haven't... We need more time to sort out rehearsals right, but we're kind of aiming towards an album I think...

(music from the stage starts)

Okay, I guess they're saying we're finished...

Micachu and The Shapes @ Scala, 15.10.09

(Originally published on GodIsInTheTVzine.co.uk

At first, I did not understand the appeal of such a hard indie act (hard to listen to sometimes, with all dissonances and noises for the sake of experiment more than music) could exert, and in doing so, I had totally underestimated the impact it had already.

I missed Micachu’s gig at The Great Escape back in May, but truth is, while she was playing, I had to keep the act I was interviewing, backstage at the Sallis Benney theatre, quiet and focused, cause all they wanted was to storm out of the dressing room to go and check Micachu's set out. That should have already told me something about the level of relevance she had, even among her peers already.

Then when I heard a friend talking about her next gig, for which she had been given the Scala to play, I admitted to myself I must have missed something interesting about this artist, and to make amends for that, I went to check Micachu's headline set on October 15th.

And I realised the importance she held the moment I saw that even Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee themselves fromRough Trade were there to see the gig, which is not necessarily obvious, believe me. I have seen quite a few gigs by Rough Trade acts, yet never had I been in the presence of such legends of the UK music industry before. But beside the relevant VIP crowd, The Scala was absolutely packed, and I believe pretty much sold out, not filled just with casual passers by, but with actual nearly-hardcore-fans, knowing the (few) words (or vocal sounds) to pretty much all the songs.
So, what does Mica exactly possess in order to exert this kind of fascination on people?

I am more a melody than an experimental person, so little did I understand just by listening, even though seeing her live kind of helped my perspective.

During the 45 minutes set, walking around the crowded Scala and keeping an eye on stage, and another on Mr Travis himself, it suddenly hit me that Micachu represents perfectly the ideal concept behind Rough Trade itself. As much as I have a deep love for some Rough Trade artists, I see how Micachu embodies the ideals which were the basics of egalitarianism (rarely have I see such a humble artist, and even rare for the headliner to willingly invite the support act to share the stage with her in the end), inclusivity, and leftfield vision (what Mica does with music is so radical that we might have to broaden the meaning and start using the term sound to apply to what she does).
During the very intense 45 minutes before hitting the curfew, Mica presented all her work from the album Jewellery but of course... such a night with such an act could not get to the end in a conventional way, could it? The encore became actually a pretty much improvised collaboration with support act The Silent, in the indie-electronic version, nearly 30-years later, of Temporary Secretary, originally by Paul McCartney. No wonder she got even the ever zen-like Mr Travis himself to dance to her groove.

Maybe here we’ve got musicians that can also be representative of a whole (and genuine) idealistic take on music. Mica actually trespassed the boundaries of the concept of music, but so far, I feel people are more than willing to be led through this experiment in sounds, if she's leading the way.

The Veronicas @ Koko, 24.09.09

(Originally published on GodIsInTheTVzine.co.uk

The first time I heard The Veronicas I suddenly thought Avril Lavigne had finally got a good voice and talent. It was last year, and they were still strangers to the UK, except for one very tiny scandal: they gave an interview to underground website Altsounds, which apparently was quite witty and much liked by all parties involved, except the record label (Warner Bros) who actually got the interview removed. As always, when you try to silence something, you'll just make it bigger, and that is how The Veronicas started to make me curious. I had almost forgotten about them till I heard the two Aussie twins were paying a visit to Koko in London, and I thought they were definitely the winning the bid for my night out on September 24th.

One song in I found myself in a pretty much sold out Koko, filled with devoted (and screaming) fans which were filling up all the floors of the century-old Camden theatre, mainly teenagers who apparently travelled all the way from other countries and were quite literally ‘touring’ with The Veronicas. I confess I haven't seen this kind of devotion-borderline-obsession from fans since the Take That’s golden days, and I was quite surprised to see the kind of effect Jess and Lisa could have on this crowd. Now at the second album mark in their home country Australia, these ladies do not officially have even one album out here in the UK, nor in any other European country - yet all 1,500 people knew the words of every song perfectly. From Untouched to the most unknown of B-sides Don’t Say Goodbye. Waiting around the backstage door for the Aussie twins well into the early hours of the morning I decided to sneak into the aftershow party instead. It was here I found out that maybe these ladies really do not deserve to be simply dismissed as a pop-duo act: they have a strong band feeling along with ‘The Boys’ who are also part of The Veronicas; the boys being Sherman, George and Vikk. And they still travel around the world accompanied by a very special personal assistant who is... Mrs Origliasso herself, mother to the pretty Aussie twins. This detail alone made me feel that all their effort to be taken seriously as a band, and the will to keep their feet on the ground without forgetting for one second who they are or where they come from, might deserve a chance more than just from screaming teenagers, but also from true music lovers.

Animal Kingdom @ The Lexington, 23.09.09

(Originally published on GodIsInTheTVzine.co.uk)

My first contact with Animal Kingdom was having their single in my hands. I didn't like the grey-ness of the cover much, so I discarded it without paying much attention. I also paid so little attention to them, that I might have called them ‘Animal Collective’ a couple of times, that was how much I really didn't care. Yeah, fine... the intro of Tin Man was catchy enough to grab my attention when it was on the radio, but other than that, I was blind. Big mistake.

Thankfully something happened a few weeks ago and I stumbled into this mellow piano-xylophone melody loop, which sounded just like the next best thing compared toSigur Rós or For a Minor Reflection. Bingo, here was another band worth listening to! The song playing was the usual closing number for Animal Kingdom's gigs, a beautiful piece of crafted music called Chalk Stars. I was lucky to catch them live twice when they were touring in support ofSilversun Pickups this summer, and now that they've embarked on their own tour I was impressed to see how many people from those gigs have grown to become their crowd. The Lexington, which they played on 23rd September, was filled with a crowd of people so involved and having such a great time I could not believe it was just a couple of months ago these four shy lads were sharing the stage with the likes of Snow Patrol.

So, who's behind Animal Kingdom? It's four Londoner lads (Richard Sauberlich, Hamish Crombie, Wayne Yardley and Geoff Lea), still young enough to clearly enjoy and be grateful for the fact that their job is playing their music. I was reading through their quotes and I love how it really transpires from every word, the fact that they still cannot believe it and that they are so unbelievably happy and so they give so much. It's so refreshing to see this kind of human enthusiasm, that is set to be eventually hidden by the mystical aura all musicians have to have in order be sold also as an attractive package to the public.

Richard is gifted with a voice that makes him the Neil Tennant of our generation (but don't say it too aloud when you get near him, a simply comparison with Mew might suffice and will definitely be better), although the style of Animal Kingdom goes nowhere near that direction. They're definitely the most melodic and pleasant to the ears of any edgy indie band around. They have so much potential to unveil and develop. I just hope it will actually be rightfully developed.

Animal Kingdom are actually so good I am not sure I want to endorse them, I wish I could keep them my secret so that they play only intimate gigs at the Lexington, because the intimate warm feeling is just what their music feels like.

The Veils live at Scala, London, 21.09.09

(originally published on GIITTV )

‘Playing the Scala kinda gives me what I want, or comes pretty close... Yeah’

Those are the improvised lyrics to the end of Sit down by the Fire that The Veils’ Finn Andrews gifted the crowd gathered at the Scala with on Monday 21st of September with. The same Finn Andrews that only a few months ago would not speak a word without chords backing it up, having me believing he was too modest for a crowd already following him with moon eyes at a sold out Dingwalls in Camden last April.

Soulful is the first adjective that comes to mind when I take on the incredible task of defining the experience of seeing The Veils performing live. Soulful in an authentic and honest way that makes you actually feel like it's too much, and you're too invasive just by witnessing them on stage as they throw around so much truth and emotion, completely undiluted, and still authentic even if it is coming from a stage.

I have a very deep appreciation of The Veils, but my love for them never blinds me to their limits and faults, it merely allows me to justify them. But they were there and were the constant subject of talks during the times I encountered frontman Finn Andrews. The last discussion we had was about confidence on stage, and my last words about The Veils live had that in mind: the people in the stalls used to look at Andrews as if he were some kind of deity, as if he could've snapped his fingers and the adoring crowd would do anything. Yet (and this is what I find hard to believe) he did not have this awareness. He once confessed to me that it wasn't out of humbleness but out of fear that he was not stepping out of the song’s performance. He used to just play his songs, but with such deep intensity and passion as to make him as beautiful as to seem unreachable - like a piece of art hanging on a wall.

He was playing his music then he disappeared, leaving the crowd pleased but craving more, a yearning that was sending sparks flying, but was not igniting fireworks.
I don't know exactly what happened during the last four months, but I left The Veils as a shy band, exiting a pub they had just played in Brighton. Now, after touring the US, they've come back to London as absolute rock stars!
Anything I might have said about Finn Andrews' lack of interaction with the public was literally wiped away: he came to London to own his crowd and it was his because of their devotion towards him but also because of the grip he exerted on them!

Somewhere along the dusty roads and travel lodges on the other side of the ocean, something must have happened for him to catch the epiphany that people are actually there worshiping him and his talent. He grew past the absolute unnatural (for a rockstar, as much as for a lovely person) nervousness and still being the most loveable and nice of singers around nowadays. He did not let it grow into arrogance as most musicians tend to do, but six years, three albums and the development of an amazing talent for music later, and he honed that humbleness into confidence. After all, his crowd, his public, his disciples have shown him that he deserves to be on a stage, repeatedly. He discovered a way to turn his shyness into self-aware, ironic speeches between songs, his insecurities on stage into precious pauses where he finally acknowledges the London crowd as friends, not judges. Playing the Scala, The Veils gave back energy to the crowd in the same form they received it.

After facing yet another band member departure (new drummer Reife Burchell has been with the band in the last few months after the departure of Henning Dietz after some five years), and all the challenges that must be bringing along, they proved they can not only survive all the changes that can come to their way, but that they have the ability to turn those into self-improvement, growing and maturing into true artists and amazing performers in the process.

Being at the Scala to witness The Veils performance equaled joy: pure absolute undiluted joy, so much so that if I were Rough Trade, I'd set a special budget which covers holidays for the band over to the US if this is the shape they come back in! But more than anything, I'd forbid them to be true to their statement that this gig will be ‘the last time we play in London... at least for a little while’. You can't come back to us like these amazing artists, performers, charismatic stars all in one, just to ditch us afterwards! We are in need of your new-found way to reach to us and I honestly hope you won't give us time to forget about the amazing performance you delivered, before giving us the next one. And the next might be even better, if that is even possible! Because The Veils have always shown this tendency to top what was supposedly already their best. One thing’s for sure: they’ve found their way to convey this ability in a live environment as well now.