|
For people who
haven't heard your music how would you describe it?
It's American influenced 70's classic sound but with a modern
edge to it, we love bands like Air, Beck and the super Furry
Animals so we are not a retro kind of band we try to bring
everything forward when we record, I think we are quite a
different sound, unlike most other things that are out at
the moment. The Coral and Electric Soft Parade are both great
bands and they are quite different and cool there is a lot
of the garage thing going on at the moment.
So how do you go about writing all your
material?
Well everyone kind of pieces bits and pieces together, a lot
of the time Connor comes in with the main idea and then we
all work on it for awhile so we all do our practicing together
and we just bash out ideas together, sometimes something can
come together really quickly but other times it could take
us a week or two, everyone gets very involved in every individual
part we put a lot of time into arranging the songs which is
really important. At the end of the day it's a group thing.
How did your record deal come about?
We were really lucky we sent out a couple of demos to some
small Irish record companies and one of the guys really liked
it but the others weren't too keen, but he called us up and
he said he would manage us and he looked after us and got
us recording a few songs and we sent some around, at first
we only got one or two calls but then with in about 3 weeks
we got a huge amount of calls and we were really lucky because
we were able to choose from some really huge record companies
so at the end of the day we went with Virgin. The MD signed
Air and he is really into our sound, I think it was just the
right deal for us, we were afforded big deals with big advances
but we just wanted to get with the right people and I think
that is more important than anything.
Who are your general influences?
I'd say The Beach Boys, Burt Bacharach Bob Dylan, Air, and
Beck.
Have you seen Beck live?
No I haven't I would really like to though he is actually
going to play a gig here soon but I don't think we are still
going to be here when he comes. His producer is actually doing
our album with us Tony Hoffer.
Have you any thoughts on a name for the
album?
We haven't thought of a title yet, we thought we would get
some more inspiration when we were out here recording it but
it still hasn't come to us yet! I think it will be out late
spring early summer which will be a great time because it
has a lot of summery tracks and sunny references hopefully
it will go down well.
What bands are you listening to at the
moment?
At the moment I have been listening to a lot of the Carpenters,
The Smiths and Todd Rundgren he is really good it's kind of
70's a little like Bread. There is a cool record shop down
the road from where we are staying so we have been going down
there buying lots of stuff, It's hard keeping your money in
your pocket when you go into a record shop.
You have a set of UK gigs lined up what
can people expect from your live shows?
The live show is pretty cool it's a lot more raw than what
we have on record and we all do backing vocals, it's pretty
energetic it can be very intimate as well if we get the right
kind of venue because we have some good slower songs that
kind of takes people in. It should be good fun we haven't
played a huge amount of gigs we have never been on tour so
we are really looking forward to it. It's going to be great
playing to people who might have heard one or two songs and
they can get in to it.
If you could be joined on stage with
anyone at your next gig who would it be?
I'd say maybe Brian Wilson or Lee Von helm he is the drummer
from The Band he has the most amazing voice you have to listen
to their first album called The Band he is unbelievable!
Contactmusic.com has an area for unsigned
musicians where they can put their music, what advise would
you give them as musicians starting out?
I think one thing we always did was just concentrate on practicing
we never did any gigs, we only started playing live when we
started to get interest from people, but just thinking about
the songs working out the arrangements and at the end of the
day if you get that right you will get a few calls and people
will come to hear you.
www.thethrills.com
www.the-raft.com
|
