Goodnight Lenin Interview

Goodnight Lenin

Birmingham band GOODNIGHT LENIN make a welcome return in their home city this weekend with a headline show at the Hare & Hounds. With a new single, EP and their debut album in the pipeline, frontman John Fell tells Ivy Photiou why the time has come to show what they are really about.

“We were going out on the road ourselves and it was slowly spreading around the country, but to go on tour with someone like Beth [Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny] and performing in front of 400 people just after her album release and appearance on the Jools Holland show was an amazing expe- rience,” says frontman John Fell, reflecting on their numerous musical highlights from the past couple of years. “We did Moseley Folk festival in 2010, so going back this year to hopefully play on the main stage is a great pleasure, especially at an event like that.”

Squeezed into their bustling and seemingly never-ending touring schedule is an exclusive, one night only gig at the Hare & Hounds especially for their hometown fans. As Birmingham’s music scene flourishes with national acclaim greeting the likes of Peace, Swim Deep and Troumaca, John insists coming back to perform in Birmingham is more exciting than ever.

“It’s the most enjoyable thing,” he says. “We don’t play so often in Birmingham and we’ve done it on the basis of making sure each show is special, such as playing at the cathedrals and churches at Christmas [Goodnight Lenin performed sell-out shows at St Paul’s Church in 2010 and Birmingham Cathedral in 2011]. It’s great that Birmingham has these bands with different sounds and when you throw us into the mix as well it shows that there’s diversity — which is what this city is all about.”

Even between all the touring and EP releases, John takes great pride in revealing that the long talk of a debut Goodnight Lenin album is finally true, which thankfully seems to be just in the nick of time as he confesses fans were beginning to feel frustrated (“Which is why we chose to do the Hare & Hounds too, before we get shouted at!” he jokes).

“In October we’re releasing another single and video, December we’re releasing a winter type EP and between all that we’ll be recording our album which should be out in March next year. We’ve finally found the way we like to record now, based on a 1970s ‘playing live’ style. It will be a thicker American sound like Garfunkel and not really anything like our EPs. A lot of thought has gone into it so it will be interesting to see the reaction.”

For John, the full length album will also be a chance to carve out a breakaway sound all of their own, hopefully free from the lazy folk comparisons which have inevitably followed them, due in no small part to their emergence at the same time as the rise to stardom of modern folk sweethearts Mumford & Sons. Despite their own insistence on being more closely aligned with the likes of Elvis Perkins and classics such as Bob Dylan, John says their own album will be a chance to show what they are “all about.”

“Yeah, I think when a band is playing live and releasing the odd track, people aren’t going to get the full picture of what they’re all about. We ended up shooting ourselves in the foot by releasing the most Mumford & Sons-type songs. For some unknown reason we’ll listen to our music in the studio, agree on what we sound like and then end up not releasing it! But that’s exactly what the album is going to do. It will be a collection of songs that are exactly all about us and hopefully stop any more misleads.”

Their live shows, dashed with humour and plenty of between-song banter, and down- to-earth manner leave audiences relaxed and engaged and behind their fruitful success so far still lies an honest, earthly manner about Goodnight Lenin as they continue to set their standards high with admirable future goals, ensuring that more harmony-soaked, toe tapping, folk fun goodness can certainly be expected.

“The perception of us is quite strange sometimes; I think people think we’re a lot bigger than what we are,” John says. “Nothing but hard work goes into what we do with 14 to 15 hours a week outside work. We put a lot of effort into what we do. In terms of where we are now, I don’t think we’ve even started yet. We’ll always be trying to change and improve ourselves. Our goals next year are to mainly get the album out and just be happy with it, to play a sell-out show in Birmingham and hopefully push ourselves further into bigger festival slots with the help of the album. Just writing good music too.”

Pulled Apart By Horses Interview & Review

Left to right: Lee, James, Tom and Rob

 

‘Describe yourselves in three words.’ (Pause)...‘nearly, a, band’. Laughter erupts backstage of the HMV Institute as Pulled Apart By Horses take a dig at themselves and provide an answer that was expected the very least. Yet, these three simple words also say a lot about the new poster boys of rock and roll. They are grounded, playful, humble, witty, and entirely unaware of how awesome they truly are.

Over the years, Rock music has had its fair share of highs and lows. Right now, when you think of Rock, there aren’t many bands that fully embrace that authentic, raw, hardcore sound.  Ripping guitar riffs, gravitating, burdening choruses and ear shattering vocals, seem almost, none existent. That is of course, before the release of second album, Tough Love, as Pulled Apart By Horses accidentally found themselves labelled as the latest and coolest rock band to date. Greeted by firm handshakes and beaming smiles, I sit down with Tom, Rob and Lee to find out how they felt about their new tag.

The only thing that we’ve ever called ourselves is a rock band. There aren’t many of them around anymore so it’s almost like a responsibility to keep it going. We have the opportunity to do it so were just trying as hard as we can to keep it going. Edging our way into radio is also a big deal for us because you never hear rock music on stations anymore. For us, its weird that were the only rock band that gets played on Radio 1 at four in the afternoon. Few years ago there used to be loads of rock music playing. It definitely not dead, it just goes in different cycles.

Although Tough Love was the bands second album, it has been self- described as the album that felt most like their first.

I think primarily that came from the writing of it. The first one was never written in the idea that we were ever going to record an album, we just did it to get together in a practice room to play a few shows and enjoy it. This time round it was properly thought about and we figured out what we wanted to do. We put a lot of time and effort it demos so we could figure out what it would sound like before we gave it to a producer. With the first album we were still experimenting with our gear and performing at any gig we could get our hands on. It was a short, snap document of who we were and the second one has given us a benchmark of finding out who we really are.

While the success of Tough Love seems to have given the band a more respected and appreciated status of skilful recording artists, the magic in this band will always lie within their live performances. Blood, sweat, vomiting, severe injuries and apparent fish frying, can be all expected when Pulled Apart By Horses are on tour. Their famous stage behaviour has undeniably created an out of control and reckless reputation that their fans so evidently adore and admire, but how enjoyable can injuries and throwing up really be? Tom quickly protests.

It’s not enjoyable at all! It’s really embarrassing! Before we play I always get really nervous and phsyc myself out and as soon as we start playing, the adrenaline buzz and excitement kicks in. I’ve just pushed it too hard in the past, jumped around too much to the point of no return but the crowd just cheers. We just completely loose ourselves when were playing.

Rob chips in. Whenever he does it though he goes in the corner and starts going- uh I’ve been sick all over the carpet!

So...it’s not on purpose then?

Doing stuff on purpose to get the crowd going doesn’t work. It’s all spontaneous, we don’t think about anything when were up there. We completely loose ourselves in the moment.

And the best part about touring?

We’re all loving the UK tour at the minute but we all love the European touring too. It’s a total adventure. There’s more you can get away with as well. We do go out and party a lot more when were in Europe. You need to seize the moment, it’s like a quest!

The interview breaks into more laughter as Tom babbles on about being on a real life quest and Rob jokes about not taking any clothes on tour, instead, just a suit of armour and a sword. After a few more giggles about whom the biggest prankster is (James likes to run around Hotels hiding his downstairs area with nothing but shaving foam. Tom likes to think of himself of the next Ashton Cutcher) and silly debates of who pulls the most girls, (Lee is a big hit with the slightly larger females), the not so professional interview draws to an end as it’s time for them to take to the stage in order to do what they’re known to do best.

Opening classic and all time favourite ‘I Punched a Lion In Throat’ tears the venue apart as the thrilled and over-excited fans begin to mosh wildly, lapping up the band’s powerful energy, enjoying every beating minute possible.

The energy persists right through to the very end, a very polite Tom exclaiming ‘Cheers!’ after every song and chatting to the audience as if each individual was an old pal. Without a doubt, there lies something very special and profoundly unique about Pulled Apart By Horses. They love what they do and never fail to do it at its very best, whether on a stage or in a recording studio. It pays off- taking into account they’re extremely loyal fan base and ever-growing fame. A band that adores rock music and delivers talented, real, feel-good, rock music the industry was so desperately in need of, and on that note; Pulled Apart By Horses are utterly amazing.

Album single, V.E.N.O.M. Tough Love Out Now

Errors Interview & Live Review

Left to right, Simon, Steev and James

Thanks to the extraordinary and downright awesome, third album, Have Some Faith in Magic, Errors have already had an incredible start to the New Year, even after a highly strenuous 2011. With the departure of their guitarist, Greg Paterson in October, followed by their studio roof collapsing months before the release date of their new track, it’s easily guessed that tensions ran high for the Scottish threesome.  I meet main-brain, Stephen ‘Steev’ Livingstone, to sit down and find out what it was really like for them behind closed doors.

It’s important to highlight that Have Some Faith in Magic is the start of a new beginning for Errors. The time it took them to get to this point is certainly disheartening, considering they formed an extensive eight years ago. Yet, it is also a great escalation from the viciously unbending comparisons of label bosses; Mogwai. Have Some Faith in Magic wasn’t exactly the album fans were waiting for, more so the album they had hoped would eventually come along. The album that would at last, collapse the boring and indolent shadow that unfairly loomed over the undervalued band. Did this cause frustration or relief? Steev happily explains.

‘To me, I’ve always thought we were different, right from the start. There are elements of Mogwai in our music, but there are also elements of loads of different things. For me, it just seemed like people were being lazy because they’d see the link between Rock Action began by Mogwai and us. The music we make has never seemed like it was a Mogwai album. It is good that people are hopefully starting to forget about that. It has been a slight burden, every review would begin with Mogwai, but they’ve helped us a lot so I don’t want to criticize them.’

The breakthrough of this appears to be the transformation of taking their musical image and talent more proficiently.  It’s Not Something But It’s Like Whatever and Come Down With Me, could be described as the two ‘experimental’ albums - music from a band still in the process of defining their own sound. And now- after developing from ‘post-electro’ to ‘pop-electro’, the birth of a braver, tighter and most significantly, distinguishing album is born.

Of course, along with this charismatic, new sound comes the string of overwhelming, kind words. In fact - it’s almost impossible to find a bad word to describe the album. The question was raised whether or not attention is paid towards these reviews. Are they essential, valued or merely brushed aside?

‘It’s really encouraging. We get sent every single review that ever gets written, even down to little regional things, so I see everything and I choose to read it all. I care about what people think about our music. I think it would be weird to be doing things and being ignorant about it. That would be foolish.’

The most enjoyable part of the album is the use of vocals- not that anyone is likely to sing along. Smartly created as part of the music, the Gregorian style chants and heavily distorted effects are beautifully synced with the floaty keyboards and complex guitar passages. Curiosity overcame of whether this was planned, or naturally generated.

‘We kind of made the decision before.’  Taking a thirsty gulp of his beer and pushing his trademark, oversized, round glasses up his nose, Steev carries on. ‘There are little tiny bits of vocals in the last record but its way in the background, you can barely hear them so we kind of toyed about with that. Until recently we hadn’t found a way of using vocals that we were happy with because we didn’t want to have prominent vocals. I don’t really like the idea of people being able to tell what the lyrics are. So yeah I guess we were waiting for that point where it felt right and it fell in place for this record.’

So can we expect actual lyrics in forthcoming albums or will their lyrics always be a part of the music? In his notable Glaswegian accent, Steev persists. ‘I can’t really say how that’s going to go at the moment because the next record won’t be until the next two years or so. I wouldn’t like to say we’ll never do that because originally, when we first started, I said in an interview we would never use vocals. You should never say never because who knows what’s going to happen. We’re always going to be trying something different...we’re never going to settle with doing one thing and that’s why every record has been different.’

The saddening departure of Greg had a shattering effect on the band as Steev reminisces. ‘He would always be the one on the bus making us laugh and now we’re dealing with him not being around.’ Instead of mopping around and missing a friend, Steev took it upon himself to seize control to ensure their music didn’t lose its quality. This led to Steev juggling between playing the keys and guitars, as well as performing vocals...a daunting prospect for any professional musician. ‘Yeah the touring thing has been difficult but he didn’t necessarily leave. It was more of a case of him having other commitments and not being able to be in a band as well. There are no hard feelings, he’s still a pal but we are slowly adjusting and its getting easier.’

Fortunately, their hard graft, endeavour and commitment in the previous year, has rewarded them massively. Have Some Faith in Magic is a liberating, explosion of organic sounds, blended perfectly together with swallowing vocals and ever-changing tempos, making a delicious cocktail of mind-blowing music that sounds even more captivating live. As they take to the stage, Steev is endlessly thankful towards the audience, maintaining his modesty and gratitude. They are truly fascinating to watch. The audience latch their eyes onto Simon, who is in a world of his own, drowning himself in the music and lapping up the invigorating atmosphere. James’ aggressive, drum playing is striking to say the least as he gives his absolute all with nothing but his bare hands, a pair of wooden drum sticks and whole load of hair whipping. As for Steev’s multi-tasking between a variety of instruments (without misplacing a single beat)- it can only be described as something astonishing.

The whole performance is dazzling and the audience leave mesmerized with more respect than ever before for Errors. From this point on, regardless of whatever else is thrown at them it’s clear to see that Errors, are in complete control and can no longer do any wrong.

Have Some Faith In Magic available now.

Cloud Control

Left to right: Heidi Lenffer, Ulrich Lenffer, Jeremy Kelshaw and Alistair Wright.

Regarding the fact that I was about to undertake my first professional interview- there wasn’t a second I felt nervous about chatting to the four piece, alternative rock band Cloud Control. Summing up my research, I quickly realised that they were, very simply, a laidback group of friends who enjoyed making and performing music.

Led into a tiny room with boring white walls and nothing other than a sofa, chair and table squeezed into the middle of it- it reminded me of a school teacher’s staff room, rather than a sex, drugs and rock and roll, dressing room hang out.

Greeted by friendly smiles and handshakes, Heidi, Ulrich and Alistair all introduced themselves with their strong Aussie accents. Heidi, wearing no make-up, untamed hair and dressed in a huge, woolly jumper, (bearing in mind they’d be on stage in less than an hour), Ulrich slouched in a chair, playing with his stereotypical, long, scruffy ‘drummer boy’ hair and Alistair; the band’s front man, minding his own buisiness, fiddling on his Apple Mac. My expectations were exactly as I imagined.

I was determined to find out what differentiated this band from the rest of the thousands out there. Did they have that star quality, or were they missing that extra something that is so important in music today?

Bliss Release, the band’s first and only album, released last year, scooped up the awards; ‘Best Independent Album’ and ‘Breakthrough Independent Artist’.  As bizarre as it may sound, growing up in the Blue Mountains seems to have heavily imprinted their work as you can’t help but feel each melody and lyric was created around a campfire, adding a real sense of honesty to the music, with strange and dark- yet peaceful implications.

The foursome take to the stage and instantly grasp the audience’s attention with Alistair’s playful humour. He tosses a coin into the crowd for ‘good luck’ but then jokes at their expense by saying, ‘look at all of them scrambling for money’, before coolly adding, ‘yeah...moneys alright’.

As soon as they begin, the audience begin to critically assess and analyse them as they listen hard and bob their heads to the fiery beats. Only then did I realise that it is the band’s vocals that set them apart from other pop contemporys. Alistair’s trippy, pitch- bending synths is matched flawlessly and beautifully to Heidi’s gentle, jingly and day-dreamy sounds. They are effortlessly cool as they loose themselves in their own music, feeding off the audience’s subtle yet positive energy.

Needless to say, there is unquestionably something magical about Cloud Control. Their humble and relaxed approach, ironically, makes them exciting. It’s pretty evident this band isn’t even close in showing us what their really made of, and when they do- I’m sure it will blow us all away.

Interview below

How are you and how are you enjoying your tour with The Drums?

All together: Good thanks, yeah it’s been great

How would you say the audience responses in England in comparison to Australia because I can imagine people know your music more in Australia?

Heidi: Yeah they do, I mean they analyse us a lot more. You won’t get a lot of hype but that’s fine because you know their enjoying it when their just listening

Ulrich: The worst a crowd can do is talk over you, so yeah, listening is real good

You formed through a band competition you won and it seems it all went from there. Can you tell me a little more about that? It seems like a massive step winning a small competition to becoming the recording artists you are today.

H: Well it was a five year step, so it took friggin ages. I don’t think we even knew we wanted to be a band for about three of those years, we all had different career interests so it took a long time to evolve into a full time pursue. We’ve been a slow developing band but I think that’s advantaged us in a lot of ways

You were all friends a long time before you became a band. Was it difficult adjusting from being just friends to sitting down together for hours recording music or was it an advantage?

U: Well you know what’s funny, Al had never met Jeremy before

Alistair: They made me just pick him up off the highway and i was like...who is this guy. I had no idea...but he was alright! (All laugh)

H: We definitely weren’t a unit of four friends. We all knew each other in different ways but not everyone was connected. Like Ulrich and Jeremy knew of each other but they weren’t friends. I didn’t really know Al...

U: He was just a little turd from school...

A: A little turd...(All laugh)

H: But yeah it took us a while to develop a friendship

The music on your album, Bliss Release sounds a lot like other Australian bands such as Little Red and The Holidays. It that something you were consciously going for?

A: Yeah totally. It’s just like anything, like if you see something and you really enjoy it and you like what it does to you, you try and re-create that in your own way

H: Mimicry is a great tool for song writing. It was really funny, when we all started writing we were all listening to Interpol and the first songs we wrote were a sounds cape to Interpol at the time. (laughs) but we’ve moved on from there...although Interpol is still a really great band

You’re playing at Field day in January and the NME awards in February. Any more shows or tours in the New Year?

A: Were doing some HMV show in February sometime.

H: In Birmingham!

A: Oh is it?

H: Yeah at the Electric Ballroom

U: Oh that will be awesome

A: Yeah that will be sweet, but other than that we haven’t got any tours planned because we’ll be writing our new album

So there will be a new album next year?

H: Yeah definitely. We’ll be spend the first three months writing and then really kill off the second album. Thats the goal right? Shoot for the stars!

And finally, what are your Christmas plans?

H: Awww, well Ulrich and I are going to Frankford! To spend some time at the Christmas markets with our parents

U: But Al’s leaving just before Christmas to go back to Australia and Jez is as well right.

H: Yeah Jez is leaving straight after this tour

U: Yeah so we’ll all meet up in Australia

Find out more about Cloud Control at http://www.cloudcontrolband.com/