A few words from Fyfe

Guillemots on stage at RockNess

Family holidays in France usually involved in-car arguments about what music to listen to. But thankfully my sister came to the rescue one year when she produced two albums - ‘Through The Windowpane’ and ‘Red’ by Guillemots.

I don’t go on family holidays of the same vein anymore but if I were to I’m sure any family squabbling could be calmed by Guillemots’ latest album ‘Hello Land!’. The foursome is to release three other albums this year and the Norwegian countryside is their chosen recording site.

I was lucky to meet the mellow Fyfe Dangerfield this Summer at RockNess. And in case you were wondering, he was fashioning a slightly less lion-like mane than I’ve seen in the past!

Hello there there, Fyfe!

You’ve been known to use quite weird sounds in your music, like a typewriter. Are there any other sounds that you’d like to use in the future?

The sound of a golden eagle maybe, yeh.

Would you ever think about actually going out to catch one?

I wouldn’t capture the golden eagle but I’d capture the sound! There’s a lot of bird sound on our next record. We’re doing four records this year. On the summer one we’ve got quite a lot of birdsong already. There’s a bird called a yellow hammer and a fieldfare.

Why do you like birds so much?

I don’t know! My mum and dad got me in to them as a kid and I was stuck.

What’s your favourite bird?

Well, that’s difficult. I can maybe give you a top 20. I did see a bird called the black woodpecker in Norway that I’ve never seen before. It’s not my favourite bird but it’s quite exciting.

A black woodpecker!

What’s it like recording in Norway?

It’s just amazing. We’re hidden away from everything in the hills in our own little zone. It’s lovely. It’s gunna exhaust us this year but the Summer record’s sounding good.

Why did you choose four albums this year?

Well it started as “Let’s do something each season”. It began as an E.P. each season and then it turned into an album.

Is each one intended to reflect a season?

It’s not songs about the seasons but the sounds of them.

How many songs will you have on each album?

I thought it was gunna be eight on each but the Summer one’s gunna have ten I think. It will be somewhere between eight and ten on each one.

So you’re not struggling to get creative inspiration?

No, it’s not at all difficult to get things going. The hard part’s always finishing things.

The first of four albums this year

What would Guillemots be if it were a country?

Narnia I think.

Why?

It seems like quite an exciting place. I just haven’t found the wardrobe yet.

Are the Narnia chronicles your favourite books?

I don’t know. I read them as a kid. I should re-read them as an adult. I really liked them but I haven’t re-visited them yet.

What’s your favourite current book?

I really like Murakami, the Japanese writer. I’ve been reading a lot of his stuff. There’s one called ‘Kafka on the Shore’ and ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’…amazing. It’s the everyday world but there are always these sort of parallel worlds going on.

What do you think about tweeting?

I sort of tweet sporadically. My ex-girlfriend actually joined me on to it. I think she knew it’d be good, that I’d enjoy it but she just did it and then wrote to a couple of people pretending to be me! 

I think we have to be very careful with the way the world’s going with all that ‘cos your brain just gets swamped with shit. I’m not anti the Internet but I think you need to ration yourself. It’s dangerous otherwise.

What will the ratio of instrumental to vocal tracks on your new albums be like?

In a way I’m trying to do less vocal stuff but then it varies. I love both. I find it weird being known as a singer ‘cos I always wanted to do music but I never planned to be a singer. It was just that I wrote stuff and someone had to sing it. So I do try and make sure I do stuff that isn’t about my voice. And Arista is singing a lot more at the moment.

Do you think your fans prefer vocals to instrumentals?

I don’t know. You can’t pay too much attention thinking about what people want from you because you get lost. I don’t mean it in a shitty way, like “Fuck the audience”. I just mean I think people liked us in the first place ‘cos we were doing our own thing.

A few years after the first album was out I felt like I started listening too much to what people wanted us to do. It defeats the purpose of doing music in the first place, which is to make a pure expression of something. As long as we’re really genuinely enjoying what we’re doing I think that comes across and other people love it hopefully.

How does having members from four different parts of the world affect the band?

We’re a bunch of misfits and it helps us sound a bit different I guess because we didn’t grow up in the same culture. I think I purposely tried to find a completely odd selection of people ‘cos we fit in this strange way and we all connect with what we like in music.  

'Up On The Ride' from album 'Hello Land!'

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Interview with Fyfe Dangerfield by Sophie Ellis at RockNess Festival 2012, Saturday 9th June 2012.

Little Comets Come to Life

Robert, Michael & Matthew at RockNess Fest

I'm overjoyed to report that my favourite current band, Little Comets, are on the new Radox ad. This should boost their fan-base to a more deserving figure. It's no surprise that someone has finally caught on to their catchy, feel-good tunes and 'Dancing Song' represents Radox's 'Come to life' slogan brilliantly. Good on you, lads!

I caught up with the trio earlier this Summer for an interview and a quick game of 'Would you rather...?'

Radox's 'Come to life' ad feat. Little Comets

What’s your earliest memory of music?

Robert: My mum and dad took home videos of me and Micky when we were like 5 or 6 just being generally quite naughty and they put a soundtrack over them so instead of us speaking to each other it would be music that they liked and associated with that moment. So a track called ‘Beautiul Boy’ by John Lennon. I always get a swell of something when I listen to that song and I think it’s cos my dad associated that with me and Micky when we were little.

Why do you guys think the North East is producing such good music at the moment?

I don’t know. There are a lot of really good bands. We were listening to Mammal Club yesterday. That’s just fantastic music. How somebody hasn’t picked up on that I don’t know.

I think Newcastle is quite an isolated place and the North East is pretty isolated so it has a real sense of identity in its music. And I think we notice a lot of North East music has the same melodic intonations from, like, Northumbria folk music. So if you listen to Sting or Dire Straits or, more recently, Maximo Park, you can hear certain phrases. It’s not that people copy each other, it’s just inherent, it’s like from the land. You almost inherit it.

You (Robert) use lots of different parts of your mouth to song and that makes you guys sound really distinctive. How did you learn to use your voice like that?

Robert: I’ve just always sang how I’ve sang. I didn’t used to be a singer. I used to be just a bass player who did backing vocals and then the singer left. Cos we’d already written the songs and it was somebody else singing our songs. And then when he left, which was in sixth form, no one else wanted to sing so I did! And from singing really bad Bon Jovi covers when we were 14. The more you do it the more you learn your way of doing it.

Did you ever have any lessons?

Robert: I did, I went for a bit cos I was having trouble a few years ago looking after my voice. I’d be able to sing in the house but when I went on stage I found my throat constricted and I found it really difficult to hit certain notes. So I went to lessons for a few months and learnt loads of vocal exercises. And I think more than anything else it was learning how to breathe properly and relaxing and singing loads. I’m quite relaxed on stage now cos I know that I’m not overstretching it. I think as a band we’re a lot more relaxed. I think we’re a lot more comfortable.

If you could only eat one colour of food for the rest of your life what would it be?

Robert: Green. It’s good for you. It would be harsh to do, so if you did it you might as well do it for healthy reasons. Or you could blend food together to make it green. Yellow food and blue food.

If Little Comets were a Disney character what would you be?

Oh dear…I don’t do Disney. What’s Monsters Inc, is that Disney as well? One of them, the nice on in that, the big blue one.

Sully! Why?

Cos he’s big, fluffy and blue. Is there any more reason to like anything!

The boys released their first album last year

Who came up with the idea of hanging the percussion instruments on a rope above you while you play?

Robert: I did. It’s cos we figured that if we had to pick them up you’d panic and just drop them when you’re finished with them. So you could smash them. So it was more efficient to string them up because then we’d get more use out of them.

I saw you had a book of knots before playing…

Matthew: Ah no, Biffy Clyro’s guitar tech was on the side and he was like “Do you want a hand tying your knot, like?” And I was like “Oh no I’m fine like, I love me knots, I quite like me knots.” And he was like “You’ll like this” and just got a book of knots out. I was like “That’s brilliant, we should get married!”

'Jennifer' from May's EP Jennifer and other short stories

We’ve got a quick game of Would You Rather.

Ohh we love this game. We’ve tested this game to absolute destruction.

But we didn’t want to go too filthy (normally we probably would)… We’ll start with some easy ones…

Would you rather…be a golf club or a cricket bat?

Cricket bat.

Would you rather…only ever wear orange or black?

Black.

Would you rather…be a king or a ninja?

A ninja.

Would you rather…drink a shot of someone else’s urine or a pint of your own?

Robert: A pint of me own.

Michael: I think a shot of someone else’s, depends who.

Would you rather…constantly be crying or constantly be sneezing?

Unanimous: Sneezing. I quite like sneezing.

Would you rather…only be able to shout or to whisper?

Unanimous: Whisper.

What’s the best ‘Would you rather…?’ that you guys have come up with?

Matthew: Oh no…not a good idea to ask us that question!

Robert: The one I’d like is would you rather go to prison for life for a crime you didn’t commit or kill someone and get away with it?

In the dressing room backstage at RockNess

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Interview with Little Comets by Sophie Ellis at RockNess Festival, Sunday 10th June 2012.

Pulling at my heart-strings...

Duo Sam Sure (right) & Giacomo

Yep, that's right. He's a hottie. And I'm afraid I'm not referring to you this time, Giacomo. It's Sam who's looking unquestionably suave in the boys' new black & white video for 'I Need a Drink'. I heard (and loved) this number two years ago watching the BBC Introducing Stage at Reading Festival. They had a mad crowd that day and I've been waiting ever since to hear news that the lads have propelled their beats out of the studio to the masses. 

This hasn't happened (yet?) but I have a big soft spot for the boys. The release of their EP 'Low' on iTunes this week will hopefully send them onwards and upwards. There's a real sense of depth in their music and the interactive 360 degree video for 'Dark Inside' from earlier this year visualises the disjointed, heavy-hitting emotions in the song. Their new vid is a juxtaposition in its simplicity. But this is what makes it mesmerising. We're forced to really listen to the words being expelled from Sam's mouth and see the creases of expression in his face. Beautiful stuff.

Catchy & heartfelt - 'I Need a Drink'

In the Portacabin with Mystery Jets

The Bubble gets to grips with Mystery Jets backstage

After a short and sweet set on RockNess’s main stage we (Melissa and I) pace it like there’s no tomorrow backstage to snag Mystery Jets for a quick interview.

The boys released their fourth album Radlands in April with immediately gripping lyrics (I heard there’s a place where we go to die/ It’s a terribly overrated horse-shit shaped hole in the sky). Bassist Fish left the group just before its release to be replaced by Pete Cochrane but speaking to them in their ‘cosy’ portcabin leaves us with optimism for the band’s future!

What brought you all the way to Inverness? And RockNess is not an appropriate answer…

Oh, ok…Well we heard it was quite beautiful up here, heard there was this festival up here. And Nessy of course!

Have you ever seen a monster?

William (to Blaine): I have to look at one every day

What do you do when you get writer’s block?

Smash it with a sledgehammer. Break it down into smaller manageable chunks and deal with each one at a time.

If Mystery Jets were a colour what would it be?

A lighter shade of pale.

Where do you think the future of popular music is going?

If I knew that I’d be a very rich man. Maybe you should ask Simon Cowell.

Do you like Simon Cowell?

I’ve never met him…He tried to sign us once and we said no!

If you could go back to one era of time anywhere, where would it be?

Kapil: The 50s might be nice.  (To William) Oh you’re thinking much more prehistoric, like Stone Age. You wana ride on a brontosaurus.

William: Or maybe before dinosaurs and we’d just be nutrients…

But you wouldn’t have the brain to know what was going on!

Maybe that’s a good thing.

What do you think the meaning of life is…?

I’ve got a great quote for this, a Henry Miller quote. He’s a surrealist writer. His quote is ‘Obviously life has no meaning ‘cos it’s your job to give it a meaning’.

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Interview with Mystery Jets by Sophie Ellis & Melissa Layton at RockNess Festival, 8th June 2012.


Article previously seen on The Bubble: http://www.thebubble.org.uk/music/in-the-portacabin-with-mystery-jets

Shining the Limelight on Lucy Rose

At Dot To Dot Manchester in June

She’s cute. She’s blonde. She loves Downton Abbey. The teeny-framed Lucy Rose is finally getting the support she deserves. She’s currently on Radio 1’s B-list for new single ‘Lines’ and we’ll need a large abacus to count the number of festival stages she’ll have stepped foot on by the end of this Summer. I joined her on a promenade towards RockNess’s main stage where the Olympic torch was about to be waved and managed to ask her a few questions along the way…

You’ve done lots of singing and playing on YouTube, but how do you find performing on a much bigger stage?

It’s completely different. Luckily I’ve had some really good support, some nice support slots with Noah and the Whale and Bombay Bicycle Club. I think it’s really helped me and the band get used to not being too over-whelmed if we are playing a big stage. Whether it’s someone’s sitting room or a huge stage I’m just constantly a wreck of nerves.

What ‘s your favourite item of clothing?

Ooh…I just wear comfort clothing. A jumper or some trainers.

What’s your favourite Bombay Bicycle Club song?

Lights Out, Words Gone.

Favourite town to play in?

Rio de Janeiro. Never played it but I’d like to.

If you could be at one food van right now what would it be?

Ice cream van because I can’t have dairy before I sing and now I’ve finished so I’m on a dairy binge!

What other things do you need to do to keep your voice in shape?

Drink lots of water, sleep.

Favourite band ever?

Oh my god… Big question. Err Neil Young is probably my all time musician.

Who are you looking forward to seeing at RockNess purely in a physical sense?

Just ‘cos I fancy them you mean?! (laughs) Ooh God I don’t know who’s on the bill! I’ll go with the whole of Noah and The Whale, they're a fit band.

If you could dye your hair one colour what would it be?

 Oh my god! Black.

Why?

I think I would be funny. Imagine me with really black hair! If I just went complete goth. A bit like Kate Nash, she’s gone all goth hasn’t she!

Are you going to celebrate the Olympics in any way?

I’m not a big partyer myself but I’m guna embrace it as much as I can and be proud. 

Here's Lucy Rose's single form earlier this year, Red Face. 

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Interview with Lucy Rose at RockNess Festival by Sophie Ellis on Saturday 9th June 2012. 

Photography by Sophie Ellis at Dot To Dot Manchester on Monday 4th June 2012.

Interview Time with the Talented Seye

Seye supporting Bastille at New Slang

Tonight will be a good night, I’m thinking as I slurp on the first of four Sex on the Beach cocktails at New Slang in Kingston. The DJ is playing some truly refreshing tunes - I head to a speaker to Shazam one I’m especially keen on. I feel a little put-out when the blue-tinted tablet screen staring up at me informs me ‘a match couldn’t be found’. But to my delight the music I sought to note down is coming from the fingers and lips of 24-year-old Seye (pronounced Cher). 

He’s playing stripped down versions of his afro-pop songs and the few who have turned up this early on are loving up his silky smooth voice and kittenish demeanour. A highlight of his set is a cover of Bombay Bicycle Club’s ‘Shuffle’ – he’s really made it his own. I catch up with him afterwards…

You played a little bit of Diamonds On The Souls Of Her Shoes (Paul Simon). You seem to be slightly influenced by him?

I’m a massive, massive fan. I’m half Nigerian, half Kenyan but I’ve been raised in a lot of places. I’m mainly British, I’ve lived here the most so I’ve got my English pop influences and also American pop culture influences. But I still have the African influences as well and Graceland is one of my top five albums of all time so he’s instilled in me and my fingers. I love the high life guitar stuff and the way he writes. My song Two Hours definitely harps back to that.

What about your vocal? In parts it seems to reflect what Paul Simon does. How did you learn to sing?

At home. I’m the youngest of six kids. And my whole family is Christian so we grew up singing songs at home all the time, anything Christian. But we’d also perform at the local church, all eight of us with my mum and dad like a sort of Von Trap family.

Have you had a musical education?

I played the flute for a bit from Year 6 ‘til about Year 9 but then I discovered the guitar and I was like "Yeh, See ya later!" I taught myself. I was always singing in all the choirs at school and was in the music department all the time. I did Music GCSE but I didn’t do it at A Level or at university. I didn’t go to university.

What have you done since school?

I finished high school at 18. Came back here. My brother Benga is a bass player and he’s in a band called Metronomy. I was on a gap year. I told my folks I was guna go to uni but I wasn’t really intending to. I was trying to wangle my way in so I was just sleeping on his couch and he was playing bass for a guy called Jeremy Warmsley who’s now one half of Summer Camp. He was like "Dude, I can’t do this tour, have a crack – you need to do something! Play and see if you can do it." So I picked up the bass and I ended up playing with him for a while and that snowballed into sessioning with loads of people.

The biggest person who I worked with for the longest time was a girl called Paloma Faith. I was with her for like four years. I love her. I left her when I started doing my stuff.

When did you decide that you wanted to do your own thing?

I’d always wanted to but I didn’t know how to do it. I was happy playing music to make money but it took a while and eventually I met the chap who’s managing me now, a guy called Will Gresford. It’s his management company, Triptik Management. We just reconnected. He actually played in a band I played in a while ago and he found me on YouTube. I did a Michael Buble cover of something and he was like "I need to get back in contact with this kid".

Where do you get your style from?

I’ve always liked to do something unusual. Not in a (puts on American accent) "I’m just so weiiird, Oh my god I’m so alternative" way. But it sort of irks me when I see kids dressed like manikins in TopMan. I love TopMan, it’s one of my favourite shops in the world but I just think everybody has their own personality. Everybody should not be afraid to pick and choose the stuff that they like. Even if it’s like “Ooh, I really like that pink wig.” Wear the pink wig!

Would you ever wear drag?

Yeh.

Have you ever worn drag?

No I don’t think so. I’ve worn make up. Face makeup, eyes, eye-lashes… It was cool. It was at a weird Paloma show that we did in the Black Gardenia. Randomly she knows loads of drag artists and we were just messing about.

One of your songs is about Beyonce and Rihanna. Who’s your all-time favourite celebrity babe?

Katy Perry. Big time. I don’t care about the music, I just fancy her, man!

So if you could say anything to Russell Brand what would it be?

Two things – (a) You’re an idiot and (b) Thank You.  It’s open season again!

I see you have a tattoo behind your left ear…­

It’s Paloma Faith’s artwork dove. It’s a homage cos that was my live music education. She’s got three big doves on her back.

Here's Seye's video of Mexicana Bounce. Digging it. 

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Interview with Seye on Thursday 5th July, 2012 by Sophie Ellis. Photography by Sophie Ellis. 

RockNess Review

Reporting for The Bubble at RockNess

Being someone who gets queasy from travelling, I am not looking forward to the next five hours. Especially when the train guard at Durham Station glances at my ticket saying, “Another one with a long journey ahead”… But once aboard the carriage, the lush green fields and glistening sea I whizz past pleasantly surprise me.

I chat my way through most of the ride with my two best buds and wind up at Inverness in north Scotland at 8pm. The town centre is super-cute and the river that weaves through it is stunning. We check in to a dainty little B&B and after a good night’s sleep (and a quick booze trip to Tesco) we hop in a taxi to the festival site.

Once there, I’m amazed to be pitching my tent a two minute dawdle from a view of Loch Ness, surrounded by mountains. It might be foggy but this is marvellous. The afternoon draws on and I’m gallivanting around the festival site. I wander past a huge inflatable church where I’m greeted by a hyper middle-aged nutter. She invites me to get married in full bridal threads (at a price). I decline but six men dressed as monkeys are gathered at a nearby picnic bench awaiting entry to the disco-charged place of worship.

Onwards I potter and I’m seeing blindfolded space-hopping competitions hosted by twenty-somethings in pink boiler suits. “I only want to see you fanny bashing that space hopper” the lass with the fluorescent mic exclaims. Perhaps placed strategically nearby in case of Tigger-type injuries is a Welfare tent. Free condoms, tea, drug advice and even beds to nap on are available inside this haven. I bear this in mind and head off to catch some music.

­Realising it’s two minutes from Mystery Jets’ slot on main stage I hurry over and manage to get a comfy spot close to the front. The bass is so powerful it makes my nose vibrate. They play a mix of old and new songs and I catch up with them afterwards in their dressing room. The boys tell me they’d be “a lighter shade of pale” if they were a colour and when they get writer’s block they “smash it with a sledge hammer”.

Mystery Jets DJ Set

I spend the rest of my day at the Red Bull Studios Live festival stage, where DJ sets from Mystery Jets, Hudson Mohawk, Friendly Fires and Kobi Onyame (amongst others) will take place over the weekend. Carefree and cocktail in hand, I dance the afternoon away with my chums. Passers-by are beckoned in by feel-good remixes of numbers like Outkast’s ‘Hey Ya’ as well as gritty hip-hop mixes and drum & bass. I catch Mumford & Sons on the main stage, head back to my tent and nod off feeling content.

I’m awoken in the early hours, heart racing, by a clamour at the foyer of my tent followed by a ‘Sorry’ in a thick Scottish accent. A minute later the chap, who's clearly had one too many, is struggling to eject his bottom from my now crumpled porch. The next morning I wake to find that Loch Ness has effectively leaked into our dwelling. I double-take and the puddles are a pinkish red… The Skittles vodka I carefully concocted two days ago has seeped onto my mate’s bag. The poor thing is so drenched it’s paralytic! But it’s all in the festival spirit and after a swift cleanse of the tent we head off to the GoldenVoice Arena.

Comedian Daniel Sloss performs his usual spiel about being bad in bed and is followed by the man we’ve all been waiting for: Tim Minchin. I’m right at the front and his devilish eyes twinkle in the darkness. As he spits out his lyrics and pounds his right leg up and down we are gobsmacked by his talent. He’s seemingly smug with himself when he conducts the crowd to repeat the phrase ‘moose semen’ after him. “Ed f****** Sheeran didn’t say f****** moose semen did he!?” Minchin bellows. Fittingly he goes on to sing Prejudice, his slapstick tune about anti-gingerism. By the end of his set we’re full of cheer.

The adorable Fyfe Dangerfield from Guillemots

Guillemots are next on my to-see list and Fyfe Dangerfield’s singing is expressive as ever. The multi-national group play some wonderful tracks from new album Hello Land! - the first of four albums to be released this year. When Fyfe exits the stage he tells me they haven’t played on stage for a while so he’s not confident it went well but I assure him they went down a treat. We have a lovely conversation and it’s clear he’s a really nice guy. “You can’t pay too much attention to thinking about what people want from you ‘cos you get lost”, he tells me.

I’m now a very hungry caterpillar so I nosh some noodles on the hillside looking down at the main stage. DJ Fresh Live is playing – prime background music for a chilled pit stop. A cover of Coldplay’s ‘Paradise’ wildly stimulates the crowd. As darkness falls, a sea of glow-in-the-dark mouse ears makes its way to the main stage. Deadmau5 appears on a tall podium and for two hours he orchestrates an explosive rave.

Northeast-bred boys Little Comets

Sunday morning, and the final day of RockNess has arrived to my dismay. Little Comets are on main stage and they really impress the fans and first-time listeners with their upbeat indie ear-pleasers like One Night In October and Joanna. “We’re guna play quite a soft sad song (Violence Is Out Tonight) now but it’s Sunday afternoon so it should work” lead singer Robert utters. It’s beautiful and gets a big thumbs up from me for its catchy beat. Today is already a winner as far as I’m concerned.

I lead my mates to see Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. The laid back yet electrifying feel to Orlando Higginbottom’s dance music is killer. We’re in a trance, helped by the flickering strobe lights and on-stage robotic dancers. And that’s not the only dancing of the day – we find ourselves grooving to a different genre of music with Chic feat. Nile Rodgers on main stage. “Do you feel like freaking out?” we’re asked. Yes we do. The disco legends really get us going with big hits Le Freak, Good Times and Everybody Dance. This is the best live performance I’ve ever seen and I’m sure most other on-lookers are thinking the same.

I’m wowed by the weekend.


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Article previously seen on The Bubble http://www.thebubble.org.uk/music/rockness-festival