Munich / Ampere, Muffatwerk / March 20, 2016
So you guys are finally back in Germany! Tonight’s the last date of the tour, how has it been?
Yeah this is the last show of the European tour, but it’s been great! We had so much fun. We’ve only been to Berlin and Hamburg before, so it’s really nice to see some other cities in Germany too, and meet some new faces of course. Munich seems to be great! Very bavarian. I like it.
You just released your debut album – can you tell us a bit about it?
Yeah sure. Well, we’ve been a band for 5 or 6 years, so the album is basically about us being friends for the last 5 years, how things have changed… we were writing in a tiny room and now we’re touring the world.
All the songs are like snapshots of the journey we’ve been on through those 5 years. Obviously our music sounds mostly positive, but there are also some darker parts on the album when it was about some personal issues and stuff. The album is full of different feelings and emotions.
But we’re so happy with how it’s come out. Cause it’s a really true reflection of how we are as people.
Have you got a favourite track on the album?
My personal favourite is probably ‘Lions’. It’s my favourite to play live as well.
You worked a lot with Fraster T Smith on the album, right? Did you decide to write with him in specific or did it kinda just happen?
No it wasn’t really planned, but he is like a friend of a friend, and basically we just got together and yeah… He was really interesed in working with us and me and Liam wanted to write something that was slightly different from the stuff we already had on the album. So we decided to work with him.
And we loved what he has done in the past. We listen to a lot of differnt genres and he’s worked with so many different artists, like Kano, but also people like Adele.
He’s great, and he is also an awesome guy. As soon as we worked with him we clicked immediately and decided to work with him again, quite a few more times. He’s a really really nice guy.
What has been your favourite moment of your career so far?
Playing Glastonbury. We played in the afternoon on the John Peel Stage, which is one of the biggest stages, so we played in front of like 8.000 people. I grew up in Bristol, which is just kinda down the road. So it was just mindblowing, playing in front of so many people so close to home.
That was absolutely incredible, definitely my highlight.
But releasing the album as well. Your first album always takes so long to write because it’s your first and you want it to be great. So releasing kind of everything you’ve worked on so far was also a really big moment.
Would you guys say you’re more of a studio or more of a live band?
I feel like we sound slightly more heavy and more like rock music than pop at our live shows. But I think we are pretty much both. We love both.
We write pop music, so on record we wanna sound polished and huge and epic.
But I guess it’s up to interpretation, weather you enjoy us more live or more on the record.
Harry Potter or Star Wars?
Oh that’s a tough one… Harry Potter!
Name 3 things you always have with you on tour.
It changes, depending on the seasons! But at the moment… definitely my laptop. Cause we’re watching lots of series when we’re stuck on the van for hours. Breaking Bad and that kinda stuff. So I guess my laptop is one of them. Then, always, booze. Pretty cliche, but yeah.
Oh and I always have to have my hair products with me! At the beginning of the tour I forgot that oil that I use – yes this is really embarrassing, I know – and we were in France and I was trying to find that oil that I usually use but they didn’t have it.
And I picked up this bottle, which I thought was completely in french, and it looked like the same thing, so I bought it and when I wanted to use it I saw it was like this creme for your hair, which is like a moisturizer for indian women for their hair… But actually it’s pretty amazing.
If you could live inside of a movie, which movie would you choose?
The Notebook, maybe? Anything with Ryan Gosling, I have kind of a man-crush on him.
What advice would you give to young artists who are just about to start with music?
Ever since we were in a band we have set ourselves little goals. We had like 3 songs written and we booked a gig. And then kinda had to rush together and get about 7 songs so we could play a 25 min set. So we always set ourselves little goals that were achievable and would push us. And I guess that’s a really good thing to do.
Keep going, keep working. You will hit so many blocks along the way but you will have to keep working and get through them, and you will always get through them if you just keep working hard.
So as long as you enjoy it, keep going.
Photo © Alina Polifka
