Lauren's Interviews

You can find here my interviews with music artists for Soundofbrit.fr in English.

[chaplinsource]

Sound Of Brit: Interview with Tom Chaplin, the leader of Keane

[youreyesopenandyouknow]

Waiting for Tom to give a straight yes/no answer on whether Keane are coming back:

[laurensinterviews-blog]

Interview : Tom Chaplin

When did the idea to go solo came to you ?

I don’t really know. People were always asking, because the dynamic of Keane which is that Tim writes the songs and I sing them. People were  saying « Tom do you ever plan to do a solo record, with your own songs. » They’re asking that from the moment of our success, thirteen years ago, but Tim was so good at writing songs that this creative part of me, I pushed it down and I denied it for a long time but a creative part, it grows and it wants to be heard (laughs) and during the Keane best of, in 2013, I felt like I needed to do something different and I needed to step away, to give this part of me a voice, so I started around 2013-14.

Who worked on the new album with you? Did your friends from Keane helped?

Part of the process was stepping away from Keane, to do something that felt completely different. I did actually work on one song with Tim for a bit when I was trying to figure out who I wanted to produce the album. We did some really nice work on the song but, it didn’t seem right in the end to me, having Tim to produce my record. I didn’t really see much of the guys from Keane during that process but one of the really lovely things about a solo record was being able to work with so many new people and to see how other people write, produce, think, play their instruments and all of this stuff. I worked with probably ten different writers and ten different musicians during the course of producing the record from start to finish and I had a complete blast with all of them, it was great fun.

What was the reaction of the people around you when you decided to do the new album?

I think they were really happy and excited for me, particularly my wife. I think she saw that it was a process that was really engaged. The problem was, and I talked about it a lot that I started really fast andI wrote quite a few songs but my problem with drugs resurfaced and then just took over my entire life. Through 2014 I became more and more useless creatively, I destroyed myself, so I don’t think that by the end of that year anyone was worried about whether I was making in music, They’re just worried about wether or not I was gonna still be alive the next time they saw me. Obviously last year was an entirely different year, I got myself well and, all this music came flying out of me and I think people close to me were really happy for me which is lovely.

When did you decide it was the right time to go back into the studios?

The last time I used drugs was at the very beginning of 2015, so January of last year. For the few months after that I wasn’t really interested in anything. I knew I couldn’t go back to my bad old ways, neither if that was gonna work for me again, not that it ever worked for me but I thought it might. I was left in this weird kind of no man’s land where I felt like I knew I couldn’t go back to what I’d been doing just taking drugs, so I looked to the world and I didn’t feel very connected to it. Chemically I destroyed myself and it’s very hard, addicts do find it hard to enjoy things again after a long period of using. It took a while for me to start to re-engage with making music. It’s fun you should mention going back in the studio I remember, the guy who was mentoring me at the time and helping me through that period. I said to him, I ‘m not interested in going back to the studio, I don’t care about music anymore and he said to me « just go into your studio, sit there for five minutes, play the guitar, play the piano, do something, see how it feels » I was like « yeah whatever I’ll try it. » and when I sat into the studio I remembered "this can be good, this is what I love. I’m actually kind of pragmatic about these things like keep going but once I did very quickly I was so energized, all that effort and energy that I put into having this massive drug habit that was part of my life, suddenly I was able to use that energy for something creative, positive and I was like « wow what do I do with this thing." It felt very exciting.

You recently gave an interview to the Telegraph, I was wondering, do you feel like when you speak about it, it helps you as much as writing song, in a therapy way? To talk to newspapers ? Because I felt like it was deep.

That’s true! People keep saying that to me and I don’t feel like it’s strange or peculiar but I know what you’re saying. People are like « wow that’s deeply personal. » But the thing is that, that’s the way I feel these days about life is that I have been much happier and I found life much more bearable since I opened up as a human being and shared my problems. I talked to my therapist in huge details about all of the really dark parts of my soul and the things that I’m ashamed about, and sad about, regrets things I’m guilty about, I talked about all that stuff and what I found was like once I talked about it instead of being like this concrete thing that was trapped inside just evaporated and I thought that’s really good, and I think that for a lot of us human beings we think that dealing with stuff by internalizing it, repressing it and shutting it away is the best way. I think personally that it isn’t, I think it’s better when you let it all out so I just done that in my interviews and i don’t care how people judge me. The thing I discovered is a lot of amazing feedback people said « I, one of my family  had mental health problems or suffered with addiction, been through a dark time and it was really lovely to hear how vulnerable and open you’re being with your record because it encouraged me, a friend or a loved one to do the same ». And to hear that was the best thing I could hope for. I just keep doing it.

You get all the gory details it’s me, it’s who I am, it’s what I’ve done, hiding that stuff has not helped me so I’m giving it a go, I’m giving the other way a go. The other thing about it is that I think in order to make anything creatively good, you have to be honest and I know that some people can leave that with just be the art itself. A songwriter might just writes incredible honest and personal songs and leave it there but I wanted to go the next step and give the record a context so people understood why I’d written these songs and where I was coming from.

I was also wondering, if you end up again touring again with Keane, are you going to write more songs on your own?

I have no idea what the future holds in terms of Keane. It’s hard to imagine how it would continue the way it used to be which is obviously Tim writing the songs and me singing them. Because I'm just a different person now, I think I would want to be creatively involved. There are two sides for that I think on one hand I’m sure Tim would be quite into that as an idea. he was very nice about my record, he sent me lovely messages, it was really great. There is that possibility. There is a part of me that wonders if this is what I want to do now. I want to just be a solo artist. It could be that I just continue doing that. I have no idea how I’ll feel in 6 months or a year and I’d rather not trying second guess. Just let it be a surprise.

Are you playing any instrument on The Wave?

I did play some guitars, some keyboards, and I do a lot of singing as well, obviously not only my lead vocals, we wanted to… toward the end of the record there’s a lot of kind of gospel moments chorus moments I wanted to give the impression of lots of people singing the same thing, this is the idea of being kind of relational. A lot of the songs are about wanting to feel connected to other people so this idea of a chorus of people singing all at the same time, like a quire, or a congregation in a church I wanted that to find its way into the songs. So songs like « see it so clear », « the wave», « bring the rain » « hold on to our love ». They’re all songs that have that sens of a rousing congregation singing.

I did a lot of that myself, a lot of the laying of the voices, I would adopt a persona like I’m gonna be Marjorie sort of *sings in a high pitched voice* I tend to be different people and it was really fun. I let the guitar playing and the really difficult piano/keyboard playing to someone else, and drumming. They’re not my strong suit but I made a few little guest appearances on my own sounds.

[laurensinterviews-blog]

Soundofbrit interviewed the lovely TDCC before the release of their new album, Gameshow.

In Gameshow you get a higher pitched voice compared with Tourist History and Beacon. Did you have to work a lot on your voice to do so or was it rather spontaneous ?

Alex : It was very natural. I have always been able to sing that way and I have always enjoyed singing that way. It never became a part of Two Door Cinema Club until this point. It was a very natural thing to do. I never thought about doing it before.

Ain't you worried that changing your musical direction might be a bad decision? This album meddles with funk disco, shameless guitar solos ... People even compared you to Scissor Sisters !

Kevin : *laughs* I think it's one of those things where people are gonna have an opinion no matter what we do, wether we do something that's different, wether we do something that's exactly the same. We don't make music to pander to other people in terms of what they want to hear. I think that is a very dangerous road to start going down. We have been a band together for almost ten years, so music that we wrote when we were sixteen or seventeen is understandably going to be over different sort of timbre than what we should be writing when we are twenty-six or twenty seven. It is one of the things that I enjoy about other bands or musicians, seeing a transition, a direction, that it doesn't feel like a stand still. I understand that people might think that but it's not a thing that bothers us. It's not going to make us change at least.

Sam : I think it was nice this time around to just try different things. I think it's important to keep it fresh and keep it exciting for everybody. And as he just said just have some good sounds.

When did you think it was time to record another LP ?

Sam : It wasn't really planned in terms of from whenever we started after Beacon. We took some time off after we finished the last campaign but we had no plans at all, no gigs booked, nothing. We had a break from the music and from each other, from this whole life to do other stuff so we had a break. We had about six months away from it at least and then we got back together and just chatted music and what we were into and then we started sharing ideas. From then it sort of became clear that everyone was keen to make an album and we probably started planning forward for this about last summer. From then I guess we went into recording in about January/February time so - pretty quickly once we decided to do it.

Does Gameshow feel like a new beginning ?

Sam : It feels fresh.

Alex : It feels different, new and it's exciting. It doesn't feel completely like a new beginning but it has reenergized all of us. We just feel better as a band.

How do you deal with the pressure of releasing a third album after such a long break ? Do you feel that you are ready for all the fuss that it brings ? (promo, tours etc...)

Kevin : The break makes it easier. We're pretty fighting fit  sort of thing, we're ready to go and we're excited to be here, to get the record out, promote it, play some shows..This is the best time, to do hit after a break, we're very engaged, and not too tired or jaded or anything yet.

Alex : We made all the mistakes last time, so we know how to do this right.

Sam : I think that it's great that we've done some summer festivals as well because it feels like we're not going in totally cold after that long. I think this time  maybe..., last year we started to book festivals for this summer and we weren't sure if people were gonna remember who we were. It was a really good summer, we had some great shows so I think that has made us feel very positive and very excited.

What were your main influences for Gameshow ?

Alex : The main influence was the time off. We had never really experienced life outside of the band before. We finished school and we went straight on tour and making records. There was a lot of life to discover and that's where the album came from. We wouldn't have been to make the album without that break.

Did you record it with a view of performing it on stage ?

Alex : The plan is always to perform live but this is the first album where we did not play anything before we made the record so the whole thing was made in the studio so we were able experiment a little more, because sometimes when you play songs live a lot before you're going to the studio they become settled and it's hard to change them but this time around we made it in the studio and then we learned, we're rehearsing next week and we're gonna go learn everything again.

Where did the idea for the Bad Decisions video came from, because it's very different from anything we've seen from you before ?

Alex : We worked with Thunderlips. They also directed the video for Are we ready. There are these wonderful, crazy, super creative guys from New Zealand.. The idea was very quick, I had a phone call with one of them, when we decided that we were going to release Bad Decisions. Immediately, he was like "why don't we put you guys in a computer game with levels." Then he had the idea to take different animators for each level and that's what happened and we just kind of went "okay, go and make it".

You didn't know what you're gonna see ?

Alex : We saw bits but it took a long time because there were all these different animators working, it's not like when you're shooting a video and you're there all day on set. We're not seated with the animators, we're just waiting. We had a lot of trust in the Thunderlips guys to put together a great video and they did.

Have you worked with them before ?

Alex : Not before this album.

Do you already know what the third single will be ?

Kevin : We think we know between a couple of songs. We've kind of highlighted what songs will be the the singles from the record and we're just kind of discussing with different people all over the world in what order we think should come in. It's a global thing. In every place it's different. You know sometimes in America they stay with one song for a lot longer. In France, in the UK and Germany the want to move way quicker. Once it's kinda done, the album's out or whatever we allow timing of singles, we allow other people to do their jobs in that sense.

Are you the only ones to decide which single is about to be released ?

Kevin : We definitely have a discussion. On everything we do, we have ultimate approval. We highly value the people we work with, and that is the reason why we work with them and not someone else. We have discussions, we understand that some people in the world know more things about certain areas of promoting an album that we do, we take the advice on board and ultimately make a decision.

What was the album from the last five years that left its biggest mark on you ?

Alex : Probably the last David Bowie record, Black Star, that was a phenomenal record.

It was even more phenomenal that he died on the next day.

Alex : It was written, there's a lot of seemingly kind of farewell messages on this record. It's quite a haunting record, beautiful.

It was even more phenomenal that he died on the next day.

Alex : It was written, there's a lot of seemingly kind of farewell messages on this record. It's quite a haunting record, beautiful.

Sam : I think the big one for me was Todd Terje’s record. The singles, a few years before I was very excited about it.

As the last song from Gameshow is called Je Viens de La, do you have a particular feeling about France ?

Alex : That came from a French Film called La Jetée, and there's a scene in that film where the guy travels back in time and he meets with the girl and he's trying to explain to her where he comes from and he kind d of point to nowhere and he says "Je viens de là." and I like that and I loved the film and that inspired that song really.

And you weren't keen on singing in French in it ?

Alex : I'm not good enough !

Sam : We love coming in France and the relationship we have with Kitsune previously and getting to come over to France and to Paris so early in sort of our band life was really special it's definitely sets us apart I feel, like most of other British bands ...They don't really get to do that, we definitely feel like we have lots of friends here and good relationships with the fans here.

Finally what was the craziest thing that happened to you on tour ?

Alex : We haven't been touring much this time around yet but ... One time we were driving in France to Lyon and we have a big tourbus and of the back of that is a big trailer, we were driving along, down the motorway and the trailer .. We were going near a 100 km an hour and the trailer came off, got past the bus down the motorway and then into somewhere off, with all our equipment in it.

Are you coming to Marseille or the south of France ?

Alex : Not at the moment, the dates we’ve been on for the European tour are all of them. There’s not going to be anymore of them. For now no, in the future maybe.

Kevin : we never stay away from France.

[laurensinterviews-blog]

French Version HERE. / March 2nd, 2016, Paris.

You’re back with a third album. Without putting away your lovely acoustic guitar, your last album Shangri La was more electric, rock and bluesy than your first one. Can you spot any difference between Shangri La and On My One ? I heard that it was hip hop sometimes, do you agree ?

Yes there are some hip hop elements on this new album. There some elements on this record that went on the previous ones too: there is a little bit of soul on this record, a little bit of hip hop and a little bit of dance music as well.

Is On My One going to be less electric?

Not really. The second album had a few electric guitars. There are a few songs that are more balanced, they’re not really electrified, it is a little bit more pop I’d say. There are guitars in all of them but maybe they’re lower in the mix than all that you know.

Everything went fast for you and now, you’re part of those British artists who are expected by the public although you’re only 22. Does that fact changed the way you’ve created the album? Does the fame scare you when you make one? Do you fear the album will not please once it’s released?

Of course. I worry about if the album is gonna do well. I’m wanna do this for the rest of my life, so you want to do well. You can be nervous to see how will it do it. But I also don’t make music to please everybody else, I started making music in the first place to for myself. If that’s what people relate to and they enjoy it that’s cool, but I think people forget sometimes that you’re not writing songs for them, you write them for yourself and people relate to it. Sometimes you write songs for people but, on my first record it was a lot about where I was from, my life, and people related to it, I wasn’t writing for anybody else then because I didn’t have any fans so I just continued doing that I guess.

So the fact that people are waiting for you doesn’t stresses you out too much…

You know, I don’t want to scare the fans that I already had. There is not a lot of contemporary music that I like at the moment but I hope that there is an artist that I’m not a fan of but the next album they make could be my favorite album of all time. I think that every album should be different, it should be something new and I would not be annoyed if the artist went to trying to do something different after that, it is just how I feel.

The album isn’t out yet but two tracks have already been shared : On my one and Gimme the love. Gimme the love surprised me in a good way as I wasn’t expecting such a drumbeat and brick song. Did you have that desire for this album to show that you aren’t only a folk songwriter as many people describe you like this ?

I was just experimenting, I wasn’t trying to prove a point or show off. I just wanted to try some different things for myself. With Gimme the Love I started with a hip hop kind of groove and kind of a break beat kind of and I had just written the song over the top of that. It’s just a different way of trying things and (there isn't another) song on the album that is like Gimme the Love I like to try to make the next song different from the next. The first album is pretty folk I guess, the second one not so much (there is more like a) 70s rock kind of folk vibes. The second one has kind of a few folk things on it I guess. Growing up I liked to listen to a lot of folk music myself, like Simon and Garfunkel or Donovan, that stuff is pretty cool.

Would you say that the third album is closer to the first one or to the second one ?

They’re all different from each other. I feel like album one and two are kind of the same album. This is chapter two now I think. That’s the way I like to see it.

The first album had these pleasant 60’s vibes about it. On the second album, the sound production was « cleaner », more current. How do you explain such a change?

I worked with different producers, I worked with Rubin on the second record. It’s Rick Rubin you know.I was happy to sit back and see how he wanted to record it, how he would like the songs to sound or be produced. It’s a good learning experience for me and an opportunity to do something different. For the first album I worked in different studios with different producers and for the second album I did it all in the same studio.

Did you decide to change producers ?

You know if Rubin wants to do an album with you it’s an opportunity you don’t pass up.

Do you write songs easily or is songwriting a lengthy process for you?

It depends. Some songs they take 5-10 minutes, some songs they take 5-10 months. Some take longer than others. Sometimes it can be natural, but sometimes you have to sit down and work quite hard on the songs.

How did you react to Bowie’s and Prince’s deaths ? Are they musicians who inspired you ?

I’m not really a huge fan of either, but I appreciate some of the songs that they have written. They are undeniably great. Everybody has to die at some point. It’s just the way it is.

You have announced many gigs for 2016, including prestigious ones such as T in the Park, Sziget or Glastonbury, and a date in Nottingham. How does it feel to play these venues ?

It’s a great experience, playing Glastonbury and clashing with Metallica. It’s something that I never thought would happen. When I play at home the crowd is always good, It could be a little bit stressful to try to see everybody afterwards family and stuff like that. T in the Park is always a good show. the audience is always up for a good time. They’re pretty wild, it’s pretty fun.

You released a live gig shot at the Royal Albert Hall with Michael Kiwanuka and Johnny Marr as guests. How was it, playing in such an historical venue?

The Albert Hall is a legendary venue. It was my first time. A lot of artists I love, like Jimmy Hendrix played it. It was amazing to play it and to have a footage of it. To play with Johnny Marr on stage and my friend Michael who is a good friend and I enjoyed playing with him. It was a great experience, a really fun time a fun time, something I definitely don’t want to forget, for sure.

Will you keep the same bandmates for the gigs to come?

Yes, but I have one additional member, a really cool keyboard player. He adds a little bit more of a dynamic because on the record we have horn sounds and string sounds, we felt that we needed something else, we needed (to step it up) to another level. So, same band, one extra person. He was a friend of a friend and, you know, when a friend says « I know a guy who can play the keyboard » it does really go very well and in this one occasion he was extremely good so, he is in the band.

So he is gonna tour with you the whole year ?

Yes we call him because sometimes he wander off (laughs).

Do you have any interest in the Brexit debate, if so are you for or against?

I think it would be good for us to stay in, but I think it would be interesting what would happen if we’d leave. If we left then we did really well, maybe all the other countries will be thinking « hmm you know, they’re doing very well, maybe we should leave too and then it just expand and the EU fall apart, which wouldn’t be good but it’s a tough one, you never know what’s gonna happen. They also say back home « if we did leave house prices would drop", which would be good for our own citizens and stuff like that. Most people I’ve spoken to want to stay in so I think we’re gonna end up staying in the EU. Nothing to do with music here but (laughs).

To finish on a different topic, how far do you think England will go for the European championship ...

Oh we’re gonna win!

Do you prefer Kane, Vardy or Rooney?

Rooney is England's top goal scorer, they’re very different players. They’re all English so I can’t really answer that question, I just hope that they play well and do us proud. You know as English we always say « we’re gonna win it, we’re gonna win it », and then we lose. I actually think that France will win it, believe it or not. They’ve got a very good midfield, very good team.

That’s funny because in France lots of people are supporting England!

Yes that’s because they just want us to lose! We have exciting players, but N'Golo Kante is a French guy, he plays with Jamie (Vardy) for Leicester he is an amazing player, he is French, he will be amazing in the Euro, he will be very good.

They should organize a huge match between you, Noel Gallagher, Sergio from Kasabian, that would be so cool, like a huge mess, Liam Gallagher in the middle.

It would be a huge mess! (laughs)

Are you excited about tomorrow? You’re playing a very small venue…

I’ve played there before, this tour is more of a press tour, we’re coming back. It’s just to keep the journalists excited, we just want people to hear the new stuff more than a real gig but we’ll see how it goes, if it the album goes well then we’ll probably play a bigger show later in the year. I like it here, it would be nice to keep coming here.

Have you ever played Taratata?

Yes four years ago. It seems smaller now, when you’re young, before it all starts going well it seems bigger. It’s pretty cool though.

It’s different playing on TV than playing in venues, with drunk people around...

Absolutely. Well we can do it here again!

No you can’t drink on TV… We have to sit for three hours.

You can’t leave ? What? they can’t make you stay! (laughs)

[laurensinterviews-blog]

Back in January, I got the opportunity to interview Jack and Blaine from Mystery Jets.

How did the session with the shoes go, and how did you guys ended up working together ?

Jack : The session went amazing, it’s the third one we do with the Shoes. Blaine wrote songs with them about a year or two ago…

Blaine : Over two years ago. Basically we were introduced by a mutual friend who is wicked. He made a video for us, and the Shoes spoke to him and said : « we want to work with some interesting vocalist on our new album » and he said « you should speak with Mystery Jets”, so the Shoes contacted me, they sent me some music and I really liked it. I wrote some vocals and said : « we’ll come out tomorrow and do it in the studio”. I came out and spent a crazy twelve hours. 

Then they played me some other music and I said « what’s that? » they said « it’s not on the album it’s just an idea that we have. » and I said « that sounds amazing, like Portishead. » and they said « oh we should try some of that » so in the space of two hours we wrote the lyrics, recorded the vocals and that was Submarine. That’s come out as a single and they made an amazing video. It’s just been a really great opportunity for me and Jack because we’ve been coming out, and performing live with them. It’s been really cool for us to reintroduce ourselves with France and with Paris. I’ve always loved Paris but I have never spent enough time there. We have been coming a lot this year so it’s really good. The last time we were here was the day of the attacks. We did a TV show called « Ce soir ou jamais », we came off air, we heard about the attacks and it was such an emotional time for France and we had a little impression of that, so that’s why it was so important for us to come back, it shows some sort of solidarity in people. It’s important that live music, and music in general prospers in this kind of times. For us it’s wonderful to be given the opportunity to come back and finish what we’ve started.

Jack : It had quite a heavy effect on us, actually. It’s good to be back.

Are you coming soon to play in Paris soon ?

Jack : I’m sure we will. I think we will find out the next month.

Have you ever played in Paris with Mystery Jets ?

Jack : No I haven’t yet. I’m excited !

Blaine : We’ve only played about 5 gigs yet.

Jack : The idea of coming to any city, especially when it’s as beautiful as Paris makes me really excited.

Blaine, do you have a favorite show in Paris among the ones you already did ?

Blaine : We played a show at La Flèche d’Or, right when 21 came out and I remember vividly, we started the gig, behind a curtain, we used to start the show with these air-raids sirens and it was the first gig that we played any of the songs from 21. I remember the curtains opening and it just felt so exciting, playing new music and in a foreign country. Maybe we played once in Paris with the Arctic Monkeys before that but it was the first time on our own.

It took you more than three years to come back, why so long ? Are you happy to be out of the studio ?

Jack : Yeah definitely ! It was so much fun making that record but it was a very long both space and time doing it and coming out the other side to it. « I can’t believe I’ve done it », still now, it’s coming out next week, I can’t believe it really, I still feel like I’m in there everyday. We didn’t leave for a very long time. You should have seen us, by the end of it our hair was all stood up on air, we had black eyes ! It feels good to be out of there.

Blaine : I think it took three years because we didn’t really have to conform to any kind of external pressure. This is the first record we’ve made where we’ve been independent from record labels during the making of the album. Now we have a deal again so it’s great and there’s a machine working but in that time we were very much just in our own world and that’s a really wonderful place to make music. When you’re in that space, time doesn’t really exist. And I think what we knew is that we weren’t gonna stop until we knew we’d written the greatest things we’ve ever heard.

Jack : All the things that we were the most happy about.

Is Henry (Blaine’s dad) still helping you with the music ?

Jack : He wrote all the lyrics with us.

Blaine : He is kind of the glue in the sense that he’s been there from the beginning and we’re the ones who go in the room and we’re all sweat out together and we play loud, and we’re the ones who go out on the road to play the songs to people, but he’s still such an important cog within the machine. We bring him some ideas and we ask him « what do you think there is? » and he says « it’s great, what is it about » and we say « I don’t know » and he says « well let’s explore what it’s about! » and you have this kind of dialogue and I think he really helps to shine a light on what we’re trying to say, he is behind the curtains.

What’s your favorite song on the album ?

Jack : Mine is Bombay Blue.

Blaine : Mine is Midnight Mirror at the moment.

Jack: Actually mine used to be 1985. The End Up was all our favorite for ages.

Blaine : The End Up is my favorite recording of the album because it captures the real moment where we’d all been out.

Jack : We went to a party at Jude Law’s house. We’d never meet him but he took us to his house.

Blaine : We almost died at the back of his Jaguar.

Jack : We woke up the next day with a filthy hangover. We went to the studio because we had to work and I remember we all sat around in the live room and we were all looking at each other like no one wants to be here, and Will was like “let’s record The End Up”. And we just recorded all of us just sat in this room like dying.

Blaine : not having slept.

Jack : And you can really hear it on the song.

Blaine : And when we sang I was really thinking I hope I don’t end up like this.

Do you already know what the 2nd single is gonna be ?

Blaine : It’s a secret. But we can talk about Telomere !

Jack : I remember the first time I heard Telomere, Blaine did all the writing on this boat just outside London like a..

Blaine : It looks like a baked beans can.

Jack : So he used to go away recording for weeks at a time and he'd have no reception on his phone so I was trying to call him all the time like « Hey man, you gotta come to some great fashion party….

Blaine : And I was like « No I’m trying to write some songs ».

Jack : and I’d be like "let me come I want to listen to some of the songs ». When I came up for the first time I sat down with him and you’d been there for a few days and I heard Telomere for the first time and we were looking for that song, the first single and I was like « That’s it. » Then we took it home like, back to London and played it to everyone else and then recorded it straight away. And it was the quickest recorded one. It happened so fast and everyone's so excited about it.

Basically you’ve got the idea for this song from Patti Smith’s book (Just Kids).

Blaine : I wanted to write a song about the idea of ancestry and the idea that there are qualities that we have that come from generations before us. A great great ancestor of mine was a soldier, I was thinking about that a lot and I was thinking about what was going through his brain, and what he was like, and what did he look like, did he have good hair, did he dress well ? So I wanted to write a song about the idea of ancestry, and the DNA that lives within us, and the telomeres are the end of our DNA’s strands. The video is an exploration of the same idea. I’ve still got mud in my ears from it.

Jack: This is a mad story actually. We had a gig in Japan like two days after the video, and during the video Blaine would wear earplugs to cover his ears from the clay and there was a point where he had to mime along to the all thing so he was like I can’t hear you to the director, so the director was like take your earplugs out, so Blaine took out his earplugs and clay got stuck into his ears.

Blaine : And it went hard, I couldn’t hear anything for like two days. I’m still trying to get it out. I went to the doctors and they syringed it out.

Jack : They wouldn’t let Blaine fly on our plane so we had a gig in Japan and they wouldn’t let him board the plane because he told them he was worried about it and they were like “you can’t get on this flight so you have to leave Blaine in England.”

Blaine : The whole band went in Japan and I was left at the airport. I had to go to the doctors, get my ears syringed and get on the next plane. I flew on my own.

Jack : And he still can’t hear.

Blaine : Yeah I still can’t..What ?

Jack : What was that ?

Do you remember the first time you played Telomere ?

Jack : We played this gig in London, at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts). On this gig no one had heard the record and it was only press there. So we played the whole thing from start to finish and no one had heard the songs before and no one had seen the band live for such a long time, so we kinda kicked of with Telomere, we played the album in order and Telomere that people heard first and the whole time we were terrified about playing and then when the end came I thought it was a good reception.

Blaine : Yeah it was great. We probably played it too fast.

Do you still enjoy playing old songs like Young Love ?

Blaine : I do. It’s funny we had a conversation two days ago in the studio. We were playing a very old song of us, Diamonds on the Dark. We’re playing it in the room together and I was telling Kaps that it didn’t feel like we wrote this. It felt like, not necessarily like covering another person song but I couldn’t remember ever being in the mind set of writing those lyrics and this music. I was like « I feel like a different part of me wrote this song and then write the songs. » It gave me all kinds of thoughts, I think we all felt like that, it came from somewhere else.

Which bands are you looking forward to see live this year ?

Jack : I’m really excited about the new Last Shadow Puppets. I’d really like to see Taylor Swift and Coldplay.

Blaine : I tried to go see Taylor Swift last summer but she wouldn’t let me in.

Jack : We both did actually, we lied and said that our booking agent had put us on the guest list and he didn’t. We basically got to the queue and we just looked like idiots in front of loads of people, we won’t go into it!

Blaine : There’s probably a black mark next to our name on her guestlist.

Jack : I send her love letters all the time, I sign it in blood.

Blaine : I’m excited to see the artists that are supporting us on our tour which is two bands, one artist is called Son and he’s the singer from a band that’s called Tribes who played with us in the bus. Johnny Loyd was in a band with Tribes and he played on the End up on our record. His new project is amazing and he’s one of our favorite British songwriters. He’s very different. He’s like the 6th Mystery Jet.

Jack : He’s our best friend.

Blaine : and also an artist called Declan McKenna.

Check out the French translation of the interview here !

[laurensinterviews-blog]

I recently did an interview with the lovely Låpsley for SoundofBrit. I kept the original version for you guys, as I’ll translate it into French for the website. You can buy Låpsley’s album here! Enjoy. <3

You were into sports, Why didn't you choose this path?

I come from a family where everyone is either a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer. It's very safe and secure, and when you go to academics, that seems like a road where you should go down because it’s like "because you can get those grades you should do this » but it doesn't necessarily mean this is right for you. I love academics and I actually have a big passion in geography. I was very good at sports and I did hockey and sailing to a high level. I think what I do know now is just a prime example of just because you know you're good at something and you're pushed to do, it doesn’t necessarily makes you happy.

There was a time in high school where I was depressed and I wasn't sure why I was depressed because I was doing well in school, I was doing well on my sports, but I was always a creative person. I didn’t know I was a creative person until I started to explore with music and when I realized that it made me happy ». I know that a creative job doesn't have the same security and it’s like jumping into nothing because you can't get a grade at the end, you can't revise and you don't know if you're on the right path or if you're successful. It's exciting but it's very scary.

I started music lessons when I was 5. Outside of school. I learned piano and then after a few years I got bored and switched instruments so I accumulated loads of instruments that I can play. From 12 I started writing songs, just on piano and guitar, just for myself, just because I was bored, and I enjoyed playing. It wasn't until 2 years ago, when I was 17, that I started to record on garage band and started producing. I didn’t know it was called producing then, I just thought everybody was doing everything themselves.

I started recording music and I put it on Soundcloud because I have family abroad and we’re a very close family so we always send pictures to each other like our sports awards or very good essays. This time it was just me making music. I came back after 2 months and there were people interested and I was getting all this feedback. After the Monday EP, suddenly it was like, record deals offers, management offers. I waited until the end of my exams, I got all my A-levels finished because I still wanted to go to university and that was still my goal until I signed a record deal. I made that decision literally on the day I had to accept my offer for university, I just suddenly went "I can't do it, I can't waste this opportunity, I don't have a clue what it is. It's not like since I was young I'd been like "I wanna be a pop star, I wanna be a producer", it was very much a risk and sometimes it's very scary. I applied the same work effort I did for my sports and my school and I just transferred it to this project which is Låpsley.

What is your creative process?

I’m very quick at writing, production takes me a long time. I'm very slow, I need help from the engineers, because I don’t know what the equipment does, But as a writer I’m very quick and I write about things that are very real, I’m not very good at writing about hypothetical situations. The whole album is mainly about one thing, a relationship last year. I'd wrote my things down in a week in a notebook and I'll go to the studio and I'll just dump it all. The emotions are strong cause I have come to keep them all inside of me until I've reached the studio. What comes fist is the lyrics, the writing and then probably 10 minutes after I would start introducing piano.

I write down the first few lines and that gives me an indication to whether I want to do it in a minor key or major key or on what kind of road I'm gonna go down and very quickly it develops into a song with the music. Sometimes I have a little hook of something that would go with the words and as I go with the words I would sing out loud and then I work out some chores. I think depending on the song, like there's been a few songs where like where it just started with me experimenting with some chords and then I'd just loop it and then I'd loop the vocals and I just keep them running. Some other songs I didn't even write down I'd actually done the music and kind of improvised with the vocals and I suddenly I’ve had a verse. So it depends on how I'm feeling that day or if I'm not tired and I feel like I want to get somethings out. My creative process will be a bit different when I'm tired and withdraw and I will have to think more about the writing. It's a bit of a mix.

Do you play the instruments first when you record the demos?

Yes, I play all the instruments on the album except for "in operator ». I got a professional bass player. He's like old school he played with Chaka Khan and I really wanted to have the feeling of someone that understood that hero of music more than me to bring that song to life.

Which part of your work do you like the most? The least?

Traveling is quite difficult. I'm jet lagged constantly. I think the worst part about doing this is definitely the influence it has on my social life and my relationships with the people close to me like my friends and people seeing me in a different way and I would say to them "don't idealise me, what I do is just as important as what you do, it's just different. The purpose of PR is to create this thing. I'm not a brain surgeon, I don't change or save lives. Don't put me on a pedestal when I don't deserve it. I just happen to do music and you just happen to study medicine or whatever and so it's weird when people are like "oh I don't wanna talk about what I do it's so boring tell me about your life." Actually what I do is just similar, it’s just a job, I just wanna know about you and how is uni and how is your boyfriend. So social aspects of this job is very difficult and you can't deny that it changes you.

The best part of this job is weirdly getting paid to do something that you love and you did on your spare time, it's mental and I meet so many different people. The opportunities I’ve had are insane. It’s pretty amazing. It’s interesting, like promo: it's not natural to talk about you all the time, it feels weird, I feel like the moment when it doesn't feel weird is a moment when I've gone completely mad and self-absorbed. I like how it feels weird because it reminds me that I'm human.

I feel like your voice sounded a bit like Adele on "Tell me the truth". Is she one of your inspirations? Do you have any other ?

I don’t really listen to Adele but she just come from more of a country background so we just happen to sound the same. We both have more of a raspy voice than say like Beyonce so I think that's coincidence. The kind of music that I listen to is very different to the music that I make. I think Adele is a good artist and I love that she is in the pop world and in the mainstream media because we need someone like her because they're so many bad influences for kids in the moment, you know these female artists which are creation of a label and they’re saying all these things and it’s coming across like « Oh! I’m a face feminist but that song’s been written by ten men. » I’d prefer if I had kids for them to listen to someone like Adele rather than someone like, well I’m not gonna mention names but we all know the pop world.

There're like 2 sides of what I like to listen to, one of them is like amazing songwriting: I love Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks and Kate Bush, old school stuff and on the other hand I love very emotionless electronic music, like Tycho. I like Caribou. I feel like his album that came out last year is amazing. I love Kurt Vile’s "Pretty Pimpin », I love the way he talks about himself, his feelings and relationships, I think it's really interesting. I thinks it's a bit of an eclectic mix.

How would you do describe your music?

I'd say, sonically, like in terms of what it sounds like it's chilled electronic, more laid back electronic music. This album touches upon pop & r'n'b and disco because « operator » is a disco track. It's all electronic songs, there's barely any real instrument, it's all synthetic sounds from computers or synths. The singles are more pop because the production is more follow-sounding and I needed the singles to be more pop in order for me to have a career but I love the challenge, pop is the hardest thing I’ve ever done, I’ve given myself the challenge to write a pop song and it’s so difficult.

Which artists or bands would you like to collaborate with?

I’d like to collaborate with people who are very different to me and people that would push me. I'd like to maybe work with Jazz musicians or classical composers, someone that is a completely different venn diagram to me in order for me to stretch. If I work with someone who is very similar to me, I won't grow as a person, I'll just stay in the same thing. I’d actually love to write for Rhianna. 

Would you like to work with an orchestra for instance?

Yeah, or with a film composer. I’d like to work with a very small art house, British directors ... I'd love to work for a soundtrack like Submarine's.

The theme of the break up is really present in your songs, do you take your inspiration from your own experiences or from other people's stories?

It's all based on one relationship. I'm not very good at writing about things that are hypothetical. I only write about what’s happened. It would not come as easy to write about someone else’s issues. I feel like I'm trying to figure out my own feelings about relationships and that was my outlet. This album was like therapy for me.

What is the first record you bought?

That’s interesting! My parents bought me CDs so I had the Spice Girls, Bob Dylan, Neil Young... They used to buy me really random things that I think they liked and then they just would give them to me.  I think I bought my first record when I was in year 8. I used to play all my parents music and then when I bought "Only by the Night" by Kings Of Leon, which is really interesting and I remember going on skiing trips with school and just having that on my iTunes and just listening to that song forever. It's not the coolest but that was definitely the first album that I got into.

What are the 3 songs that you listen to the most, currently?

I really like a song called "Blue Lights" by Jorja Smith. She's a new UK artist. She's only got like 2 songs out for the moment but I'm really interested in where she goes and it's a very well produced song. I’m listening to The Tallest Man on Earth, his album from 2008 I always have on loop because it kind of reminds me of home. It’s kind of comforting to listen to an album that I know really well. I'm also listening to Kurt Vile I love Pretty Pimpin, the single, but I also love Wilde Imagination, the last track on the album. It’s really cool.

Which concert venue or festival would you like to play this year?

I'd love to play in the Museum of Modern Art in New York! I think it would be very central and everyone could look from different levels, that's cool. And just because I love their art gallery it would be so cool to play there.

Have you ever been there?

Yeah! I go every time I go to NY and see their new exhibitions.They do occasional shows. It would be very cool if they'd asked me to play there.

You'll be on tour from the release of the album. Are you happy to play in France?

Yeah it's really cool! I love how as a country you support the art. There's no art founding in the UK and your venues are really good. They've got founding from the government and that concept is so cool because we’ve had it stripped from us in our country so our venues aren't really good because they haven't been able to refurbish or pay enough money for the engineers and stuff so that's really cool in terms of an artist friendly places to play. You have really cool festivals like, I mean I’ve only had We Love Green and then I played one outside the city, I was meant to play in Paris but I was there at the same time as the Bataclan which is really sad.I'm excited to play there again.