How are you? How are you feeling about the tour?
James – hello! i’m very well thanks. so excited for the tour. it feels like we’ve time travelled back to the funnest time of my life. it’s been great hanging out with the dudes and revisiting the old tunes
Is there any particular City or Venue you are most excited to play?
Ralph – My home town of Leeds has one of my favourite venues, the Brudenell. I think in various bands I’ve been playing gigs there for the last 18 years. My gigging career in there would now be of legal drinking age. Thoughts like that do actually make me want to sit down have a drink
How has your approach to music changed in the decade since the album?
Ben – I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing but I remember agonising over every step of the recording process for Cannibals With Cutlery whereas I’m a lot less of a perfectionist now. I think this was because it was the first album I’d produced and I didn’t want to mess it up. I didn’t really know what I was doing and every step was a learning process. These days I’m more of a mindset of: if the song is good, the arrangement works and the singer and players are good then it will connect, even if you are recording it on an iPhone. You can’t save a bad song with a perfect guitar eq setting. Obviously there’s nuance to this and an exception to every rule yadayada but I’ve definitely moved more in that direction over the decade
Are there any memories attached to the creation of the album or particular track that looking back seem significant?
Ralph – We were recording a series of live videos along side the LP called Ralph’s balcony where we would invite musicians we liked to perform outside on my flats tiny balcony. It was a tiny and fairly grim flat but the view from the balcony was great. Anyhow we finished the season off by recording the track Choices with everyone who’d appeared on the series, there was about 20 musicians in total. It felt really special and I think that version of the song has a special place in our hearts.
What is the most useful piece of advice you’ve been given since starting in Music?
Josh – The best piece of advice I was given was not to be afraid to fail. It will take a lot of failure before you find success.
Are there any artists you think deserves more recognition than they currently have?
Grant – A band called swim school. They’re from Scotland and very cool, I caught them at barn on the farm in the summer and they play sort of heavy fuzzy shoegaze