NICO WOULD BE PROUD….
The Resistance were first brought to our attention via a show they played a few months ago at The Pleasure Unit. The juxtaposition of such a vibrant and dramatic outfit with the dismal and dreary surroundings of the Bethnal Green venue was truly something to behold, and we wrote about them accordingly in the first issue of this very fanzine. But now we are also very lucky to have them grace the Vapour Trail night itself. A truly modern band with a penchant for updating psychedelia and noise-pop (amongst many other things) with a modern electronic edge, the group are one of those who truly need to be seen in the flesh to be completely appreciated. The live shows, backed by projections of the trippy variety, often see vocalist Matt on the floor banging out a primitive rhythm at odds with the aforementioned electronics (bringing to mind the rudimentary-though-effective percussion of Mo Tucker & Bobby Gillespie) but somehow it works. And you will, of course, see so for yourself….
1. First of all, explain how the band came together -a potted history,if you will....
We got together in 2005, but we'd all been indifferent bands beforethen. We've spent the last few years as anexperimental instrumentalband, played lots of gigs and released two singles onour own label. Thesewere moderately successful and got on Radio 1 but wewanted to take it further. Our singer Matt was inanother band called the Khe Sanh Approach. He was along time fan and friend of the band, our bands playedtogether a lot and we arranged gigs together. When theKSA split up he was the ideal choice for our band andhe joined us full time in 2007. Nico is dead, Iggy Popis old and Julian Cope has gone mad. Matt is easilythe next choice and he's just as good as all theabove.
2. What were the initial aims in terms of style, soundand substance?
When we started we believed that the music around uswas boring and we wanted something more. There were nointeresting bands in Cambridge and the sheer lack ofambition in all of them was depressing us. We didn'twant to play boring indie rock in a pub back room toour friends. We wanted to make something no one hadheard before and do something that people willremember. We like noise and we like pop music. It wasgood to combine them, use them as a starting point andtake it from there.
3. Who would you name as your key inspirations andinfluences?
We like unusual sounds, interesting ideas anddifferent ways of doingthings. We're all into 60's psychedelia, Krautrock,pop music,electronic noise and rock and roll. We gerenerallyall admire people who have done something new from theVelvet Underground to My Bloody Valentine. We couldprobably answer "The Velvet Underground" to just aboutevery question here.
4. You put on a particularly exciting live show. Tellus about whatinspired the slides/backdrop you use & also what youhope to conveythrough live performance.
When we started out we didn't have a singer and thismeant that wedidn't have the same traditional focus that peopleare used to when theysee a band. Lots of people tend to get unsettled whenpresented withsomething they don't understand. We liked thepsychedelic lightshows theWest Coast bands had in the late '60s and it was away of making thingsmore interesting, and again, it was making more of aneffort than mostbands do. So many bands just shuffle onstage wearing jeans and at shirt and it's just lazy and indicative of howapathetic and unimaginative most bands are. We want tomake lots of noise, have a good time and have muchbetter shoes than anyone else.When we play live we want to get a reaction frompeople. Ideally we want to blow their minds but evenif they don't understand us and throw things thenthat's much better than if they talk amongstthemselves or go to the bar. Nothing is worse thanbeing competent and average.
5. Tell us how you arrived at the set-up ofinstrumentation you use.How do you see yourselves furthering your sound infuture?
Most of our live set up is due to necessity. We ownand use a huge variety of different instruments whenwe write songs, but these are sampled and put onto the laptop so we don't have to bring them to gigs andhave someone playing them. The guitars go right intothe PA and we don't use guitar amps. This means that we can go to gigs on public transport, and we only need 4 people in the band rather than 8 or 9. It's took 3years to find a singer who can actually sing, we likeand who actually understands what we do. If we had to find a drummer too we'd need several lifetimes.6. Finally, what is next for you?Through some very generous donations we've been ableto build a pretty good recording studio with lots ofvintage gear and a big old desk and we're currentlydemoing new tracks. After that we're going to play asmuch as we can and see what we can do with this. We'vedone a lot already but it's always interesting to tryto take things further..
The Resistance were first brought to our attention via a show they played a few months ago at The Pleasure Unit. The juxtaposition of such a vibrant and dramatic outfit with the dismal and dreary surroundings of the Bethnal Green venue was truly something to behold, and we wrote about them accordingly in the first issue of this very fanzine. But now we are also very lucky to have them grace the Vapour Trail night itself. A truly modern band with a penchant for updating psychedelia and noise-pop (amongst many other things) with a modern electronic edge, the group are one of those who truly need to be seen in the flesh to be completely appreciated. The live shows, backed by projections of the trippy variety, often see vocalist Matt on the floor banging out a primitive rhythm at odds with the aforementioned electronics (bringing to mind the rudimentary-though-effective percussion of Mo Tucker & Bobby Gillespie) but somehow it works. And you will, of course, see so for yourself….
1. First of all, explain how the band came together -a potted history,if you will....
We got together in 2005, but we'd all been indifferent bands beforethen. We've spent the last few years as anexperimental instrumentalband, played lots of gigs and released two singles onour own label. Thesewere moderately successful and got on Radio 1 but wewanted to take it further. Our singer Matt was inanother band called the Khe Sanh Approach. He was along time fan and friend of the band, our bands playedtogether a lot and we arranged gigs together. When theKSA split up he was the ideal choice for our band andhe joined us full time in 2007. Nico is dead, Iggy Popis old and Julian Cope has gone mad. Matt is easilythe next choice and he's just as good as all theabove.
2. What were the initial aims in terms of style, soundand substance?
When we started we believed that the music around uswas boring and we wanted something more. There were nointeresting bands in Cambridge and the sheer lack ofambition in all of them was depressing us. We didn'twant to play boring indie rock in a pub back room toour friends. We wanted to make something no one hadheard before and do something that people willremember. We like noise and we like pop music. It wasgood to combine them, use them as a starting point andtake it from there.
3. Who would you name as your key inspirations andinfluences?
We like unusual sounds, interesting ideas anddifferent ways of doingthings. We're all into 60's psychedelia, Krautrock,pop music,electronic noise and rock and roll. We gerenerallyall admire people who have done something new from theVelvet Underground to My Bloody Valentine. We couldprobably answer "The Velvet Underground" to just aboutevery question here.
4. You put on a particularly exciting live show. Tellus about whatinspired the slides/backdrop you use & also what youhope to conveythrough live performance.
When we started out we didn't have a singer and thismeant that wedidn't have the same traditional focus that peopleare used to when theysee a band. Lots of people tend to get unsettled whenpresented withsomething they don't understand. We liked thepsychedelic lightshows theWest Coast bands had in the late '60s and it was away of making thingsmore interesting, and again, it was making more of aneffort than mostbands do. So many bands just shuffle onstage wearing jeans and at shirt and it's just lazy and indicative of howapathetic and unimaginative most bands are. We want tomake lots of noise, have a good time and have muchbetter shoes than anyone else.When we play live we want to get a reaction frompeople. Ideally we want to blow their minds but evenif they don't understand us and throw things thenthat's much better than if they talk amongstthemselves or go to the bar. Nothing is worse thanbeing competent and average.
5. Tell us how you arrived at the set-up ofinstrumentation you use.How do you see yourselves furthering your sound infuture?
Most of our live set up is due to necessity. We ownand use a huge variety of different instruments whenwe write songs, but these are sampled and put onto the laptop so we don't have to bring them to gigs andhave someone playing them. The guitars go right intothe PA and we don't use guitar amps. This means that we can go to gigs on public transport, and we only need 4 people in the band rather than 8 or 9. It's took 3years to find a singer who can actually sing, we likeand who actually understands what we do. If we had to find a drummer too we'd need several lifetimes.6. Finally, what is next for you?Through some very generous donations we've been ableto build a pretty good recording studio with lots ofvintage gear and a big old desk and we're currentlydemoing new tracks. After that we're going to play asmuch as we can and see what we can do with this. We'vedone a lot already but it's always interesting to tryto take things further..
No comments:
Post a Comment