When we first covered this band, we were still using Myspace and that is actually how we got in touch, over 5 years ago! How times have changed, how has social networking had an impact on your bands career and music?
It's certainly made things a
lot easier with announcing tour dates and things. We're getting more used to
facebook and twitter now, MySpace was horrible to use so quite glad we've
sacked that off now. We seem to do most of our twitter updates whilst partying
so they tend to be a little weird. There may be occasional nudity.
What
was it like to finally record your debut?
We recorded the record in
Brooklyn with Nicolas Vernhes who we wanted to work with for quite a while so
when we finally got the green light it was a great feeling. It was a very
surreal experience recording a record in such an alien environment but it was
of course very exciting for us.
What
does the title of the album “Spacehopper” signify?
A lot of the record is about
growing up in Reading so Spacehopper was this kind of snapshot of youth. When
we were recording we joked that it was starting to sound like a spaceship
landing on Jupiter so the name stuck. It's also a pretty funny word.
Hailing
from Reading, England, a town more famous for its annual summer music festival
than anything else, how has that city shaped and influenced you as musicians
and as people?
To be honest the festival is a
very detached part of Reading; it comes and then goes. Reading bands don't get
any sort of showcase there really.
Growing up and writing songs
in Reading is definitely different to, say, London, as we were never really
aware of much of a scene. As we grew up though we discovered that Reading did
in fact have a rich heritage of great bands like Slowdive, for example.
Having said that, there are
some very good Reading bands around today, the town just lacks a decent small
venue for touring bands, it tends to be overshadowed by London and Oxford.
From
the first time we heard your music in 2008 to now, you have evolved so much.
Because of this evolution, did it delay the release of any music?
We went to school together and
grew up together, we started off playing Slipknot and Nirvana covers at lunch
time and after school in the music rooms. Where we are now is the result of
years of being exposed to many different artists, and refining our writing. Of
course we've written some horrible stuff along the way, too. The main thing to
delay the release of music, as with many bands, is politics; but our
songwriting has only got better, so it's a good thing we didn't release an
album a year ago. You need to wait until you know who you are.
What
is it like to be in Tripwires now?
We have been very busy with
artwork for the record (which we did ourselves) photography and recording a
video. We are looking forward to our first headline tour this month.
Where
does this band go from here?
I guess that's not really for
us to speculate on. The main thing is we have an album we are very proud of, we
are willing to work hard touring it, and we enjoy doing so. We have started
writing again since recording Spacehopper, so there is refining and demoing to
come. As long as we are touring the record and people are turning up to gigs,
we'll be happy.
How
would you describe your music to someone who has never heard of you before?
Like a mixture of everything
we've ever listened to and liked. Like a hairdryer to the face one moment and
sparsity the next.
One
of the fun and funny facts about the band is that you once covered a Slipknot
song, given that that is the furthest thing from your style now, would you
still find a way to bring it in your live sets just for fun?
We covered more than one! and
no, that would be highly unlikely. We were about 14 at the time. We do however
enjoy playing a cover, usually the closing song. More like Neil Young or Daniel
Johnston nowadays though.
What
has been the best thing about being in this band?
Being failry self sufficient, each
of us being good at something other than the music, be it recording, design,
photography or ideas for videos etc. Having a world and an identity.
