Friday 26 March 2010

Sound of Rum Interview.

When this band get big, people are going to have a hard time pigeon-holing their innovative, lyric-based music. Really interesting and intelligent people. Great live. Catch them if you're at Glasto or Bestival. I understand that the interview is reeeeeeeeaally long and obviously needs cutting down, but it took me hours to type it up. So thats a job for another day. 

Welcome to Portsmouth by the way. Have you been before?
We came to Portsmouth to get the Ferry once.
Was that for Bestival?
Yeah. We had this amazing hour in Portsmouth. I got fish and chips.
Are you looking forward to opening the gig in Portsmouth tonight?
Yeah definitely.
How many dates have you done?
This is number nine. They’ve been amazing. Each one has been different. The first sort of five, we were finding our feet, but the last few have just been amazing. Really good strong gigs. 
How would you describe your sound to someone who had never heard your music?
Its sort of a collage of the things were are into really. Afro beat, hip hop, jazz, funk, rock. 
How did the name Sound of Rum come about?
Honestly, we were gonna come up with a really interesting lie for this, but there isn’t one. Its quite boring. We were in the car, we had just been at Glastonbury, and we were like, we really need a name. We need one else we are never going to move forwards. We were just looking at a map, and there are these islands that are just past Scotland, called Sounds. Sound of Rum, Sound of Egg. It looked good on the map, and I drink rum. It seemed really fitting.
And how about you guys? How did you all meet?
Just from giging in South London, playing in lots of different bands and line ups, then we just came together to start a new project. To try and see what we could do with small numbers and see how far we could push it. 
Who, or what would you consider your biggest influences?
We were in the car the other day, listening music that our friends had made, the contemporaries. I realised that I’m just as much influenced by the people that I’m around, and that music community, as I am these great poets and great writers that I love to read, great musicians and amazing rappers.
What are your favorite poets?
I like William Blake, I like Samuel Beckett although he isn’t really a poet. I like good authentic poetry. Well written written words and lyrics and music. When something is amazing then I love it. I haven’t really been blown away by anyone contemporary. Most of the people I love have been dead for 50 years. Which is a shame. 
I just read a Samuel Beckett book, I had to read Murphy for my course.
Murphy is amazing! That was the first novel he wrote, he had been working with James Joyce write. He hadn’t written anything before and he just wrote Murphy. Amazing.
How long have you been involved in music?
I’ve been doing music since I was a kid. 
How is the new album going? 
Its going really well. We’ve got all the tracks down. They’re being mixed and produced, its going to take a few months. Then we have to decide which ones to keep and which to throw away. Its definitely happening, its really exciting hearing the past year of us making music, coming into this one thing that is going to define us.
Is it really hard when you got really attached to songs and then you have to let them go, because they don’t go with the album?
That hasn’t happened yet. Its going to happen though. We’ve got two many songs. The thing is, is that you want to drop the early ones because the current ones are what you are most excited about. But relatively speaking no one has really heard us yet, so we want to come out with stuff that we first came out with. 
What festivals are you heading to this year? 
We get around. We’ve got Glastonbury, We’re doing a stage called Pussy Parlour on the Saturday afternoon at 3pm, and I’m doing some poetry on the left field stage. Bestival, Secret Garden Party loads. Latitude, Big Chill. We need to make sure we have some fun this time. We never really find out whats going on. We just sit around and go “should we go and see something? Glastonbury is going to be good this year. 
Whats your favourite festival? 
Bestival! Secret Garden party I really like, its in Huntington. Its really nice. Tts beautiful. Thats the one we had to leave because it was the same weekend as Camp Bestival, which was good as well. 
it gets stressful when you’ve got to do like three of four in one weekend, thats when you can’t really enjoy it. But their all wicked. The best ones are the ones which are a bit unique, like Bestival and Glastonbury. 
I went to this one in America Burning Man, that was nuts. I just like the ones that have got their own feel, their not just generic. 
You’ve been described as the sound of new England, do you have any idea what they meant by this?
No. Well, he isn’t from London which means we embrace other parts of the world [laughter]. Growing up in London you forget you’re on an Island, and when you start hanging around with people from towns, especially northern towns that have a proper identity, you realise you’re from a country with a culture and not some mad metropolis. 
You’re songs seem to be pretty issue based, would you agree?
I tend to write really intense poetry and lyrics which are about things. So I guess they are issue based. They just are what they are. If its about a realtionship, or something I’ve seen in London, or a friend who has gone a particular way, its not really anybody’s issue apart from mine. I guess they are issue based though. 
So you wouldn’t say as a band you were really political then?
No, I think when I was younger I would have like to spread a political message through music. As I’ve got older, I’ve realised how naive an idea that is, and how little I know, actually about politics. I’m more interested in self-enrichment and improvement and just enjoying music and enjoying creativity. I think its a lot more useful to say love yourself, than fuck Esso. 
What other artists would you associate your sound with? 
Speaker’s Corner Quartet. Jamie Woon. David Jay. Polar Bear, John Merkovich. DJ Snuff. There’s a load of rappers, their called Speaker’s Corner, they’re like my peers. All these guys play with jazzers from around the way. 
All the people that Kate just mentioned, they’re the contemporaries, their the people that we’re moving forward with. If we were going to get a tour like this, their the people that we would want to come along with us. Or if they get a tour then we want to be on it with them. Its that all movement thing. Its not quite a scene yet, but I think in the next year, it will be something more definite, more defined. I feel like what we do is quite different from other bands so its difficult. If you’re in a punk band, you can get together with other punk bands and go do a massive punk night. 
When we play with Polar, or Jamie Woon it makes sense because its all music coming from a genuine place. Its less about genre, and more about people doing something real. 
Who would you most like to make music with? 
There’s a lot of people. Shall we go round? All the people in that list before, is on the cards. Speaker’s Corner I wanna do, their a Jazz quartet. We’ve both got drummers, but apart from that we’ve all got separate instruments. I’d like to get them down, and do a track with Kate rapping on it. Jamie Woon, because he is a really amazing singer, and it would bring a new vibe to back up a chorus, or a whole verse. We’ve done a collaboration with Polar Bear, which will hopefully be on the album, it might be promotional we’re not sure yet. 
I want to collaberate with Rizza and the Wu Tang Clang. I’d like him to make me a beat. I’d like to collaborate with Bjork. Willy Mason, I want to write lyrics with him. Anyone who you listen to and you just go wow. I love that feeling, when it makes you cry and stuff. I’ve been listening to Johnny Cash, he makes me cry, buy obviously he is dead so that would be a bit difficult. 
Where do you want Sound of Rum to take you? Just a really really good legacy of albums. We’ve got our minds set on not just this album, but the next one and the next one. We want to make some truly incredible music. We want to keep blowing each other’s heads off with new ideas. We want people to know about it. Its not really fame, where you blow up and you’re massive for a few weeks and then you disappear. We want it to be sustained. Some bands just everything they release is a step forwards, its an amazing achievement to keep yourself fresh and interesting, and with the times, not getting stale. Keep being the sound of new England!
 Would you ever compromise your music to reach a certain goal, or level of popularity. 
These days if you’re a musician or a writer, and you need to survive, you might need to do a commission for somebody, or a company that can pay you enough money to pay you’re rent. I would write someone a poem, that I would have never written for myself if they hadn’t asked me to write it. But I don’t know if that is compromising your integrity because times have changed. Nobody is really making money from selling records. If you’ve made the decision to enter into this industry, and into this game then you’ve got to be prepared for it. You can’t be afraid of selling out. Great music is great music, and if you have to make shit music as well to pay your bills, then alright. Aslong as you’re still making great music. I wouldn’t want to be rapping for Mcdonalds or something I don’t really believe in, but I’m not going to say I wouldn’t do it, because there might be a time where I need to. Which is a horrible thing to hear myself say. 
We’re pretty lucky that the label we’re signed to, Sunday Best, they’re happy for us to put out what we want to put out. They’ve been guiding us, they know what is good and what is going to sell, they give us advice, but they don’t say “if you don’t put keyholes in this track, and vocoder over Kate’s vocals then I’m not putting this out. They’re giving us free reign. We’ve never been told do something that goes against what we think is good, if they tell us to do something, its normally a really good idea. 
I was pretty hurt when I heard Bright Eyes on a bank advert on telly, but have you ever stopped liking a band for ‘selling out’?
It is hard when a band you really love, does something crass like an awful advert or something. As I’ve moved into a position of becoming a professional artist myself I understand it a bit more now. 
I used to be really against advertising music on adverts but the more I think about it, the more I think its a great way to get you’re music out there, millions of people are going to hear you’re music without realsing it. The only thing is if it gets really annoying, but thats generally when the tune is already a bit annoying. You’ve got to make money, and you have the right to make money. 
Its tough though, I do think that when an artist a little bit of over exposure you stop caring. Especially when someone suddenly becomes famous then before you know it their music is on every advert and trailer. 
Bob Dylan is on a trailer at the moment, “times are a changing”, doesn’t mean thats going to detract from my enjoyment of his work, but he is different. 
Its all about giging, and people paying to come and see you. 
People keep saying to me, you’re not going to sell any records. But I’m just entertaining the thought of it, we have to get the album out. Thats the most important thing. I do want to sell loads of records. So much of that is out of your hands, you can make the best record in the world, but if it isn’t publicised and you don’t tour so not enough people know what it is. You’ve got to tell people they want it so they go and buy it. 
Its tough playing to a crowd who have never heard your songs before. When Pip goes on stage, all the mouths are saying every lyric. 
If they said that the gig tonight was cancelled how would you spend the evening?
Is there any parties happening tonight?
Not that I know of. 
Do parties ever happen?
Parties happen every night! 
We’re obviously not cool enough, only the lead singers get invited.
Exactly yeah. I’m not saying a word. 
Well obviously hope it isn’t cancelled!

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