The Hostiles
Posted by jamie on Jan 27, 2010
The Hostiles
Jamie
27th January, 2010
It’s getting on for a year since The Hostiles first detonated all over the UK, when Always Looking Forward came out on SYWP and the guys backed up with a storming tour all over the UK. Since then they’ve played with everybody from Neville Staple to the King Blues and they’ll be all over their native Scotland and the north once again from the 29th (I wish they’d come here). If you’re new to the band, they play fairly contemporary take on the ska / ska-punk thing: comparisons with Fandangle don’t end with the fact that they’re from the UK and have an American singer. That said, though, their sound is pretty different. Actually, it’s pretty different from a lot of bands out there at the moment: sexy, feel-good horn lines mashed up with some giddying, good-time singalongs but at the same time with enough references to more old-school stuff and plenty of upstrokes and super-skankable melodies in there too. It all adds up to mean they can play at any show, and they pretty much have: from Chase Long Beach and Jaya the Cat to Random Hand and even Leftover Crack [eh? I had to check that one. But it’s true. J] the Hostiles get on every bill they can, and generally storm it. As they’re readying themselves to do it all again in 2010, Bananatown collared Josh (guitar, vocals) and Lynsey (alto sax) and got the lowdown on what’s new in The Hostiles’ world.
BT: Hey. How are things?
Josh - Good! New year, new plans, new shoes, its all good.
Lynsey – Things are ace thanks, life is pretty top notch at the moment.
Cool. So, just to get started, 2009 sounds like it was a big year for you guys. You must be pleased with how much you managed to get done?
Josh - Of course, we worked really hard this year. We released an album, cleared 85 shows and got to play with some of our favourite bands. You know when a wine connoisseur takes a drink from his glass and says “ahhh that was a good year”? That’s what 2009 was like for us!!!
Lynsey – Haha… Hostiles vintage 2009 could be said to be very full-bodied, packed with edgy kick but shame about the smell! We’re well chuffed about what we’ve achieved this year, its been very busy. I’m the newbie and only joined a year ago and it’s been non stop ever since.
You must feel like you’re really on the map now? I mean, we’re only just north of Watford, even we’ve been converted (admittedly the word came from our northern comrades at Bomb Ibiza). How does that feel?
Josh - Awesome! There is no better feeling than turning up to a place you have never been to and have people you never met excited to see you.
Lynsey – Yeah I spotted a few Hostiles t-shirts at Leeds this year - and I didn’t even know the person wearing them! Big Cheese gave our album a great review, and along with gigging as much as possible and word of mouth, especially thanks to all the folks in Manchester and the north of England, TNS, Ska Mutiny and the like, we’re pushing south, east and west!
Ha ha, cool. But you have been together for quite a while now, so how did it all start? Josh - My little bro (the 6′4 bass player known as Chris) and I moved over here in 2001. I’d been in a band in the US and still wanted to be a part of one. We met some friends at school, jammed out a bit, some vile cocktails made from random things from my mom’s kitchen were consumed, and BAM you have a band. Admittedly we were quite lazy the first half of career….we didn’t really take it seriously until a few years ago.
And your first love, you’ve said, is playing live. Is that what it’s all about with you guys?
Josh - Hell yeah! It’s up there with that big fat paycheck we get for playing! [note: he is joking here, alas, though the Hostiles would be richer than Beyoncé were there any justice]! Ha ha, but seriously I envy the bands that get to gig 200 times a year and I would love to get to that stage.
Lynsey – Playing live is what it’s all about for us; Random Hand had a wee sleeve note in their first album which totally rings true for me. It was along the lines of: you can stare at tarmac for 5 hours on the way to a gig and play to 10 people, but if those 10 people are all having a kick-ass time its defiantly worth it. And if they don’t at least you got another practice!
True words, I guess. Ah, the pen of Robin Leitch. So, does that mean it’ll be a while until we see a follow-up to Always Looking Forward? Because that’s fine too: ALF is supreme, but we’d love to get hold of another.
Josh - We have been quite busy the last few months with writing new material. Now we are in the process of recording demos for a second release so it might not be as long as you think [he says, with a cheeky wink. Watch this space!]
We’re used to describing you guys as a sextet (or sometimes a six-piece). Is there any news on a new trumpet player? Am I badly out of date? It does happen sometimes. Josh - I prefer sextet as it contains the word “sex”. According to a national poll “sex” is good and we want to be involved as much as we can with said goodness. But getting back on point, we’ve been talking to a guy from our hometown for a few weeks now about getting him on trumpet, but we’ve been sooo busy lately that bringing someone else in and then getting them up to scratch has just been impossible. Hopefully soon we will bringing the “sex” back to the people.
Lynsey – Sadly, with Josh as our frontman, the sexy aspect is always going to be limited!
Josh - Yeah limited to awesomeness!
Lynsey (ignoring Josh) – ..having a trumpet does make such a difference to our sound, though, so we’re keen to get it sorted ASAP. I’m a fan of bands like Streetlight Manifesto that have a big horn section, and we miss that full sound and the sweet harmonies when we’ve only sax and trombone.
Yeah, and then the tour is coming up soon..
Josh - We will just carry on as a…pent-tet? As a band with 5 members, anyway!
Lynsey – Yeah, we’ll just have to skank on and rock on regardless!
And when will we see you in the South? Shall we start pestering promoters for you?
Josh - We will be down your way in early March. Sadly, it’s quite hard getting down that far.
I see. Because you guys do have “real” jobs as well, right?
Josh - Unfortunately so. Well, I don’t, I go to uni but the rest of the band have proper jobs which we have to work around.
Lynsey – Yeah as with a lot of other bands at our level, we have to supplement our income which is a pain in the ass. But we’re a multitalented bunch: we’ve got a trainee chemist, an optometrist, a joiner and a finance expert in our ranks!
Josh - You said bunch…like bananas
So what can we do to get you down here?
Josh - Tell our story….let people know we exist and that we are the kinda people you would lend your car to.
Lynsey – Yup spread The Hostiles word! We’re trying to sort out a tour for later in the year that’ll include the south of England and Northen Ireland so keep your peepers peeled. Thanks Banana Town!
Josh - Haha you said peeled….like a banana
The Hostiles’ record Always Looking Forward is available direct from their myspace page (for the actual cd) or as a download from amazon, play, spotify and itunes - all links on the myspace. Their tour begins on 29th January, 2010.
Johnnie Toney
Posted by chips on Jan 21, 2010
Johnnie Toney
21st January
Jamie
Johnnie Toney used to play with the Brummie outfit Cueball 8 *sigh* and, up until recently, that was where we knew him from: Johnnie Toney from Cueball 8. “I’ve started this whole thing alone”, he says, of his new solo project, “and it is possibly the strangest experience I’ve ever had! Good, but strange”. After seven years together, the guys split up at the end of last year having doubled in size since they first appeared on the scene as a three-piece, and appeared with Jimmy the Squirrel and Sonic Boom Six as well as Bad Manners, Neville Staple and the Beat. Oh, and Bryan Adams. Yes, really. In front of 29,000 people at Murrayfield stadium (where Scotland play Rugby). And they played weddings. In fact, Johnnie appeared just about everywhere with the band.
He wants to do more, though. “I have spent most of my career writing ska and reggae music and, as it is my first love, I will continue to do so. But I also have a lot of songs that I have written that were never quite right for CUEBALL8 so I’d like to experiment with those and see where we go”. In fact, next to Bradley Nowell and Goldfinger, he lists the Cat Empire, manu chao’ and even Zero 7 as influences. No surprise, then, that while there’s an easy going, rootsy vibe to his solo stuff it’s a teensy bit electro and has more ambience than Giant Bill’s Ambient Shack when there’s a half-price sale on ambience. It sounds mint, and seriously needs checking out. Bananatown grabbed Johnnie to find out what the crack is.
Hi Johnnie.
Hey guys.
What’s new?
Just about everything at the moment! We played our last gig as CUEBALL8 in our hometown Stratford upon Avon on Christmas Eve, and since then it’s been a whirlwind of new projects, opportunities and quite a steep learning curve with solo work. CUEBALL8’s last show was a fantastic night selling out the venue and partying till the small hours: Christmas Day was not a chirpy day, I can tell you!
True that. I guess a lot of this all feels pretty different at the moment? I mean, I’m not a musician but “alone” and “with people” are very different things, eh?
Absolutely mate, the way I’m writing now is a completely different process as I’m playing everything myself - even a brand new melodica (a little Christmas prezzie to myself). I mean before I’d just get an acoustic guitar and jam out a song, bring it along to a band practice and the guys would put their stamp on their section and we’d bash it out until it gelled. But writing in this way you have to start from the bottom building upwards and piecing together the song as you go. It’s a cool new experience and I think you end up with a good sound but I don’t think you could get any further away from being in a band.
It was a shame about Cueball 8. These songs do sound great, though. You must be excited that going it alone will give you the chance to work on them the way you want them to sound?
Dude, no one was more gutted than me about the whole CUEBALL8 thing. I mean, being in a band is like being in a family: you play music together but it’s so much more than that. You get to a stage where you know exactly what each other is thinking musically or personally, and that, as an education in life, is a wonderful thing, but nothing stays the same, you have to adapt and change with whatever life throws at you. I’m really excited about going it alone and it is a great chance to make music exactly how you want to, but I’m still going to jam with some of the guys and ask their opinion on the songs I’ve written - how would I know I wasn’t writing complete and utter shite! I had the privilege of playing with one of the best drummers on the UK ska scene, and he is one of my best friends, and the lead guitarist is now my brother in law so we’ll definitely be keeping in touch!
How different do you think the Johnnie Toney thing is going to be, and in what ways is it going to be different?
When I wrote songs for CUEBALL8 there was always an emphasis on trying to write bouncy, jump up ska songs that got whatever venue we played in hitting the roof! I still want to write songs like that, but I also want to incorporate and make room for some songs that i have written over the years that are great album tracks, ones you can sit down at home with your favourite tipple and really appreciate a great song. Manu Chao was always a great guy for doing that, and I’ve spent many an evening dissecting the mass of sounds he incorporates to make his masterpieces. If you ever get the chance to see him live, dude, you gotta do it, it’ll change your life!
Note taken. You’ve put “a lot of things” in the “sounds like” box on your myspace. Are there any surprising influences about to jump out on us?
I like so many different genres: if you ever listen to CUEBALL8’s songs they are so eclectic not just your standard reggae or ska tracks, which I think is why we had a problem getting picked up by labels such as Do the Dog as you couldn’t put us in a box. One track would have a true ska beat like Mirror in the Bathroom, and then the next track would whisk you away to the Mediterranean with heavy Spanish guitar solo’s and slutty muted trumpets! I like what I like and I think you start to bore yourself if you stay restricted within your music styles, so if its got a good vibe to it, I’m into it.
What are you looking forward to about 2010?
Well, I’m currently in the middle of setting up my own small studio and giving myself somewhere I can just hide away and play music constantly, listen to some crackly vinyl and immerse myself into music again. I’ve also been putting my music out through the joys of the world wide web - and landed a contract with Global Surf Industries Australia, so I now have my songs featured on the Noosa 2010 surf festival DVD’s and am getting paid for the first time in 7 years which is a very welcome anomaly (well if you will be in a band with 6 members you cant expect to get paid that much!) I’m also working with a guy called Phil Latham who owns Loosefims, a surf company that films documentaries for up and coming surfers - and he features unsigned artists on his vids. But most excitingly I’m in talks with Billabong Surf TV which transmits in America and Australia and am hopefully gonna get a foot in the door there with my music on the channel!
Wow. That’s really impressive. Hopefully it’ll work out. What do you think will happen next?
Well, I want to see where the whole surf video thing takes me as its combining the two things that I really love: surfing and music. While that’s ticking along I’m getting all my songs finished and recorded and booking some dates up. If a signing came up, I wouldn’t say no but then again who would?! I’m falling in love with the mistress that is music all over again and it’s the best feeling in the world - but don’t tell the wife, she hates being second best!
The Skints: interview
Posted by jamie on Nov 11, 2009
Our mates at Punktastic have hooked up with The Skints for a sneaky interview before their record comes out next week. The whole thing is posted here.
White Clouds & Gunfire
Posted by jamie on May 20, 2009
White Clouds & Gunfire
If you’re not up to speed, and that includes me - so don’t panic, I’ve only watched White Clouds and Gunfire once – then the first thing you’ll need to learn, if it doesn’t bite your head off with its obviousness as soon as you’ve stumbled on to WCAG, is that you need to be surprised.
Ever intrepid, and gutted to have missed the previous night’s Sonic Boom Six show in London thanks to a minging flu I’d got from a dirty mate and a few too many late-night walks home in only a t-shirt, I ended up in Peterborough one night, shivering on a shelf and watching a white guy with an afro do the “Fresh Prince” theme-tune. Performing their first live show last night were White Clouds and Gunfire, a local four-piece whose short set washed over us like a wave of warm, synth-driven energy (a great cure for a shiverer) and peppered the already-packed-and-sweaty little room with the crunchy riffs, soaring melodies and perfect harmonies that can lift a dizzy boy into another world inside his head, almost trancelike, and, were it not for the pain and the throat-yuk, have had me throwing my body across the floor and up, spinning, into the air in search of those top notes.
A show this intense, this moving, is a rare experience at any time, but to achieve that in your first ever live set is nothing short of incredible.
Almost two years later, and with Evey, originally the synth player, having taken on singing duties from AJ, who left the band not long after, WCAG continue to defy the boundaries of probability and possibility. Calling themselves “pocket rocket pop-punk” is endearing, but should be interpreted in the broadest sense rather than the “four chords and punk by numbers” insult that rap-metallers would chuck at the Fenix*TX/Blink 182 scene in 2000. WCAG’s music is embellished by Evey’s voice, impossibly powerful given her petite stature, and the band are impressively tight as a four-piece, guitars effortlessly moving from chimy, catchy, charming little hooks to big, powerful riffs and back. Add sweet, soulful and pitch-perfect harmonies and you’ve got a refreshingly clear and incredibly broad sound that defies the pigeon-holing that unfortunately gets dumped on so many “pop-punk” bands.
Bananatown’s been addicted to WCAG for too long now, so we grabbed Evey to ask her exactly what makes it all happen.
How’s it going? What’s going on with the band?
Yeah things are all good – we’re currently gigging and booking new shows around the UK, constantly writing new material and we’re designing our new merch at the moment. There’s no set plan of action [for 2009] exactly, but I guess just to improve as much as we can and get bigger and better! We’re really trying to book as many gigs as we can to build up a fan base. There are so many young, talented bands and artists out there that it’s hard to get yourself heard for the first time.
Looking after that, is there a long-term goal? Ultimately I guess the guys and me are looking to go on tour and start booking the bigger shows and festivals. Then maybe a recording contract..
How did you feel about taking on vocals? Was it your idea? Was it daunting, or did it feel like a challenge? Had you been waiting for it all the time?
I’ve been singing and playing musical instruments for as long as I can remember so when the boys first asked me to come along to a few practices I was just excited about playing in a band for the first time. As the months went on, I got the chance to do my own song in our set. Luckily it went down really well with people and so when AJ decided to leave, it just seemed like the natural progression for us.
Our first gig was the scariest thing ever! I was most worried about letting the boys down or if, the crowd wouldn’t like the “re-vamped” White Clouds and Gunfire. But, the set went really well and the crowd really liked us.
I think because AJ was such a big part of the band, people are mostly interested to see what we could achieve without him. Fortunately, when Ben joined the band (lead guitar) everything just seemed to “click” together, not just musically but personality wise as well. It really is like we’ve found a new passion for being in a band again and we’re all so much more focussed now. Not just with song writing but from a promotional side as well. Only people who have been on stage will understand the buzz you get from performing. Not only do I get to do what I love, but I get to share it with 3 of my closest friends. It’s something anyone would want to experience again and again. Our focus is to write music that we love playing but mainly just have fun.. My favourite “band time” is when we’re in the studio or gigging. It means that we’re all together, having a laugh and taking the piss out of each other and it just brings us all that little bit closer together.
I’m a pain at the moment, I’ve started bring the video camera everywhere we go and start randomly filming. I figured it would be good to look back on and remember when we started out.
You seem to love being in a band. How do you guys all get along together? What’s it like when there’s just four of you rehearsing/recording?
I’m so lucky that the boys and I get on really well. And no I’m not just saying that. I don’t think we’d work so hard at being in a band if we didn’t. We’ve all got different personalities but ultimately we’re just as weird as each other. We’ll usually be in the practice room and either Woodsy or Ben will show us a riff or an idea they’ve been working on and then it just seems to grow from there. I find our better songs tend to come much more organically. For example, Satellite just seemed to come from nowhere, it was finished in just a few practices. So when I get stuck on a melody line or need something less “cheesy” to sing about it really frustrates me.
The guys and I are really influenced by the bands we’re currently listening to. Luckily we all like a really wide range of music so we can each bring something different to the table.
Go on, then. Evey, I hate the “influences” question because it’s so often used badly and ends up pigeon-holing bands or ignoring whole sides of what they are and do. But we don’t do that here. Promise. Seeing as we’re on the subject, though, who has influenced your music? Who would you want to be like, if anyone, or what traits or abilities from anyone else would you most like to emulate? I don’t really have one person who I musically aspire to. However I’m a huge fan of Debbie Harry and Grace Jones. They’re front women who are have a strong, infectious presence about them and don’t give a shit what other people think. If I can somehow emulate a fraction of that into my performance then I’d be happy.. I just want people to listen to us and like what they hear or at the least think that we’re good at what we do. So far we have had really good feedback, not only from people who are already into their pop-punk but from more alternative metal bands as well. I’m so glad you’ve said that. I’ve just written an full intro about how broad and refreshingly different the WCAG sound is. We can definitely use it now. I can totally see metallers being in to you, too.
Art and Soul have also been drooling over White Clouds.. “catchy, melodic choruses and well composed bridges..the ability and enjoyment is abundant. Unsurprisingly, the audience love them. They have loads of local gigs coming up. Be sure to be at at least one of them.”
See www.myspace.com/whitecloudsandgunfire for those dates - and all the guys’ personal twitter accounts.
“Who can resist a dance in the sun?”
Posted by jamie on Apr 25, 2009
Nottingham’s A is for Ape have been one of the UK’s best underground bands for years now, storming their way through infectious horn riffs and inspiring high-speed skanking feet AND fists in pits wherever they’ve been, not least on this summer’s mini-jaunt through their native midlands.
Still tired, but visibly refreshed and carrying the beginnings of a promising tan, Nicky B (guitar/vocals) turned up after Jamie dangled some bread off a bridge on a fishing rod. We kept him for a quick chat, during which he lovingly referred to his band, A is for Ape, as “The Apes”, which gave us the giggles.
The apes are just home from their whistle-stop tour of the midlands, having taken in every metropolis from Derby to Leamington Spa that they found along the way. “One thing I realised on the road is how good the people of the ska and punk scene are. I mean I can’t imagine it’s our charisma, but people seemed to really go out of their way to help us along. We made some good friends and played with some awesome bands too”, he enthuses, scarcely topping for breath, “most notably Bigtopp, who rocked the Nottingham show with a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air mash up”.
“We’d be on the road more often but unfortunately our student days are over and until Fat Wreck come knocking on the door we have got day jobs to keep us alive, this tour was really a prelude to what we hope to achieve in the summer. We’re just starting to put together some dates and hope to get on a few festivals as that is really where this whole sweet genre really shines, who can resist a dance in the sun?”
There’s been talk of a follow-up to “Once More Over the 617” almost since it came out last May, and recent rumours *tease alert* even said that the classic “Winning a Loser’s Game” might get a new tarting up and an outing on the new album. “Since the last record we’ve been writing with the aim to put an album out later in the year”, says Nicky, “but what I’d like is to write, say, 30 songs and then cut them down to 15. That way we can have something that really shines, particularly as this genre is seeing some real talent emerge on the underground scene.
The guys are more encouraged since returning from the tour - we’ve had some good times along the way. However, we might have a couple of line-up changes heading our way as people struggle to mix band commitments with the rest of their lives. Hopefully this won’t happen, but, maybe, just maybe, prepare to see some new faces..
New faces, a new record, and some new tour dates. It’s all new for the Apes. After a summer of festivals and shows, of course. I mean, priorities, and all that..
