Stornoway are a
nu-folk band from Oxford who have just released their latest mini-album “You Don’t
Know Anything” and are planning a third album.
Today we are setting
up for a technical rehearsal in a larger space in Oxford, so we are limbering
up, stretching, perfecting our choreography and cartwheels ‘and such’. It’s
naturally a buzz to be playing live again as it feels like it’s been a while
after a sizeable chunk of time writing and arranging.
2. You’ve
recently released a mini album “You Don’t Know Anything”, can you tell us
something about that?
It’s a collection of
tracks which didn’t seem to quite fit the mould on the album we released
earlier this year (Tales from Terra Firma), but we always wanted to put out in
some form. Maybe on the whole they’re a tiny bit more ‘day-glo’ or intrepid
production-wise and style-wise.
3. You’ve also
been discussing a 3rd studio album?
It’s early days: we’ve
just started writing and arranging some bits and pieces. So far it’s sounding a
bit more jagged and a bit saltier. The sonic equivalent of a friendly smack in
the chops.
4. When you
are writing, who are your influences?
I suppose I shouldn’t
really speak for Brian (who writes the majority of the songs), but from my
perspective when I hear his demos I generally don’t tend to hear transparent
influences. That tends to come later in the arranging process, where we
actively plunder from other songs and try it out on Stornoway songs. Sometimes
that works and sometimes it doesn’t! We’ve just released an EP where I suppose
you can hear a bit more overt stylistic playfulness … One of the tracks,
‘Clockwatching’, for example, sounds to me a bit B-52s-ish and Tom Waits-ish on
the surface, while another ‘The Sixth Wave’, has a pinch of Damon Albarn here
and a dash of Bellowhead brass there.
5. If you had
to share a stage with any band dead or alive, who would it be and why?
My answer to this
would change on any given day, but currently it would be great to have John
Cale play some electric viola on a few songs. Aside from being a real pioneer,
he’d lend things a slightly darker tone!
6. You’ve
toured the UK and Europe pretty extensively over the years, where is your
favourite place to play your music and why
That’s a very
difficult question to answer. So far probably playing acoustic at the Crow’s
Nest at Glastonbury. It’s up on a hill near the Park Stage, so maybe the
atmosphere is how it is because the people that came really wanted to be there!
7. Your music
taste usually stems through what your parents listened to, did they influence
your taste growing up or did you find another source?
Well my dad likes Meat
Loaf and Gilbert & Sullivan and I’ve managed to resist liking them so far.
But then again, he is also slightly fixated on the sound of the saxophone,
which I used to find pretty rebarbative (mainly thanks to 80s things like
‘Careless Whisper’ and Kenny G) but I have come round to liking. My mum reads
the NME and knows more about new bands than I do. Should I be worried?
8. I first
discovered you when one of your songs was iTunes’ single of the week, how
important do you think the internet and social media is for promoting bands?
Would you say it’s easier because you can reach listeners more, or harder
because there also hundreds of other bands doing the same?
Well I’m glad you came
across us (thanks to iTunes). If you’re a new band, social media is clearly
such a vital and everyday means of talking with your fans and on the surface
there’s now a more natural interaction between fan and musician, without so
much interference by third parties, especially when a band is unsigned. But I
suppose it’s now a bit harder to get heard in some ways as there’s so much more
‘chatter’ going on. It’s probably no longer enough to be just a half-decent
band: you have to be doing something extra special and imaginative to get
anyone’s attention, both in terms of your music and the manner in which you
promote yourself. We’re lucky in that we have an existing audience who like
coming to shows, so I suppose reaching listeners on social media sites has the
potential to be more straightforward…but still, social media are fires that
have to be ‘stoked’ everyday (mostly by good old Oli). I should put a
disclaimer in here in that I’m not really a social media person (I don’t
actually use twitter or bookface), so I’m probably the worst person to ask!
9. You’re name
after the Scottish island because it was far away and you had never been, it’s
been 7 years since you started the band, have you been to Stornoway yet?
Yes we have – a couple
of times in fact. Aside from the music, we visited the famous Standing Stones
of Callanish and went for a heart-stoppingly cold swim in the sea!
10.Vinyl sales
this year have hit a peak for the past decade, do you feel like the physical
aspect of listening to music is returning?
Have they? That’s
really interesting in terms of what it says about us as music buyers. I wonder
who is doing all the buying though? I imagine physical music will remain a
pretty niche area, unless people start making memory drives that are somehow
rendered beautiful, and worth having in their own right!
11.In 2009 you
became the first ever unsigned band to appear on Jools Holland, how did that
feel?
I’ve watched it since
I was 13 or something, so what an unbelievable honour it was to be asked! It
was the first bits of TV that we ever did. Because it’s all done in a circle,
there’s a leveling aspect to it, and it goes without saying music’s not some
kind of competition. Still, we were surrounded by all these musical behemoths
like Jay-Z, Dave Grohl and Sting, so to say we were a little over-awed would be
an understatement. In the days leading up to it, we had a laugh about it, but I
think you can see the terror in our eyes! The first song was not particularly
fluid, but I think we found our swing by the second…
12.Where would
you like to see Stornoway in 5 years?
Hopefully I will have
got that Noah song out of my head by then. With any luck, we will have a troupe
of lithe acrobats who will tour with us and perform while we tour South Africa,
Russia and Japan. They’ll be a little distracting, but our audiences will feel
they’ve got their money’s worth. Rob will be quite busy then with his art by
then, so will occasionally appear via hologram (technology will improve quite
quickly over the next five years). Hopefully I will be allowed to perform in a
bag, as per Yoko Ono c.1969. Oli will be throwing himself into ever more
implausible crowd surfing situations, and Brian will get to don his nuthatch
costume every night.
Got any good
jokes?
Brian’s joke of the
day is: “What do you call a man with no arms or no legs who swims the channel..... A clever dick.”
What is your
favourite colour and why?
Deep tuscan red.
Because it sounds slightly pompous.
If you had to
be an animal, which one would you be and why?
A porcupine. Because
Rob just showed me a really silly video of one noisily eating a pumpkin and it
had strange orange front teeth.
Interview by Will Whitby