Q: Hi guys! With the release of ‘Almost Home’ coming up soon, can you tell us about the making of the record? What led you to choose the theme of home?
It ended up being a natural route to home, obviously the track ‘Almost Home’ played a big part in the actual naming of the album, but after a lot of discussion (there are 5 of us after all) we decided that the album reflected nicely the feeling of going home. The great thing about it, is it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people – it can be romantic, nostalgic, sad, happy, we felt it was a nice way to go about looking at the tracks and making them bind.
Q: After the success of your festival for the launch of ‘Wildfire’, are there any plans to something big for ‘Almost Home’? Perhaps a big house party?
It’s always tempting to do a lot more. Jules is continuing with Camp Wildfire now with her co-founder Lee Denny of Leefest so it’s in good hands and we still attend the festival after the first year of it being our launch party! We did a little gig on a house boat for the album a couple of weeks ago and we’re looking at other ideas, but obviously we are a band first and foremost and putting on large scale, one off events is very time consuming… so we’ll see!
Q: How much time do you get to devote to the band. Are you all full time?
We are full time yes. I was lucky enough to quit my job 4 years ago and am still going. We do all do little extra freelance bits of composing, producing, graphic design, festival running etc.. on the side as being in a band has it’s waves of busyness, but it’s amazing to be able to ‘be creative’ as a full time job!
Q: You’ve toured up and down the country. Do you have a favourite gig? I have fond memories of seeing you play in Nottingham…
Yes, I suppose it’d differ from band member to band member, I absolutely love touring and can honestly say I haven’t had a ‘bad’ gig for years. Some that stick out for me; Bordlerline, our first proper headline show in London on our first headline tour which sold out, just because it was an amazing milestone and the start of us as a touring band; Bellowhead support tour (every show!) just because of the chance to play with a legendary band, in absolutely massive sold out theatres to full audiences; Folk by the Oak festival because it was our first crazy big audience and we just weren’t expecting it, the vibe was nuts; Glastonbury Avalon cafe stage, we had a power cut and just carried on to an amazing crowd. Erm… Actually you know, I could go on for a long time, I’ll stop here. Oh and the first headline gig we did in Germany, Cologne, we got 3 encores and an actual busy audience and we weren’t expecting anyone to really show up! But seriously, there’s been some amazing shows, some with 20 people, some 2000 I love them all (bar perhaps a few just awful ones in the early years :)
Q: You are very creative with your artwork for the physical product (the train set on ‘A Pocket Guide to Escaping’ and the fold out house on ‘Almost Home’. Who comes up with these ideas?
I’m pretty sure Jules came up with both the trainset and house idea. I tend to do more of the actual song writing, then Tom and I now co-produce the albums and then we hand over and have a little rest after 6 months! Jules is great at coming up with little ideas and we sometimes veto a few, but most materialise in the end and we’re chuffed they do!
Q: Lastly, as the machine gears up in the next few weeks to tour the record and promote it, what is the one thing that you cant do without when you head out on tour?
Hmm I think our trusty little tour van has become part of the family, when we started touring, we were hiring these ridiculously big splitter tour vans with teles, fridges and leather recliners… We decided it may be more sensible (if we ever wanted to make a living from touring) to get our own little van, so with some help from mine and Jules parents (paying them back of course!) we got one and we’ve used it ever since, where ever we are in the world, we jump back in it and feel like we’re home!
FFS: Thanks guys! All the best for the album launch
Thanks very much!