The electro trio are coming our way in January – better get your dancing shoes on!
Larry had a chance to chat to the band ahead of their tour. Here’s what went down….
So you’re about to head down to Australia for the first time, playing a few club shows, Pyramid Rock on New Years, Field Day not long after, and of course the boutique festival Days Like This! at the end of your Australian stint. What are you most excited about on the tour … our fine Australian Summer no doubt?
Oh yes indeed. We cant wait to soak up your summer. Its such a treat for us for some winter warmth. We’ve been chasing it a lot recently quite successfully. We were in Miami a few weeks back and we need the sun again. And we have some time off in-between the shows which is rare for us so we want to go around a bit and see some nice things. The food in Australia is so good so we’ll be eating a lot for sure! Thomas and Dede have been to Australia before. Buts its going to be Darren’s first time.
What can Australian fans expect from your live show?
Well we depend on the audience a lot for our shows. We really try to create a party atmosphere where we’re dancing and the you’re dancing too and we’re all singing together. Its a bit of organised chaos on stage because there’s only three of us and we’re all doing so much. We all sing and Thomas is playing bass and guitar and Dede is doing live and electronic percussion. And Darren is playing synth and drums and samples. We like as little separation between us and the audience as possible, we get sweaty so you have to too. We are most definitely not shoegazers!
And what do you expect of Australian fans (e.g. what would make us the greatest crowds you’ve ever played to as per the “WHB MANIFESTO”?)
Everybody tells us that Australian fans are crazy so we hope thats true. I guess for European bands its such a long distance between us and you and we cant come over so often so we really want to make it count and the fans must feel that too. Fans in the UK get spoilt a bit and can be a little bit cynical at times. And everybody knows that Australians really know how to party and that fits us perfectly. We have high hopes and we don’t want to be let down!
Looking at the Australian festivals you’re playing, have you had a chance to look at the line-ups yet? Is there anyone you’re excited to be seeing / playing along side?
Yeah for sure we have and theres so much we like. LCD Soundsytem, Empire Of The Sun, Cat Power, Michachu & The Shapes, 2manydjs, Presets, Fake Blood. There is really a lot we want to see. Also Grizzly Bear are touring Australia around the same time as us so we want to catch them for sure. We’ve been in touch with each other for a while, with mutual musical crushes, but just on the internet so we finally want to meet.
I imagine it’s been a fairly surreal year in those regards –playing V festival and travelling the world, playing alongside some of the biggest bands in the world … Looking back on 2009, what are some of the highlights?
Its been totally unbelievable. Glastonbury festival was insane and V and really all the festivals we did because it was all our first time. We’ve been punters at these festivals so many times so to be on stage was like whats going on here! The traveling in general has blown us away, we’ve been to America 3 times this year and Russia twice and just about everywhere in Europe you can think of. And without a doubt the moment we got an Australian tour confirmed ranks right at the top with surreal moments. We couldn’t believe it because its somewhere that bands often have to wait a long time to get to but we’re doing it so soon. It’s truly an honor.
And what of the challenges as an up and coming band travelling the world?
We’re really heavily involved in everything this band does and we clear every little decision so that’s pretty hard when things get busy. But its important to us to know that we’re being represented in the truest way everywhere. And its nice for people to know that everything you see from us is actually us. Our friends do our design and stuff like that so its really as close to us as it can be. Being in a band is definitely harder work than we ever imagined, particularly is the current music climate, but we wouldn’t ever change a thing. We know we’re extremely lucky to do what we do.
Would it be fair to say that working at EMI (where the three of you met), helped prepare you for some of the challenges that bands normally face?
Actually we wouldn’t really say it is. Apart from anything else the crossover of the bands creation and us all working at EMI was only about 2 months. We started this band on our way out. Darren worked at a bar for far longer during this band than being at EMI! But you know the real thing about it is that it was great fun working there and musically it was immense, going to so many gigs and listening to music all the time but its such a big machine that to really get close to any creativity is super hard. Obviously if you’re an A&R guy then you will but if you’re someones assistant it isn’t really gonna happen. Maybe if we worked at a smaller independent label like Rough Trade or something it would be a different story because it must be all a bit closer and more family like. But even then maybe not, we don’t know.
Looking back to home now, how has London been to We Have Band?
Would you consider the hometown crowd the best to play to?
London is very good for us but we’ve worked at it for a really long time too. Because its our home town we obviously played there more than anyone else so our relationship with people is most developed there. But some other cities are catching up fast. Paris and New York are pretty wild now because we’ve been there a lot. Moscow is insane too, we’ve been there twice this year.
I notice your giving away single “Honeytrap” as a free download on your website. How important do you think the internet has been to your success?
The internet is great and thats all there is to say about it really. Its free, its open, it spreads so fast and its real. its not about a label pumping money into advertising or anything. Its just people talking and responding how they feel. We love it. So its cool to give stuff away and spread the love.
Of course, the giveaway is in lead up to your debut album “WHB” in early 2010. Can you tell us a little about the making of the album? What can fans expect? … I do hope ‘cowbell’ is part of your answer.
Well the album is called WHB which is also a track on it and was the first song we ever wrote. Its a pretty dark song actually and there’s a few of those. There’s some slower tracks too and generally it just has a wider span than the singles. But it was mostly written around the same time so its still coherent we hope. Theres also a song on it called Hero Knows that was inspired by Harvey Milk. The whole album is a journey and hopefully an enjoyable one. And yes there is some cowbell for sure!
I notice you guys have done quite a few remixes in the last few years. Can you give us the heads up on anything else set to appear in the near future?
Actually we cant! We’re asking some very good people now about remixes for the next singles. You’ll have to wait and see.
When you release a remix – what’s the process involved – how do you pick a song? Is it something you all work on collectively? One of these remixes was of Bloc Party’s “Halo”, which they included on their Intimacy Remixed LP. How did this come about?
Thomas mans the computer but we all work on remixes together. Its a bit of a rabble actually. We all shout ideas out and try out things. Its fun to work on someone else’s music because you’re free from any of your own musical boundaries. We normally pick something we like most like a beat or a melody and then cut out everything else and then rebuild the song with our new framework.
Bloc party happened because the label asked us to do it. The same with Peter, Bjorn & John. We’re not really sure how the bands choose but for us we think of people we like and just ask them. We’ve done quite a lot now so we get asked more and more which is nice.
And finally, once your Australian tour is out of the way, and you’re enjoying the release of your debut LP – what’s next for the band in 2010?
Well theres still a lot more to be done after Australia and before record comes out. We talking about videos for singles now and remixes as we mentioned. And planning more tours. Its never ending! We’ll have a busy festival season again for sure and then its time to start album two!
