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Hello! Objective third-person
narratives, stereotypical ironic humour and hyperbole
at the ready: this is Los Campesinos!’s biography, in all its clichéd
glory.
So, where to start… Well, the band came together
in Cardiff city, Wales. Though none of the band are actually
from Cardiff, they’re fans of the Super Furry Animals
and agree that Jason Koumas is one of the Championship’s
finest footballers. These points alone were enough to
cement the lovely place to both their left and right
ventricles.
It was March of 2006 when the
band reached its seven-headed form. It started in some
way a little time before though, with Neil (guitar),
Ollie (drums) and Ellen (bass) getting together to ‘jam’ on Wednesday afternoons
so that they wouldn’t have to take part in university
sports afternoon. Then, in one chance romantic encounter
in the Cardiff Barfly, Tom (lead guitar) joined the fray.
He overheard the words “The Decemberists” in
Neil’s conversation and butted in. Fat was chewed
and it was revealed that Tom could play guitar. He modestly
informed Neil that he wasn’t very good and then
turned up to practice with a myriad pop smashes hidden
under his hat. It was at this time that the first loveably
shoddy demos were recorded, primarily using a microphone
plugged into a laptop and placed in the middle of the
room as this foetal version of LC! played songs around
it… Oooh, they’re SO indie.
Gareth (vocals, glockenspiel),
who lived with Neil, subsequently heard the aforementioned
demos, “became hugely
jealous” (his own words) and decided he wanted
to be in the band (interesting story as an aside: Gareth
and Neil met on their first day of university, whilst
Neil was unrolling his signed Sonic Youth poster and
Gareth was wearing a Sonic Youth t-shirt: Meant. To.
Be.). Anyway, it turned out he was right about being
in the band.
Next came Harriet. She was a
good friend of Neil’s
and had the attractive, if incongruous, quality of being
an ‘actual musician’. Harriet brought both
a violin and an ability to read music to the band, and
nobody could really ask for anything more than that.
Except maybe for a ginger Russian girl.
And so last to join Team Campesinos!
was Aleks. The band knew they wanted another girl in
their ranks to correct the massive imbalance of testosterone
that oozed from all the boys’ (and some of the girls’)
pores. Preferably they wanted a girl who could sing,
and Ellen said she knew somebody who fitted that exact
criteria. Without having even met her, let alone heard
her, Aleks hopped on board. Fortunately, she COULD sing
and now at least there would be enough members on stage
to provide some sort of distraction from the fact that
the band’s
musicianship left a little (a lot) to be desired. It
also meant that it would now only cost £2.15 each
to hire a practice room per session. That seemed a reasonably
affordable amount, and so it was decided that the band
didn’t need any more new friends and they got on
with proper band stuff.
They played their first gig on
May 8th 2006, in the side room of a rather shady venue,
while a Pendulum gig took place in the room opposite.
You couldn’t really
hear the quiet bits of Los Campesinos!’s songs
due to the Drum and Bass pounding next door, but it wasn’t
so much of a contrast, because you couldn’t hear
the band’s loud bits either due to the shoddy nature
of all equipment involved and soundmen who noticeably
shuddered when they saw they were going to have to mic
up a violin. Arguably (probably), it was best for everyone
involved that no-one heard the band. They weren’t
very good.
However, a rather fortunate turn
of events involving a moderately successful demo recording
session and the consequent and unashamed whoring of
said demos on music message boards, saw the band ascend
to the heady heights of rock’n’roll glory where people actually
ASKED them to perform. They went on to play with people
like Broken Social Scene and Danielson Famile (actual
proper bands! And rather good ones at that): an honour
for our seven-piece. And then, somewhat foolishly, the
lovely Wichita Recordings signed them up. There have
since been a spattering of gigs, not to mention the release
of their debut 7” (see details below) back in
February, but with their heavy academic shackles the
band has been limited to playing only when essays aren’t
due.
The end (or glorious beginning,
depending on which way you’re looking at it) is at last in sight, however:
the academic ball is about to crash in a big heap of
failed exams, while the big fat ball of rock’n’roll
cliché has begun to roll…forwards. With
the onset of Summer 2007 comes travelling, playing, recording
and yet more hard graft (although this time of the non-academic
variety) for LC!. Their second single “You! Me!
Dancing!” is set for release in June, together
with a handful of live dates, including a show at London’s
Scala before the band head Stateside for their first
North American tour, and finally to Canada (eh) to record
their debut album with Broken Social Scene producer extraordinaire
and all-round nice guy David Newfeld. There will also
be a few of their first festival stop-offs along the
way (to be announced). Their debut album is then planned
for release at the start of 2008. Woop!
And here’s where the band biography gets troublesome,
for we’ve reached the point where we must put the
background to bed and describe LC!’s ‘sound’.
Rather than offer some obvious, essentialising, and not
to mention limiting comparisons, nor ubiquitous adjectives
like ‘scratchy’ or ‘shambolic’,
we’ll just tell you that this band play ‘pop’ songs.
They’re kinda melodic, maybe even ‘joyous’.
Maybe they have too much going on at once. Maybe not
enough. But they like to try and make the most of all
the instrumentation they have and like to sing about
the ‘Three R’s, human anatomy, mixx tapes,
fighting, other peoples’ bands, girls/boys and
disappointment.
Phew. The band are very sorry
you’ve had to read
this pompous description of what is, hyperbole aside,
just some people playing songs they like. They hope you’ll
find it in your collective heart to forgive them, and,
maybe, just listen to their songs and applaud/slander
as you see fit. The end. Close Biography |
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