TO MY BOY ARE ONE OF THE MOST AWESOME FUCKING BANDS ON THE PLANET... and for some reason they are nice enough to keep doing stuff for your favourite Brit-blog... such as this interview! Jack from To My Boy took some time to answer ridiculous questions that I came up with on break at work...
Patch: Hello Jack! As usual this is an email interview, so you and I aren't
actually talking, but how are you doing today?
Jack: good thanks.. we just flew back from doing a couple of gigs in Prague
and Vienna. Proper mint trip.
Patch: Fantastic to hear! Say hi to Sam for me... unless he's with us on this
interview and I say hello to you too Sam! I wanted to mention, right out of
the gate, that it is completely impossible to search for any information
about you guys on the internet! Are you aware of this? You're as bad as
that band with all the porno words in their name!
Jack: Yep..its a curse. Maybe try using speech marks round the whole name
Patch: Because of this I'm going to have to ask for a little bio info...
Jack: We formed at University in Durham (I was studying physics and Sam was
doing History of Art) and formed a 4 piece band out of boredom.. then
i started writing demos on the computer to teach the bass player and
the drummer to play stuff more simply - we realised the demos were
better than the sounds we could make with the real instruments.
We played lots of house parties in Durham for a few months, got signed
via an unlikely sequence of events, left Uni and moved to Liverpool.
Patch: Ok next up... you've got some fantastic promo pictures, the coolest of
which is you to standing in some sort of spaceship like corridor. Where the
hell is that? Did you guys get to go to the Russian space station? Because
that would be pretty baller and would explain a lot...
Jack: Thats actually an alley-way in Liverpool (down by the side of Cash
Converters) which was renovated as part of Capital of Culture '08. We
filmed the video for the Grid there until we got chased off by the
police.
Patch: I see I see. Unlike a lot of the other bands that have had the "new rave"
tag thrown at them you guys make music that is dissimilar to just about
everyone out there. A lot of your contemporaries are only distinguishable
by their ID3 tags, whereas, as soon as you hear one of your songs you know
it's To My Boy. Is this just the product of self expression or did you sit
down at one point and say 'we're going to make sure we don't sound like
anyone else'? (I'm not trying to be an idiot asking that, it's just
sometimes you say "I'm gonna go out of my way to not sound like my peers
because I don't want to be a ______ clone"... when I write songs I think "I
love Justice but I don't want to sound like them" and make a conscious
decision to not write music like that)
Jack: It was just a combination of things we love. Both club music and indie
music are really important to us so we took what we saw as 'the best
bits' from each > the ideas, melodies and song structures from indie
music .....and the production and sounds from electro.
we started before the term 'nu-rave' existed ... i think its probably
damaged us a bit being lumped in with all those bands - made us seem a
bit novelty.
Patch: Since we're on the topic of sound, what are some of your influences? This
doesn't have to be music, it can be film or paintings or a really shitty day
in October 2001. Anything goes! Have at it!
Jack: Albert and his Grid, Cosmic Fashion and his Wonderful Circus, Goddard,
Wikipedia, Panic! at the Disco, Mr Oizo, John Pilger, Ultimate Frisbee
(a trully modern sport) and Kate Bush
Patch: Gross. Gosh I'm not sure you needed to go into such graphic detail but 'ask
and ye shall receive' I guess! Not a really original question here but what
have you guys been listening to recently?
Jack: Quite a mixture of things really - we rediscovered Dogs Die in Hot
Cars (godhopping is a massive tune), we really like Late Of The Pier
(best new band at the moment), the new MIA album, Hounds of Love
(album) by Kate Bush, great new producers like Crookers, Hervé, Sinden
and Switch. Even a bit of Belle and Sebastian.
Patch: Any collaborations coming up?
Jack: We've literally just been in studio with some London based electro
barons who are working on an album at the moment. Not sure if im
allowed to mention any names but it went well.
Patch: And while we're on the topic of working with other people I have to say that
your remixes have been fucking awesome. That goes both ways. Both the
remix you have done ("Gravity's Rainbow" is the only one I am aware of) and
those that have been done for you are fab-oo. Care to divulge any names of
remixes (song wise for yourself or other artists) or remixers we'll see tied
to you soon? Are you guys going to do some more remixing work or even some
production work?
Jack: we're into doing remixes (although we prefer to be
writing new songs when we have free time) we have a ridiculously fast
one we did of Pull Tiger Tail.... one for I Was A Cub Scout and
another for Example. Its a fun thing to be able to do..especially if
you're a fan of the song.
Patch:And last off, we're nearing the end of summer and that means that festivals
are drawing to a close (in fact they are all done here in the U.S. for the
most part)... which artist was your favourite to watch this summer?
Jack: I watched Bjork at Glastonbury .. that was pretty mad. It was like
watching a massive pagan ritual with a huge brass section.. a bizarre
spectacle!
Patch: I appreciate all the info, you album "Messages" is out now and is pure
fucking magic, you guys are gods and please say anything you want to lead us
out of this interview..............
Jack: Glad u like Messages, we really want to get over to the U.S and play
it to our fans over there. hopefully that will happen soon, when our
label gets its act together. we're looking forward to more touring and
recording our next record > which shud b ready next year. love & speed
X
AND AS IF THAT WEREN'T AWESOME ENOUGH THEY GAVE US A TRACK TO POST! You may have already seen it over at Palms Out Sounds but that doesn't make it any less awesome... so get your download on and leave comments about how awesome TMB are in the comments...
To My Boy- "Type 1/Type 2"
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