Hot Club De Paris

Interview

I Interviewed Hot Club De Paris @ Pandapalooza festival. I spoke to Matthew Smith from the band. (The others were there too, he just talks LOADS!)

J: Hi Guys
All: Hi
J: So do you enjoy doing these university gigs?
Matt: Well they can be quite wide and varied bunch of shows. They can be amazing, or they can be the most horrific nights of your life, playing for 600 people who aren’t bothered.
J: That’s the thing with students; they can get really drunk and have an amazing time but they get bored quite easily.
M: Yeah, well it really depends, last night we played Kings College, and it was a lad we know that booked the show, and it was sold out, like 600 tickets and it was absolutely brilliant. But we’ve done stuff before that’s not been.
J: What have you been up to over the summer?
M: We’ve just finished recording a new EP, that’s coming out in January. We’re back on Moshi Moshi again, our old label. And we’re going to record something with Paul Smith from Maximo Park as well. We’re doing a track with him at the moment. We’re going to do a cover of ‘Cattle and Cane’ by ‘The Go Betweens’, he’s coming down to do the vocals next week, so I don’t know what we’re going to do with that.
J: Sounds good. So for people here tonight who have never heard of you before, how would you describe yourself?
M: Ha, yeah, that’ll be like 95% of the audience tonight. As we get older and the students get younger, there are more and more people who have never heard of us. Yeah, technical pop music, lean and taught (laughs). Yeah, were just quite technical, quite fast, fairly non standard sort of arrangements, a bit of a laugh really, isn’t it? Three lads having a laugh. That’s what most bands are really.
J: Who would you say your influences were?
M: Bands like ‘The Minute Men’, ‘Joan of Arc’, ‘Don Caballero’. I suppose, all kinds, just punk bands. Loads of experimental rock bands. Just anything progressive and interesting really, not ‘indie’, or not what is now known as ‘indie’, so independent music, made by people who like making music.
J: What can people expect from one of you r live shows?
M: About 40 minutes of us all standing in a row talking and playing songs, yeah just doing our best trying to go along with it really. Trying to cater for a drunk teenage crowd. One way or another it would be quite nice, or if the crowds not nice we’ll just be really really quick, then just pack up and go (laughs). Yeah, you could definitely expect us to be on the motorway less than 10 minutes after we’ve finished. Yeah we’re driving home to Liverpool tonight, it’s not too bad, we’ll be in bed by 4 in the morning, because you just stay and get pissed most of the time if you don’t. If we ended up getting a hotel, we’d just get pissed and be up until 4 in the morning anyway, (laughs).
J: So have you got anything planned for next year, where would you like to be?
M: Yeah, two EP’s and an album, yeah we’ve got like a 6 song EP coming out in January, hopefully followed up by another 6 song EP in March.
J: Do they have titles yet?
M: Yeah, the first one’s called ‘With days like this as cheap as chewing gum, why would anyone want to work’, it’s a quote from Matthew Welton, he’s a poet from Manchester. And I’m not sure what we’re going to call the second one, probably sorry we can’t release this (laughs), no I think it’ll be ‘bees, thunder, cats ,women, darkness’. It’s 5 things that people are afraid of. They were the answers to a quiz, and we thought it sounded funny when we were pissed, and it’s become the name of the record.
J: So have you got any tours planned.
M: Yeah a tour in January for the first EP and then another tour in March for the second, and then some stuff in Europe.
J: Cool, thanks guys.
All: Cheers.

Pandapalooza Festival

Pandapallooza 24th September

Bucks Students’ Union held its very first ‘Pandapalooza festival’ on Thursday night (24th) during its action packed fresher’s fortnight. In true festival form there were live Bands, market stalls, food and even a chill out area, making sure that all the fresher’s needs were properly catered for.
Kicking off the festival was Southampton band ‘Burn the Fleet’. Combining their heavy rock riffs with frontman Andrew Convey’s melodic voice was a real winner for the crowd, and they ensured their audience was captivated for the whole of their set.
Next we crossed over to the Venue, where we were treated to an extra special acoustic set by Tom from Towers, (formally ‘Waiting for Sirens’). Armed with just an acoustic guitar and his beautiful voice, Tom won over most of the excited audience, and when joined by Andrew from ‘Burn the Fleet’ for an acoustic duet, the rest of the crowd followed.
Back in the White room, eager fans were waiting for ‘Post War Years’ to take to the stage. Describing their sound as ‘ambient’, their set was 30 minutes of pure electronic beauty. Despite feeling stupidly sleepy after they’d finished, I thoroughly enjoyed it along with the rest of the crowd. Stand out tracks for me were ‘White Lies’, and ‘The Whole World on Its Head’, which can be found on the album ‘The Greats and the Happenings’. The band is also embarking on a UK tour supporting indie band White Lies. Kicking off on September 21st, the band will tour until October, releasing their new single in November as they prepare to stamp their mark all over 2010.
Going back to the Venue for the final time this evening, we were joined by ‘Eat Sleep Attack’, aka Sammy Little. Having spent most of the afternoon busking outside the union Sam decided to venture indoors and unleash his powerful pop tunes on the eager audience. His songs are both charming and sweet, definitely a worthwhile listen if its catchy pop music you’re after.
Finally, as the night was drawing to a close the crowd shuffled back into the White room for one last time, as the headliners, ‘Hot Club De Paris’, took to the stage. The three piece from Liverpool, who describe themselves as ‘3 lads having a laugh’, combine catchy riffs with their love of experimental indie, to create wonderful pop punk tunes that you can really dance to. Having earlier mocked the crowd as being ‘the stillest audience in the UK’, they were soon proved wrong, as a mini pit formed and a mass of sweaty students abandoned the room as the band left the stage.
As resident DJ’s took to the stage I decided to call it a night and I think overall it was an enjoyable night for everyone, even if the freshers got so drunk they forgot everything..

Alas...

I have been away for quite sometime now...Some would say having a well earned rest, I, on the other hand would say that I have been studying meticulously...Cramming in every last possible thought and idea that I could possibly use for my dissertation. Panicking? Me? I think not. Every fibrous inch of my brain has been working hard, and although as of yet I haven't come up with a single thing, fear not, something will inevitably spring into my mind, in what I think is now described as a 'eureka moment'...Yes, I very much look forward to having one of those...
Anyway, I did originally say that this was a professional blog, not one for noting down the ramblings of my brain. This is, however, just to let you all know that I am still alive...
Ciao
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