Interview: Spectres

“I remember waking up with a really bad hangover and being in a new band”, admits Spectres vocalist/guitarist Joe Hatt.
For a band birthed after a booze-sodden evening, Bristol-based fuzzsters Spectres have conjured a sizzling distorted guitar sound packing enough bite to obliterate any cobwebs lingering after a heavy night on the sauce.
With early comparisons to US indie-rock behemoths Sonic Youth and sumptuous dream-pop pioneers My Bloody Valentine, the four-piece are a best-kept secret of ground-breaking proportions, a group whose clinical brand of soul-smothering noise penetrates the senses like a wild nailgun.
Jarvis Cocker may have famously sang “do you remember the first time?”, but do you remember the first time you slapped Sonic Youth’s ‘Dirty’ into your beloved Walkman and shook with awe as Thurston Moore’s gloopy guitar hooks became etched onto your psyche? Or do you remember drowning in the spectral soundscape that omitted from MBV’s emotionally-drowning classic ‘Loveless’? What about the super-dirty bassline on Jesus and Mary Chain’s Sidewalking? Shamefully, these heady days of noise pop emerged more than 20 years ago; even more tragic is how this wondrous genre has barely touched the UK’s radar over the past decade.
Thankfully, all this is about to change – step forward Spectres.
Luminous Plectrum took time out with vocalist/guitarist Joe Hatt and axe-man Adrian Dutt for their first ever interview.

Spectres are undoubtedly emerging talents. After forming 18 months ago, the band, consisting of Joe and Adrian, drummer Darren Frost and bassist Ben Curtis, made the ingenious move from hometown Barnstaple, Devon, and set up home in Bristol, one of the UK’s finest and most exciting cities.
Most of their ground work for success was put in after Darren was ruled out injured for six months with a broken leg.
“We all came form mediumly-successful bands, but were never satisfied with the musical style”, said Adrian.
“After much chitter-chatter and broken promises we did some jamming and realised we were what we’d been searching for. Personally for me, I’ve just been collecting my favourite musicians in order to create the noisiest band ever. You’d be surprised how easy it is to convince drunk boys that ‘being in a band with me’ will make their dreams come true.”
Joe agrees. “Yeah, I remember waking up with a really bad hangover and being in a new band.
“I enjoyed being in my old band, but it was never really that serious – well, it was for me actually, but it was more of a social thing by the end of it. I think it was always inevitable that we were going to do something together!”.

Since the move, things have been on the up. They’ve just dropped stunning debut EP 'Family', produced by Rory Attwell from Male Bonding. The EP was recorded over a period of two days in “deepest darkest Dalston”, says Adrian.
He said: “'Family' was written over the period of a few months.
“The songs constantly evolved, we fell out and in of love with some, but around February we knew we have five songs that were ready to be unleashed.
“Our sound has constantly evolved too. We knew we wanted walls of noise, but still enough melody for it to be enjoyable.
“The bass has to be a constant driving force, so we can build the guitars around it.

We’ve already touched upon the clear influence Sonic Youth have on their material, but it turns out Joe bought his first ever Sonic Youth CD from his band mate.
He said: “I bought my first ever Sonic Youth CD from Adrian about six years ago after I’d run out of Pink Floyd albums to buy.
“I do listen to a lot of Sonic Youth, and I am definitely influenced by them in quite a few ways’ musically, artistically, and in terms of how a band should be run.
“In terms of other bands, I think me and Darren going to the Nightmare Before Christmas ATP a couple of years ago and seeing A Place To Bury Strangers blow our hangovers out of our ears was a landmark moment.”
Adrian added: “For me, Sonic Youth had existed in my periphery for years, but I had never properly indulged. I think had we all been into Sonic Youth in a big way, Spectres would sound different.
“My influences are angular, spazzy bands like ‘The Plot to Blow Up The Eiffel Tower’, ‘Settlefish’ and bands with a loud/quiet dynamic, not epic post rock, but visceral in your face changes.”

The dizzying 'Family' EP was dropped on Soundcloud three months ago and the reaction has been positive. But Adrian admits taking that first step from safely sharing the material with friends and family to the wider audience was a scary one.
He said: “We never really got our old songs out beyond our friends, so this step into the big wide world is scary, but rewarding.
“Audiences are generally either really into us, or holding their ears. We did have a bad run of being billed alongside folk bands, which really didn’t work!
“My favourite song on the EP is probably Elephant Skin – it happened so naturally, a jam which turned into this driving Velvet Underground-style tribal call to arms. It’s better live than on record, as Joe’s glasses usually fall off.”

Getting Male Bonding’s Rory Attwell on board to produce their fuzz-infused spectrum of glorious art pop is somewhat of a coup, and the band have nothing but kind words to say about him and his methods in capturing the rawness of their live performances and slathering it into the record.
“Rory is like a wizard, in a knitted jumper and nice patterned shirts”, said Adrian. “He had some great ideas during the recorded process, and he captured the live sound perfectly.
“He is literally a genius, and he knows where the good sandwich shops are, AND he lives football – shame he supports a naff team.”
Joe said: “Yep, he knew what to do with us straight away. That’s why we managed to get five songs recorded and mastered in two days, and exactly how we wanted them to sound, which had been almost impossible up until then.
“I think Rory pretty much nailed how I’d want us to sound through stereo speakers.”

How do Spectres view their career so far? “The move to Bristol was a big turning point,” admits Adrian. “I’d been wanting to leave for ages, and said that come January this year, I was moving whatever, which would have been a shame to leave the band behind, but we have sorted ourselves out, got up here and are definitely making the most of it.”
Joe said: “I think we’ve achieved what we wanted to, in terms of forming a band and making the music we love.
“We are lucky enough to be able to now take that music and play it to strangers, and those strangers in turn say nice things to us and sometimes even buy things from us which helps us to buy new leads and stuff.
“Personal achievements for me are my cycling proficiency badge and the 50-metre backstroke – both acquired in the last few months. Also, I finally grew up.”

In our opinion, 'Family' EP is the start of a fruitful future for Spectres, but where do they see themselves in the next year or so? Adrian hopes to see Darren Frost performing every gig in his pants.
He said: “We want to expose as many people as we can to our music, and hopefully tour more, play more festivals, and record an album. All that in the next 12 months please.”
Joe added: “It would be nice to have people eagerly awaiting a new EP or even an album, and for it not have to take about 326 emails to different venues to get a tour of seven dates. “I'd like for Bristol to get more coverage as well; coverage away from the usual scenes it is labelled with like drum ‘n’ bass etc as there are some really exciting bands here.
“It would also be nice to have the tremelo arm on my Jazzmaster fixed, and for Sheffield Wednesday to be in the Championship, with Gary Megson on a missing persons list.”

Some could call it Male Bonding, but a strong connection between this blog and Spectres has clearly formed, one that humbles mountains and shines as bright as a twinkling clear night sky. Adrian and Joe clearly agree.
Adrian adds: “Come and watch us live – it’s well good, and we have a plethora of good ghost stories if you need a scare. I once saw a Victorian boy who died in a well. I followed him all the way into the undergrowth in the woods, and there was this hidden well.
“Scary. I don’t follow boys in woods often though.”
Joe concludes: “Thank you for inviting us to our first ever interview. We are now bonded forever and you can come to our funeral.”

Readers can pre-order the 'Family' EP from Howling Owl Records or Rough Trade. Check out Elephant Skin and Surrogate Mother below.

We heart new music here at Luminous Plectrum. If you are in a band and would like to be featured on the blog, get in touch by e-mailing luminous_plectrum@hotmail.co.uk, or follow us on Twitter at @luminousplectrm

Elephant Skin by Spectres

Surrogate Mother by Spectres

The Disappeared share new material with Luminous Plectrum

BACK in October last year, Luminous Plectrum were fortunate enough to feature Manchester-based four-piece The Disappeared.
Thankfully, they are back with a fresh bunch of tighter sounding quintessentially British indie-pop songs and fortunately they've lost
none of the relevance, attitude and urgency that made them firm favourites here in the first place.

'First up is Eight Miles Down', a song lead singer Jeremy Santhouse says is on the uncommon topic of suicide - sparked from the untimely death of a friend.

He said: "My friend's untimely, self-caused death shocked me in a way that I couldn't have foreseen.
"For starters, I was more angry than sad. I wanted to shake him by the shoulders and shout at him for being so selfish, and for causing so much anguish to those around him. Hence the song’s opening line is 'I can't believe my ears, what the hell were you thinking?'".
"The middle section of the song contains two ancient honorifics for the deceased: “may your memory always be for a blessing on your family” and “may your soul always be bound up” (…traditionally finished with… in the bonds of eternal life or similar words.)"

'Eight Miles Down' may be driven by warming guitar pop, but Jeremy's tender lyrics superbly and carefully depict the emotional rollercoaster of grief.
Although the song has been birthed from an unfortunate scenario, it shows Jeremy's writing is evolving.
Crafting a pop song on the death of a friend must be a difficult process, but Jeremy does it with confidence and 'Eight Miles Down' is now surely a benchmark for better things to come.

Another new effort is 'Some Trusts (Are Self-Evident)', a song with an important message, according to Jeremy.

He said: "'Some Truths...' started life as a letter to my step-son. I wanted to show him that, whoever you are, wherever you live and whatever you believe in, some things in life are always, objectively, right.
"The song's message is this: if we as a wealthy, modern-day, society can’t help those around us who need it, whether it’s the sick, the young, the elderly or those less well-off, that failure diminishes us all.
"I'm not alone in this view. The huge growth (and success) of charity telethons and high profile benefit concerts in the last 25 years shows there is a general recognition that sometimes other people do need our help. And, more importantly, that the rest of us can do something about it.
"The title is a play on the start of the US Declaration of Independence, which states: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'"

The final new song from The Disappeared is 'Make Me Rich, Don't Make Me Poor' - a good old-fashioned love song straying away from the darker side of their material.

Jeremy said: Written one evening from a set of lyrics that emerged almost fully formed, this song was intended to be played on a single acoustic guitar.
"It's very unlike anything I've written before; no references to death, politics, social injustice.
"It's an old-fashioned love song, nothing complicated.
Got me lots of extra “boyfriend points” from Mrs The Disappeared too. I’m in her good books for this one."

The Disappeared are back with a bang and Luminous Plectrum are grateful they shared their new material with us. We can't wait to find out what they come up with next.

You can listen to The Disappeared's Summer 2011 material by clicking here.

IF you would like to be featured on Luminous Plectrum, e-mail luminous_plectrum@hotmail.co.uk or follow us on Twitter - @luminousplectrm

Interview: Violet Youth

STOCKPORT – best known for its hat museum, being the birth place of Fred Perry…and Brett Angell.

They may now be fondly locked away in the Stockport consciousness, but the town is also home to rugged guitar pop foursome Violet Youth – an act charmingly proud of its northern roots and influences.
There’s no reason why this hotly-tipped outfit – who’ve already supported the likes of Nine Black Alps, Detroit Social Club and Sham 69 – cannot become your new favourite band.

Their energetic take on raw garage guitar pop evokes those glorious, hazy memories of sweaty nights in dingy indie clubs, savouring each note while gripped in the warming euphoric clench of cheap rum and coke.
Violet Youth – a named spawned from a packet of Parma Violets - consist of vocalist and guitarist Andrew Schofield, guitarist Phil Higgins, bassist Joe Naber and drummer Ben Bibby.

Taking time out with Luminous Plectrum, Schofield said: “Me and Phil met while we were both playing acoustic gigs. We decided that we should team up and write songs together and it all took off from there really.”
As with most features on bands from the north-west, it’s difficult not to compare acts with their regional counterparts and predecessors. Manchester and the region was responsible for some of the most integral British acts of all time and it’s clear, judging by the superb material Violet Youth have uploaded onto their Soundcloud page, that this group takes their history seriously.

The feisty 'Together' conjures thrilling surges of nostalgia by lashing a new coat of paint over Wire’s classic Mercy – Naber’s catchy bass breakdown riff throughout is similar to Graham Lewis’ – and captures the rising tension the art-punk legends were so renowned for.
The kitchen sink drama of 'Carla’s Song' exhibits Schofield’s unmistakable northern tongue through intelligent stream of consciousness verses in the ilk of Mark E Smith before closing with a striking plea for reassurance in love - “hold me closer and tell me you love me, and hold me closer and tell me you care.”
Musically, Violet Youth sound as if they were put into a tumble drier with bits of The Fall, Magazine, Carter USM, and Wire – but emerging tighter and as fresh as a summer’s day.

“I think The Fall showed me that lyrically you could go anywhere and it could still work, that aspect is kind of there”, explains Schofield.
“I’d never really heard Carter USM before we started. People kept telling us that we sounded like them and nobody in our band knew what they sounded like – they clearly had a time machine and stole our material.”

We’ve branched on who’ve influenced Violet Youth, but who are they into at the moment?
Schofield said: “We’re big fans of Young British Artists, Brown Brogues, Driver Drive Faster – those bands form our scene are just the coolest of bands and nice peeps.
“Also a bit of The Veils and Los Campesinos!”
But Schofield also had damning words for the darker side of the Manchester scene, exclaiming: “I loved The Fall and The Smiths but my love of Manchester bands has been sadly destroyed by watching 500+ Oasis bands in Manchester pubs.
“We don’t want to emulate any of them put people will always compare us to Magazine and such – not so bad.”

Violet Youth are currently unsigned but with a tour in Germany, sell-out shows in Manchester, a gig at the Etihad Stadium and London appearances, it won’t be too long until they sign on the dotted line.
“I think we’ve finally found our sound and how well we all work together. That being said, it’s taken us a long time so we’re not gigging as much, mainly writing at the moment which is nice.
“We released Carla’s Song last year, which was fun and gave us a good insight on how to do everything. I don’t know about any interested labels at the moment – we’re just happy writing the best songs we ever have done and making new music.”

IF you would like your band featured on Luminous Plectrum, e-mail luminous_plectrum@hotmail.co.uk or get in touch on Twitter by following @luminousplectrm

Listen to Violet Youth below:

Delays by Violet Youth

Together by Violet Youth

Carlas Song - Violet Youth by Violet Youth