A Silent Film

After performing at Camden's Barfly venue, the band's Robert and Spencer talked to us about a wooden shed and their debut album, The City That Sleeps.

DMG: As a fan I really enjoyed the set, but how do you think it went as a band?

Rob: I think it went really well. Going on first is a bit of a strange one as it's quite hard to get people warmed up, but once everyone's relaxed, the atmosphere gets really exciting. I think by the end of the set everyone was really into it, so I'm really pleased.

DMG: You played Glastonbury's Introducing stage last year. Do you prefer playing the smaller or larger venues?

Rob: We did, yeah. That was incredible (turns to Spencer) Your preference.

Spencer: The truth is, they're both great but it all depends on the response you get from the crowd. You can play a small gig and wow, it's amazing, but if you play a larger gig and get the same response then that's going to be the better gig, because you're getting the same energy but from so many more people.

DMG: A Silent Film is a very unique name. How did you come up with it?

Rob: We wanted quite a unique name and thought the prefix A was slightly unusual.

Spencer: We had a song called 'A Silent Film' and we wanted a name that was heading in the direction of where we were going and that song seemed to be it. It's also the idea of a silent film where the songs tell a story with the combination of visual and music and all the different elements of art come in to one.

Rob: In the absence of conversation or in the absence of a script, the music will tell the story.

DMG: How did you guys originally meet?

Spencer: Us three (pointing to Rob and Lewis) all met at school and I met Ali at university, but then he actually left our university and went to Lewis' university, which was weird.

DMG: So you all just started making music together?

Rob: Yeah, we just started doing covers from bands and then just started doing songs of our own.

DMG: For those who are not too familiar with your music, how would you describe your sound?

Rob: Really melodic, lyrically story-based with characters. Not coming from your classic indie/guitar band direction – the piano is quite important.

Spencer: We're kind of piano led as opposed to filling in chords. It's difficult to describe, because we don't actually think we sound like anyone else. In a non-arrogant way.

DMG: You've been described as similar to both Keane and Coldplay. Does that annoy or irritate you?

Spencer: The question is - do we sound like Keane and Coldplay purely because we both use piano? If the answer is yes, then we don't like it, but if someone says we sound like Keane and Coldplay because we're playing epic songs that bring a lot of people together, then that's a positive, so we like that comparison because we do see ourselves in that way.

DMG: Who inspired you as a band?

Rob: Freddie Mercury. There's an idol.

Spencer: Hell, yeah! We all came from different directions musically, I think.

Rob: I've been massively influenced by artists like Bjork. Weird pop bands, that's who we love.

Spencer: People who can alter their shape. Listen to early Bowie, late Bowie - I mean, how do you do that? Artists that have continually challenged themselves and remain relevant year after year after year, and people who live and breathe it, because that's what we do.

DMG: I've heard you write and record your music in a wooden shed you've named 'The Ranch'. That's quite basic, isn't it?

Spencer: It's like the Tardis, but it's not table-sized and we just stand inside it. It is a shed but there's a studio inside. The security wasn't great, though.

Rob: My biggest fear was someone just lighting a match. It's actually just gone - very sadly, after four years - but we had to move on. Our formative years were spent there.

DMG: How did you come to cover Born Slippy's 'Underworld', because your take on it is absolutely amazing!

Rob: It was actually really contrived. We were playing a club night and were going to be put on at midnight with DJs either side of us and we thought 'what are we going to do?', because people weren't there to see a band. So we thought 'let's take a club tune, let's do it our way' and it went down really well. We play to so many new audiences now it's a lovely way to relate to them as everyone knows the song - we're very lucky to have chosen it.

Spencer: At first we were like, we didn't want to be that band who have a cover, but then we thought we should get over ourselves and when the audience recognise that, in the next couple of songs they switch on.

DMG: You mentioned earlier that your lyrics tell stories. Is that unplanned or are you purposely trying to deliver a message through your music?

Rob: I suddenly realised after writing quite a few songs that I really didn't have much to grumble about – I had no motivation there. So I decided to start writing stories on other situations. It's just a way for me to get really excited about what I feel about the world and how people can relate to it, rather than strictly being autobiographical.

DMG: You're about to release your debut album The City That Sleeps. What can we expect from it?

Spencer: You can expect an album that really represents what we're doing at the moment. Sam [Williams] the producer got on board before we recorded it and it was a real selective experiment. What you're going to hear is a great lively album that is what you'll hear at live shows.

Rob: It's very true to the live shows. We recorded it almost all completely live, which is unfortunately very rare these days, but our approach was to do it all together.

Spencer: We really think we've come alive on this album and hopefully people who hear a single will want to buy it and then get in to the rest of the album because it's far more multi-layered – there's more to us.

DMG: You're also going on tour with One Republic next month, which must be pretty amazing.

(Rob's face lights up as he lets out a joyous cry)

Spencer: It's going to be fun. It's doing big venues, the UK dates – Birmingham, Sheffield, Glasgow, Bristol, and Southampton – off the top of my head.

DMG: Not Wales?

Rob: No, but we did play in Wrexham a while ago.

DMG: That's still not good enough! Lastly, you feature in the film adaptation of Phillip Pullman's The Butterfly Tattoo. What was it like to be involved in that?

Rob: Cool! We're actually in the film and were good on set so we're very happy.

DMG: He wanted quite local bands, didn't he?

Spencer: Yeah, he wanted the whole Oxford experience and we're very proud to be representing Oxford and feel justified as well. For us, it was great to be in something that was all about Oxford and the movie shows the pubs and bars we're always drinking in and the streets we walk down, so it was great.

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Published: 13/08/2008 at 14:16
Author: Charlotte Williams
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