 |
Genre-bending sextet, The Laurel Collective mix soulful vocals with darkly humorous lyrics, dancehall rhythms, driving bass and a love of vintage synths. They release their debut mini-album through Double Six Records on 12 May, and their debut single ‘Vuitton Blues’ is out now.
Vocalist Bob Tollast takes the SSQ challenge.
|
Q1 How did you start out making music?
My friend Charlie [Andrew, drums] had formed a band and they needed a bass player. So, I cobbled my money together for a bass and joined. You start out thinking if you can just get the right sounds to the right people it can only be a matter of time,then you slowly realise there are 853,594 bands who think the same as you...
Q2 What inspired your latest single?
'Vuitton Blues' is loosely about a guy who wants to impress a girl by shelling out on a pricey Louis Vuitton bag but doesnt have the dosh, starts to despair about shallow materialism and then gives up on the girl, which he realises at the end of the song is the best thing. It's a nonsense love song.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Melody and hooks first, then you want to twist it into something a bit different. 'Vuitton Blues' is weird cos it has this big hook in the middle of the track. It's really amazing how many bands write songs without any real hooks or tunes. The greatest thing we'd love is to write the biggest pop song with as much noise and ideas as possible. Maybe like 'Fireworks' by Animal Collective.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Influence is weird; you can be influenced by an artist's ethos or lyrics and still not sound like them. Me personally, it's Pavement, but I suppose that's really Steve Malkmus' lyrics. We all love Deerhoof.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
The upbeat, slightly melancholy feel of The Beach Boys, grafted onto stomping psych rock.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest single, and for the future?
We want 'Vuitton Blues' to be the greatest song in history and become the biggest, most legendary band ever. Actually no, it would be nice
just to carry on doing music and gig wise, if we get as far as Scotland that would be good...
published may 2008
