Loading ...Los Campesinos! interview
I’m going to pull an old storytelling, suspense building, technique thing, and start at the end. Which for me is, a few stumbled changes later, on the right branch of the southbound Northern line. There are three young guys sat opposite me. They’re grinning with an uncharacteristically brazen lack of inhibition, and declaring undying love for the band we’re just heading back from seeing. This is (and one of them even has the t-shirt to prove it) Los Campesinos! “Wasn’t that, like, the best gig in ages?” “More like in forever!” “That was cool, eh?” “so cool!” etc… It doesn’t last too long. As the tube rattles on, the hyperboles steadily die down, the grammatical inaccuracies lessen, and they mutter things more along the lines of “where did I put my oyster card?” But nevertheless, an air of deep felt contentment remains. As do the smiles. Clearly, it’s been special.
“I guess I could be drunk right now. But that wouldn’t bode very well…” Rewind to around 3:30 that afternoon, and front man Gareth Campesinos! is sat opposite me in the main room of The Garage in north London, the usual pre-gig preparations clanging away in the background. The band are currently part way through a slew of UK dates, a touring routine Gareth describes rather unglamorously as “a life of Marks & Spencers service stations and arguing which music gets played in the van” (should you be interested, its apparently co-songwriter Tom who wins). He’s affable, keen to talk about the new album Romance Is Boring (out in February), yet calmly contemplative; not guarded, but arranging his thoughts with care. I suppose that’s growing up for you. “I used to really enjoy slagging off bands and now, with hindsight, I realize how silly and futile an idea that is. So long as everything is done with sincerity and so long as they truly believe in what they’re doing, then that’s all that can be expected of anyone making music.”
“Sincerity” is a word that cuts to the heart of Los Campesinos!, often used in relation to their confessional lyrics. “I like to write very honestly and autobiographically… It’s the only way I feel capable of writing.” That evening its obvious the predominantly young crowd identifies. Every word is yapped right back – a phenomenon not confined to merely the old favourites. “A week ago we played in Coventry and did ‘A Sea Is A Good Place To Think About The Future’ and ‘There Are Listed Buildings’ live for the first time, and the first few rows were singing all the words. Like, I can barely remember the words to those songs” he says, somewhere between flattered and a little taken aback by the adoration.
Still, he acknowledges that this whole honesty business can be a bit of a slippery slope. “Personally, I’m very nervous about submitting lyrics. I know I might change a lot and regret what I’ve written because it is so truthful…” there is a considered pause “like I do with our first record. I look back on it now and think ah, bit embarrassed by that… but its who I was at the time and you can’t really argue with that.”
Increasingly though, the band’s music is starting to reflect this open vulnerability. Change is evidently in the air for the group. Original keyboardist and co-singer Aleks has been replaced with Gareth’s sister Kim, “She’s really settled in… I think she already feels in her stride”. But this change clearly extends to more than a line up tweak. “We want to challenge people who like our band. I think it would be awful if we ever got into the situation where we were just resting on our laurels… everything on the new record is a lot more patient, and the arrangements make a lot more sense.” Sounds a far cry from giddy, first album crowd pleasers such as ‘You! Me! Dancing!’. True, it’s still these early songs that provoke the most energetic crowd response, but Los Campesinos! are no longer all about the sugar rush. Those bitter pills that dominated the second album’s lyrical themes are now served up with an appropriately darker, richer (dare we say more mature?) musical context on new tracks. ‘A Sea Is A Good Place To Think About The Future’ washes over somewhere between a slow motion nautical shanty, and the score to a heart-sore film. ‘Who Fell Asleep In’ is more piercing again, instrumentation stabbing with grizzled melancholic weight. ‘There Are Listed Buildings’ meanwhile, fizzes and darts with customary puppy dog like fervor, but sounds like it might bite back at any moment. Twee? Nah. They’re diving deeper than a term that flimsy implies.
There has always been something slightly militant about the band’s rigidly fan-centric philosophy. Second album ‘We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed’ arrived lovingly packaged with badges and a zine, and their website bears the statement “interaction and community is encouraged, nay, required. Email us if you fancy” with a link allowing anyone to do just that. At one point, Gareth uses the word “consumer” to describe the record buying public, then visibly winces at such a clinical term. But how does a group with such hands-on ethos find the age of the mp3? “The thing that bothers me is I do really like the idea of a tangible object, whether it be vinyl or CD. I enjoy putting a lot of effort into getting together the art work for our records, and with the rise of digital music, which is by no means a bad thing because its great that you can obtain things so easily… but I do miss that element of being able to hold and nurse a product in your arms…” he adds with a shy smile, perhaps realizing this all may come out sounding a bit too High Fidelity for comfort. But, while a lot of bands may be throwing around such lines, concerns over diminishing record sales at the for, in Los Campesinos! case the sentiment is evidently genuine.
“It makes me incredibly awkward that people would feel we weren’t approachable. I mean, essentially, we’re just seven students who formed a band and got particularly lucky” he tells me with typically endearing self-effacement. Except of course he’s wrong. They’ve got more on their side than mere sheer, dumb, luck could ever give. Scrawny, scuzzed up youngsters drip from the venue, all doe-eyed post-gig high, and meander tube-way, jabbering praise in ever more ridiculously grandiose terms, or else just slurring the ending refrain of set closer ‘Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks’ over and over. “We’re very attached to our fans. It’s something important to us. Really.” Seems to be mutual, Gareth.
Romance Is Boring is out February 1st on Wichita
