Music > Interviews

Childhood

23/09/14

If you’re a bright young thing, you’ll no doubt have already spent this summer blissing out to the sounds of Childhood in the long green grass supping cider or whatnot with some beautiful boy/girl. And if you’re a happy person of any age who likes their music soulful and airy, you ought to get down with Childhood. Their debut album’s just come out to rave reviews, and Ben, hip lead singer and upbeat fellow, spoke to me ahead of their gig at Norwich Arts Centre as part of Norwich Sound & Vision.

How did you start making music and form the band?

I started making music when I was about 14, and by the time I got to university I had been in so many bands, playing drums and guitar. I got to university and decided to start writing songs for myself. I met Leo at university, who played guitar, and it was a lucky chance as it’s rare you meet someone who you get along with musically that well.

So you started as a two piece – did your sound change once you added more band members?

We started on laptops, being quite self indulgent, but when we became a band we developed more of a live, quintessential ‘band’ sound. I think the spirit has always remained the same, but it’s just taken on new forms.

Did you think it was the start of something big right from the start?

Not at all. There was a period when we started getting single and label offerings while we were at uni, we thought hold on, we may not have to give that much of a shit about our degrees anymore! It was a realisation we could focus all our time on it rather than it be just a laugh. We finished our degrees though. When we started, Leo said “Let’s put this song on the Internet! It’ll be hilarious!” and then we were on a blog, and that’s how it all started. We felt it would be arrogant of us to leave without finishing our degrees!

Lacuna’s been getting great reviews (we gave it 9/10).  Produced by Dan Carey who’s worked with some really big names (Lily Allen, Crystal Fighters and Hot Chip. How do you think he influenced the sound of this album for you? Did he challenge the way you work naturally and try to push you?

Exactly. He definitely challenged the way we were working. Usually you’d do drums, then do guitars, then you’d loop a section and paste it into another part of the song, but he was really adamant that we did it live. It was great working with him. He made us not give a shit as much, which made us play better. He was massively encouraging regarding natural mistakes, to get us over the inhibitions of playing too safely. He was very much hands on and creatively involved as well as producing it and recording it. I’m thinking about the new album now every day, and have just started writing new songs. I want it to be more groove-based but also quite rocky and intense. I’m not sure how I’m going to do it but I’m working on it now!

What’s your songwriting process?

I usually do most of it myself, or Leo will come up with some chords, jam it out, send it over to me and I’ll put some vocals over it. Most of it I do at home and then take to the band. We’re usually pretty much in agreement. Someone always harnesses the idea, so if they have a distinct idea of what they want to create we trust them and run with it, rather than everyone having five opinions at one time and one riff. We’re not really a jamming band.

What are your influences?

We’re interested in alternative 90’s, indie, shoegazey bands like Slowdive and Cocteau Twins as well as more modern stuff like Deerhunter. In terms of songwriting I’m really into Shuggie Otis and Todd Rundgren and more classical songwriters. So it’s a mix of soul, 90’s music, classic pop and 60’s psychedelic. We’ve mostly been listening to Moon Safari by Ari, Todd Terry and the Flaming Lips on the tour bus recently.

You played lots of festivals this summer; which was the most fun and who was the best act you managed to catch?

Summer Sonic in Japan was an interesting cultural experience, but the most fun was Reading. It’s where most of the bands are that you know so you can get into more trouble! My favourite act I saw this year would probably be Kate Tempest; I saw her play at the Crow’s Nest at Glastonbury. She’s just been nominated for the Mercury Prize, and our producer Dan did that album, so he was pleased. I think she should win it, 100%, although I expect Royal Blood will; when a band has that quick an ascent into fame, and  gets a number one album, Mercury normally hail that with a prize. We really like Polar Bear too as they’re from our area.

What’s been the most surprising thing you’ve discovered about the record industry for you thus far?

How amazingly fickle it is! I didn’t understand how industry people can ‘like’ everything. Then you realise why people ‘like’ everything, is they actually just like hype. You realise how unmusical the music industry is, although I was under no illusion that it wasn’t like that. It’s quite shocking. The whole thing is that  normal businesses say they’re a business and they act like it’s a business, because they’re trying to make money. But the music industry creates an illusion as if it’s not about that, but it is. It’s a waste of time to give that much of a shit about it though!

You’re supporting Johnny Marr on his tour this autumn – that’s quite an honour! How did that come about?

We met him at Reading ‘13. He came to watch our show at 11am and he really liked it. We’ve met his family over the last year and he’s been really supportive about the music we’ve put out, so when he asked us to support him on his tour we said YES.

What can we expect from your show as part of Norwich Sound & Vision?

Sometimes we have gigs that are completely static, and some that get crazy. Some bands you go and see, it’s awkward if you don’t mosh or go crazy because that’s the intention of the music, whereas other bands it’s appropriate to stand there immersed in the sound and be quite stoic. Our music leans towards raucous sound but sometimes we have subtle, melodic moments, so a crowd doesn’t always know what to do with our music. But we like it like that!

Childhood play Norwich Arts Centre as part of Norwich Sound & Vision on October 10th. Tickets available from www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk