Music > Interviews
Interview with Circa Waves
01/07/14
Circa Waves! If you’re after a young, thrusting band of young men from Liverpool, here’s your answer. They hadn’t been together that long when Zane Lowe picked up on them and gave them mad props, propelling them hard and fast onto the music scene. They’ve played throughout Europe, just recorded their debut album, and are now hotting up ready for several festival performances over the summer, including Latitude. Their latest single Young Chasers is a thing of pacey, memorable brilliance, and testosterone. I spoke with lovely man and drummer for the band Sian about Dolly Parton and sandwiches.
What are you up to today Sian?
Catching up on 5 weeks of washing!
How did you and your bandmates meet?
We met at Sound City in Liverpool. Our singer Keiran was working on one of the stages and Joe was actually playing there. All our pasts just crashed together there at Sound City. Sam and Joe knew each other from uni and I lived with Sam. We got talking, Keiran played us some of his songs and we all agreed that we really ought to make something with these great tracks. Basically our aim in the beginning was just to play Sound City Liverpool, which we did this year but it ended up being via a million other things!
You’re from Liverpool, which has a magnificent musical history and is a very vibrant city. Do you think it’s had an effect on your music?
I don’t think it can be anything but helpful in terms of being a creative person here; a lot of our songs are about spending time in Liverpool. Saying that though, I wouldn’t say that there’s a type of Liverpool band although there have been many popular ones over the years, and I wouldn’t necessarily categorise us as a Liverpool band; it’s such a diverse place musically that I don’t think there’s a particular sound. It’s really helped that the city is really close knit in terms of the music community; it’s not competitive and all the bands support and look after each other.
How has the support you’ve had from Zane Lowe helped you?
It’s been a massive leg up and I’m really happy that it happened.
You’ve recently been on tour in Europe; what have you learnt from your experience?
If there’s free catering at any of the venues, ALWAYS make some sandwiches to take with you before you get back in the van.
Are you still recording your debut album or is it finished?
Yep we finished recording last week. We recorded it in 5 weeks down in London and it’s now being mixed. We’re aiming to have it out early next year. We already had all the songs ready so we just had to refine them before going into the studio.
Your songs have a really youthful energy to them, which I love. Does it tend to get a bit messy at your shows?
Yeah, I guess so, I think people are still trying to figure out who we are. We recently played an awesome show in Leeds where we got our first pit going, which was brilliant. It’s getting more and more lively as more people come down to see us, and they know the songs and are coming to the gig specifically to see us. Hopefully that will increase. I’m up for some anarchic shows for sure.
Speaking of messy, you’re playing at many of the big festivals this summer including Latitude and Glastonbury. Are there any particular stars you would like to hang out with backstage?
I’d love to hang out with Arcade Fire, and pick Dolly Parton’s brains over a cup of tea. I can’t wait to star-spot backstage at Glastonbury and try to become friends with people! We’ve played a few festivals so far; we played Hurricane Fest in Germany on Saturday, we had a full tent, plus it was my birthday! I got a great response from the crowd and felt like a million dollars. It’s pretty amazing that you can go abroad and people are there to see you and they know your songs.
Who are your main influences as a band?
We all bring something different to the pot I guess. Keiran is a big fan of The Strokes, who we get compared to a lot. Joe is on the shoegazey end of the spectrum, and growing up, I listened to punk a lot, bands like The Damned. I think our energy comes from the fact that we all love music that’s full of energy.
Who have you been listening to recently?
There are a couple of bands coming out of Liverpool and Manchester at the moment who are really exciting; All We Are are awesome. They describe themselves as The Bees Gees on Valium. I also really like Spring King, who are also playing Latitude. I would say they are one of the best bands live, so go see them if you get a chance.
Young Chasers is your current single, and it’s got an incredibly catchy hook. How do you go about writing songs?
Keiran is the main songwriter. He writes the songs and forms the ideas behind them, brings them to the studio and then we all develop the arrangements and the music together and try not to ruin it! We don’t tend to argue, it’s pretty pleasant…although we’re going through the album tracklist at the moment which is causing some debates.