Music > Interviews
Interview with The School
11/06/12
With the sound of 60s pop still enjoying a timeless resonance among music fans today, Cardiff Indie pop band The School pick up the baton to take it forward a generation. Having graced ‘best of 2010’ lists with their first release, we catch up withlead singer Liz to talk about their second…
You’re playing a show tonight as part of your big tour – are you looking forward to playing Manchester? Oh yes, very much so; we’ve played here a couple of times but we’ve always wanted to play the Ruby Lounge, so that’ll be amazing, playing with The Primitives as well. We’re about half way through the tour, so we’re on the first section; there’s two main bits of the tour – there’s the first section of the tour where we’re playing with The Primitives, then the June section where we’re headlining and playing everywhere else that they didn’t play.
I’m sure you’re absolutely chuffed to be playing with The Primitives, but how’s it going to feel when you leave to headline your own tour? Oh, well we’ve done something similar a couple of years ago when our first album came out, but we’re looking forward to it. We’re getting to play with loads of local bands that we’ve handpicked; people like Standard Fare and we’re trying to get a good local support on each show that we play, so we’re looking forward to that really. We’re getting to play for promoters who’ve put us on before, so it’s gonna be quite good. And we’ve got the new album, which came out this week, so we’re looking forward to getting a longer set to play to everyone ‘cause we usually only get a half hour!
Do you know who you’ve got supporting yourself for Norwich? Erm, it’s a guy called Zach who came to see one of our shows and liked us and he asked if he could play and we said, ‘oh, go on then!’ He was really sweet; he’s really cute, a singer-songwriter I think, and I’m looking forward to hearing him. We’ve got to add one more band as well, so we’re just looking out for one more Norwich band as well at the moment.
I was trying to work out whether the last time you were in this area was 2008 when you played Latitude…Oh, that was really great, it was cool. Half of us have changed since then; we’ve got some different band members because literally it boiled down to different things and people couldn’t stay in the band, but yeah it was really good. We had some giant balloons on stage with us and yeah, it was great, Latitude.
It must have been one of your biggest gigs at the time…Yeah, it was and they were really friendly people but it was a bit daunting, but it turned out to be a lot of fun.
And have you got a summer of festivals ahead of you?We’re taking a little break in the summer after we’ve done this tour, then we’re gonna do a couple of things like Indie Tracks in July and that’s in the Midlands and it’s based in a train heritage centre and there’s loads of bands, like The Vaselines are playing and Allo Darlin’ and bands like that, so it should be a nice weekend really. Then we’re taking a break for a couple of months and I think we’re gonna be playing more shows in October, like I think we’re gonna try and play some shows over in the US and maybe do a couple of smaller UK festivals, like there’s one or two that happen in October that we’re trying to get on. So that’s the plan!
So like you said, the second album’s been out about a week now and I read on Twitter the night before its release, you said it felt like Christmas Eve – were you really excited to finally get it out there?Oh yeah, we recorded it in August, so it felt really good to finally get it out there. By the time you finish all the mixing and mastering, it takes quite a while, then you’ve got to wait for Christmas to die down and then you just get delays and delays, and finally it’s out in May! It’s two years exactly since our first one came out and we’re really happy with it. On the first one, only a few of us could play on it because it was a small studio, so we were all swapping around, one Travelodge room at a time, whereas with this one, we all got to go away and stay in this big studio in North Wales. It’s a converted chapel and we got to record with this really great producer called David Wrench. He’s got a really great ear for pop sounds and he’s done some bands like Racehorses, Alessi’s Ark and a load of people. So yeah, we all got involved in it this time and there’s a lot bigger sound with more emphasis on the string arrangements and brass arrangements. It feels like we’re a much more proper band now.
We’ve spoken to a few bands who’ve recorded there – it was Bryn Derwen, wasn’t it?Yes, but it’s for sale now! While we were there it’d been on sale for 18 months and no-one had bought it, so I don’t know how much it is…
I think it’s probably out of my budget!Yeah! I don’t know how much altogether, but because it’s in North Wales and because it’s off the main track, maybe it’s a bit cheaper than you think, but it’s a lovely place and they’ve got a house you can stay in so you can all stay there when you record and so yeah, it’s a lovely place. I wish I was rich enough to buy it!
So apart from the mixing and the mastering, all those things that take time that are out of your hands almost, was it an easy ride getting it out, before all of that?Getting it out, like writing it? Yeah, we started pretty much from the first one, where we were writing songs when we recorded the first album and now we’ve whittled it down to our favourite ones, which is good ‘cause I’m quite fussy really. It’s got to be a really catchy pop song to get on there! All the way up to when we started recording it, I was still writing lyrics, like the last couple of songs we did on the studio so it was all a bit last minute on some parts! There was about a year and a half gap between albums and there’s twelve tracks on there and it’s quite a short album, but I think that’s only because the songs are quite short and I don’t mind that really; I think it’s better to keep them short and leave them wanting more.
I’ve had a few listens of the album now and it seems like you’ve played around with rhythm and tempo a bit more on this one – did you have any specific goals for it?Erm, just for it to be a bit bigger and to pay a bit more attention to the arrangements really, and make more of our instruments; I got to be on a grand piano when we got there, and we brought more strings in and saxophones and we had a brass section going on, so yeah, that was the main thing really, to pay a bit more attention to how it sounds overall. It sort of came more out of me, ‘cause it was mainly me on the first one with my guitar and there was only about three of us at a time doing it, so with this one it was about getting more people involved really.
You’re strong in numbers now – does everyone have a say, or do they leave you to make the decisions?Yeah, well I write the songs and our guitarist does some lyrics for me sometimes and then if anyone else has got any ideas we can chuck ‘em in. I think I can be quite bossy in the right places, but then I’m also open to everyone… I mean, there’s eight of us so you have to be bossy on some level otherwise you don’t get anywhere! Deciding where you wanna go for food can be quite a big problem! So yeah, everyone’s involved at some stage and I think it balances out OK.
You guys are signed to a Spanish label, and I wondered what that meant for The School other than sneaky trips to Spain?!Yeah, we’ve had a few of those! Since they signed us, and they signed us pretty much straight away – I mean, they’re an independent label but they’ve been going for about 20 years now and they’ve survived all the ups and downs of the industry and become a bigger label who’ve really developed a pop sound in Spain. They’ve got quite a fanbase so there’s loads of Spanish bands over there who sound quite 60s ‘cause they love all of that over there and they’ve welcomed us, I mean, I’ve lost count of the amount of festivals we’ve done there – it’s amazing!
I bet the weather’s better at those festivals…Oh, yeah! It’s always lovely, like we’ll go over in March and it’s still clear sunshine, then we’ll go over in September and it’s still sunny! I don’t think we’ve been there when it’s like cloudy, or anything! They’re really, really friendly over there and they seem to like what we’re doing… We’ve probably got a bigger following over there than we do in the UK because the label’s based there and they’re brilliant at speaking English and we’re terrible at Spanish!
Being a band from Cardiff, it’s a city that has a few great venues of different sizes – does that help with the progression when you start out?Yeah, but we’re struggling on medium-size, I think. Me and the violinist, Kay, run three venues in Cardiff, so we run one called Buffalo, 10 Feet Tall and then then Undertone as well, so those are really good 120-150 capacity venues. They’re really good because we get loads of great up and coming bands coming; you’ll see them start off at one of the smaller ones then they’ll go to a bigger one, then there’s Clwb Ifor Bach, the Welsh club that’s a bit bigger, so it’s great seeing people coming back through ‘cause we can start off doing a small show somewhere like there, then end up playing the Welsh club, and everyone’s ambition is to play there. But yeah, there’s nothing in between; there’s either that or then you go up to sort of Union size really. We lost a venue called The Point, which was about 4-500 capacity, which is a shame, but we do have lots of good venues here at the moment and lots of bands coming out. We’ve got Islet, who are getting a lot of coverage at the moment, and there’s Among Brothers – there’s some really nice experimental stuff, a lot of folk… not enough Indie pop, not enough pop for my liking!
The band must take up so much of your time, but you’re still actively involved in putting stuff on at the clubs?Yeah, we’re in-house in the venues, so we put on shows every day, even when we’re going on tour, so we’re still doing a bit of that! It’s a bit of a busy job, but there’s a team of maybe 3 or 4 of us running the venues, so yeah, we put on about 50% of the music scene in Cardiff anyway! It’s a full-on job but it’s brilliant; we get to book in some amazing bands, so it’s a lot of fun.
You’re also a sometime DJ, and I was wondering what your essentials are to have in your record bag, or on your computer?Hmm, let’s see… It depends on where you are really, doesn’t it? Sometimes it’ll be some cool 60s things and then other times you just want to play a bit of silly 80s pop music. Maybe a bit of Belle and Sebastian, Ramones; if you want people on the dance floor put a bit of Blondie on… what else? I’ll ask Kay, our violinist… David Bowie, Duran Duran if everyone wants some cheese, sixties girl group stuff, The Beatles – yeah, The Beatles is a good one. New bands as well like This Many Boyfriends, Allo Darlin and Standard Fare are always good choices. It depends where we are really and it could go either way; it could be some 60s obscure Indie pop, or it could be the best of 80s bad music!
Now Liz, you’re gonna bring us an awesome show when you come to Norwich, but what can we bring for you?Oh, well it’s a 14+ show so we want 14+! Our average audience is normally a bit… well, not 14+, shall we say! So we want some kids there – I don’t know how to get that really, maybe by bringing the right support band, but yeah, I’d love to play more 14+ shows or all age shows, because it’s always a lot better than if it’s 18+. It’s a shame because I’d like to try and encourage young bands and get people starting to write music, and stuff. Plus they’d make us look cool!
Emma Garwood