THE EARLY MORNINGS
Prior to the launch of their single and the imminent concourse of spectators descending toward the Peer Hat basement, I inquire about a variety subjects with the hope of extracting information relevant to the prospective readers, the adjacent sound-check adding a new layer to the transcription process…
Angus: How would you describe the writing process of your compositions?
Danny: Usually me and Annie will have a couple of ideas, then we’ll give it to Rhys in the practice room to flesh them out with the drums. For the lyrics…
Annie: Danny has a lot of poems, and I kind of go through them and pick and choose lines and put them together in a way. So Danny’s written them but I’ve stitched them together.
Danny: All the songs are different though, sometimes it’s an idea Annie has come up with and vice versa.
Angus: You got to play with the Raincoats, a band you’ve cited as a major inspiration… did they live up to expectation?
Annie: They did, yeah. They loved Rhys as well.
Rhys: It was amazing hearing that album (Self titled) live and just to be like ‘wow’. It’s an album I love for its messiness and inconsistencies, but even live it was perfect, so good.
Angus: What about Odyshape?
Rhys: Err, what about it?
Annie: As a record?
Angus: Yeah.
Annie: It’s not the same, it’s very different.
Rhys: I prefer Moving, its better.
Annie: I met a laughing monk at my old work, his favourite was Odyshape… he said ‘that’s when they really progressed and got interesting!’
THE EARLY MORNINGS
Angus: In the context of mornings, what was the last breakfast cereal you purchased and why?
Annie: I purchased… well I work in a breakfast place.
Rhys: Did you mean breakfast or breakfast cereal?
Angus: Breakfast cereal.
Danny: For some reason my mum had some of those mini…
Annie: Variety packs…
Danny: I’ve been having a different one every day for nostalgia’s sake.
Angus: Quite weak portions…
Danny: It’s probably good for you though.
(Collective yeahs)
Annie: I’ve had Coco Pops for the first time in about 10 years; it wasn’t as good as I remembered, rice krispies are quite nice though.
Rhys: Yeah? I preferred Ricicles as a kid… (laughs)
Annie: They are so sweet, insanely sweet.
Rhys: The last cereal I brought was granola; I just added stuff to it.
Angus: Who’s responsible for the band’s artwork? What gave it the ad-hoc inspiration?
Annie: I do all the artwork pretty much. I run it past these (her band mates) as you are like ‘Should I put that there or there’…
Rhys: It’s like with the lyrics, cutting and pasting.
Angus: Huh, ok.
Danny: Annie keeps loads of old stuff, like things she likes the look of such as old cut outs…
Rhys: Or sweet rappers on the floor, whenever I’m going down the street and I see a sweet rapper I’m like ‘Oh, Annie might like this’.
Annie: Have a massive tin full of them. So I have a big desk full of crap basically and if I need to do something I kinda put the crap together.
Angus: Recycle it…
Annie: Yeah. (Laughs)
THE EARLY MORNINGS
Angus: On the subject of the Breeders… Pod or Last Splash… and why?
Annie: Pod… Pod because I love it… it’s my favourite one anyway. I do like Last Splash, but obviously I think its Pod for me.
Danny: Last Splash because that’s the first one I heard, nostalgia…
(The nearby sound check soars into prominence, rendering any attempt at further recorded dialogue a fruitless endeavour. I resume roughly 10 minutes later, with the trio reduced by a third: drummer Rhys was required to act as basement sentry.)
Angus: When was the last time you found yourself in a DIY store… and why?
Annie: What counts as a DIY store?
Angus: Dunelm? That sort of stuff…
Annie: I would honestly say about 10 years ago, I go to stationary shops a lot but not… does Wilkos count?
Angus: Yeah.
Annie: Well I went to Wilkos last week.
Danny: We’re impractical millennials ya’know…
Annie: I would say I do go to Wilkos for my DIY needs, in the Arndale… that’s my spot, so I would say last week.
Angus: Is there an instrument you wish you could play? Like a banjo or something?
Annie: The Theremin.
Angus: Theremin… Why is that?
Annie: Because it sounds like a voice, you can get all the notes and you don’t touch anything, so it’d be cool.
Danny: Bass… bass would be a good one to play… wish I could play bass (low-key sarcasm).
Angus: How did you come to associate with the label Safe Suburban Home?
Danny: To be honest, as soon as we recorded the first home demo… I think they heard it online… been speaking to them for about a year now, they focus on putting out physical copies of stuff, which is what interested us because it’s nice to have an actual record. They’re pretty new and we were just releasing our first thing so it worked out quite nicely, so we went to York and recorded with them.
Annie: We just sent them over a demo online and they were interested in it… so yeah. (Laughs)
THE EARLY MORNINGS
Angus: If a certain song were to start playing on the radio or some kind of device… which one would make you recoil in horror?
Annie: Which song do I really hate… Oh, the Killers’ Mr Brightside.
Angus: Good choice (Laughs).
Annie: What about you Danny?
Danny: Erm… (Introspective pause)
Annie: We hate so much, yet on the spot you forget everything you hate, a good exercise in… positivity.
Danny: I can’t think of one (laughs).
Angus: If there is a god… what would you like Saint Peter to say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
(Collective laughter)
Annie: I don’t really want to enter the pearly gates; I wouldn’t want to have an afterlife, it comforts me to think there’s nothing. So I don’t think anything will come for me that they’d say because I don’t want to live forever. What’s the point? That’s scary.
Danny: Yeah… but you’d also want them to think you’d lived a good life and not send you to hell… (Laughs)
Annie: Oh, well yeah I don’t want them to send me to hell. No, I don’t want to go to hell.
Danny: I guess you could be worried if you saw it was actually real, ‘shit what I have done’ (laughs).
Annie: I think I’ve been good, don’t think I’ve done enough to go to hell, I think he’d (the supreme being known as God) like me.
(Collective laughter)
The Early Mornings Facebook
Recent career decisions have compelled me into the journalistic... thing; I could list my literary influences or even debate which 3rd rate beverage has the best economic value per litre (But I won’t). Oh, in addition, I write reviews for the Independents Network.
