EXCLUSIVE WOMBATS INTV!

Every year there is always an influx of bands who are pinned as "buzz bands," some stick around and some live up to the hype. Then there are some that are just so irresistible in both style and sound that long after they are a buzz band they can just simply be called a good act. The Wombats are one of those bands. The UK trio, whose debut Tales of Love, Loss and Desperation was one of my favorite records of last year. With their catchy hooks, witty humor and punk delivery, these lads from Liverpool really have something special going for them. I had the opportunity to speak with bassist Dan Haggis about the new record, an expressed interest from a former Beatle to work with the band and a possible US tour. Check out my interview with Dan below:

1) How are the sessions going for the new album?
The second album is coming along nicely, after taking a 6 weeks or so to relax after our 'never ending' (about 2/3yrs) 1st album tour finished we started writing and recording demos for the new album. At first it was strange just being in the practice room all the time and not having a tour manager telling us stage times etc and being creative as opposed to performing but after a few practices things got going! Now we've got about 10 songs and we're all really happy with them, some more than others obviously but it's all really exciting for us. We just can't wait to finish writing and rehearsing and record the album properly and get the songs out to other people's ears.

2) Do you feel any pressure to outdo the success of your debut?
Of course there is some pressure but our only goal is to make the best album we possibly can, as we did for our 1st album, and hope that people are as happy as we are when it's finished. The main source of pressure comes from our own heads I guess! 2nd albums can't make or break bands can they??oh dear..as Glen Frey once said 'the heat is on..' haha!

3) It has been reported that fellow Liverpool native and legend, Sir Paul McCartney would like to produce your next album. How do you respond to such high acclaim for someone of his caliber would like to work with you?
It has indeed been reported but it was more of a rumour than anything. He apparently said in an interview with the BBC that if he were to start producing again he would like to work with some new up and coming bands such as the Wombats, or words to those effect. We have since interviewed Sir Paul when we took over from Zane Lowe for a show on radio 1 in January which was an amazing experience. Just to have been mentioned by him with regards to music he likes is just incredible for us. He's such a nice guy too, he made our interview with him sound good!!

4) Would you let Paul take the reigns of your next project or any project for that matter?
I'm sure we would definitely be up for trying something with Sir Paul one day but for now our main concern is writing the best album we can and enjoying ourselves in the process. We haven't started shortlisting producers to work with just yet.

5) What is it like having your wildest dreams come true, from forming a band in school to playing major festivals to touring the world and having your music loved the Globe over?
Being in a band was always something friends and family (and oneself deep down) called a hobby and the idea of becoming well known and touring the world over like your hero's was just a pipe dream but to suddenly find yourself backstage at a sold out show in Sydney with people chanting our name was when I think we all had a moment of realisation. Of how far we'd come in a relatively short space of time. It's strange though because you just have to deal with it,there's no other way so it somehow becomes 'normal'. It was only when we all got back to Liverpool for a few weeks that we started to realise what we had achieved.

6) With bands coming out of the UK like yours and Coldplay, Glasvegas and the Fratellis to name a few. Do you feel we are experiencing a third British Invasion? I guess if you feel like that's happening then it must be. There are lots of good bands coming out of the UK but we don't really know how well they do in the US. We haven't really extensively toured the states yet. We've dipped our little paws in the water and want to jump in headfirst and swim till we can't feel our arms because it is a blummin'(very) big swimming y'all got over there! Don't worry though, we've got bright orange arm bands and tord and murph often share a dinghy with me kicking behind so my thighs get a good work out. They tell me it'll help get rid of my chicken legs.

7) Will the band be coming to the US anytime soon?
As soon as our album is finished, which will hopefully before the end of this year, we will be over there sooner than you can say 'bottoms up' but no tours set in stone yet.

8) Is making it in the US still a big deal for a European musician?
The US is responsible for so much incredible music that I think every band would love to make it big enough in the states to be able to tour all over and to get to know the place that gave us so many genre defining artists. For us, from our experience so far it has been intense. Lots of hours on the road and not much sleep but it is definitely worth it and we are hoping to build on our 1st album success over there. See you soon..


(Top: "Let's Dance to Joy Division," Live at NME 2008 / Below: "Kill the Director" Acoustic for Italian Radio)


Special thanks to Dan Haggis and Simon Bobbett for the interview!

EXCLUSIVE! Standard Fare INTV!

Standard Q&A with Standard Fare
by Bill Reese

Sheffield, UK's Standard Fare are earning a reputation across the pond for their bittersweet indie-pop licks that counter-act the implied dullness of the group's moniker. Co-led by singer/bassist Emma Kupa and singer/guitarist Danny How, the power trio just concluded a stateside tour, including a stop in one of the birthplaces of indie, at Popfest in Athens, GA.The English trio's lead single is titled after an American city. The choppy-poppy "Philadelphia" is one of several sleek, catchy tunes on the group's debut LP The Noyelle Beat.Before gigging at Don Hill's in Manhattan's Soho district, Emma and Danny and drummer Andy Bez talked to OfficiallyAYuppie.com about their new album and their American mini-tour.

A lot of American rock journalists are consistently impressed with the new crop of indie-pop groups hailing from the U.K. Do you feel that you're part of a bigger upswell of young, talented bands-both in Sheffield and in England as a whole?

Dan: Not particularly, there seems to be a little community of indie-pop bands and people around the UK and although it feels like a really great thing to be a part of, I don't think people involved in other types of music see it as a big deal. There's definitely bags of talent and potential in some of the bands we play with, and there's something intriguing about hearing their upbeat songs often with an underlying sense of heart ache.

I'm also glad to see more "power-trios" make a comeback. Did you always envision yourselves as a three-piece, or did you resist the urge to add a second guitarist or keyboard player?

Dan: In the early days there were 4 of us but we never all practiced together, the other guy was my best friend on lead guitar but he went away to Uni before we ever played a gig. It felt weird to replace him and I think we found more 'room' in the music as a three piece.

Emma: As a bass player I felt like a second guitarist would make the sound muddier and not add anything to it. Our sound felt a bit thin to start with but either we got used to it or we grew to fill it - I'm not sure.

Dan: I don't think we'd change it now, plus we get friends up to help us at gigs now and again if we fancy playing something slightly different.

How do you decide who takes lead vocals on a particular song? Do Emma and Danny each bring in their own songs to share with the group, or does it happen spontaneously?

Andy: Emma and Dan both come to practise with song ideas they've sometimes just written on the way from home in the car or train, or ideas they've been working on for weeks. One of them will show their idea singly and the other will automatically start humming harmonies down the microphone.

Emma: Generally whoever writes the vocal part sings it, but Dan wrote 'Nuit avec une amie' for us both to sing and we'd like to play around with writing vocal parts for each other in future.

"Philadelphia" mixes 2-3 different styles within the same song. I especially love how all four guitar chords in the chorus are strummed with varying force and rhythm. The whole album is a mix of differing styles. Do you make it a point to mix in varying styles and sounds to each song?

Dan: Emma originally wrote 'Philadelphia' and brought it to the band, I'm not sure the chorus was intended to be quite so punk-rock but I thought the chords fit well and the natural reaction we all had was to just rock it up a bit.

Emma: I think we try and keep every song different somehow especially as I find myself using the same chord sequences in some songs!

"Philadelphia" is also one of the poppiest "long distance relationship" songs I've ever heard, (I grew up listening to Taking Back Sunday's "Something to write home about," which was an album full of songs like that.) Do you find that that's a theme that a lot of your fans relate to?

Emma: It's hard to tell what people relate to about our songs. I think it's possibly that they're quite direct and honest.

Dan: I guess a lot of our experiences, especially with relationships, are kind of common with young people and to sing about them pretty straight up can put people back in that place - just with an upbeat melody in the background.

When you're stateside, are there any cities or venues that you're fond of playing?

Andy: When we were in the states in March, we had great audiences! Each gig we played had a different feel to it, some gigs people were jumping, dancing and cheering and others where people seemed to be reserved just watching what we did, listening contently maybe hopefully? I think my favourite venue we played was a warehouse in Philadelphia, there were lotsa indie kids going crazy and there was a real great atmosphere about the place! But I enjoyed every place we played at!

Emma: This tour will have a lot of new venues and cities, which we're pretty excited about!


Are your set-lists sticking exclusively to the new album, or are you mixing in some new songs and covers too?

Emma: Covers are really hard!

Dan: yeh definitely! We like to keep things a bit exciting, as much for ourselves as the people who are listening, so we try out new songs and occasionally revive some old songs too.

So, is "Fifteen" based on a true story? I kind of hope it is, personally-as someone who lusted over musicians as a kid and was always left broken hearted.

Emma: It is yes I wrote it a few months after a brief experience of a few hour crush on someone much younger. I knew I shouldn't have been feeling anything and I'm glad I did nothing about it except write the song!

Johnny Marr played on a Cribs album, Paul McCartney wants to produce the new Wombats record-So, which one of your idols would you most like to develop a sudden interest in joining the group-and would you let them?

Dan: They say "never meet your idols", but I guess if they had heard of us, I know Andy will like this, I wouldn't mind Graham Coxon or Damon Albarn giving us a bit of advice.

Emma: That's a tricky question as there's bands and albums I love so deeply like Fleetwood Mac and the Cardigans but I don't know what I'd like from the artists or their producers. I think I'd prefer someone also starting out to help produce or work with us as if it was someone big they'd always be comparing us to the amazing artists they'd worked with.

If you guys don't have Sam Cooke's "One Night Only: At the Harlem Square Club, 1963" on your iPods, I highly recommend it for those long journeys between shows. What kind of music are you listening to while driving from gig to gig?

Dan: cool, I'll have to check it out. When we're in the van we normally have Andy's iPod and I reckon it has pretty much every mood of music - we rapped along to Kanye West not long ago. Recently though, we were listening to the Scottish band 'Kid Canaveral', their songs have a really great feel to them and he has an incredible voice.

Emma: Sometimes we try to choose music linked to the places we're going or leaving so we were listening to Tom Jones on the way back from Cardiff in Wales. Or we'll listen to some of our favourite contemporaries such as Allo Darlin' and Nat Johnson and the Figureheads.