The Little Comets have just released their debut album and are currently touring around the UK & Ireland, stopping off for a gig on March 4th in the Academy 2. Tickets for which cost €12 and are still available from Ticketmaster.ie so snap them up.
Their music seems to be quite complex and they cite Debussy as an influence. Vanessa Monaghan caught up with Rob from the band as he was sitting in the back of a van traveling to Norwich to find out more.
‘In Search of the Elusive Little Comets’ came out at the end of January, how have things being going since then?
Rob: ‘It’s been really good. All the gigs have been really well attended and it’s nice when people sing along to the more obscure songs. I definitely think, well, some people have, definitely bought the album. It’s been a really pleasant couple of weeks.’
Little Comets signed to Columbia Records but even before that the band were making a name for themselves with a decent online campaigns and an independent UK number 1 single. The band also became known for your guerilla gigs, turning up and playing in totally random places. Will that have to stop now that you have a record company or have they said “No, you can’t do that” ?
‘No, I think the idea behind it originally was that.. we found that when we played our music to people, generally they liked it at gigs. So wanted to play to a captive audience so the idea was to find places where people couldn’t escape and they were forced to listen. Lecture theatres, anywhere we could find really that there was closed doors where people can’t get out. Yes, I think we’ll definitely keep continuing with it, especially in new places. And if we have a new idea, it’s always good for us to try and it keeps us busy too when we’re away. Instead of vegetate in the van all day long, it’s good to get out and see places, I suppose.
Speaking of being stuck in a van all day, your brother Michael is also in the band. Is he doing your head in yet?
(Laughing) ‘Steve, our Tour Manager, always kind of insists that one’s in the front and one’s in the back. We do have a tendency to argue about the slightest little thing. Yesterday I said, ‘I don’t really play computer games’ and Mickey tried to claim for about an hour that it wasn’t a real sentence. It didn’t make sense. So that’s a flavour of the sort of arguments we’ll have. It’s good because if we ever do have a screaming match, then usually ten minutes later, we’re fine. It must drive the other lads mad but..’
They’re probably used to by now..
‘We’ve known Mark since we were twelve or thirteen so I think he’s become totally immune.’
The music of Little Comets features some pretty thumping beats, really good bass lines and catchy melodies. It has been described as Indie pop, pop rock, kitchen sink pop.. How do you describe it?
‘ I thought about this yesterday because it’s a question that always pops up. It’s really hard to describe your music. I suppose we don’t really take much notice of a genre when we’re writing the music. I think we just concentrate on making the manifestation of the original idea as authentic as possible.
I suppose it’s definitely percussive and melodic and think it’s quite jaunty and probably major key but then I think there’s a good contrast with the lyrics which are often a bit darker. I don’t know it’s such a hard question to describe your own music when we don’t consciously make an effort to pigeonhole ourselves in the first place.‘
Rob, you’re looked at by many as the main man in the band. When you are writing what way do the dynamics work within the band.
‘Either me or Mickey will come with and idea or we’ll play a lot, the four of us, in a room. We’re quite happy musicians so a lot of the melody of the songs we write in the initial stage are often quite upbeat. Also we tend to rehearse in quite cold places so Mark has to do a lot with his hands and legs just to keep warm. The original idea for a song will come from that a lot of the time but the subject matter won’t come til later. I might stumble across a line while we’re jamming, or like a hook that will repeat. But it’s not til I go away later and try to write the lyrics for it that it will take on its identity in lyrical form.
We tend to record a song before we play it live and during the recording process, that’s when the song will really get finished. We’ll layer a lot of parts on, many of them are really unnecessary but I think that’s what we like about the recording process. We can really make a song as messy as possible but then Mickey loves spending time, just hours on end just stripping away the layers until ever sound on there, kinda, has a purpose.
We really love classical music because there are such classic albums that have such a high standard of production. Every sound on there, every phrase has been thought about and has its place. I’m not saying that’s what our music is but that’s what we try to achieve when we are recording a song.
Isn’t that what The Beatles did too? They looked at a lot of classical music and how all the phrases and pieces interweave with each other?
‘Exactly, I used to play the viola in an orchestra and I think the fact that the viola didn’t do much, I really got to appreciate the complexity… Like most scores were just perfectly crafted. It’s really amazing. I think that’s why we love the recording process because we can be really experimental and really explore a song.’
So if the band love recording so much, how are they finding being on the road, and doing gigs night after night?
‘It’s a different challenge, I really don’t like when bands just try to replicate exactly what the record does and the way they’ll do it is by putting loads on track. There’s almost an element of fear if the audience don’t come and hear exactly what they’ve heard at home well then they’ll be turned off by it. If you try and take the songs in a live way and try to connect with the audience in a really organic way so if we used any sampling it would be.. Like we force Mark to learn how to play a melody on a sampling pads, like we have notes on the sampling pad.
We try to use as much percussion as possible.. We love playing live, it’s a different challenge and it really enables us to interact as musicians as well because in the studio… it’s often Mark will record his drums, then Matt will do his bass, then guitars. It’s a very singular process, even though there will be a lot of connection between Mickey at the desk and whoever is recording but there’ll not be any group interaction really. Whereas if we play live, if it’s a really good gig and we’re really tight, it almost takes like a practice room atmosphere, where we are enjoying playing with each other, That’s what I love about playing live, when we really play as a unit.’
You’re about half way through the tour, is there a night that has stuck out for you so far or is there a night that you were like “ I wish I did that a bit better’?
‘I think the first night in Liverpool was a bit ropey, It was a strange venue, the stage was really low so all we could see was the first line of the audience. It’s hard to gauge how people are reacting to your music and to bounce of people. I think the crowd were a bit weirded out by it as well, the fact that we were like, so close. And being the first gig in a while we weren’t very tight, got the set in the wrong order, by the by it wasn’t great. But I’ve pretty much enjoyed every gig since that one.
We did one in London the other night, it was 500 people and it was the biggest headline show we’ve done and just before we went on stage, because we’re all pretty nervous and we were hoping we wouldn’t be overawed by the occasion.
Mickey just said ‘We’ve all worked really hard, we should just go and enjoy the occasion, relax and enjoy the gig.’ We did, It was lovely that we could go on and enjoy the gig for what it was. That would be my favourite so far. There have been a couple that have been really good but that one had something special about it.’
From someone outside the UK market looking in, last year seemed to be about Manchester with Everything Everything, Hurts and those guys. This year seems to be about the rise of Tyneside with yourselves and Frankie & The Heartstrings making waves. What is the scene like there?
‘There’s a definite Sunderland scene and there has always been with bands like Futureheads, Field Music and now Frankie & The Heartstrings, they’ve almost like, collaborated, produced each other or helped each other out.
It’s strange because Newcastle has a really strong sense of identity as a city but musically I don’t think it has so much of a scene in Newcastle. Whereas Sunderland, I wouldn’t say as a city it has much sense of identity, I’m sure people from Sunderland would disagree but in terms of music, Sunderland really does have a vibrant scene plus it has the infrastructure. There’s a couple of practice rooms and venues that really open themselves up to bands and if a band is doing well they’ll really get behind them and support them. Money won’t be an object, it wont be like ‘oh you can rehearse here for a tenner an hour’, they’ll support them and let them do it for free. There’s not the same community in Newcastle.
We’ve never really been part of the scene but its lovely to see bands from an area doing well. I think naturally, if a sportsman from a particular area does well it inspires people to go out and do that as well. It’s lovely to see bands from the Northeast doing well, Frankie & The Heartstrings are lovely lads as well so I’m really pleased for them.’
One last question: Your videos are very stylish, the colour grading is beautifully done. Who makes them for you?
‘It’s a girl called Aoife McArdle, she just sent the treatment in for the ‘Isles’ video and our reference point was, I don’t know what it’s called but this type of animation that makes everything look like a model village and we loved the idea. We wanted to back an idea and not get involved at all in the actual story boarding of it and just to let somebody that was clearly talented, go away and make the video they wanted to make.
We were so pleased with the ‘Isles’ video we decided to use the same person to do ‘Joanna’. Again we were really pleased with the concept and the execution of it. If you watch the ‘Isles’ video without the music, it’s really good as well and she’s done a really good job with it.’
In Search of the Elusive Little Comets is out now. Little Comets play The Academy 2 on March 4th
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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt8_O1-WUag
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