CENTREFOLDS Q&A

Your name: 
Martin Iles.

Where are you from? 
Bath, UK.

Name of band:
CENTREFOLDS.

Who is in your band?
Tom Corneill - guitar/vocals, Phil Smith - guitar/vocals, Rich Beeby - bass, Martin Iles - drums.

How would you describe yourselves and your music? 
Anglo-Indie-dance-punk-euphoric-neon-pop-rock.

Who are your main influences musically? 
In terms of influences, there’s a bit of a journey to cover but it goes a little something like this… if Foals and Radiohead went out for a few drinks but bumped into Everything Everything and LCD Soundsystem on the way, you’d get part of the picture. Thing is, on the way back they stumbled into Ryan Adams and Patrick Watson in the kebab shop who were having a deep and meaningful conversation over a chicken doner about the illicit relations between Elbow and Queens of the Stone Age. It had all been a tremendous affair and got a lot of people worryingly aroused, including Soulwax, The Beatles, Muse, Bombay Bicycle Club and Darwin Deez.

What do you hope to achieve in music? 
Reaching out to new ears.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why? 
Highlight for us has got to be playing at Glastonbury Festival.

And what’s the moment you want to forget? 
We played a few terrible venues in the early days, one in particular where we regretted accepting a booking at a venue in Somerset without looking into it (will not name and shame the pub). We played to a tiny crowd in what appeared to be a conservatory and members of the audience were mostly asleep before we started and those who were awake looked like extras from 'The Hills Have Eyes'. There was definitely something in the water or perhaps it was something to do with the radioactive looking cider everyone was drinking.

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why? 
You, Me & Debauchery. It's our current single which represents our current blend of indie-dance-euphoric-neon-pop-rock.

Where can we listen to it? 
https://soundcloud.com/centrefoldshq

Where can we find out more about your music?
Twitter 
Facebook 
Soundcloud
YouTube 
Bandcamp 
Official Website
Spotify 
iTunes

Anything else you'd like to say about your band/music that I forgot to ask?
Here's some things other people have said about us...

“A creative multi-genre breakfast of champions, combining the best bits from punk, electronica, French house, trance and rock, bringing it together to create a sound that’s going to see Foals cowering in a corner behind Soulwax” – BBC 6 Music

“More hooks than Abu Hamza in velcro. There’s swagger, there’s verve, the complete package” Absolute Radio

“Twanging guitarmongery, full of dumbpunk swagger” – NME

“A certain amount of English charm and English grit” Amazing Radio

“This band have the ability to craft addictive melodies while crossing genres” Fred Perry Subculture

Amber Dee Q&A

Your name: 

Amber Dee.

Where are you from? 

Currently residing in the beautiful city of Bath, UK.

How would you describe yourself? 

Musically? I write in a kind of pop/folk style, my music’s quite chilled out, a bit like me I guess!

Who are your main influences musically? 

Ooh, now that’s a tricky one! I like to think rather than just taking influence from one or two artists/bands, I take little bits of inspiration from a lot of them. Fleetwood Mac, Florence & The Machine, Lucy Rose, Findlay, Nina Nesbitt, Lianne La Havas…to name a few. Quite a mix!

What do you hope to achieve in music? 

My main goal is to be happy, music makes me happy. So being able to make a living out of music, on whatever scale, is what I’m aiming to do forever and ever…please?

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why? 

The release of my latest EP was pretty special for me. Without a label, management or anything my friends all came together to help me, I had someone doing web design, my other friend produced the whole EP, got a band together, another friend did all the photography for the EP artwork and the event… On the night I could hear people singing along and everyone sat cross legged in front of the stage for an encore, which the venue said had never happened before! It was pretty cool.

And what’s the moment you want to forget? 

As cheesy as it may sound, I don’t want to forget any of it! Even if things don’t always go to plan, I’ve gotten pretty good at coming up with a rapid plan B!

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why? 

I think my favourite so far would have to be Panic. I wrote the song about 2 years before recording it, it means a lot to me and I wanted to be sure of it before letting it go!

Where can we listen to it? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFJxxj89J1k

Where can we find out more about your music?

Official website: http://www.amberdeemusic.com

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/somewhere-in-between-ep/id917352321

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmberDeeMusic

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmberDeeMusic

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRy0bVEo6G7O9U8Ki3sotlQ

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/amber-dee

Anything else you’d like to say that I forgot to ask? 

If you like my music, check out the Tour tab on my website to see when I’m playing live near you! For any other questions, remember, I’m only a tweet away!

Smilex Q&A

Your name:

Lee Christian.

Where are you from?

I live in Bath now but the band is from and born in Oxford.

Name of band:

Smilex (named after a toxic chemical Batman villain the Joker uses to kill people with a smile on their face).

Who else is in your band?

Tom Sharp - guitar and vocals, Pat Holmberg - drums, Liv Luce - bass. I'm the singer (loosely defined!)

How would you describe yourselves?

Alternative rock I guess: Arty and melodic but heavy and in your face. Kick ass live. Nice people with problems.

Who are your main influences musically?

We all have our own tastes but the stuff that unifies the band and is reflected in it's sound would be: Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Pixies, Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden, Tool, Deftones, At the Drive-in, Guns and Roses, Led Zeppelin and Beavis & Butthead's vocal impressions of classic riffs from yesteryear...

What do you hope to achieve in music?

Fight the good fight against all the meaningless style-over-substance commercial drivel and make an argument for intelligent (tho not TOO intelligent - that would spoil everything!) But visceral rock. Always get better.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?

The creation and release of Smilex's debut '7' as it is pretty much exactly the record I wanted to make and also resulted in working with Ace from Skunk Anansie, a band that we all love. Also getting Playmusic's award for best live act 2010 was nice as our live show is very important to us!

And what’s the moment you want to forget?

The sales of '7' that followed! Plus a couple of nights picking glass out of my head after a hectic gig!

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?

Old album - Ape Pig Man as it is one of 7 direct kicks to the balls. The new album - I'm still too close to tell. 

Where can we listen to it?

https://soundcloud.com/smilex/ape-pig-man

Where can we find out more about your music?

www.smilex.co.uk
www.facebook.com/smilexband
www.youtube.com/smilexvideos
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/smilex/id213490413
www.soundcloud.com/smilex
www.smilex.bandcamp.com
www.twitter.com/_smilex_
 

Anything else you’d like to say about your band/music that I forgot to ask?

We're not trying to be rich or famous: Both have become very crass & tacky (if they were not always!). I want to give people something for their heads, hearts, feet and maybe loins to feel engaged/excited by! 

Things get moving for The Family Rain

THINGS are swirling up for the hotly-tipped trio The Family Rain.

Their single Carnival is out now and the sibling three-piece have also played support gigs for The Courteeners, as well as their own headline show at the Sebright Arms in London this week.

The Family Rain are three brothers from Bath – the twins Tim and Will and older brother Olly. Brought up away from the bright lights of London, they have made music in their own corner of the UK. 

The result is songs of garage minimalism, stripped back to be performed as live. Debut single Trust Me…I’m A Genius hinted at the band’s brilliant simplicity, now Carnival throws more light on their talents.
 
While Trust Me... I'm A Genius, was recorded at Rock Field in Wales, Carnival is a home demo which was recorded in the boys' basement. It is here where the band rehearse and write much of their material, sandwiched between the downstairs bathroom and their dad's garage.
 
Freshly singed to Mercury Records, the band headed to the legendary Hansa Studios in Berlin last month to record with Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys).

You can listen to their track Waterfall - the b-side to Carnival - here:




Following their headline show on Monday, The Family Rain are back on stage on Friday on tour with Willy Moon in the UK and then heading across to Europe.

The dates and places are as follows:

22^nd March                   Birmingham Hare and Hounds (w/Willy Moon)
23^rd March                    Glasgow Broadcast (w/Willy Moon)
25^th March                    Manchester Deaf Institute (w/Willy Moon)
26^th March                    Brighton The Haunt (w/Willy Moon)
30^th March                    Stockton Calling Festival
 
12^th April                       Brussels Botanique (w/Willy Moon)
13^th April                       Amsterdam Bitterzoet (w/Willy Moon)
14^th April                       Koln Blue Shell (w/Willy Moon)
16^th April                       Berlin Privat (w/Willy Moon)
17^th April                       Munich Strom (w/Willy Moon)
19^th April                       Geneva MàD (w/Willy Moon)
20^th April                       Milan Factory (w/Willy Moon)
21^st April                        Zurich Papersaal (w/Willy Moon)
23^rd April                        Lyon Marche Gare (w/Willy Moon)
24^th April                        Paris La Flèche d'Or (w/ Willy Moon)
 
2^nd May                           Liverpool Sound City
4^th May                            Live At Leeds Festival