THE GUESTLIST NETWORK | FEBRUARY 2011
ROCK//INDIE//ALTERNATIVE 43
CHAPEL CLUB
How long did you debut album Palace take to make and what problems did you have making it? It didn’t take that long to make, a month in total. It was broken up a little bit because we were busy touring and everything. It was last late Spring/early Summer… Erm what problems did we encounter? It was a pretty troubled pre- recording actually. I think because we had such an experienced producer in Paul (Epworth) we pulled through. He’s just unstoppably positive. He is like this is going to work and there is no problem you can’t think your way around etc etc. So there wasn’t any major troubles recording it. If there has been any troubles in the last year with the band, it hasn’t been connected with the recording of the album.
So the band benefited by working with Paul Epworth? Yeah obviously because Paul is pretty much, I know the word genius. I know that it gets branded around too much but he is as close to genius as to anyone I have ever met. He has done pretty much every job in the music industry you can think of. He played in bands, he was a songwriter and a singer, he plays tons of instruments, he’s produced, he was a sound engineer, he’s a DJ and he’s done re-mixes. He has heard every song you have ever heard and about 50 thousand more to boot. He just brings all of that experience in with his mad enthusiasm and it was a
Dean Woodhouse
After making a name for themselves with All The Eastern Girls, Five Trees and O Maybe I last year, Chapel Club are ready for mainstream success as their debut album Palace beckons upon your local retailer. Here’s what lead singer Lewis Bowman had to say on their aspirations...
real help to us. We were going in to his studio, still shell shocked from being hyped so much to suddenly getting a record deal after 4 gigs. All we knew is that we wanted to record the songs that got us signed as it were, which is what this album is about. So we were like lets get them out, let’s get them recorded and make the most of them in the production and then we can move forward creatively. So we weren’t thinking too far ahead.
Since gaining hotly tipped status for 2011, do you feel any pressure fulfilling your potential? It’s a weird one because if someone said to me that they hated me or they thought I had failed then I would feel like ‘ah shit’ and suddenly feel pressure. But most of the time, I don’t hear that stuff (laughs), I stay away from those negative vibes. Most of the time we hear more positives stuff, especially with the work we’ve done. We just have to keep our heads down, get on the road and get in the studio. I don’t really feel that connected to the world surrounding music, like the media. But we just need to concentrate on writing, recording and playing songs and getting music out into the world. I put a lot of pressure on myself.
Your recent single Surfacing is a great song. How come you guys aren’t in the video? Well we done a few videos before
that, we liked them and we were very grateful to the people who made them. But we don’t feel that there a great need to be seen all the time. So fuck it, let’s not be in the video. The opinion in the band is that great music videos are an amazing thing but they are very very rare. It’s really hard, especially for a guitar band, to do a video that doesn’t come across as embarrassing. So we just said to the director (Dan Sully) that you have come up with an amazing little feature that ticks all of our boxes. We think it can work really well as a little short film and it will have much more impact if we were not in it as it will be artistically meaningless. We would only be a distraction from the video. He said very nicely that he didn’t need us in it and it was great. Also we were touring at the time and we would have had to fly back. It’s the best video we’ve done so far I reckon.
Are you going to try and stay out of the videos in the future then? I think we are going to definitely try yes. It depends on the treatments and stuff. If we can stay out of them and have them done artisti- cally, then I definitely think they will be better with our absence.
Can you give us an exclusive? I can give you Mike’s (Hibbert, guitar) address (laughs). Erm well, our bass player (Liam Arkile) can tell when a woman is menstruating. I don’t know if that counts as an exclusive or just a disgusting fact!
What do you want to achieve as a band? Well the industry is fucked at the moment and guitar bands are doubly fucked. So I’m not thinking I’m going to make any money or anything like that. What I hope is that we continue this little game of ours long enough to show some more of what we are made of. I just hope everything just gets better and better as I’m really self conscience and I find the live shows a bit of a tight rope walk. I never go out on stage feeling comfortable, I think that’s a good thing as it adds to the element of tension and people are seeing the real me rather than an act. I also hope we win a few more people around as there are some assumptions on what we are about and what we are like as people. So there are some surprises in store.
NEWS
WHITE STRIPES SPLIT!!
Chapel Club’s debut album Palace is out now.
Catch them on tour: 15th Feb Talking Heads- Southampton 16th Feb Heaven- London 25th Feb The Academy 2- Dublin 26th Feb Auntie Annie’s- Belfast 21st May 02 Academy Brixton (support- ing Suede)
This Valentine’s day will not be the same as former married couple Jack and Meg White have now parted ways indefinately. The band White Stripes have ceased to exist. A statement was posted on their website stating the Detroit duo were not going to record new material or perform live with each other in the future. The statement also read that the split was not due to any artistic differences, lack of wanting to continue with each other or any health issues (Meg suffered from acute anxiety in 2007 causing the cancellation of some the band’s world tour dates), but it was because of myriad of reasons. They both wish to preserve what is beautiful and special about the band. This announcement has come to a shock for all of us as there was no speculation of squabbling between the two, let alone any talks of
saying goodbye to the band. It’s alright for Jack, he has still got two bands to contend with. Both The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather are both respectable bands in the music business, Meg, at the moment, is all on her own. News has yet to rise on what the female drummers next move is, but we are sure her next project will be big considering her CV is pretty impressive. We still have their records stashed on our iPod and when we are in the mood, we can pull out Seven Nation Army, Fell In Love With A Girl and Icky Thump out of the top draw. The statement concluded with a personal message to their fans by explaining the songs do not belong to Jack or Meg anymore but to the fans and we can do what we want with them. A fitting end to one of the best bands in the last decade.
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