I know I’ve read before that you don’t often write when you’re on tour? But do you take notes of anything that inspires you? Does it pay off in your songs later or do you keep it separate really, the music and the travel? No I think it pays off later, there’s so much to be said for just waiting and considering. You know writing a song can take fifteen minutes, or four weeks, or longer, so there’s no real set way in preparing to write a song and the preparation time is variable too. So no, we don’t write on the road, but you do collect things up. Whether it’s photos or little notes or memories, it really does all add up and when you come to write again you’ve got his well of experience you can draw up from.


I saw in a recent interview that Harry’s got aphilosophy that if you watch bands who make a few mistakes when performing, it’s better than watching the perfect set. Is this something of a mantra for you on the upcoming world tour? Yeah, I think it depends; there are


we’re just not interested in that. We’re just too passionate about the music to be interested in being showmen. Tus far we’ve managed to impress people with the way we play our songs and the production around it on the stage so I don’t feel the need for any of us to be epoch characters right now.


I know you were eager to make a Big TV a strong melodic pop album – you’ve said you wanted it to be sung at karaoke nights in 30 years time. Are you getting the impression from the gigs so far that you’re achieving that aim? Tere’s a lot of singing along, and I think it’s because of the simplicity of the lyrics on the new album, and the directness of them. It’s really nice to see someone mouthing them back to you. Tere’s no mask or cloak around it; it feels really pure. Tey know exactly what you’ve been trying to get at and they feel it too. It’s simple universal themes and ideas that anyone can relate too. I wasn’t trying to break the mould with the lyrics on this album, but I was trying to be honest and get to the point. Songs


We definitely do copy bands and everyone should. And everyone should steal.


different kinds of mistakes. I think the kind of mistakes Harry is talking about are false starts and I like that. When you go to watch a band and they go to launch into one of their big songs and someone’s like ‘wait I’m not ready’, that sort of stuff I really like. It’s real. But once you’re into the swing of a song I’m quite a perfectionist so it annoys me when someone misses a note or drops a beat. I think as well it’s the interaction with the crowd. Te bands I’m more impressed by live are just more human and have much more spontaneous rapport with the audience as opposed to scripted and rehearsed speeches you do. You just have to be yourself, that’s what we try. Well you don’t have to be yourself at all - you can be someone totally different if you want, but no,


like First Time Caller I’ll never tire of people singing along to that. It’s a highlight of our career as a song, but it’s also a highlight of the show.


It’s nice when you have the songs that aren’t over complicated, but really put across a message in the lyrics and the melody, which I think you’ve got in Big TV. Yeah, there’s a quote from Paul Simon a few years ago that there are two different types of songs that you can write. One is a cliché, a song you write for the sake of it, and it’s fun. Te second is to make a song that’s an intellectual exorcise, and it’s trying to be very weighty and important. Paul Simon said the best songs are always ones that marry those two ideas. You’ve effectively got some kind of cliché, whether it’s musical or lyrical


or even production wise, but you manage to inject that with something that feels important.


And Big TV marries the ideas? I think that’s what ‘First Time Caller’ does, and it’s probably the only song we’ve ever done so successfully. Even with the lyric ‘first time caller, long time listener’, which I’m just so baffled that no one’s ever used before as it’s such a cliché. It’s the hardest thing to achieve and you just can’t do it with every song; you look forward to it happening by chance. You’re in the right place at the right time and all of that. Tat’s a really big moment for us, that song.


Is there some sort of magic recipe you follow to make up an anthem- worthy chorus, or does it just sort of fall into place? Tere are a couple of tricks that we know work, but we just get lucky. I’m a big fan of when we’re writing, having some chords we like, and then playing melodies over them from classic songs. When we were writing Big TV we were referencing Seal a lot; Harry and I are a big fans of his hits. I think those four or five tracks that made him a superstar – you can tell why they made him a superstar – are just very good song writing. I’m also a big fan of Aimee Mann’s song writing. I think she’s really good and I often listen to her solo stuff from Till Tuesday, the band she was in in the 80’s. Yeah, classic things, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young.


Do you get tired of these ‘sounds like’ comparisons and think people should just take music as it is? I don’t mind really. As long as people are enjoying the music then that’s enough. I do get slightly frustrated, of course, when the odd lazy person accuses us of directly copying other bands, because that’s not what happens at all. We definitely do copy bands and everyone should. And everyone should steal, but we steal from very different sources to what we end up sounding like, and are put in the same music bracket as. Like I said, we steal from Seal, and then you’ll never hear it, as it’s something so different to us you’ll never make the comparison. Tere we are!


I know I’m going far back in time now, but I’m really interested in your transformation from Fear of Flying


outlineonline.co.uk /December 2013/ 17


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