Royal Canoe - Extended Play

It's officially summer, which means it's time for girls to wear extremely short shorts and for overly confident guys to walk around topless (not showing off, but because it's too hot right?). Sadly though, the vast depressingly black clouds I can see outside of my window imply that we are more likely to see a typically British summer than anything remotely resembling a Mediterranean heat wave but worry not, the solution is here, and it isn't an umbrella.

Royal Canoe's latest EP, Extended Play, arrives at just the right time then with the same ethos that made debut albums by Foster The People and Temper Trap so successful. The four tracks on offer here are unashamedly indie pop but with psychedelic tinges that wouldn't have sounded so out of place of Yeasayer's Odd Blood. Imagine a happy Arcade Fire making a love child with Alt-J and Vampire Weekend and you would be somewhere close to describing their sound.

Hold on to the Metal, a song that first caught my attention on 6 Music, is a playful little track which despite being multifaceted between streams of samples, percussion and vocal harmonies maintains a level of careless simplicity allowing a summery guitar hook that I'm sure the Beach Boys wished they had thought of shine through. While other standout track Bathtubs, a six minute affair that feels like it breezes by in seconds, has the type of sound that WILL be featured on an advert in the future (you just know it). It also features the EP's major festival sing-a-long moment; "The bathtubs in the hallway, are here to stay.", I know that sounds peculiar but I challenge anyone to listen to the song and not sing to that lyric.

Sure, Extended Play is an indie pop EP and granted it's going to be lapped up by those super cool kids at NME (I'm not jealous, honest). And yeah I don't really understand what most of the lyrics about either but in a dismal summer where the most talked about releases seem to be Mark Owen and god knows what else, surely pop music like this that takes chances and enthuses us to smile should applauded. And I for one, will be buying their full length album when it is released in September.

4 / 5
http://royalcanoe.bandcamp.com/

Little Kid Interview

Every new generation of music has brought a different approach. The current technological state is allowing artists to be able to record instrumentally vast albums of a high quality without the need to fork out for extortionate studio time and session musician costs. As well, the decline of the record label is seeing more and more musicians take their art into their own hands, independently recording, packaging, and promoting their work. Little Kid, the brainchild of Kenny Boothby sums up this ethos selling his work, which are often seemingly defunct platforms such as cassette, via online sites such as Bandcamp. I caught up with Kenny to discuss the release of his latest album, 'River of Blood', as well as exploring the importance of the internet to an independent artist such as himself.

Firstly, for those who don't know you, can you tell us about Little Kid?
I started recording songs as Little Kid in 2009 - all four-track stuff, recorded on tape and such. It was a lot of fun for a while, but I started playing with other musicians live over the last few years and enjoyed the band sound so much that Little Kid eventually expanded into a loose band. A few other people have contributed to the album, but for the live shows it's usually myself, Broderick Germain, and Jessiah Devine.

Your last album, Logic Songs, was quite lo-fi. In comparison, River of Blood sounds more polished. What was the difference between the recording process of both albums?
When I made Logic Songs, I didn't really know what I was doing. I had a few odd recordings I had been making over the years and I kept recording little songs on the 4-track and some other tape machines, and eventually an album sort of took shape from that. I pieced together the best ones in an order that made sense and re-did a couple of them with different arrangements, and Logic Songs was the result. I'm happy with how it turned out - I still love lo-fi recordings - but I wanted to go about this one a little differently.

For River of Blood, I demoed all of the songs in advance, using essentially the same equipment as I used for Logic Songs. Then in January, once I felt like I finally had enough songs for a new album, Brodie and I got together at my house and started recording them. I think he did a great job on the mixing end of things - overall, I'm really happy with how this album turned out.

Logic Songs came across as a solo record while in comparison, River of Blood sounds more direct, concentrated and mature. Was there more of a band ethos behind the new record?
With Logic Songs, a lot of the recordings that made it onto the album were done the day I wrote the song - some are even the first time I really played the song all the way through. It's a much different experience demoing each song, listening back, thinking about different arrangements, performing the songs live, tweaking lyrics, etc. There is a certain element that can be lost in that process - and I think that element is something that some people might have enjoyed about Logic Songs - but as an artist, I think you end up with something you feel a lot more satisfied with when you take the time to let the song develop over a longer period of time.

We definitely went for more of a band thing on this one. I still wrote all the songs, and I had some ideas about how the album should sound, but Brodie in particular definitely had a huge impact on the approach we took with the songs. He's a great drummer and he has a good ear for how to really get the most out of a song. My good friend Jessiah, who plays in Wooly Mammoth, also contributed to a lot of the songs - we were hoping to have him play all the bass on the record, but it didn't really work out, logistics-wise. On one of the few times we managed to get all three of us together, we tracked the guitar, bass, and drums of "Slow Train" live, with all of us playing in the same room. That was a lot of fun, and it wound up being one of my favourite recordings on the album.

Lyrically your new album has many religious references. It feels like within these songs, you feel like a religious failure. Would you say that was correct and lyrically, aside from religion, what are your influences?
I'd say that's somewhat correct. As far as the guidelines set forth in the Bible go, I'd definitely be considered a failure, and probably more so now than at any other point in my life. Nowadays, I'm at a point where I am fine with that, but I find it an interesting thing to ponder, and to document in songs. I also think that the songs have been shaped by a lot of other stuff going on in my life, personal stuff that is probably only really visible to me and my closest friends.

The title of the album, 'River of Blood', is mentioned a few times throughout the album. What is the meaning and importance of it to you?
When writing these songs, I was thinking a lot about Jesus' incarnation in human form and the biblical distinctions between God and man, the spirit and the flesh. I was thinking about how humans, even according to the Bible, are inherently and inevitably flawed, and how - to me at least - that would imply that not only Jesus, but the gospel and the Bible itself, are similarly flawed. I would think that even something perfect or divinely inspired, after being filtered through all that human imperfection, would end up getting at least a little fucked up. This also got me thinking about particular defects and problems in the human mind and body, things like lapses in memory, poor vision. I think that found its way into a lot of the songs.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly what "river of blood" means to me - to be honest, it was something I just started singing one time - but it was an image I liked, and it's come to represent a lot of the ideas I've discussed above. I think I use the image a little differently in each song, but it all ties into this sort of "God and man" distinction somehow.

Musically River of Blood sounds like a folk album but with rock and almost church gospel undertones. How would you describe the sound of the record?
We've been jokingly calling it "mid-fi post-gospel stoner-folk". It's definitely folk-influenced, especially in some parts, but it borrows from a lot of different sounds. I can hear elements of almost all of my favourite bands and genres in there somewhere, which is something I like about the album. I think we managed to make it pretty cohesive while still exploring some pretty disparate sounds - at least I hope so, because that's something I really appreciate in a record.

How will you be planning to release the new album? Logic Songs was available to buy on download or cassette, will River of Blood be the same?
We started with a run of 40 cassettes (20 red / 20 gold) and 30 CDs. This tremendously talented artist who lives in my city, James Chia Han Lee (http://leeshit.tumblr.com/) created the artwork and design, and I printed and assembled all the packaging, dubbed the cassettes, etc. We have actually sold out of the CDs already - a few were preordered, but the rest sold the night of our release show. We still have some cassettes left, though. We're planning to do vinyl  but I don't know how long it will take to get that together.

I first became aware of Little Kid through Bandcamp. As an independent artist, how important is the internet to you in terms of promotion, do you view it as a help or a hindrance?
I'm sure that, overall, the internet has mostly been pretty harmful to musicians, but for me, at this point in my career, it's been very helpful. I'm not really interested in making a living from music right now, so I'm happy to be able to give it away to anyone who will listen - the internet makes that possible, and it's been awesome to hear from people from other parts of the world who have somehow found my music.

With the price of (international) shipping increasing, has that had an impact on you as an artist? How difficult is it now to break even on the time and money you must put into rehearsing and recording?
It's very difficult... I either broke even or lost money on the Logic Songs cassettes, and it's looking to turn out approximately the same way on this record. But that's not really a problem for me, because I make my living through my "real" job - music is a passion I pursue outside of that. We could probably charge more but I like being able to keep prices as low as possible - and it's hard enough to convince people to buy physical media as it is.

And finally, if you had five words to sell your new album to someone who hadn't heard it, what would they be?
"PLEASE CONSIDER LISTENING TO IT"

You can buy Little Kids new album, 'River of Blood' via their bandcamp - http://littlekid.bandcamp.com/

Little Kid - River of Blood

With iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and every increasing advancement in music posting and sharing we've perhaps forgotten the best way of sharing music; word of mouth. I first heard of Little Kid through a friend and I knew from his enthusiasm that it was definitely worth a listen. You just can't get that sort of recommendation from a website I'm afraid. His most recent album at that time, 'Logic Songs', was a collection of lo-fi, almost folk but almost not offerings that were complete with backing tracks of soundscapes of trains and only available to buy on cassette. To be honest, it was brilliant.

'River of Blood', the new ten song offering from Little Kid is a little different however. Firstly, the soundscapes have gone, the lo-fi sound of 'Logic Songs' has been replaced by a more professional recording. While 'Logic Songs' had that raw feel of a guy writing songs on a guitar and recording them in his bedroom, 'River of Blood' is a step up and sonically there is a tighter, more direct band feel to the record.
     This has created a musical and lyrical maturity like on tracks like 'Apostles' where a baroque style guitar is proceeded by beautiful touches of xylophone and a wonderfully delicate lead guitar melody that previously are little ideas that I don't think Little Kid would have explored. It also contains one of the many downbeat lines seemingly inspired by a loss of love and battle with religion that are dotted around the album; 'I swear I'll always see you leaving when I close my eyes'.
      'Damascus' has this deep organic piano sound with the sort of pitch and church reverb that pianists would all probably dream of. It also has a raw guitar line that matches the piano melody perfectly for the bridge, not overpowering it but more showing just how far production wise Little Kid has improved over the space of two albums.    
      'Slow Train' perhaps the heaviest song on the album, begins almost in a rock or grunge way with rip roaringly disgusting disorted guitar over a steady drumbeat and has the quiet verse-loud chorus composition that worked so brilliantly well for bands like Nirvana. It lends itself well to Little Kid too, allowing reflective religiously inspired lyrics; 'some days I pray to jesus, some days I don't pray for shit, no I fumble at the pieces, some days they almost seem to fit'.
     The final track, 'In Church' is a slow downbeat love story that perfectly ends one of my favourite albums of this year, and for a year that has seen releases from the likes of James Blake, Foals, Frightened Rabbit, Daughter and Keaton Henson (just to name a few), I think that is saying a lot. 'River of Blood' ends with the line; 'I'll only love you 'til it hurts.'. I think it's only fair to Little Kid that we buy this album and love it beyond that.

4.5 / 5

https://www.facebook.com/littlekidmusic

Daughter - If You Leave

It only takes five minutes with Daughter, a three piece folk band from London, to wonder what man could really have destroyed guitarist and vocalist Elena Tonra's heart. For those who are already initiated with the low ebb lyrical blues of the band, debut album If You Leave won't be a massive surprise, however for those newcomers, well, prepare to have your heart broken over and over.

If You Leave isn't exactly a massive departure from what Daughter have offered music listeners before. We still have the same sparse arrangements based around the most vulnerable of guitar melodies while hints of conflicting electric guitar and uplifting percussion work are used to taunt the listener. This allows Tonra's warm although often low key vocals to affect the listener with poetic lyrics based around seemingly wishing she was never born and the always so obvious and yet ever more popular subject of lost love.

For those who like their music happy and uplifting, stay away. This really isn't for you. But when this works, it really works, especially on old favourite Youth, which despite being overplayed on television advertisements has somehow stayed fresh with Tonra claiming 'if you're in love, then you are the lucky one, 'cause most of us are bitter over someone' over a dreamy, indie summer explosion of musical beauty. Latest single, Human, another stand out track, offers an upbeat almost tribal sound to the proceedings and lyrically is more positive with Tonra singing 'despite everything I'm still human', adding yet another song from the album to the getting over someone playlist.

If You Leave isn't a spectacular album. It isn't going to blow your ears off in one listen. But what it will do is make you sit in a quiet room with massive headphones on as you slowly allow it to consume you. Atmospheric and emotionally life confirming, it has to be the most honest album released for a long time, and for that alone, Daughter deserve to be listened to.

4 / 5

www.ohdaughter.com/

My First Tooth

A five out of five review from Big Cheese Magazine, Artrocker describing their musics beauty, mentions by popular Radio DJs like Zoe Ball. These all followed My First Tooth after the release of their debut album Territories but that was two years ago, and two years in music is a long time. I caught up with bass player Jo Collis to discuss ‘that difficult second album’, what it feels like to be on a label like Alcopop Records and most importantly whether given the drastic change in the economy, whether it might be easier to hang up the guitar strings all together…

So how does it feel to be releasing a second album?
Jo: It feels tremendously exciting and a bit nerve wracking! It's been a long time coming but it's great that finally people will be able to hear it.

A lot of bands aren't afforded the opportunity to get to make more than one record these days. How do you feel that as a band you've managed to achieve that where others haven't?
Jo: Very, very lucky. We have great support from our label Alcopop records and our manager, and we were really lucky to work with some excellent producers on the album.

We started writing 'Love Makes Monsters' about 2 years ago (I think!) and the whole process has taken a lot of work, not least from us managing to write the record, but from everyone who has helped us out along the way.

There's a term, second album syndrome, where a band struggles to convincingly follow up their debut album. At any point during the recording of Love Makes Monsters did you feel this, or worry about this?
Jo: From the minute we released the first one I think!! Luckily for us, we never felt any pressure from anyone other than ourselves to make a record we were happy with, and the time and effort involved in making it is testament to that. Saying that, I can't pinpoint a moment where I didn't feel confident we would be happy with the record. It's quite different to Territories in many ways, but I'm equally as proud of both of them.

How do you feel that it's different to Territories? Did the writing and recording process differ between the two albums?
Jo: When we started work on Territories, many of those songs already existed before Gareth (our drummer) and I joined the band, so whilst we were writing our own parts, some of the songs themselves existed pretty much as they ended up,on the record.

With Love Makes Monsters, we had established our line up and we had much more of a 'blank canvas' to work from. The writing process was similar in that Ross brings ideas into the practice room and we take it from there really, but i think it's fair to say we were all involved from an earlier point than previously.

Do you feel that has made it a more rounded, eclectic effort than Territories? How do you feel the new album compares with your debut in terms of sound?
Jo: We like to think it's more of a rock record. I'm still so proud of Territories, but Love Makes Monsters is a more raucous affair I'd say. Thematically, I suppose you could say it's more rounded.

Working with James Kenosha was a great experience, and I think he definitely brought out some of the rockier elements. But by the same token, there are some incredibly delicate moments on there too. I'd hesitate to say it's more eclectic than Territories, but I think dynamically it's more diverse.

Would you say that the record wouldn't have been the same, had you not recorded with James? What did he add to the recording experience?
Jo: Absolutely it wouldn't have been the same. But we also worked with Paul Pilot and Peter Abbot, who all contributed to the overall sound of the record. The majority was recorded with James, and it felt really easy - it all happened pretty quickly once we got going and James was a pleasure to spend time in a studio with! It was generally a very relaxing and enjoyable experience. Most importantly though, we enjoyed making this record with all 3 producers from start to finish, and I really hope that comes across.

Musically, the band seem to have a big folk influence, but while modern folk seems to be becoming more minimal, Love Makes Monsters seems to be a very textured album with string and brass sections. Was this a conscious decision?
Jo: Even in the early stages of writing, we get quite excited thinking about the other parts we can add! One of the nicest things about recording in a studio for a length of time and having access to other musicians is being able to try out other instrumentations and parts. Joel Harries, who played trumpet on the record, also wrote some beautiful guitar parts for some songs and its so lovely to be able to add those into the mix. Whilst we do have a folk influence to a certain extent, we also have a pretty diverse range of influences and I think that also comes across on Love Makes Monsters.

When it comes to playing this album live, are there any worries with such a full album, that you won't be able to do it justice live?
Jo: Well, it's funny you should say that... we have just recently welcomed a fifth member who will be joining us for live shows where physically possible! It's a real treat for us to be able to make everything sound bigger and add some of the parts we simply don't have enough arms to play. Going back to dynamics, it gives us a bit more to play with live.

Fantastic, look at that, breaking news! Aside from the fifth member, are there any other plans for the tour in support of Love Makes Monsters?
Jo: Just to play everywhere that will have us! I love touring and playing live and I'm really really excited for the future at the moment, we have some great gigs lined up, and will hopefully be adding to that throughout the rest of the year, and I can't wait to get out there and play the songs for everyone!

You've been able to play some great festivals so far. Will you be playing any this year?
Jo: We have a few confirmed - I am particularly excited about Y Not Festival, as we haven't been there before! We'll also be back at The Great Escape this year. Obviously we'll be keeping everyone updated as and when we can confirm any other festivals...

How important do you think gigs are to an independent band like My First Tooth?
Jo: Very.

Getting out there and being able to connect with an audience is vital for us. It's also very handy to play shows with your peers - for example, we had a brilliant gig with The Social Club in Watford last week.

Given the stage of the economy, rising petrol prices, low show turnouts, is there ever a thought of doing something else?
Jo: We seem to be managing ok for ourselves!

 From my point of view, My First Tooth will continue to exist for as long as people still want to come and see/hear us.

I imagine being on a label like Alcopop Records helps that? They seem to be the type of label where people will buy a record without hearing it, just because it's on that label. How have Alcopop Records helped you, and would there ever be the temptation if offered to move to a major label?
Jo: Alcopop has helped us hugely. I honestly can't imagine where we would be without the label. It's a joy to work with someone like Jack, who has made the label feel like a family. Obviously there would be a temptation if someone offered us a major label deal  but I think if that happened for any band on the label it would only be positive for the perception of the label. It's rare to find a label that cultivates, supports and promotes its band in such a way as Alcopop does, and if a major were to sign anyone from the roster, I think it would be a testament to that.

Final question. Beyond the new album and touring in support of it, what are the bands plans?
Jo: Well, as many festivals as will have us in the summer, and more tour dates throughout the year. We'd really like to try and get over to Europe at some point as well. Who knows, we might even start writing a new record...

You can buy the latest My First Tooth album, Love Makes Monsters, via their record label, Alcopop Records!

Or you can listen to the band via their Facebook page.

Tall Ships - Everything Touching

Two EP releases and countless tours have seen Tall Ships reach the point where they almost HAD to record a full length album. EP’s are one thing, impressing people with fifteen minutes of music, but a full length, keeping people’s attention for forty minutes and beyond is a big task for any band regardless of their previous output. The fruit of their labour, Everything Touching, is out on October 8^th but having been less than impressed with the singles it’s spawned so far, will it reach the height of success that Tall Ships have achieved from their EP releases or will the band be destined to disappear beyond the first big hurdle?

The singles that I was so hard on, T=0 and especially latest track Gallop fit perfectly on this record. That isn’t to say that the rest of the album is as poor as I initially thought the singles were, but more that when put in a single context, they sounded like a huge departure from the bands previous math-pop-indie sound. Here their almost rock anthem sensibilities work as highs alongside what you would expect from Tall Ships given their career so far. The rousing Gallop, a single that is already having heavy radio play is a clear attempt at a festival favourite. It’s upbeat, drum heavy and loud but in true Tall Ships fashion if you pull beneath the surface you’ll find that it is perhaps one of the more contemplative tracks lyrically on the album about the process of coping with getting old. It is this depth to the band that makes them, to me at least, one of the most interesting acts to pop up in the UK recently. Tracks like Idolatry, Books and Ode To Ancestors each have their own take on what we consider to be the quintessential Tall Ships sound; soft sections, often orchestrated and with breathy vocals leaping into bright effect heavy guitar noise. Books itself, despite being an old track, sounds renewed, grandiosely backed with a big overblown orchestra that anywhere else on this album would sound over the top, yet here it makes Books one of the songs to listen out for. Then there are tracks like Oscar with its jaunty bass guitar packed indie melody which will no doubt help the band establish themselves with the NME faithful.

Fifteen minutes of listening to a Tall Ships EP and I was hooked, the concern here was always whether they could drag that out over a forty minute album and the answer is yes. There isn’t one point during Everything Touching that I’m thinking “when will this end?” nor are there any fillers that deserve to be skipped. Don’t let this mislead you though, this album isn’t perfect, this isn’t going to be that debut that is so impossible to surpass that it breaks a band. There are sections of this album where you can truly say that the band have hit something brilliant but these are often dispersed with these typical indie NME moments that the band have picked up as they’ve obviously tried to become more immediate. However with songs as crowd friendly as Gallop entwined with the songs us old fans know and love, you know that Tall Ships are only going to get that little bit more popular and hopefully with that they are will only get better. For now Everything Touching is a fantastic listen, and a great place to start on what will hopefully be a glittering career.

4 / 5

Tall Ships

Foals MK II, math-indie, art-indie, I’ve heard the band called a lot of things from friends and press alike but ultimately, on the back of two very competent EP’s, Tall Ships have been heralded an early success. What started as a hectic rush to play a friend’s house party has become an increasingly flourishing career but Tall Ships as of yet don’t seem to have forgotten the early days of playing through crap gear. I caught up with them as they had just been confirmed for Reading festival and had released the track listing for debut album Everything Touching to discuss their music careers so far. What I found was a band who despite their growing popularity were not only professional but also incredibly humble, often a rarity when talking with those in the music business. Over the course of the interview we discussed the new direction of the band, talking about their debut album in-depth and I feel in doing so, I was given an honest account of how the band feel about their musical journey thus far and I admire them more so for it.

 Hello, hope you are doing well.

Ric: Hey. Very well thanks!

October sees the release of your debut album, Everything Touching. With such success on the basis of your Ep's was there any pressure in writing the full length and did you approach the writing and recording of the album differently to how you have recorded your EP's in the past?

Ric: I think pressure is probably the wrong word really. It made it easier knowing that we were going in to the studio and recording something that people were actually excited for and wanting to hear. It was a good place to start at when writing a record. I feel it gave us a sense of confidence and purpose in what we were making and the resulting album reflects this.

In terms of the recording process, it definitely differed from our first 2 EPs. To start with it was the first time we had ever worked in a proper recording studio and this had a huge impact on the way the record sounds. We had a lot more time to play with so we were able to really explore the songs and allow them to arrive at their finalised states freely rather than rushing them, so from a technical point of view the songs sound much richer and fuller.

With regards to the writing process we really wanted to try and write more immediate and consistent songs. With the first two EPs we always felt they were a little all over the place. Within songs we would have three different parts, which loosely fitted together, and then those songs themselves would each differ hugely from the other songs on the EPs they sat next to. With Everything Touching we knew what kind of album we wanted to make and the record as a whole is much more cohesive as a result.

Having heard the pre-release stream, it sounds like an evolution from the dreamy indie of previous EP's and into rockier territory. What influenced the album and how would you describe it yourselves? 

Ric: We’ve always felt like our EPs didn’t really represent us properly as a band. Live, the songs were always much heavier and intense than the recorded versions. With the album, we wanted to try and capture more of our live sound, as this is closer to what we’re about as a band. We’re actually quite surprised with how much heavier it turned out to be. I do feel it’s much more melodic and accessible compared to the previous EPs as well though.

Gallop is one of the lead singles from the album. Why did you choose this song to showcase the album?

Ric: When we initially recorded and finished Everything Touching it was 9 tracks long and Gallop wasn’t on there. After a few discussions with our managers they felt that we should record one more song, which we could release as a 3^rd single. So we basically set about writing a ‘single’, which was something, we’d never even really thought about before when writing songs. We really thought about what makes a good single and as result aimed to create an upbeat, catchy song.

Ironically though, I feel lyrically it’s the most downbeat and depressing track on the album, which makes it a slightly funny choice for a single. I think it represents the album well though and when taken out of the context of the album, it works as a stand-alone track.

Everything Touching contains two older tracks, Ode To Ancestors and Books. Why did you include these songs rather than others to put on the release?

Ric: They were two songs that we felt we could develop and change into the songs they were meant to be. With our other songs we felt like that we couldn’t really re-record them, they’d be exactly the same but slightly more polished in production. It would have been boring for us to do that and as well they didn’t fit within the conceptual content of the album.

How did you approach rewriting those two particular tracks?

Ric: Ode was pretty straightforward, we just wanted to change the slightly shit keyboard pre-set we used to layer the vocals over. The struggle was to come with something interesting to replace it. After experimenting with a xylophone with Jamie Field we came up with the multi layered Reich-esc arpeggio which is infinitely more interesting and soulful than the shitty pre-set we’d used previously.

We wrote Book such a long time ago, and now we’re a completely different band. We’ve always wanted to experiment with a slight orchestral sound and this song lent itself perfectly to it. It’s pretty grand and over the top now, but we feel that is the perfect backdrop for the lyrics and the book that inspired it. It’s a song we cannot wait to perform live, and hopefully one day with an orchestra.

Everything Touching is available for pre-order in many different formats and bundles. Can you tell us why you are releasing the album in so many ways, and what a fan will get for their money?

Ric: Artwork has always been a huge part of every release we’ve done as a band. We work very closely with our good friend Harriet Bridgwater who has made everything we’ve ever done. In many ways she’s a kind of fourth member and her artwork definitely influences the songs and our band as a whole. Music lends itself to visual accompaniment so well that it’s such a shame when you see bad artwork that just doesn’t work with the music.

Within this digital age where people can just download or stream your songs for free, I think it is more important to create a physical package that people want to physically own. So we hope by putting this effort into our merchandise that it will stimulate people to want to buy it.

Simply put, without people buying our records we physically couldn’t afford to exist as a band. We don’t have a major label pumping money into us, so all our profits that we make by selling merchandise enable us to function as a band. Hopefully it can be seen as a symbiotic relationship between our fans and us. We create things worth having, and they give us the much needed money that helps us keep on playing.

You've spent a summer in the midst of the festival season. It's such a huge change in terms of volume from a small club gig, how do you prepare playing a large stage to vast amounts of people?

Ric: We don’t really change our approach at all. We always aim to go out and play the best show we can. We really enjoy (if it all goes well…) the pressure of playing to loads of people. As a band we aspire to play main stages and become a big band so naturally we like playing the larger slots.

That being said though, a really tiny sweaty club show can be just as immense.

Since your first gig, playing a house party in Falmouth, how do you think you've improved performance wise? Has the ethos to your performances changed at all as the band have become more successful?

Ric: When we first started playing we were an instrumental band playing really scrappy fast songs through shit gear, now our gear is slightly less shit so it sounds better. Live we use lots of loops which can make things pretty complicated, so we’ve had loads of issues with timing and trying to stay in time. It used to be 50/50 whether we’d hold it all together which was pretty funny but definitely not a good ratio if you want to be a good live band. We had a bit of an epiphany though, thanks to our tech wizard sound guy Matt Grimble, who helped us create a new set up using Ableton. So now we’ve been able to tighten up and start really doing exciting things with looping vocals, synths etc as well as allowing us to tighten up to the point where we don’t fuck up that much anymore.

We take performing a lot more seriously now. We used to drink loads and just fuck about because we felt uncomfortable being on stage, but now we don’t drink beforehand as a rule. So yeah it’s more professional, we’re more confident and we’re also, maybe, just maybe, a tad more competent as musicians though that’s definitely open to debate.

You have a fifteen date UK tour to promote the album. If someone hasn't seen you live before, what can they expect from your live shows? 

A good old-fashioned rock show, and an amazing tour support in the shape of Dad Rocks! His album ‘Mount Modern’ was easily one of the best last year and aside from making incredible music he is just the best guy ever.

Thank you for your time, and good luck with the album!

Tall Ships ‘Everything Touching’ is available to pre-order now - www.wearetallships.co.uk