Wednesday 21 May 2008

Indietracks interview #10: The Rosie Taylor Project

Next up in our series of Indietracks interrogations are Leeds six-piece The Rosie Taylor Project Born through an ever-exciting mixture of boredom and whimsy, the band take country, folk, indie, and pop melodies to fill the listener with summery nostalgia. You may already know their recent single ‘A Good CafĂ© on George Street’ (a follow-up to debut ‘Black and White Films’), taken from forthcoming album on Bad Sneakers Records. We're joined by Sophie (trumpet, vocals and French horn) to talk us through people-watching and special gigs in churches. Oh, and if you're in The Enemy you might want to look away now!

Hi Sophie, you're about to play a gig on a steam railway - have you played any other unusual gigs?

One of our favourite gigs, which happened to be in an unusual setting was in the Holy Trinity Church in Leeds. We were supporting Jens Lekman and it was sold out. The Church is huge and because of the acoustics every sound is amplified dramatically. We’re used to a few people chatting through most gigs but this time everyone stayed deadly quiet, the church seemed to encourage a reverential atmosphere, and the acoustics were incredible. The vocals didn’t even really need amplifying because the natural acoustics of the church made everything echo around the walls. This gig made us want to embark on a tour of churches until we realized that people may mistake us for a Christian band.

Have you got any exciting plans for the forseeable future?

We're pretty damn excited about playing at Indietracks. We've also just welcomed into our fold two new members in the form of Jon and Joel who play lead guitar and drums, so we're working on new songs with those two involved and looking forward to unveiling them hopefully soon!

What do you think of music scene at the moment?

Music at the moment is very exciting. More and more bands are branching out and doing their own thing without any concern for what’s popular or “cool”. However, the mainstream doesn’t reflect this, but then it never seems to. Perhaps that’s why there are so many talented bands out there because they’re reacting against the norm but it just seems ridiculous that the music industry is still so concerned with turgid bands like The Enemy and Reverend and the Makers. It’s all just empty posturing.

And finally, what's attracted you to the Indietracks festival?

We love the concept of mixing rail transport and music. Mostly because train journeys are the perfect time to sit back and daydream whilst listening to music. Train journeys are some of the rare times in life where you can truly relax whilst doing a bit of nosey people-watching so a festival which mixes trains, people and music can only equal pure bliss in our minds!

Thanks Sophie! If you can't wait until the festival, the band are playing a string of dates in May and June. And if that's not enough, here's a free MP3 from the band.

Next up: Dirty Fingernails tell us all about Marmite tattoos and playing gigs ankle-deep in a flood!

No comments:

Post a Comment