Tuesday 31 May 2011

Indietracks interview #9: Haiku Salut


Haiku Salut are Gemma, Sophie and Louise. The Derbyshire-based instrumental group use accordions, organs, ukeleles, glockenspiels, pianos and loop pedals to create gorgeous melodies. Their debut EP, How We Got Along After The Yarn Bomb, is set for release soon by Team Strike Force!

Hi Sophie, tell us a little bit about Haiku Salut...

We are Gemma, Sophie and Louise and we are based in the peak district - not too far from Butterly Station coincidentally! We have an army of temperamental instruments which we constantly battle with to try and write something cohesive. We use a loop pedal, an accordion, glockenspiel, a piano, reed organ, ukulele and classical guitar and heavens knows why but we try our upmost to make the songs as complicated as possible. Other collective hobbies include, geocaching which someone once described as a pastime which uses multi-million pound technology to find somebody's lunch box in a tree (if this doesn't sell it to you go and look it up! It truly is great). We also take part in the mysterious act of yarn bombing which is a type of street art or graffiti which uses colorful displays of knitting or crochet rather than paint. We will possibly pop a few up at Indietracks, so keep your eyes peeled! Lastly we used to be in another band that played at Indietracks a few years back. I think they were called The Die Drys or something.

What music are you enjoying at the moment?

Me (Sophie) and Louise DJ together every Monday night in Derby, due to the clientele we mainly get requests for Tina Turner, Simply the Best and 'Funky House'. This can often be distressing, but instead of letting this puncture a hole in our smug indie exterior we continue to exercise our rights as music nazis and try to educate them with brute force of the volume slider. We've played Why?, Yuck and Best Coast a lot in recent weeks. Louise has recently expressed a great love for the new Black Keys record, Gemma is eagerly awaiting the next Kimya Dawson album (we're secretly hoping this one won't be about nappies though) and I'm currently into anything that is horrible and sounds like a Nintendo, see Sabrepulse. See also World's End Girlfriend. Although this will probably be a fad and will hopefully pass.

Do you have any exciting plans for the rest of the year?

Yes! Firstly we are releasing a 3" CD on Team Strike Force! called 'How We Got Along After the Yarn Bomb' - the whole package is going to be lovely, the songs we've put on there are lovingly and intricately hand crafted and much sleep was lost labouring over the artwork. Oh and the release also comes with a Haiku Salut comic! This will be available on the merch stall at indietracks if you want to gander at its immense beauty.

Also we will be toddling off to play in Sweden at Cosyden 2011 in August which is going to be mega.

Do you have any surprises planned for the Indietracks festival?

We are currently planning something literally quite big for our live set at indietracks but if we told you what that entails it wouldn't be a surprise would it?

Thanks - can't wait to see what the surprise is!

Sunday 29 May 2011

Indietracks interview #8: The Whatevers


The Whatevers are an indiepop / lo fi DIY punk band from Leeds in the north of England. Online releases so far include 'Rhapsody In Blue Jeans/ You And Your Twisted Romance' on Holiday records, and 'Art And Sex, an album available on Bandcamp. Mike writes the songs and Kate sings them. Al plays the bass guitar. The band have just finished their second record 'All Your Indie Heroes'.

Hi Mike, tell us about The Whatevers... Kate and I were childhood indie sweethearts in a tiny little town in North Yorkshire. We made fanzines and played gigs in the youth club and all that stuff. We met Al last year when he started listening to us obsessively on lastfm. Rob is Kate's brother and he is playing violin with us for this acoustic show as well as drumming on our next record.

Have you played anywhere as unusual as Indietracks before?Indietracks is actually only going to be our eigth gig! so the train will be the oddest one we've done. Although I did used to busk outside an Anne Summers in Manchester back when I was a homeless morphine addict. I used to serenade the girls with their bags full of dildos. Going for that famous Dildo Guilt Busker Payoff. Works every time.

Do you have any exciting plans for the rest of the year?
We're trying to do at least three albums of new material in a year. The first two are available for free download on Bandcamp now along with a bunch of odds 'n' sods and the next one will be much more spontaneous and collaborative and louder and shoutier. We should have the physical copies of our debut 'Art and Sex' album ready to sell in time for Indietracks which we're really excited about. So all told we will be releasing about fifty songs in our first real year as a band, and also playing round Britain for the first time!

What are you most looking forward to at Indietracks?
Indietracks is our first real 'proper' festival gig so we are just excited to see all the great bands and to be a part of it, we are most excited for all of it really!

Thanks Mike!

Friday 27 May 2011

Herman Dune: video round-up!

Following this week’s exciting announcement and in anticipation of their headline set at Indietracks 2011, we thought we’d round up a few of our favourite Herman Dune videos.

Firstly, here’s the fantastic Sesame-Street inspired video for I Wish I Could See You Soon, from their 2006 album Giant.



And, here’s the video for Tell Me Something I Don’t Know, taken from their new album Strange Moosic. It features the Mad Men actor Jon Hamm and a blue Yeti. No, really!



And finally, here’s the video for the gorgeous song On A Saturday, which appears on the band’s 2008 album Next Year In Zion.

Wednesday 25 May 2011

Herman Dune and Crystal Stilts join Indietracks 2011!


We're very excited to say that Herman Dune and Crystal Stilts have been added to the line-up for this year’s Indietracks Festival. The main headliners for this year’s Indietracks festival are now as follows:

Friday 29 July: Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, Jonny
Saturday 30 July: Edwyn Collins, The Hidden Cameras
Sunday 31 July: Herman Dune, Jeffrey Lewis, Crystal Stilts

They will join Math and Physics Club, Help Stamp Out Loneliness, Withered Hand, Butcher Boy, Chris T-T, Milky Wimpshake and dozens more indiepop acts at this year’s festival, held at the Midland Railway in Ripley, Derbyshire. A full timetable will be published shortly.

Herman Dune (pictured above) were formed in Paris a decade ago by songwriter and vocalist David-Ivar Herman Dune and drummer Cosmic Neman. They soon gained cult status with the help of DJ John Peel, recording more than 10 Peel Sessions. Following a string of DIY releases, they released their first professional studio album, ‘Giant’, in 2006, attracting wider recognition. The album’s opening song ‘I Wish That I Could See You Soon’ ranked in Rolling Stone US’s choice of ‘Best Songs In 2007’, and is well known for its Sesame-Street-style video. Their new album, ‘Strange Moosic’ is possibly the band’s most timeless and accessible record to date.



Crystal Stilts burst out of Brooklyn's post-punk indie scene in 2008 with a string of releases that culminated in their fantastic debut album ‘Alight Of Night’. The album won universal accolades and established the band as first-class purveyors of haunting, atmospheric post-punk pop. Following extensive tours of the US and Europe, the band now return with their stunning second album ‘In Love With Oblivion’, hot on the heels of the incredible single ‘Shake The Shackles’.

We’re sad to say that Ringo Deathstarr are no longer able to appear at this year’s festival.

Around 50 indiepop bands will be playing at the festival across four stages: the outdoor stage, the indoor stage, the church and the steam trains themselves. The festival will also host a range of art and craft workshops and a selection of discos after the bands finish.

Weekend tickets are £65 and day tickets £35. Tickets for children aged 5-14 are £6 for a day ticket and £10 for the weekend. Under-5s get in free. Tickets are available by calling the railway direct on 01773 747 674 or visiting www.instantticketseller.com/midlandrailwaycentre

Hope to see you in July!

Sunday 22 May 2011

Indietracks interview #7: The Bumblebees


It's just ten weeks now until the festival starts! Hopefully you've already got your tickets, travel and accommodation sorted, in which case, please sit back with a cup of tea and enjoy the next in our series of short Indietracks interviews!

The Bumblebees are an indie pop trio from Bristol, UK, consisting of Rosalind Glennie (vocals, keyboard), Ellis Jones (vocals, guitar) and Daniel Howard (vocals, drums). They began in November 2007, and their debut EP 'The Bumblebees' was self-released in September 2008. They are currently working on their first album, to be released on the independent record label Local Kid.

Hi Ellis, Roz and Dan, tell us a bit about the Bumblebees... We live in part Bristol, part Oxford, part Staines, and therefore occupy that under-utilised middle ground between Massive Attack, Radiohead and Hard-Fi. We have a combined age of 64, a combined height of 16 feet 2 inches, and a combined name of Ellisrozdan.

What are you up to this year? Our first and last ever debut album, and HOPEFULLY (attention promoters) a summer tour culminating in Indietracks! We released our first EP in 2008, so it's seems like it's been a long time coming. We've spent big bucks on big name producers and guests on this one - we really felt like it had to be perfect.

What will be on your compilation tapes as you travel down to the festival? We don't agree on much, musically or otherwise. Roz and Dan especially. We have this thing called 'the Roz-Dan' rule, which dictates that if one of them likes something, they other has to hate it. However, on the rare occasions that they do agree on something, that makes that OBJECTIVE FACT. So it is an objective fact that these songs are awesome:

'Sexy Friction' by Jackolantern (Winston Echo's hallowe'en-themed rap collective)
'100s and 1000s' by Ace Bushy Striptease
'Thundercloudbusting' by Jelas
'Boredom' by Buzzcocks
'Electronic Picnic' by The Restaurant Mystery
'Oso Panda' by Papa Topo
'March of the Father Fists' by The Music Tapes
'Carry the Zero' by Built to Spill
'Celebration' by Cats and Cats and Cats
'A Good Man' by Zipper
'Sneaky Sneaky Dog Friend' by Connan Mockasin
and Kimya Dawson to drive Roz insane.

Do you have any surprises planned for the Indietracks festival?Well, it wouldn't be a surprise if we told you know, would it?!

But no... no we don't. Sorry.

Well it will be great to see you there anyway, surprise or no surprise! Thanks Bumblebees!

Edit - 13 July: Unfortunately The Bumblebees are now no longer able to play at the festival this year. They have have been replaced by the wonderful Sock Puppets.

Friday 20 May 2011

Indietracks interview #6: Zipper


Today we're chatting to Spanish indiepop heroes Zipper!

Zipper hail from Madrid and play beautiful indiepop songs with a little bit of punk. They sing in both in English and Spanish. Their debut album "11" was released in 2008 by Discos Liliput (Madrid), and this was followed by a series of excellent singles on indiepop labels from around the world: "Last chance for Friday's badge" (Bubblegum Records, Glasgow), "Incredible visions in Moscow" (Cloudberry Records, Miami) and "New adventures in Pop" (Elefant Records, Madrid) . They've also appeared on compilations for WeePop! Records (UK) and Aplasta tus gafas de pasta (Madrid).

As well as playing shows across Spain, the band has played at the first London Popfest, at a previous Indietracks in 2009 and at the first Let's Kiss And Make Up festival in Berlin.

Hi Zipper, tell us a little bit about yourselves

We're three, David, Maria and Oscar. We love C-86 bands and play some kind of twee-pop-punk songs which we enjoy a lot. We've been together for many years now and we perfectly know each other's virtues and defects so we get along fine and try to do the best we can.

Indietracks is a pretty unusual festival, what with the steam trains and everything. Have you played anywhere else unusual in the past?

We're not very used to play acoustically, but we had to play two accoustic songs for a video recorded in Carnaby Street (London). It was very funny playing and singing out load while we were walking along the street with everybody looking at us and with two cameras recording us.

You can watch the video here:

Zipper in Carnaby Street (2 March 2009) from lafonoteca.net on Vimeo.


Do you have any exciting plans for the rest of the year? Apart from playing at Indietracks, we're going to play in Spain at the Contempopranea Festival and in December at the Glasgow Popfest, where we finally weren't able to play last year due to the snow and an air traffic controllers strike - we're very exited about having another chance this year.

What music are you enjoying at the moment?

The Garlands, Tesco Chainstore Mascara, Betty and the Werewolves.

Do you have any surprises planned for the Indietracks festival?

We'll try not to make any mistakes while we play....

What attracted you to play the Indietracks festival?

This is the best festival ever.

Aw, thanks! Who are you most looking forward to seeing at the Indietracks festival, and why?

The Garlands, who we haven't seen live yet and we really love them; and The Bumblebees, who we've played with them before three years ago and then we thought that they were very promising so we want to see what they have turned into.

Thanks Zipper!

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Indietracks interview #5: Heroes of the Mexican Independence Movement


Today's interview is with Heroes of the Mexican Independence Movement (HotMIM), a bunch of spaghetti western indiepop bandits from East Yorkshire and London.

The band features ex-members of The Rocky Nest, Fonda 500 and The Loves and was formed in January 2011 by ex-Nesters Paul John Sarel and Tom Nash with Chris Norrison of Dead Sea Diver. Live they play stripped down sparkly Velvet Underground third album style pop, complete with stand up Mo Tucker drums, maracas, guitar, bass, vocal harmonies and tamborines. They occasionaly feature Simon from The Loves on extra guitar and fuzz organ. The bright jangly nature of the songs hides a seedy undercurrent of sex, booze and secret handshakes in songs such as 'The Last of the Tea Drinking Temperance Meetings' or 'Beekeepers Central/Northern Region'.

Currently recording in bedrooms, hallways and farm buldings with ex Salako (Jeepster) and Bitmap man Mr Luke Barwell, the band plan to self release their debut recording on their own 'DiY Hi 5' label in time for the summer. Today we're joined by Paul from the band for a few questions...


Hi Paul, what music are you enjoying at the moment?

Well I for one have mostly been listening to and watching Jonathan Richman today, I really love the one about dancing in a lesbian bar. There is a clip on YouTube that I always go back to with Jonathan wearing his stripey jumper and playing his enormous guitar and he does his little dance. He kinda looks like a sad uncle at a wedding but for some reason Jonathan gets away with it. It's fantastic.

Chris our drummer is probably listening to Guided By Voices. He loves them and he also loves The Drones. He talks about them a lot but I've not quite got round to listening to them properly. Tom is away on Easter hols at the moment so he's probably listening to summery stuff on his car stereo........I'm gonna say he's listening to The Wurzles, he can't answer back so....yeah, our bass guitar player Tom is listening to The Wurzles.

Simon Love is listening to The Velvet Underground.....it is the law for Simon to listen to them everyday otherwise the Lou Reed Police Department (LRPD) kick his door in and lock him up....that's why Simon Love loves HotMIM, cos we love The Velvets.

Do you have any exciting plans for the rest of the year?

Well, we're always recording so finishing an album's worth of stuff is always on the agenda. There is also a good chance we'll be doing a split single with another band, but we're not sure if we can mention that yet so it'd be unfair to name them. We're also starting up the regular DiY Hi 5 nights that The Rocky Nest used to host (two of us are ex-Nesters). They'll be a whole gang of us doing a collective in Hull... films, videos, art, gigs, fanzines.... The first one is on June 3rd (featuring The Understudies) at the Hull Adelphi. The plan is to expand it slowly and hopefully by next year put on a few indiepop alldayers... hey if any one wants to play give us a shout popkids.

Do any band members have any particular skills, hobbies or claims to fame you wish to share?

Not sure if it's worth bragging about but I played on the b-side of a single by the band Athlete back in 2003... do you remember Athlete? It got to number 41 in the charts!.

Our drummer Chris has an unusual habit of only being able to clean his flat whilst wearing his glasses (they actually have no glass in them they're just frames), he often does this at two o 'clock in the morning after we've finished a band practice round his place. He also drums in his glasses. Look out for them at Indietracks.

Tom can play any stringed instrument you put before him and also has one good drum beat in his locker...the one that goes dum,dum,dum,tsch,dum,dum,dum,tsch,dum,dum,dum,tsch,dum,dum,dum,tsch,...bah,bah,bah!

Simon Love has too many talents to list but very few people know his real name is actually Simon Hate.

Who are you most looking forward to seeing at the Indietracks festival, and why?

This is a tough one... the reason being that last time I attended Indietracks and spent most of the time wandering around just soaking it all up and just chancing it with whichever bands I stumbled upon.

I found that the most exciting way to discover new stuff and I'm not one for being told by people what bands I should see. I really like to make my own mind up and Indietracks has so many bands I've never seen before that I'm sure I'll discover my new favourite band right there hopefully. I'll then obsess about them and collect everything by them before moving onto something else in three months time. I'm a right fickle git me. Last time it was Helene.........Helene were ace.

Thanks Paul - see you in July!

Monday 16 May 2011

Indietracks 2011 posters and flyers


We've been busy over at Indietracks Towers designing a set of posters and flyers for this year's festival, and it would be really fantastic if some of you could print a few out and stick them up in places such as your local record shop, office, library, charity shop, community notice board or music venue. We've created the following materials:

- An A4 poster
- Leaflets
- An e-flyer and banners for your website

They are available to download from this page: Indietracks posters and flyers 

It would be particularly brilliant if anyone in a town or city near Indietracks - Ripley, Derby, Matlock, Nottingham, Sheffield, Stoke, Leicester or Birmingham - could stick up a poster and distribute some flyers for us. Please get in touch if you're able to help, and we will find a suitable reward!

We're also giving out a special Indietracks prize for the person who can stick up a poster in the most impressive place, so do send us a photo if you put up a photo somewhere particularly interesting. Please ask permission first of course!

Thursday 12 May 2011

Fancy running a stall at Indietracks?


The lovely Tatty Devine ladies and their jewellery stall

Are you interested in running a stall at Indietracks?

We are currently looking for a wide variety of stall-holders for the Indietracks merchandise tent this year, from fanzines and crafts, to vintage clothes and records. We've had some really fantastic stalls in the past, and we’re trying to be even better this year - so do get your creative thinking caps on!

If you would like to apply, please visit http://www.indietracks.co.uk/applications.html for more details, and you can also e-mail Rachael at indietracksstalls@gmail.com

All applications must be submitted by May 31.

Thanks!

Monday 9 May 2011

Indietracks' first ever DJs....


(Photo: Jens Hoffmann)

Chuffing 'eck! We're SUPER excited to have Indietracks' first ever DJs - Sam Metcalf from A Layer of Chips and Andy Hart from A Fog of Ideas - with us today, to talk about their (in their opinion) ignominious DJ set at the very first Indietracks event in April 2007. You might also be interested to know that Andy is also the hugely talented chappie who designed this year's Indietracks logo, fact fans.

Hello you two! Sooo.....how did you come to DJ at the first ever Indietracks (Saturday 28 April 2007)?

Sam: I don't really remember the details, to be honest. I'd met Stuart a couple of times in the lead-up to Indietracks at gigs in Leeds and Nottingham I was putting on. He was handing out some flyers there. I think he must've asked me then. I've never been asked to DJ anywhere since. I'll let anyone read whatever they want into that. I'm not the world's greatest DJ...

Andy: Sam asked me, it was the night before, I’ve no idea why to this day but I’m grateful, although he caught me at a disadvantage as all my records and whatnot were back home so I was forced to select from Sam’s picks...

Casting your minds back, can you remember what you played?

Sam: Heaven knows. (There might be a theme appearing here). I remember Camera Obscura's 'Let's get out of the this Country' was a favourite album of mine at the time, and so I probably played 'Lloyd, I'm Ready to be Heartbroken' about 15 times, like I used to at Don't Start Feeling All "Romantic" - a club night some friends of mine used to run, and at which I used to fail very badly at DJing.

Andy: I don’t remember very clearly but Sam played ‘Lloyd, Are you ready to be Heartbroken’ by Camera Obscura and then I played it a few songs later and then Sam played it again for good measure... I remember insisting that ‘Other People’s Girlfriends’ by Sportique got played and it did and folks were busting moves and we both agreed on ‘Sweet and Tender Hooligan’ by The Smiths. I think Sam played ‘The Day that Thatcher dies’ by Hefner. Whatever we did play, it all seemed to be received rather well despite the sound cutting out for ten seconds or so every other minute... which we thought was a bigger problem than it turned out to be

And how was it for both of you?

Sam: It was terrifying somehow. I'd asked Andy to help me out, and so there were the two of us, stood in this deserted train carriage behind a few fairy lights with a slack handul of CDs between us. We started playing some songs, and, every so often the generator would go down for a split second. Which wound me up to begin with, but then became quite amusing (honest). And, eventually, enough people made it into the carriage to make it all worthwhile, and we had a great time. It only lasted about half an hour, but by the end I could've carried on for at least another four minutes.

Andy: I think I can say with some certainty that Sam did fret rather more than I did and at one point exclaimed ‘this is so unprofessional’ like he was Mariah Carey or something. I just stood there like the big useless lump I am- but people were dancing on a moving locomotive train and when the sound dropped out nobody cared, they sang the missing bits and carried on dancing. It was very much a ‘let’s have the party right here... on a steaming train’ kind of a feeling. It was a lot of fun, it felt like a train wreck (for us) at the time but immediately after Tonieee from The Parallelograms/Plouf! said it was the best disco he’d ever been to... and somebody else quite liked it too, so that was nice. The DJ sets that followed (from Offbeat and Spiral Scratch) kind of made us look a bit rubbish, to be fair, but we were the first- nobody can take that away from us. We’ve never been asked back to DJ, mind.

Hee, we're struggling not to imagine Sam as an indiepop Mariah at this point! So, did you recover sufficiently to return to any Indietracks events since?

Sam: I'm proud to say I'm an ever-present. It sounds quite trite to say it's the best weekend of the year because there other things out there in The Real World that probably mean more, but, for me, it really is. I even made it to the two Christmas events - both of which were cold enough to test even the hardiest pop fan.

Andy: All bar one (the very last Christmas Twee one... I think I was tobogganing in the Cairngorms)

You're obviously pretty hardcore fans then - Christmas Twee was freezing! What does Indietracks mean to you, then, as fans?

Sam: I mentioned The Real World before, and, come the revolution, The Real World will be like an Indietracks weekend. Mutual respect, love for each other, genuine creativity, just enough cynicism to keep things grounded, toilets that work, and Finchley Ted. You can find all these things in the Communist Manifesto if you look hard enough, and for one weekend a year you can find them all in the middle of Derbyshire. I've met people at Indietracks who are now proper friends, and where else can you find Mark Hibbett pissed up in a ditch by 6pm each day? Well, for us outside of London, that's a rare treat. I can't speak for those living in the capital. In summary: it's ace.

Andy: It’s just all rather special, unique and lovely. It’s that sense of shared goodwill and everybody wanting it to be smashing and it never fails to be anything short of smashing or ace or skill. And I get to get my legs out.

And, on that leg-based visual bombshell, we'll leave Sam and Andy to continue reminiscing about that amazing first Indietracks. Thanks you two!

Saturday 7 May 2011

Indietracks interview #4: Next Time Passions


Today we're interviewing one of the many overseas bands playing at this year's Indietracks festival. Next Time Passions hail from Athens, Greece and originally formed over twenty years ago! Their songs recall several noteable indiepop bands from the late eighties and early nineties, including some Sarah Records artists like St. Christopher, Brighter, Another Sunny Day, and The Field Mice.

Their only releases were the 'Angel Flower' 7” on the Greek label This Happy Feeling label  in 1993 and a split 7” with Impossible Tymes on the Spanish label Elefant Records in 1994. However, several of their songs such as 'Not Here Anymore', 'Feeling So Real', 'Sunday Sore' and 'She', are also included on indiepop compilations on labels from around the globe, including Shelflife and Pop Art.

We spoke to Billpos from the band ahead of their Indietracks appearance.

Hi, tell us a little bit about Next Time Passions

Next Time Passions have recently got back together again, 14 years after our dissolution in 1996. We're starting to record new material, and we're aiming to show the same dedication to authentic music.

The new line-up of the group consists of six members, now with a drummer and new bassist (Dimitris from One Night Suzan). We are all hardworking family men, and the band is our only leisure, psychotherapy, and creative form of entertainment. Away from the group, we like books, film, sports, comics, djing and concerts.

What music are you enjoyng at the moment?

We all listen to many different kinds of music, but if we have to spot a common axis from all that, it would be the good melodies from indie pop, jazz, groovy, funk soul, electronics, garage, psychedelic and others.

What's going to be on your compilation tapes as you travel down to indietracks?

As a short guide to our travel compilation, we'd have examples such as Skywalkers, Zombies of the Stratosphere, Mark & The Spies, Jessica Fletchers, Jeremy Jay, Afternoon Naps, The Clientele, Papercuts, Burning Hearts, Sleepy Jackson, Magnetic Fields, Sharon Jones, Bamboos, Budos Band, Foxionairs, Nicole Willis, Frank Popp Ensemble, Tahiti 80, JJ, Air France, CEO, Whitest Boy Alive, Cut Copy, Club 8, Sambassadeur, The School, Hat Company, plus lots of 80s and 60s pop tunes.

Wow, I guess it's a long journey from Greece though! What attracted you to play the Indietracks festival?

Indietracks festival is the most intense and honest thing that happens regarding the independent pop sound. Additionally, it's very close to Next Time Passions philosophy and sound. We are exited that we’re going to play in front of such an audience and we hope the audience feel the same about us!
 
They definitely will! See you at the festival!  

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Last chance to buy cheaper early bird tickets!


Just a quick reminder that our early bird Indietracks ticket offer expires at 11.59pm this Friday (6 May). Please pick up your tickets before then if you want to grab a bargain for this year's festival!

Tickets are available from the Indietracks website at www.indietracks.co.uk/tickets.html

Early bird weekend tickets cost £60 and day tickets cost £32.50, increasing to £65 and £35 after the offer ends. Under 5s can come along free, and 5-14s can come for just £6 (day) and £10 (weekend).

Bands playing at Indietracks this year include Edwyn Collins, The Hidden Cameras, Jeffrey Lewis, Jonny, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, Math and Physics Club, Ringo Deathstarr and dozens of other fantastic indiepop bands. 

Ticket-holders will also have unlimited free steam train rides and access to the station museums over the weekend!

Hope you'll be able to join us in July!

xxx

Monday 2 May 2011

Indietracks interview #3: Very Truly Yours


Today is Indietracks interview number three and Ian from Pocketbooks interviews our first international band, Very Truly Yours from Chicago, USA. Not only will this be their first indietracks but also their first time in the UK. The band have been quietly making a fuss on the indiepop scene for the last couple of year and we're really proud they've agreed to come and play for us.

Getting to the UK isn't cheap though, so the band have set up a donation page. Why not get an exclusive demo CD of the band’s first album, appear in a music video or even have them record an album for you?

Anyway, on with the interview...

On a scale of 1 to 100 - how excited are you all about your upcoming UK mini tour and Indietracks?

110 !!! This is quite exciting for us. I can't rate the excitement really. This is my first time to the UK, so personally, it's really unbelievable.

How would you describe your sound for those who haven't heard you yet?

We are a pop band that finds delight in pretty, female harmonies and 1960's influenced arrangements.

I first heard you on the split Cloudberry CD with The Understudies and the album seemed to come along pretty soon after that - they sound quite different, were they recorded a long time apart?

Before Very Truly Yours, Lisle and I were in a band called The Lorimer Sound. After the band broke up, I had these songs that I didn't know what to do with ("1234", "Pop Song 91", and even "Ballad of Growing Up", which is on the full length.) There was a short lapse between TLS and Very Truly Yours, and when we started working with Roque and Cloudberry, we were a four piece. We didn't have any idea of what kind of music we would create, we just knew that we wanted to do it together.

Since I was a teenager, I dreamed of being a chamber pop band. I have a somewhat formal classical background, and am intrigued by well-crafted instrumental arrangements in pop music. This dream in my mind became more of a reality, when in 2009, we began rounding out our sound to create "Things You Used to Say."

The good thing about music is that it can reinvent itself. I have been very fortunate to have such talented musicians believe in Very Truly Yours. We are excited about our new songs (another Cloubderry release!), which have evolved in such a way that draws back to our Pop Song 91 roots but still stays true to this sound that we've tried to achieve.

Rumour is there's not much of an indiepop scene in Chicago - is there anything going on to shout about?

Ha! This is true. We hosted an Indie Pop Prom in Chicago a while back, as a fundraiser for our SXSW tour which was a success. But unfortunately, nothing much to shout about.

If you could pick your own Indietracks headliner for this year, who would it be? You can say yourselves.

Wow! I would love to see The Siddeleys and Aislers Set. Lisle would want to see Field Mice, Acid House Kings, and Shonen Knife.

Will you be camping at the festival?

No...Lisle and I are booked at the Travelodge, and the other members are doing a bed and breakfast, I think. I'm afraid I'm not a good camper, although touring has made me quite used to sleeping in places other than my bed.

Finally, have you ever signed off an email saying Yours Sincerely, Very Truly Yours?

Of course! But I used to work at a law firm, so Very Truly Yours was standard. It's not really the nicest closing to say, although it does sound very sweet. I do like to say Yours Sincerely, but it sounds a little too old-fashioned to me!

And here's Very Truly Yours putting in an amazing performance on Chicago's Chic-A-Go-Go TV show!