More on: Late Of The Pier

Late Of The Pier have been busy recording their debut album, and are currently on a headline UK tour with Video Nasties and Slagsmalsklubben. Having released the limited single 'Bathroom Gurgle' last year, the Castle Donington quartet's new single will be 'The Bears Are Coming' on 3rd March.

Samuel Duke catches up with bassist Andrew Faley for a chat.

How did you come up with the name Late Of The Pier?
I can't say - we decided just to leave it and if anyone figured it out we'd let them know, but no-one has yet.

Which artists inspired the group's formation?
It changes from song to song. It's not normally one particular artist or track, but just an idea that we'll hear somewhere. Very early on Sam [Eastgate, lead singer] was listening to a lot of Prodigy and Nirvana, but as we've grown up and our music taste has expanded more and more - it basically just builds and grows. A lot of the songs have many different ideas and things can change quite quickly. It's the last 40 years of music really.

You have been categorised in some quarters as 'New Rave'. Do you feel part of a scene?
Not really. We've never really been affiliated with New Rave ourselves, we do the same sort of stuff and we keep getting compared to Klaxons, but I feel it's more lazy journalism than anything. It's kind of strange that ever since our debut single came out most journalists have been keen to jump on board with the whole 'New Rave' thing and they throw us in with that but really you could compare us to any other band over the last thirty years that have thrown keyboards and guitars together. Musically it's probably more prog than anything.

As far as scenes are concerned we've never really been affiliated with anything. We used to go to a club in Nottingham which put on bands like Franz Ferdinand, Black Noise Choir, Gravy Train and Leningrad. There was more of a scene there when you'd get fifty people going out who were into the same thing, and that was before bands like Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party broke through. It was kind of exciting, but that was really the only scene that we've been affiliated with. Living in the Midlands has a lot to do with it. We're out of the way so we've avoided all the scenes - we're able to make our own minds up without being too influenced by anyone around us.

The tour with Jack Penate has been called something of a mismatch, did your differing styles clash or complement each other?
I think it complemented rather than clashed, people were very confused about it. We knew Jack before, and really liked him and his music. His drummer and bassist are great guys too, it was fun touring with them. If anything it accentuated both bands, after watching us - Jack would come on and would be completely different and he had the same effect on us. We're now touring with Video Nasties, and they're much more traditional punk. Again it's a sort of a mash-up of sounds, but we fit quite nicely in the middle of it.

Would you say your eclecticism gives you an opportunity to play with a lot of other bands?
It's nice that a lot of people playing lots of different styles like our music. It's good being able to fit in between the indie and dance scenes, but I suppose that's been going on for about six, seven years. It's much more of the norm now to see a couple of bands together doing very different things playing on the same bill. It's not the traditional thing where kids go to either a club or to see a band, they'll go out to see a band then go to the club afterwards and we fit quite nicely into that, so we have had the chance to play with a lot of different groups.

Musically speaking, what direction do you see the band heading in next?
Absolutely no idea. Most of the songs we do are very different; some of the new songs are much more synthesiser based, but a lot of our traditional stuff is guitar music combined with keyboards. Most of the music on the album is very heavily synth based, then we have another one, 'Blueberry', which sounds like a Beatles song. A lot of our current stuff is more post-punk heading into a disco/house area, but all within one track. I think the sound will just broaden and broaden. The main thing is that there are a lot of pop hooks in there and it's pleasant to listen to. It's music that we enjoy - it's not too aggressive, and it's the sort of stuff that will stick in people's heads.

No-one's really sure where we're going, but the more music we listen to the more ideas we'll have. The album's going to be very eclectic, but it's all held together by having one similar sound using the same basic instruments, which creates a style over all of our songs. We could go off for a year and work on another album and things might completely change again. In a few years we might be a reggae band!

Has Castle Donington got any more up and coming bands that we should know about? Are there any other new bands you can recommend?
I don't think there are any new bands from Castle Donington. It's a very small place. It's interesting talking to kids from the area though that are starting to pick up guitars or synthesizers and messing around with them. It seems we've had an influence there which is quite nice. There are a lot of new bands in Europe who are great but no-one in England really knows them. I really like The Post War Years. Some people have said they sound like us, but it's more like a modern take on The Doors, really pretty and poppy. We've done a few shows with them before and really liked them. I'm looking forward to Johnny Foreigner's album, and I also bought Cajun Dance Party's album, but everyone knows about them already.

Samuel Duke

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