2014 saw the rapturous return of The Voyeurs. The London five-piece's second album Rhubarb Rhubarb was easily one of my favourite albums of the year and made it into a number of end of year lists (including my top five albums of 2014). I asked frontman Charlie Boyer about the record and what the future holds for The Voyeurs.
Could you give me some background about how you all met and discovered you'd make a great band?
I put the band together almost as a backing band to play a few songs I had written beforehand. That was the original idea, but it quickly grew into a real band in that we write together and fight together and all of that.
You wrote Clarietta very quickly, did you carry on the same rapid writing style for Rhubarb Rhubarb?
We took a bit longer.. About 8 or 9 months of writing and demoing. We built a little studio in a room on cable street and pretty much lived there through last winter.
Lyrically Rhubarb Rhubarb is great, is there any particular way that you write songs or does it just come naturally?
A lot of the songs are stories with characters, I like doing it that way. You can think up characters that you don't necessarily agree with or you love or you can use... or you can just do a study of a person. A few of the songs are a little stranger.. Some natural and unnatural things were involved.
Do you think being in London influences your music in any way? Is it a good place for a musician like yourself?
It's an awful place for anyone.. But if you know a few places, a few people and a few tricks then it can be an interesting place.. I think we have very little to do with what London represents. We all walk to our friends homes and our studio, we could be anywhere really... I'm sitting on a packed train at the moment, thats a thing I don't do often. I don't live in that sort of a London. The important thing is you can do anything here.
Are there any tracks on the album that you are particularly fond of?
I really like 'May, will you stop'.. I like how it has warm and cold moments. And is a very quiet story song. The taciturn songs seem to be very exciting in the size venues we play.. Small ones.. something is unspeakable.
If you could sit and listen to Rhubarb Rhubarb with anyone (dead or alive) who would you choose?
Syd Barrett is always my answer to this... Or this racing driver called François Cevert.
What should we expect from you and your fellow voyeurs in the future?
This year we plan to tour in the UK, Europe and America.. And start work on our 3rd album. We have a two great videos coming too, alongside our next 2 singles. One by Douglas Hart and another by Peggy sue. And a 'record store day' limited 7" remix by Rhys and josh of the horrors called 'Rhubarb and Custard'
No comments:
Post a Comment