Thursday 22 March 2012

Interview with THE GUILLEMOTS


What should people expect to see at your shows?
Fyfe: Hopefully good energy, I think energy's the important thing. It's an exchange of energy between us and the audience and (massive pause as phone rings) does someone wanna get that?! I'm so tempted to answer it! I mean yeah it [the shows] want to be something that people can move themselves to. We have a lot of slow songs but we have a lot of up-tempo ones and gigs like festivals will tend to focus on the more up-beat stuff. But you know, I'm terrible at describing us.

Why do The Guillemots always reference birds? As the name 'Guillemots' itself is a type of bird and they constantly surface in your songs.
Fyfe: I've always bird-watched since I was a kid but it's not really anything to do with the band. I think it's not a conscious thing I just think birds come out. I guess it's a metaphor in a sense that birds are a quite obvious symbol of freedom or whatever but you, it's not something I think about too much. 

So what have you been doing since the last record?
Fyfe: Well, selling a record and making this new record. So writing. Yeah writing a lot!
Grieg: Yeah 3-4 days a week. Just sitting down and writing loads. The second record was quite a rush.
Fyfe: Well rushed in the sense it took a while to do but we started to do it straight away after touring the first one and we didn't have time to get to decide what we wanted to do and we wanted to just write and form an opinion of what we wanted to do next, naturally.

So does this mean you're more happy with the latest one (Walk the River)?
Oh we were happy with the second one too but, you know, they're all different. 

Your first album (Through the Windowpane) was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Music Prize, how do you feel about that record in relation to other?  
Well your first record's always quite easy in a way because you've had your whole life to build up to it. I mean, my solo stuff is different because it's not with the band. [Solo stuff is harder] because, yeah, people judge you, but I think you have to not care about that… when I or we make records it's just music that you want to make. Of course, there's a side to you that wants every to love it but really it doesn't matter, I mean, really, if you're doing what you think is right, that's the only thing that matters. 

I listened to you a lot through my GCSE's-
Fyfe: Oh really, thank you! Well I hope we helped you get some good marks!

…And I liked your cover of Black and Gold by Sam Sparrow. Will you be doing anything like that again?
Greig: When we were in Paris they asked us to do a cover on some TV show.
Fyfe: Oh yeah, we covered The Who, yeah. What was that other one we did?
Greig: On that French radio show we covered The Beatles: Tomorrow Never Knows.

If you can't wait to listen to the The Guillemots new material, watch them live at three dates below: 


Friday 30th Mar: Village Underground
Saturday 31st Mar: Village Underground
Friday 20th-21st Jul: Truck Festival- Hill Farm, Steventon

 

All photography on this post by Amelia Yarde Ellis

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