Exlovers: Interview: Exeter Phoenix

London five piece Exlovers have a melancholy yet beautifully alluring sound, which has invited comparisons to the lo-fi offerings of Pavement and the distinctive vocal qualities of late singer/songwriter Elliot Smith.

After forming in 2007 at the wish of singer Peter Scott, they have won over the tastemakers that matter, whilst sculpting their timeless sound, which moves between the delicate to the loud, but always undeniably bittersweet pop.

December 2008 saw the first Exlovers release, ‘Just a Silhouette’, hit the record shops in all its wistful boy-girl vocal melodies meets jangly guitars and shoegazing glory.  And April this year welcomes the follow up, a contrasting double A side of the ‘Photobooth/Weightless’ on Young and Lost club and produced by Jimmy Robertson.

For lovers of sublimely sophisticated and melodic music that doesn’t leave a sugary taste in your mouth, Exlovers on record and live heralds in a refreshing and welcome sound that has them earmarked (by Steve Lamacq and us anyway) for kicking the others into touch.

During a break before their Exeter show on the Emmy The Great Tour, we chatted with Pete and Chris…… To enquire as to how they propose to do it…

4or The Record: So how did Exlovers originate?
Pete: Well we basically started because I just decided we needed to get a band together to write songs with multiple guitar parts and stuff.  So then we got people together that we knew and that was how the whole Exlovers thing started really.

4TR: Where did your moniker Exlovers come from?
Pete: The name……well I kind of had it in my head for a while actually.
Chris: There were a few names kind of kicking around but Exlovers was always the one that stood out for us.

4TR: And for anyone that hasn’t heard of Exlovers yet or listened to any of your music, how would you describe your sound?
Pete: I don’t know really, I would like to describe it as alternative but I don’t know, maybe there is a bit of shoegazing and definitely a lot of guitars.

4TR: Your 1st single came out in December on Chess Club and next one is on Young and Lost Club, how come the change?
Pete: Well it was our manager actually who set it up, but we were aware that we would be doing the second one with young and lost but yeah both are cool labels. 

4TR: The next single is a double a side are you pleased with it?
Pete: Yeah, we just finished recording it actually, which was really fun actually.  We’re very excited about it coming out because it’s kind of a bit different from the stuff we have put out already, it’s a bit louder sounding.

4TR: Is that because you were working with a different producer this time round?
Pete:  Well no we were working with a guy called Tim Holmes on the first EP and since then we have been working with these 2 guys Damien and Jim for the singles and it’s just really clicked with them.  We kind of want to work with them more now! 

4TR: Right, and Jim has also worked with Florence and The Machine and Late of The Pier?
Pete: Yeah he has.

4TR: Do you think that working relationship has helped develop your sound to something you are happier with this time on record?
Pete: Yeah definitely, it’s like almost having another couple of members in the band when it comes to recording.  Like they will be shooting ideas at us and making us think differently [laughing] and they are kind of up for doing really wild stuff as well!

4TR: Is an album on the horizon for Exlovers?
Pete: I think probably we will do either an EP or another single before we do an album, but I don’t know I definitely want us to do one in the not to distant future.
Chris: Yeah I’m quite excited about doing an album that’s the ultimate thing for us really!
Pete: Yeah definitely, I have always wanted to do an album, it seems like it would be quite a fun thing to do as well.  I would probably want to write more material for it though, I mean we would want to take forward the songs we have already done and then write stuff with an album in mind also.

4TR: Do you have label support for an album at this stage?
Pete: Well I’m not really sure, I mean, I’m not sure what kind of label would be interested in us to do an album actually, but we need it ‘cos we are completely broke [laughs]. 

4TR: You played some exciting support slots last year and toured with bands like Pete and The Pirates and Golden Silvers, was that cool in your eyes?
Pete: Yeah definitely and most of them were really long tours as well, so we went all over the place.  It’s very cool for us to see what it’s like doing a tour for that amount of time, and I found it is actually quite hard, or it was for me anyway. 
Chris: We probably weren’t completely prepared because before that we had only toured for like a week and then we went off on these mammoth tours supporting those bands, which was an interesting experience.
Pete: Pete and The Pirates was a really good one actually, especially because they are a bit further down the line and have already got quite a big fan base which the other bands obviously have as well, but I think Pete and The Pirates have been around just a bit longer, so it was great to play to their crowds.

4TR: Will you be doing your own mini tour around the time of the next single release?
Pete: I don’t know, maybe, I’m not sure what’s going to happen at the moment.  We are doing a couple of NME Award Show dates with Pete Doherty which should be quite funny, I don’t really know what to make of that yet, but it should be good.  It will be fun for us to play with somebody way, way above us like Pete Doherty!

4TR: Well you will be looking at getting quite a lot of publicity from those shows won’t you?
Pete: Maybe yeah, I guess we will actually.
Chris: I hope so anyway.
Pete: It does seem like an interesting show to play and he does seem to pack out venues.  I’m not sure what his fans will think of us though…But hopefully when the single comes out we will be doing some of our own gigs around the release.

4TR: What about festival dates this summer?
Pete: We were going to be doing SXSW but then we realised that we don’t have any money and as much as we wanted to go we couldn’t.  Even if we did have that money we need to use it to buy guitars and equipment, which is more important at the moment.
Chris: Yeah and our synths have been playing up as well!
Pete: It’s a shame because we would have loved to do it, but hopefully we will be doing some of the other festivals this year as well.
Chris: I would love to play Latitude again, that was brilliant last year; it was such a good show for us.

4TR: Steve Lamaq is certainly a fan of Exlovers from what I have read!
Pete: Yeah he seems to really like us!  We went in to do a live interview and session and he was just a really nice man!
Chris: We also got on the Rebel Playlist, so they played our track every day for a week.
Pete: yeah, we got relatively good reactions to our first single, it seemed to go down well more than we expected and Radio 2 did a similar sort of thing and put us up for single of the week where people vote for you.
Chris: And the other people up for single of the week with us were like Dave Grohl and Lemmy and Hot Chip as well which was weird.

4TR: Did your single sell out?
Pete: I think so yeah, but I’m not sure exactly other than I think we have done alright.  We have to ask Chess Club actually!
Chris: Every music shop I go into I ask for our single and they always seem to say they have sold out, so that’s a good sign, but whether they just had one copy in the first place I don’t know [laughing]

4TR: Exlovers have been compared to iconic bands/artists such as Elliot Smith and Pavement, how does that sit with you?
Chris: It sits fine with me because I love all the bands they seem to compare us to, but I don’t know how right that is.
Pete: Yeah I don’t know, I mean I am a fan of Elliot Smith and a really big fan of Pavement, so that is cool.

4TR: Were they influences, which inspired you to make this music as Exlovers?
Pete: I guess so, but it kind of changes all the time.  We go through periods of listening to one particular thing, like at the moment I have been listening to loads of Deerhunter.  It does sort of filter into what you are writing, whether you are aware of that or not but I guess we have definitely been influenced in the past by the bands we get compared to.  My Bloody Valentine is a band I listen to a lot and that is definitely influencing what I am writing now, but lots of bands who I used to really like and still really like have inspired me.

4TR: So do you write collectively or are you the main ideas man Pete?
Chris: Pete will come to a practice with an idea of a rough song and then the rest of us build it from there.
Pete: Yeah like I just write sort of a really basic sketch for a song and then usually introduce the guitar or something and record it and then we work out as a band how to make it something way more interesting.  For us it’s a good way of doing things, it works.

4TR: I saw your artwork for your releases, which has a romantic aesthetic in keeping with your moniker, but recently it seems music artwork is a bit of a lost art.  Are you involved directly with the artwork you chose?
Pete: Yeah well I have got quite a specific thing that I like in terms of the artwork of bands that I like.  For example there’s a band called Comet Gain and their artwork has the kind of influence as to where I’m coming from.  I think it’s about finding something that looks really beautiful and is actually quite personal to you as well and then you can really get attached to it.  Do you know what I mean?  It’s quite important that it’s something that you are really familiar with, like a picture or photo for example, so that it has specific meaning to you.

4TR: Are there any bands you have come across at the same sort of stage as you guys which you like?
Pete: I dunno, well to be perfectly honest I haven’t really got hugely excited about any bands recently.
Chris: Yeah but we are quite out of the scene actually at the moment.
Pete: Yeah that’s true; I’m out of the loop as far as new music kind of goes.
Chris: I always tend to listen to the same sort of older music
Pete: The only times I have listened to any kind of new bands, London based or otherwise, is kind of when we have toured with them.  Until then we never really knew who they were or much about them, and I don’t tend to listen to much radio.
Chris: Yeah and then I end up getting really into them I find, like after touring with Pete and The Pirates I started listening to them loads.
Pete: There’s probably loads of newer bands out there who are really good and I would probably really like, but I just bury my head in the sand and listen to the same old depressing music all the time.

4TR: So what can we look forward to from Exlovers over the next few months?
Pete: Well the next single is out in March, as its been pushed back a bit because we didn’t get it done in time and then we will be finishing a 30 date tour with Emmy The Great and then, well we don’t really know what’s next!
Chris: We are doing a Rough Trade instore show in April, which will be cool.
Pete: Yeah that should be quite fun, I went in there the other day and looked at the stage set up and stuff and it’s a very cool shop to play in!
4TR: Are you playing in Rough Trade East or West?
Pete: East I think…
Chris: I did a really stupid thing and was told about a gig in East, can’t remember the band now and I went to see them but found out when I got there they were actually playing in West.  So I had to watch a really bad band play for half an hour.  Hopefully we don’t show up to the wrong venue……

Words: Francesca Strange

xmyysiulok
Posts: 2

ZpJzOCkLniTZZ
Reply #2 on : Sat July 16, 2011, 17:20:31

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Lillah
Posts: 2

yHbTSQOkcfm
Reply #1 on : Wed July 13, 2011, 05:31:04

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