Today we want to share with you another interview, this time with Nick Hemming of The Leisure Society, conducted by @tunatheday. Enjoy!
Before we start with the in-depth stuff mighty congratulations on being nominated for your second Ivor Novello Award in a row. Not bad for a guy who last year was working in a warehouse. Has it all sunk in yet?
Yes, just when I though life couldn’t get any stranger! I was pretty shocked when I got the letter but it’s slowly sinking in. The whole band are going to the ceremony this year so, even if we don’t win, we’re going to have a great, boozy day out together.
It must give you a buzz to have the support of so many people within the music business?
It’s pretty special when people you admire give you support. Last year was completely crazy, so many amazing things happened, but the highlight for me was hearing Guy Garvey read out the lyrics to The Last Of The Melting Snow on his radio show. It really made me well up with pride.
The Sleeper was so well received and made it onto many lists for Album of the Year in 2009. Do you feel under pressure to repeat that response with the next one?
I personally have felt a lot of pressure. As I was writing the first album I was only really writing for myself, but now I know there’s actually an audience out there who care what we do! I’ve written all the songs for the new album now so the pressure doesn’t feel as great, we’re all incredibly excited about how it’s shaping up. There’s still a long way to go recording-wise but I’m convinced it will be a huge progression from the first album.
There were quite a few tracks on the first album that were obvious singles, but do you consider yourselves more of an album band?
I definitely care more about the sound of the album as a whole as opposed to deliberately writing singles. Although saying that, we’ve all been quite shocked as to how many prospective singles this new album is throwing up. I think it’s because we’ve played a lot more live shows since we made The Sleeper, so there’s a tendency to want to play more upbeat, arresting tunes.
I loved your version of Gary Newman’s Cars which accompanied the deluxe version of The Sleeper. Not an obvious choice to get the Hemming treatment?
No, not an obvious choice at all, great fun to do though. We were asked to cover a famous song for the Dermot O’Leary radio show & Christian & I were standing in the back garden discussing it. Christian was blurting out a huge list of 80s & 90s singles, as soon as he suggested Cars I knew it would sound great with the Leisure Society touch. The sounds Gary Numan used were so far removed from what we do I knew it’d be interesting at the very least. We enjoyed playing it live so much that we decided to record it. One year on & we’ve only recently taken it out of the set!
You are a very hard working bunch and always seem to be on the road. Do you always get on or are there touring ‘incidents’?
We do get on surprisingly well. With 8 people crammed in a van there are bound to be odd moments of irritation but so far no serious fall outs. We probably spend much more time together in vans than most bands as Christian & I refuse to fly unless there is absolutely no other option… the result of a terrifying flight back from a festival in Latvia last year.
You are no newcomers to the festival scene (as well as Wychwood the band are playing Glastonbury and The Big Chill this year) do they each have their own feel or do they tend to merge into one?
It can become a bit of a blur but every festival seems to have it’s own unique traits. It’s going to be another very busy summer, which is great for the band… Although, our drummer Bas has a profound hatred of camping so he has mixed feelings about the whole thing.
You are playing the Friday, if you get the chance is there anybody else you are keen to catch?
I’m definitely gonna try & stick around for The Happy Mondays on Saturday. I was an extra in 24 Hour Party People so I got to meet a few of them, larger than life characters & a little terrifying! If we get there early enough I’d like to catch Arcadian Kicks too, I saw them play a small London venue last year & they were great fun.
Thanks for your time and we’ll catch up with you on Friday June 6.
And big thank you to @tunatheday for sending it over!:) Check his site for daily dose of good music!
