The first time I heard about Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, I thought it was pure nonsense. But I was able to prove this theory myself last week.
I decided to start writing this blog to promote my friends’ bands, as I noticed the huge amount of excellent independent bands around. In the process, of course, I’d promote my own band.
The day I set the blog up, I had just listened to a Pet Shop Boys cover from a band called We Have Band.
As the purpose of the blog was to promote bands, and I, myself, have a band, well it just seemed the most appropriate name for it. Done!
After posting the interviews, I publish the link on both my band's Facebook and Twitter profile.
By chance, a friend from Germany noticed the link for the first time last week, checked the blog out, and sent me the following message:
“Wow :). I didn’t know you had a blog. BTW, a friend of mine from England is in a band with the same name. Check them out: Myspace”
Holy Kevin Bacon !!!
Darren Bancroft got in touch and (while touring Russia) accepted to answer the questions for this interview. As coincidences come in bundles, it’s the 10th band to be interviewed.
Needless to say, I was thrilled with his contact.
We Have Band interviews We Have Band. How cool is that, huh?
Honestly, I think they are one of the most prestigious and promising bands around.
Having released the breakthrough video for their great second single “You Came Out” (“West End Girls” as a b-side) in June, the band is touring Europe right now and getting ready for the release of We Have Band – EP on September 15th in the US.
Their song "Oh!" is unbelievably infectious. At first, the lyrics seem silly and meaningless. But as the song builds up, you notice how perfectly the lyrics fit into the odd melody. Pure genius.
Their music sounds so simple and basic, but Thomas WP ( Vocals/Guitar/Bass/Programming ), Dede WP ( Vocals/Percussion/Sampler ), and Darren Bancroft ( Vocals/Drums/Percussion/Sampler) know very well what they're doing. And you can't help but notice they have enough music background to do so.
Take their "West End Girls" cover for instance. In my opinion it's one of Pet Shop Boys' most overrated singles and just to make it clear, I'm a huge fan of the band.
Anyway, the approach they took on their cover was both innovative and risky. They didn't change the melody but decided, instead, to add and modify the synth sounds and were able to transform an 80's cheesy song into a modern, fresh synthpop hit.
Few bands have achieved this. I can only think of Ladytron's version for Human League's "Open Your Heart" as an example. Well done guys!
Well, read their interview, listen to their songs on Myspace and watch the amazing videos. I can only say I'm super proud of having a blog with the same name, and by the way guys, if you ever want the URL, I'd be happy to pass it on.
Ladies and gentlemen, We Have Band:
Head - How would you describe We Have Band’s creative process?
We Have Band - Messy but democratic. We never really have a full idea of a song from the start. Thomas mans the computer and he often begins things with just a beat or a bass or guitar riff and then we just all throw our ideas on, one after the other and build it up like that. We record mostly at home so we're really used to the freedom of being able to pursue every idea we have at any time. The rule is that any idea will get tried out, but if we feel something isn't working we'll scrap it quite quickly. We all tend to have a fairly instinctive feeling of what is and isn't right in a way that we cant really explain. But when a song starts to make us all move physically, or make us get up and dance, we know it's good. We also all write the lyrics and the melodies for ourselves and for each other, so that adds the final layer. That's something that we love, to not have a rigid system where each singer only writes and sings their own stuff, it's much more fluid the way we do it and it's more fun for us and hopefully to listen to. It's organised chaos basically.
Shoulders – What are your favorite artists and how do they influence your music?
We Have Band - We love a lot of different artists. In terms of influence we probably tend to look a little further back. It's nice to listen to new music just for enjoyment. And it's not so healthy to be looking over your shoulder at what your contemporaries are doing and let that affect you and what you're doing. New music is more of an influence from a social side, having the feeling that there are other people working hard and pushing themselves as hard as you are is quite comforting. It's like being at a global music college or something. We love ESG, DFA, Micheal Jackson, Radiohead, Bjork, Elbow, Doves, Kate Bush. There's too many to name really. People that carve out their own unique musical space are the most influence on us. And in that sense it's not a direct influence of wanting to sound like them, it's more like wanting to be as brave as them, or as unique as them and things like that.
Knees – How did you promote the band early on?
We Have Band - Online and playing live was all we did in the early days. And to be honest it's all we do know. We don't have a big marketing machine behind us and at the moment we don't have a label so we just play loads of shows and we chat to people like you online. It's amazing how far you can spread like this. We were in Moscow last week and we played to one of the craziest crowds ever. They were screaming and singing along and crowd surfing and just generally going nuts and you think "how the hell do they know anything about us"? But we've played there once before and we've spoken to a few Russian blogs and websites and then the DJs started playing us in the clubs and that was it, that's how! It's very inspiring. We owe a lot to bloggers, DJs and hardcore music fans seeking out new stuff.
Toes – What’s the best and the worst side of being in a band?
We Have Band - The best is probably being able to travel to so many amazing places. And to meet so many interesting people. Music fans are pretty special people, so every time we go somewhere we get straight to meet the most interesting and dynamic and adventurous people, that's a real pleasure. And you normally have a promoter who is local to the place so you avoid all the tourist traps. The worst is probably the opposite when you have to rush in and out of a place and you see nothing but the airport, the inside of a car, the venue and then the car and the airport again! We're good at making time to go around though, and we often stay in a place a bit longer if we can.
Bonus Round – Hot Chip or Elliot Smith?
We Have Band - Ah, this isn't fair because Elliot didn't get the chance to show us what he could have been. We have love for them both!
