Wild Beasts
The Singing Lamb: To those who aren’t familiar with Wild Beasts, please introduce each member!
Hayden Thorpe – vocals/guitar/bass/keys (sparkling water)
Chris Talbot – Percussion/vocals (whisky and coke)
Ben Little – Guitars (green tea)
Tom Fleming – bass/guitar/vocals/keys (brewed coffee)
Give us a bit of history – how did the band come together? Hayden and Ben attended school together, correct? How has that initial partnership grow to the four-piece band it is today?
Tom Fleming: Hayden and Ben started playing together and tentatively writing aged 16. Chris saw them play and joined aged 18. I saw them play and joined aged 20. It’s been aggregative and the band is continually changing character.
How has the band musically evolved from the first to the second album? Many people say that the two are almost entirely different, sounding like two separate bands – do you think so?
Tom: I certainly see the difference between the two albums, but I would suggest that the second is a logical next step after the first. We had been listening to music widely, but I think with the second we learned better how to incorporate different ideas into what we were doing and making them stick together. The first had to be a definitive statement, sort of a “look, I’m here!” sort of thing, whereas this was calmer, more focused and if anything, more assured. We’re still trying to work out what we are and what we can do.
I’m always curious to know if bands read their own press – do you guys read your own interviews and reviews? Why or why not?
Tom: Unavoidably we do read some of our own press (we have people who send it to us for a start), but you have to take the view that “we know best”. To be honest, we’re never satisfied until we come across a slating. Whilst it’s nice that people are interested enough to cover us, surely press can’t tell us anything useful about what we do? I hope we’ve got a good enough idea ourselves. (Yes, I’m a massive narcissist).
I recently read this lovely scary story from you, Tom – what are some other scary things that’s happened while you were on tour?
Tom: Ah, that story is just cheap offcuts of Georges Bataille and the Marquis de Sade, but thanks, I had a ball writing it. The battles on tour are with yourself, the mind is a scary place when it is left alone for too long. Also, this month’s trip to Australia will mean we share a continent with the funnel-web spider – very aggressive, very poisonous, the size of a large mouse. Spiders don’t really bother me, but this is the exception.
Clearly, within the past decade or so, technology has changed a lot – how have things like Twitter and blogging (as you guys keep a blog on your website) altered the way you communicate and reach out to fans? How has this worked to your advantage the most?
Tom: I think it gives us the possibility to communicate as normal people, while preserving the music as something else, and hopefully in doing so show that what we’re doing is made by people, and that it is understandable and accessible. The best part about, say, twitter, is that it is writing that takes place in the (almost) present tense. Almost all other expression is done in the past tense, and that gives us something we can use to give refractions and immediate thoughts of the day, without having to labour over it too much. Hopefully it illuminates what we do rather than cheapens it.
And finally, since our site’s called the Singing Lamb – if you were a singing animal, what would you be?
Tom: The kookaburra – no others were considered.
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For more Wild Beasts,
Website: http://www.wild-beasts.co.uk/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/wildbeasts
Wild Beasts will also be in Toronto on February 22 at the Horseshoe! Tickets are available now for $15.00.
