Los Campesinos!

Hey everyone! No I have not died, and neither has my Bargain Bin column. I’ve been super swamped with work, but the column will be back on a regular basis next week! Here’s your Cashlyn fix for now!

After signing with Toronto’s Arts & Crafts in 2007, Los Campesinos! have been steadily gaining popularity worldwide. The seven-piece band is originally from Cardiff, Wales and have just begun a North/South American tour that will stretch until the end of April.

I fell in love with this band after hearing them do an interview on The Edge about a year ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since. The energy in their music, coupled with intriguing and unexpected lyrics, and a variety of instruments makes them one of my favourite bands.

I was lucky enough to get the chance to talk to lead singer Gareth before their show in Toronto last night (which was amazing by the way).

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How’s the tour going?

It’s going great so far, this is the fourth day. It’s kind of a continuation of a tour we did in January where we did most of the East Coast and some of the mid-West. Then we were in the studio for a while and now we’re starting up again.

Your latest album We Are Beautiful, We are Doomed was released in limited edition, and no singles were released, why?

I think when we went into the studio, we were going to record four or five tracks for an EP, but then we were a lot more productive than we expected, and ended up with the ten track record that we released. The reason for no singles is that there are no songs that could be singles, or at least not successful singles.

The limited edition thing, I don’t know if you’ve seen the UK version, but it’s in a box and comes with booklets and badges and that sort of thing; I don’t think a lot of bands like to put in the artistic effort as much as we do. Also, we knew we weren’t going to sell hundreds of thousands of albums or anything, and it just makes it seem more like an event. With downloading and everything it makes it harder to make the release of a record seem like an event, because people have downloaded it a month before it comes out.

What do you miss most about home when you’re on the road?

I live with my mom and my sister, so it’s always a shame to be away from them. I miss playing soccer; I play lots of soccer when I’m home. See, I’m used to calling it soccer now rather than football. If I still call it soccer when I get back to the UK there’ll be trouble! I miss home cooking as well, and British tele. Just regular normal things, my own bed as well I suppose. We’ve always got three of us to two beds when we’re on-tour.

If you could pick any person/band to play with, who would it be?

I guess my favourite band is a band called Xiu Xiu. We’re sonically quite different, but they’re my absolute favourite band so I’d love to play with them. There’s been talk of a Pavement reformation; to support someone like them, that’d just be dream territory.

Favourite ice cream?

Well I’m vegan now, so anything soy. But before I was vegan, I loved rum and raisin ice cream. It’s real sea-side thing, and it’s got raisins in it so it feels kind of healthy.

Top band influences?

I guess again, Pavement. And then, lyrically, I really like Belle and Sebastian. And a UK band called Hefner, and I guess a more contemporary band we really love is Why?.

Least favourite subject in school?

I think, interestingly, I really hated music. I did it from the ages like 12-14, but it was like they’d give you a really cheap keyboard and be like, “make up a song.” It was really lame, it was the kind of thing that you had to do, but no one in the class wanted to do it. I mean I loved music and I loved listening to music, but I don’t want to learn how to play chopsticks on a keyboard, or attempt to sing.

First CD you bought?

The first I had was a tape; that’s how old I am. I think the first that was ever bought for me was “I’ll Do Anything for Love” by Meatloaf. The first I bought for myself was a Coolio single called “See You When You Get There.” I think I still know all the words to it to this day.

First concert you went to?

It was a British band called Placebo, they have sort of a gothic tinge to their music; I still like them to this day.

Favourite instrument to play?

All the instruments I play, I don’t like at all. I play the glockenspiel, which I hate. Nobody looks at somebody playing glockenspiel and says, “I want to be that guy.” You see people play drums or bass, or even Harriet with the violin is really cool, but then I just sit there with a glockenspiel and a tiny little mallet, and it’s just really lame. It’s very much a love/hate relationship. I’d love to be able to play guitar; Neil and Tom look so cool when they do it.

Craziest fan experience?

I think any fan experience is crazy, because we find it so strange that anybody cares. We’re so used to being the people in the crowd watching the shows and asking bands at the merch table for an autograph, that when people do it to us, it’s incredibly flattering but incredibly strange.

We played a gig in Paris once and the girl crowd-surfed to the front, onto the stage, and then she stood back by the drums and ran up to the front of the stage and did a front flip over the monitors, then went back into crowd surfing, which was impressive and crazy.

Favourite colour?

I like brown, it’s a boring colour to say. I like black as well, but that’d be even worse, so I’ll go with brown.

TV show you can’t get enough of?

When we’re in North America, we like anything that’s on MTV or VH1 that has the word “love” in it. Like “Tough Love,” “Shot of Love,” any sort of dating show where people are embarrassing themselves. I like any British soap opera, any trashy reality stuff, and any British sport.

What would you want to be doing if you weren’t playing music?

Yeah, that worries me. Just before the band took off, I was planning on getting into journalism. Actually, I wanted to write the TV listings. I did that at my university newspaper and magazine, I wrote a TV column, so I would like to have done that. Otherwise, when we’re not on tour, I work at a cemetery gardening. So I might well be doing that.

Does it bother you when people forget the “!” in the band’s name?

Sometimes. I understand how it can disappear. But when it’s written in magazines or on a gig poster…like it’s someone’s job; you should get the band name right. If it’s just someone on a message board or something, it’s forgiven, but when it’s your job to get things right, you should get them right.

Favourite board game?

We played Trivial Pursuit the other day, and in the end people were encouraging me to cheat, because it was so bad. All the questions were from the 90s, but it was a U.S. version of it, so we didn’t know anything. I do enjoy Trivial Pursuit, but Monopoly is always great.

Can you pick a favourite album?

I could get it down to three. An album called “At the Club” by Kenickie, then I guess an album called “Dig me out” by Sleater-Kinney, and then an album called “Safe As Houses” by a band called Parenthetical Girls, who we toured with last year.

Where do you find inspiration?

I do the lyrics, so I just like complaining about things. Basically complaining about girls, and a constant sense of impending doom, and a hyper-awareness of all things morbid. Just worrying too much, and being pissed off at girls essentially; if any of those things get solved, I have nothing to say.

Favourite things about Toronto?

There are a couple of awesome record stores like Sonic Boom records, and Rotate This!, and Soundscapes. Last time we played Lee’s Palace, we spent the whole day in Sonic Boom. And unlike most U.S. cities we know what Toronto is like now, because we’ve spent so much time here, so it’s nice to know where you’re going.

And lastly, if you were a singing animal, what one would you be?

I really like deer. A deer is a good animal because they are so incredibly graceful and there’s something quite romantic about them, so I think I’d be a singing deer.

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For more Los Campesinos! check out their Myspace or officialy website below!
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/loscampesinos
Website: http://www.loscampesinos.com/

Interview By Cashlyn Teggart