Great Cynics have recently put out their second album, done a huge tour with Broadway Calls / Gnarwolves and also just been announced to play The Lock-Up Stage at this years Reading and Leeds Festivals. I thought I'd sent some questions over to see how they've been doing with this hectic schedule, here's the answers...
You've just released 'Like I Belong', your second album, how's the response been to it so far?
We've been really lucky, it seems there are some people who have been really digging it since it came out in April. People can send the loveliest e-mails! I'm really proud of our first record Don't Need Much and I think those people who liked
Don't Need Much like this new one. It was recorded in the same room with the same guy, and we didn't want to get rid of the klanks you can hear between tracks on that first record. So we set up in pretty much the same spot we did two years ago and started recording, keeping all the klanks. We had a few more ideas to slide edgeways into the record, and generally I think we had more of an idea of what we wanted this record to be - which in a weird way made it fun and exciting for us. I think people can hear that.
To me, LIB sounds like more of a collective effort than previous releases. Would you agree?
Totally. Don't Need Much and In The Valley were all songs I'd written on my own before we became a band. This time we would ask each other about the stuff we'd come up with, and luckily there was a pretty good tolerance of honesty going on there. The idea of being a band is that it's a group of people with centralised thinking and motives; everyone has a platform for input. Occasionally I'll have the stick pointed at me to make a final decision, but I mean really I think about what's going to be the most fun, non-demanding thing for all of us. It's funny that when we started writing songs together, we started making general band decisions together too. I'm happy palming stuff onto those guys.
JOBS. I always find it interesting to learn what people do outside of the band to keep themselves ticking over, what do you guys do?
As far as alter egos go, we don't have the best collection. Iona is on the bank of auxiliary nurses in Exeter which she can pick her shifts at, Bob just plays drums and I've been bumbling through a slew of part-time jobs, including garden landscaping, modelling for local amateur portrait classes and most recently delivering takeaway chinese food in our van.
Where do you want the new record to take you?
That's a funny question because I don't really plan anything ahead of the next few weeks. If I try to look at the overall scheme of what we're doing, I guess the most it could do is keep making the shows get better and better. We've just got back from the album tour - or at least the first time we've toured with it out - and those shows were some of the best we've done, so what I guess is the best thing it can do has already started to happen. And that's really fucking cool. We also just got announced to play Reading & Leeds on The Lock Up Stage - if you'd have asked me this question before, I would have said: "I want the new record to take us to Reading & Leeds on The Lock Up Stage." Haha.
You recently toured with Broadway Calls and Gnarwolves. Was that the longest stint you have done as a band so far? How did you find it?
That was the longest tour we've done by far and it was awesome. We did a few loops of Europe all twelve or eleven of us in one fucking van together. Those guys are all awesome - Broadway Calls are the cute Americans and Gnarwolves are the fucking Gnar Gnars, they're just nice dudes. I saw a lot of puke and schnitzels, and skated daily with the Gnars.
What would you say are the two most important moments in the history of Great Cynics?
The show that I played on my own in replacement of my old band, where I met a group of people who later on that night agreed that I was to be on their UK tour for the next week. The moment I realised that not only was this shits and giggles, but some people actually liked it. Household Name Records saying they wanted to put out our first record. Or maybe Ben Treloar from Brothers/Los Broncos/Dead City Stereo saying he didn't hate it. Sorry, that's more than you asked for but these are the ones that stand out for me right now.
How does Bob know everything about popstars from the last 20 years?
Man, I dunno. That guy knows A LOT of stuff. Like, we hang out in bedrooms really quite often and I STILL want to stay awake the latest to hear everything he says. It's the way he tells 'em...
Do you have any others tours in the works that you can share?
We've just been looking at touring in France in December, which we're doing with Guerilla Poubelle from Paris who seem to be completely awesome. We'll also be doing a UK tour with a band from the other side of the world before the end of the year, which looks like it will be an absolute corker. Seriously though, you won't wanna miss dis.
We can confirm that the UK tour with a band from the other side of the world WILL be coming to Manchester. Stay tuned.
'
Like I Belong' is out now and you can check out where to buy/listen
here.
