Hailing from the dark valleys of South Wales and fizzing with abrasive attitude come Saturday’s Kids. They play adrenaline fuelled raw rock ‘n’ roll and we fucking love it here at E&D towers. Ahead of their upcoming UK tour we grabbed some time with Sion and popped a few questions.
(((o))): How long has the band been together and how did you all meet?
Well Me (Sion), Rhys and Ev have been playing together since we were about 16. Rhys and me had been in the same school since the age of 4 and then all three of us were in the same secondary school. Around 16 we started a band because we were all vaguely musical but at the time we all had contrasting music tastes, I was militantly punk, Rhys a little more Indie and Ev was a bit more cock rock e. e he loved Status Quo. As we grew up a bit all of us started to develop a more diverse taste in music and we weren’t so contained by pre-conceived ideas of music. Even so everything leaned more towards punk, post-punk, indie, post-hardcore, no-wave, 90’s alternative. We left the cock rock behind. Saturday’s Kids has existed since then but I would not have called us a real band until about February 2010 when we started recording better music and touring. Before then we had released a couple of demos, the first one was horrendous the second was a lot better but still under- developed. Our current drummer David Sandford did not join until the summer of 2011 after our first drummer Greenburg left as he wanted to concentrate on his career as an erotic novelist.
(((o))): Where did you get your name from & what does it mean?
We are named after The Jam song Saturday’s Kids that is on Setting Sons. My brother suggested it to me when we were 16 and it’s kinda stuck. The lyrics for the song are really interesting.
Saturday’s boys live life with insults,
Drink lots of beer and wait for half time results,
Afternoon tea in the light-a-bite – chat up the girls – they
dig it!
Saturday’s girls work in Tesco’s and Woolworths,
Wear cheap perfume ’cause it’s all they can afford,
Go to discos they drink Babycham talk to Jan – in bingo
accents.
Saturdays kids play one arm bandits,
they never win but that’s not the point is it,
Dip in silver paper when their pints go flat,
How about that – far out!
That is the first verse, the people they describe could not probably be further away from what we were like when we were 16 but I think that was part of the irony. Saying that the characters depicted could be seen all around the small welsh town we grew up in.
(((o))): Describe your sound for us & who would you say were your biggest musical influences?
It is so hard to describe your own sound; it is as if we are too close to notice the obvious. I think Steve from one of the record labels who helps us out called Bombed Out has described our sound in the best way. “They specialise in tense, interwoven guitar soundscapes that build until the post-rock ends and all you’re left with is pure, unfettered hardcore punk, all the while little flourishes of melodic guitar add texture.” I think the bands that have had the biggest influence on us are Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Joy Division, Black Flag, You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead.., Minor Threat, Dinasour Jr. It’s quite hard to say a we try and make every song and record sound different so that we are constantly evolving.
(((o))): And what about non-musical influences?
I would like to say that we are only influenced by music but that would be wrong. Obviously outside circumstances influence our music like where we grew up in South Wales or the people we hate or the people we love but it is all done on a sub conscious level.
(((o))): Music can be a fickle mistress, what is your biggest high & low as a band so far?
I think each of us would say something different but my personal high’s have been putting out our gorilla 10” EP which I think is the best all round record we have done so far, the only dud on there is “pillow” which I think is utter shit. We wrote it really quick before the day of recording so we did not have enough time to truly judge it. That grinds on me a bit. I also think our first record release show was a highlight for me. It was a show in the basement of an antiques market called Jacobs market. There was only local bands playing and there was no promotion except word of mouth all very underground and illegal and like 150 turned up and people were going crazy to everyone’s music. That show has become urban legend in Cardiff because something really special happened. It was such a surreal setting as well because in the basement there was this eerie green light which made it feel like Fight Club then to go to the toilet you had to walk up stairs through the shop and there were all these stuffed animals and 1920’s furniture it was freaking loads of people out.
I think the lowest point was when we played a show last summer to 4 people at a badly promoted show. Stuff like that is really disheartening. Or whenever we play not at our best. After a show I either feel as high as possible if we played well or really shit about it all if we were shit, it’s like being a manic depressive.
(((o))): The old model of record demo-do gigs-get signed-make millions is pretty broken these days, what’s your plan to deal with this?
I doubt we will ever make millions; I doubt we will ever get signed, but what we do is push our band as far as our niche music can go, play as many shows as we possibly can… smash it as loud as possible in as many people’s faces and put out as many records that sound exactly like we want them to sound like.
(((o))): We’re loving what you do but who’s floating your boat right now?
Well, we just got off touring the UK with Facel Vega, who are an incredible emo punk band from South Wales. It was for the release of their debut album that blows your face off, it has been about 4 years in the making so a lot of people were really excited about it. It sounds like a black flag record with loads of re-verb and some more retchy vocals. It is called ‘The Body’ and is out on Art For Blind Records now.
(((o))): What’s up next for you guys?
We are going on tour with Exeter grunge stars Ono Palindromes in February. We are touring in support of the release of our newest record; a double single 7” that has the songs ‘Grey On White’ and ‘Black Pocket’ on it. We are really excited about this record and the tour. Here are the shows we are playing:
16th Feb 2012 Bristol – The Croft with / Ono Palindromes
17th Feb 2012 Kingston – The Cricketers with / Ono Palindromes
18th Feb 2012 Leeds – Escobar with / Ono Palindromes
19th Feb 2012 Nottingham – Chameleon Arts Cafe with / Ono Palindromes
20th Feb 2012 Portsmouth – Edge Of The Wedge with / Ono Palindromes
21st Feb 2012 London- Catch Grey On white 7″ Record Release show with / Holy State, Ono Palindromes
And then on the 23rd of February we are putting on a secret party in Newport South Wales as a celebration of the new record back in our home nation. It’s all hush hush but anyone interested please email saturdayskids@hotmail.co.uk to find out how to get the address.
Then after that we are hoping to record a new record maybe an EP maybe an LP who knows. We are always on the lookout for more shows though. as playing live is what it’s all about.
