’The Narrow State’, the debut album from London six piece Rumour Cubes, is one of the most eagerly anticipated post rock releases of 2012. Ahead of their launch show on Saturday (18th Feb) we managed to pin down Adam (guitar / electronics), Hannah (violin) & Terry (viola) for long enough to ask some questions and find out a bit more about the band.
(((o))): How long has the band been together and how did you all meet?
Hannah: Omar and Adam were in a band called Mendoza together, and when that broke up decided they wanted to carry on playing together but in a slightly different direction. Simon is Adam’s younger brother, but the rest of us answered adverts on Gumtree. We’ve been steadily growing in numbers since August 2009, although I do think at some stage we should stop recruiting people or there won’t be a big enough stage in London to accommodate us all (D’you reckon we could get a slot at Wembley just on strength of numbers?).
Adam: The day we first met Hannah, she came into the studio and threw down – as an improvisation – most of what ended up being the violin parts to a song I had prepared on guitar. The song became ‘At Sea’ and it was mostly there after a single run through! I still have the recording…
Terry: I joined the band later on by a huge slice of chance. I’d only picked up the viola again – after an ‘indefinite hiatus’ that At the Drive-In would have been proud of – about 15 months earlier, because my friends The Strange Death of Liberal England coerced me into playing on their album. Then Wil, their guitarist, happened to spot Hannah’s tweet saying ‘surely someone out there must play the viola’, emailed me and I was chosen from a lengthy shortlist of one. The fact we had a gig eight days after we first met probably worked in my favour, too.
(((o))): Where did you get your name from & what does it mean?
Hannah: The name doesn’t actually mean anything! There are 6 of us in the band and finding something we were all happy with proved to be a mammoth task. In the end we had to resort to writing words down on a huge piece of paper, joining them up in different ways, pulling them out of hats etc, and Rumour Cubes was something we all felt flowed quite nicely, and passed the two vital tests for any band name – 1. It must be Google-able – this rule was very strictly enforced by Adam, our guitarist, whose other band is called ‘Milk’ and 2. It must be easy to hear and understand in a crowded bar.
Terry: We have garnered a collection of possible mis-hearings along the way – Humour Feuds and Rooney Tunes to name a couple. I think Adam just likes the fact that you can mimic the Thundercats’ battle cry – Rumour Cubes Hoh!
(((o))): Describe your sound for us & who would you say were your biggest musical influences?
Adam: I like to think the sound of the band is a sort of post rock with pop song structures, some electronic noise and buzz, all led by the melody of the violin and viola. Then again, I often think the drums and bass give the rest of us the space to do whatever we want! In terms of our influences, there are obviously the post rocky ones, but they are a starting point for the band. I feel we also take a lot from Aphex Twin, Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, Elbow, Tom Waits, Dylan, The Beatles, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Boards of Canada…
Terry: Yeah, the songs are definitely melodic pop songs, they just happen to be rendered in an instrumental (or post-rock if you like) medium. I like the tongue-in-cheek post-baroque tag that we’ve given ourselves – to me, there’s something quite symphonic and tone-poem-y about our music, especially in the different layers, harmonies and counterpoints between the different instruments. As a musician, I was hugely inspired by James Macmillan – he opened my eyes to the possibilities of rhythm, dissonance, even playing techniques, to making music. I’m also a sucker for catchy harmonies like Super Furry Animals and Jens Lekman – so it could go either way if I’m allowed too much influence on new songs.
(((o))): And what about non-musical influences?
Hannah: Tea. You can never, EVER have enough tea. Fried breakfasts and festivals are also pretty high up the list, alongside Adam’s apocalyptic punch (don’t ask…)
Terry: I deny the tea influence. Give me Irn Bru any time. And Joe and Simon recorded their part under the influence of Special Brew (probably doubling our studio bill in the process). So, a brew of some sort is essential, I think. Politics are a big influence too. We’re all of a similar mind, though some of the band are more pro-active than others! The songs which feature Steve’s poetry are obviously the most overt expressions of those, but I think in the instrumental songs too there is definitely that influence – the mood of the country at the time we’ve made the album affected the mood of the songs in one way or another, whether that is reflecting an oppressive gloom, or trying to rail against it with something more unleashed and euphoric. I have an obsession with dinosaurs, castles and glacial landscapes (I just got back from Iceland), so I’m hoping our new songs will incorporate those somehow.
(((o))): Music can be a fickle mistress, what is your biggest high & low as a band so far?
Hannah: Playing the Lexapalooza music festival last February was a pretty big high, especially for me (Hannah), because Frank Turner was the guest compere and he’s one of my musical heroes. A particular low for us was losing Siew Cottis, who played viola in the band when we were formed, but decided in the end that she couldn’t dedicate enough time to it. Although our new viola player, Terry, is absolutely awesome so that certainly makes up for losing Siew.
Terry: Thanks Hannah! I’ll pay you later.
(((o))): What one fact about the band do you most want to share with the world?
Adam: It may sound odd to say this, but we are a band made up of people who genuinely really like one another. That is our main reason for making music and the source of the chemistry – we all get on so well. We also argue like cats and dogs, but that is all part of the fun!
Terry: [Awkward silence from the rest of the band] :o)
(((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?
Hannah: Well obviously it would be nice to get signed and make millions, I’m not going to pretend it wouldn’t be! But I think bands these days are starting to be more realistic about what’s achievable, and there’s room in the industry for bands who don’t make the ‘big-time’ in a way there wasn’t in the past. For me, if we got to a point where the band was sustainable financially that would be absolutely fantastic – I’d love us to be able to tour, for example, but we just don’t have the funds. But I think the main thing for us is that we love making music, and we love the fact that people want to listen to the music we make. We have a pretty good relationship with our fans, which is made so much easier these days by Twitter, Facebook and the like. To be honest, I’d just like to keep that up, and hope that occasionally people might like our music enough to give us some money for it.
Terry: Hannah’s great at talking to people who like our music, and that really nurtures a two-way relationship that engages people with what we’re trying to do. We also want to make the music accessible by offering it free and playing free or affordable gigs. That’s not a marketing ploy, I think we do all genuinely believe that we should make listening to our music as easy as we can for everyone who wants to (if you pick out the key words in that sentence you’ll get a clue as to our new direction: make – easy – listening – music). And we want to do some good with what we’re doing musically, hence supporting charities through our music and aligning ourselves with movements like Art Uncut. So in terms of adhering to the old model, we’re, erm, not!
(((o))): We journalists like to use easy labels to describe bands, what’s the worst thing you’ve seen yourselves described as?
Hannah: I’m not sure if it’s the worst thing, but I have seen us described in the past as ‘post- post- post-rock’. I have no idea what that even means…
Adam: I was once in a band with a review that opened: “The cover photo is great, a stair-case leading from lilac grass into a muddy grey sky. Unfortunately the three- track recording within sounds lousy: like a sand papered flexi-disk. It makes telling if it’s any good a bit tricky. I’m not sure if the constant fuzz is a guitar effect or water in the CD burner”.
Terry: What was the answer to that, Ad? And did you put it on the press section of the band website?
The post-post-post-rock is an interesting one – when I first joined the band I actually used that phrase (give or take a post- or two) to describe our music to friends. (It wasn’t me who wrote the review, by the way).
Adam: It didn’t go in any press section, no, but the band was defunct soon afterwards. If I find out you wrote that article, there will be trouble!
(((o))): We’re loving what you do but who’s floating your boat right now?
Hannah: Monsters Build Mean Robots are my favourite “should-be-MASSIVE” band right now – they’re absolutely sensational. When you listen to their EP you can easily imagine it on a massive stage with a huge crowd going wild. Also Clock Opera. I can never get enough Clock Opera.
Adam: I am currently (thanks to Terry) really into Nils Frahm (just totally beautiful), Jens Lekman (really characterful and different to everything else I listen to) and a bunch of Tom Waits records that I didn’t have before that I just got hold of (Bone Machine, Orphans, Franks Wild Years).
Terry: Ad, you’ve already pinched two of mine! You should definitely see Nils Frahm and Jens Lekman live, they’re great. Not that he’s an especially undiscovered talent, but Sufjan Stevens is my absolute favourite – the combination of fascinating subject matter and wonderfully intricate arrangements are jaw-droppingly good, and I loved his foray into orchestral writing with The BQE. It has the same balletic American-ness as Copland’s Appalachian Spring. I’ve also come back from Reykjavik with a vast array of CDs to work through, which were recommended to me by a guy called Axel who I met there. He included on the list his band, My Brother Is Pale. I’ve just listened to a couple of their songs and they have this magnificent haunting, cathedral sound. I love The Strange Death of Liberal England’s record too – it’s full of enormously anthemic songs about the sea (the band is from Southsea) which has a huge resonance for me, having lived all my pre-London life overlooking Liverpool Bay. I really miss it, and always look forward to being by the sea when I go home. Oh, and we’re all excited about Leah Kardos playing at our launch gig – and Sailplanes of course!
(((o))): What’s up next for you guys?
Hannah: Our debut album, The Narrow State, is being released on 27th February. Hopefully we’ll be playing a shed-load of gigs over the summer, including support slots for some pretty special bands (watch this space…) A festival or two would be awfully nice as well, but mainly once this album is out we’re going to get down to writing some new music and planning the next one!
Terry: I’m going to go to the zoo, and to see the Scott/Shackleton Antarctic exhibition at Buckingham Palace. For Christmas, I got a copy of Scott’s journal and the DVD The Great White Silence, which is the video footage of his expedition, so I’m hoping for plenty of inspiration from those.
