Everyone loves lunch! Well, that’s certainly the belief of Tom Cale, Josh Jackson, James Mulligan & John Innis who collectively make up Lincoln’s Lunchband. The four piece make a curious infusion of folky indie tinged with a dash of melancholy but also a definite pop sensibility that makes their music instantly engaging. We’re tipping these boys for big things and interest is definitely building around the band, so we grabbed some words from them before they become too big for the like of us.
(((o))): How long has the band been together and how did you all meet?
Tom Cale(TC) – Well, we’ve been officially playing under the name Lunch or Lunchband as we are known now for just over a year, but the essence of the band has been a work in progress for about two.
Josh Jackson (JJ) – There were various other projects and bands that me, Tom and James were involved in together over the past few years; “Joes a Fiend Josephine,” “Diamond el Fonsbrook and the Dead Baby Parade” and “Lipstick Entourage” being the main 3, all based in the city of Lincoln; this is where the three of us originally met. But Lunchband came into fruition when Tom and me put together a few demos of our own. A strange but listenable mix of electronic beats and indie-folk overtones.
(TC) – I’d always had a plan that I wanted James Mulligan (Mull) to join us on bass and asked him to join us after we had a bank of ideas down. We started playing shows around London last summer as a three piece with electronic beats. They we’re well received but we knew it lacked the power the rest of the instrumentation was bringing so we started looking for a kick ass drummer.
(JJ) – I was studying drums at Tech Music School at the time. John (our drummer) was on the same course as me and once Lunchband had decided that we needed a drummer I immediately recommended John, tightest and coolest mofo in my class for sure! He quickly became a solid part of the band and a good friend to us all! And that’s where we’re at now.
(((o))): Where did you get your name from & what does it mean?
(JJ) – The origin of the name is shrouded in mystery, but basically I think it equates to the fact that everyone loves lunch! Lunch is a big part of most people’s lives, lunch is recognisable, lunch is familiar, lunch is food and food is good!
(Mull)- Everyone Loves Lunch! The band part was added to separate us and brings a certain jazzy, swing quality.
(TC)- Food just needs more credit in the media, there isn’t enough positive stories about good food these days, we’ll try and rectify this.
(((o))): Describe your sound for us & who would you say were your biggest musical influences?
(JJ) -For the sake of simplicity I will create a rough mental image that will help you understand the sound of the band.. Imagine the Arctic Monkeys and Foals having a 4 way sex fest with the Beach Boys and The Cure, whilst Radiohead film the entire affair, Wilco provide all the appropriate props and the last 30 years of heavymetal/rock/folk and electro plays very quietly, but not unheard, in the background.. That’s kind of what we sound like..
(Mull)- Somewhere around a Soul band playing Folk songs with ‘Indie’ Pop sensibilities and any other Genre lying about thrown in for a Good measure, A Stew-band..Maybe?
(TC)- I’m happy with that, as for influences, there would be too many to list. We’ve all come from very different musical backgrounds so our tastes span from the wildest progressive metal to the sickly sweet edge of pop.
(JJ)- We love it all and it all inspires us..
(((o))): And what about non-musical influences?
(JJ) – Same again, everything inspires and influences me, the view out of my window every morning, the sound of my flat mates shagging whilst I’m trying to sleep, the endless social endeavors of me and my party mad comrades, the infinite potential of human spirit and thoughts outside the box..
(TC) – I take the inspiration for the song writing from anything that I interact with that causes me to sit back and take credit of the fickle, complicated but beautiful entity that is existence. It’s just an observation through my eyes that I feel may be of some enjoyment. Oh and food.
(Mull)- FOOD!
(((o))): Music can be a fickle mistress, what is your biggest high & low as a band so far?
(TC)- I really enjoyed playing with Dutch Uncles in Lincoln at the end of last year, great band, great crowd and a pleasure to have had the chance to play alongside them.
(JJ)- For me the biggest high so far is the BBC6 Music interest we’ve had. It’s an incredible experience to hear your own songs being played back to you by one of your favorite radio stations!
(Mull)- They’ve all been highs, no really lows accept for myself playing on average Lower notes then the rest of the band!
(TC)- It really has been a case of strength upon strength, obviously the hard thing sometimes is the frustration you can feel when things slow a little bit with unsigned bands but you’ve got to knuckle down and make them good again.
(JJ)- Everything is smooth sailing with this band, we’re older, more mature musicians and we’re not going to allow ourselves to fall back into the same shitty situations we’ve all experienced in previous bands..
(((o))): What one fact about the band do you most want to share with the world?
(JJ)- The fact that we are silly.. So very, very silly.. Music is a serious passion for us all we live, breathe, shit and eat music all day long, but we enjoy our time together in the funniest ways possible, we constantly make ourselves and each other laugh 24 hours a day! No matter how serious and dark and sinister our music may sound, just remember that underneath that shroud lies a bunch of guys laughing their tits off and having a great time! It’s still very serious though 😉
(TC)- It’s not about the band but it’s a good fact WD-40 is the 40th formula of the Water Displacing spray hence WD-40. (My dad told me that)
(((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?
(Mull)-Just the shear amount of bands is making it hard and the ”not sure” platforms in which to release your music is hard to follow development, but its actually made a U-turn back to how it was in the 70’s and 80’s you just have to be top of your game, get them dancing and with hard work it’ll pay off. So we’re still evolving and developing just got to work!
(JJ)- Our ultimate goal is to release everything ourselves, to have full control over every aspect of our music and to use every opportunity available to us to spread our sounds. We are not believers in sucking the corporate dick. We aim to eventually have our own label (or collective if you will) involving everyone we know and work with musically. This is “Mealtime Records.” We’ve all been/are currently involved in some incredible projects and bands and we really want to get all our sounds out there together. We will deal with our own publishing and distribution and all our management and PR will be done within the collective.
(TC) –We’ll just be keeping what we do, true and untarnished and ride the wave as best we can.
(((o))): We journalists like to use easy labels to describe bands, what’s the worst thing you’ve seen yourselves described as?
(TC) – We’ve not really had any inaccurate labels, but then again we don’t really pin ourselves down to one single thing and I’m not sure people have been able to put us into anything negative either.
(JJ) – We always have fairly good descriptions to be honest.
(TC) – One A&R representative said “It’s clear that the members of Lunchband have been listening a lot to their parent’s record collection. There’s something 60’s lurking underneath their Indie cape” Spot on really.
(((o))): We’re loving what you do but who’s floating your boat right now (and why)?
(TC)- I’m totally digging ‘Girls’ went to see them in May and totally fell in love.
(JJ) – I’m very excited about the release of the new “Why?” album, incredible band! Been listening to a lot of “Slugabed” recently, also “Alt-J” which Tom got me into.
(Mull)- Wilco! Just incredible song writing, able to use many styles to write Pop! exciting!
(((o))): What’s up next for you guys?
(JJ)- There’s a great deal of hard work ahead of us now. The next step is a UK release of the E.P and a UK/Europe tour which we’ll start confirming dates for very soon, I’m sure. We’ll also continue writing tracks and pieces for the album which we will hopefully have recorded by the end of the year/start of 2013.. There’s good times ahead for Lunchband!!
(TC)- Keeping busy, writing new material and playing a lot of shows. We want to spread to as many people whom are willing to give us a listen.
(Mull)- keep developing and making our signature Racket….Not tennis.
(TC)- Maybe some tennis. Thanks guys.
Lunchband are:
Tom Cale – Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Josh Jackson – Lead Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals, Electronic Programming
James (Mull) Mulligan – Bass
John Innis (Drums)
