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By: Dan Salter
Alright The Captain have just released their new album, Contact Fix, to much acclaim and are currently out on the road as part of their seemingly endless touring schedule. Between shows, Marty spared us a few minutes to give us some insight in to life in one one the UK’s hardest working DIY bands.
(((o))): We’re doing a huge focus on the site this year on grassroots / independent / DIY / whatever you want to call it music. You guys have been at the hub of the DIY scene in the midlands for as long as we’ve known you. How have things changed over the time you’ve been doing it? What are the biggest challenges independent musicians face?
Things seem pretty good on the DIY circuit recently. There’s always been a good network between bands all helping each other out, but there seems to be a more of a buzz about whats going on at the moment. Small independent venues like JT Soar in Notts & The Audacious Art Experiment in Sheffield are great places to play, and bigger events like ArcTanGent catering exclusively for fans of more experimental are giving bands a platform.
Still, it can be hard to get promoters to take a chance on experimental music styles outside certain circles, so expanding to reach new audiences isn’t always easy. But you’ve got to count your blessings. And of course accept the limits of making weird music! And then obviously some of biggest challenges the majority of bands face – juggling work and finances to keep going.
(((o))): We’ve just had Independent Venue Week, do you see it as a good initiative? What do you see as the key issues facing small venues right now?
It’s a great initiative, if it wasn’t for the independent venues we wouldn’t have many places to play. A lot of the bigger venues don’t always want to take the gamble with obscure music so its good that the DIY venues support their local scenes and independent bands.
Sometimes the problems can stem from too much going on – if there are 3 DIY gigs on one night crowds can be divided. There are always more bands looking for shows then there are good gigs to play!
Noise complaints can also be a nuisance. Some fuckers go and build a block of flats next to a long standing venue and then you’ve got all the new residents complaining.
But it could be worse, I was surprised to hear that in Spain noise complaints make it very difficult for small venues with the result being there aren’t that many and in France you have all the noise meters that cut you off over a certain limit.
(((o))): Can you tell us your top 5 UK venues to play?
JT Soar it’s my go to place in Nottingham, I run monthly shows there and it’s just got a great vibe, it’s a BYOB venue and everyone always has a good time. The Chameleon in Notts is another good one.
Bar Bloc Awesome venue in Glasgow, every time we’ve played has been brilliant, really enthusiastic crowds and brilliant craic.
The Green Door Store in Brighton, we’ve only played there once but it was an awesome venue and the sound was great. My only regret was getting so battered on Buckfast the night before I ended up puking in my mouth mid set and had to swallow it (ewwww).
The Audacious Art Experiment awesome little DIY venue in Sheffield run by some great guys, it’s always a pleasure playing there. They need to get a second pad for Street Fighter though.
Artsmith Gallery in Derby has been putting on some gigs recently, providing the city with a much needed DIY spot and it’s really rather nice. You might want to put an extra layer on in winter though.
(((o))): You’ve just released your new album, Contact Fix, and have been included on the bill for ArcTangent. Exciting times, how’s 2015 shaping up for you?
Yeah we’re delighted with the ArcTanGent announcement, it’s been our favourite weekend of the year the last two years so it’s nice to be playing it again this year. Todd will also be back doing some painting. As for the rest of the year it’s looking pretty busy so far with lots of UK and Mainland European shows including a slot at AMFest in Barcelona in March, we’ve also just extended the current tour until the 2nd May with some more European dates with our buddies Cheap Jazz. We’ll continue writing for album number three and hopefully play some more festivals over the summer. Then maybe have time to sleep or go to a water park or zoo or something.
(((o))): Contact Fix has more awesome, and slightly disturbing, artwork from Todd. Can he give us any insight in to what it’s about?
You may not get any sense out of him so best not to ask, but you can check out more of his weird work at https://toddjerm.wordpress.com
(((o))): You guys tour pretty relentlessly. Do you have booking a tour down to a fine art now? How do you find dates?
I’ve been booking shows for a long time now and to be honest it never really gets any easier, we play so much that we know a lot of promoters and bands who help us out, but you’ll always have the old struggle to fill dates and the pain of sending loads of emails to get no replies. I’ve found that by planning well enough in advance it can be a little easier to sort the tours. We are always about 6 months ahead. In contrast our personal lives are about 6 months behind.
(((o))): You tour a lot in Europe. How are things different over there? I know venues & promoters can get EU money for putting shows on, do you think that leads to a different approach & mindset?
We really enjoy touring in Europe, it’s a nice a change of scenery and we get to take in the different cultures. It’s a great perspective you wouldn’t see as a tourist. The mindset is definitely different – at least as far as a band on our level is concerned, It’s pretty normal to get your food,booze and accommodation covered and a decent guarantee. It would be very difficult to cover the costs of the tours otherwise. I’m not knocking the people in England who go the extra mile to sort out the bands as the DIY scene here is a lot closer in line with Europe lately… it just seems generally in Europe the venues take a bit more responsibility.
There are some really unique venues out there and a great squat scene, we’ve played shows in old banks, offices, paper mills and things like that, they’re really cool and they all have their own little communities and groups of people that come along to support touring bands.
(((o))): One thing we’re looking at this year is the finances of touring for small bands. If you don’t mind answering, do your tours break even? Do you sell enough merch to cover your costs?
We generally cover our costs but we don’t have much spare cash really and we’re all pretty broke. In the past it’s generally been transport problems which have set us back on tour. But we have the lump sum up front to get a decent van. As with most bands we do better on merch sales in Europe. Todd usually sells some art. It’s what we love and as long as we’re aren’t losing loads of money we’ll just keep on going.
