Pocket Apocalypse | facebook | bandcamp |
By: Dan Salter
Pocket Apocalypse have emerged as one of our favourite new bands over the last 12 months. So after watching them storm the PX3 stage, Dan grabbed a few minutes of shelter with them in the press barn and popped a few questions.
(((o))): So, this was Pocket Apocalypse’s first time playing Arctangent. How’d you find it?
[All] Amazing
Nick: It’s literally the best festival this country has, I reckon.
(((o))): Have you guys been before this year?
Chris: I went to the first two.
Phil: I’ve not actually been, because I’m a massive cheapskate.
Lee: This is my first festival ever. The only other one I’ve been to is Liverpool Sound City.
Nick: I’ve personally not been to this one before. I’ve been to 2000Trees twice but I’ve not been to Arctangent.
(((o))): And how do you think your set went?
Nick: Amazing. If I can say that? If that’s not a really big headed thing to say? We played alright, like. There were a couple of mistakes but, nothing too bad!
Chris: The energy was good and the crowd reception was fantastic.
Lee: It was definitely one of the warmest receptions we’ve had.
Phil: And one of the biggest receptions we’ve had!
(((o))): Do you find it’s very different playing to an audience that just gets it?
Nick: Oh God yeah, definitely!
Phil: We’ve played in a set before in amongst a load of blues rock bands and everyone just…fucked
off. Yeah, it’s very different to playing that sort of gig.
(((o))): Did you approach the set any differently to normal?
Nick: We put a lot of effort into trying to make it flow a lot better than normal, so we kind of did a lot more kind of interlinking sections and stuff like that.
Phil: We wanted to make sure it was a continuum.
Chris: Yeah, like one big sort of piece.
(((o))): Yeah, there wasn’t a point where you just kind of stopped and were stood there awkwardly.
Nick: I don’t know if it’s good or bad, though, because some people say they like that so that they know when the song’s over. It can be a bit hard to tell with this sort of music.
Lee: I think because our songs are arranged…neatly structured, you know the song starts here and ends there.
Phil: Yeah, I’m of the opinion that a lot of our songs have very different sounds so hopefully it’s
noticeable when they change. But at the same time we did the whole interlinking thing. I quite like playing like that as well because it means that I don’t have to talk. It’s pretty horrible having to talk with that many people watching you!
(((o))): Yeah, I imagine that’s probably as many people as you’ve ever played to?
Nick: Oh by far, yeah. Probably as many as we’ve played to all added up!
[all laugh]
Phil: It was fantastic to play to that many people. We sound-checked to more people than we’ve ever played to. It was great to see that many people that wanted to see us.
Chris: Yeah, exactly. Just the thought that that many people heard us and went ‘I’m gonna take time to go and see them’.
Nick: The nice thing about this festival, as well, is people are just here to listen to music. There’s no agenda, they’re not here to support anyone, they just want to come.
Chris: Drink, booze and watch some bands.
(((o))): Yeah, every band gets a big crowd and that says a lot about this place, because people just go “Yeah, let’s just go and see”. I think they trust the promoters to have picked bands they’re going to like.
They’ve done a good job, as well.
Yeah, it’s just amazing this year.
(((o))): So what’s next for you guys now you’ve had a taste of the big time?
Lee: More music.
Phil: We’ve got, like, another ten songs started so we just need to keep working on those. Because we’re sick to death of the ones we’ve recorded!
Lee: You hear them so many times.
(((o))): That can be the trouble when you’re writing an album and then you release it and you have to go and play all those songs for months after when you want to move on to something new.
Phil: Yeah. We’ve got a good number ahead of us. Some of them are mostly finished, some of them are only halfway there but we’ve got a lot to work on.
Chris: We’ve got loads of material but it’s all in lots of chunks and just need to be, like, smooshed together.
(((o))): So how do you write, you guys? Do you kind of get in a room and jam or is it more somebody brings something to the group?
Phil: Some songs we jam in the room, like ‘Missing Piece’ came from a jam in the room and that took a lot of whittling down.
Nick: I remember I was still writing parts for ‘Missing Piece’ like a year after you guys had already finished your parts.
Phil: But a lot of the time it tends to be one of us comes up with an idea and comes to the band and goes “We’ve got this” and then everyone else will add their parts to it. So someone will come with a sort of vague structure and a feel and then everyone will just, you know, make it their own. A lot of the time that is Chris and Lee. They’re machines. Then Nick will put his vocals on and I’ll drum.
(((o))): So, is this something you want to push on and make the band a long term thing?
Nick: This is a big commitment for us and hopefully if we can keep it up.
Phil: Yeah, just want to keep moving on with it.
Chris: We do it because we love it.
Nick: It’s the only thing that brings me joy!
(((o))): And do you feel you’re maturing as a band? Are you conscious of trying to push on musically?
Phil: Yeah, to an extent. We don’t want to push ourselves for the sake of it but we don’t want to stay still. We don’t want to stagnate. And it’s all too easy just to do the same thing you’ve done again and again but I think a lot of what we do is, we want to find something new, we want to find something we haven’t done before and make something interesting of that and we don’t stop until it’s good, essentially. And it’s really inspiring to, like, find this niche. We never really had this niche before – gigs round Liverpool, which isn’t the best place in the world for creativity and just kind of seems to churn out a lot of indie bands.
Lee: And a lot of Beatles copies.
Nick: Just, like, being around all these people that make decent music, which is just so interesting, is excellent.
(((o))): A few of the bands we’ve talked to have said Arctangent, on the one hand has given us a centre to the scene, but also they realise they’ve got to up their game because all these other guys are really good.
Phil: Yeah. I always find that watching other bands, I’m always conscious of what I can do to be better than them. I’m looking at them, thinking “That’s really good. I should do that, but more”. So, I think that’s a good thing though because we’re always seeing new bands here and there and obviously coming here we’ve seen loads and then we can look at other bands, see what they’re doing and steal all their ideas and make it our own!
[all laugh]
Don’t tell people!
