New Bands: Left With Pictures

New Bands: Left With Pictures

04 December, 2009
by: Domzig

Like normal indie pop but way more cheerful, Left With Pictures are on a mission to cheer you the hell up.



If you're looking for an example of a saturated market place at the moment, then look no further than London's overloaded folk/indie scene. It seems like every other week throws up another bunch of baggy jumper wearing waifs banging tambourines, sauce pans and acoustic guitars and crooning about their broken hearts in bad English.

But does that mean that everything coming out of that scene is bad? No, far from it. It's a simple law of economics that to do well in a crowded market place, you have to have a product that does the business. It's no stretch to say that Left with Pictures certainly have that.

A highly inventive five-piece armed with the sort of enthusiasm you usually find on Tom Tom Club records, they have been cheering up sour-faced Londoners and bowling over the capital's music writers with a sound that is some sort of amazing blend of The Decemberists' taste for the dramatic and Belle and Sebastian's ear for a pop song.

London in the winter is dreary, rainy and cold. How come you guys are so cheerful?

I don't know really. I don't know what we set out to do really, apart from trying to make music that is enjoyed, so I guess with that in mind, something with a spring in its step often does the trick.

Don't get me wrong, some of our stuff is a little more introspective, but we all love pop music, and we all like making music that sticks in people's head and puts a smile on their faces. That might account for the cheery disposition.

How did the new album come about?

We started writing songs right at the beginning of 2009, and by the autumn we had a real accumulation of material, so releasing was sort of a logical step really.

We've tried to structure it with a classic album vaguely in mind, some of it more up tempo and there's a few ‘ballads' on there as well. We tried to give as much of a balance as possible by choosing the material that worked together and I think we've ended up with 12 songs that flow well together and work well as a cohesive unit.

With the likes of Noah and the Whale and Mumford and Sons enjoying massive popularity at the moment, are you worried about getting lost in the crowd a little bit?

It does cross your mind if you're sort of bandied in with a particular scene, which we have been a little bit, but we're relatively unknown compared to those acts.

That being said, you can't be too neurotic about it. All you can do is make the music you make, and accept that some similarities that are just innate, after all if you're playing with an acoustic guitar and want to make pop songs, there will be some crossover. If you get too wound up you might end up forcing yourself somewhere where you don't want to be, which doesn't make for the best music really.

It may very well be that there's a scene going on, but we've always felt that we've got more strings to our bow than just the folk thing. I really believe that our music is different enough to stand on its own.

How is the next six months panning out?

We've got a fair bit of material backed up, so the next thing we're going to do is a video of every month next year, and post it on our website which is getting redone, and maybe gather that all up and release that as an album when we're finished.

As well as that, we're going to play more live shows. Playing new material and new places, and trying to think of different places to release at the moment.

What are you getting for Christmas?

I've asked Santa for world peace, so hopefully he'll deliver it this time. I think everyone will thank me for that one…

Left With Pictures's album 'Beyond Our Means' comes out on the 9th of December. The band will also be making an appearance at the Moonshine Jamboree's Christmas Party on the 6th alongside Alessi's Ark, Jake Bellows and the rather excellent Tristam.

Click here to see all London live music.

Domzig