The sound of pandas vomiting rainbows onto knights...
Stick a Basement Jaxx backing singer, a couple of experimental pop makers and a multitude of instruments in a shed in South London, and what do you get? Why, genre-smashing epic popsters The Laurel Collective of course. This scruffy bunch have been making a well-deserved splash in the music scene lately, with their blend of indie, electro and dance beats. Perhaps this unique sound is down to the fact that the band is the result of two bands merging, perhaps not so seamlessly. Not that it’s a bad thing...
As well as making great music, they also put on events all across London and the UK and curate a yearly mini-festival called ‘In The Woods’. They’re embarking on a free UK tour soon, so if you’ve not heard of them yet (and frankly, shame on you), head down to see them.
Under the ‘sounds like’ section of your MySpace page there’s a rather lovely drawing of a panda vomiting rainbows onto an unsuspecting knight… for those of us who aren’t handy in the art classroom, how would you describe your sound in words?
This is always a pretty hard question – I think it's always changing, but right now I'd say it's a mixture of live electronics (including synths and some sampling), grungey guitars with some messing about with effects, lots of vocal harmonies and beats that range from dancehall, folk and hip hop amongst others. Hopefully all a mixture of which we can call our own.
You’ve got a whole load of shows going on across London this month, how’d you keep yourselves amused in those brief moments of respite between gigs?
It's not a matter of finding stuff to keep ourselves amused – we all work 'day jobs'. In general we really struggle to get enough time to gig/rehearse/write and record at the best of times..... If we do happen to have any spare time we do ninjitsu or play badminton (not really, but it might be a good way to keep exercised on tour?!)
You’ve been receiving a lot of hype lately. Anyone else you’d like to impress (apart from Spoonfed of course…)?
Ha … that's a funny one. Wouldn't it be great to impress our keyboardist Mark's Mum? But I suppose going about with the mentality of trying to impress is probably not the best way of making music. So many different opinions! We'll concentrate on the music and hope you like it.
How did you end up with dual vocalists? Is there a friendly rivalry up there on the front line?
It wasn’t really a pre-meditated thing; it kind of just happened naturally. We are kind of the result of two different bands – when we joined them this is what happened.
You seem to get involved in a lot of aspects of music: not content with just making some pretty sounds, you promote your own club nights and release your own stuff. Is it important for you to do a whole range of things within the industry?
Putting on our own nights is just an opportunity for us to book bands we love and feel comfortable with and try and create a place which is affordable (yep it's free entry) and a great atmosphere so we can all have a good time. The Cargo gig coming up on 19th Feb is bound to be good – we've got the Invisible DJing and a Very Special secret guest headlining – again, it's free entry.
What can we expect from the album you’re working on at the moment?
It's the result of lots of hard work, a few slaps and black eyes – but by the end of it hopefully lots of fun and a bonding experience. Haha! Mostly it's just something we hope you'll love to listen to.
As already mentioned, The Laurel Collective will be playing an 'In The Woods' Festival preview at Cargo on the 19th.
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