Liberty's reliving summer 2007...
Cast your minds back to the summer of 2007. Yes, we were all swimming in flood water and Northern Rock was just about to go under, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom: the summer anthem was ‘Hey There Delilah’ – helpfully playing on every radio station to aid us in forgetting all our troubles.
If you’re feeling nostalgic now and you’d like to revisit those heady 2007 days, I’ve got some great news for you. Plain White T’s are playing a show at the O2 Academy Islington on September 21st – go along and dance around a bit to their summery, romantic sound in a bid to stave off autumn for another day. That’s not all the good news, though. The band are also releasing an album next month, which promises to be a perfect mix of pop tunes to dissuade those winter blues and slightly darker, moodier songs for when we feel like brooding over the lack of sunshine. Sounds great!
To get me in the mood for the gig next week, I had a quick chat with Plain White T’s drummer De’Mar Hamilton about the album, UK audiences and what he’d been up to for the last two years.
You guys are just about to release a new album – what can we expect from that?
It's a little more consistent than our previous records and a little bit more exciting. Our single is out soon, it's called 'Rhythm of Love' and it's got more of a beach, island vibe to it. I guess we took a few more chances on this record.
We all know you best for 'Hey There Delilah', but the last song you released ['Welcome to Mystery' for the Alice in Wonderland soundtrack] was quite dark: have you abandoned your pop roots?
Some songs are darker than before, but then there are still some poppy songs on this record. We still have poppy songs, but this is a little bit different from how we used to be, I suppose.
What were your main influences when writing the new album?
I think the whole album was inspired by nostalgia, childhood and a sense of wonder, just remembering when you were a kid and you'd get excited about certain things. A lot of our songs are inspired by that kind of thing. As for musical influences, I'd hope we were influenced by the likes of The Beatles, but also ourselves and how we used to be – our sound back in the day.
You released 'Big Bad World' in 2008 – other than writing this album, what have you been up to for the last two years?
After writing 'Big Bad World', is that what you mean? We toured around the States on the back of that record – unfortunately we didn't get to go overseas, but then we took some time for ourselves a little bit, then we got back in the studio and started writing this record.
As you said, you haven't been to the UK for a while – are you looking forward to the London show?
Oh yes. We love it over there. Like I said before, not having that opportunity last time just sucked for us. We're so so excited to go back and for our first show to be in London.
Do you think there's much different between audiences in the UK and the ones in the US?
I think over there you guys get a little more excited. Not that people aren't excited here about music, but there are a lot more shows here and a lot more bands here, a lot of people not joining in I guess. In the UK they're a little more grateful and really excited to be there.
Do you think it's going to be hard to release an album now, since people aren't buying much music any more?
It's always a worry – we don't really get big record sales anyway. We sell a lot of singles and get a lot of radio play. It's not really a concern because it's just great to have a record on the shelves.
Finally: you're only allowed to listen to one album for the rest of your life – what is it?
Wow, that's so hard. There are so many records... The one that comes to my head first is Coldplay – the early one, 'Parachutes'. I think if I had to listen to that for the rest of my life, I could deal with that.
Plain White T’s album, 'Wonder of the Younger', is out mid-October and the single Rhythm of Love is released on October 3rd. Tickets for the band’s Islington Academy show are on sale now.
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