Interview: Canterbury

And with three songwriters, don’t you ever argue about what songs should be on the album? Well, it’s certainly not arguments. Having three songwriters in the band is way more positive than it is negative, because you got three heads on one case. If you’ve written something and you’re convinced it’s great and two other people are saying “You know what, actually, if we did this – this might be better”, you’re willing to have an open mind. We’ve been doing this for several years now and we know each other and the things we’ll bring to each other. When you write something you’re not completely satisfied with, you know the other guys might have something to add to it. You can put your trust in it. So I think we’re definitely trying to keep that positive energy. Obviously, there are occasions where you’re personally attached to a song and you don’t want to let that go, but that’s natural. The reason we are in a band together is that we understand each other – we have that kind of mutual understanding of what, ultimately, you want the band to sound like.

So now the world knows your secret recipe to make great music!
Yes, just have three people in the band who know how to make music! No, but looking at some of the great bands, such as Fleetwood Mac and The Beatles, you see they have multiple songwriters. It’s not just someone writing music and the band playing it. It has certain angles that make the sound. I wouldn’t say that’s THE formula, there’s plenty of successful solo artists, I just think it works and it’s a fun way to be in a band.

How do you experience touring in Europe?
It’s such a fun thing to do, we like being the support act a lot. It’s different than doing a high-pressured headline tour through the UK – don’t get me wrong, I like touring, but this is just really, really fun. We’re playing such cool places, Germany is a great place to play, we went to Italy too and that was awesome. Yeah, we spent a day or two in Amsterdam and a day in Paris. We just really love touring Europe. It’s travelling around with your best mates to cities you’ve never been before, seeing all of this amazing stuff. We get to do the thing we love doing every night. Getting to do both the travelling and playing gigs is just awesome. People in mainland Europe really seem to appreciate the whole British rock scene. In the UK, people usually just go to shows that are ‘cool’ rather than just going to see a band because they want to see some live music. So it’s really refreshing to come over to mainland Europe.