Take a walk on the B-side: concert

Friday the 11^th, we interviewed the talented alternative rock band, Winterhours. They were playing at The Old Blue Last in Shoreditch... such a great pleasure to see them performing on stage! They really differentiate themself from the other bands thanks to their own style of music.. they have a violonist, which is quite unusual!

From left to right : Andy (Guitar/Vocals), Alex (Vocals/Guitar), Krys (Bass/Vocals), Jon (Drums/Percussion)

Here is our interview of this promising rock band :

How did you met each other?

Andy (Guitarist) : A few years ago, Alex and I met when I was playing in different bands and he was solo artist and he was supported the band I was in, and I asked him if he wanted to make some music together and he said 'sure'.. So he did and it was beautiful! We've recruted one of the guys from my old band, and then found John somewhere.

Why did you call the band Winterhours?

Alex (Singer/Guitarist) : There is an amazing beautiful story behind this ! (laughs) We tried out about 300 different names I think, then we tried Winterhours and we liked two words together. We thought it was suited with the music.

Krys (Bassist) : I guess it comed up in winter! (laughs)

Who compose the most in the band?

Alex : Andy writes most of the music. Me and Andy work together, like lyrically, like melodies and stuff like that.. Then we do as a band, all together.

Can you tell us more about your new single « Ocean heart »? What is it about?

Alex : It's a love story, it's fictional, a little bit of violin...

Jon (Drummer) : The director of the video has obviously hit a certain thing that means to him and that's why you see a couple in the video. But you can make whaterver you like.

How do you find inspiration to write your music?

Alex : Most of different ways.. We listen to a lot of different music.

Andy : For me it always comes at these convinient moments : if I try to sit down with a guitar and write something, nothing would come, but if I'm walking around, working or shopping, it would come in... and after, get my phone out and try to sing it to the voice recorder.

Alex : Or like the other day, it was mignight or something, I was half way home and these lyrics and sounds coming into my head.. I was writing and writing! You never really know, there is no real format to write a song, it comes out of nowhere sometimes.... And sometimes you can be creating a song for months an months, years and years.

You are playing as a band for 3 years and this is your first album. Are you planning to record another one?

Alex : We've just kind of release small EPs, singles, stuff like that. We are starting to find album ideas.. So hopefully in the near futur.

Andy : They should be another EP this year. We're going to release a few singles and hopefully put them on an EP with some others new stuff.. And an album later.

It's not commun to have a violin in a band. How comes?

Alex : We always wanted to have a big band. We came with this idea at the beginning of last year. A friend of us played violin for us on the recordings.. and we thought maybe we could find someone who can play in the band full-time, and we've come across Alex. He's also playing in his own band as well, he's multi-instrumental and available. We like him and he likes to play with us. Hopefully, we can carry on to do that.

Do you try to convince something special in your songs?

Alex : For me, we try to give something to think about.. and we all try to bring as much passion into the songs as we can. It's very dreamy, we trying to create that sort of scene, create thoughts in people's mind.

What is your best or worst memory as a band?

Alex : The best one is when we played a beach break student festival. We played on that main stage, it was incredible! ...Worst memory? I don't remind one.. before years! (laughs). We played a gig in Brighton once, it was one of the only gigs we've played in Brighton. So we got there and there was hardly anyone there, but we didn't really want to play anyway.. I think we got on the stage, played one song, then a second one.. and a break string on my guitar! Likely I had a spare... So we had to stop that song almost immediately, and then we start to play another song, and another break string on that as well! (laughs) I got so frustrated, I just said we have to end the set. We've played like one and a half song.. That was pretty s***!

Have you ever played in another country than England?

Alex : In Wales, we've done there several times. We would like to do an America tour, maybe a German tour, and in France.

When will be your next gig?

Alex : Our next gig is on 2^nd of February at The Borderline.. It should be a good show!

Check their website and Facebook page... and download their songs on itunes.

One week ago, we told you about a French rock band, Birdy Hunt. We were lucky to go to their gig and we also had the huge privilege of getting in their truck to do an interview.

Firstly the gig, the band lived up to its reputation. Indeed, it was very dynamic and lively! The fans and the band jumped about and danced a lot, and we should give a special mention to Manu, who really got the crowd going! Birdy Hunt finished the gig with the traditional punchy rendition of Outkast “Hey Yah”, which actually sounds better than the original.

truck Birdy hunt walk on the b-side interview

the famous truck

Walk on the B-side: Could you quickly introduce us to the band's members who are present here?

Marc: There are three of us; I'm Marc, the singer, Marius is the drummer and Manu plays Keyboard. The other musicians are Luc and Nicolas, the guitarists, and Thomas who plays bass.

Manu: The band was created in 2007. At the beginning there were only 5 members, and I wasn't one of them. They were together for two years and the style was more Garage rock. Then, two years later I joined the band, and it's only really been two and a half years that we've been doing tours and gigs.

Why did you choose the name Birdy Hunt for the band? In english, it means that you are a kind of hunting girls...

Marc: It also means birds hunting [laughs].

Marius: In fact it's because of a friend of Nico the guitarist who is a painter, she signed her paintings by Blondie Birdy Hunt so we thought that Birdy Hunt sounds cool and we used to hunt “bird” at this time so it was funny to use that name… [laughs]

Marc: We have never been a band which attract groupies...

Who compose the most in the band?

Marc: We compose all together. We have a studio in Gennevilliers in France where we gather the six of us and try to come up with something then, most of the time I write the lyrics. Nico helps me too to see what we could keep or not in the lyrics. We work like this.

Marius: We do the arrangement together, none of us come up with a song, it's a collective work. We really work together.

Manu: We don't rehearse alone, we do it together during rehearsal, in circle we rehearse and we come up with something.

Marc: The trap when you're a group, is that become a sort of group made-up of other groups of which you are fans, so it is better to have several people around with different influences.

Why did you choose to come to London ?

Marc: It's not the first time that we come to London. When we started to form the band in 2007, Manu wasn't in the band yet, we came to London for a month in 2007. We had fifteen dates, we really did our first tour, then we also really formed the band at this time, because we didn't know each other really well. I only knew Luc and Marius, there were also Nico and Tom, who are not here, who already knew each other, then we started to form the real band. We love this city, it feels like home when we are in London, we often have opportunities to play. We try to come back at least once a year.

Manu: We come back even more in the future. We are also in London to meet people that we hope to work with in London.

Birdy hunt interview concert Walk on the b-side

As we say, very punchy band !

You launched an EP in 2011, are you going to launch a new album soon this year?

Manu: We do fewer gigs mow except these two gigs that we did in London. It has been four months now that we have been composing, we are going to do an album. We would like to record it in London. We probably are going to work with an English Producer who has worked with Robbie Williams.

Fingers crossed !

Your second EP seems quite different from the first one. Why this turn of direction ?

Marc: When you make an EP you need to immerse yourself in some kind of ambiance, then you see what happens. For this one, we went in January to my place in French Brittany.

Manu: It is a peaceful place so…

Marius: That's why we made more calm tracks.

Marc: We worked on tracks with pop bases and classical guitars, then, when we got the outline of the EP we reworked it with electric guitars. But for the next EP we want to make something different.

Manu: We tried to stay consistent on each EP and even if there is different atmosphere they work together.

Yesterday (01/11) you played at the Bull and Gate, was the audience
receptive ? Is there a difference between French and English music fans ?

Marius & Manu: Yesterday was cool !

Marc: It depends on which part of France you go to. There are places where French people are really receptive and some other where they are kind of uptight...

Manu: In Paris for instance !

Marc: In London, there are so many bands that it is always gratifying when people love what you do. Plus, this is great to play for people who actually understand the meaning of your songs. We sing in English so there is always some kind of barrier with French people while here we can joke, speak half english, half french between songs and take ourselves not so seriously !

Birdy Hunt during the gig.
Manu's hair stuck in the strings of Nicolas's guitar.

Yesterday, there was the Mercury Prize ceremony. Alt-J have been named winner of this year with their album An Awesome Wave.
What do you think about that ?

Marc: What I really would like to know is what happens when you tape ALT plus J on your keyboard ? [laughs]

Marius: It's a delta ! That's why their logo is a triangle.

Manu: This is the Illuminati !

Marc: Actually, I listened to it, but I don't really fancy it.

Manu: I'm not so into that triangle trend.

Marius : Anyway, we're happy for them

Marc: Yes of course, we are ! But the thing is that when you compose you don't really listen to other bands.

Marius: We are not so aware of the last released, latest music news. I try not to listen so much music so I can keep making my own stuff.

Manu: It is always better to isolate yourself, to disconnect from the world.

Do you have other dates of concerts scheduled in London ?

All: Not for the moment.

Manu: You should ask Kevin, our manager. (To Kevin, also in the van) Kevin, any others concerts in London ?

Kevin: Yes of course ! At the O2 Academy. [Laughs]

Marius: We may play in Brighton in January.

Kevin: This is not 100% sure at the moment, it is in negotiation.

Manu: The thing is that we are currently composing. We had an opportunity to play here so we took it but we didn't try to find more gigs to play.

Marius: But in 2013, there will be for sure !

Marc: Actually, if we are in England it's because we are going two days in Oxford to make to do preproduction. It's the first step in studio to try to adapt ourselves in case we have to record in England in December, to see if it's cool or not.

Marius: If it's not cool, we dissolve the band ! [Laughs]