Interview : CHEW LiPS
The Little Stalkers : Will, when I first met you, it was three weeks to your first show, and you had nothing : you didn’t know what instrument you’d play, you had no idea about the name of the band … So how did you get organized ?
Will (guitar, keyboards) : We just made it up in one go.
James ( ) : We’re not organized.
Will : We’re still not organized. We still don’t really know what’s happening but we just make it up and enjoy it at the same time. We’re just making a party – everyone likes a party.
TLS : Did the three of you decide to create a band or was it one of you who recruited the others ?
James : I write all the pop tunes – (laughs)
Tigs (vocals) : Shut up !
James : Three days of auditions and now … (laughs)
Will : We made a party and it was a band at the same time.
Tigs : No, seriously, what happened ? We were all friends and I think it was in the cards for a while, wasn’t it ? We just thought about it for ages and ages, and nothing happened – it was very slow. We just got together to try out tunes, but in the end we just got really drunk.
Will : We decided to turn that experience onto a band, that’s what it is.
TLS : So you’re friends … How did you meet ?
Will : At parties really …
Tigs : You two were in bands together !
Will : Me and James just liked to make noises like that, together.
James : Some of our friends were in a band and now we’re together and it’s better than all of those things.
TLS : So it’s not your first band.
All : No !
Will : It’s good to have had practices, rehearsals before.
James : … Working how people play, how many beers they can drink before passing out.
TLS : What kind of bands were you in before CHEW LiPS ?
Will : We were in great bands, but this one is better than all of them.
Tigs : I was in a band too, but I don’t know what kind of band it was …
TLS : How would you describe CHEW LiPS ?
Tigs, to James : Don’t say “party band”.
James : It’s kind of a bit dancy.
TLS : Lots of people would just say “electro-rock” : do you agree with that ?
James : I wouldn’t quite say it’s electro-rock, it’s too, like trashy, too messy to be electro-rock.
Tigs : It’s music to take drugs to.
Will : That’s how it was made !
TLS : After your first gig at this house-party, a lot of people said you sounded like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs – I don’t agree, do you ?
Tigs : What ?! Who said that ?
TLS : I think it’s just because you’re two guys and a female singer …
Will : The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a good band, but I don’t listen to them.
TLS : The first gig in a kitchen was only a month ago (May 10th), and now you’re playing at the Clash magazine party – how did you achieve this in such a short period of time ?
Will : We don’t know ! We’re not sure, but it’s happening.
TLS : Do shows just land on your Myspace calendar, then ?
James : We knew about this show (at The Amersham Arms) just yesterday.
Tigs : When you’re in bands, you kind of know everybody in the same circuit, you see the same faces everywhere, same people organising gigs. It’s friends, basically. If you put on a good show, then people will want to put you on again.
James : If they like your band, they want to help you.
TLS : If you carry on at this pace, where do you see yourself in a year’s time ?
Tigs : Playing a decent slot at Glasto.
James : Yes, festivals next year.
Will : Maybe we could headline The Amersham Arms ! I don’t know, we don’t really think that far ahead ‘cos things happen so quickly in the immediate future that you can’t really plan anymore – things happen too fast to plan, you just let the plan take you along.
James : We just want to play more gigs and go on tour and record and make records.
TLS : Recording. What are your plans ?
Will : We’ve only just started …
Tigs : … our journey of life (laughs)
Will : We’ll put something out soon I think.
TLS : What about your inspirations ?
All : We don’t know …
Will : Electronica and noise music.
James : We love a lot of bands, but we know what we don’t want to sound like. We don’t want to be boring, we don’t want to be old-fashioned …
Tigs : We don’t want to be the same as everybody else.
TLS : So you think nobody sounds like you at the moment ?
James : I’m not saying that … But at least we’re trying to sound modern.
Will : It’s been easy to look back on great music, be influenced to the point of what we sound like, which is a good nostalgia. But that’s not really what I want to do. Right now we just want to push it forward.
James : What’s the point of bands making records which sound just like other bands they like ?
Will : We love old music but we don’t want to sound like it. I think all great music didn’t sound like old music.
James : We don’t really care what we sound, we do what we want to do and as long as it sounds modern, as long as it sounds exciting, and there’s a song … That’s what it has to be.
Tigs : When we write, somebody just starts with something, normally a beat …
TLS : How do you actually write ?
Tigs : We go into a room, Will normally start one loopy thing, some kind of beat thing … And somebody will get on the keyboard … We will come up with something. It is a bit of a jam session.
James : We work on it together.
Will : We write very fast. First time we even got in a room together, we wrote like ten songs in a day – that’s pretty good going. Not all of it was amazing, but …
James : We just try a lot of things and have fun.
Will : The most important thing I think is the pace, not the labour.
Tigs : There’s actually an explanation for all of this, which kept us motivated : it’s a picture. It kept us warm in dark moments !
(James takes his wallet out and shows me his driver license : long hair, tired eyes … He looks like a vampire)
Will : If we can make music sounds like this picture … This is what we want to achieve.
Tigs : We spent a lot of time looking at this weird thing when we were making music.
Will : There was a lot of laugh in our first songs and demos. That’s what it is. That was perfect. When I heard that, I knew we were on the right track.
James : We just had fun, really.
TLS : What about the lyrics ?
Tigs : I write them. I don’t know what they’re about, really. It’s just what you experience in your life. Not boys and girls ! The notion of getting older … Just, stuff.
TLS : Let’s say you’re going on an international tour – who would you take with you ?
Will : I could take … I like a lot of bands …
James (teasing Tigs) : That guy from MGMT … (laughs)
Tigs : Andrew VanWyngarden – lovely face isn’t he ? OK, leave that. Not them, because they’re not a really good band really.
James : We haven’t thought about that. Tonight is our first proper gig after all.
Will : We could have somebody dead.
Tigs : Elvis.
Will : Johnny Cash.
James : The dead Bee Gee !
TLS : A final word to end this interview ?
Tigs and James : Massive !
“Brilliant” was the final word of many people in the audience that night, after CHEW LiPS performed a short but dense show at The Amersham Arms. They obviously need practice, but their energy makes it up for what is left to improve. Their first gig on a “real stage” is a success – we can now only hope to see them play in a real venue to witness their best.
www.myspace.com/chewlips
CB.
