Interview : WinterKids
It’s October and it’s already freezing in London. Time for a hot coffee at the local Starbucks before WinterKids warms up the British capital with their first Club NME gig at the Koko. The band just released their sparkling single Wonderland, which gets us to learn more about the dedicated Peaslake quintet.
The Little Stalkers : Let's begin with one of those very basic questions : where did you get that name from ?
Hannah (vocals, keyboard) : It used to be James’ first band’s name. They were all born in winter so …
TLS : WinterKids is not your first band, then ?
Hannah : James was in bands before and those guys (pointing at the rest of the band) had experienced bands. I’m the only one who’s never been in a band before.
TLS : How do you come up with the writing of the songs ?
James (vocals) : It depends on what moods’ everyone’s in.
TLS to James : If Memoirs is like a diary, are they only YOUR stories ?
James : It depends – I write all the lyrics but everyone writes the music together.
Hannah : It’s mainly his experiences, we all write the music together, but as far as the story is going, it’s his.
TLS : You are selling only a limited 300 copies of your album Memoirs on your Myspace page – can you tell me more about that ?
James : Our former manager went to Japan and just met some people, the label offered to release our first album there. We were like, yeah, sure. But what we did was we pressed 1000 copies of our album ourselves, we sold it through Myspace, and we used the money for our trip to South By South West. We needed to get to South By South West to make new contacts, so in order to do that, we sold it on myspace.
TLS : I read that your family helped you too, financially – does that mean that your families are very supportive ?
Everyone : Yeah.
James : Actually for the album, we ran a club-night on a monthly basis. The money from that as well as help from our parents went into recording the album.
TLS : What about Japan? How were the reactions there?
Tom : Pretty much sold-out gigs, really packed out. We also DJed in Tokyo.
TLS : Did you get any more contacts then ?
James : Not for Japan, but we get e-mails from various people saying they want to put the album out.
TLS : Are you thinking about touring Europe ?
James : We have an EP coming out in Germany and we’re looking to tour when they release the album there.
TLS : What about America ? Are you looking to be big there ?
James : Yeah, we played New York City and South By South West in Texas, and I think like it’s definitely one of our goals.
TLS : Wonderland is 7th in the indie single charts this week ...
James : It was only released on Monday (October 22, NDLR), we just found out it was 7Th. I guess in the next few weeks, we’ll find out what opportunities it brings us.
TLS : The Wonderland video is amazing, and very ... DIY. Did you do it yourself then ?
James : We knew we wanted to do it in an animated video. And we created like a story – kind of wonderland. And then we e-mailed the animators about what we wanted to do.
TLS : Does the video represent all your fantaisies, then ?
Hannah : Yeah !
TLS : Jack Peñate said in an interview that it’s important, when you want to make it in the music business as an artist, to focus only on music - and not on a crap job, for example. Do you have the same approach towards your career ?
James : Yes, we don’t think of anything else but the music at the moment.
TLS : Maybe it’s a risk – but you seem confident at the moment.
Bradley : I feel the same way than Jack Peñate – if you concentrate on something else, you’re always not giving full attention to the band.
James : You need to know if you want to do it or not, basically. You can’t have like five different bands, and five different ideas and what you want to do in your life. You only have one thing to do. Our main focus as band at the moment is to build a proper fan-base slowly in the U.K.
TLS : What are your favourite bands today ?
James : We are all listening to different things at the moment. I like Camera Obscura, Bright Eyes … Idlewild is part of my influences too.
Tom : Bob Dylan.
TLS : A magazine described you as a perfect mix between Sonic Youth, Blink 182 and the Cure – how about that ?
Tom (laughs) : Blink what ?
James : I’m not sure about that ... I think the album being finally released everywhere will give a better perception of what we are, musically.
TLS : And how would you describe yourself, then ?
James : Quirky pop !
Hannah : Qworkp ! (laughs)
WinterKids may not be talked about much in the NME, but they’re definitely one of the best promising bands in the UK, which will soon conquer the hearts of second generation new-wave teenagers with their saddened yet malicious –and quirky!- pop.
CB. & JT.
