Palma Violets interview

Tackling album number two is a tricky juncture for any band, but before Palma Violets could even begin working on their new record, they had to learn to become friends again.

“We’d been on tour for about two years and we got signed pretty quickly after releasing about four or five songs. It was a bit frantic at first and so by the end of it we got pretty sick of each other to be honest,” reveals frontman Sam Fryer.

A malaise has settled deep within camp Palma and they knew it would be tough to return to their hometown of London.

Speaking candidly about the experience, Sam explains: “We decided instead to go to Wales, where a mate of ours knew this lovely couple who owned a farm. There was a barn there and we set up all our equipment, spent a month walking the hills of Wales and then learning how to be friends again – and even write songs again.”

Despite its hackneyed term, did the four-piece find themselves falling victim to the dreaded second album syndrome?

“It was pretty tough because when we were writing all of our songs as an unsigned band we didn’t have all of those outside pressures, but being out there in Wales took those pressures away and made us realise why we got into it all in the first place.”

With their new album all wrapped up and set for release in early May, the group are itching for a return to the live circuit.

After some brief warm-up dates around Cornwall and Scunthorpe, the band will embark on an 11-date jaunt across the UK with the NME Awards Tour, including a show at Rock City on February 24 – and Sam could not be more excited.

“It’s good to start with a UK tour because when you go around the world you tend to miss the British fans – they definitely are the best.”

Sam compares touring to a “never-ending festival”, and even though it can get a little overwhelming at times, the peaks definitely outweigh the troughs.

Palma Violets return to this year’s NME Awards Tour bill as headliners after playing lower down the pecking order in 2013.

“Headlining is kind of like a dream come true for most independent bands. I just hope all the kids that came to the NME Awards Tour two years ago come back and haven’t grown up because we had such a good response that tour.”

Sam sees the imminent tour as a perfect occasion to premiere tracks from their forthcoming LP.

He says: “We love to throw four or five new ones in, but we don’t want to bore everyone to death. We still love our old songs just as much as our new ones.”

The effervescent frontman also hints that they may play some tracks that didn’t even make the new record – largely due to the prolific nature of recent recording sessions.

“We wrote about 17 songs for this album campaign. We were a bit frantic with our writing because we wanted to put ourselves in the best position when picking for the album and going out on tour. We’ve got a huge catalogue now – about 35 songs.”

Talking about the follow up to their 2013 debut, 180, Sam reckons their fans could be in for quite a surprise.

“You can hear a lot of elements of the first album in some of the tracks, but quite a lot of it will come as a shock to fans. We’re breaking down boundaries. The idea is to write something that we would never normally feel as though we’d write in order to test ourselves.”

So are there any particular standout moments on the new record?

“The standout moments for me change and I learn new things about our songs all the time. We’ve focused on making this record well balanced,” responds the assured vocalist/guitarist.

Ahead of a return to Nottingham, Sam takes the time to reminisce about the band’s previous ventures in the city.

“Our earliest memory is playing a club night in Stealth and nobody had a clue who we were. There was only one person in the room watching us and I think he’d take some sort of psychedelic drug, but he seemed to enjoy it at least.

“Then the NME Tour at Rock City everything broke down and a beer fell into my amp, which ruined it. Miles Kane had to lend me his one so we could do the show!”

Despite their fair share of mishaps, Sam insists that Nottingham holds some very fond memories for the group.

When pushed to describe a Palma Violets live show, he says it’s “raw power mixed with intense, europhic emotion.”

Well now we know what to expect, let’s just hope there aren’t any broken amps this time.

Kate Tempest @ Rescue Rooms [17/02/1994]

As she takes a break during a whirlwind set, Kate Tempest tells the capacity crowd at Rescue Rooms that it took her 15 years of grafting to finally reach this momentous occasion – her very own headline tour.

With her beginnings firmly rooted in spoken word and poetry, Tempest chose to tread a new path with the 2014 release of her debut rap album, Everybody Down. The record was so well received, it was nominated for last year’s Mercury Prize.

But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill rap music decked out with superfluous beats and vacuous, clichéd lyrics. No, this is much more.

Tempest is a story-teller and tonight’s venue is her canvas, where she crafts tales of love and squalor. At times it’s pure vitriol as she spits ferociously over percussive tracks – baring her soul for all to see.

The bulk of Tempest’s songs see her challenge the status quo, from corporations to politics to war. In fact, you’d be forgiven in thinking she was the more considered sibling of a Sleaford Mod.

She segues between tracks from her LP, including standouts The Beigeness and Marshall Law. The former transports the crowd to the setting of a pretentious East London club where “everyone here has a hyphenated second name.”

There are intervals when she proselytises to the Nottingham audience – emphasising a need to nurture creativity which embraces the community. This is met with peals of applause.

Tempest bids farewell with a poem, and it’s at these a Capella moments when her fare is most endearing.

It may have taken fifteen years to get to this point, but Kate Tempest should now only be looking to the future – and it looks exciting.

Peace interview

Despite an arduous day of rehearsals and signing almost two thousand records, Peace frontman, Harrison Koisser, remains in good spirits. This is because his band are on the verge of hitting the road again in support of their second studio record, Happy People.

Having spent “what feels like years” cooped up in the recording studio, the four-piece will be flexing their muscles at some of the UK’s most intimate haunts – including three consecutive dates at Nottingham’s Bodega. Easily conquering mightier venues in the past, the band decided to base their new tour on a pang of nostalgia.

“We’ve done Rock City twice now, and as is the case with most cities, we’ve played in most venues. So we wanted to do a tour going back to the ones we used to do when we were just starting. It’s a different vibe comparing a big show to a small show, so it’s all about balance.”

Peace’s sophomore album is set for release on February 9 – taking just under a year to record. Now, they’re eager for it to hit the masses. “We’re raring to go and get other people listening to it because we’ve heard it so many times,” says Harrison.

He believes Happy People is a natural progression for the band and an altogether more conscious effort than their debut, In Love. “I guess we’re a little more grown up now, but it just makes sense – it’s the next logical step.”

As a result, they flipped their usual recording process on its head and were more than willing to tread new ground on a sonic level. “There’s a little part where we used a string section, we’ve used brass and all kinds of stuff.” Their most recent single, Lost on Me, is testament to this. The track sees the outfit dip their toes into a cocktail of funk riffs and saccharine falsettos, to emphatic effect.

Whilst many artists are stumped by the daunting prospect of album number two, Harrison’s compulsion to always write material meant that it was pretty much plain sailing. He says: “The songs are always there and I always write album-worthy songs, so we had an album ready in a short space of time.”

Though fans will be assured of a tight live show, they’ll also be keen to see how the band’s new material translates on stage. Harrison vows to include a fair amount in their Bodega setlists, but doesn’t want to overwhelm the Nottingham faithful with too much unfamiliar music.

Peace will be joined on their UK dates by a plethora of exciting, new artists; all cherry-picked by the band themselves. Emerging from a vibrant scene Birmingham scene around three years ago, they know too well the bearing a support slot can have on any aspiring band. “It’s really important and it’s how we got noticed by people. We had our own little scene, but to help us grow we had to play in front of other people.”

And they certainly have grown as a live force. A schedule of relentless touring, which includes a huge slot on the Reading & Leeds festival main stage last summer, has benefited the band immensely. “We’ve been playing Peace songs for three years, so we’re getting pretty good at it. We’re probably better live than most bands I see,” exclaims a cocksure Harrison.

So, was the Reading & Leeds slot not even a little daunting?

“You’ve just got to take it in your stride. We were pretty excited about it, but because we’ve played around the world, we feel like there’s nothing too big for us.”

For those not au fait with a Peace live show, Harrison describes them as “really electric, with everyone getting involved – singing to every song, rather than just the singles.” It’s at these gigs where their fans have built quite the reputation. “We’ve got quite a rowdy fan-base, so the live shows are a bit of a celebration.”

As the Bodega gears itself up for its very own Peace residency, Nottingham could be in store for one of the biggest celebrations of the year.