INTERVIEW: Grammatics by Cheryl Burns
We sent Chez along to see Grammatics support Rollo Tomassi in Leicester last week. Preceding her live review, here's a great little interview with drummer Dominic Ord.
Cheryl Burns - So firstly, how did you all meet?
Grammatics (Dominic Ord) - Dom and Owen met at music college. I knew Owen through his previous band and Emilia answered an advert when our original cellist left the band to pursue her teaching career.
CB - Who are your biggest influences as a band?
G - Blur, Suede, Radiohead, Cursive, Bjork and Elliott Smith.
CB - What are your thoughts on the current UK music scene?
G - It’s healthy in places and unhealthy in others. The metamorphosis of the music industry is having some interesting effects – it’s possible to go number 1 for a week then disappear off the face of the earth, while great bands are emerging from the underground all the time or continuing to survive in the underground without any of the bullshit that goes with ‘a career in music’.
There are plenty of favourable UK bands around – Wild Beasts, Rolo Tomassi, Pulled Apart By Horses, These New Puritans, Chrome Hoof, Selfish Cunt to name but a few… even bands who really broke through like Foals have maintained their integrity and not disappeared into their own egos. I think your opinion of how healthy any music scene is can depend on how narrow/open minded you are in what you listen to.
CB - Are you all nervous about the upcoming Bloc Party tour and how did it come about?
G - We are completely thrilled about it. There will be nerves in the lead up, as ever, but we’ve played big stages with big bands before and I think it will be the most fun we have on tour to date. Apparently the band themselves liked us and invited us to do it, which is very flattering. We were supposed to do some shows with them in January but that didn’t come off for one reason or another, so we were amazed to land such a big tour with them.
CB - Do you have any favourite songs to perform?
G - Relentless Fours has always been fun. We’re partial to a bit of onstage destruction. We have just started playing Swan Song live and I really enjoy losing it in the end section. I also really enjoy the bassline in Inkjet Lakes. I think we each have particular favourites to play but when you know you have a cohesive setlist the whole show is enjoyable.
CB - What is your favourite film soundtrack and why?
G - The There Will Be Blood soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood. I got into it just as I was starting to delve into classical music and it served as a really good introduction to stuff I now really like such as Krzyzstof Penderecki and Olivier Messiaen.
CB - If you could create a super-band, who would you have in it?
G - Jonny Greenwood doing whatever he wanted. Arthur Russell singing, maybe a bit of the World of Echo style cello. Whoever was Serge Gainsbourg’s rhythm section when he recorded ‘Requiem pour un con’. That would be sweet. They would probably sound horribly dour but really groovy. Excellent.
CB - And finally, if you had to recommend a book, film and CD to anybody, what would they be?
G - Fiction, I’d recommend The Late Hector Kipling by David Thewlis. Non-fiction I would recommend The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross which I’m reading at the moment. It’s a history of twentieth century classical music and utterly fascinating. I really like the film Paris, Texas directed by Wim Wenders - it’s really beautifully shot and wonderfully odd. I love the feel of late 50’s Paris in the film ‘A bout de soufflé’ (“Breathless”) by Jean-luc Godard.
[DOWNLOAD] Grab a download of New Franchise here.
[MYSPACE] Visit Grammatics on myspace
[SPOTIFY] Listen to Grammatics debut album on Spotify now.
[BUY] Purchase Grammatics debut album in physical or digital formats.
Cheryl Burns - So firstly, how did you all meet?
Grammatics (Dominic Ord) - Dom and Owen met at music college. I knew Owen through his previous band and Emilia answered an advert when our original cellist left the band to pursue her teaching career.
CB - Who are your biggest influences as a band?
G - Blur, Suede, Radiohead, Cursive, Bjork and Elliott Smith.
CB - What are your thoughts on the current UK music scene?
G - It’s healthy in places and unhealthy in others. The metamorphosis of the music industry is having some interesting effects – it’s possible to go number 1 for a week then disappear off the face of the earth, while great bands are emerging from the underground all the time or continuing to survive in the underground without any of the bullshit that goes with ‘a career in music’.
There are plenty of favourable UK bands around – Wild Beasts, Rolo Tomassi, Pulled Apart By Horses, These New Puritans, Chrome Hoof, Selfish Cunt to name but a few… even bands who really broke through like Foals have maintained their integrity and not disappeared into their own egos. I think your opinion of how healthy any music scene is can depend on how narrow/open minded you are in what you listen to.
CB - Are you all nervous about the upcoming Bloc Party tour and how did it come about?
G - We are completely thrilled about it. There will be nerves in the lead up, as ever, but we’ve played big stages with big bands before and I think it will be the most fun we have on tour to date. Apparently the band themselves liked us and invited us to do it, which is very flattering. We were supposed to do some shows with them in January but that didn’t come off for one reason or another, so we were amazed to land such a big tour with them.
CB - Do you have any favourite songs to perform?
G - Relentless Fours has always been fun. We’re partial to a bit of onstage destruction. We have just started playing Swan Song live and I really enjoy losing it in the end section. I also really enjoy the bassline in Inkjet Lakes. I think we each have particular favourites to play but when you know you have a cohesive setlist the whole show is enjoyable.
CB - What is your favourite film soundtrack and why?
G - The There Will Be Blood soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood. I got into it just as I was starting to delve into classical music and it served as a really good introduction to stuff I now really like such as Krzyzstof Penderecki and Olivier Messiaen.
CB - If you could create a super-band, who would you have in it?
G - Jonny Greenwood doing whatever he wanted. Arthur Russell singing, maybe a bit of the World of Echo style cello. Whoever was Serge Gainsbourg’s rhythm section when he recorded ‘Requiem pour un con’. That would be sweet. They would probably sound horribly dour but really groovy. Excellent.
CB - And finally, if you had to recommend a book, film and CD to anybody, what would they be?
G - Fiction, I’d recommend The Late Hector Kipling by David Thewlis. Non-fiction I would recommend The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross which I’m reading at the moment. It’s a history of twentieth century classical music and utterly fascinating. I really like the film Paris, Texas directed by Wim Wenders - it’s really beautifully shot and wonderfully odd. I love the feel of late 50’s Paris in the film ‘A bout de soufflé’ (“Breathless”) by Jean-luc Godard.
[DOWNLOAD] Grab a download of New Franchise here.
[MYSPACE] Visit Grammatics on myspace
[SPOTIFY] Listen to Grammatics debut album on Spotify now.
[BUY] Purchase Grammatics debut album in physical or digital formats.
posted by Liam Haynes at 10:17 AM
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