Before the band Circa Waves’ concert at UCSD, we sat down with drummer Colin Jones and bassist Sam Rourke to talk about what it’s like being in an underground indie rock band.
Q: Your EP T-Shirt Weatherhas a surf-rock kind of sound. Where do you guys get inspiration for that sound? Do you plan on keeping that sound or diverging on other albums?
Colin: Basically Kieran wrote most of the stuff … We’ve all had different interests as well that we brought to the table. I like rock, like a Led Zeppelin kind of rock. I know Sam likes his hip-hop and jazz and stuff like that. Joe likes his scrappy guitar and punk stuff … I think every artist needs to develop in a certain way. Do you like the Arctic Monkeys? Seeing from where they were then to now, I think that’s the best way. To experiment and find different sounds and that’s the best way to see.
Q: Opinion on mainstream music?
Sam: It all just kind of sounds the same to me. I don’t really listen to that stuff. I’m sure there’s stuff in there that’s great and occasionally a song will leak or filter through my defense system, and I’ll say, “Hey, that’s all right.” I thought “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus was really cool. But generally it’s not for me, though. They’re not really aiming at me, so it’s whatever.
Q: Would you ever want to be at a high level of popularity, or maybe an Arctic Monkeys-level of popularity?
S: I think it’s rare to be very popular without becoming more generic.
C: Say the Arctic Monkeys, they are very mainstream in the UK. It’s like, to be that band…
S: It’s one in a million. To be like a genuine band that’s artistically interested and have mass appeal is one in a million. Most things with mass appeal by their very nature have to be generic. I don’t know if that’s what music should be about.
Q: Your guys’ origins are in Liverpool, where the Beatles also started. Do you ever draw inspiration from that, do you think it’s a funny coincidence, what do you think of having that same origin?
S: I think it’s a massive albatross around our necks that we have to deal with on a daily basis. I mean, they’re the best band ever so being from Liverpool you do get these comparisons for geographical reasons. But I mean, who’s gonna beat that? No one has been the Beatles in like 70 years or whatever it is, but they’re still the best. I don’t think that we feel specifically inspired by them. Songwriting without the Beatles, however, is really hard to imagine though because they were the biggest influence on a lot of people, so the people we’re influenced by would be influenced by them, and you can’t really escape it. But I don’t think we’re so into that we go, “What would the Beatles do? What would they write in this chorus?” We’re not like into it at that level, but it’s hard to get away from them. It’s a like a black hole in a good way. It’s a really good black hole.
Q: Tonight. What are you guys gonna think when you’re going in? What’s your ideal?
C: Doesn’t matter how many people are there or aren’t there. I have one set mind of going out and playing how I do every single run. Playing just crazy and 200,000,000 percent! (Laughs). Always play as we do. All the effort we can as we go on. If there’s one person or 200,000 people there we’ve gotta put on the same show because that one person could come to the next show and bring a friend, so that’s my mindset.
S: I’m gonna see how it goes. I don’t know how it’s gonna go tonight. I’m sure it’ll be good. We usually put on a brilliant show. The rowdier the crowd is the better for me. And people throwing beers and spitting, that’s good.
