Formed at school - and still at High Pavement - the grunge-cum-post-punk stylings of Kagoule have got more than a few onlookers into a froth, with XFM already pricking up their ears and a support slot on the main stage at Rock City under their wing. Adjusting their toggles and unzipping their lips are vocalist Cai Burns and bassist Lucy Hatter.
Are you local people?
Cai: We were all born and bred here. I’m from Sherwood. Lucy’s from St Anns.
Why did you decide to form a band?
Cai: We were all just into the same music and played instruments that worked together. When we got together there was no plan at all. But as it has progressed we are finding out what we want to do. We just want to play in lots of different places and travel - that sounds like the most fun. It would be cool to have an album to prove that we did this.
Lucy: There is no five year plan or anything; we are just winging it at the moment.
Without wanting to pry, it’s common knowledge that your two are, erm, courting. What’s it like being boyfriend and girlfriend in the same band?
Lucy: It’s occasionally stressful... It’s just the way it is.
Cai: We don’t really know what it is like not being this way. It’s handy as she’s always at
my house for band practice.
Who writes the songs?
Cai: I will come up with a couple of parts on the guitar and an idea of how the song is going to go. I will bring that to practice and it will start from a couple of riffs and we’ll develop it. It’s never lyrics first, I only sing with the band because we couldn’t find anyone else to sing, but I enjoy it now.
How easy is it coming up with lyrics?
Cai: I find that I can have fun with them, I don’t take it seriously. I’m not really one to write about ‘issues’ and stuff like that. It’s like story writing but they can be short and no one is going to care. I read a lot of fantasy books and I guess if any words are in my mind it will be something from them.
Lucy: You do write a lot about kings.
Do the others in the band ever tell you when they don’t like something you’ve come up with?
Lucy: It’s usually me. There was one song that Cai made and I was absolutely convinced that it sounded like Foo Fighters. They wouldn’t believe me until we played it to Pete and Faley (at Denizen) and they said that it sounded like Foo Fighters and I was like, “thank God for that.”
How do you balance college life with band stuff?
Lucy: I don’t. I just go with it.
Cai: It’s not too hard. They happen at different times of the day and luckily college is quite infrequent...
Lucy: It’s not like we are at college all day every day.
Do your tutors know about the band?
Cai: Yes they do. One Art teacher came to the LeftLion gig at Nottingham Contemporary.
Lucy: I thought that was weird. I don’t know if Cai did.
Cai: I expected it. She warned me well in advance.
You supported Dog Is Dead at Rock City along with Kappa Gamma last year...
Cai: We entered a competition and fluked it. It was crazy, there were so many people in the crowd.
Lucy: I saw the video of Nirvana playing there on YouTube and that really put things into perspective.
How did you get involved with Denizen Records?
Cai: They got in touch with us after that competition. Pete Fletcher was one of the judges and contacted us.
What do Denizen Records do to help?
Cai: Organisation. They’ve really helped us understand ourselves and what we we doing. They’ve brought more of a structure and a lot of knowledge. We have been working with Faley from Late of the Pier and he has been through it all with his band; he doesn’t let us make the mistakes that he did, it’s good to have someone like that. There’s access to a studio and they are recording everything. Without them I don’t think we would be in the same place at all.
Lucy: They’ve made us feel like an actual band.
What are you recording plans?
Cai: We’ve got a single coming out in January.
Lucy: And we are mid-way through an album.
Cai: We think we’ve got all of the tracks down for the album. We will have a couple more single/EP things following the January single to fill in the time, and the aim is to have the album out late next year. It’s very exciting.
There’s a lot of attention on the Nottingham music scene at the moment - Do you worry
that the hype and buzz could distract from the actual music being made?
Cai: I don’t really like the idea of there being a ‘Nottingham Scene’. There’s a big range of music here, I don’t see why it should all be packed together. It separates it from different places, like where you are from, and I don’t think that is right. It’s handy as more attention is on the city, but we don’t want to be linked to...
Lucy: ...Dog Is Dead, Jake Bugg...
Cai: We don’t want to be known as a ‘Nottingham Band’ as I don’t think Nottingham is better than anywhere else, it’s just got a lot of catchy fellas around at the moment.
Where do you fit in to the music scene?
Lucy: We don’t. We are versatile.
Cai: I feel like we fill a gap and are able to cover various venues where other bands might not work.
Were you aware of the local scene before you started the band?
Lucy: I think it’s blown up in the last couple of years since we’ve started.
Cai: We had no idea about any kind of scene. It’s seems to have come about as we have progressed. I guess we’ve been part of the growth. I don’t think the quality of music is better now; I just think that there’s loads of music, so by chance there’s going to be more good stuff. There’s still a lot of crap, but there will be more good stuff.
When you are just starting out how do you go about getting gigs?
Cai: It’s really hard. You can just play the gigs where all you need to do is ask to play, but no one goes there expecting anything good. It wasn’t that much fun playing those nights, but we needed to do gigs to get other gigs. We didn’t gig much, then we recorded an EP - once you have something to show people you’ve got proof that you are good enough for a gig. It definitely helps to have a recording and it’s very easy these days to do something at home, it doesn’t have to cost much. It can be hard trying to get a gig as there are lots of people making music in Nottingham and the venues are bombarded with bands sending them music, so you have to force them to listen to it. Rock City was one of our first gigs, we just got lucky...
Is it important for you to get gigs outside of the city?
Cai: We are looking to do more and more outside of the city.
Lucy: You can get stuck in the Nottingham rut.
Cai: The more places that know about you the better. If you are going on a tour and you’ve played at a venue previously they are more likely to let you play there again. We played our first headline gig in Leeds recently.
How much has the band changed since you started?
Cai: For the first few months there was no direction, we had no idea what we were doing. But in the last year we have figured out what we want and what we want to sound like. The band has changed a lot and our attitude towards the band has changed. We understand it more, the sound has changed.
Lucy: And we’ve changed as people loads.
How would you sum up 2012?
Cai: We are slowly progressing. It’s good that we are still quite small as it gives us time to figure out what we want to do. Next year should be the year where we really go for it.
Lucy: We’ve not been pushed in the deep end.
It’s an exciting time, now is the moment it’s starting to happen...
Lucy: This is the pressure point.
Do you worry about it all imploding?
Lucy: When I think about it, but you just have to go with it. You can’t expect anything being in a band. You can’t expect any certainty.
Cai: If it happens, it does; but if it doesn’t, we’ll do something else.
What are your hopes for your album?
Cai: We want to tour it and just hope that people like it. The usual thing.
Will you be disappointed if people don’t buy it?
Cai: If people don’t buy it I won’t be too bothered as long as they listen to it. If they listen to it illegally or whatever, as long as they have heard us and it lets us do what we want. If more people have heard us and we want to play somewhere there’s more of a chance that we can play there as we’ll have fans who want to see us.
Is your visual identity just as important as the way you sound?
Cai: Our visual identity is who we are as people. We aren’t trying to put on an image. We don’t want to try hard to have a massive image, or to make characters. The important part is us not having the image, but then that is the image.
What’s the biggest lesson that you learnt as a band?
Cai: Contacts are very important. Make friends with people. Otherwise you aren’t going to get anywhere.
Lucy: Stay on good terms with people. Don’t be a big headed moron.
Mudhole/Monarchy is out on Denizen Recordings in January 2013.
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