Eagulls chat to LeftLion
How's the tour treating you ?
Hello, very well thank you. It’s both refreshing to play in new towns and always a pleasure to come back to the spots we've visited before. Spirits are high.
It seems like ages ago since you announced this UK tour. What have you been up to since March?
We've barely sat still. We've travelled our sound fairly well; America, UK, mainland Europe, a few times each. We did the whole summer festival thing for the first time, we've played various support tours, including a special trip to the Royal Albert Hall, which we're particularly proud of. We've also made a start on a second album. We feel our eyes have become wider and the soles of our feet harder.
Your debut came out to huge plaudits. How has it been for you to receive such praise for the record?
It's very overwhelming when it's truthful. We feel there's a lot of blunt truth in our music and to witness people connecting emotionally with it the same way we do is very satisfying.
Your latest video Hollow Visions has been described as one of the most sickening videos ever made, what was the idea behind it?
We'd disagree with the description, but don't particularly mind. Often the more simple ideas work the best; we just wanted something literal to project the message of the song. With the lyrics being fairly dark in tone, we thought the visuals needed to suit, it was put together fairly quickly. I didn't really think twice about it being labelled the way it has been, all it's done is want me to see how far you can push the boundaries with a video, while staying truthful to the meaning of a song and not just going for the shock factor like it can be assumed. We'll see with the next one.
You've played David Letterman's show and your bassist got a tattoo of the show’s guest Bill Murray's name on his arm. Did the show open up any doors in the US?
It was just a little gesture of our/his appreciation for the situation we were in. We'd been to the US a few times previous, but never toured fully, so having a platform such as Letterman to perform to however many people watch it was an advantage, it gets your name around and it gave us a very surreal experience along the way.
Tom from Eagulls with Bill Murray
Did Bill keep in touch?
Afraid not; but the ink still touches Tom's arm.
You recently talked about security not letting kids enjoy themselves at gigs. The Bodega in Nottingham doesn't normally have barriers in front of the stage, do you prefer that?
I hope by normally you mean never! Music is an outlet, both performing it and experiencing it. You should never be able to restrict that. It's doesn't make any sense. Why do they feel the need to intervene, why can't they tell the difference between intentional violence and energy? It feels like every night it's the security's first night on the job and that they'd never witnessed it before. Well that's what I'd like to believe, because honestly you know they get a little entertainment from it. It'll never end, probably only worsen, but I won't moan about it any further, you just have to deal with it on the night.
You're going home to play Leeds on Halloween, you must be looking forward to that show?
The Brudenell is a very special place that has been nothing but good to us since we first walked through its lovely doors. It's always something to look forward to, we can't wait.
Have you played in Nottingham before? How did it go?
I remember playing there twice, once at The Bodega and once at The Chameleon Cafe. We might have done more, I can't think, but I remember both being good; a couple of us from the band grew up just down the road in Ripley, we spent a lot of time messing around in Nottingham, so there's a slight homeliness to it.
After this tour; what's the plan? A new record on the horizon?
Exactly, we've already made a start; we'll even play a new one in Nottingham.
Finally, there's a band from Nottingham called White Finger who we recently described as your “dysfunctional, sociopathic cousins”. You should check them out...
White Fingers and Yellow Eyes - quite the family we have.
The eponomously titled debut album from Eagulls it out now via Partisan Records.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
