Interview: 8mm Orchestra Ahead of Their Vinyl EP Launch at NVA

photo: Simon Parfrement

How you all doing?
Martin: Yeah, alright.
Leo: I am a little bit hungover.
Jack: I’m all good. Exciting week at hand.

With the way 8mm Orchestra formed, did you anticipate that you would still be making music together so many years down the line?
Martin: If you do something you enjoy, you just do it, don't you? We've all known each other for longer than we've been a band, I never really considered that at some point we wouldn't want to be loud and creative together.

It’s been a while since your last release, but the latest EP, 8mm Orchestra, is out on Friday. What can people expect from it?
Jack: A big extension on our previous work. Personally, I wanted us to move away from the usual expectations of an instrumental rock band and challenge ourselves musically. We are a really unusual band - we might not all listen to the same bands but collectively we share a common ground and concepts. The range of influences and ideas that have gone into this record is unreal.
Martin: We've grown and changed - since the last release we've done silent film soundtracks and all sorts; some of us have played in other bands, written other stuff, people have left. But at its heart it's what it’s always been - instrumental rock music with some electronics in there. Except this time we wanted to get away from the post-rock eight minuters and come up with riffs and lots of movement and parts. I think we did that, but they still came out about six minutes long!
Leo: Less post, more rock.

Was it tough coming up with the title, is that why it’s taken so long?
Leo: Tougher than you'd think! Self-titled stuff can often feel a little contrived or lazy, so I definitely wrestled with whether to do it. The big thing with this EP is that there wasn't any sort of overarching theme or concept beyond making music we enjoyed. So I guess the theme really is 8mm Orchestra, because it's us, doing us.
Martin: So much happened in the interval, it was like taking a break and coming back knowing what we wanted to do. Plus we were being sticklers - it marks the end of an era for the band with all the changes that have happened, so it had to be perfect. We couldn't think of a name and actually, now I think about what I just said, it being self-titled kind of fits. Then we asked Rich [Dundas] of I Own You Records if he was interested in being involved, and when he said yes we knew we wanted to make something great. First EP on vinyl too, so that makes me excited.



You’ve had a bit of a change in line-up and one of you has moved to London – can you tell us how that’s affected the dynamic of the band and/or the song writing process?
Martin: Yeah, that's my bad. I still come back about once a month to practice, write and hang out, so I can't see much difference really. That being said, I'm the one who ain't there so probably better to ask the others… We have a friend of ours doing keys now that George has shot his proverbial load, so maybe that's the biggest change.
Leo: The logistics have certainly got trickier, though less tricky than when Jack lived in Poland for a year. It's forced us to be more focused when we can get together.
Jack: We just need to focus on what we are doing and not sit around playing Streets of Rage… Only change in the line-up is losing George to his coffee roasting desires.

You’ve got guest musicians on the EP – what made you decide to get them in and how did you go about choosing them?
Leo: Sometimes when you're writing a song you can just 'hear’ an extra part that something needs. Unfortunately, none of us played the instruments we were hearing in our heads.
Jack: Martin and I were supposed to score the violin parts for two of the songs but in the process ended up writing Hum. The track had this broody feeling like one of those instrumental tracks you would hear on one of Bowie’s Berlin-era records. I just wanted to take it further by adding the saxophone. Ben and Rob were great.
Martin: Again, for wanting to do something different - having strings and sax has always been something we’d thought about and we saw where they would fit here. I've seen Rob play before and knew he was great. As for Ben on sax, I've still not met the guy! But we heard he was good, sent him the song, and he sent us back a couple takes of which I think we used the first one.
Jack: Yep, it was so good.

You also had Mark Spivey, who’s a bit of a sound legend, doing his thing with the mastering – have you worked with him before? What did he add to the mix, as it were?
Jack: The record was mixed and engineered by Ryan Morris who has taken over First Love and he was really thorough. Spivey definitely gave it that extra kick in the heavier sections.
Martin: He's done sound for us on occasion, and he's obviously a Notts legend, so we know him from around. He was just great at knowing how this would sound on vinyl as well as download, which isn't something that comes straight to mind.
Leo: It's always a good feeling turning up to a sound check and seeing him behind the desk. We love the sound he gave to the Kogumaza releases, and some of our heavier sections certainly benefit from the big, beefy sound he's given to the masters.

The launch for the EP is at NVA: whereabouts in NVA is it and any surprises that we can look forward to?
Leo: It will be downstairs in the lounge, a nice little space which even regulars to the NVA might not have been in before. As for surprises, there's going to be some guests, as well as the return of old friends. It's definitely gonna be special, and offer something that even people who've been to a lot of our shows won't have seen before.
Martin: There are some good things happening for your earballs and your eyeballs.

Are you keen gamers – what made you choose the NVA for the venue, it’s not the most obvious place?
Leo: I'm definitely a very keen gamer. We chose the NVA in part because Tom works there, which gives us quite a lot of freedom. The fact that it's not the most obvious place was also a big factor: we want the launch to be something a little bit of the ordinary and special.
Jack: My party trick is being immensely good at Sonic 2 and Pac-Man.

Haggard Cat Bothday Present are supporting you, which may surprise some people, what are they bringing to the party?
Martin: They're totally different to us. But that's the point. I'd get bored seeing the same band a couple times in a night. They're friends of ours and we like their music so we hope you will too - bluesy, trashy, excellent stuff. And the music's good too. Boom boom, fuck it, carry on...
Jack: We've always worked with other artists who people may not assume we’d be affiliated with. For our last release the support were Moscow Youth Cult. Haggard Cat are awesome though. It's gonna be what Sam Kirk used to call “a shonky dirge”.
Leo: Our music pulls influence from a lot of different places. Blues is certainly a big one for me, and Haggard Cat are doing blues better than anyone else in Nottingham.

Anything to say to anyone who is confused between yours and a certain other Nottingham ‘Orchestra’ gig on the same weekend?
Martin: One is on Friday at the NVA, one is on Saturday at another place. Different days, different places. Get a grip, yo.
Jack: Yeah, we're the only orchestra in this town! Although there is, like, twenty of them, so they probably qualify as some kind of an orchestra… nah, nothing but love to those guys.
Leo: We’re absolutely spoiled to live in a city with so much incredible music going on. People shouldn’t take it for granted by limiting themselves to one gig a weekend. Do both.

And, anything else to say to the readers of LeftLion?
Martin: Sandimashighschoolfootballrules!
Leo: Thank you for making Nottingham what it is.
Jack: Hi, Leftlion readers.

8mm Orchestra 12” EP Launch, Friday 3 June, National Videogame Arcade, 7.30pm, Free.

8mm Orchestra Bandcamp