John Robb interviews IST IST - Episode 1: Manchester's Musical History

yes John Rob here talked to is in a series of what these like video podcasts something yeah video podcast and the topic today is the history of maner music now it's man's got an incredible musical history Decades of musical history is this a good thing or a bad thing for a youngish up and cominging bands um I mean I'll take youngish up up and coming band for a start I'll take that tring to out I don't know defin definitely not young maybe up and coming in the in the in the context of history of the earth maybe up and coming um the Manchester thing is I don't think it's ever going to be with with how rich Manchester's history is I can't ever see in it being a bad thing to be considered part of that and you know suppose any band who plays shows or releases records and he's from Manchester is in some way part of that history so it's you know you it's it's a nice calling card to have that you're going we've got some form of Legacy so B whatever in Manchester music but I think one of the the difficult things with writing about music is that you've got to hear it to understand it really and to convey to someone who's never heard a band before or only fleetingly heard them to convey to them what that band sounds like the easiest way is to compare them to someone else that they might be familiar with so you know every Band still gets it at any point when it's sort of for fans of or sounds like the easy ones for people have always been for starters Joy Division with the Manchester thing and then you get like your bow house sisters chameleons things like that another Manchester band and that makes it much easier for someone who is writing about you to get across to readers and then potential listeners what someone sounds like I think there's elements of the Manchester thing which in the in the modern day at the moment the oh we do things differently here which was never actually said by Tony Wilson it's plased on apartments and it's plased on bear bikes and it's plastered on branded or Billboards for Manchester there's an element of that which I find slightly crass and cliched but I don't think that's kind of the the Manchester scene that we are most of the Bands kind of operating really but to answer that I don't think it's ever never a hindrance I don't think being part of that is it something you react to you know react with or react against I think we have like in I don't know maybe not so much now because we're kind of we're you know four albums in at this point and we kind of know what we want to do and what we want to try out but definitely for me anyway when when we were starting to write I was almost seeing the The Joy Division or or whatever these comparisons were I kind of thought of them as a challenge like oh well let's try this instead like if if I want to I don't want to just sound like that I want to be my own thing and have my own sound as well so I think it can almost push you or did me anyway to draw on other influences as well because I don't just want to do that music cuz that's been done you know they did that that was their thing so what's our thing you know and if you can still draw from those Inspirations but I mean there's so there's so many other bands as well that you want to kind of take pieces from or different types of music I suppose it's must be frustrating BL must because when the band comes out of London people don't go about the London scene you then compare it to band of London 30 years ago but for some weird reason all the other cities of of the UK they have this very cliche narrow band what they're seeing is and what they're allowed to do and not do but is that maybe that doesn't matter maybe that's just something you only think about every now and then like when somebody asks you about it in an interview yeah I I think the the place that you're from I think I don't think it is as I don't know detrimental to the sound as it used to be because I think nowadays it's quite worldwide you know what I mean like your influences can kind of range from anything whereas and and even like the bands that we play with in Manchester or the bands that you could say are on the same scene we don't really cross paths a lot at all you know whereas I think in Times Gone by maybe it was a bit more like a community where you did have bands that were kind of they were all like drinking in the same Pub or you know like that kind of kind of thing so I don't know I feel like it is a bit more you have maybe a calling card of like the sound that you're from but we just so happen to sound like bands that are from the same place I think it's hard to escape as well yeah where I think people there is a there's a if you drew a diagram of sounds like an influence by there's going to be there's going to be a crossover in the middle but I don't think that crossover is quite as big as people perceive it to be really and look you're influenced by all sorts of things whether it's whether it's the your location whether it's who you listen to Growing Up who you listen to say I don't know so you start working in a bar and that bar plays certain music at the time that you're starting to play an instrument or whatever it's it's almost inescapable to be to get away from your influences and those influences might be more prevalent in certain songs or on certain albums or at certain times when you're playing than others but it's almost sometimes that it I've never been I don't think anyone's everever consciously tried to make someone feel bad about what they're influenced by but it's almost sometimes it's a bit like do people think it's a cop out that oh oh you can just plug in a guitar and suddenly sound like Joe Strummer you're like that's not a that's not an easy thing to just do for example and most bands are not doing that on purpose when we set out we never set out to sound like anyone in particular but naturally if you grow up playing a bass guitar and you listen to certain bands that's just going to be in your brain is't it that this is I am familiar with this way of playing kind of the way that you're aiming to that's what you want to kind of go towards but then along the way you your head gets turned by oh there's that guy as well I want to you know maybe sound a bit like that you know and you just get interested if you're bit of a music nerd or like a guitar nerd you go what pedals are they using what amps they using what strings do they use you know all sorts of stuff like that it all just meshes into it but do you think our locations play on this too much you know people get the idea what where bounds from and they start make things up in the head of this CF one here they have to sound like this yeah I was I was only saying recently about um gangaur always been a real favorite of mine uh I mean if we go back to what we were saying a few minutes ago one of my I want to sound like Andy Gill you know that and I I thought that they were from London you know um for years until I found out they were from leads and I was fairly shocked and I think that sort of goes to show that I I don't think it matters too much and I think in this day and age because everything's so widely available uh with the internet and what VI I think that it becomes a lot more Global and like Matt was saying about the the sort of scene thing um it tends to be more now sort of in my mind anyway sort of genre specific so there's there there's a a few bands that fit within a sort of scene even though they're all from different places if you take people like idols and Fon DC murder capital people like that that are all doing a similar sort of sound and very very much within that sort of bracket of um you sort of hear that in people when you you know you have a mate who comes around for a drink or whatever and they and they put their playlist on and it's all those sorts of bands it's like that particular thing that's happening at the moment it's very much a scene but some of them are from Ireland some of them from Bristol or wherever it is and it's like it sort of transcends it I think because of that um I think I think I've seen that more and more but certainly back when I was a teenager there was a lot more emphasis put on where people were from and like Matt says before I don't think there's much of a a Manchester music sort of collective scene as it stands right now in the sense that they used to be back maybe you know 15 20 years ago fall is an interesting example really because they're not actually they lived in leads but they were actually from leads all they went to leads University which kind of sort of debunks the whole idea if you come out the city you're not really representing the city at all no one's comparing them to guys are Chiefs are they they shouldn't K started with a postp bands guys they so yeah so do you do you feel though you know flipping that around that a city can influence B you know by being in Manchester being from Manchester somehow even though you don't walk around go we must sound like at Manchester bands but it seeps somehow I think so yeah because you know we're kind of lucky to be from such a musically Rich City compared to other cities even just in the UK forget worldwide uh it's going to be an influence you you know whether we like it or not and and with the lad saying about the worldwide thing before you know you go through Spotify for example I don't think I've ever seen this is a Liverpool playlist seen this is Manchester and all those sort of ones so I think I think it is a good thing that we're from here and we sound like we're from here as well I just again it's like the growing up thing it's like the places that we've rehearsed in yeah the Mills and the sort of dark rooms Within industrial units like when me and Adam played in a punk band years ago called casinos that was in the sort of Factory on the waste paper yard was it that was Big Iron corrugated building and massive concrete floor space and it was echoey because you weren't you w weren't boxed in or anything there was no Sound Treatment it was like we were just in a corner with a drum kit like reverberating all around this industrial unit and then when we've rehearsed in the past we've rehearsed out in Stockport in an old Cotton Mill Red in Brunswick Mill which has closed recently and new studios are in a in a mill again and you're going that's just that's that's you know you can go back so far with Manchester about the reason for sort of cotton trade and Mills and all that and ship canel and whatever but again that's you relatively unique to this part of the country and if you're going setting your amp up in dingy dark cold places you're hardly likely to make pop music in a space like that you know is the physicality in the city I think so the musicality of effects seeps in I'll tell you I'll tell you what John one of one of the weirdest things just a quick little detail here the um the place where we originally rehearsed me and Andy I still don't to this day understand how how it's even possible but if it snowed it actually snowed inside and I don't know how remember yeah yeah it had a a proper roof on it like one them corrugated roofs but somehow maybe the the way that snowflakes SW down from the sky or something but he'd literally be playing and go it's snowing in there actually snow inside I still don't know it sounds like some kind of weird dream like we no no that no no it's absolutely true but it did yeah it used to snow inside where else if you you know if if you're from I don't know even somewhere maybe down south where the climate isn't quite as harsh even that two 300 mile Gap might make a difference certainly if you go into Europe it would do or certainly if you go other side of the Atlantic to America totally totally different climates and things like that and I think it certainly does the physicality of it you know with the physicality including look if you're growing up and you going into gigs or you you're just knocking around the city just the way that Manchester is is it's just going to rub off on you it's like the whole nature or ner think it's like it is it is going to rub off on you and you shouldn't actually really you shouldn't you should just embrace it you shouldn't really try and rebel against that I think you should you should work with it yeah the two skills thought like you probably mentioned them both there there's definitely lot of newer bands they they get fed with the weight of History so that when that disorder Bar opens which is fine you know about that you know it's good celebrate pass Etc but people always use that as an example of how difficult it must be to be a newbound in maner with this great way history there but is that a problem or is that just so what you know I think it I think it's a problem if you want it to I think so yeah that used to annoy me a lot in the early days the comparison used to really annoy me doesn't anymore I think it's funny now it's a compliment annoy because you didn't have any breathing space just hearing it all the time just hearing it all the time I think in the early days you're trying to you're trying to try trying to be like you know no we're not like that and you know we are you know there is that inspiration there it's part of the challenge for the band to actually become you know 10 years time in that soundtrack I oh not them again yeah last I'd seen as a compliment after a while you know it because it is I think like if you like if you want it to be a problem yeah you could make it one I think personally like you know we've been going nearly 10 years and the the music industry and Landscape has changed totally in 10 years if I was a band St or younger now it 10 years ago now but if I kind of knew what I knew now I'd be miles more concerned about the Hoops you've got to jump through for social media for engagement for selling than I would be where I come from I'd actually probably lean into the Manchester thing more now as a way to sort of try and progress it you mean like a useful hashtag in a sense yeah absolutely or just a there almost seems to be this kind of ftiz of the working class now at the moment as well and Manchester being typically working class you're like I would be if I was starting up now and I wanted to try and get a bit of a a bit of a jump going and get some engagement and get some interest and get press involved or whatever I'd be really banging the drum on the Manchester thing I'd actually be taking that as a I'm just going to make a song and dance about I'm here I'm from Manchester it's industrial I'm working class we sound like this I'd actually be using it more I think is it just that little topic there I mean what is Manchester you know there so much different comes out of here how how do people Define what it is in the first place and what it can be and what it can't be I think it depends on you speak to don't it CU if you went to sort of like NQ or someone like that where it's this Grime and sort of trap scene or whatever they'd tell you something completely different about what Manchester is well they're actually quite interested because that's what they deal in but they're also very aware on the side as well you know so it's it's not like they don't work in complete isolation no yeah it's just that they' got their version like you have in a sense it's almost similar isn't it yeah it's it it I think it's whatever you want it to be I mean it's it's there's so much in you could you could sit here for hours and talk about you could just even if you disregard the music thing what is Manchester going industry like Innovation or whatever you going Alan churing from from and working in Manchester you going pretty much ended the second world war with a sort of Technology advancement first computer sport you could sit and just talk about the spor in history of Manchester for so long or whatever but it's it's sort of I don't know maybe you know maybe people who come and live here come and come for the history and maybe don't quite get on board with it as much you choose your own history in I think so I mean I'm well as someone who's from the WHL and I moved here nearly 10 years ago and it was inspiring because like we were talking about how the bands that are around you influence you when I was growing up and I started doing music music the only real band that I still kind of know of is the coral and they were the only real like big from the world Maneuvers or Maneuvers yeah of course yeah yeah my mom I think she went [Music] to but but it was as soon as I came to Manchester I wasn't that I mean I knew about obviously the the bit the highlights but as as you as I joined like a a Manchester band or whatever it becomes very much you you know read up and I've learned and I've got inspired by the stories and you're walking around and you see oh that's that place oh that's that place oh oh we're playing at this place that that they that they did that you know it's like whereas the wh I don't necessarily think has that and it's a very Stark kind of contrast you know what I mean I think it's a lot more difficult for bands from these places to to get on I mean um there was there's a band I can't remember the name now but we played with them years ago they quite young Lads and they were from Hull and they like I know there's been bands from Hull and everything but it's not it's not like with Manchester I feel like you get a bit of a leg up and London you get a bit of a leg up because of where you're from it's like what's really happening in Hull right now you know is that all because there an infrastructure yeah yeah so in the early days of you of you're starting out I mean like what our first gig was at Night and Day Cafe as most bands who live in Manchester or the surrounding areas that's pretty much it it's either that or gers or the castle or something like it's it's already sort of made pre-made isn't it um there's there's plenty of I mean there was you know no was it m l or and now shut again and open again what places like that when we were coming through early days and dry bar and all you know um these are all places that gave people somewhere to play and a variety to get around and get involved in other things and obviously the people are here as well um um you know the the promoters that are based in a in a city center like Manchester are able to get you gigs in in other cities and start to put you around a bit whereas if you're somewhere like Grimsby or Hull or whatever um they always try and aspire to be uh in a in a in a sort of larger City like Manchester it's like years years and years ago when I was a teenager who used to follow a band round called offen B they were from Grimsby and they all moved to Manchester specifically to try and further the sort of music career or whatever because it just not happening in Grimsby it's like it's conquered so quickly where there's nothing there's nothing else to go you know there there's a there's an enormous gap between 150 cap venue to like a 4 and a half thousand seat whatever you know it's four and half thousand people there yeah yeah so it's like you yeah you end up becoming a sort of like a mediumsized fish in an incredibly small pond you know I think that I think that runs into it a lot as well I don't I mean I'm from stop P originally but there's only so much you can do in stop stop I mean I know it's different place conation really it yeah yeah that's enjoy Vis from mvi really he's a big net yeah well I mean a lot of people these days as well they say they're from um they say oh from Manchester and like I don't know from conlon or somewhere like that s Bridge Manchester now yeah I don't know do you know what I mean there's that sort of thing that goes on even man maner now you know the man of Post Punk was a completely different city you know the city center of derit it was all the cliches was now it's all big massive Towers is it so when people write about you being a match to thing are they right about you within a prism of a m doesn't exist anymore I don't this is what I don't understand about and it doesn't really wind me up at all because I just think not everything has to be absolutely completely unique you can just do something that's been done before well and people can still enjoy it in a sort of modern age or modern day in comparison to back then um but I just I don't I don't really get why it's such a big deal there I just I never really have what for people to be pay to things or for you to react to it or I don't yeah I don't think we we have we've I don't think we've ever really actually reacted to it other than we've just sort of going we go Jo division again but if I was born in Stockport and I Curtis was born in mfield and we have a similar sort of sound and we both have a deep voice we both going to have Regional slight accents and all that I can understand how someone who's fairly lazy would go they sound exactly like Joy Division and that's a terrible thing go and do your own thing and it's like well we are though aren't we we are doing our own thing to anybody that's not the worst comparison but it's frustrating no it's great I love how can you change your voice your voice is your voice well then you get then you then you get dunked on for just putting a voice on would you where someone you know you know it's like oh be this this have you heard the fifth record what's the singer doing he's using autotune it's falet or something they've got a load of backin singers it's like it's just I've known him since like we' known it for about 15 years easily he's always Su like that yeah ever since that's just the way it is just the way it is in postp days say s out the doors so yeah that's what I want to sound like this is the thing though I'll make a prediction now on on camera what's going to happen next we're our next album's going to come out and the people who say stuff about J Vision go oh they've turned into new AR now I'm going to be like there we go right okay then yeah you know cuz that's what that's day it's basically just that tipping scale of real drums and guitars and electric drums and synths and then if you just go further over there then it's Joy Division further that way it's Joy Division it has to be one or the other they don't actually I mean they're brilliant band innovat B but they don't own the sound do they I don't think they inclined to learn sound I don't think they even they probably don't even care do they they're just going that's what we that's they made use of new technology music and sequences and drum machines and synthesiz and all sorts of stuff American clubs yeah you it wasn't like he came out of the vacuum ever was it no no absolutely not but again like you say they didn't purport for it to have done they just went out there and that that's the that's the music they're playing and I always think it's weird when people go wonder what J vision would have sounded like if Kurt sent died you're going like that well it would have sounded like new order did because you listen to the first couple of albums and they were so much more like the two Jo division records and the what went afterwards like you listen to one day I can tell imagine singing it yeah ceremony first song new was a jion song but you listen to like movement that is a jision record I know it's not because it's New Order but you listen to it and you go most of that was written before yeah clearly you know I don't think you sound that much like J no I don't this is the fny I mean obviously vocals are in a bar but loads of people sing in Barrel tones and the music Taps into a Melo which is a man part of a mancunian thing in it there a Melo here not every band Taps into it but it's and that's about it really that's the B play completely different style yeah totally rhythms are difference the whole thing is quite and the production as well you listen to the like the depth of the production totally different production style where you listen to like the the hanit produced Joy Division records and they're cold they're icy they're spar so which you know that's that's their sound most of ours are pretty rich really where you got two guitars for starters the drums you know the drums the sound of the drums is nowhere near as cold as Steven Morris's drums sounded not as materic as well no it's no it's far you know there's far more sort of looseness in it than there was in The Joy Division but but again though it's there's no point there's no point almost arguing that was some because again it comes back to I don't think they mean it in a bad way no sign post yeah it's just a it's just a reference just comparison it's just to help someone else make sense of it which that's that's fine because I'm we're probably all guilty of it oh have you heard this new band know what they called such such a bad what do they sound like uh they sound like the doors or something they sound like f fighters I don't know like we do I do it B send you demos and they put their comparison in their email yeah like a cross between dirt and dirt like that you go don't do don't say that cuz what if I don't like that or what if I think that's weird or put yourself in a box is going to drive you mad for the next 10 years there's two things with that one of the worst things I've seen that done so many times where they say sounds like and then they put a list of maybe like eight or nine different bands but it's like wildly wildly over you know like it sound like Susie the Banshees Ed shared Taylor Swift Taylor you're like or the other one where they say where the it's like it's like a GCSE creative writing class where they're like sounds like um you know a a hitting a cake with a baseball bat yeah yeah sounds like a burning building falling down on a dilapidated old car or something you like yeah yeah I'd actually listen to human Aster yeah I don't know it's just it's just every was like everything in it like footballers someone comes on the scene the new Beckham cuz it's just put someone has to put it in a box for someone else to or for themselves to understand it I me you know people have compartments in the brain where they go that's my Joy Division compartment that's my new David Beckham compartment for footballers that's the whatever it's just you have to TI everything up I think so great thing about music you can't TI It Up it bubbles over Place yeah yeah yeah yeah un but then again sometimes it doesn't it doesn't cuz you get like playlisting where you know playlisting dominates people's listening habits don't it where it's like new in alternative and you're going so that is alternative and you go but it's not or there's other alternative and it's well it that's just that's just advancement of Technology where that's does your creativity absolutely the room go oh this is a bit too much like Jord this you go just really good I'm into this yeah we're all enjoying it yeah you probably do that you do that yourself as a musician you're like you don't go in there with a you know you might go into to be like we want to create a record that at least evolves from the last one so you've got a starting point yeah but we don't go and go we need to make a less Manchester record this time that's just not nobody can Define what Manchester is no no well we're s here trying to Define it no one can come up no one can come up with an answer so how how can you make something sound because on new record you're working with the very Manchester producer aren't you well yeah working with Joe Cross who's done Manchester he's not from Manchester Herz slow Readers Club you know so I think in a sense he is shaping the sound of that place a little bit just kind of I in his own and our own way I suppose a lot of it's is just VI circumstance isn't it really it's like I don't think Joe Cross sits around thinking oh I'm doing another Manchester just a band brilliant another one another one for the list of me is the guy you know he just works here and that's where the people who pay to do his job from yeah yeah maybe that's what maner is really good at it's not actually been from here it's lot it's been from here and lots of other people here London isn't it just it's just a massive City where loads of people do cool [ __ ] saying cool [ __ ] is it no it's just it's just cool and it just exists in London yeah yeah yeah that's what I was trying to say about Hall before it's like know anything about Hall I don't know why I keep talking about it but the point is is that it's funny this CU it was city of culture capital of culture at have you bet unfortunately it's um yeah what what I mean is the network of people who are available is going to be far greater in Manchester in it so it's like like like you say with with working with Joe we we we met him through someone else who we know who works at a record label who spoke to somebody he was a promoter who said what about Joe and then our front of house um engineer actually didn't know that we were working with Joe and we sent him a copy of the the the master album and he said oh you've been working with on that and we said oh Joe you know and he said oh yeah of course yeah yeah it makes s sense soon as he heard it's like that little community of people who are all sort of linked in a way which makes it and I think that's one of the best things about about Manchester if you like cuz I don't know anything about London I think I've only probably been a dozen times or something in M life you know but that that certainly happens there there's always somebody else who knows someone else who knows someone else like yourself just you being here it's a big city where everyone sort of knows everyone else yeah the village Manchester thing still exist yeah yeah it is that kind of small town mentality just in enormous metropolitan area is it but then again the reason all these people are here is because of the rich history of it it's simple as I such an aspirational place to probably go and study I mean I I moved away to leads for University but that's just because mates were going the course that I went and did so I moved away but I met so many people since then who like you know you you come to University of Manchester and you stay here yeah because it's like it's like moving to the Big Smoke kind of thing is it I wanted to be a professional musician so was like I either go to Liverpool or I go to Manchester yeah or I go to London it's like I think Manchester kind of yeah but you know so many creatives that it's like they want to be it and sort of probably surround themselves with that rich history so the history is interesting it's a conflict is it because in one level it can be suffocating but level creates a platform where you could do what you want to yeah yeah I mean and I still everyone's I still find walking around man Chester at night like pretty cool you know like if you've been to a gig or you on your way to a gig or you've been to the pub or whatever still walking around it you still sort of walk around and go yeah it's it's cool it's good you know like you know saying about sort of the different conquering it there's so much other stuff like where you going we've been going 10 years and we've not even nearly conquered it at all you go in still want to do something like Albert all still want to do like the Apollo or something like that there's so many of these places but you walk around all these places and you start Go played there played our first gig there seen that band there you know you know any anything just sort of walk into the football or something you walk along the Ship Canal or something and there's so much history there there no wonder people history yeah I think I I think so I think there's cultural history um yeah I think there's think you know there this I think there's a sort of a bit of maybe a sun ization of it and just kind of make it out to just be black and yellow stripes with slogans there may be a slight cheapness to it yeah some people definitely get counted in and some people definitely get counted out well yeah I think so yeah but I think it's it's sort of place though where you wouldn't have to wait long to meet someone or read some books or go to an exhibition that could Enlighten you on it though it's not somewhere that it sort of like has tried to hide its history or anything you maybe it's maybe just pushed other parts of History to the Forefront a little bit more so that new Factory venue is a good example because it doesn't seem like it's got any of the it's not really got much to do with it I've never I'm not been but I've seen pictures of it and it just looks like a massive kind of soulless building it's amazing inside is it amazing inside got the best sound well that's a good thing is that the one that's down the old is it the one near the old offices i' played there with old bandes yeah there's no black you know it's not you want right I think you thought you talking about fat 251 the one down so about the big yeah by the river yeah yeah I don't know it just seems and even with all the big like Skys scrapes and stuff it feels like it is just it's becoming I mean I suppose it's modernizing which I suppose is that bad that no I don't really think so I mean it'll happen I think is great never thought to live in it those flat amazing yeah I do like I'm someone who loves kind of the distopian side of of things but also it's terrifying to see it kind of actually happening with like big nor it's kind of nice but also scary traditional dystopian Matthew [Music] TR he wants the future but he wants it now yeah one one foot in the future one foot very f I was about to say that's pretty much that pretty much summarizes all Story Tower and then you have a canals full of rubbish actually yeah it's it is both the same in a sense what you the band fits into that landscape that's true actually yeah yeah because I always thought something very artial about your music and if I shut my eyes it is like a Skyline in a way took many mushroom start seeing buildings then I think well it's very much built on Rhythm you know that it's like the thing with blue money it's all like very much it's like clockwork isn't it and I think we kind of operate in that same way like the drums and the bass are quite like Interlink obviously but also like it's this part in this verse and then it's this part and it doesn't there's not like we don't we're not like a Jammy we do have moment but it's formul like there's that part and the drums will have like a kind of a riff almost you know I mean I think that comes from you thank my two old the sisters for that CU I used to go to the hassenda and that's we all all i' here growing up is Hender music yeah and that explains my drumming quite a bit I reckon and I think that on the Dance Floor me yeah to no no in your head yeah absolutely yeah it's that gr this talk about cuz master has always been about the groove yeah I'd agree with that yeah i' like to no Joy Division one of the greatest bands to danc to ever not I want to mention again they're big on nor Soul they lening stuff that Dan for all so that's a really important point there point I'd say I'd say it's in the blood again though it's that influencing in it where you if we if you went out there and when influenced by the Hass Ender so you know talking about like emailing someone to listen to the music or something and you know we thought well we grow up you grew up listening to Hass end if we went sounds like Joy Division and the Hass end of someone's going no thank you yeah you know but but again though your influences is so much broader than maybe it comes out sounding like yeah when shas's die people just get into the big bands and Sh forget those big bands actually into loads of other stuff and they compress them to like three bands and that's it is it so when you unpack it all if you're listening you know if you're infed by the Grove of people of the something else something else that's when it gets interesting is it when it's part maybe the melting part is what important Manchester I think so I think so I think it's like that family tree of you might just see the children down there and if we're one of them what you going well what is what has actually contributed to get it down to that stage it's like you could be you could be going back hours and hours it's like saying about of Joy Division Northern so but you're going you're going so far back there so are we by proxy influenced by Northern Soul well if in a sense if you do it right you would be yeah but when people do it wrong we just take the surface and not the dep yeah so they just take the you know the obvious things off jul Vision but don't go into all the other bits not do it because you scientifically but you listen to the dance for the hend therefore you can dance to this it's important and a again that people can actually dance to this music as well I wish people would do that more I think they do in certain places but just not yeah yeah I suppose so yeah by some by some Metric it kind of isn't it I think in the last few years I mean obviously coming out of like Co and starting to T properly I think the more we've Ted the more we have almost built the sets in such a way we do Chase those dancable moments and actually I think we've put less and less slower songs in the set yeah in recent years you know what I mean Germany are good for that Germany really yeah they good club seen it in places like Berlin and stuff though it but um they're good dancers aren't they yeah Germans love it you sound like a German band to me yeah a lot of German bands you don't same I see how that would really fit yeah more than the name's slightly confusing from I imagine it's like you know absolute nonsense to them yeah it is that's the thing I mean I've I've always liked a lot of German music and um was big into techno for a long time you know so there's quite a lot of influence that comes from that that's I'd probably say there's more influence coming from da gr that than there is Joy Division and it one of the first bands when when I joined it was like the first band that you really handed to me like yeah like listen to this you know what I mean and it really was yeah yeah they connect to they play they're always a big band here right I didn't know that there you go that that's that's great we finally figured it out yeah fig it out it's just death like a missing link so groovy and incredible syn sounds you know I like itess it's just a bad version of death thank you very much Tech now not only taking the dance FL but also the sterile sounds the C of the the build of it like especially with the synthesizers it's all about kind of and live especially it's trying to capture that kind of improvising almost with just like the rising and the Dy you know not necessarily the song structures they all kind of stay the same but it's how you can kind of add these extra little Rises and delays and you know some of the bit like the drum structures as well is it it's like like some songs where you go try and hold off the snare like you call it like the party starter or something where you techno sort of like you'll start with a kick drum you might get a bit of hats hats might go a bit straighter and then when you really want to yeah when you really want to make them dance like in Comes The Snare we we believe in once something's in it stays in yeah Tech like that proper proper techno that sort of thing almost the greatest drum beat in a sense it's just the kick and the higher it yeah yeah yeah because it makes you want more you just you can do the force the floor everyone's going to be dancing absolutely get a drummer to do that is really difficult quite easy to get tell me about it it took a while I love it that's my f what's what's really work it always works absolutely foolproof 140 BPM four on the floor that first time we played in Paris and it was that first gig in Paris at the umic and it was a very young crowd and there wasn't that many of our fans there but it was packed like it was absolutely packed there probably like maybe 200 people there and it probably Can Only Hold 180 or something but every song that we played that had a four on the floor in it went absolutely mental and then as soon as we played didn't we play like middle distance or something like extreme greed which is exem not even a slow song it's probably about like 105 know me so it's just below where they wanted it to be and it just died and even it got it to the set list where we play a song called new a new love song from architecture that's just like really slow really minimal and I'll just turn around because I was the one that was going to be playing synth no one else is really doing much apart from singing and Andy does a bit of basic at the end I was just like let's just not play that let's just move on like because this is going to fall you could read the room and you go soon as you're like kicking it like 16th and like hats all on the floor they are loving it as soon as it dropped down it was like SI it's not it's not the smoking I where I was on stage the window next to there was the queue and like the smoking bit and I swear there was more people smoking when we on the slower songs and like not this one I suppose we were playing to the like uninitiated I suppose but like when we did the the yard the yard Show Club nighty kind of show was it we did two nights at the yard in cheat m last year and it was we played all three albums in full so obviously we played like there was couple of piano tunes and like the more electronic ones and you know I think people they expected that's what they want isn't it but one one of the things I've been I've been really interested in recently I thought it was quite amazing now um for the first three albums if I was making demos at home I would pretty much always side chain base against the kick drum which is a te check is it they've done that forever and never ever ever as it as it ever transpired in the studio that that's what happens until this next record that's coming out in September it's like there side chain in it and I'm like years no not yeah sort of but like it just I think I think we're moving more towards that Dancy thing not so much dance music but you know postpunk that can make people making rock music without Rock influences in it it's techno technology yeah it's not Dy is it it's actually using the architecture of the technology into the sound is it yeah perhaps that's the thing that can be frustrating about like the comparisons to bands from like 30 40 years ago is that you're kind of ignoring the influences of all that stuff from like the 2000s to now you know because that is actually I I didn't really think about it but yeah like electronic music and techno is actually it's a massive part of and probably more influential Jo division you know I think a band of like our age and the technological advancements during the time we've even been playing music even in the last 10 15 years the technolog is probably as big of influence as the actual bands that you listen to the fact that we can now get our hands on any sort of equipment that can do anything Studio tools are so different yeah whereas back then like you know the the part of the reason from like Unknown Pleasures were so groundbreaking is because the production on it was like pushing the absolute limits of the studio and Innovation and it was inventing yeah yeah yeah things were being things were being built to produce what he wanted to do yeah yeah exactly but he's going around with field recorders to get the sort of like the the ambient sounds for it and stuff which you know that sounds so simple now but at the time that's was an inter part you were saying there you know it's been 30 years and it this you know it's it's an insult to think a band only wants to sound like a specific time zone that's before it was even born yeah when there's 30 other years of great music to as well you know I'm not just s like different films books gam it's a whole different culture and what's fascinating is you can create the same yeah yeah the end it's like the family tree thing and the end result might be the same but the sort of path back to it is totally same feeling with different stuff yeah I'm sure I'm sure we B 30 years from now who people might go God it sounds like Joy Division and they'll never even heard of him cuz it's you know talking 30 years from now you're talking best part of a 100 years the 80 years since jision but the technology and the the sort of way in which it's used the the sort of spirit of it will lead back to something like sounds like that so and I suppose that comes and it's punking it that's P cuz if it is if it is an ideology rather than a specific sound then it's like I forget I mean we are kind of a punk band in spirit but not necessarily in sound do you know what I mean but I think yeah the OS Punk EOS are the DIY EOS oh absolutely yeah yeah yeah you cra saying feel was what he in front of you that time didn't it yeah yeah yeah and I think of a lot I mean we operate very much like a business really but I suppose that it's all doing it ourselves really that's a Manchester think in itself is it the DIY yeah stick two fingers up it everyone else and we're going to do it not living in the Main Music cities London where things about the music business you know the people only get signed have a big long career but here you can actually Fester away and make your own thing work can't you yeah yeah I suppose because we got the space to sort of do it or maybe there was no other option like there wasn't really a label in Manchester that was like we've never which is separated in your like setup you know release on our own label always have because no one's ever been knocking on the door to signers or whatever making our own Studios because Brunswick was closing in it what what else are we going to do yeah you know that's I suppose that's kind of that's the sort of spirit of Manchester in itself w't it that kind of DIY EOS we'll do this ourselves we're going to do it better you know we don't need London we don't need somewhere else like that we're just going to do it anyway yeah I think that you know you know the facturing record thing is that in itself is it really think that's a Manch thing that joins a b together is the thing that doesn't join it together is the fact they just do anyway yeah own the kind of like entrepreneurial kind of mindset really is yeah yeah completely on their own terms as well where it's like we're not just going to try and mimic a London label or something or we're going to try and use their infrastructure it's like no we're going to just do this exactly how we want to yeah yeah okay that was probably quite a good end point actually yeah yeah yes yes I thought that I said it I was like I said that I was like don't anyone say anything sounds good e e for