White Rose Movement Interview

R13 caught up with Jasper (J) and Finn (F) of White Rose Movement before their support slot at a sold out Manchester Academy on The Rakes tour.

R13: Can we confirm that you're named after the anti Hitler student group and that you're not campaigning for an independent Yorkshire?
J: Haha yeah that's right.
F: Although that would be good!

R13: For those not familiar with your music how would you describe it, if indeed you can?
F: You can't really, we don't like to give people too many preconceptions.
J: The singles have been quite different and we've made quite a diverse record, it's got pop elements too it but it's also a quite heavy, dark album and I wouldn't want to categorise it but people like to dance to some of it, people like to listen to some of it! I don't know, it's got electronic elements in it but lots of heavy bass as well.
R13: It's quite heavily layered with 80's electronic elements I think
J: Yeah it's got that.
F: Some of the keyboard sounds retrospective but overall I don't think it is.
J: Tracks like 'Alsatian' have got quite a My Bloody Valentine sound to it as well.

R13: Did you have to trawl around lots of record companies? What sort of reaction did you get, was it positive straight away?
F:When we signed to Independiente it just seemed like the right thing to do.
J: Yeah, our manager found us and said 'I can get you a record deal with this' and he just took it to Independiente and they liked it but there wasn't any kind of huge bidding war! We did start to get a bit of hype once we'd done 'Love is a Number' and it started getting played out in clubs, then people started to talk about us. When we actually signed the deal I don't think anyone knew who we were.

R13: Are you happy with the deal? Has it worked out well for you?
J: Well you know it's still early days! They've been supportive and allowed us to do what we want art wise and we've watched other bands that are tied to bigger corporate labels and seen how they lose control a bit and we've managed to keep control and make a record that we really like and have control over artwork to a certain extent.

R13: There's a real undercurrent of menace in a lot of the songs, do you think that translates into your live performance?
F: Yeah I'd say our live performance is a lot darker, I think it's totally different to the record.
J: Yeah we go for it on stage, we don't stand around and shoe gaze!

R13: How's the tour been going? Is it hard being the support band or is it good because the pressure's off?
J: It's kind of been up and down, there have been points where it's been really good, like our first gig was in Exeter, we walked out on stage and everyone just went crazy and we weren't expecting that at all! Maybe that threw us a bit and we thought they were all going to be like that. For some reason even though we'd never been there they all knew our tracks, the next night wasn't like that! That was in Portsmouth and they were definitely all there for The Rakes, so it was harder, you have to try and win them over.
F: Wolverhampton was good.
J:Yeah that was really good!

R13: So after this tour you're doing your own headline tour, is it going to be a bit of a come down having to go back to playing much smaller venues?
F:Not really, I think the difference will be that people will be coming just to see us.
J: I'm looking forward to it in a way, this has been really good and The Rakes have been really good to us but I'm looking forward to it being us that people are coming to see.
F:If people are going nuts like they were in Exeter and Wolverhampton then it's going to be like a pressure cooker!

R13: Your debut album is due out in March?
F:Yeah the 27th.
R13: Is it the album you wanted to make?
J: Yeah definitely, we're very happy with the record, we worked with two or three different producers until we got to the right person. Once we got the right person everything started fitting into place, you don't feel uncomfortable with that person and you allow that person to take it further and we're really chuffed with the record, we think it's a really good album.
R13: Have you had any press feedback on it yet?
J: Arena gave us four stars.
F: Yeah they said it was going to be one of the breakthrough albums of next year.
J: This year!
(laughter)
J: I'm not waiting until next year! A lot of it's still to come but we're proud of the record and if they don't like it then they don't fucking like it and there's not a lot we can do about it!

R13: Are you at the stage where you can do this full time now? Weren't you painters and decorators before?
F: Yeah we were all painters and decorators.
J: I can't say we're on a huge wave, infact we were probably better off financially before but we're managing to keep afloat and not to have to do anything else, just!

R13: You did a photo shoot for GQ, which is perhaps not the most obvious place for a fledgling band to turn up, how did that come about?
F:I don't know really.
J: Indie is the new mainstream isn't it, it was with Mick Rock.
F: Yeah he was really funny, he said this isn't a photo shoot it's more like an orgy!
R13: You do have quite a strong visual image, do you think that's important as a part of the whole WRM package?
J: It's important to us but we've always dressed the way we dress. Every single one of us has always liked to dress up.
F: It would be dishonest not to, we could easily just go and wear Fred Perry t shirts and turn ourselves into something we're not.

R13:Judging from your message board you already have a pretty healthy following
J:Yeah some obsessives!
R13:That must be quite nice to see it grow though?
J: Yeah totally
R13: Do you have quite an accessible relationship with the fans?
J:Yeah we talk to them a lot, there are a couple of fans that have been there since the beginning and they're always there. So we talk to them a lot.
F: They seem quite bright as well!
R13: No psychotic lunatics yet then?
J: Well there's a few that have turned up! Yesterday there was a guy that turned up in army fatigues, ray bans and a red berret.
F: Maybe he's in the army? I don't know! He said I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!
R13: Wise words!

R13: Have you managed to do anything abroad yet?
F:Yeah we played the Paradiso.
J: They really look after you, it was an amazing gig for us.
R13: I can imagine you'd go down well in Europe
F: We played in France as well and people seemed to really like us there.
J: Yeah we've been invited back to France to do a fair bit.
F: We're going out to the States as well because we do our own club in London, so we're going to do that, one in LA and one in New York as a bit of an album launch.
J:Our single's getting played quite a bit over there in the clubs.
R13: That must be pretty exciting?
J: Yeah we're really looking forward to it, I mean you get people logging on saying they've heard it but it's really hard to gauge, we don't want to get too excited in case we turn up and there's only five people!

R13: Any plans for summer festival appearances?
J: Yeah we're hoping Leeds and Reading.
R13: Nothing confirmed yet then?
J: Not yet but we're hoping it's going to happen. We're hoping maybe to do Bestival in the IOW, we did it last year and that was a really good one for us.