Long feted as one of the major indie-dance crossover acts, The Raptures recent UK tour has seen them play to larger sized venues up and down the country. Drummer Vitto Roccoforte caught up with RoomThirteen to talk of the tour, the plans ahead and just how healthy a band on the road can be.
R13: You're back in the UK and playing to bigger venues, how has this tour been going?
VR: Its been one of the best ones. We're playing bigger venues and they've all been pretty much sold out. Also, people know the songs from both albums and in general, the vibes been good. People want to have a party.
R13:Is there a difference to the crowds you get here compared to in America?
VR: It's not a big thing. It's not a country to country thing, it doesn't seem to divide up that way, sometimes it can be a city to city thing. Even that is different, some cities are always great, some aren't always crazy. For instance Glasgow, last time we were there the audiences were crazier. The show last week was still good but the crowd was more mellow than some of the other towns but in the past it's been the craziest show we've had.
R13: I think the gig being on a Sunday night and the venue being wide and having a high ceiling played a part in that.
VR: Yeah, people said that to us, it was still great but just different from what we had before. This tour has been great for crowds, our first show in Paris we had all the kids rushing to the front from the first song and jumped around all night. That set the vibe for the whole tour.
R13: You had a few riotous moments with Shitdisco and the Klaxons when they were doing the NME Nu-Rave tour last year, have you any wild nights with Shitdisco this time?
VR: We did one in Leeds and they held a party, that's where we first met them. We like their spirit and vibe and we've had one great house party this tour. Our tour manager had to drag us out of there, it was a good time.
R13: You've been fortunate enough to work with some great producers, do you see yourselves producing your own records in the future?
VR: I wouldn't want to rule it out but we like working with producers. I'm sure we have the ability to produce ourselves, so that wouldn't be an issue but it's more what they bring and I like collaborating. It's important to work with producers as they have an outside perspective and can have a clearer vision than the band. For this album, we probably wouldn't have recorded 'Woo...alright' if we were producing but Paul really saw something in it and pushed for its inclusion and it turned out to be one of the best songs. You can learn a lot from it and we like to pick people we like artistically.
R13: Is there anyone you would still like to work with?
VR: All the people we've worked with, we would like to work with again. I would love to work with Timbaland, we met with him and he is a huge producer but he would cost so much. So maybe not a whole album with him but some tracks would be good. Who knows, perhaps working with a band may not leave enough creative room for everyone but I'm a big fan of his music.
R13: With Timbaland, no matter what artist he is working with, you can always tell one of his songs as his sound is very distinctive.
VR: Exactly and it might not work for that. In theory, it could be interesting as I love his music.
R13: The latest album has been out for a while, how does the band feel about it now?
VR: We're happy with it. We've taken a step back and we can see it clear, it's a poppier album than 'Echoes.' It represents us coming together as a band more and taking some big steps. It was a long process to get it done and fix things but its definitely a launching pad for the next album where we can hopefully get deeper. Mind you, I say that about every album!
R13: Do you have any plans for the next record?
VR: We're in the middle of tour mode and we'll probably finish touring around August or September. We're touring healthy and we've got a good while to go but I think we'll be good to head to the studio soon after. I don't think many of us want to take too long off between albums this time. We are working on material on tour and we have a few songs that we weren't able to finish off from the last album process that we'll try to go back to. We have a lot of material and ideas, more than we usually do.
R13: If you are touring until September, what about festival plans. There's a rumour saying you will play the Indian Summer festival in Glasgow in July?
VR: We haven't heard any confirmed festivals but our booking agent is working on it right now. If that's the case, that'd be brilliant. I heard that's a great festival, who played last year, was that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs?
R13:Yes, them and Anthony and the Johnstons headlined.
VR: Oh really, wow.
R13: Yourselves and The White Stripes are the only rumours I have heard so far.
VR: Really? That would be awesome. We've played with them once before in a little festival in Brazil. Them and the Super Furry Animals. I'll have to look into that.
R13: It's nearly ten years since the band formed. Did you think it would last thing and do you have any plans to commemorate the decade?
VR: I don't know. I always loved being in a band and the plan was to do it indefinitely but it is weird coming up on an anniversary like that. We probably won't celebrate that one as half the members weren't in from then but we'll celebrate when it's ten years of all of us being in the band. We've still got four or five years for that.
R13: You seem to be continually linked to whatever genre of music is deemed hip at the moment, how do you feel about that?
VR: It's cool and I think it's true, we do get lumped in with a lot of stuff and it's good that we're hard to pin down musically so to be in different genres is good. It's nice to feel relevant and respected so yeah, I'm glad we are being talked about.
R13: On the band's website, the band members take the time to answer questions from the fans in the forum section. Do you think it's important for bands to have a link to their fanbase?
VR: I think it's nice and it's a personal thing, if we didn't want to do it, we wouldn't. We're just normal guys and we've never had that rock star aurora. I love reading about Led Zeppelin and bands like that but that's not us. If fans have a question and I can answer it, then yeah, I'll answer it.
R13: Do you still find time to party on tour as much as you used to?
VR: It's funny. The older I get, the healthier I get. We had a couple of years off and I got into good shape and wasn't drinking much but now, we've been on the road for about five, six months and I'm starting to flip into party mode. It's not a bad thing, it's just having fun. In general, not as much, I can't do it like I did when I was in my early twenties. It was no problem then but I could do about three days now and I'd be falling off.
R13: Perhaps getting Shitdisco on tour with you wasn't the best idea you've had?
VR: They can do the partying for us and we'll watch.
R13: Thanks for your time Vitto, do you have any final messages for your fans and our readers?
VR: Hopefully we'll see you around and if we're in for Indian Summer then hopefully see you there as well. Or maybe even Optimo afterwards as that's one of my favourite clubs in the world.
With hopefully a few UK festival performances lined up for Summer there will hopefully be more opportunities to catch The Rapture this year but with the promise of a new album sometime soon, it hopefully won't be too long until they return with new material.