The Race are one of the bands which a large amount of the music press seems to be getting excited about as far as being one to watch for the next few months. They are currently working on their debut album, but took time out to play a gig at Purple Turtle in Camden on 17th March,
Reviewed here.
So we thought it would be a good opportunity to find out how things are going with the recording, what the live experience has been like and what plans they might have to try and live up to the positive press cuttings which are plastered all over their website. Dan from the band has answered the questions below.
R13: How did you find the show at Purple Turtle?
D: Good. We've been working really hard in the studio for the last month but chose to play gigs on our days off so that we could keep things sharp and also try out different arrangements. Playing live has helped us keep a certain edginess in our recordings and has also served as a major release from being cooped up inside for days on end losing track of time.
R13: Is playing those kind of gigs (on at the start of a club night) difficult as I couldn't work out how many of the crowd were there to see you and how many were just getting in early.
D: Most often I don't know who is there to see us and who isn't. As long as we are having people listen I don't really care how they get there. It's always a good thing to be playing to people who have never heard you and seeing if they like your music. So in answer to your question no it's not difficult. There is always the challenge of winning over a crowd, which we relish.
R13: What are your best and worst gig experiences so far?
D: Some of the bigger supports we have played have been great. King Tuts in Glasgow was awesome. Playing to 1500 people in Amsterdam and then 10,000 the following day in Spain was also pretty cool. Obviously lots of really tough gigs too, I can remember going straight from work for two hours through London to play to 10 people getting home late and up for work the next day. That sucked, no real bad responses from crowds though-yet (!).
R13: Your website has a number of positive quotes from some fairly major players in the music press. How do you feel about this and does this put extra pressure on you?
D: No pressure felt. We feel totally confident in our music and what we are doing and so as we progress/improve it seems natural that more people are going to get involved and write things about us, good or bad.
R13: Names like the Cure, Pixies and U2 have been mentioned in describing the style of music you make, are they the bands you grew up loving and who else has been an influence on you?
D: To be honest they are more names that have been projected onto us so I wouldn't call them direct influences. Our influences are pretty wide and varied.
R13: What time scale are you working towards with the debut album?
D: As we are on an independent label there isn't a strict schedule, which is great although we do want to get it finished and away to our key players in the next few weeks in time for (hopefully) some festival appearances in the summer. We are busting to get back to touring and we like to keep things moving especially as we are a relatively new band.
R13: Will the new record be made up mainly of tracks you're playing live now or are you still writing new songs?
D: We play most of the tracks live on a rotating basis to keep things fresh. All the tracks are now recorded for this album, we write all the time (its more fun than rehearsing).
R13: I read that your single has been released in Australia, have you released anything in many other countries?
D: Not yet.
R13: What is the plan for the band over the next year or so?
D: We don't know yet. Once the album is finished it will be worked around certain labels and publishers. Hopefully this will mean that we don't have to work part-time jobs anymore-although we'd love to stay involved with our current label shifty disco in some way. Obviously we want to continue to grow and develop in the same way that we have up till now. Sorry I can't be more specific than that.
R13: Which festivals are you likely to play/want to play?
D: READING FESTIVAL- big dream growing up in this town. Any of the others will do fine and hopefully some more in Europe.
R13: If you could design you're dream festival line-up, who would play and where would it be?
B: Big Question. Dead people included if that's ok. Can't think of a location but a SXSW format in small venues would be cool...bands/artists... Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Johnny Cash, Beach Boys, Radiohead, Mistys Big Adventure, Strokes, Guns or Knives..., is that enough? Sorry my head hurts.
To find out more about the race check out their website
Theraceuk.com