Let the race for big British buzz band of 2007 begin. With the release of a hugely popular seven-song EP titled 7 From the Village, London's Fields have already taken a big lead. After nearly giving up on the music industry, founder Nick Peill met up with Icelandic singer Thorunn Antonia. Following a few months of hanging out, drinking in pubs and general carousing, the duo rounded out a band with Henry Spenner, Matty Derham and Jamie Putnam and something clicked. Instead of saying fuck it, the fivesome decided to fast-track themselves to a gig, which lead to them pressing 1000 copies of a single, which got played on the radio which eventually sold out in two hours.
Not bad for almost walking away.
This sparked a frenzy, but it's a fire that's being contained. Why? Fields don't want it to get out of control. Instead they want people to organically discover their music. And speaking of the music, it's virtually unable to peg Fields into a genre; they come to the game with a smattering of influences. From Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine and the shoegazing bands of the '90s to '60s psychedelic pop and '70s folk rock, the music is accessible, energetic, gorgeous, intense and, dare I say, fun-loving. For even the biggest music snob, Fields is hard to dislike. And while their music comes across on the softer side, the band recently held their own on a pan-European tour for MTV2 with hard rockers Wolfmother and Forward Russia.
Fields is currently working on a full-length album with producer Michael Beinhorn (Korn, Red Hot Chili Peppers) and will likely release that CD in 2007. Look for the band during their first-ever US tour, which will include a stop at SXSW.
Before heading into the interview, check out some songs:
Ok, now read the entire interview or just listen to it now (you may have to turn up the volume -- the connection made the chat slightly soft).
Q&A with Nick Peill of Fields:
SomethingGlorious: You were the ever-missing man this week!
Nick Peill: Yesterday, I totally forgot. I went into a recording studio with another band to do backing vocals on their album and my phone was off.
SG: Who were you in the studio with?
NP: They're called Good Book; they're a fairly up and coming band over here. We basically went down with a guy from Mystery Jets and some other people in bands who sang backing vocals – it was like Live Aid. Cajun Dance Party, a young London band, and some other people I don't remember were there.
SG: Where are you right now?
NP: I'm at home – it's my only day off in like three or four months. It's nice to be not in a venue or not on a tour bus.
SG: Where is home:
NP: Home for this week is just outside of London near Reading. I'm moving into London before Christmas.
SG: Which neighborhood are you moving to?
NP: Probably East London somewhere near Old Street in Shoreditch.
SG: I was just there, staying with a friend off Great Eastern Street. He lives right above a Subway.
NP: Yeah, it's where most of the band lives and we record in Bethnel Green. The places I know better are near Hoxton Square.
SG: Ok, enough about Shoreditch. Let's talk about Fields. I actually
only first heard "Song for the Fields" a couple of months ago and that's
all I needed to hear. You got me. When did that first come out?
NP: Oh, I can't remember exactly when it was. We put it out as a kind of limited run on 7 inch – 1000 copies during the summer.
SG: Was it one of those things that just caught on?
NP: We had a really amazing response to it and it sold out in like 2
hours. We had great radio support and friends made a video that got
onto MTV. It was a brilliant first, sort of, statement for us.
SG: You know, it's interesting that every other big buzz band in
England seems to have some tabloid shit around them, but I haven't seen
anything about you guys?
NP: [Laughs] There will be some skeletons in the closet I'm sure. We've
avoided being lumped in with
any scenes or having any massive amount of
hype over here. We're in a nice position where people are getting aware
of who we are. We're developing in our own little bubble.
SG: How did the MTV2 tour affect people knowing you?
NP: Just in terms of playing in front of lots of people, it was
definitely our biggest tour to date. We played in front of something
like 18,000 people across the seven dates. And being on a bigger stage
where we're not standing shoulder-to-shoulder was nice. And having a
proper light show and all that! A large percentage of the audience each
night had maybe heard of us but hadn't seen the band. They were still
making up their minds of who we are – not necessarily whether they like
us or not. We had such a brilliant response from the shows. It's been
the best thing for building an audience. We did Reading and Leeds
festivals.
SG: Weren't you supposed to play Austin City Limits?
NP: We had some dates planned for America – we had about seven dates –
but we were recording and had to stay and record and had to cancel
that, much to our annoyance. We wanted to see a bit of America. We're
doing SXSW so we'll manage
to get over to America next year.
SG: Going back to the MTV2 tour, what was it like being on the road
with Wolfmother and Forward Russia? Was it one big crazy party?
NP: Yeah it was fantastic actually. The Macabees were on the bill as
well. Between the four bands we got on so well. It was good-natured fun
lots of drinking. It was great being on tour with a band like
Wolfmother; they have really got their big stage show down to an art
form. It's interesting seeing them night after night and picking up
tips on performing on bigger stages.
SG: What are some things you learned from them?
NP: It's all about standing on the drum riser, holding your guitar up –
they do it so well, all the classic rock clichés. Just being aware of
putting a show on in front of a lot of people. It's those things that
don't actually appear over the top even if they feel like it.
SG: How did your set compare to the raucousness of theirs?
NP: We're a lot heavier live. There's a lot more focus on heavy guitars
and big synth sounds. The recordings so far don't capture live what
we're doing and the album we're working on reflects that.
SG: It's funny you say that because you're working with Michael
Beinhorn – who's worked with heavier bands like Marilyn Manson and
Soundgarden – is his influence also pulling you or is that naturally
who Fields is?
NP: We almost had to force Michael to go as extreme as we wanted it to
be. He wanted it to have more of a classic rock quality like Led
Zeppelin. We kind of pushed him to be more extreme with it. Because of
his knowledge of how to get good sounds he was able to get good guitar
sounds from us. He was surprised at how much heavier we wanted it to be.
SG: How far along with recording are you?
NP: We're pretty much done with the instrumental stuff and it's down to doing vocals and additional noises.
SG: What sort of additional noises and ambient sounds?
NP: The nice thing with Michael is he had a load of vintage synths that
he shipped to the studio and we played around with those and make
ridiculous noises with those things. I like recording stuff with
Dictaphones and making ambient noises. It's a tricky thing; you have to
make sure it fits in context. I'm up for experimenting with other
instruments like mandolins and auto harps.
SG: When are you going to do a proper US tour?
NP: We're going to be over next year quite a bit. The plan is to get over to America. I hope
we'll play with some goods bands. The location alone is exciting for us
to just go there. Quite often we're in the dark of where we're going.
Our booking agent gets us our shows.
SG: It's no secret that you have some well-placed friends. But do you
find it annoying that all the early press about Fields felt like they
had to mention that before then praising your music's ability to stand
out on its own?
NP: To a certain extent, I guess. I've been playing music for a number
of years in different forms. I guess ultimately it's affected by who
you know and sometimes the fact of meeting the right person at the
right time can make a difference to whether you get on the next step of
the ladder. It's kind of an unfortunate fact of the music industry. We
didn't go out of our way to court that but some of the right people
liked what we were doing – and also that we were able to be good enough
to capitalize on those opportunities. It makes people skeptical of the
genuineness of the band. It's frustrating. I've been working on these
songs for three years now. My fear is someone thinking it was
manufactured but that was never the case. It just happened that some
people we knew were in a position to help us out.
SG: I just find it amazing that the press can't talk about the music standing up on its own without pointing out the other.
NP: The press is always looking for an angle to write about you. The
fact that [bassist] Matty [Derham] cut the hair of Russell [Lissack] in
Bloc Party gave them something to write about. In the early stages of a
band when we only have a few songs out there they'll talk about that
too. The feeling is they'll write about something and as long as
they're saying positive things about the music, it doesn't bother me.
We have to prove we are worth seeing.
SG: With the music, I caught a lot of folk undertones and '60s-esque
pop. Do you feel like your sound – which also has some influences of
Air, the French pop band – can get lost among all the dominant
post-punk rock that's coming out now?
NP: The thing with the band is, for me alone, there's a host of
different influences. Writing it's more acoustic, but live we're more
rooted in a shoegazing band like My Bloody Valentine. We're quite hard
to pigeonhole because we have a number of influences that bubble under.
I've been writing a lot of the songs prior to the band getting together
but everyone else in the band writes individually. There's so many
avenues we can go down – it's a blessing and a curse really. We can
throw in a curve ball we have the potential to go on any number of
tangents. That's why we haven't been lumped into any scene by the press
because they can't quite work out what it is what we do – it's a
mixture of a bunch of things.
SG: The song "A Slow Crawling Hand" is the only song on the album
without any lyrics, yet it's probably the most emotional and dramatic
tune. What's behind that song?
NP: I'm sort of big fan of instrumental music. The melody is where the
emotion comes off, more so than lyrically. This was just one track I
particularly liked. It was an intention to show this more folky side in
contrast to others like "Song for the Fields." It's a particularly nice
song for me. There's some field recordings on it – the bells at the
beginning of the track are from a monastery outside Barcelona. I have
about 40 instrumental tracks like that. It's my most introspective and
cathartic side to the music. It's more delicate.
SG: I also found it interesting that you and [singer] Thorunn [Antonia]
were both in this "fuck off" attitude toward the music business, but
then you all came together and something clicked. Do you think it was
just the timing of your other projects and the synergy of this
combination of players?
NP: It was all of those factors. It was freaky for us. We'd been
hanging out for a couple of months and drinking basically and
socializing. We tried rehearing and playing together. We all clicked
after one rehearsal and then booked some gigs. We gelled as musicians
and the timing was right and the right people took interest at the
right time. It was total fluke really – but a happy fluke.
SG: This may be a better question for her, but is her dad [who wrote Iceland's National Anthem] a big lead to follow?
NP: She comes from a very musical background, but I think she wants to
do something her dad would be proud of. Her motivation is a personal
desire to make the best music she can. We'll play stuff and it will
remind her of stuff her dad did in the in '70s. I think he's made some
pretty crazy records in his time. She's a big lover of music. I don’t
think he's a figure she has to impress. We played in Iceland and he
came to see us.
SG: Did you go for the Iceland Airwaves music festival?
NP: It was fantastic. It's such a crazy place – an amazing country. It
feels like you're at the edge of the world. It's so desolate and quiet.
This was probably the busiest time with the festival and it was still
relatively quiet.
SG: How long were you there?
NP: We were there for about four days and went to the Blue Lagoon, this famous volcanic lake.
SG: Was it really cold?
NP: It was fucking freezing and I didn't have a coat. I had this
ridiculous scarf that didn't keep me warm at all but it gave me an
excuse to drink a lot of spirits.
SG: So you used to be a teacher?
NP: I trained as a primary school teacher and was about to embark on my
career at the same time as I was thinking about the band. During my
training I spent like a month or two teaching one class but I never had
my own class.
SG: So teaching probably didn't prepare you for a career in music?
NP: Welllll, there's a lot less paper work in music which is a bonus.
Teaching is performing to a certain degree. It's probably the most
hardcore form of performing and you have to do it all day and ad-lib as
you go along. There are a few things that are similar, but I'd rather
be a musician. Just
purely for the paperwork aspect!
SG: when I first read your bio, it seemed very fantasy oriented. Do you read a lot of fantasy literature and movies?
NP: Not excessively really. In a sense of fantasy of stuff, but it's
rooted more in tradition or a nostalgic sort of view in rural world
that didn't' exist. There's a slight fairy tale quality – even with the
artwork. We wanted to create this timeless world where there's a sense
of nature and more rural existence. That's one element of the band. I
wouldn't say there's a huge fantasy element. It's interesting what
people pick up on. With lyrics, I like there to be this ambiguity where
people can maybe have an image that's suggested through the lyrics.
SG: I'm glad we finally connected. So do you get to have more time off other than today?
NP: I'm back in the studio tomorrow and then we have more gigs. I think
we have a week off at Christmas. Believe me, I'm not complaining I'm
loving every element of what we're doing. It's thrilling!
Comments