I've got such a treat for you all today; I've got not only a rock solid gig to tell you about, but an interview with the frontman himself!
I'm so excited to be sharing with you the hypnotic tunes of Neon Waltz, a Scottish quartet with a sound so their own it rejects all ideas of modern conformity. I was very kindly offered the chance to see the boys play in Leeds last month by their management, Ignition Records, as they neared the end of their UK tour.
I've actually covered Neon Waltz before, if any of you remember, for the release of their poignant EP, 'Bring Me To Light'. It was upon my first hearing of 'Bring Me To Light' that kick-started my love of the boys' kaleidoscopic rock. Their sound captures a perfect symmetry of chaos and calm; with melodies that seem to echo fairground daydreams whilst their lyrics reflect an experienced realism. I was unfortunately in Canada at the time so was unable to attend a show, but a year later the opportunity finally presented itself and the boys effortlessly outshone all my expectations and delivered a beautifully transfixing show.
I was lucky enough to catch up with Jordan, Neon Waltz's frontman, before the show, who very kindly let me pick his brain about the origins of the band and all the elements that accumulated to form the charming enigma that is Neon Waltz. Jordan was so easy to talk to and such a genuine guy that he made my job an absolute breeze and we had a lovely chat which you can all read below...
INTERVIEW
J: We find it hard to place as well, I’ve been asked this question a million times but I’ve never been able to give a definitive answer. I don’t really hear much Britpop in it.
H: Not any more, you’ve got an older sound to it now
J: Aye, its kind of an easy comparison to make cause we’re on the same management as Oasis and Noel Gallagher. I think a lot of people don’t know how to place it so they just think of our management and say "we’ll go that way", I don’t know. It’s not something I really hear, we’ve got big choruses and stuff so maybe thats got something to do with it. But bands that we love are like a lot of American bands like The Walkmen and The National. A band that we all love, an old band are The Band, they’re actually Canadian.
H: I don’t think I know them (I've since researched them and I do know a number of their songs)
J: You should listen to them, they’re amazing. There’s a film that we all kind of bonded over, the point that basically started the band, and Martin Scorsese directed it, its called ‘The Last Waltz’ and its about The Band and it’s their last ever gig. They’re amazing and thats something that we’ve collectively got a love for. Again, I find it hard to pin down what category we fit into so when anyones asks me in the street “what sort of band are you?” I just kind of say indie, psychedelic.
H: Yeah indie is what I think I went with last time cause I couldn’t place it, but you know that’s a good thing because you have your identity and you don’t want to be compared to anyone else.
J: Exactly and I think a lot of its to do with where we’re from as well, cause we’re from John O’Groats…
H: Yeah I was going to ask how you got into music being so far away from any sort of music hubs
J: We’re like the few people who are good at music *laughs* no there’s a lot of people good at music in John O’Groats but there’s so few people that we were the ones who were good at writing music, playing music but liked the same kind of music as well. We were all mates so we just started a band. There’s no like scene or anything so I think a lot of the time, take a city, say Glasgow, there’s a lot of bands in any city that sound similar and it’s because they’re all part of a scene. Whereas we’ve never had a scene so we’ve never been, kind of forced to sound like anyone else, we’ve just written tunes that we thought were good. We never thought that if we write like this, or if our songs sound like this, we’ll get in this little scene and then we’ll play with these bands. That just never occurred for us and I think that helped us out, it feels annoying when you’re starting out but it’s good.
H: It is good though because it gives you that sense of individuality
J: Just freedom as well you know…I don’t want to seem like I’m having a go either, if we came from Leeds we’d probably sound like a load of other bands from Leeds. We’re lucky enough I guess to come from a place where there was no other bands, you know what I mean? It was totally organic.
H: Do you have a lot of support in your hometown as well?
J: Aye yeah, its mad. I think they think we’re more famous than we are
H: I mean that’s not a bad thing
J: No, its good. But we’ll go on a night out, and its one of those places where everyone knows everyone as well, you went to school with half of the people you see out, and you might not have been mates with them at school, and you go ‘oh its that guy I remember from school’ and they’ll come up to you like ‘Jordan! Fucking Neon Waltz’ you’re like ‘aye how’s it going’ they’ve got like a job offshore or something, where they make ridiculous amounts of money, and they’ll be like ‘you want a pint’ and I’ll be like ‘aye ok I’ll have a pint of Fosters’ and they’ll go ‘aye you should be buying me fucking pints you’re rich now’ I’m like ‘rich? I’m fucking skint as a bean’ and you know its just cause they don’t kind of know the way that the music industry works and they think we’re rich cause we’ve played with Noel Gallagher and stuff but far from it. If I had a job at Tesco I’d be better off than I am now *laughs*.
J: Yeah pretty much, its the start of a steady stream of new music now
H: An album?
J: I think we’re just gonna play it a couple of tunes at a time. Instead of just leaving a big gap and then releasing an album, we’re just gonna steadily increase the interest. We’ve not released much since the debut album came out, so I think you kind of need to think logically. We’re not at the size yet where we can just release an album and everyone will be so interested, you have to build everyone back up to that kind of stage. We’re gonna be in the studio again soon after this tour.
H: And how are you enjoying the tour so far?
J: It’s been brilliant, its been like a proper step up. It’s hard to judge when you’re at home, especially in fucking John O’Groats, you kind of lose sight of what stage your bands at when you’ve not toured for a while. It’s been like, pretty much in every city a mad change, every venue been sold out and it’s been rammed, its good.
H: How much do you think your music has changed throughout your career, from ‘Strange Hymns’ till now?
J: We’re more guitar based now when we’re writing because for ‘Strange Hymns’ we had six members who would write all our songs together. Since then, our bass players left and our keys players taken a bit of a hiatus, just for life reasons, but there’s four of us now; me, two guitarists, Jamie and Kevin, and drummer, Darren. So we write between the four of us now, and I play bass and a bit of keys when we write, and Darren plays a bit of keys when we write as well. Its a lot more guitar driven, so we write songs the four of us, and if there’s a little bit that we think would add to a song, little bit of keys we add it, whereas before it was a main part of the tune. Its worked well so far anyway so we’re happy to keep going just as far as we can. If Liam, the keys player, ever has the opportunity to come back it’ll be sort of the way it was. You just have to adapt to certain situations and we’re good enough that we can do it a slightly different way.
H: What inspires the stories you tell in your songs, what makes you want to sit down and write music?
J: It’s kind of weird, the way that I write a song, the chords always come first and then I’ll just be singing stuff that doesn’t make sense but I’ll have a melody. I’ll find what the melody is and then I’ll just be singing fucking nonsense. Then I’ll listen back to it and there’s always one line that sits really well and must be something thats in my subconscious and then I think ‘thats what that means’ and then I write it, I keep that line in and then I write the song about whatever it is. So it’s always something quite personal you know, it sounds really wanky this *laughs* but you know what I mean, there’s something lingering in my head that comes out when I just sing nonsense. Well for me anyway, if I ever try sit down and write a song and think ‘right I’m gonna write about this’, it always comes out fucking shit. Its the wankiest thing I’ve ever said, but it has to come from the heart, you know? and if you’re just rambling nonsense, and one little line comes out that totally makes sense and works as a good line, find it and then thats what you build the song around.
H: What can we expect from you guys going forward now?
J: Yeah I mean obviously the main plan for any band is to be as big as they can be. [In the] immediate future, we’ll just keep releasing more music and it’ll just keep going gradually. When we started I think people expected us to be massive straight away, and I think we expected that as well cause you know everyone was telling us, like record labels and stuff. But I’m actually glad it didn’t work that way because we weren’t ready for it, and its just gone gradually up. We’re quite happy to just play the long game and keep gradually growing, and that’s the way its been for like the last three years so I’m happy for it to keep going that way.
REVIEW
GLASSHEADS
First up were newcomers to the Leeds scene, GLASSHEADS, a post-rock six piece who met at Leeds College of Music and are getting ready to release their debut EP. This was the boys first ever show and they did a pretty good job of it. Their tracks were a little more on the compositional side, with guitar instrumentals and a layer of keys faintly peppering their songs. The music was emotive, akin to a lullaby in tempo and in sentiment. With the release of their first EP coming up I think we'll see them making their way round the Leeds circuit fairly soon.
THE HARRIETS
Next up were The Harriets, who had some great numbers up their sleeves! With a much more lively energy and rock'n'roll feel, they loosened up the crowd and encouraged a little dancing. They opened with a cool track called 'Cafe Disco' and then a uplifting number called 'Have Fun In Your Work Place' which let us know from the off that these guys liked to have a little fun and a jest. They had a great attitude about them, were clearly awesome guitar players and imaginative lyricists. They followed with a track called 'Television' which had a little more grit about it and a cut-the-shit message about popular culture. They finished with their latest single, titled 'Harry', which ached for you to dance with it and climaxes with a great kick at the end. They were talented and having such a fun time on stage that I reckon these boys could be an interesting one to watch.
NEON WALTZ
And then came the Waltzers. These boys were on fire, Jordan was completely accurate when he said that things had stepped up a notch. I hadn't seen them play before, but they definitely played at the level of the band they the potential to become. The show was spot on; their presence, tone and live ability were perfect, the stage their rightful home. They started with a few early songs, including 'Sundial' and 'Stranger Things', which pulled the audience into the remote but beautifully vivid soundspace that we know to be Neon Waltz. Their sound is definitely psychedelic, it takes hold of you when you hear it live and seems to take you away into a dream. To quote Jordan; "We're down a G string and we're still fucking magic".
They performed a stripped-back arrangement of their introspective and gorgeous track 'When I Fall Asleep', which was the highlight of the show for me, as its my favourite song of theirs for it's blunt sincerity. They continued with their latest single, 'Friends Who Lost Control', which roused the audience and bolstered the energy in the room with its unrelenting beat and bold chorus. It got everyone dancing and when followed with the freedom filled, coming-of-age track, 'Bring Me To Light', they lit up the room. There's a maturity and touch of cynicism in their lyrics, but its balanced perfectly with colourful, spirited melodies that seem to echo and encourage a sense of youthful optimism. Their completely singular sound was an honest joy to hear live.
The boys of course performed their fantastic song, 'Dreamers', which had everyone in the room signing the principal lyric; "You should do what you love while you can" right back at them. We were all there because we share a love of good music, and it was with a total sense of camaraderie that we belted out the lyrics to a song that perfectly surmises the heart of Neon Waltz.
The lads closed the show with two singles from their first album, 'Heavy Heartless' and 'Perfect Frame', which brought the atmosphere in the room to a soul-lifting high. The climatic harmonies of 'Perfect Frame' took us all to the seashore of John O'Groats, as if we were running with the boys along the coastline, chasing the last shining light of the day. It rings with freedom and fearlessness that you want to capture, which is what makes it the phenomenal song that it is.
Neon Waltz's music is so engaging because there's something about their lyrics and melodies that resonates so genuinely with people, that it inspires a true love their sound. Their keen and distinct identity is so refreshing to hear, compared to the sea of music on the radio that you can't even tell apart, that it makes you cherish it even more. These boys deserve all the rewards of their hard work and I can't wait for them to share with us what new music they have in the pipeline.
I'd like to say a huge thank you to Ignition Records for inviting me along to the show, to Jordan for a really fun interview and to all the bands for a night of great playing. Congratulations to Neon Waltz for the success of their UK tour and good luck going back into the studio, we shall all wait here with baited breath.
See you soon,
Holly
Neon Waltz:
Youtube
Spotify
The Harriets:
Youtube
Spotify
GLASSHEADS:
Youtube
Spotify
Holly:
Website
