☮ LOUDER THAN BOMBS online magazine ☮

Unconcious Jungle, recently named “BBC Manchester Introducing – Band of the week” (July 12th 2010), and owners of one hell of a band name. Here’s what LTB made of their E.P

Upon hearing their E.P, I couldn’t help but notice some subtle tones of “The Beatles” during the White Album-era. This is, quite obviously, a good thing. Yet what Unconscious Jungle have is quite unique. By they’re own admission, their sound consists of folk, psychedelia, 20th century dance.

Beauty flows effortlessly through “Four dances for dancers” with lulling harmonies and lyrics worth singing. They’re a band with huge potential, and worth following.

MYSPACE
BLOG

Here at LTB we love a lot of things about The Chapman Family.

Not only have they built up an enviable reputation and played some huge dates already, they are a band still to put out their debut album. We managed to get an exclusive interview with the Tees-band. This is what we, and they, have to say…

LTB: How would you describe “The Chapman Family” to new-comers to the band?

TCF: Either your worst nightmare or your best dream. People either tend to really, really like us to the point of stalkerish obsession or completely hate us occasionally to the point of violence. I quite like the fact that we’ve always polarized people : I think the worst things you can say to a band after they play is “yeah it was OK” or “that was nice” as it essentially means nothing at all. We’ve tried to stay true to ourselves as much as possible with this band and if you get it, bravo well done, and if not, that’s fine, just move along. We’ve never been about “mass appeal.”

LTB: Having formed the band back in 2006, What’s been the highlight for you so far?

TCF: Everything is a highlight, I think it has to be to keep powering you on to (hopefully) bigger and better things. Getting our demo played on BBC Tees for the very first time was heart poundingly amazing; getting the phonecall saying you’re playing at Glastonbury while in the toilet at work made me pretty emotional as Pop (bass player) had fell out of the balcony in the Empire a couple of days before and almost died; walking my dog to the newsagent to pick up a copy of the NME knowing that there was a full page dedicated to us was totally thrilling; going to Japan earlier this year was unbelievable. Considering that for the majority of the time that this band has existed we have done EVERYTHING ourselves – from putting on gigs in pub back rooms, making our own flyers and t-shirts, sacrificing pretty much all of our social lives – I feel honoured and priviledged for every good thing that happens, (even though I am more penniless and debt-ridden now than I have ever been in my life).

LTB: The debut album is currently being recorded…how are the sessions going?

TCF: Nearly finished. Due to finances and other issues it’s been a hard graft. With a bit of luck all of the anger and frustration and passion we’ve been feeling at the time of recording will all come through in the finished record. It might not be entirely comfortable listening but I think it’ll be exhilarating – we never started it wanting to be like Keane. It should finally come out in January.

LTB: Do you find yourself writing more in the studio? Or perhaps trying different directions for the over-all album?

TCF: Since the end of 2009 we’ve been writing fairly prolifically anyway. Most of the songs that are on the album are brand new and will hopefully surprise people who just think we’re going to have ten songs that sound like our single “Kids.” We practice and demo songs in various forms many, many times before we go into the “proper” studio so they’re pretty much failsafe as far as we’re concerned when we come to record them. However, because we’re still so new to recording in studios we do find ourselves bouncing ideas around and experimenting in there. You have to be careful though, we’re not Pink Floyd and it’s very easy to get carried away with stupid instruments and pointless effects.

LTB: Hailing from Stockton, you’re very much a local band to LTB (M’boro), how do you think the area has influenced your sound?

TCF: I don’t think it’s a conscious influence, just an honest one. I think it’s more conscious if you purposely try to distance yourself from your area and lifestyle, in other words to reject who you really are : like if you put on an accent to sound like your idol whether they’re from America, London or wherever, or you sing songs in a style that is completely barren to you but just happens to be in vogue at the moment. I think we’ve taken a lot of Teesside traits simply because that’s who we are : we’re pretty self deprecating and honest and feel like fighting back at a world that doesn’t give two shits about us. We are Teesside.

LTB: Are they any Tees-bands that are currently catching your eye?

TCF: Bands that work hard catch my eye. Bands that sit back and wait for things to happen don’t. “Working hard” could mean practicing all day and night or making demo after demo after demo or putting your own gigs on in shitholes as no local promoters will touch you, it can mean anything at all. You can’t sit back and wait to be discovered as it won’t happen, you’ve got to go out there and get amongst it.

LTB: Who do “The Chapman Family” listen to? Die-hard Gaga-fans maybe?

TCF: Two of The Chapman Family have Lady GaGa on their ipods but I’m not one of them. Sometimes I feel like I’ve stopped listening to music altogether. I turn on the TV or the radio and can’t identify with a single song or artist or anything. The DJs banter is pointless and patronising and the music means absolutely nothing to me. I can’t think of many songs or artists in the last ten years that have connected in any way. I don’t understand the blandness of modern society and culture, I honestly think I hate everything.

LTB: You’ve been chosen by NME as a “band to watch” – how did the band respond to that? was there an element of pressure, especially with the debut album in the works?

TCF: We just put our heads down and get on with it, bollocks to everyone else. You can’t sit back and pat yourself on the back, there’s no time for that. Every successful band we’ve ever had the privilege of playing with never seem like they take anything for granted. There’s always going to be pressure. We had pressure to get people to come to our first gig at Kubar so Jimmy would put us on again. It’s all about graft and putting the hours in.

THE CHAPMAN FAMILY MYSPACE

Ronnie Joice. He’s supported Babyshambles on tour. He’s modeled for Dior, Fred Perry & Tommy Hillfigger. He’s DJ’d for Agyness Deyn, Kate Moss, Noel Fielding and Paris Hilton. He also runs his own “pop up” venue in London.

We just had to speak to him…

LTB: You’re currently running a night called “Ronnkie Pop”, how did the night first come about, and have are the ingredients for a successful night?

RJ: Ronnkie Pop was born out of the ashes of a club I used to DJ at called Wonky Pop at Matter @ the 02 arena. It was at first, a tongue-in-cheek spin-off night I put on at The Flowerpot, but grew rapidly into a regular weekly clubnight… the ingredients were simple… Great DJs, scattered with helpings of famous faces who you wouldn’t necessarily see behind the decks of a North London pub! The ethos was simple; you are here to party, we are here to party, let’s.. PARTY.

LTB: Having toured the country with Littl’ans supporting Babyshambles, is there a particular show that stands out for you?

RJ: Brixton Academy the first time around was extremely special.. to be on stage in a venue so grand and looking into a sea of thousands of people singing right back at you is something I’ll treasure dearly forever. On another note, our show at Shrewsbury stands out for many reasons.. if not for gig itself but the aftermath involving a SAS police raid on our van.. They got the wrong folk!

LTB: You’ve played VIP DJ sets for the UK’s biggest festivals, do you change your usual set to cater for a festival audience? and do you think there is a difference between people who would see you at a festival and people who come to the club nights?

RJ: It’s crucial as a DJ to be versatile and I certainly prepare my sets for festivals in a very different way to how I would for a private party or club night. I like to tailor sets to the mood.. But generally the vibe is always the same; upbeat and shameless.

LTB: Other than performing in the UK, do you have a favorite venue to play? Or somewhere you would like to perform?

RJ: Le Showcase in Paris was a pretty special place to play. As was Don Hills in New York for the Misshapes night.

LTB: You’ve DJ’d for many famous people, who would you most love to DJ for/with

RJ: I’d love to DJ for Morrissey.. although I’d be shitting myself that he hated everything I’d play!

LTB: Having DJ’d for the “Red Bull Fashion Factory” which was with London Fashion Week, is it something you’d like to do again, or do you have another project you’re working on?

RJ: The Red Bull Fashion Factory was a fantastic initiative and something I am very proud to have been a part of. Unfortunately there are no plans to host it again, but I’m very fortunate to have been invited to DJ at a host of London Fashion Week parties this coming autumn; so I’ll still be there with bells on… as usual!

You’ll find Ronnie here.

Andrew Kendall – best known for his pictures of music’s most famous faces. For years Kendall has snapped all over, traveling and living in hotel rooms. But thats about to change. LTB wanted to know more…

LTB: Having previously photographed some of the country’s best known musicians, you’re now working on your own projects – can you tell us a bit about them?

AK: I’ve set up and am running Digital Photo Gallery Ltd (http://www.digitalphotogallery.com/) which is an online software system for photographers. I’ve been programming for years, both before and alongside my photography work, this is the point where both skills sets meet. I’ve spent several years working on it and launched the private beta earlier this year. Individual photographers can sign up to manage their own images and create websites, and so far it’s been an amazing success. Some fantastic photographers are already using it and there are hundreds more on the waiting list for an invitation. We’re working with some big companies and in the last month alone the system was used by Live Nation’s photography teams to provide the official coverage for Download Festival, Serpentine Sessions, Hard Rock Calling and Wireless festival. I’ve also been working with my own team to provide live coverage of events like the Capital FM Summertime Ball. (http://summertimeballphotos.capitalfm.com/)

LTB: Through traveling for years, what was your highlight?

AK: I’ve really enjoyed travelling around the UK, seeing all the smaller towns I’d never have had a reason to visit. I can’t pick one highlight, but I’ve had some great times and had the opportunity to meet some amazing people and even if can’t remember all of it I still have the photographs to bring it all back!

LTB: What first inspired you to become a photographer?

AK: I’ve always taken pictures of everything as a record of my life, but I also enjoy the technical challenges of photography and I’m always improving. I know I would have still kept taking pictures, but the NME asking me to work for them really pushed things to a different level.

LTB: Having worked for NME, is there another publication you’d like to work for?

AK: At the moment it feels like the publishing industry is in an extremely unstable place and due to falling sales budgets are continually being cut. In addition to that, many publishers are increasingly demanding ownership of rights to all commissioned work, which I think is a serious concern for most working photographers. Because of this, there aren’t any existing publications that I’d like to work for right now.
I’m doing what I’m doing because I have so many ideas on how things can be changed for the better, and I’m sure that there are plenty of other people working up new and interesting ideas that will become the future of media.

LTB: Do you have any advice for up and coming photographers?

AK: Work really hard! Shoot every day, get a great web presence, if everybody else is doing something don’t just try and blindly copy it. Hold on to your rights and above all stick with it. If you stop loving every second of shooting, look at why and change it before it kills your passion.

LTB: You’ve been around many musicians and artists, has there a been a time where you’ve been completely star-struck?

AK: I listened to a lot of music growing up, so shooting the musicians I loved when I was younger like Morrissey or moments like when Billy Bragg told me he loved my pictures are always going to feel special. Working with newer artists is never quite the same, but that’s probably a good thing.

LTB: Do you have a particular artist that you most enjoy working with?

AK: The music industry is full of liars and fakes, so anyone who is genuinely making music because they love it. No matter what the profession, it’s the passion that stands out and it’s something that comes across in the work somebody produces and the photographs you take of them.

ANDREW’S TWITTER

ANDREW’S WEBSITE

Fionn Regan is a mercury-nominated singer songwriter from Ireland. His awe-sinspiring take on the world has delighted fans for years, and along the way has wrote some of the most orginal and breath-taking lyrics in recent years. Waxing lyrical about anything from “candles wrapped in newspaper” to “waltzing through the graveyard to the ballad of the toadeaters”

We stole a few minutes of Fionn’s time and here was the outcome:

LTB: Album number two was very well received, just as album one, do you feel a certain pressure leading up to a new album? Or is it a case of being confident on what goes onto the record?

FR: Both albums were made without any brass; I made the records on a lot less money, than most artists spend on taxis to & from the studio. That’s the air where the pressure lies.

LTB: You’ve cited many singer-songwriters as influences, outside of music who inspires you?

FR: The tone in a voice, telephone, lightning, red wine, wax jackets, humor, knee length socks, midnight dancing, women, listening to trains lying in bed, trees, rain…

LTB: Your first album, End Of History, had a very DIY feel to it, is this an aspect of recording/final sound that you aim for, or simply a natural sound?

FR: To be honest, the second record out done the first in the diy department, the second record came out of a near impossible situation. I like what Malcolm Mclaren said (I’m not quoting here but it something to the tune of) “ I need to be able to hear the spirit of the amateur” I really don’t like professional sounding music. I need to hear the hard reach.

LTB: You’ve worked with/ played with many established artists over the years, is there anybody new your currently working with or will be soon?

FR: Well, I just opened for Patti smith in Hyde Park, magic one. The rest is a mystery……..

LTB: What do you think 2011 holds for you? a departure from the current sound perhaps?

FR: I’m hoping to finish my next album in 2010, have that out in 2011, I might even finish two put one straight to vinyl.

LTB: Where do you find yourself writing most of your music? On the road? Or a certain studio/room that brings it out of you?

FR: I write anywhere sitting in back of a dingy pub, in the harbour, under a streetlight, in the shed, by the fire, out in the woods, cueing for stamps, pool hall, 6-man tent…

http://www.myspace.com/fionnregan

It’s the day after Adam Ficek had confirmed he had left Babyshambles. The venue is the breath-taking House of St Barnabas – ran by “Quintessentially Soho.

There is a air of uncertainty this evening, either we’re curious to see how far Adam’s solo venture, Roses Kings Castles can go, or we’re perplexed as how such a beautiful venue was so tucked away in the bustle oh Soho. Either way, it’s a big night for Adam, and he delivered, seemingly with ease. Roses Kings Castles returns Adam to a more simplistic sound, combining catchy acoustic tones with surprisingly gripping lyrics. Tones and phrases reminiscent of Morrissey seem to come easy to Adam. The gig was in support of his 2nd album, and single release “One born every minute”.
In-between two stunning performances, I caught up with Adam:

LTB: You’ve got your new single, how does it feel to have it out there?

AF: Feel’s amazing, I mean, I’ve released a few before, but its all very nice, looking forward to the future really…

LTB: So what does the future hold?

AF: More promoting really and I’m doing loads more remixes at the moment, DJing some of the stuff…

LTB: Do you feel there is a difference now compared to when you first started in terms of pressure and expectation?

AF: There is more pressure. When you first release an album it just flies out there, but as you get more and more fans, you feel you need to deliver something of a higher caliber. But because I want to move out of the style of music I’ve become accustom to, and trying to write differently, especially lyrically, so it all becomes a challenge…

LTB: Do you feel there is a particular style that you’re aiming for?

AF: Erm, not at all, I just like a good song really, whether than be a pop song or an indie song, stylistically its all over the shop, but it retains a real strong sense of melody, that’s been kept since White Sport and through Babyshambles also.

LTB: As you mentioned White Sport, are you still in touch with the original members?

AF: Yeah, Andrew(Aveling) and Patrick( Walden) are great musicians, and I want to try to get together and play with those guys but they’re both so busy, Patrick’s doing his own thing now aswell (Big Dave), he’s one of the best guitarists of his generation, I really do think that.

LTB: Whilst you were in Babyshambles with Patrick Walden, and after his departure, what has been your highlights?

AF:Playing the EMA’s, playing Wembley Areana…yeah, we’ve had some amazing achievements, but the time is to move on positively now with a different take on everything.

LTB: Is there any song outside of the projects you’ve worked on, that you wish you had wrote?

AF: I’m a huge fan of bands like the stone roses, I really love Stornaway at the moment. There’s this big move that goes towards…just cut the bullshit from rock and roll, which we’ve had since 2002, I think the strokes kind of kick-started it, and then everyone jumped on, but now what we’re getting to is a period where there is a bit of an reaction against it, its going back to noble shit, stripped back, a really good song.

http://www.adamficek.com/

http://www.quintessentiallysoho.com/

Here are some fantastic pictures from the performance in soho:

photo’s by Hydar Dewachi (www.dewachi.com)

In light of the recent reformation of The Libertines, a question came to me.
“Why now?”
In this case, it sadly seems highly charged by the zero’s on the check.
I’ll be the first to admit, I’m extremely excited at the prospect of The Libertines playing live again, but having attended their press conference in London, there was a tremendous feeling of…here we go again. As predicted, the dynamic between Pete’n’Carl is the same. It’s not yet known if this is blessing or a curse, which we’re all sure to find out first-hand in August.

This August, the Reading and Leeds festival will play host to a band that will feel they still have something to offer. After years of Libertines-inspired bands making a break for it, they finally have a chance to play to a packed main stage they feel they’ve deserved. Yet it seems that the nostalgic hoopla surrounding the band, may have just papered over the cracks that The Libertines have. They don’t have many “hits”, not so much that the slot they have may demand. Yet despite that, where they may lack in hits especially compared to many bands that will entertain the crowds this summer, they more than make up for with their ‘heart’s on they’re sleeves’ attitude and showing “two cold fingers” to those who doubt they’re ready or deserve it.

Despite a strong financial kick-up the backside, they have an amazing opportunity. One, you could argue, they’d have never earned having not broke up or their darker moments splattered all over the press. Perhaps a calculated move that may just confirm they were the Great British band that mattered during the Naughties, but a band that still has potential.

You won’t find many people in the crowd complaining about the cash they’ll receive. Instead, you’ll find a plethora of Doherty-look-alikes in resplendent trilby’s and drainpipes, happy to quote a line that means the most to them.
“If you’ve lost your faith in love and music, the end won’t be long” – being among the favorites and likely to be the most poignant lines sang this summer. Along with when Doherty sings “You know you’ve got it the wrong way round. You shut me up, and blamed it on the brown”. In fact the list could go on, which simply highlights the sheer emotion that is involved in this reunion. A reunion that potentially, in years to come could have been regarded in the same light as The Smiths and The Stone Roses, yet the split never did seem as definite. Carl said along it was a hiatus, and we can consider ourselves lucky that Doherty concentrated on Babyshambles on not quite 100% on certain other things. After a brief reconciliation during Doherty’s (no so) solo performance at the Hackney Empire in 2007, various sources have pointed to a full reunion. Both Barat and Doherty, on the night, were visibly in awe at the situation they found themselves in. Not only was the chemistry there, the demand for The Libertines together as unit was too. Cut to 2010, it’s finally here, after new Dirty Pretty Things and Babyshambles material.

For a band that took a drastic change of style early on in order to succeed, they’ve carved a substantial reckoning and following. A devoted one at that, always keen to see Doherty clean, Barat content and for the best part, John and Gary unfairly silent. It’s expected (and maybe accidently confirmed by John – bassist) they’ll be at least one warm-up gig leading up to the Leeds and Reading festival. During this period of preparation, it’s also expected that a decision will be made as to will they or won’t they continue after August. For a lot of reasons that decision cannot come soon enough. With Babyshambles fading grimly, and Carl Barat’s acting career on what could/(should?) be a permanent hold, now, it would seem, be the ‘perfect’ time.

Especially after the Oasis split. The UK music scene is looking for their new “Oasis”, and with two well received and often referred to as “classic” albums under their belt, there is every chance they will take the crown from Oasis. For similar reasons, The Libertines and Oasis can be held in similar regard. The onstage chemistry, the troubled relationships, the tabloid fascination and the ability to sum up British culture in a line or song, this year may confirm there place in the British rock and roll hall of fame. Or shall The Libertines “through it all away” just as Oasis predicted in “Don’t look back in anger”. A band that many fans have depended on for years, and have genuinely believed the band understands them. I’m now referring to both The Libertines and Oasis.
They have the potential to either take over from Oasis or fall apart more devastatingly than ever before. The Libertines are a band famed for/based on, a volatile relationship, one they may have cashed in on one last time.

But let’s face it, the prospect of singing along with Pete and Carl during “can’t stand me now”…it’s been a long wait. Welcome back.