NEWS
EVENTS
Enter Edit Select: An interview with Guestlist
Indie | Friday 3rd January 2014 | Annalisa
A 4 piece indie band cultivated in the dark rooms of South East Londons live scene, negotiating the doors of every art space or warehouse they can drag a backline through, Edit Select have been on a mission to humidify every box-venue stage from here to East Germany for over a year now. With the release of their new EP, "Lungs", having been tipped by some of the most reputable figures in the industry, Edit Select are set to gnaw their way apologetically through the wave of bubblegum bands and hype cowboys. They aim to please. And by please, they mean write great tunes and see walls sweat...
Matt Stolworthy, frontman and resident DJ for the band, tells tales of life in Edit Select; past, present, and an ever more promising future...
Matt! Nice to see you again! Now, I saw Edit Select play for the first time last July in Peckham, since then you've been busy bees, but for those yet to experience your music or live set, how would you describe yourselves?
I guess we're very enthusiastic. we love to play live and I think it shows though our set. We try hard to evoke energy and emotion from our audience, if we engross ourselves with what we're doing on the stage, then hopefully it will engross the people standing in front of us. We like to make people jump around, go crazy.
Well I was there for your EP launch a few weeks back at New Cross' Amersham Arms, that got pretty... shall we say, hairy? How was it from where you were standing, did you enjoy being back on "Home Turf"?
It was brilliant, so awesome. It was basically a room full of love. To get our friends, family, and fans together under one roof, and then have it completely ram out, was unbelievable. It felt like a real achievement, you know? We've been doing this a year and a half, and it's really just the start. It's our home, and what a great place to perform our EP on, so inspirational.
Because you've moved around a lot recently haven't you? Where on your travels have you found is your favorite place to play?
Obviously we live in London, and we love playing in London, but the scene has become very over saturated with bands and artists in recent years. People are desensitized to unsigned artists. At the moment we're really enjoying Europe, we've been there a few times now and the response is always great, and it's getting bigger and bigger. So in answer to the question I'd say either Amsterdam or Hamburg, and even more specifically Hamburgs "Molotov". We played there in September and it was bonkers. The team were really wonderful and the crowd were amazing. We turned up and it was sold out, we're going back there in January to do it all over again.
With your next European tour just around the corner, and your EP having just been released, do you expect it will have had an effect on the way you are perceived at your shows?
Definitely! Last time we were out there the record wasn't even finished yet, and we still had people singing our stuff back at us, and since the release our presence in Europe seems to have spread. We've had a fair few messages from people that saw us last time saying how they can't wait for us to come back and how much they liked the record. So we're just really excited to go back knowing that a few more people know we are than when we were last there. It's going to be wicked.
Having played Eurosonic, Brownstock and Indigo02 this year with artists such as Mark Ronson and Tom Odell, has the band developed a taste for the bigger platform, or do you prefer the grassroots, sweatbox shows?
It's always nice to play on a big stage, it turns the show on its head a bit. It gives you more freedom to perform to your best capabilities, at the same time thats an enourmous pressure. I do like playing on the big stage, but the sweatbox is where we come from, the sweatbox is what we're comfortable with, the sweatbox is who we are. When we play those shows, that's probably when you see our true colours.
Road or studio?
I love the studio, but I'd choose the road.
Speaking of which... "Lungs" is the title track of your 5 track EP, mastered at Abbey Road. Do you think it sets a tone for the band, have you captured your definitive sound?
We listened to a lot of feedback concerning what track we should use as the single. As much as we want to stay true to us, these are the people that will hopefully be coming to your shows and buying your music. We put "Lungs" out as a single because we thought it was our most commercially viable track, and so far that idea has been affirmed. It's had a fair amount of press and radio exposure, and XFM's John Kennedy has spun it a few times now, so that's exciting. But I don't think it sets a true tone for what the band is, it has a happier sound than some of our other songs, we more commonly lean towards dark, moody indie tones. We have moments of indie pop-ness, but I wouldn't say that's necessarily a 100% true representation of what we do. We're very eclectic and I think it's easier to define our sound based on the EP as opposed to individual tracks.
Listening to the record, I think you begin to see a few patterns emerge throughout. Is there a particular message or set of themes that run throughout?
If you look at some of the tracks titles you can see it. We tried to create a sort of tropical, indie theme. When we started writing a lot of the songs, it was summer, and there's a lot of imagery to compliment that. There's also a big emphasis on being away from home, a lot of it is escapism.At the time I ws in a place I wanted to escape from, not necessarily geographically, but I projected that onto the lyrics. The record is our escape.
So far you've done pretty well unaided or abetted. Are there any looming plans to sign to a record label?
It's always been in the back of our minds. And of course it would be nice, as well as a huge help in pushing our presence. But at the same time we have full control over what we do, and that's really nice. We're talking to a few labels at the moment, but we'll see what happens.
So what can we expect from Edit Select in 2014?
In January we have our European tour, which is going to be awesome. We're planning a UK, tour, writing a new EP, hopefully do some festivals again in the summer. We're just going to keep doing what we do. Writing and playing as much as we can to as many people as we can, really pushing it. 2014 is going to be the year where you really see us pull our fingers out of our arses.
You can find out more about Edit Select on their facebook page: www.facebook.com/editselect
Or on Twitter @EditSelect
