Interview with Mascot Fight!

Howdy there kiddas, how are you feeling today? Isn't the weather bonkers at the moment? One minute it's a gorgeous Autumn morning, the next you're sheltering under a wind-knackered umbrella with bird-nest hair and a soaked-through raincoat. I know lots of you will be popping along to this Sunday's Midland Railway benefit gig at the wonderful Lee Rosy's in Nottingham, so make sure you're armed with your brollies! Lots of Indietracks bands will be playing, such as Pete Green, the Bobby McGees and Pocketbooks, and we'll be posting up a review and piccies here as soon as we can!

Of course, also appearing at this Sunday's gig are Mascot Fight, who are playing at Christmas Twee on December 6. (Ooh, quick reminder to get your tickets now from We Got Tickets, they're selling really fast and you don't want be without a bit o' steam action this Christmas!)

The Derby-based guitar popsters, who have been all over the airwaves since they formed in 2004, join us this week to tell us about their Christmas Twee plans....

Hello there Mascot Fight - nice to meet you! The summer Indietracks festival has been going for a couple of years now, but Christmas Twee is a little bit different. What attracted you to playing there?

Well, you don't often get the chance to play a gig that combines Santa, trains and pop music! And there's a raffle- amazing! Tom also used to LOVE going to Butterley as a kid, so it's a nice nostalgia trip too.

Wow- youngster steam train-based action! And what can fans expect from your Christmas Twee appearance?

We'll do our level (crossing!) best to provide some catchy songs to rival Jingle Bells, Let it Snow et al in terms of popping into people's heads over the festive season! If you turn up expecting Pavement-lite, you possibly won't be disappointed.

Hmm, sounds interesting! What do you think of the current indiepop scene at the moment?

Scandinavia appears to have a production line of excellent pop bands right now- it's like a modern day Viking invasion. The heavy influence of old British and American bands is apparent, but it sounds fresh and exciting - perhaps more so than anywhere else right now. Much closer to home, Derby always seems to have a few good indiepop bands. We've recently sadly lost Plans & Apologies and The Deirdres, but we still have Lardpony and My Psychoanalyst (who are less poppy but still excellent).

What records are you listening to at the moment? Are there are any new bands you're excited about?

Ooh, name-dropping time........

Rich - Darren Hanlon, Hello Saferide, Billie the Vision, Future of the Left.
Sean - Frightened Rabbit, Narrator, Oh No! Oh My!
Matt - Deerhoof, Youthmovies, Of Montreal, Pete & the Pirates.
Tom - Faded Paper Figures, The Dodos, Bricolage. All these bands seem to be doing good stuff lately!

We're big fans of lots of those bands over here at Indietracks Towers, but what about your band? What are Mascot Fight's plans for the next year?

We have an album (Pantomime Hearse) out at the beginning of the year, which we intend to tour a bit before heading back to the studio to record an EP. We're constantly writing new stuff, a lot of which we demo but never play live, leading to a gazillion obscure tracks and a handful that are listenable enough to record properly! We don't like to stand still for long! That said, it took us about a million years to do the album...

We'll look forward to hearing it - sounds exciting! Just one last thing before you go - tell us what makes a perfect Christmas for Mascot Fight..

A perfect Christmas would involve a top-notch roast dinner, crackers that contain genuinely useful items, enough snowfall for snowballs..... erm.... world peace (to sneak the altruistic one in) and perhaps a glimpse of the REAL Santa Claus, defying gravity on a rare night at work.

Sounds perfect! Thanks Mascot Fight - we'll look forward to getting all Christmassy with you next month! The band have given us an exlusive mp3 of their song Haha, That's Not Anarchy - just click on the link below!

Mp3 download: Haha, That's Not Anarchy