We're very pleased to introduce Niall from fantastic Edingurgh indiepop rock'n'rollers The Spook School as our latest guest interviewer for the Indietracks blog. And for his first assignment, Niall's been chatting to Big Wave!
Big Wave are a five-piece guitar pop band from the sunny South West, who bonded in the local haunts of Torquay over a shared interest in pop music, alcohol and terrible dancing. During a busy 2012, the group released EP ‘The Roots of Love Come Tumbling Down’ on Soft Power Records and two singles: ‘Dying on the Vine’ on Art is Hard Records and ‘Only You’ on Beautiful Strange Records.
As a result Big Wave have garnered lots of positive reaction, including being named by Fake DIY as ‘one of the country's most underrated new bands’. Keep your eyes peeled for ‘Goldmine’ which is set for a limited edition cassette release on Art Is Hard Records in May. Over to you Niall...
Hello Team Big Wave, who are the persons that make us this wall of water?
Hello to you Niall, team Big Wave are… Ella (vox and geetar), Rik (geetar), Pete (Bass), Matt (drums/ 3rd best tambourine player in the world), Mel (keys).
Why Big Wave? Is it surfing? Is Torquay surf-central? (I surfed once...I fell off a lot...and hard)
Initially the name came from the Jenny and Johnny song ‘Big Wave’ but you’re right the name does have a connection to where we live. Unfortunately, Torquay only plays host to little waves and retirement villages, not quite as ‘radical’ as you, perhaps, believed. Though we have been known to wear our baseball caps backwards and we refer to most other humans as ‘dude’, sometimes dogs as well. I can quite safely add that none of us can surf.
You have had releases with labels like Soft Power (they are so cool!) and Beautiful Strange but you have also done a limited edition pizza box release of "Dying on the Vine" with Art is Hard, what did that entail?
We had to dream up a new pizza flavour which for us was an ice-cream sundae short crust pastry affair labelled Neopolitan Sundaze. AIH released the single as a limited edition (of one) single in a pizza box and we gave the track away for free – which you can still download from our Bandcamp. It was a really neat idea on behalf AIH and we often wonder who owns the only physical copy of ‘Dying on the Vine’ and whether at any point they tried to eat it.
Your videos all look amazing and I am especially addicted to 'Only You'. Has anyone in the band ever gone speed-dating? What would your tactics be if you did? (I would give a different name to each person for when they complain at the bar, "Have you been with Graham yet? He's so boring!" "No, but he can't be worse than Steve, YAWN!")
Sadly none of us have been speed dating for real because in our locality, you are more likely to get fixed up with a Doris or Clive, born before WW2 with a gold Rover parked outside than you are a Brangelina type. Hmm tactics? A pocket watch and a copy of Hypnotism for Dummies maybe?
What are you especially looking forward to at Indietracks? Is it the choo-choo trains?Yes, definitely the steam trains. We’ve been fans of the festival for yonkers so it’s great to finally be playing it. We’re looking forward to seeing what summer is like really in the ‘North’, coming from the English Riviera we usually expect temperatures exceeding 25C and a couple of palm trees thrown in for good measure.
If you all had to wear a uniform what would it be? (I vote pirates)Ella would love us to dress up as nuns but given that three-fifths of the band have facial hair, it might not be the most convincing attire. Rik on the other hand wants everyone to dress as Abba which we’re not that far off at the moment – gold onesies have been designated as suitable gig-apparel and... the beards would totally work :)
What are the future plans for Big Wave? Any releases planned?
Indeedy! We have a single coming near the end of May which is exciting. The track is called Goldmine and going to be released with B-side GW Bridge on a limited run of tapes through Art is Hard records. Hopefully people like it as we are very happy with the way the tracks have turned out! We also have a video to go with the single which moves away from speed-dating and gets game showy! You can hear the B-side right now...
Thanks guys! Here's the fantastic speed-dating video for 'Only You'...
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