Ahead of their album release and following their gig with Nick Olivieri of Queens Of The Stone Age, we sit down with Dan Lucas, Rory Welbrock, Tom Beer and Louis Edge from York four-piece, Bull.
S] So, tell us about the new album..
T] “The name of the album is ‘She Looks Like Kim’ and that’s taken from a lyric in ‘Jan Fin’. We recorded the album quite a while ago, September, maybe a bit before, when we started off we just wanted to write all of the hits but I wana write more serious hits now. ‘Green’ came really quick, I knew what it was going to sound like but it sounded sh** because I wrote it on acoustic and it was never going to sound that good like that but I knew when it got into band practice that it’d be a hit.”
S] Can you tell us a bit about what things you draw inspiration from when writing your album?
T] “Well ‘Newt’ was the first song we wrote with the band and I really liked the Pixies at the time and Louis had a Pixies top on at school and I heard he played drums, so we got him in. Rory’s always massively been into Nirvana so that’s a big influence.”
[like_to_read][/like_to_read]S] When you guys write a song, how does the process work?
R] “Tom comes in with the main sort of idea but it’s very open to everybody else having ideas within it and it changes a lot from the initial skeleton. I come in with lyrics sometimes, sometimes not, there are a lot of songs.”
T] “I don’t have lyrics, I make them up every single time, it’s horrible, I hate it, we’ve recorded songs without lyrics. Sometimes we just jam tracks completely and I like making lyrics on the spot because I think you make good lyrics when you do that.”
S] How does it feel to be accepted by the York scene and what do you think about the scene?
L] “It’s taken a while as we weren’t really that serious at first but then we realised there are bands trying to make it, we might as well get on that and get on gigs with …And the Hangnails and Le Petite Mort.”
T] “We don’t like them La Petite Mort, we had a fight with them. It’s a Blur and Oasis kind of relationship, we love each other but there’s also a real hatred there.
D] “We’re going to have a huge battle with each member of the band who does a certain thing, a Battle Royale!”
T] “I’m scared because I’ve got to fight Jared who’s really tall, we really hate them, we don’t like them at all. Is it a joke? Is it not?!”
S] What’re the plans for the rest of this year?
T] “We’re in the process of saving up and buying a van, which we’re buying next summer and from then on we’re going to be on a rolling tour where we’re on tour constantly. We’re just going to live out of bags and hopefully we’re going to be sleeping in hammocks. We’re definitely going to bring other bands with us like The Lungs and La Petite Mort! it’ll be good. We want to play a gig in a different city every night!”
S] If you were to create a Frankenstein’s monster that summarised your music, where each body part is a different part of your music, what bands would make up your sound?
D] “Frankenstein’s heart in this case is probably [Bob] Dylan, because Tom loves Dylan and that’s where the heart is. The brain is probably The Pixies, that’s where we’re coming from and that’s what we’re thinking about. The arms are probably Pavement and the legs would be lots of York bands in us.
T] “I think we’ve got a bit of The Libertines in us, weirdly, I’m not actually a big Libertines fan, there’s a lot of shambolicness in us which I’m actually really proud of but I like that, I really like that. Sometimes I think, should we clean up our act? Should we get more serious? Sometimes I think we should get less and less serious and we should embrace that sh**ness!”
L] “On like, a Ramones level.”
S] Are there any other York bands you guys love?
D] “…And The Hangnails are pretty great.”
T] “Yeah, Martyn [Fillingham] came round to ours last night. We’re going to collaborate!”
D] “Junk are great too! And The Littlemores. The Lungs as well.”
T] “Genuinely, I think York’s music scene is getting better and better. Sam Griffiths and Asio’s Eyes are brilliant too!”
S] Outside of music, what are your greatest inspirations?
D] “’Green’ has this whole surf-skate vibe, and we’re really like that lifestyle!”
T] “I read a lot! Rory’s a really great artists as well, as is Dan.”
R] “I just like making music videos and stuff!”
S] How excited are you for Galtres Rocks this year?
T] “More excited than I’ve ever been, I may or may not have a re-sit – because I’ve messed up my exams – the day before, I almost hope I have to re-sit because of how good it would make it after.”
S] What have been some highlights for you as a band on the whole so far?
D] “I think Galtres last year was a big highlight!”
L] “Every morning I would wake up and feel like a king because we played there.”
R] “For me, it was when the band started, and we’d play every week! I remember getting to a Monday and being like ‘It’s band practice tonight! Yeah!”
D] “Yeah, also when we started it was really cool because we were still at school, and we used to just get loads of our friends down. For our first ever gig, we sold out Bar Lane Studios!”
Check out Bull at Galtres Rocks this year on The Oxman stage. Head over to http://www.galtresfestival.org.uk/ticket-outlets.cfm for tickets!
