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With their ‘kitchen sink indie’ music, you could say that English rock trio Little Comets are truly out of this world. They really have been flying high with the release of their 2nd album Life Is Elsewhere. GroundSounds recently had the pleasure of catching up with the band, check out the interview below!
For those just being introduced to your music how did you guys come together and form Little Comets?
Well there are three of us at the minute, we initially had four but lost our old drummer to marriage… so now we are three – me (Rob, I sing), Mickey (guitar and production) and Matt (bassist). Me and Mickey are brothers so have been in bands together since we were tiny, and we met Matt in the depths of rehearsal room about six years ago… We needed a bass player and he thought we were ok, so that was that.
You guys recently took a tour in the US, which cities did you enjoy most?
We actually enjoyed the stark contrasts and the day-to-day mysteries of touring somewhere new the most I’d say – New York was really hectic, we had a childhood friend who lives near Philly, Washington was very European and we had a stroll around the memorials, the cleanliness of Minneapolis (plus Prince), vvvvaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssssttttttttt flat plains and roads which did not end, the similarities between home and the North West and then California’s laid back chaos… Seeing each place briefly was tough but fantastic, and we met some lovely people – I think we were touched by the familiarity people had with our music. Sorry if this is a ramble but it’s hard to condense that trip..
Could you share a fun or crazy moment from this latest tour?
We are quite impulsive and driven so we saw the entire journey as a challenge – we didn’t want to miss one appointment – the impossibility of it was an attraction haha… but we did it. So, after Minneapolis we had to get to Denver for 2pm for a radio session. After a drive through the night (fuelled by energy gels and Mutt Lange’s snare) we reached Colorado but “needed to shower”, it became a fixation (like Slash looking for smack) – we had to find a shower. After turning down the $15 truck stop showers we settled on a public pool in Denver… When we arrived it was 105 degrees and we’d been in a van for 15 hours – 6 sweaty blokes sauntering into this children’s swimming pool overlooked by the Rockies – pretty surreal. Our tour manager Steve took one look at the pool and did the biggest bomb-dive into it you had ever seen right in the middle… The parents were not amused…
What has it been like working with Dualtone Records?
It’s been lovely – they discovered our music by accident so it’s not like a label who have signed something on the defensive or because of the hype, they genuinely like the album. We are fortunate enough to work with two labels – Dirty Hit in the UK and Dualtone in the US – who are involved in our music for totally the right reasons and this makes such a difference. Plus they are just nice people – I mean, whatever you do in life you want to be surrounded by positive experiences so we can’t really ask for any more.
What is the writing and musical process like when creating new tunes? Do you start with a guitar riff, bass line, lyrics, or just an idea?
Yeah, I suppose me and Mickey normally just sit in a room and play – just see what happens… the last album was quite different because we didn’t write with a drummer present. This really freed up the process – we weren’t restrained by having to explain a change in time signature or rhythmical nuance. It also meant that we could produce the song at the same time that it was written, so there really wasn’t a linear way of working on a song. Everything came together pretty naturally and if we wanted to go off on a tangent we didn’t feel like we were dragging someone else along – we just tried to serve the song.
What are you guys currently listening to at this moment in time?
Well, in the van anything goes but in the house usually we all go back to basics – Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, Talking Heads, Kate Rusby… I had a bit of Prefab Sprout on this morning… whatever my little boy will tolerate while he is getting his trousers put on really….
What was the most enjoyable and difficult part, while putting together your latest album ‘Life is Elsewhere’?
I’d say the most enjoyable process was when the songs were in their infancy – you could really feel the pace of development with some of them and so the ideas began to flow really quickly… Plus, with the process mentioned above it was really exciting to merge the production and the writing – they seemed to spur each other on… However, I suppose this did make things more difficult when we came to a brick wall with something, but I suppose we are just beginning to realise that maybe that just means we’ve finished a song – rather than continuously looking to add more. I found the lyrics difficult, but then I wanted to make sure that for this album they were a lot more watertight, both structurally and thematically.
We also had a self-imposed deadline because my partner was due to give birth – this made the last few weeks especially stressful for Mickey as I had to really duck out of the mixing process.
What bands/musicians have influenced you guys the most?
I think we get influenced by lots of different things, not just musical. Authors like Roald Dahl and Jonathan Safran Foer, stories we’ve heard, places we have lived, Paul Simon, Roy Halee, Milan Kundera, bits of Debussy and Elgar, our north eastern heritage, incidents, accidents, hints and allegations…. not forgetting that Mutt Lange snare.
What is the story behind the track ‘Violence Out Tonight’? What inspired this song?
This was actually written in a far more normal way – I’d had the chord progression for a while and Mickey was working on drum parts for Jennifer so I just went into the spare room and played and played and played and a lot of lyrics just happened… I really didn’t sit down to write a song about rape or domestic violence but it just came out like that – the song just led the lyric. I had to condense the verses and make sure that the language was appropriate (I really hope it is). I’d read an article a few months earlier about 20% of women being affected by domestic violence at some point in their lives – I was struck by how chilling this figure is, and how it is an issue so underrepresented in a male-dominated society. I didn’t intend to write a song about it, but it eventually translated into Violence Out Tonight.
When we came to record it, it was very simple. We recorded a drum loop using a washing machine door, bin lid and some pans in Mickey’s kitchen and layered the parts after the vocal take had been added.
Where does Little Comets see themselves in 5 years?
Ah, as long as we are happy, healthy and our babies are still beautiful we’ll be fine. It’s lovely to be able to make music for a living so as long as that can continue we’ll be professionally satiated.
What’s next, what are you guys currently working on?
We’re busy working on album number three, but in between touring with Atlas Genius in the US and a headline tour in the UK early next year, plus the daily attempts to stop my little boy flushing things down the toilet…
