Hailing from Peckham, four-piece Tangerines will brighten your day with a blues-tinged sound.

On this rare sunny London winter day, let Peckham’s Tangerines take you towards summer. The foursome came together through childhood friendship and chance 4am meetings in Brixton, a recipe for success. But it’s important to note, not everyone you meet in the early hours is your next band member. Gareth, Isaac, Miles and Ricky have already had the NME and BBC at their door singing their praises for single, “You Look Like Something I Killed”.

With a raw and bluesy charm to it, it’s a surprisingly cheerful track when you consider its name. After a couple of listens, we guarantee you’ll be trying to imitate Gareth’s distinctive vocals yourself. Change “Killed” to “Keeeelled” and add in some dry screams to hover over the feedback and you’re there. We caught up with the man himself, Tangerines’ lead singer, to get to know a little more about the newcomers before their first London headline show in March.

https://soundcloud.com/pete-heywoode/tangerines-you-look-like-something-i-killed/s-9ulNj

Hey guys! Why Tangerines?

I wish I could ramble on with some great explanation or anecdote on how the name came about but it just kind fell from the sky, or a tree, and stuck on us. We are of ofcourse very fruity, sometimes rotten, rooted guys.

You formed in Peckham – how do you think London’s had an influence on what you do?

I guess the place you form, write and get together will always have a fair amount of influence on any band, but then again, I don’t think we’d be doing anything too drastically different no matter where we’re based. With huge concrete, overpriced cities like London there’s always this whole thing about competition amongst different artists and musicians, so much desperation, which is ‘great’ and all, but we just try to ignore that and hammer on doing what we love without anything interfering with it too much.

You’ve been going for a couple of years now, how do your think you’ve changed since you started?

On one hand, quite drastically, on the other, not much at all. It’s hard to say because it started out with a handful of songs that we still play at our current shows, whilst also dragging in a completely fresh sound of songs constructed between the 4 of us. The sound has evolved rather than changed, and I think we all get that notion that it’s constantly evolving all the time, with time.

You’re playing Field Day – who are you favourites on the line-up?

Deerhunter, Metz, Roots Manuva, Goat, Thurston Moore.

What’s your dream venue/gig to play?

All I can say is that we don’t get out of London a great deal, but we always thrive on the more secluded, smaller venues; places with history and rawness to them. Not that we’ve played huge arenas, but I just know how detached they can be from the crowd, leaving you unable to take in all the details within live music unless it’s right up in your face juggling your insides about. So I don’t know, maybe we should just cut straight to it and set our sights on a string of portaloo shows. Isaac would be quite happy just sat there dropping off a few numbers whilst playing a few at the same time.

What inspires you guys to write?

Sometimes just a damn fine cup of coffee can get it all going. Inspiration can come from the weirdest of places, but we all like to think that we’re strong-minded, intellectual rebels that can read a book or two. I get inspired from just waking up in the morning, that eerie feeling of realising you exist, but if I were to only write songs about waking up then I’d be getting nowhere fast and we’d be playing down your local church selling religious bedbound albums.

Is it hard to compromise in a band? Is it all rock n roll arguments?

There is a lot of arguing, but a lot of loving too. There’s nothing like a good manly squabble, only if you know how to treat your band members like girlfriends and put it right with some wonderful words. We’ll have deep discussions whilst writing from time to time, leaving us with the eventual outcome that we are all near enough on the same page heading in the right direction, and if someone isn’t, you just hit them on the head with a stick.

Your first headline show’s coming up, nervous? What can we expect?

Got no time for those nerves, especially if you’re surrounded by people that are actually into what you do and are willing to pay to see you play. You can expect it all, all those classics, all those foot moves, all those tired faces of exhaustion shifting through Boris Johnson’s maze of heaven and hell. We’ve also just announced our friends, the phenomenal Big Girls, to the lineup so we can sit back before we play and let Liam Casey’s shyness run wild out of his hair and into your hearts.

You all have excellent hair we have to say, how important is the full package aesthetic matching your music to you all?

Oh we have hair too, yes. You could probably lay a carpet with ours collectively put together. We don’t care too much for looking like much, but we do try to make a scrappy effort here and there. Whatever’s comfy. If London wasn’t so wet all the time I’m sure slippers would be the thing of this band, but boots and hair is what we’ve settled on for now.

And obviously we have to talk about the clown outfit Twitter pic?

Oh that’s just Ricky. Available for private hire and children’s parties.

Tangerines play Servant Jazz Quarters 17th March.