{"id":46462,"date":"2015-03-05T12:11:53","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T12:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=46462"},"modified":"2015-03-05T12:11:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T12:11:53","slug":"twos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2015\/03\/05\/twos\/","title":{"rendered":"Two’s Up"},"content":{"rendered":"
Interviews? Journalists? Nah. We asked three of the new year’s best bands to quiz amongst themselves.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n RELICS<\/strong><\/p>\n If you been to any of their raucous, paint-stripping gigs in and around London, you\u2019d be surpassed to know that Alex Glover, lead singer of shoegazing foursome Relics, spends half his time in hair and makeup. Take another look, and the\u00a0AntiAgency-signed model is a sight for sore eyes. Equally hot is their debut single, sensitive\u00a0dreampop\u00a0rocker \u201cStraight to Heart\u201d.\u00a0 Though only two of the guys could make our shoot, they were more than happy to grill each other on their sound, and plans to release a debut EP later this year. Here\u2019s how it played out.<\/p>\n Theo\u00a0Alexander<\/strong>: So, the two of us met in the band\u2026<\/p>\n Alex Glover<\/strong>: Well, James and I formed a band together when we were teenagers – but we just stopped because of other things going on,\u00a0then\u00a0James met you\u00a0 at\u00a0university\u00a0and came to me saying \u201cI know this guy Theo, he\u2019s half Chinese – we\u2019d look good together\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Theo: When we met I asked where you were from and you said \u201cI\u2019m Chinese actually\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alex: So you asked \u201cwhat kind of Chinese\u201d, and I said \u201cMalaysian Chinese\u201d, \u201cno way! I\u2019m Malaysian Chinese too, where\u2019s your dad from?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Theo: My dad\u2019s from Kuching.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alex: Oh shit my mum\u2019s from Kuching, a tiny little town in Malaysia. That\u2019s weird. Shit. You play guitar too?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Theo: The rest is history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alex: So, at the minute our music\u2019s quite rhythmic.<\/p>\n Theo: Yeah it is. I think, before, \u2018fuzzy, warm cloud\u2019 was a good description \u2013 but now it\u2019s getting more rhythmic and divided, our guitars are working in harmony and it\u2019s sharper.<\/p>\n Alex: Over the course of the\u00a0 year we had a sort of wall of noise, now we\u2019re stripping it\u00a0 back and it\u2019s becoming dryer.<\/p>\n Theo: You dried out your guitar and I dried out my guitar, then we hung them up and took them back in, right?<\/p>\n Alex: Yeah hung them up to dry (laughing). We sing more with each other now as well; it used to be just basically me singing. One time we did a sound check, when it was just us doing our vocals, this photographer said \u201cit\u2019s quite gospel, that\u201d. That was nice, I\u2019d never heard that before.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Theo: I don\u2019t think Relics have ever actually done a whole shoot together?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alex: Yeah we\u2019ve done shoots but not like a magazine shoot yet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Theo: It was interesting to play the roles of different bands today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alex: Yeah living vicariously through the Pet Shop Boys (referring to the style of the shoot). Actually when I was 17, I was a waiter and I served one of the Pet Shop Boys, so this has kind of come full circle now \u2013 now I am a Pet Shop Boy (laughing).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Theo: You know what we were saying the other day, usually we dress quite smart, almost like we are going to work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alex: I\u2019d say we naturally dress all very similarly. Neat\u00a0hair cuts, shirts, trousers \u2013 apart from that one time James started wearing Franz Ferdinand T-shirts. He wore it to rehearsal and we all looked at him like death: \u201cwhat the fuck is that\u201d?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Alex: We\u2019ve been playing a lot in London recently.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Theo: We\u2019re all from London, so we\u2019re trying to get a good base in our hometown.<\/p>\n Alex: We\u2019re from different parts originally but we\u2019ve all lived in East for about eight years. I feel like recently we\u2019ve been a curse on the bars we\u2019ve been playing \u2013 like Buffalo Bar just announced it\u2019s closing down and Madame\u00a0Jojos\u00a0announced the same yesterday, we only played White Heat about two months ago!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Theo: The Lock Tavern is our\u00a0favourite\u00a0though.<\/p>\n Alex: We mutually agree on that \u2013 we\u2019ve played there three or four times in the space of a year. It\u2019s the worst sound ever, there are no sound checks, no monitors, nothing is mic\u2019d up it\u2019s all like a rehearsal room. You can\u2019t buy that kind of vibe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Theo: And the stage is ridiculously small so, yeah, we\u2019ve fallen over a few times.<\/p>\n Alex: But it forces you to think a bit more as well, because nothing is right and nothing works as it should.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Theo: Usually casualties \u2013 but always worth it.<\/p>\n Alex: You smacked some poor girl in the front with your guitar. But she kept dancing!<\/p>\n