Like the best things in life, I found The Voyeurist when I wasn’t looking for them. They have one toe in the past and a foot in the future, luckily for us most of them is ‘in the now’, and that is a pretty good place to be.
We got in touch with the band and found out a bit more…
Who is in the Band?
Sarah (vocals) Rusty (guitar) and Anna (bass)
How did you get together?
Rusty and I found each other online, sending each other a flurry of emails. We actually came up with 3 songs before even meeting properly. Anna contacted us through last.fm and after a few meetings we were charmed by her Russian ways.
Who are your influences?
We all have very different influences…
Sarah: Ladytron / The Breeders / Fever Ray
Anna: Matthew Dear/ HEALTH / James Murphy
Rusty: Nine Inch Nails ….‘On my part there’s actually a lot of old school, first wave industrial in there. Maybe it comes across, maybe it doesn’t…. A lot of it is trying to tie together a lot of those things in a much more pop-orientated context, without skimping on the dark/seedy aspects so people aren’t bored to tears.’
Best gig so far?
We are all unanimous on that one. A recent gig we had in New Cross in London. It was one of the smallest crowds we’ve had but the promoter was so cool (a rarity) and we’re finally getting our heads around what does and doesn’t work live.
What are you songs about?
There’ll probably be 3 totally different responses to this, which is good I suppose. I think that; though we’d all paint different pictures, we’d all be using the same colours so to speak. Instrumentally, quite often we tend to start off with a loose visual, then try and fit sounds around it.
Lyrically, some songs are about affairs of the heart whilst others are describing interesting situations and stories. Either way they all come from a very real place be it the depths of a scary dream or the harsh reality of love lost.
Do you think it is important for a band to be in London to get noticed?
I think we all agree that being in London is a help as it is a hub for live music however, there are so many brilliant bands that are local to the city that you can sometimes feel like a little fish in a whole ocean of talent. Depending on which type of music you make different scenes can also get a bit click-ey which is a downer.
When will we see the debut LP?
We going to play it safe with this one and self release a few singles to start of with. Ideally we would like to wait to release a full on LP until we have proper backing.
There has been a lot of interest in the band, will you release it on your own or go with a major label?
I don’t think any of us know enough about the ‘industry’ to feasibly self-release and do well with it bar a few singles. All of us would like to know we have some support in the form of a major but we would also be happy with a really enthusiastic indie label too.
Who would be your ideal producer?
Rusty: ‘That’s a list that’s probably a million miles long. Odds are it’ll end up just being me as I’ll be so goddamn precious about things that it’ll send the real professionals running. Might have to be a real ‘Alan Smithee,’ production.’
Sarah: ‘First choice would be Steve Albini. Although it would be highly unlikely that he would agree to do it, I just love the raw sound he creates and his persistence on doing everything from the recording process to the mixing etc without computers.
Having said all of that I wholeheartedly trust and love Rusty’s production on all of our tracks. He is one of the most talented people I know.
Are there any other bands around at the moment you like?
Rusty: I should probably stop listening to Factory Floor at some point, and I’m very glad to see “Experiment on a Bird…” are back together. I also listen to a metric shit-ton of weird noise stuff, but that shouldn’t – and doesn’t – count.
Sarah: I’m really into Chapter 24 and Kool Thing at the moment. Luckily enough we’ll be playing with both soon!
Anna: Mathew Dear.
Where are you playing live next?
We are actually headlining the opening night of the Roundhouses’ Emerging Artist Festival on Tuesday 22nd of Feb (tomorrow night). After that we are off to play NO YORK festival at ARtCH on 3rd April (Bill includes ‘Drugg, Kool Thing, Catwalk Trash, Chapter 24)
Where do you want to be in 10 years?
Hopefully still making music….
There is a lot of potential in their music and now the radio stations are playing their stuff things could be about to move fast for the band. Get into them now, so you can say you discovered them before your friends.
Flush the Fashion will have a review of their album once it comes out, in the meantime you can follow their adventures on MySpace or on Twitter @TheVoyeurist . Plus look out for a track from The Voyeurist on our March Music Sampler (see below).
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