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Ludes interviewed are:
Dave - Vocals
Matt - Guitar
James - Keyboards
Dom -Bass
Chris - Drums
DT Can we just start out with who we have
here and what you do in the band?
Chris I'm Chris and I play the drums
in the band
Matt I'm Matt and I play guitar in the band
(eventually they all come, rockstarshmph..)
DT How did you all come together?
Chris We all, sort of, knew each other in various ways, or combinations of people. I've known Dave and James for quite a while, and Dave went to college with Chris, and Dave and I went to college with Dom our bassist, and eventually it sorta came to forming a band. Me, Dave and James were playing together anyway, and after that we asked Chris to join, then we asked Dom to join.
(James appears)
James How you doing?
DT Yeh I'm not bad thanks
Chris (in a quality Irish accent) We're just doing
this interview here James
(Laughs)
DT How long have you been together now?
Matt 3 years?
Chris 3
James Yeah 3ish
DT Could you explain what your name means?
Matt Well Ludes is short for Quaaludes, but it is also short for Honda Preludes
(Laughs)
James And it's also a place in France
Matt Yeh, and it's also Czech for 'Crazy Girl', umm I dunno.
There wasn't really much thought about it, at the time. It was
just a word that was floating around and we sort of had it, seemed
appropriate at the time at kind of stuck.
DT I read that your first big gig was in front of 15,000 bikers?
Matt Yeah, and that was only our second ever gig. It was before Dom joined us on bass. Our old manager used to box with a Hells Angel, and umm his mate had this doo going on. We didn't know much about it other than it was some biker festival. We turned up and it was like walking into Mad Max land or something.
(Laughs)
DT How did they welcome you?
Matt Well it was 1 o'clock in the morning when we went on so you know, I'm sure you can imagine what a tent full of bikers are like at 1 in the morning you know what I mean.
DT Since then you've toured with bands such as Franz Ferdinand and Electric Six, what different type of reception did you get with those fans?
Matt With those two bands, I thought we were received really well, because well it definitely wasn't like doing a Hells Angels gig. The crowd were more used to our style of music. But that was a while ago now, and I think we really picked up like, the core of our fan base from doing those tours.
DT What bands have you toured with more recently?
Matt We toured with the Rakes and the Others at the beginning of this year, but that was the last touring we did.
(Dom appears)
DT So what are you doing at the moment? Is this just a one-off gig?
Matt Yeh just a one-off
DT What made you choose to travel from London to Bridgwater?
Dom Someone chose it (laughing)
Matt Well, I like playing places like this you know. Not
many bands from London, or big cities get to places like this
so it's different from just doing the run of the mill venues.
And you get treated a lot nicer, people are a lot friendlier I
find.
DT What's a typical day for you like whilst on tour?
Matt Carww, I think it varies from
member to member. Chris gets up the earliest, I get up the latest
Chris Dave likes a bit of porridge
(Laughs)
Matt I suppose it depends how you're touring, like if you're on a bus, your routine is governed by when that bus is gunna stop. But if you're in a hotel it's like just wake up, and find food. It's survival, 'Where am I getting my food from?'
(Laughs)
Matt That's as far as any routine
goes, then it's just play the gig
James Yeah play and party
DT Have you been out around Bridgwater today?
Matt Not really
Dom I have
Matt Have you? Where
Dom I went to the phonebox
(Laughs)
Dom No I did, down to the Bon Marche
J Center (???) is that what it's called? On the corner?
DT I really don't know
(Laughs)
Matt What happens there?
Dom Not much really
(Laughs)
Dom I used a phonebox and that was itlovely town though.
DT Anyways, what genre of music would you put yourselves under? Cus your sound is quite varied.
Dom Well, it is varied
Matt Umm, I dunno. Like my dad says, "We're nothing
if not eclectic".
DT What bands have influenced your sound?
Matt I dunno, again I think that's
a sort of individual thing.
Dom Well Beatles were always my favourite, but everyone
has their own different thing so when it happens, you know. We
all bring our own different influences and that, when we play
they all come out. I think we all like the Stones though
Matt Yeah there is common ground but it's not as if just
stick to that. I guess for me it changes all the time, I always
say the Rolling Stones are my favourite band, but really it was
the first band I got into. Now I wouldn't sit at home listening
to them, recently I've been listening to A Lot of Love, but next
week that could change to something totally different.
DT You worked with the Stones engineer Chris Kimsey on the single 'Radio'. What was he like working with?
Matt He was alright! He was quite set in his ways, cus like he's an old dude. He's been in it for a long time, I think maybe because of that he wasn't so into experimentation. Yeah, he's been in this since like the rules were being written, and when you're a young band you wanna like jump off the rails and break these rules a little. He is really good at recording things, like you can't get a better engineer that what he is, he records everything beautifully. For that it was really amazing, just he really loves what he does, and seeing someone working like that was really good.
DT Has he worked with you on anything else?
Matt Just that single
DT Who else have you been working with, like on the album and stuff?
Matt We've just got a limited edition E.P that came out this week, and that we did with a guy called Dennis Dicker, and I think we were the first production job he's done. And we've just been away in Dublin recording our album with Alan O'Connell, same with him he's never produced an act before. I quite like, working with people who haven't done anything before, makes it more interesting because there's no success there, or set way of doing things. So you try more things out, get more out of your time in the studio I think.
DT How far has the album come so far?
James It's all kinda up in the air
at the moment
Matt Yeh, we got, we got a lot of stuff recorded, but we
haven't had like much mixes back yet. So it's still kind of material,
and bare bones. We got a lot of work to do like mixing it and
stuff like that
DT When did you start recording?
Matt All of April wasn't it?
Dom Yeh
Matt So yeh all of April, but we haven't heard it in context
with things we've already recorded and could yet record so you
know.
DT I read that a while back you had your own radio station? What was that about?
Dom Not really, light-years ago I guess
(Laughs)
Dom The word for that station was
non-existent it was so bad. It was when we were really young but
we don't sorta do that stuff anymore.
James We do have quite a fun club night in London we do,
which is like our weekly radio station in Camden. Every other
week we do that, but we're taking that out soon to other venues.
Everyone seems to be dong club nights at the moment.
DT What record label are you on? One of the Sony offspring isn't it?
Matt It's not part of Sony, it's sort of affiliated on a personnel level, to Sony. But that's as far it goes. Basically their office is like as big as this dressing room
DT Do you have much to do with them
or is that just for distribution and things?
Matt I dunno, we don't have a massive involvement with them,
we don't see them all the time
Dom Who's that the record company?
Matt Yeh
Dom No
Matt No they pretty much let us get on with it. Ummm It's
kind of a weird deal, it can be a bit push and pull at times,
but I suppose that's like its gunna be with any sorta record label.
Like, it's not as if they tell us what to do, I dunno, what was
the question again?
(Laughs)
Chris I mean we get to discuss things
in a sense
Matt Yeh we saw them yesterday
James If we really wanted to do something, they'd let us
do it. Even with our E.P we're releasing, even though it's not
a general release thing we really wanted to do it. We did it all
ourselves, did the artwork ourselves, everythingthey printed it.
They won't have to distribute it cus you can only get it through
the website, and we wanna do loads more things like that. It's
not just about putting out singles and albums, but realising that
you're an artist, a group of artists and you can do what you want
really and that label allows us to do it to an extent.
DT Is that like a benefit of being on a smaller label then?
Matt Yeh I think so cus you don't
have the pressure, of like getting dropped.
Dom I suppose like when you sign to these massive labels,
cus they've got so many acts on their labels, the turn around
is likethey have to make profit immediately, and if you
don't, you're fucked, and you have no time to develop really.
So I'd say it's sorta like a death really, signing to a major
as you're first deal. I think it's fucked to be honest.
Matt But at the same time, umm we could do with more cash
(Laughs)
Dom Yeh
James But then you gotta strike a balance
Dom I think we're in a good position
Matt Well yeh, I mean we haven't even put out a full length
record yet
James We're getting free kebabs at the minute
Matt That's what you get at a club
Dom Spent it all on amps
(Laughs)
DT Is there anything you're doing in the nearish future that you wanna say about?
Matt We're doing a few of the smaller festivals, and yeh just a few little gigs really. Nothing major, just sorta plugging away
DT Are you hoping to get onto a major label after doing a few more things?
Matt I think when we have the album
completed, we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot if we didn't
take t to a major, because I think from what we've recorded so
far we've got a really good album there, and I wouldn't wanna
release that to, well I wanna sell a few copies of it let's put
it that way. I think it deserves to, and I think maybe our label
now wouldn't have the means to do it, but the way we have signed
our deal is that we can license it on, so it's not like we're
signing to a major we still have that control.
Dom We can just use the tools of a major label really, like
for the distribution, promotion and all that. Just the tools to
make your record as popular as it can be really
Matt I'd like the major label money, definitely, I'd like
the major label money a lot.
DT You're definitely after the money then?
(Laughs)
Dom Well as apposed to no money
at all. Not the money to put in our pockets, the money to promote
our record. Say for example we come and do this, on a major label
you'd probably have a few more posters up on the wall, do you
know what I mean, whereas on our label maybe you don't get as
many posters so people, they dunno, they won't know when they
go home. That's what it's about, they help you to expose yourself
more to the public.
Matt Also having, just having enough in your personal pocket
to be able to live comfortably and be creative. Cus if you don't
have any money it's fucking hard work trying to be creative all
the time cus you gotta find other avenues to make money, and that
takes away from your own personal creativity. If you're a musician,
you should be doing that all the time. It's hard to do when you've
got other stuff on your plate.
DT Have you got other jobs then?
Matt Yeh I'm a job seeker
(Laughs)
Dom That's the title
Matt Job seekers anonymous
DT Have you had any really bad jobs before?
Matt I've worked in Somerfields. That
was shit
Dom I painted my mum and dads house, that was pretty fucking
hardcore
Chris Yeh we've all done really bad jobs I think. I was
cleaning Underground trains for a while it was fucking terrible
Dom You get soot in your nose. I've done the old road sweeping,
five in the morning in the winter. It's freezing cold, sweeping
the streets picking up weird things, dead things, weird.
Matt Did you ever find anything really weird on the trains?
Chris Nah, never just horrible things. Horrible bits of
shit, gotta watch our for syringes as well mate
DT I'll just ask you a one more thing cus I'm sure you've got things to do, drinking or something
(Laughs)
Dom Only coffee
DT Yeah I'm sure
DT Is that Rich's Farmhouse cider you're drinking?
Dom Yes!
DT Strong ain't it?
Dom So you've experienced it
James Goes straight to your head!
Matt Is it a local thing?
DT Yeah
Dom I wanna buy some and take it home for my dad
DT Ok well that's about it thanks!
Chris Allllrighht
Matt Nice one thanks a lot