Photo: Shaun Gordon<\/p>\n
Last week, our Artist of the Month for August – KAGOULE<\/a><\/strong>, released their debut album “Urth<\/em>“, on local label Earache Records<\/strong><\/a>. Cai, vocalist\/guitarist of the band was kind enough to answer some questions for us, and told us all about how milkshake machines have inspired his songwriting, and his love for Peter Andre<\/strong>… kinda.<\/p>\n Can you tell us a bit about yourselves; who are KAGOULE<\/a>?<\/strong> How would you describe your music to those unfamiliar with it?<\/strong> What were your main influences when making Urth?<\/strong> Has that helped your song writing \u2013 listening to the 90s bands?<\/strong> Do you have a favourite track from the album?<\/strong> I really like “Glue<\/em>“\u2026<\/strong> Has Nottingham helped you when writing the album? (musically and non-musically)<\/strong> As you\u2019ve said, you\u2019ve all been really close for a long time, does that help or hinder you when you need to make a decision?<\/strong> As you said you have lots of friends within the Notts music scene, but are there are new bands you\u2019ve been liking at the minute?<\/strong> You played Rough Trade<\/a> earlier this month, how was it?<\/strong> Have you got any more Notts gigs lined up in the near future?<\/strong> Is there anything else you wanted to say to Nusic readers?<\/strong> We’d like to thank Cai for taking the time to answer these questions!<\/em><\/p>\n You can read our review of the album HERE<\/a><\/strong>, watch a mini-doc all about their journey HERE<\/a><\/strong>, and find out where you can buy the album HERE<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Yours in Love of New Music, Photo: Shaun Gordon Last week, our Artist of the Month for August – KAGOULE, released their debut album “Urth“, on local label Earache Records. Cai, vocalist\/guitarist of the band was kind enough to answer some questions for us, and told us all about how milkshake machines have inspired his songwriting, and his love for Peter…<\/p>\n
\nWell, we\u2019re all from Nottingham. We\u2019ve lived here for our whole lives so far and we met in school. Its hard to remember exactly when you became friends with people, but I guess we just had similar interests. I thought Lucy was really cool and Lawrence had some good gel in his hair. We just bonded and started a band in school times. Our first shows were like\u2026 not talent shows but playing the school hall kinda thing. So that\u2019s where we started and we\u2019ve just been gigging more and more since then.<\/p>\n
\nUhh… that\u2019s actually really hard. Like a petrol powered horse and cart. I think that\u2019s kinda spot on. I\u2019ve obviously thought about that one long and hard.<\/p>\n
\nWell I guess the influences are constantly changing. But when we first started it was all just whatever was new at the time, whatever was in NME<\/strong>. We started off as like a covers band and we\u2019d just cover all that kinda thing. Then after we started playing our first few gigs and writing our own songs we got compared to stuff like Pixies<\/strong> and Smashing Pumpkins<\/strong>. None of us had really been into that kinda thing before but then we gave it a listen and thought how excellent it all was and that was our first kind of, as a group anyway, our obsession with a certain genre of music, that sort of 90s alt rock kinda thing. And that\u2019s probably played the biggest part, sort of influence wise. It changes, you know, you hear 10 seconds of a Peter Andre<\/strong> song and that can inspire you or just a nice chord change in anything. A police siren or a milkshake machine.<\/p>\n
\nMusic was getting kinda complicated and it helped me realize that you can literally write three chords and sing over them and it is acceptable. I think 90s music has this simplicity towards it that really clicked with us. Maybe it\u2019s just because we weren\u2019t that good at our instruments at that point and it was easier to play. But it definitely helped me with dynamics and interesting lyrics \u2018cause lyrics just got really terrible in the past like fifteen years or something. Yeah it definitely helped me out.<\/p>\n
\nI think I\u2019ve gone through periods of all of them being my favourite track at some point. But I really like “Open Mouth<\/em>“. Maybe its just because we don\u2019t play it live very often and not many people have heard it before. But I think that sort of sums up my music taste more than the others. I remember being really happy when I wrote that one. Quite proud of that. So Yeah all of them at different points and I\u2019m sure all of us as a band have different favourites. Do you have a favourite?<\/p>\n
\n“Glue<\/em>” is definitely one of mine. I don\u2019t remember writing that guitar riff but yeah I\u2019m really pleased that I did! I just found it on a demo and thought what the hell did I do there? And then used it…<\/p>\n
\nWhen we were doing our first few gigs in Nottingham. And I was saying before how we got introduced to all like the 90s music that\u2019s through a load of Nottingham bands who saw us or we were playing with and said oh you sound like this. And all the guys from Gringo<\/a><\/strong> and the older lot like GREY HAIRS<\/a><\/strong>. They\u2019ve been like uncles to us and have always given us cool new music to listen to and kind of guided our taste. I guess everyone\u2019s been very nice and supportive here and being like a self conscious fifteen year old when we started, I think if we\u2019d had any aggression of people taking the piss out of us we probably would have given up so yeah thank you to everyone in Nottingham for being so nice to us and letting us grow.<\/p>\n
\nPeople don\u2019t hesitate to shout their opinion. It can get quite heated but I think its really good that everyone feels like they can be honest with each other. I couldn\u2019t imagine being in a band where you don\u2019t feel like you have a voice. I\u2019d hate that. Its hard to compare it to anything cause this is the only band I\u2019ve ever been in. But I\u2019m sure it\u2019s a lot easier for you than it is for some bands that don\u2019t really know each other. But at the same time being uncomfortable leads you to work a bit harder to try and impress everyone else. People don\u2019t feel the need to try and impress people anymore so it can get kind of lazy at a lot of points. But I\u2019d rather it be like this.<\/p>\n
\nMy friend Josh has just started a band called BAD ALCHEMY<\/strong> and he\u2019s always really good at writing sort of Stoner Rock based riffs. I\u2019m quite excited to hear that. We had a show at Dot to Dot<\/a><\/strong> and we had a bunch of bands that we liked from Nottingham play that like MANNEQUIN<\/a><\/strong> and CROSA ROSA<\/a><\/strong> and things. Oh yeah and BLUEBIRD<\/strong><\/a>, they are really good! There\u2019s loads more I\u2019m probably missing but yeah.<\/p>\n
\nIt was really good! I think it was about fifteen minutes before we were meant to go on stage and it was pretty empty and we were kind of worrying like \u2018oh no one has bought our album, we\u2019ve failed\u201d but then it filled up really quickly and it sounded great. We had a lot of fun. It was really strange having people come up after and asking for our signature and stuff. I\u2019ve decided that my signature is this man in sunglasses doing this kind of, saucy pose. And it gets really tiring to draw it every single time I sign something. But I\u2019m too far into it now to turn back. I\u2019ve started doing it on the back of my credit cards, people don\u2019t believe its real.<\/p>\n
\nYeah, we\u2019re playing with SLEAFORD MODS<\/a><\/strong> on the 9th October at Rock City<\/a><\/strong>. They asked us to play with them again after the Rescue Rooms<\/a><\/strong> show we did with them in January, which is very lovely of them. Then we\u2019ve got a UK tour in November and I can\u2019t say any of the dates yet but we\u2019ll definitely be playing Nottingham on there. We\u2019re planning on going to a lot of cities, ones that maybe don\u2019t often get bands touring through.<\/p>\n
\nBuy our album. Make sure you buy it and buy every single copy of it and all the t shirts. And then all the CDS to get the full Kagoule experience. And secondly, make sure you buy our album and then lastly; buy our album. BUY OUUURRRR ALBUM. Just make sure you buy our album. Oh yeah and buy our T-Shirts too. Just give us some money so we can live and eat and make more music because we don\u2019t have a bass guitar at the moment and we need some money for one.<\/p>\n
\nKatie Beard x<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"