Jumping straight into the centre of the indie conversation in 2015 with their debut album ‘Young Chasers’, an album that boasted some of the biggest indie hits of the decade, Circa Waves are back, bringing their latest tour to Newcastle’s NX on Thursday 15th June. Cameron Wright caught up with the band to speak about life on the road.
How does it feel to be back on tour?
We never get to tour as much as we’d like as outside of festival runs, we only ever tour to promote an album. It’s great getting back out there. We’ve got Courting and Casio supporting so the nights are set to be a pure celebration of indie music. My two missions for the Newcastle gig are to have an amazing night and then revisit that amazing breakfast spot we found, Pablo Eggs-Go-Bao.
I heard you were hesitant previously when it came to playing live…
I mean it’s an inhuman thing to do, to be out there with all the eyes on you every night. I’m a songwriter really, not a frontman. That whole performance side of it was where I struggled but over the years, I’ve got a lot more comfortable with it.
Well, what defines a perfect frontman anyway?
It could be anything, couldn’t it? You look at Alex Turner with his elaborate, swaggering Elvis impression and maybe it’s that, but maybe it’s Kurt Cobain who was so reserved but so intensely genuine. I think it’s finding out what makes you authentic and being able to showcase that every night. I remember when Catfish & The Bottlemen started, I’d look at Van McCann as he was doing so much more than me on stage. I tried to emulate it a little but it wasn’t me – it was him. It’s all about looking for something real.
It must be quite the process having to be that genuine and authentic every night to strangers…
It’s definitely a process. You have to build up your confidence but it’s all about enjoying it. I’m more comfortable songwriting; that’s where I’ve always been at my most comfortable. For me, the joy of it is watching a crowd take away a completely different meaning from what I intended, watching it affect people and connect in a way I didn’t predict. I used to write the songs for me, knowing they wouldn’t go anywhere. Now watching the songs I wrote being taken over by a crowd is so exhilarating.
That must change the writing process, going from writing for yourself to now writing knowing it’s going to be listened to by a crowd?
I definitely now have to factor in how the chorus will hit a festival or what kind of sound will suit the radio or whatever semantics it may be. The innocence of songwriting is definitely tainted a little but it’s still my favourite thing to do. I write every day so it’s still very much just something I love.
It sounds like writing every day is a pretty regimented activity. How do you balance passion and profession?
I was recently talking to Yannis (Philippakis) from Foals about this. He was saying he never writes until right before the album is needed as it keeps everything raw and stops him getting tired of the process – but I couldn’t do that. I’m still writing most days but it was definitely more militant in the past. I got tinnitus last year so I’ve had to take a step back. I’m probably writing the same amount of “good” material that would make it to an album etc., just writing less filler now.
Circa Waves head to NX, Newcastle on Thursday 15th June. Tickets, priced at £20.00 in advance, are available from seetickets.com.
