Live: Southampton Engine Rooms
0 0 Mark Devlin Mark Devlin2018-05-25 21:23:172018-05-25 21:23:17Live: Southampton Engine RoomsBig Sports Breakfast interview
In advance of their Leeds show, Aaron talks to Darren on Proper Sports’ Big Sports Breakfast, about how their previous tour with James came about.
It was an amazing opportunity for us. They tweeted one of our tracks that we performed — I Saw A Ghost — acoustically in Manchester Central Library. It was like a guerrilla thing. We just turned up and did it for a YouTube channel. Jim Glennie tweeted via the James account, and we were like ‘Christ, gotta get on to this’. Luckily enough for us they had a new album and tour coming up. There’s a guy who’s supported us for years that’s written about us in Manchester that we knew did their sleeve notes and knew the band. So I manged to get a CD to the band via him. Then a week or so later we got a note from their management offering us 14 dates on their tour. We ended up playing Brixton Academy, Manchester Arena, Liverpool Echo Arena. That was massive for us. It gave us an audience all over the UK.
Live: Cardiff Globe
The band start their Build A Tower tour at the Cardiff Globe.
Literally last minute practice of the new tunes. 😎🤯 pic.twitter.com/TPjw4o12F6
— THE SLOW READERS CLUB (@slowreadersclub) April 26, 2018
You Opened Up My Heart performance
The band releases a performance of You Opened Up My Heart, played at Manchester’s Albert Hall.
Block Out The Sun performance
The band release a video of a live performance of Block Out The Sun, from their debut album, with Duddell and The No. 6 Ensemble.
Fab Radio International interview
Aaron and Kurtis appear on the It’s Only Rock’N’Roll show on Fab Radio International. On their growing support:
Kurtis: One thing you notice is audience sizes. Going from doing the smaller venues where the odd pockets of people knowing the words, and then getting to the stage where people are all singing it back and chanting ‘Readers’ is a different level.
Aaron: The connection with the crowd is incredible now…David Bowie said, “Don’t play to the gallery”. That sticks in my mind: you get down and sing to those that are buzzing at the front, and you see it roll back through the venue.
On the upcoming album:
Aaron: A lot of the stuff in the past has been introspective and existential (Kurtis: mean and moody!). I wanted to explore different territory anyway and be a bit more positive anyway. But then Brexit happened, and Trump, and the world seems to be getting very polarized. The trajectory of the planet seems to be completely different. So I thought I was important not to be majorly political, but put a positive message out. Songs like Through The Shadows are about getting through difficult times and the most important thing being about those you love. A more positive message than before, but more universal, and bits of social commentary. Whereas, before it was a bit more about my own insecurities and demons…We’ve sold nearly 2000 pre-orders so far. If we get a decent chart position it leads on to other things.
[mixcloud https://www.mixcloud.com/itsonlyrocknroll/its-only-rock-n-roll-fab-radio-international-show-127-march-27th-2018/ width=”800px” height=”60px” hide_cover=1 mini=1]
You Opened Up My Heart official video
The band release the official video for You Opened Up My Heart, directed by Croft.
Aaron: The concept was a collaboration. We gave [Chris] some ideas of what we wanted visually: very graphic and high energy. He sent us a few examples of 3D projections. The cube felt a little bit ambitious for the budget. And we were like, ‘that sounds risky’, and we tipped up in the morning and it was a bit of a seat-of-the-pants thing…It’s a cube that has a projection that runs right the way round. To see it in person was incredible. It’s one of our best so far.
Too Many Blogs interview
The band are interviewed by Too Many Blogs, talking about their upcoming album, Build A Tower, which will be released on May 4.
The Star Wars thing is just a coincidence, we won’t be doing a gig in Jedi robes or anything.
On songwriting:
We have developed a lot as musicians since Cavalcade, so there is more invention in terms of melody, rhythm, song structure…Some tracks are very personal and explore the feeling of being in love with someone and the delicious fragility of it, the sense that it could disappear before your eyes (‘Supernatural’). Some tracks refer, very specifically, to the external political environment (‘Lunatic’/’On the TV’). Musically, it’s probably more consistent in terms of style, as the album was written in a tighter time-frame than the last album. It’s pretty inventive – hopefully, our existing fans will love it and, hopefully, it continues the work of the previous album (in winning over most people that hear it).
China tour dates announced
The band announce two tour dates in China, one in Beijing and at The Strawberry Festival in Hangzhou.
Aaron: The label we are signed to, Modern Sky, is Chinese. It’s odd one: we’re going on the Wednesday and coming back on Saturday night, and back to work on Monday. We thought Isle of Wight on one day was bad. It’s Beijing and Hangzhou. It should be great. I thought we’d be doing Berlin before Beijing. The ambition is to get out to Europe an the states. Europe seems a logical stop. I’m a stats nerd so we can see on Spotify we’re being listened out there.
We're off to CHINA 😎🎉 pic.twitter.com/cTd5tRlNN2
— THE SLOW READERS CLUB (@slowreadersclub) March 23, 2018
You Opened Up My Heart
The band release You Opened Up My Heart, from the album, Build A Tower.
A lot of our songs are existential and angst-ridden but, in an age where we’re faced with stuff like Trump and Brexit, and people are becoming more polarised, it felt right to offer something with a more positive message. It’s an electro-indie love-song, basically, with great hooks. The lyrics ‘Believe enough to lose control/Where there’s love there’s always hope’ are about a basic belief that humanity and compassion will win the day.
Through The Shadows video
The band release a video for Through The Shadows, which is also released as a downloadable single with album pre-sales.
Build A Tower album and tour announced
The band announces their third album, Build A Tower, will be released on May 4. They also announce a tour to promote the album, with dates in Cardiff, Southampton, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Newcastle, Hull, Nottingham, Wolverhampton, Norwich, Northwich, London and Stoke.
Reyt Good Road Trip
Aaron and Jim are interviewed by Reyt Good Magazine, while being driven through Salford, Manchester. They talk about their early days, the support of the band by James, and the changes since they signed.
We now have all the machinery established bands had. Before we were doing it all ourselves…we did our best to look around other cities and see what they were doing…if you go to a city where a promoter’s built a reputation, you do get music lovers turning up to see what’s going on. It gves you a chance to get in front of new people.
The CityLife Awards: Best Breakthrough Act
The band win the Best Breakthrough Act award at the 2018 City Life Awards, hosted at the The Deaf Institute, Manchester. Over 14,000 votes were collected. The band play a short acoustic set at the venue.
Just won Best Breakthrough Act at @CityLifeManc Awards. Massive thanks to all the fans that voted for us ❤️ 🎉🍻 pic.twitter.com/e6lPqkZp4t
— THE SLOW READERS CLUB (@slowreadersclub) January 29, 2018
Fred Perry playlist
In an interview with Fred Perry Subculture, the Slow Readers Club talk about their favourite music, and share a playlist.
A British icon or band who inspire your sound?
James: We always get asked this and it’s really hard to answer because as a band we listen to all sorts of stuff… Some better than others. We’ve been compared to the likes of Depeche Mode and Joy Division. Possibly because our sound is quite dark and has some synths. Aaron also sings in a low range at times. We’re not moaning though, they’re both quality bands.
Aaron: Yeah sound wise, it’s a lot of different stuff as Jim says. Lyrically it’s Lennon and Morrissey are probably the biggest influences – I like stuff that’s personal, honest and semi-autobiographical.
Fred Perry Manchester in-store acoustic performance
The band perform a seven-song acoustic set inside Manchester’s Fred Perry store.
Lunatic performance
The band release a live video performance of Lunatic, from their show at Manchester’s Albert Hall.
Lunatic
The band releases Lunatic, the first single from their upcoming third album. The track was produced by Bullyment. Aaron Starkie:
It’s about feeling at odds with the world, especially politically in recent times, to the point where you feel as though you are losing your mind. There’s also reference to how psychiatry has been used to remove political dissidents from society: ‘Hard to find a fit, for I know that I’m a lunatic, Sure in days of old, I’d be chained to the floor’.
Lives Never Known recording
The band post a video of the recording of the vocals for Lives Never Known.
https://www.facebook.com/theslowreadersclub/videos/10155629410261118/
Through The Shadows tour announced
The band announces the Through The Shadows tour, which will play at the following venues:
- Sat 21 October – Dublin, The Button Factory
- Sat 4 November – Birmingham, Academy 3
- Fri 10 November – London, The Garage
- Fri 17 November – Bristol, Thekla
- Thu 23 November – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
- Fri 24 November – Manchester, Albert Hall
- Sat 9 December – Glasgow – King Tuts