Christian Allen caught up with Esser at Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena to talk arena gigs, influences and 2009Christian: How are you finding this jump from the venues your used to playing to these arena dates you’re playing on the current tour with The Kaiser Chiefs?
Esser: We've never played to so many people before, the first couple of shows were nerve racking but now I think we’ve really learnt to adapt to the huge venues, and have been able to put our sound across well.
Christian: Who would you cite as your main influences?
Esser: Someone I’ve mentioned a lot recently is Joe Meek (Gloucestershire born 50s and 60s music producer) who’s really influenced me in terms of what he was doing with sounds. Some of my main inspirations are those people who are innovative in different ways.
Christian: With the debut album recorded and mastered, when can we expect it to be released?
Esser: It’s called ‘brave face’ and is due to be released in May. It’s weird because it’s been sitting there for awhile so we’ve been keeping busy working on a new E.P and writing and doing some production with other people. I’m really pleased with the album but also want to keep things moving and show people what I can do.
Christian: Many artists who have been touted for 2009 have a heavy 80s, synth sound…where do you think you fit in?
Esser: When I started writing I wasn’t thinking about how to fit in I just wanted to write pop music. It just seems at the moment there are more artists who are proud to be writing pop tunes, which wasn’t the case a few years ago.
Christian: Who do you suggest people listen to, other than yourself?
Esser: I really like what Fryars and Micachu are doing at the moment. There’s another guy called Danimal Kingdom who’s coming on our headline tour, he’s definitely worth a listen. They’re all acts who haven’t been hugely hyped but are doing interesting and important things.
Christian: It’s important to see that there are exciting bands outside of top 10 ‘ones to watch out for’ lists.
Esser: This is it; you think surely not all these bands can be huge. People just get excited about something being new, regardless of whether it’s good or terrible. It takes 3 albums for band’s to really produce their best material, it’s not always best when everything is so rushed.
Christian: Are there any bands you aspire to tour with in the future?
Esser: I’d love to support blur!
Christian: Complete this sentence ‘students in Newcastle should be involved in music because…’
Esser: Its fun, I think too many people are in bands because they want to be famous and be the biggest band in the world. They forget to enjoy themselves along the way.
Interview by Christian Allen
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