8 QUESTIONS with KAGOULE

Eo8:  You’ve said that you “represent the sound of boredom…the sound of three 15 year olds wanting to do something.”  Can you give us some history on that boredom?

Kagoule:  Playing an out of tune guitar on your own is quite boring.  Combine that with some mates and half a drum kit and it suddenly becomes pretty damn fun.  It was that typical feeling of being 15 years old, wanting to do something with yourself, but don’t know what just yet.  Nothing satisfies you.  I was sure I’d rather hang around at lunchtime and play music than go to drama club.

Eo8:  What is it you are hoping to do, i.e., what are you hoping your music does when you send it out into the atmosphere?

Kagoule:  The first hope would be that it’s intercepted by alien life forms visiting us and they think that Urth is the sound of Earth.  Secondly, I hope people think the riffs are sweet and try to copy them.  Sending spinal shivers to all of you.

Eo8:  What is the Nottingham music scene like and how do you think it has influenced/shaped your band and your music?Kagoule:  It’s a big knot.  A tangled family tree.  Everyone supports each other but doesn’t necessarily take influence from each other.  There’s a great live scene but not much of a Nottingham ‘Sound,’ oddly; with us being quite a bit younger we were in our own little bubble.  We were self-conscious and without the motherly kindness of the Nottingham music scene patting our backs we probably would have crumbled with nerves.  

Eo8:  Your influences are some of my favorite bands; what is it about their styles/sounds that spoke to you and inspired your own band’s sound?

Kagoule:  Hard to pin point exactly why you like something, but it’s definitely spoken to me more than any other music I’ve listened to.  It’s so brave that it even takes the piss out of itself.  It’s music for listening to without an amazing set of fresh new headphones.  The songs can be played on any instrument and remain incedible.  Music from that era always seems to be the most fun to play along to as well.  Is it just me or were people like 10,000 times cooler back then?

Eo8:  Your album came out on August 21st; can you talk about the process of creating and recording it? Any fun stories from the studio? 

Kagoule:  We went to a sheep barn in Wales to record it.  The pub closed the day we got there, nothing at all in walking distance.  Lost our minds for 2 weeks.  A sheep sang the opening guitar line in ‘Mike’ to me, and that’s how the song first came about.  A little while later we went to Sheffield to mix it into shape, gave it some protein.  It’s more of a collection of the songs we wrote growing up as teenagers, a big scoop picking up what we’ve done so far.  As a band we don’t feel like we’ve even nearly found our sound.  Don’t get me wrong, we’re super excited to have our first album on wax but i can’t wait to get the next one out.

Eo8:  If someone could only listen to one of the songs from Urth, which song would they listen to in order to get the full Kagoule experience and why?