Band Of The Week #0062 - itoldyouiwouldeatyou
This week’s Band of the Week is the incredibly talented itoldyouiwouldeatyou, who’s debut album ‘Oh Dearism’ is out now via Alcopop! Records x Failure By Design. We had a chat with Joey Ashworth from the band to discuss the influences for the album and their plans for the future to keep creating.
How on earth can all of you find the time to rehearse together in a touring, recording and general modern life schedule that can be gruelling?
We kinda don't! We've had to get very good at doing stuff a bit by the seat of our pants. Honestly if the others weren't so good at doing things fast, and well, we'd be dead in the water given how much there is to do. But we can always get better. I'd really like to spend a long, uninterrupted stretch of time on The Next Thing though, so we can properly stretch out. But to be honest we'd probably end up doing a lot of stuff last minute anyway because we really do thrive under pressure. Maybe that's the issue, in a way we love the stress.
Seeing you live is one hell of an experience, what can new fans expect from your live shows after hearing this record?
Thank you! I feel like we get more energetic all the time, and even more so when we have new stuff to play. I can't wait til the record is out and we can start playing some of these tracks live. They're louder and more melodramatic, as well as in general more complex to play. There's some really aggressive moments on the record too which I cannot wait to do live, as well as a few moments where members of the band who on other releases maybe have hung back a bit really get to stretch out - Josh's solo (!) on Almost Zero being a great example. That is a track that is gonna be a lot of fun to play live.
Aside from the influences you've been open with in the past (TTNG etc), who have been the collective influences on all you guys in the making of this record specifically?
I can't speak for all of us but listening back to the record I'd say Glassjaw, Say Anything, New Order and Kate Bush are some of our main ones. Slint is a big one too, as are mewithoutYou and Every Time I Die. Josh and I have always bonded over bands like Polar Bear Club and The Dear Hunter too and I think those really come through. We also take a lot of influence from my brother Thom's old band, Our Lost Infantry, in which Josh and I played on guitar and bass respectively.
How does working with Bob Cooper complement and enhance how your songs sound on record?
He has a fucking magic way with guitar tone. The thing I'm always most excited to hear when we get mixes back is how the ideas I've heard Josh fiddling about with cme out when they are beefed up by Bob. He also mixes vocals really nicely - after the first EP we did with him he understood that we wanted a lot of the impurities to come through in the vocals unimpeded by unnecessary effects. That's not to say we want no effects on the vocal at all - we love messing about with how vocals sound with different things on them - but that overall I'd rather have a few bum notes come through than go out of our way to disguise them.
If you had to choose; play live or in the studio?
I would say studio but I imagine a lot of the others would disagree. I love playing live but there's something about the magic of hearing it all come together that's really exciting and so satisfying when you've been imagining how this track will sound for months.
Who are the new artists around today that you would recommend to WTHB?
Oh so many! Granola Suicide is incredible - a lovely person and a huge inspiration. flirting. are fantastic and their new EP 'This Would Be Funny If It Was Happening To Anyone But Me' is required listening. Socket are South London's very best punk band. Badgirl$ are gonna be the biggest band in the world. Worst World Problems slap. Kero Kero Bonito just released a world-beating album. It's a wonderful time to be making music in London.
You guys have been so prolific in the last year or two- is this the last new music we'll see for a while?
No way! We hate resting so we're already working on the next thing. I will probably yell a bit more on the new stuff. That's all I can say.
Thank you for talking to me!
Joey xx
Feature by James Kitchen