TRACK PREMIERE: Ciircus Street - 'Broken'
The lovely lads in Ciircus Street are releasing their emotive new indie single, ‘Broken’ on the 9th November, coinciding with their first UK tour. We’re premiering the song alongside a Q&A where we found out all essential band info, including which one of them could beat The Rock in a fight!
We read that you formed spontaneously when walking through Oxford and are named after the city’s ‘Circus Street’. Were you in bands previous to this and how did you guys meet?
We were yeah! We met in college about 7 years ago and we were in bands throughout. When we left college, we both did solo projects for a few years, and ended up coming full circle!
You’re based in Reading, right? Imagine we were visiting for the day and you were our tour guides, where would you take us?
Purple Turtle is a really good night out, also there's an amazing food place called Mission Burrito, who, no matter how hard we try, still won't sponsor us. But still burritos and a few beers, maybe some live music is the way to enjoy Reading.
How would you describe your sound to someone who hasn’t heard you yet?
Someone described our vocals as salted caramel once, which was quite cooI. I think that idea plays off the juxtaposition between Sam's voice which is quite light, and mine (Jim) which has a bit more of a gravelly tone to it. Either that or they were just hungry
Your new single ‘Broken’ sounds like your most polished and emotional song to date. How would you say your sound has changed or developed since the release of your debut single, ‘Mouth Like That’ last July?
I would say that's pretty much summed it up. I think our collective writing style has become more mature and more emotive. When we first started I think we put less of ourselves into the songs, whereas now we've become so comfortable writing together it's easier to open up
Could you talk us through the creative process behind ‘Broken’ both thematically and sonically?
Following on from the last question, I think 'Broken' for us was a real step up in terms of writing from personal experience and actually thinking about the story behind each lyric, so the whole song is thematically consistent. Sonically it's nice to have a big boomy chorus, and I think the two toplines being quite simple respectively makes them sound a lot better when put together in the finished product
Do you have individual responsibilities in the band when it comes to songwriting or are the processes shared?
Not really, most of the time we'll go to the other one with a partially formed idea and then finish it off together, which is a really interesting way to write, especially considering when we started we were both so used to writing for ourselves
Are there any lyrics from anyone else’s songs that you like so much you kind of wish you wrote them yourself?
We both agree on this actually, 'Particles' by Nothing But Thieves, we're both massive fans of the band, and that entire song is so perfectly crafted, especially lyrically. There are loads of songs which fit the brief but this one stands out
You’re all set to play your first headline show at the end of the month. As a band, what have been the highlights of the year for you both so far?
We're currently sat at the venue on our second show of our first UK tour, so this tour is bound to be a highlight! Hopefully I haven't just jinxed us
Would you be able to compare each others personalities to fictional characters from film or TV?
JIM: Sam reminds me of Andy Dwyer from Parks and Rec (which is hilarious and everybody should watch it) because he's a bit of a moron, but he also manages to somehow be a consistently good person.
SAM: Jim reminds me of The Rock but he could definitely beat him in a fight.
Imagine you could each invite one famous person out for dinner and a few drinks, across any job, from any period of time. Who would you like to hang out with?
JIM: I can't choose between Tim Minchin and Salvador Dali, I think they'd both have really interesting outlooks on the world
SAM: Jim from Ciircus Street cause I heard he can beat The Rock up. On a serious note, Kurt Cobain would be cool to hang out with, there's a lot I'd like to ask him.
You mention you are influenced by contemporaries like Lewis Capaldi and Kodaline and your sound clearly has influences from rock to soul, to pop and indie folk. Who have you been listening to in your spare time recently?
We've both been loving Lewis Capaldi's latest release, Tom Walker has been making some impressive strides, and Tom Misch is always fun to listen to. Also there's a mahogany session of Amber Run singing 'I Found' with the London Contemporary Voices which is absolutely outstanding
Are there any artists/bands or genres of music that you clash over?
JIM: I think every idea Sam has is garbage
SAM: not really, we both like pretty much everything, I'm much more into Christmas than Jim so I suppose any Christmas song from January to mid November? Then after that we agree and it's fine
And lastly, do you have any plans for 2019/ an EP yet or are you taking it as it comes?
I'm sure we'll be up to plenty, wouldn't want to give the game away too soon though. we're both very excited for next year.
Interview feature by Karla Harris
