Sheltering in the press tent at Beacons Festival, doing our best to avoid the intermittent, unpredictable rain that plagued the site on Friday we were able to get together with the Leeds band with perhaps the fastest-rising stock at the moment – Post War Glamour Girls.
Ahead of their appearance at Leeds and Reading (where they’d follow Green Day no less, although we were not aware at the time!) they dropped in for an early set at Beacons which went down well despite “a few technical issues” on Alice’s side, however James rightly interjects “as there is at any festival though – you’ve got to remember we’re playing on a farm!”. Clearly willing to take the rough with the smooth the band sound wise beyond their relative experience, having been together “about a year and a half” and building themselves sufficiently to emerge victorious from this year’s Futuresound competition. My pre interview estimation of ‘a number of years’ was clearly skewed by the fact the band appear tight and possess a stage presence suggestive of more time spent fine tuning than has been the case.
Inevitably the conversation leads onto the subject of the other Yorkshire festival they are playing the weekend after, and we all speak about previous time’s we’ve been there. James thinks “there’s going to be moments of ‘Why am I on the stage?’”. Alice meanwhile reminisces about the times she’s been there as a fan “i’ve been going there myself since I was 15” and fondly remembers Bloc Party back in 2005 “I was carried over the barrier by a paramedic… I was completely fatigued and when i came round I was underneath the stage in someones arms, i just thought ‘I’m in heaven!’” Everyone has got a story to tell about that place and who’s to say PWGG won’t be the ones providing them in the coming years?
The band hope to go out on a support tour in the autumn, details of which are still to be confirmed, but we ask who their fantasy support slot might be with “Prince!” James jokes “He’s a funny guy, he’s alright. Or how about Snoop Dogg? We cover a lot of the same ground, the same issues”. Back to sincerity and the band all agree on the Pixies as a central focus and influence, and hence their ideal fantasy support slot – perhaps with a bit of Smiths and Radiohead in there as well as a runner up.
Looking to the future we were keen to know the band’s ambitions for the forthcoming months, having released a couple of EP’s I wondered if there might be an album in the pipeline “We are currently writing, we’re constantly writing rather than simply sitting back on what we’ve got. What we do with that is up for debate between us. We’re comfortable and confident with what we’re doing at the moment and we’re just going to keep writing and whatever comes of it, comes of it”. Its nice to see a band be so relaxed before having even released a full length, and why shouldn’t they be? It seems as though the band look to please themselves and if they are recognised for their work, then so be it.
“We’re gonna be careful to make sure we don’t just throw out any old tracks, we want to get some ideas together and build it around a concept.” Indeed the band are always seeking to build their tracks to showcase “a continuous narrative throughout”, something that sets them apart perhaps from some of their contemporaries and distinguishes their work as a real artform. “We just lock James in a room, make him go crazy and something good will come out of it!”. Alice Jokes, in retort James says: “The album’s going to be about a Russian delivery driver…. and his journey to Sheepscar!” (an area of Leeds).
Joking aside James suggests “I wanna do a film that follows the album’s narrative, so every track would have its own music video and forms an album. Its not necessarily that linear or specific but there is a theme running through…. The balance is to make it so when the songs are played individually they stand alone but work together as a concept…. The medium of art and visuals is integral to the band in general and to who we are. If you see music as an artform you should try to incorporate as many artistic themes as possible. Videos, visuals, art and design.”
This is clearly a band with a vision of where they want to go and a really good idea of how they are going to get there – their ideology is incredibly refreshing. In a time where overnight youtube sensations fill the mainstream airwaves, its good to know there are bands out there willing to put in the graft and come up with unique concept to present to the world.
You can listen to the band’s previous releases over at their bandcamp. “Tragic Loss, he had such a lovely house” EP was released on 10” and CD in August and can be purchased through said site.
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