Not Many Experts

I know what you’re thinking… Liverpool Sound City? Wasn’t that in May? Well… yes. But a predictable combination of chronic laziness and exams has put this interview off for a while, although I am still quite likely to claim that I simply left this for so long to tie it in with the new album’s release date (tomorrow! You can buy “Fits” here). Anyhow, here’s what lead singer and guitarist James Patralli had to say to Not Many Experts’ Resident Interviewer George Mills about the new album, band in-fighting, and the Liverpudlian women…

I’m afraid that we left all our notes at home… but we think you’re from Texas?

Yeah, we’re definitely from Texas, we’re from Austin!

What are the most famous things to come out of Texas?

Music wise, I guess Roy Orbison… he’s great! Buddy Holly’s from Texas, Annette Coleman’s from Texas.

Are you looking to challenge any of these guy’s dominance of the Texas music scene?

Definitely not! Those three guys are pretty untouchable!

New album “Fits” is coming out soon, and we were trying to speculate what it’s about, we were thinking maybe one of you threw lots of tantrums in recording?

Yeah it’s kind of a reference to that actually. Last year we toured 27 weeks, and we went from working steady jobs when the band was a weekend thing… it was quite an adjustment for us, living in each other’s pockets. So, throughout the year there were a lot of tantrums and, you know, a lot of childish behaviour from all of us! So it was kind of a play on the tantrums!

I can imagine Steve is a bit….

No, no, Steve is actually the most neutral pleasant one! It’s Josh and I, who have played together for about a decade who tend to be at each other and talk too much… But it’s been great, we’re naturally as close as family!

You say you’ve been to Liverpool before playing Korova, how was that for you?

It was great! There was a really enthusiastic crowd. The city is really amazing – I mean we were just in front of Korova but I don’t know what was going on, it was really cold and the women were wearing next to nothing on the street! Is that like every weekend?

Yeah!

Oh wow, I was pretty impressed! and the roads seemed really inconducive to walking in high heels, so hats off to the Liverpudlian women!

Now, another big American event is the Superbowl, is that an event you’d be interested in playing?

I always go to a BBQ, but I haven’t watched the game in probably 8 or 9 years, I usually just get pissed up!

Could you see yourselves doing a bit of a Bruce Springsteen?

(laughs) Man, I think We have a lot of ways to go before we could ever consider playing a sporting event!

Hypothetically, if you got there, how would you top Janet Jackson’s nipple slip?

I don’t know… full on male nudity? I don’t know if anyone would be interested in that! That’s not very popular on television.

We’re nearly half way through 2009, what are the rest of your goals for the year?

I don’t know, we’re about to put out this new record and I’d like to record another 15 of so songs before the end of the year that I can be happy with.

What do you think is the biggest difference in your sound on the new album?

Well we used to work just on the weekends, and we had 6 days to forget what we were working on, but this time we knew we were going to write a record! So I think this one’s a lot more cohesive since, last time, the label just sort of picked the songs that they liked.

Do you think that because of the credit crunch, it’s going to be harder for smaller bands to break through?

Yeah it affects us too. I mean it’s risky to put out records now… I mean when people are hurting for money the first thing that tends to go is music. It’s tough for people! And I know that a lot of people on the label side are reluctant to sign new artists.

Any plans in the rest of the year for a headline UK tour?

Yeah, we’re going to be back for the album launch and do some club gigs and hit a couple of festivals. Hopefully Reading & Leeds! We got an invitation last year but we couldn’t make it over, hopefully they’re not too sore at us and will invite us again!

Following this interview, White Denim have been announced to be playing the Festival Republic Stage at Reading & Leeds Festivals. If you are going, you might want to brush up by buying “Fits” first, and checking out these two tracks from last year’s glorously confusing “Workout Holiday”. Many thanks to James for the interview!