Clean Cut Kid make Glasgow return this weekend with support slot for The Courteeners, I interviewed the Liverpudlian four-piece ahead of their headline show last month, which made for their biggest Scottish show to date.
I caught Evelyn and Saul from the band before their gig to cover early beginnings, the future and appreciation for their hometown:
How did Clean Cut Kid get together?
Saul: Evelyn’s husband Mike, he writes all the songs and he was looking for the best female singer he could find, so he married her and then he was looking for the best bass player he could find and he wasn't available, so he got me. Evelyn actually played drums first and keyboard and sang at the same time so then we wanted to look for an actual drummer, so we knew Ross and we invited him to come down and play. Mike actually followed him round and watched him play to make sure he was right.
Evelyn: Mike would secretly go down to his gigs, because he played in some covers bands and stuff, just sat behind a pillar and Ross was just thinking oh my god why is this weird bearded guy stalking me!
Do you have a band motto?
Evelyn: Right on! We say that a lot, because we all start off on these really boring stories, we laugh a load in the band, we’re always taking the mick, it’s a really joke-y band so if someone decides to be serious for a second and try to have this deep conversation and no-one replies we just go “right on” but other than that I guess our motto is just to have fun and be yourself, I know that sounds really cheesy but you should never try and be anyone else, or worry about looking a certain way or anything. I think when bands try and do that you can see through it, if you're really naturally cool then great but if you’re trying then that will come across so we just make our music and try and have fun.
How would you describe your set to first-time listeners?Evelyn: It’s loud, we always get our sound guy to crank it up, lots of energy. Our favourite crowds are the one’s where they let go and have a good time. Our worst crowds are the one's not wanting to dance or are feeling dead self-conscious.
Saul: Don’t be shy, come down to the front, fist bump Mike mid-solo, don’t feel too self-conscious. Feel the music.
How has your hometown influenced the band?
Evelyn: It's funny because when we were starting out we did no gigs, we didn't play our music to anybody, so we did our first gig in London.
Saul: We could have gone anywhere and got a gig, there's five to ten gigs every night in Liverpool so we could have gone and got one but we thought do we want to do this for our friends and our mum's again, because they'd seen us play hundreds of gigs anyway, or do we want to actually work and get it sounding serious and comparable to bands we love.
Evelyn: I think we always aimed for our first few gigs to be aimed at a more industry crowd, just because we'd done the years of trucking away and gigging, building it up as we built the band but with this, we wanted to get our heads down and stick to the way we were rehearsing until we were ready and think what we doing was worthy to take to a label. So in terms of, did it help from the start, we didn't really get involved until we were signed and then came back, but they were so warm and welcoming when we did, because we were worried about that, the local scene could have been like, you went away from Liverpool and came back, but we had our feet firmly there.
Saul: That's the interesting thing about Mike, he never wanted to be a professional musician, he was working on a building site with his dad and physics at uni, but everyone around him was going you should do music because you'll make money out of it, everyone else was telling him, he was going I want to make music I can learn on the job, he was already good. He's super critical of everything when we're practicing saying no it's not right, so you know that when he says it's good then you know it's serious.
Evelyn: But yeah, the music scene in Liverpool is amazing, it's really supportive and the arts council they gave us a good start as well so it's good.
Saul: That's the interesting thing about Mike, he never wanted to be a professional musician, he was working on a building site with his dad and physics at uni, but everyone around him was going you should do music because you'll make money out of it, everyone else was telling him, he was going I want to make music I can learn on the job, he was already good. He's super critical of everything when we're practicing saying no it's not right, so you know that when he says it's good then you know it's serious.
Evelyn: But yeah, the music scene in Liverpool is amazing, it's really supportive and the arts council they gave us a good start as well so it's good.
"Make Believe" was your last single what can you tell me about it?
Evelyn: So it's about the last moments before you end a relationship and you're looking at the other person and say it's over but can we just pretend it's like the first time we met and it's all ok and have our last ten minutes of joy, it's sad really, it sounds really happy and it's so funny when we watch the crowd singing and clapping because when you listen to the lyrics it's a really sad song.
Saul: The initial idea for that video was Mike's, because it's very much associated with the lyrics. So he had an idea and it was originally going to be Mike and Evelyn in bed together, but no-one really wants to act in the videos, to make the distinction that we're not actors, we're musicians, so they sent a list of people they thought would be good, and who we thought would be good, so we got a lot of control there.
Evelyn: We got a lot of input, especially with the initial idea always coming from us, we like to have a lot of say, we leave it in the hands of the director a little bit more now because when we started out we wanted to get involved with every aspect and you just realise there are so many other things that you need to be doing that you can't be involved with everything. It was the same director that did "Used to be in Love" that did this one and we loved him so we knew it was in safe hands.
What can we expect with your next release?
Evelyn: So the album's out next year, basically, we have three weeks in December where we have to finish it, it's nearly done just a couple more things to get mixed, so it'll be done by the end of the year. There are a couple of options, we could go really up-tempo, pop, feel-good or we have a more chilled out Clean Cut Kid goes sad, type thing and we have the wildcard where people are either going to love it or hate it so we're deciding at the minute between three different songs so you never know.
Production and writing process?
Evelyn: It's all very D.I.Y, Mike produces it all pretty much, we work with a guy, a producer, every time we record something but it's always Mike's vision he always has it all arranged in his head before we go in. It started off with no other input but as the process has gone by Mike's happy to have other voices come in and take on board other opinions, but he's just a genius.
Saul: He understands it on the same level as whoever you would go and get it produced by, if not more, so whoever we go in with it's their job to operate the desk as Mike tells them what's going to happen and then their job as production-ist is to make sure it gets finished on time which, if anything makes him take longer, like no stop for lunch or anything where the other guy says, let's stop for lunch we'll have more energy afterwards, it's that kind of thing. He's doing pretty much everything other than say let's stop.
Evelyn: Songwriting wise, I think Mike's influences for content just come like 90% of the time from life experience, and if it hasn't happened to him it's someone around him, so it's the interactions with people that he writes about and it's funny because me and him have started writing together, it's really weird because as a couple if you're writing together and you go into a subject like a breakup with an ex or something, it's going to be a bit weird, so it's funny when we do because you have to throw away all of that and just see each other as two songwriters rather than a couple. Musically, he loves Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, all the greats. As a band I think we draw inspiration from the greats that all played live and their instruments, that practised their harmonies and took pride in their live show.
Saul: He has a well informed history of music, dating back from classical and jazz right up to very current things, like he's a jazz guitarist as well!
Clean Cut Kid can be seen supporting The Courteeners on all of their UK tour dates.
Website: http://cleancutkid.co.uk/
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