Weekly > Interviews
Club Smith
It wouldn’t really be you of course if you didn’t have a disaster with transport while on the road…what happened?It wouldn’t really be you of course if you didn’t have a disaster with transport while on the road…what happened?Just when everything seemed to be heading in the right direction for Leeds / York band The Hair, they’ve made the decision to change names, start the band again and opt for a slightly different sound.
We went to see the ‘new’ band in Leeds recently and the good news is that everything that made The Hair so good is still essentially there within Club Smith. Nonetheless we were still keen to speak to lead singer Sam Robson and try to find out why after such a high profile tour with the Kaiser Chiefs, did they think that it was now the time to make these changes?
You’ve recently changed band names which has caused a bit of confusion amongst fans, can you tell us exactly why you have done that?
To be honest we’re not keen to call it a name change, as it’s basically a new band. Our drummer Vijay joined us last spring and toured The Hair’s old set for a few months as we weren’t really able to write properly together because of touring and other commitments, but when we did (just after The Hair toured with Kaiser Chiefs) Vijay was a lot more involved in the songs than any drummer had been before and they sounded different to us and had a different sentiment. So it felt justifiable to start as a new band. Although it’s completely mad to do after you’ve done the biggest support slot you could ask for it was the perfect time for us to move on and leave the old band behind.
It seemed strange timing coming after a high profile support slot with the Kaiser Chiefs like you said?
Yes most people would say it’s a bit mental, but we pretty much decided we wanted to leave the old band behind and write an entirely new set of songs. Just because we didn’t really have the passion for all things “The Hair” and regardless of how well it might have been going it’s all about how the music makes you happy when you’re playing it. That’s the most important aspect of our performance we think.
How does it feel to be almost starting up again as a band?
It’s weird, but it’s really cool because we feel quite unrestricted now. The Hair were by no means a huge success but we put pressure on ourselves in that band to give people what they want and play songs we weren’t that keen on. Now with less pressure on what we’re doing I guess we can try more new things out.
Has any part of it seemed like a backwards step to you?
I guess getting people to hear the songs is hard, and letting people know it’s our new band. With the old band we used to gig so much but so sporadically that a lot of the time we’d turn up, play and not really stick around as much. The plan with Club Smith is to tour more in chunks so we get to chat to people and get the atmosphere of a gig so it feels more like an event for us, and hopefully that’s reflected in the performance…it was on the first Club Smith tour anyway.
Are you definitely not going to be playing any Hair songs after this tour or would you consider re-recording or re-arranging some to suit the ‘new’ band?
We had two Hair songs we played on the first Club Smith tour. We’d re-arranged one. The idea is to write 2 songs that can knock them out now…that’s the challenge! We put them in the set as a lot of people had bought tickets for the tour thinking they’d see The Hair and it was the best thing we could think to do in that situation. They might stick in the set as they are the only 2 that fit the theme but I think we would have to do something new with them.
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Add to favouritesWhat has brought about the changes in sound and what were you unhappy with about the previous songs and sound?
For me it was the themes in the songs. Some of the old Hair songs were 4 years old I think! Maybe 3, can’t remember but they were old, and the lyrics were not really speaking to me in any way, mostly because a lot of them were quite petulant or just gibberish/not that coherent. The sound changed because of Vijay’s introduction and us wanting to do stuff that varied a bit in mood and groove. The Club Smith songs kind of reflect a bit of growing up done really, and a tough year for all of us for various reasons.
It seems from listening to the new material that your singing has changed styles slightly as well?
Yes, I’ve actually realised I sing much better in a slightly lower register! So I did something about it. I’ve found I can get more tone and character from my voice if I drop the yelpy kind of sound and go for something more controlled.
How did you find the transition on the new tour between the old material and new?
We loved playing the new stuff. The two old songs we kept in fitted in ok so it was cool to do them (they were the only 2 of the old set we still liked). We’re all really excited about the new songs so it was fun playing them to new audiences and watching them develop as the tour went on.
It wouldn’t really be you of course if you didn’t have a disaster with transport while on the road…what happened?
Well compared to past experiences it was pretty tame. My car broke down in Newcastle and I had to sell it to scrap the next day and get the train home, the van we hired was 4 hours late coming to Leeds so we had to go to our gig in Liverpool in a Party bus Taxi…driver didn’t wear his seatbelt the whole way…what’s that all about, why not bother? Baffles me. Someone tagged our van in Winchester of all places…I suppose all the buildings are too pretty to graffiti!
Apart from that there was no crashes, no last minute races to venue with a door hanging off, no broken keys, flat batteries or knackered starter motors so it wasn’t too bad by our standards!
What are your plans release wise as far as singles and first album go?
We’re still waiting on our final mixes on our recent recordings before we properly promote ourselves but in the time being there’s a final mix of a track called the green room at www.myspace.com/joinclubsmith and two demo mixes of tracks, plus 4 free downloads of a live session at www.clubsmith.co.uk/members so hopefully that will keep people going for now!
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