Weekly > Interviews
Post War Years
Post War Years are a band that we got on board with straight away having heard their Black Morning EP and loving it. Fusing a kind of ambient rock to electronica and pop they are easily pigeon holed.
On the 9th March they release their new single Whole World On It’s Head, which ends a lengthy wait for a follow up single. We caught up with the band recently to find out why things have taken so long and how the White Lies support slot went for them.
You released the Black Morning EP and received some fantastic reviews for it, did you expect to get so many people on your side in the media from the off?
I think we were all really happy with the response we got to the first single. It was our first release, so we weren’t really sure what to expect. A bit like a first date. But probably less awkward. And with more radio play.
Having gained that momentum though you’ve taken your time in following it up with a new release, was that something that happened intentionally or is it just how circumstances worked?
After ‘Black Morning’ we played a few summer festivals and then started work on the album. I think we were originally planning to release the next single in the Autumn but we got offered the support slot on the White Lies debut tour. We couldn’t really refuse because they’re amazing. That, and the fact that their drummer (Jack) is one of three who run Chess Club. So technically he’s our boss.
Then christmas happened, and we still hadn’t finished the album. But we must have got the single ready because we started sending it out in January, and then some things happened and we’ve ended up in February.
So in conclusion, it wasn’t really intentional. But hopefully people have a better memory than I do.
You have now got a new release ready and coming out in early March, what can you tell us about Whole World On It’s Head?
It’s out on 9th March on Chess Club and will be a limited run of 500 vinyl. It has lots of beeps at the beginning and a big chunky beat with a fairly sporadic bass line during the verses. And there’s keys parts almost throughout the entire song (except during the middle 8). Oh, and there are shout-y vocals in the choruses. That go “lights on, lights on.”
That’s the hook. You shouldn’t forget the hook.
Musically it seems a lot more upbeat than your previous EP, is that a fair comment?
That’s certainly fair. We try to be varied in the music that we make, and our live set has always had a fair amount of pace to it. So we made the decision to pick a record that showed that aspect a bit more than Black Morning did. In a way, having three singers in the band makes the choice of a single quite tricky for us.
It’s difficult for to represent exactly what it is that we do in one song. I’m really looking forward to releasing the album because it gives us a little more space to give a rounded view of the music that we make. In the meantime, I think ‘Whole World’ is a good choice; its got big ‘ol drums and there are strong melodies at the heart of the song. And I suppose in that way, its not that different to the first single.
You’ve toured recently with White Lies, how was it playing to a lot of people who weren’t maybe aware of you before seeing you that night?
I think gigging is at its most exciting when your playing in front of an audience that’s never seen you before. We were the opening act on the tour, and that’s traditionally the hardest slot to play. But because of the buzz surrounding White Lies, we were playing to sold out venues and people often made the effort to get there early.
Being first on means you really have to work to get a reaction out of people. But if at the end of the set you can see you’ve won a few people over, you definitely get a bit of a rush out of it.
Has that support and the tour in general given you any ideas or experiences that you will be drawing on yourself on your own headline dates?
In a way that was the first proper tour that we’ve been on. When we were first promoting Black Morning, we all had proper jobs and were trying to do the band in our spare time. In contrast, the White Lies tour was a real professional affair – those boys know exactly what they’re doing and we genuinely learnt a lot watching the cool efficiency of their operation. I think that comes across when you see them live; the show they put on is effortlessly powerful, like a well oiled machine. When we head out this time around I think we’d like to take some of that on board. But in reality we’re probably just a shonkier affair – I’m at peace with that though – there’s nothing wrong with a sexy shambles.
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Add to favouritesAfter the new release you also have a live EP coming out, what made you decide to put out live material so soon into your career as a band?
We’ve been trying to organize a release on Zarcorp (Faley from LOTP’s label) for a while now and putting a live EP out seemed like the obvious choice. I think its motivated by the fact that we use a lot of electronics but we’re fairly strict on the way in which we do that – we have a bit of a rule against using backing tracks – and every sound we make is triggered by someone live. That’s really what differentiates us from other bands and I guess that’s what we wanted to put across with the live EP. We recorded it in our home town, the glorious Leamington Spa, and then replaced all the audience noise with the sounds of owls and other woodland creatures. That decision is slightly harder to explain.
Once they are released all attention will be focused on your album, how will that sound in comparison to the EPs and will any of those tracks make it onto the album?
With the album I think we’ve really discovered what it is that we’ve been trying to do so far. There’s going to be plenty of weird noises and hopefully some tunes you can tap your feet to. We recorded it all ourselves in our flat (which is why its taken so long) and have been post-producing it with a chap called Graeme in Oxford, who has helped iron out some of the brute amateurism.
I hope it isn’t too drastic a departure from the EPs we’ve put out so far, ‘Whole World’ will be on there for sure, and I think some of the songs we played on the live EP have made it on as well. That said, there’s going to be 3 or 4 songs that are brand new and perhaps controversially we’ve decided not to include Black Morning.
Who do you have a lot of respect for in the current music scene and is there anyone that you just don’t ‘get’?
On the new bands front I have a lot of respect for Wave Machines, our Chess Club brethren, they have a kind of Talking Heads feel but with a bit of falsetto thrown in. And they start their set in masks of their faces, which should earn respect in itself. On the bad side of things, even though we’re horrific musos we try not to bad mouth individuals because loose lips cost lives or something. But personally I don’t get the entire genre of reggae. The accented offbeat makes me feel uncomfortable.
From your experiences so far in the industry, is there one thing you would change if you could?
I don’t know really… everything seems to be changing in the industry at the moment anyway. The big labels are struggling to keep up and in many ways that’s been really good for the creative side of things. Its kind of exciting and unnerving at the same time. Perhaps if I could change one thing it would be to stop everything changing all the time. But then where’s the fun in that?
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