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They began 2005 as White Rabbit, working in dead end jobs in a small village in South Wales and dreaming of rock stardom. They end 2005 as The Automatic, touring in support of Goldie Lookin' Chain and being touted as the next big thing and one of the best and most exciting new bands around. Not a bad twelve months for four lads who are only celebrating their nineteenth year in existence. Gigwise duly caught up with guitarist James Frost on the bands tour bus somewhere in the valleys to talk about gap years, world domination, kitchenware, and being the only band on the bill who isn't playing Screamo.
All four members of the band grew up in the village of Cowbridge, which is about 30 minutes from Cardiff. "It was a nice town to grow up in but there's nothing to do for kids," Frost says. Maybe it was almost inevitable, like so many other British kids before them, that they would find solace from the boredom of small town life in the shape of music. Like a lot of bands, for The Automatic it all began at school. "None of us were really into sports," explains Frost. "We were all really young and didn't take it that seriously at the start. We played at our school and then when were 16; we started to play in bars."
It wasn't until just over a year ago that they decided that they wanted to try and make a go of it as a band. "We all decided to take a gap year after our A Levels," says Frost. "We wanted to see if we could get signed and luckily we did." They all took part time jobs for spare cash but you could hardly call it the rock n' roll lifestyle they were looking for. "I worked in a kitchenware shop, our drummer Iwan worked in a garden centre, one of the guys worked in an off licence and our keyboardist worked at 'PC World'. They weren't exactly the greatest jobs in the world!" Laughs Frost.
Frost admits that they weren't exactly huge on their local scene but they did stand above the rest with their fusion of indie riffs, Test Icicles style yelping vocals and electronic beats. "We stuck out because we were constantly playing gigs where we were the only band on the bill not playing Screamo," he says. Eventually their determination paid off and they were snapped up by B-Unique, the same label as Kaiser Chiefs, but it wasn't until a performance at this year’s In The City in Manchester and a short UK tour at the end of October that the hype began. "There was this whole load of buzz around the band because of that tour," explains Frosty.
"Getting the deal was good but when you start getting critical acclaim that's even better. We got a great reception from people that haven't even heard us before," he adds. "It was strange getting such a good reaction from a cold crowd!" And for those of you who haven’t managed to catch one of The Automatic’s shows yet Frosty describes them as “Indie rock on top of disco, electro and hardcore mixed into certain bits of the songs”. He goes on to add: “Our sound is quite full both recorded and on stage, I think people are quite surprised by that, us being a new band. We just try to get everything in, as many sounds as possible.”
Their debut single on B-Unique 'Recover' was released on November 21, and although it was ineligible for the charts it has still garner a whole bucket load of praise from the music press. They don't plan their full assault on the British music buying public till 2006 however and have just started their debut album. "We've recorded a few songs already but we'll head back into the studio again in January to finish it. We're hoping to release it around Easter, hopefully in April," says Frost. "We're also going to release our next single in January and then tour the UK at the end of January too." In fact they've just been announced as the main support for The Kooks on their UK jaunt in the New Year.
While the hype swirls around them the band are determined to keep their feet on the floor and Frost says that their not quite ready for an Arctic Monkeys style frenzy just yet. "We wouldn't want our first proper single to go to number 1 or anything like that,” he says. “We just want to play as many gigs as we can and get our album out. We're starting to feel at home on bigger stages now and we're all really happy." And when will they be ready to fulfil the promise? “Well, I reckon we’ll be ready for world domination in about ten year’s time!”
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