Photo: Press
The Pigeon Detectives were among the bands that lead the charge a few years ago when a whole host of bands emerged from the North of England. Their breakthrough track 'I Found Out' made them a household name and they built a reputation around their raucous live shows.
The five-piece are now preparing to release their fourth studio album, We Met At Sea, and are busy getting ready to hit the road once again. Gigwise caught up with them to find out what they've been up to, what the new album's like and their fondest festival memories.
Hello there, The Pigeon Detectives. Where have you been what have you done since the release of your last album?
Matt: We had to first of all tour that album, so we were in and out of Europe and touring the UK. Then we had to write the new album, then we had to record the new album, now we're just in the process of promoting the new record, wait for it to come out.
You're about to release a new album. Will it be what fans expect or are there any surprises?
Jimmy: It's a bit of both really, we've all kind of matured a bit. But at the same time it's got quite a bit of the charisma and instant catchiness that we had on our earlier albums.
Matt: I think it's quite gratifying if you're a Pigeons fan, as soon as you listen to it you'll enjoy it. it was written off the back of touring Up Guards, And At ‘Em. We literally walked off the tour and into a rehearsal room. So it still has that kind of tight live, rock and roll band feel because we were still in that mode when we were writing the album.
You’ve spoken about capturing your live sound on this album? Was that something missing on the last record?
Matt: I don't think it was missing because it was intentionally not there. We really broke the songs down and built them back up in the studio. Whereas on this record if you couldn't play it in the studio it hasn't ended up on the record. its a real honest record, what you hear coming out of the speakers is what happened in the studio.
I think you could listen to this record and maybe think, rightly or wrongly, that we might've put less effort in because we’ve gone for a live feel. Actually it’s a lot harder effect to achieve because there were times when you were playing guitar solos, and previously we would've cheated and taken half of it from here, half from there and a note that was played three weeks ago. On this if you wanted it to go on the record you had to play it.
Did you have any fall-outs?
Jimmy: We had falling-outs every two minutes.
Matt: We had strops, walk outs, fall-outs
Jimmy: Music's probably the thing we argued about least, we argued about everything else.
Dave: There were points when me and Oli (rhythm sections) had to record our bits just by ourselves because Jimmy (drummer) would have us playing until our fingers fell off. Jimmy’s a bit of a perfectionist.
Watch the new video for 'I Won't Come Back' below
You’re latest video, ‘I Won’t Come Back’, features some lucky fans. Was that difficult to coordinate?
Jimmy: It got a little bit rowdy.
Matt: We're quite a down to earth band, there's never been an us and them feel with our fans, the gigs have always been a collective experience, we put in as much as them and vice versa. There were a couple of people that had maybe a few too many drinks in anticipation of the gig, but we just moved them to the back.
Jimmy: There were guys with a huge Leeds united flag and they were trying to get that to the front and we were like 'we don't want a football hooligan video thanks' so we moved them to the back.
Matt: The director was just picking out certain undesirable characters at the front row and making them stand at the back and ushering more aesthetically pleasing people to the front. I'm pleased with the video; Jimmy’s probably the main star of the video. We didn't realise he had it in him. Hollyoaks next.
You’re about to head out on tour, is there anywhere you're looking forward to?
Matt: Ridiculously, and it sounds mad to say, but Stoke. That’s always seems to be a good gig for us. Last time we played stoke we were two songs in and the barrier just kind of lifted two inches off the floor but moved about two foot forward and we had to stop the gig and that’s the first time we’ve had that reaction. It’s not as glamorous as New York or Paris but Stoke is always a gig you look forward to. And any of the shows in Europe, anything that involves a passport is always fun.
I think London will be a good one as well. That sold out on the first day but this time we're also doing a weird experiment with lighting where if you got a smartphone you get that involved and everyone logs on to this network as they walk in and everyone holds their phone up and this clever app creates sweeping graphics and I think we're one of the first bands to try it. No doubt you'll see Coldplay ripping us off and using it at Wembley next year, but remember we were the first.
Watch the video for 'Animal' below
Festival season is nearly upon us, have you had any particularly bad festival experiences in your time?
Matt: I got my retinas burnt out by Chemical Brothers at the last Glastonbury. I genuinely did. And I set my face on fire watching Kasabian at Leeds once.
Jimmy: We pissed off the promoters at Oxygen by asking people to throw mud on the stage, we got into a mud fight with the crowd.
Dave: They were just launching piles of mud at us and the promoters and stage managers just went mental.
Matt: They threw mud at us and we threw some back but the mud on their side of the barriers seemed to be a lot more plentiful than it was on the stage. As we were walking off the whole back drop was covered, the stage, all the equipment. they just chucked all our equipment off stage and were like 'fucking won't see you again' and then we went back the year after and played about six slots further up so it was quite smug for us to go back and see the stage managers again.
What about your best festival experiences of all time? What's been your highlight?
Matt: Coldplay, as uncool it is to admit, totally blew me away when I saw them at Glastonbury.
Dave: I think playing festivals, that's been really amazing experience for us. Getting on to the main stage at reading and Leeds, 2011, with The Strokes, Pulp and everything, that was a really achievement for us. We started out going as punters and we’ve played every stage now. We started out on the really small stages and worked our way up so we feel like we've really conquered that festival now.
Matt: Oliver once had a drug induced epiphany while watching Feeder didn't you? He was sat at the side of the stage watching Feeder, having done loads of MDMA, and suddenly decided that they were the next nirvana and when he got back from this festival he was going to buy their ‘Best Of’. I don't think you've listened to them since. I just remember you being like 'this songs is fucking amazing', I was like 'it's fucking Feeder.'
Oliver: After that we were dancing on stage with Craig Charles.
Thank you very much, The Pigeon Detectives. Pigeon Detectives release their new album We Met At Sea.
The band are performing on Saturday 13 April at The Queen Of Hoxton in London. For more information visit www.thisfeeling.co.uk
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