Photo: Press
Hype is never easy to live up to. With a free and easy garage-punk sound, New York three-piece SKATERS have invited comparisons aplenty, with NME going as far to call them 'basically like everything we wished The Strokes still epitomized'. Yes, that's true, but we are not dealing with the new Strokes here. SKATERS are different beast entirely, and boy - what a beast.
One thing that can make said hype even harder to surpass is when you don't even know what the world is talking about. SKATERS' effortless, unpretentious cool charisma and manner of placing the emphasis on the fun rather than the ego has earned them their own invented genre - 'humblecore'. Eurgh. Fortunately, this is an invention that they've sinced killed dead.
"We've changed it now," laughs frontman Michael Cummings. "It's now called 'ego-core'. We've forgotten about being humble and now it's all about trying to serve our egos.
"Journalists just make up these terms and try to pigeon-hole us. Recently they confidently called us 'plasma punk'. I don't know what that is, but it sounds like some weird Ninja Turtles thing. It actually reminded us of zombie porn. It's a genre of pornography that we're all really fond of. The apartment that I live in has actually had a zombie porno filmed in it. It's called 'Re-Animator' - look it up on Google."
Watch the video for 'I Wanna Dance But I Don't Know How' below
Despite the hint of zombie porn rock, SKATERS have amassed a pretty impressive following on this side of the pond with just a few singles and an EP under their belt. Their debut album Manhattan is due for release late February, but it seems they have a much sexier plan in mind to increase their following...
"We have a nice core audience in the UK, and they came out and danced a moshed a little," admits drummer Noah Rubin. "It's pretty consistent over here. We have a really good crowd that reacts well."
Michael interjects: "I think it's a promising start. We haven't really had any music out - just one or two songs and people seem to come and watch us so that's really exciting for us."
Noah's getting ideas: "We're much bigger on the internet than we are in person. Man, maybe we need to get our Facebook stats up. We should have a homemade sex-tape or something?"
...Before Michael gets carried away: "Maybe with one of the members of Swim Deep? Cavan from Swim Deep with Noah? I'm really into that. We could call it 'Deep Skaters' or 'Skaters Go Deep'?"
Noah: "'Balls Deep With Skaters'?"
ENOUGH. Putting the idea of indie's first sex tape aside for a moment, let's imagine that SKATERS' debut LP will be enough for the band to fulfill their promise. Will it take their sound in the fuzzy, fun and furious direction that we've grown to love? Michael describes Manattan as a "really big, aggressive and loud record", while Noah adds: "People think that we're wimps - but we're not."
It seems that there is more to SKATERS than may meet the eye.
"The few songs we've had out there are really different," admits guitarist Joshua Hubbard (formerly of The Paddingtons and Dirty Pretty Things). "I don't know if we did that on purpose, but the record reflects the diversity of those tracks. There's a lot of different stuff happening on there."
Watch the video for 'Deadbolt' below
Their debut album Manhattan was recorded Jimi Hendrix's legendary Electric Lady Studios ("It was great," laughs Noah "Every night we would get really high, and then Jimi would come out and we'd be having these visions - Jimi would be like 'handle your shit'"). After making their first LP in such iconic surroundings, getting high and heavy with Hendrix, having indie fans and critics foam at the mouth with designs of them being the next deservedly huge band from the States - what do SKATERS have in mind for the future?
"I hope that we achieve success, to boost our egos, so we're more confident as people," beams Noah, before Michael concludes: "Then we're going to release a really terrible sophomore record that everyone is going to hate - just like all of the good bands do."
So, here's to 2014 - getting 'balls deep' with SKATERS. Making seriously good music without ever taking themselves too seriously.
SKATERS debut album Manhattan will be released on 24 February, 2014 before the band return to the UK for the following dates:
FEB 27 - THE EXCHANGE, BRISTOL
FEB 28 - HARE & HOUNDS, BIRMINGHAM
MAR 1 - COCKPIT 2, LEEDS
MAR 2 - THE BODEGA, NOTTINGHAM
MAR 3 - KING TUT'S, GLASGOW
MAR 4 - THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER
MAR 5 - DINGWALLS, LONDON
MAR 6 - JOINERS, SOUTHAMPTON
Below: SKATERS, Radkey, Say Lou Lou and more new bands to watch in 2014
