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It’s a given that most young musicians dream of nothing but their successful music career of the future, right? A very grounded Douglas Adams, bassist and one third of indie outfit, Sky Larkin, is deliberating this theory: “We’ve been in bands since we were thirteen, and if you’ve been playing music for that long you don’t think, ‘When we’re successful’ because there’s no point, you realise that so few bands get to do it, that’s why it’s now constantly surprising. I can’t believe we’re making an album because if you thought of that when you were thirteen ‘In ten years time we’ll be making an album in America’ it’s just ridiculous!” With their debut album, 'The Golden Spikes' released this week (February 9) which was recorded in Seattle, Sky Larkin have done just that, making what seems a ridiculous dream a reality.
The Leeds trio, who consist of Douglas, singer Katie Harkin and drummer Nestor Matthews, are presently sitting in a café, having taken a break from preparing for tonight’s London show, which is the seventh out of nine dates on their UK tour. With countless live shows, their covers EP 'Swit Swoo' on digital release last year and the new album on it’s way, no one can deny the effort that the band have put in during their eighteen months together as their current unit, and though they seem to take it all in their stride, there are the odd moments in the interview when their gratitude and enthusiasm bubbles over, as Nestor offers: “It kind of creeps up on you in a way, every now and then you suddenly realise, wow, you’re in Europe playing gigs, touring this massive continent and playing the music that we’ve written.”
Douglas’ face lights-up, illustrating just how the trio have reacted as their world has changed around them, “I think with everything that we do, it’s like ‘Oh, wow that’s amazing!’. Like, ‘Oh, we’ve put out a single, oh, we’re going to have an album out and we’re going to Europe’. Every time we do something it’s like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening!'” Singer and songwriter, Katie smiles in agreement as she reflects back on her band’s original plan, “When we started, the only goals I ever really had were to put out a 7” single and maybe play a gig in another country.” She pauses, then repeats, “Maybe?” Stressing just how her expectations have been surpassed.
According to Katie, these ideas first took root when she was writing songs that would later become Sky Larkin songs while studying for her History of Arts degree in London. Katie already knew Nestor from “growing up in Leeds” but it wasn’t until she graduated in 2007 that Sky Larkin could, as she puts it, “tour and properly become a band full time”. “We found a bottle of water from Katie’s graduation ceremony in the van the other day!” pipes Nestor rather triumphantly, before adding a rather sour sounding, “Mmm!” as he considers it’s taste given the amount of time that has since passed.
The three-piece are signed to Wichita Recordings, something that the band are glad they held out for. Katie says, “We were approached by people where it would have meant not doing our temp jobs for as long as we did, but they didn’t feel right.” She describes their first dealings with Wichita as a significant and proud moment for the band, having been asked to support Canada’s Broken Social Scene, “We had all bought tickets to go to the gig and we got a call through saying, ‘Would you like to support them?’ and that was our world kind of entering the world that we love.”
Douglas, who joined the band after bass player/guitarist, Lindsay Wilson left, explains how for him this Broken Social Scene gig also cemented his future with the band: “I’d been in the band around a month at that time, it was like, ‘Yes! I think I’m going to stay in this band’. When I joined it was just to help Katie out because I was friends with her and I was in another band. But then the first gig was one in Shoreditch (at the Spread Eagle), the second was at Reading Festival and the third or fourth one was Broken Social Scene and it was like, 'This is crazy!'”.
When it came to finding a producer for their debut, the band sought out someone who produced albums that they personally liked. These consisted of albums from Sleater Kinney, Death Cab for Cutie and the Blood Brothers, particularly those produced by John Goodmanson. He also produced Sky Larkin’s label mates Los Campesinos’ record, 'We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed'.
After Sky Larkin relocated from their northern home in Leeds to their temporary home in Seattle to record their debut they were surprised at the parallels between the two places, as Katie compares: “I think the north of England and the Pacific Northwest have a lot of things in common. It’s amazing, that you can just walk around shops in Leeds that are playing grunge music, then when we were in Seattle, we went shopping one day and five stores in a row were playing The Smiths.”
The band spent two weeks recording the album, apparently the longest time they have spent in a studio. However, they were also happy to spend most of their stay in the studio too due to the modest conditions of their accommodation, which boasted “A fridge, a hot tap and a shower” according to Douglas. They were not fazed at spending long periods of time together though as Nestor explains, “We’ve been a band in different parts of the country and for such a long time, we are used to each other. So we know how each other works and how each other thinks, it just kind of works really.”
The group were prepared for their time in the studio, as Katie explains, “We’d worked out the structure of the songs before we went into the studio for most part and it was just the atmosphere of each song and the specific tones. There were certain vocal melodies I hadn’t written until I got to the studio and hadn’t worked out what I wanted to do, so I just got lost in that.”
“I can’t wait to just hold an actual copy of it,” says Nestor in reference to the forthcoming release. “It’s been floating around on our computers for so long it would be so nice to have an actually copy and go ‘here you go’. All this time making it, to give it to people that I know and see what they think of it as a whole.”
Do you have any personal favourite tracks from 'The Golden Spikes', then? All three members of the band take a few moments to consider this question before a rather reluctant Katie attempts to answer, “It feels a bit like choosing a child.” She laughs and then persists, “I like how hazy Antibodies sounds, I don’t know, I can’t decide.” “I really like Matador, Beeline and Octopus 08, they’d be my top three in no particular order” offers Douglas.
So, looking ahead at this forthcoming year then, what do you think of the lists of hopefuls for 2009, or the idea of being branded with tags like, ‘band to watch’…etc, is there too much pressure on bands at the moment? “I just think it doesn’t make sense to give Brit awards to people that don’t have albums out yet because what kind of pressure can that put on a young person” says Katie. “There’s this thing about tipping young people for success when they’ve only got three songs and then some label snaps them up and throws them into a studio and tries to make them churn out something that they’re never going to be happy with."
“I’m really happy that people are wanting to listen to us, but I’m also happy that we feel complete as a band, that we have an album and we know what we want to sound like and we feel comfortable playing live, so I’m happy to share what we do with people rather than feel intimidated by people saying ‘Oh they’re going to be big'.”
“Last year Les Savy Fav were getting tipped as a ‘hot new band!” exclaims Katie as everyone smiles at the absurdity of a band being labelled newcomers after having released four studio albums.
Douglas considers what is really important, offering: “I think being among the industry in some way for two and a half years you realise how it works. I don’t think you can get affected by things like that and bands’ lists because we know that people like us and the only thing that shows to us that people care about us, is that people come to the shows and people buy our stuff.”
It’s almost time for the band to get back to preparing for tonight’s show but before they take their leave we ask one final question. With one month passed already, are Sky Larkin excited and looking forward to the rest of their year ahead? “I’ve never been so excited about a new year” says Katie.
As the enthusiasm bubbles over once again, Nestor’s answer becomes almost cryptic, “It’s exciting in terms of we don’t know what’s going to happen this year. Things have been planned and things haven’t been planned and that’s very exciting as well, seeing what’s going to happen”. In contrast Douglas’ answer is almost the opposite of his band mates, “I’m incredibly pessimistic so I don’t like to put too much hope on anything.” With that attitude it looks like there can only be more pleasant surprises to come their way then…
