Get Into It: The Rapture

Luke Jenner, of shrieky Rapture fame, answers Gigwise in a very small voice. A voice which sounds like it comes from a tiny head or Moby talking into a milk bottle. It’s quite unlike the bark which summoned so many a Converse-encased foot to pound the dance floor to ‘House of Jealous Lovers’ and wholly disparate from the coiled frontman we see on stage. Phone interviews are hard to negotiate at the best of times, and wrong-footed by this sheepish bleat, Gigwise attempts to fill in the blanks.

Asking what he’s been doing in the three years since the release of debut album, ‘Echoes,’ Teller accordingly fills us in on the ‘bigger picture.’ The bigger picture being that he’s spent the last five years reclining into domestic married bliss, and producing his first offspring.  As is customary in these situations, Gigwise gamely asks the name of Teller’s new piglet-fleshed cherub, to which he replies ‘Vincent.’ Now, correct us if we’re wrong, but Vincent is not a coo-inducing name. And at this moment in time, the only other we can conjure up is Villain. Not wishing to sully the fruit of Luke’s loins – we can do nothing but ask accusingly, “why?” Luke explains: “Oh I let my wife decide, she had really strong feelings about the name, like from the age of ten.”

Baby talk complete, we ask what brings the New York quartet to a sweaty, heat-stricken Britain. Luke explains they’ve been to Belfast to play C4’s Transmission show. On enquiry he quietly states, “yeah it was fun…but we were really nervous. It was okay though, because we got to play the song twice, and the second time it was alright.” “Why were you nervous?” we ask, visions abound of Laverne pressing a gun against his tiny temples and threatening him to sing better second-time round. “Well have you ever been on TV?” he asks, “Er, no” I confirm. “Well then.”

Gigwise feels the pungent pang of patriotism coming on. “What do you like - or dislike - about Britain?” we ask smugly, chuckling at the superfluity of the ‘dislike’ clause. Rather too quickly Teller points out what a very expensive nation we are: “I don’t like how everything here costs the same in pounds as it would in dollars in New York.” In case we haven’t got that, he reiterates, “that’s one and a half times more expensive than America.” “And what do you like?” we counter, expecting to hear the familiar blather of great crowds and brilliant reception. “Well, I’ve made peace with the food,” he muses thoughtfully, “I’ve been eating a lot of curries. And English breakfasts; I like them.” Sweet-talking bastard.