It's rare these days for a band to
grab me by the neck, forcing me to scream at everyone I know 'Listen
to this!' But with their Velvet Underground / Mary Chain inspired slabs
of melody and noise, White Noise Sound have had me doing this regularly
over the past months. In an age where Pop has become idle and emotionless
emo by numbers enslaves too many kids, it's time to get dirty, dangerous,
over-excited, blissed out and wired up to The White Noise Sound.
"Mesmeric" **** Q
"psychedelia meets krautrock" **** The Independent
"A psychedelic shoegaze gem" **** The Times
"one holy mothership of destruction and audible bliss" *****
Artrocker
"[A] monumental rock and roll juggernaut" 8/10 Contactmusic.com
"A bright racket indeed" BBC Radio 1
Even better, they come from Swansea.
How could Rosey R*E*P*E*A*T resist?
Lucy: Your band have been quite quiet for the last few months. Are you looking
forward to playing gigs again?
Katie Jane Garside: I think I give very obtuse ans
White Noise Sound who, what and why?
Who? Dan - Synths, Adam - Guitars, Synths and Vocals, Paul - Guitars,
Rhys - Guitars, Chris - Bass and Phil Drums
What? Weve all know each other for years and we all have the same
musical influences so in a relatively small place like Swansea it was
inevitable we would be in a
band together
Why? we want people to like our music and want as many people as possible
to hear it, weve been together for a few years and havent
killed or seriously hurt each other so it just makes sense.
Who are your heroes and heroines, musical. cultural, political, other...
There are six of us so there probably far to many to mention but here
are a few, MBV, JAMC, Johnny Cash, David Lynch, Sigur Ros, Mogwai, Spacemen
3, The Warlocks, BJTM, Gram Parsons ..
Have you seen the documentary about Creation Records, and if so what
did you think? I imagine there's quite a few Creation bands that you
like, can you tell us about them?
There have been a lot of amazing bands on Creation, the ones who have
influenced us the most are My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Primal Scream, Super Furry Animals, Ride. I would have to say that JAMC
and MBV are probably the only ones that come to mind if you
listen to our music. Weve always loved the loud fuzzy guitars
of JAMC and MBV again definitely have a loudness to them but its
more like layers of beautiful noises.
Do you like the term 'shoe gazing' and do you think it applies to
you?
Were definitely fans of shoe gaze music, I think maybe a couple
of our songs are could fit into the shoe gaze category but its
probably not the best term to describe our music in general.
As we were originally a Manic Street Preachers fanzine, I ought to
ask you at least one related question, so I wonder if you feel the same
need to move away from Wales to London to get a fair go at the 'music
biz', or have you found that the group of Welsh bands that followed
in their wake has made it easier for you to be taken seriously and continue
being based in Wales?
To be honest its never been an issue for us. I mean were
only three hours from London So were closer to it than some places
in the North of England. Maybe twenty years ago when we didnt
have the internet we might have been forced in to it. There are plenty
of bands in Wales,
some good, some bad. I wouldn't say we were part of any scene here though.
I'd like to think we would have made this music where ever we came from,
I don't think being Welsh has any bearing on the music we make.
You Jack Bastards...
White Noise Sound
Twin Town or Tiger Bay?
Twin Town
Write a 14 word lonely hearts adverts for White Noise Sound...
6 piece band seek 6 women. Must be easily lead and have no morals.
I get the impression that your pretty popular in the States, how
did this come about?
Our record label is American, so I suppose its a lot to do with
that. We sent a demo to Patrick at Alive, he came back to us saying
he loved it and wanted to hear more, so we sent him the album and it
went from there. We definitely would like to get over to the US at some
point.
What can people expect on July 2nd in London and other
of your live gigs?
Well Playing live is just another platform to get your music across
to people, you can never get some songs as loud as you'd like them on
record, so playing live gives you the chance to deafen people (in a
good way) and try different ideas out. A record is set in stone, once
its
done you can't change it, there's a lot more freedom playing live. Basically
people can expect us to be a lot louder live!
I'm still on cloud 9 after the Swans unlikely promotion to the Premier
League. What would be a parallel promotion for you as a band?
I dont thinks its quite sunk in for us yet!
Maybe a parallel promotion for us would just be to get as many people
as possible listening to our music and to keep making music.
Your album is one of the most exciting new CDs I've
heard for a long time, what exciting new records are you listening to?
We dont really listen to a lot of new music because were
so busy at the moment. We got asked to compile our favourite albums
of 2010 and not one of us could name an album released in that year.
There are plenty of good bands we have played with recenty, The Keys,
El Good, Koolaid Electric Company, definitely worth checking out.
Do you experience white noise as soothing or inspiring?
Inspiring.
Is there a question you wish I'd asked?
No
How can our readers get hold of your music, and why should they bother?
Its available on Amazon, HMV, etc.
Why should they bother? Thats the most difficult one to answer!
I guess they should buy it because its amazing!
Finally and most importantly, what's best, chips or cream, buns?
Chips!
Many thanks to Chris and the rest of the band for
their time.
White Noise Sound play London Queen of Hoxton on
July 2nd and Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach on July 8th. R*E*P*E*A*T means to
be at both...