CUT! That's A Take

• 29th Jun 2005

photograph by JIM HOBBS (link)

The tuneful Manchester based trio The Longcut (featuring Lee: guitar Jon: bass, Stuart: drums) have been getting heads nodding ever since they caught the attention at an In The City event there a few years hence. Having drawn comparisons with the likes of The Rapture, The Faint, Radiohead and Massive Attack, this close knit trio took a brief pit stop on their road to indie glory to talk about their music.

Also, they answered the question that has been plaguing scientists (or psychologists for years); what are The Kills really like? In my mind the Manchester scene is broad, deep and diverse. Would you agree with this and do you feel that you fit in with this scene?

Are you proud to be called a Manchester band, as many critics call you? Lee: Yes, yes, and we always point out how many bands supposedly from London formed there but aren’t from there originally.

You have supported The Kills before, so dish the dirt is this lurid intensity they have on stage an act by VV and Hotel or are they genuine and passionate musos. Did you learn much from them?
Jon: It sounds obvious but we learned a few things by watching them perform really good gigs every night. They’ve got a very intense stage presence that they work hard on, if it gets disrupted like an amp breaking they would get really unhappy about it.

Your second EP ‘A quiet life’ is due out 13/06/05. What is the overall mood on this and how is it different from your debut EP; ‘Transition’? Jon: To us it there isn’t really a difference because it’s coming from a collection of songs that were written about things that happened to us a while ago. When we wrote A Quiet Life we were running a club night with some friends and wanted to make a track that you could play really late and people would dance to. That happened when Transition was released but it wasn’t something we intended when we were writing it.

When is the full length debut album planned for release and what can we expect from it?
Stu: We’re planning on recording it in the summer in between festivals and other odd live shows, so we don’t spend too long stuck in the studio and can keep the live energy that’s important to make a good album. We want to make as diverse an album as we can while still sounding coherent. The dance and instrumental parts of are coming together pretty well so we can’t wait to get working on it.

What are the current musical influences?
Lee: A few things. We’ve been listening to The Fall, Les Savy Fav, Portishead and The Shins a lot recently. We keep forgetting to take Buffalo Springfield’s first album out of the car as well.

Finally, if you could change one thing about the music industry what would it be and why?
Everyone: The Killers, for obvious reasons.

www.thelongcut.co.uk