Feature: Liverpool's Epic Marauders

• 9th Oct 2008

Born out of Orwellian conspiracies Liverpool band Strawhouses are on the verge of something special at the moment. The band are skirting on the edge of Liverpool’s music scene bringing their fresh and epic sounds to the fore. Liverpool’s up and coming annual music week will be a massive event and it bodes a great chance for fans to see ‘One of Liverpool’s most hotly tipped band’

Strawhouses play 2nd November at Hannah’s Bar and offers a great chance for people to see the band perform tracks from their recently released EP Runaway Child.

Glasswerk caught up with Paul Donnelly and Stuart Mann from the epic marauders mid EP tour.

Tell us a bit about Strawhouses how you did you start, how long you’ve been going

Paul ‘There have been a few incarnations of the band, dating back to 2004/5ish, but the current line up has been together since 2007. It's been an obsession of mine for roughly…8 years and counting. It's amazing to finally have the commitment of a line up, and for the line up to have a great chemistry. I met Stu after advertising….Stuart and Michael (Brad) know each other from back home. The fact that Stuart and Brad have known each other musically before Strawhouses means we have an incredibly tight rhythm section…which is nice. Chris and I met through uni, again through advertising’

Stuart ’As Paul said. Brad and I started playing around the same time (12/13) at school and have always played together. I was introduced to Paul by Alan Partridge and the rest, they say, happened between then and now.’

Who’s in the band?

Paul ’Stuart Mann (Drums), Michael BRADshaw (Bass), Chris Smith (Guitar, Bvs), Paul Donnelly (Voice, guitar, piano). But there are other contributors…Fernando Alberto Lout helps with all our web projects, such as Strawhouses Radio, and Sarah N Dipity often takes photos when we're on the road.

Where did the idea Strawhouses come from?

Paul ’The name or the band? The name came from 'grasping at straws' for a new band name….the night I had it I was visited by three spirits who showed me what life would be like without the formation of Strawhouses. 'Strawhouses' is also the name of the band playing in Gone With The Wind's opening section. It's also the name of a certain vintage of French wine. Actually, it's just the first one of these that's true…I was sitting there 'grasping at straws' for a new name and made the lateral connection to Strawhouses

Stuart ’ I preferred the name “Burning Fist.

Your early demo started to grab some light towards the band because of its intelligent lyrics on tracks like “These Are The Willing” etc where do you get the ideas for lyrics from and how do you formulate the songs

Paul ’The lyrics are about literally everything….that thing on our myspace under influences: 'neon lights, politicians, girls', sums up our subject matter perfectly really….I am as likely to come up with a song about corruption in the government as I am about Heroin addicts on Hardman Street as I am about a girl who has just dumped me….I am constantly keeping a log of my thoughts and ideas for lyrics in my lyric books, or in my phone if I don't have my lyric books handy. Therefore I always have some starting points to work off. I'll get a riff I like, throw in an arbitrary verse/bridge section with an intersting (see: hideous) key change to please Stuart, (and to sound like Bowie), and maybe record a few minutes of it and build a track around it. If you keep everything fresh and try and write it as quickly as possible, that's when the best songs come out…I then take my demos to the band, who painstakingly arrange it roughly a year after I write them. There's always a big gap between writing them and taking them to the band. I have to live with them first, and when I show them to other people, they're no longer mine….which is fine but it's nice to keep them mine for a while’.

Stuart ‘Going off on a tangent, Paul's lyrics I then try to imitate (when appropriate) in my playing, rhythmically and sonically’

Tell us how you came to doing the new EP Runaway Child which on first listen sounds a real epic and will probably surprise many people. You were doing an acoustic tour in the summer?

Paul ’We were doing an acoustic tour Jan 08 – April 08, whilst Stuart and Brad were in the Alps. Chris and I got very close on that tour, there was this great sense of us against the world. When the boys came back, they were very enthusiastic about picking up the band…we had made some decent headway in those few months with some concerted gig effort. We were suddenly a great live band, Brad's bass playing just made everything so much tighter…so after a few months of gigging, our wonderful management (who had been responsible for the acoustic tour) decided that we should release something…and we were all itching to record something new. I fought for us to keep it to 4 tracks, so that we could concentrate on making it absolutely huge, and more importantly, as close to what we wanted as possible. We recorded it in Parr Street with John Withnall. I love it. We have now begun the Runaway Child tour.

Stuart ’I would have loved to have been there for more of the recording but MORE epic demands more time. When Brad and I write/ arrange/ play together we're very conscious of dynamics, we spent nearly 3 months in France employing this every night.’ The epic sounding bits aren't multi-tracked like most recordings (with one 8-bar exception that I can think of), we just payed special attention to the sounds we used, the momentum (intensity of rhythm) and the space needed for contrast. I like to think that between us we can arrange Paul's songs successfully with colour and variation.

What about the design of the EP it’s certainly got the wow factor who designed it?

Paul ’It's one of Fernando's illustrations, and Ged Doyle at Plast-c designed and set the type….I can't wait till we get them printed full colour, we've had these black & white promos which have been lovely, but the colours are amazing and need to be seen.’

What do you think of the current Liverpool scene, do you try build up your name in a particular city or are you trying do as much touring as you can?

Paul ’Liverpool badly needs a new Eric's. It's just oversaturated. I'm not saying there aren't some great venues and promoters…we absolutely love Tony and Andy at the Zanzibar for example. I think the best thing going on in Liverpool is Mellowtone…they put so much into what they do, and there is a real sense of community there, but it's predominantly acoustic, so that doesn't exactly suit us…so we try and get out of the city as much as possible.’

Stuart ’I think Liverpool's scene is completely over-saturated. You've got a heritage of local live music that's been constant since the 50s combined with 3 universities and LIPA, a specialist performing arts institution. It's everywhere, every night.

I'm not going to pretend to be humble when really I find the majority of Liverpool's music scene depressing. In Liverpool, people won't pay into a live music venue because most bands don't play original music, they regurgitate skiffly, bluesy, indie crap that's been going round for 6 decades. It's dull and the quality is, quite frankle shocking. Everyone wants to sound like the Coral or the Zutons or The Beatles. It's not culture, it's laziness and plagiarism, a scene built around people who have somehow come to believe that owning a guitar makes you a musician. I'm not saying Strawhouses is special but I know we're not playing the EXACT same thing as everyone else in the city.’

What sort of gigs have you been doing any favourites?

Paul ’We have played so many different types of gigs, it's difficult to pick….for example in the last two weeks, Chris and I played at a trendy London club night, then the full band played the 1500 seater Frontier in Batley to ten people, then played The Everyman in Liverpool to a full bar of Theatre Goers then played a nuts Club night in Coventry! Favourites….I think the day when we played at Manchester academy in the afternoon for the Surface Unsigned Festival then came back and played Korova's Evol in the evening. Both slots had been organised as first ons so we could definitely play both, so the crowds were smallish, but it was just such a great sense of fun to have done both. For me personally, the first gig of the acoustic tour all the way back in January was a very special night.‘

Stuart ’Lots of “local” venues, all over the country, tipping slowly towards more “regional” venues. Kasbah in Coventry is cool, as is Purple Turtle in Camden.’

What’s ahead for you in terms of tour dates and possibly some more recording?

Paul ’We're going to keep gigging as much as possible wherever that takes us. We'll see how we get on with this EP first, but there's plenty more tracks we want to record…the boys and I were thinking about a live EP to keep costs down. Long term we want to record our album…I wrote down the order that I want for the first album the other day, and it would be very, very strong. All the tracks have their places now…’

Finally your favourite 3 – Pick your favourite 3 tracks of all time and you can include 1 Strawhouses track

Paul ’Of all time? That's insanity…you'd need at least five pints and four hours to work it out properly….’

Stuart ’ Strawhouses track Timewatching by The Divine Comedy
Jana by Killing Joke
Tonight by Martin Grech
(maybe Lump Sum by Bon Iver, Atlas by Battles, Judith by Battles)’

The band are currently touring the Runaway Child EP you can check the dates via the band’s myspace here link

Strawhouses will be in Liverpool as part of the Helter Skelter night at Zanzibar Friday October 17th and as part of Liverpool Music Week Sunday November 2nd at Hannah’s bar.

Runaway Child EP is available to buy on ITUNES now

Strawhouses will be keeping us slaves in our own homes – watch out!