Interviews

Rolo Tomassi Interview

• 21st May 2010

Toe curlingly close to the release of ‘Cosmology’ on May 24th and their headline show on May 28th at Camden Underworld, James Spence of Rolo Tomassi reveals all on personal sacrifices, supporting BIffy Clyro and recording in LA…

So, we’re pretty close to the long awaited release of ‘Cosmology’, do you think it’s been worth travelling all the way to LA to complete, do you think the environment has affected the output in a positive way?
Absolutely. We all feel that its the best recording we've ever done and because of that, going all the way to LA is justified.

How would you sum yourselves up to a Rolo Tomassi virgin?
Rolo Tomassi is five friends making progressive hardcore music.

You’ve been quoted as saying when you’ve recorded and played abroad it feels like a holiday, how long do you think the holiday’s going to last, is it starting to feel like work yet?
Obviously a lot of time, effort and fore- planning comes into what we do and in that respect it is work but all that work serves to make when we actually are out there doing things we can have as much fun as possible. We'll always work hard to make sure these things can be fun and I hope this holiday from real life can continue as long as possible.

Having become as successful as you have at such a young age, do you feel like you’ve missed out on some of the more conventional experiences your friends are having?
Firstly, I wouldn't trade the experiences this band has given me for anything in the world! Speaking for myself I'd say I don't really feel like I've missed out. I had a place at Goldsmiths in London and then we decided to take our gap year (three years ago). A year later I met my girlfriend who incidentally was starting at Goldsmiths so I've pretty much had the student experience without being a student with all the time I've been down there visiting her. I think fortunately for us it’s easy to go back and study should we choose to.

What has been your favourite show to play so far this year?
There have been a lot! Glasgow with Trash Talk and Throats comes to mind. We'd just put Party Wounds online and about half the crowd knew the words and sang it back. It was insane. All of the shows we did in Australia were great and Hammersmith Apollo with Biffy was a really cool show, purely for the grand scale it was on.

You’ve got the download festival coming up this year… if you could organise a festival, who would you pick to play?
At The Drive-In (reforming at our request, playing a set chosen by me)
Radiohead
Daft Punk
Converge
M83
Rolo Tomassi

Who have you met that’s completely blown you away while you’ve been on tour?
The people of Australia generally were amongst the nicest and most sincere people we've had the pleasure of meeting. We met Steve Davis the snooker player on the Biffy tour too. That was funny more than anything.

Where do you want to be in 5 years, are there any individual passions you would want to take time out to pursue?
Still making records and touring harder than ever on a global scale. I'd really like to get better at using computers to make music and try my hand at remixing and producing tracks but I don't really need time out to do that, I just need to be more productive when we're on tour!

If there’s one thing you could achieve collectively tomorrow, what would it be?
This band has surpassed all the achievements we ever dreamed. The fact that I wake up knowing we're still able to do what we do is enough. Winning the lottery in a band syndicate would be cool though.

… don't forget to get your copy of cosmology on Monday 24th May… you can get yours on pre order here through Hassle Records: link

Tracklisting:
1. Katzenklavier
2. Agamemnon
3. House House Casanova
4. Party Wounds
5. Unromance
6. French Motel
7. Kasia
8. Sakia
9. Tongue In Chic
10. Cosmology

See you at the Underworld on May 28th!