It Takes Time – Interview With The Stills

• 4th May 2007

The Stills are a band that come with big reputation. Since they first emerged every respectable indie enthusiast from bands like Interpol to commentators like Zane Lowe have been keen to tell us just how relevant they are. Following the release of their well-received 2nd album they have had an extensive bout of touring as well as their fair share of technicalities and bother. I caught up with keyboard player (and current tour manager) Liam O’Neil to discuss touring with the Kings Of Leon, bitching about folk in French and private jokes involving the death of a band member.

Today Liam is in a lethargic mood. He greets me gently outside Glasgow’s Carling Academy while Tom the (co) lead singer prefers to be in total silence. “You want to talk to me or I could get Oliver or…” Liam says as I think “Ok so the frontman is a no-no then”.
“Na you'll do…” I jovially say as he politely agrees.
We have a five-minute gander round the inside of the venue before coming back to where we started – in the main hall. Guitars are being set up, drums put in place. I suddenly feel a soundcheck is on the horizon. I’m thinking I better be quick.

RJ: So Liam, lets begin with the quintessential interview opener *DRUM ROLL*… How are you?
Liam: *smiling* Yeah I’m good I’m good. A little tired but apart from that.

RJ: And now for the follow-up… How is the tour going so far?
Liam: Its going great. We have one more show in Birmingham but this is our last night with Kings Of Leon so I think we’re gonna make a night of it.

RJ: What has it been like touring with them, do you get much time to hang out with them?
Liam: Yeah they’re fantastic, they’re really relly cool dudes. They’re brothers so they have this really cool dynamic amongst them. We do get a chance to hang out
with them before and usually we get a chance to party with them after the show.

RJ: I understand you’re the tour manager now, are you strict on the rest of the band?
Liam: laughs Yeah I am but normally I just play keyboard. We had to do this tour and it happened so soon. I mean having to come over seas at such short notice, it was just …so much that had to be organized you know?

RJ: Whats it like having so much on you plate, do things ever get tedious?
Liam: Well I mean this is our 13th show in 12 days – we haven’t had a day off in ages and yeah it is quite a lot to take on. It doesn’t get tedious at all though. You know cause we get three nights with playing with the Kings in front of like 3-5000 people then we’ll go off and play our own shows in these sweaty clubs in front of like 2-300 people.

RJ: Do you prefer playing in those types of venues as opposed to playing in front of Kings Of Leon fans?
Liam: They’re two totally different experiences. Its great to have both and being able to do both. I have to say the Kings Of Leon fans are really open and they will stand at the front and check you out. They just seem really dedicated to music and if you give good stuff then they’ll respond and we have had a number of shows where you can see people standing at the front and you can see them signing our lyrics and stuff. There were a lot of people who probably had no idea that we were even on this tour and a lot of the times people wont even know they’ve heard one of our songs. Like a few years back when we had a couple of tunes on the radio over here, people hear them now and they’ll be like ‘oh waow its that band…’.

RJ: Of course you’ve had some big supporters and supported some huge acts yourselves.
Liam: Yeah well Interpol was our first ever tour. They were the first band to kind of ‘champion our cause’ and say that everyone should pay attention to us.

RJ: How did that come about?
Liam: Oh I don’t even know we just get told where to be and when then we show up and play our hearts out.

RJ: Fair enough. So lets switch things. Tell me about the process of how Dave moved from drums to guitar and vocals.
Liam: Well its just makes a lot more sense when you think about it. Dave was the main (is) the main songwriter in the band and while he was playing drums he actually just decided he wanted to sing his songs. That change was supposed to happen during the process of touring the first record but it takes a certain amount of time singing and playing guitar and it also takes a certain amount of time to get a good drummer also.

RJ: The drummer now being Jules
Liam: Yeah Jules has been with us for over a year now and he’ll play all the drums on the next record.

Ray Jackson: The band has gone through a few changes what with Greg Paquet leaving etc was that a shock to you guys?
Liam: No not a shock. When Greg left we had to get another guy in to finish the last record and that didn’t click. Mainly because he didn’t speak any French and when the rest of us were speaking French together he may have sometimes thought we were talking about him, which wasn’t ever the case, so it got kinda weird.

RJ: Julien Blais: I’m guessing there’s no communication issues there?
Liam: Yeah we found Jules who used to play with Melissa Auf Der Mar and right away it clicked with him and his vibe as a dude and yeah he’s French so communication wasn’t a problem for all of us. When we travel we generally talk to each other in French because it means we can talk about other people to their faces.

RJ: Oh I see so if another member of the band comes up and you start talking in French I’ll know you’ll be like ‘awe this blonde guy (me) is an asshole’
Liam: *laughing* No man you’re not an asshole.

RJ: Oh you’re so sweet. Ok so lets go back to ‘the days’ when you joined the band. Tell me about how you got involved.
Liam: Well we played in bands with each other for the last 11 years or so… when this band started as ‘The Stills’, at that time I was playing jazz music on cruise ships.

RJ: That’s rather cool.
Liam: Oh yeah I was in school studying maths and philosophy and wasn’t really enjoying it very much. I just wasn’t meant to be there. So a friend asked me to come play keyboards and I dropped out of school and went.

RJ: Still keeping in touch with the rest of the guys
Liam: Yeah I was getting emails from Oliver like ‘we’re putting it all together and we’re gonna go to New York and play etc’ and I’d be like ok that’s cool. So I kept getting updates and then it emerged that they had got a deal and were making a record. So they were like ‘man you gotta come back and play keyboard. That was the logic so I boarded a plane and flew in the day before they started recording the first album.

The sound of crunching guitar strums start and I suddenly realise Caleb and co are onstage about to sound check. Can’t they see I’m conducting an important interview!? Probably not.

RJ: Liam before I go I wanted to ask you about something about a post on your MySpace page. I read that Oliver ‘had passed away’? Please explain. He didn’t return 3 days later in a Christ-stylee did he?
Liam: *laughs* No that was a kind of inside joke. I think it was Tim who got drunk one night and decided to write that on there. I remember at the time I was getting emails from people who were like ‘man is Oliver ok?’ and I’d be like ‘what the fuck?’. Though I think you can kind of read and get that it’s just a silly joke.

RJ: Yes that’s dead funny (har har)
And just as I start to delve more into the dark humour of The Stills, the Kings Of Leon start up and I can barely hear myself confirm my guestlist for the gig later that night. As we walk slowly out towards the side exit door to the tune of ‘Molly’s Chambers' I cant help but feel a strange desire to jump onstage and heckle the Kings about their lack of manners. I don’t. I merely swagger off with my 13 and a-bit minutes of interview time safely saved.

On the surface the indie music scene these days is pretty pathetic. We seem to have an array of have bad bands impersonating other bad bands which, hey you guessed it, leads us nowhere. But after taking the time and delving that little bit further, one will find a whole host of worthwhile and proper artists who deserve just as much coverage and acclaim as 'artists' the fucking View.
The Stills are one of those bands.
They’re a through and through indie band worth taking note of and hey I never thought I’d say it, but I’m with Zane Lowe on this one. Lets hope they don’t let us down in the future.