We took a break from all the action at this years Leeds Festival to catch up with the fantastic Arcane Roots to chat about Reading & Leeds, touring, and brand new music….
Let’s start by talking about Leeds Festival…
Andrew – It’s Leeds and Reading, everything is more official here, you know? We’ve had our quiet time before we release our new record. This is the only official thing in our calendar. It seems like a distant memory the first time we were here.
Let’s talk about the European festival – Ukraine is kind of a strange one to take on.
Andrew – A strange one, but in a good way, kind of like if we played Saudi Arabia. I’d seen a lot of the documentaries about the situation and so since then have become interested in the situation and when we got the opportunity to play they we were just excited. It does feel different. It was very much a case of wanting to see it for yourself. It turned out to be one of my favourite experiences ever. They’re incredible people that got me really emotional.
It’s like the brink of war is right there and there’s people just celebrating life.
They’re big into their congas there and we were watching a Moldovian folk band and with everything going on they still were just living life. That was beautiful. We also met some fans and one of them had a t-shirt from back in 2007/8 and that blew our minds.
It’s sort of like Eagles of Death Metal being here despite what they’ve been through
Absolutely, we were due to play in Paris straight after it happened. And we were so disappointed to not have been allowed to. If anything that’s giving those people what they wanted. It’s no different than anything, you’ve lost if you don’t get back and say ‘and what?’
So you’ve been in the studio and you’ve been teasing stuff
Yeah, we like to let it fester…
What can you tell us about the new record?
We’ll be playing a new song today, or trying to. With this being a career and just our lives progressing as humans – the two are very much entwined with everything that happened and the pathway that we’ve taken to get to this point. We’re really aware that this record and any record could be our last. I really just want to do a good record, not something safe or something aiming for number one – just a good record that we believe in.
So the rule with this record was that it can only be the best thing and if that’s 100 trumpets then fine. We just asked ourselves what would be the most satisfying thing to listen to right now.
Well you’ve got to enjoy your own music!
Of course, we asked ourselves ‘what happens if we just do music?’ And now we’ve made a record that we basically can’t play live. It’s very left field and we love it to bits. But it’s a long way from where we want it to be. So there might be a single this year and then the album sometime next year. We’ve gone for the biggest and most ambitious thing we could, really
The world’s music has been forgotten because the Men in Black have neuralised the world. Including your band you each have to select an artist/musician/band to recreate music for the entire world.
Adam
Thomas Newman – Purely because of listening to his soundtracks and it’s the most emotive music you could possibly want to hear.
Jack
I’m going to go with my gut feeling and say the Men In Black cast. I just feel they’d produce something special.
Andrew
I have a few records I never listen to on purpose. Because I just don’t want to know them. There’s an album called ‘This Binary Universe’ by BT. It is just the best record ever. It’s sort of nothing and everything. 8 tracks long. Written on C plus. I remember reading that he needed 7 of the fastest computers going to produce it. A friend of mine recommended it and I refuse to listen to it unless I have the best speakers.
Check out our Live review and photos of Fridays action at Leeds Festival including Arcane Roots here!
