JKLMNO interviewed at T in the Park
One band in recent weeks have been giving me a bit of trouble. Not the people or the music, just the name. Try it: JKLMNO is not the easiest thing to say.
Now LMNO, that's smoother, or XYZ, or LMNOP, QRS, or ABC, yes, there are blocks of the alphabet that run together neatly, but awkward as it is, JKLMNO are starting to grab our attention.
Thanks to the team at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Shropshire, the Wrexham band this weekend travelled the length of the country to Kinross in Scotland to play the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Introducing stage.
I caught up with Danny the guitarist via MySpace, to hear about the experience before playing out the highlights from the festival on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Introducing in Wales and England tonight. You can listen to it here for a limited time.
How was last weekend? Talk me through the whole experience from the journey onwards?
Well it was an early start on Friday to try and catch any bands on Friday night. We packed ourselves into two cars armed with hopefully enough music to last us. The car I was in predominantly had Mumford and Sons on, and Will Smith to liven us up in the boring times.
The festival itself was an amazing experience. The Scottish people are so nice, even the campers were really nice to us. We spent most of Friday flyering and telling people to come and watch us on the Saturday! That was good, because we got talking to the people and every one was really nice.
On Saturday we woke up really early to all get showered and warmed up for our set at 1:15. At 10 o'clock me and Carl were in the tent warming up our voices as much as we could! By the time we came on stage, the rain was pouring but there was still a fair crowd from the act on before us - Loud Hickey, who was amazing.
People we met flyering made it, as well as some people from Wrexham who were at the festival! We all really enjoyed the experience of being on stage, was weird having cameras pointing at us recently, makes a change from playing at Central Station!
For the rest of the festival, we got up the general festival antics and managed to meet Jamie T and Newton Faulkner who were nice people. Was an amazing festival and we all had an amazing time, met some amazing people as well!
Who were your highlights in terms of other bands on the bill?
For me, it was definitely Stereophonics, being a life long fan and never seeing them live. Especially when they played Same Size feet and dedicated it to Stuart Cable - it was a fantastic moment.
We all saw Muse who blew us away with such an amazing show and extraordinary sound. Pierce (keyboards) told me his highlight was Mumford and Sons who I didn't get to see because I was watching Eminem who was also amazing. The last band we saw were Kasabian who were just perfect to end the festival, and we were jumping up and down hysterically and singing with the rest of the Scots!
How did this all come about? ´óÏó´«Ã½ Shropshire wasn't it?
Yes it was, we played a session for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Shropshire a couple of months ago for the . We got a good relationship with the DJs there and they forwarded our music and we got the gig. We will be forever in their debt for that, I imagine.
What else has been going on for the band since recording last year?
It's been difficult because Pierce and Carl have been finishing their degrees. I'm in my second year of my degree and the other two have been working so we rarely get together. We email each other demos so that when we get back in the practice room, we got an idea of what we want to do.
We've written some new material which we played at T (Thistles and Thorns and Electric Hearts), and tightened up the rest of the set. We've been having some gigs in between in Wrexham for promoters who supported us from the beginning! We've done a few gigs in England but not a lot due to the band being in separate corners on the UK!
Where do you hope to go from here?
We're planning on going into a studio to do another new song and some reworked songs. We were considering doing it ourselves so we get the sound we want, so that may still happen. We want to keep as active as possible so people don't forget about us which is what seemed to happen after Benicassim. We're going to gig a lot and keep recording I would say.
You also played Benicassim festival. How was that?
It was completely different to T! First of all, the weather conditions were complete opposite. It was a fantastic experience but I don't think we had the right songs or sound back then, so we weren't prepared. We're very appreciative of Supajam for giving us the opportunity, though, and it was definitely a vital stepping stone in our career.
What do you prefer as a band, small intimate gigs, big festival stages, or the studio experience?
We treat them all the same. We did a warm up gig before T to try the new material, and I got same feeling from that as I did on stage at T. We'd obviously prefer to play as many people as possible. Crowds in Festivals seem to be a bit more 'up for it' though. Being in a studio is amazing though, we had a lot of fun working with Nino on transitions and very pleased with his work. If it was up to me, I'd be in the studio more but the funding issue holds us back.
How would you describe your music?
We got asked this while giving out flyers. I'd say alternative indie rock with a big sound!
You can see videos of Danny Kehlenbeck and his pals Carl Harrison (vocals/guitars/keys), Daniel Pierce (synths/percussion), Knox (bass/vocals) and Nick Roberts (drums/programming) on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ videos from T in the Park. And you too could be playing a festival stage, just make sure you upload your music to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Introducing Uploader, and you never know...
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