Sunday 15 July 2012

Leeds Festival Preview // Deaf Havana Interview



Leeds/Reading Festival weekend is fast approaching so we are giving you a run-down of who we think you should be checking out on the line-up. First up? Deaf Havana. 
Est.1987 jumped at the chance to hang out with the Kings Lynn four-piece to chat about playing Leeds/Reading Festival, leaving 'screaming' in 2006 and being the best that they've ever been.


Your latest album is called “Fools and Worthless Liars”; who’s the biggest fool in the band and who lies the most?
[laughing, all the band, (including himself) point to lead singer James]
On both counts?
ALL- Yeah, definitely!

"Fools And Worthless Liars"
You changed the vibe on this album from your previous releases; Ryan, who did the scream vocals, had left the band so obviously that affected it as well. Is this the album that you were always striving to write, and will you continue to go in this direction?
JAMES- Yeah, definitely. I think it’s exactly what it needed to be.  And I think we’re going to try something different again on the next album; we always feel that there’s no point writing the same album again.
CHRIS- If you release an album say, every eighteen months-two year time period, you change so much as a person anyway, so your musical tastes generally change as well
LEE- I think it’s very natural for us to do something else, that’s different.
J- I think it’ll be even more “pop” based, well not “pop”, but “commercial”.

Were you a bit nervous before you released it, because it was different?
T- Yeah, I was bricking it!
J- Yeah, I thought everyone was going to hate it; “Hey, James you suck!” Honestly, I haven’t seen one bad comment about it, and that’s insane because I thought there would at least be 50%.
C- Well, not one bad constructive comment; there are some kids that are like “errr, where’s the screaming gone?” We left it in 2006 where it belongs!

How did growing up in the King’s Lynn  area and the music scene there shape the development of the band?
J- There was no music scene there. And that’s the thing; you get all these other bands like “You Me At Six” and all the other bands that got into that clique in the London scene and we didn’t have one; we had nothing.
L- As soon as they started out, they were going to be ok from the off because they’d always have their mate’s bands to go on tour with. It took us four or five years to get out of Norfolk and get a proper gig.
J- Yeah, in a way I feel like we’ve achieved more. And, I don’t think we could ever get arrogant, or take stuff for granted because we’ve worked for so long and feel like we deserve to be here; for four years we lived in a van, slept on people’s floors, hardly ate and had no money. Coming up to seven years of Deaf Havana and this is probably the least we’ve toured, because now we’re at a very fortunate position and can take the tours we want. Before that we had to tour relentlessly and take everything we got offered.

Deaf Havana
You’re playing the main stage Leeds and Reading Festival this summer, which based in Leeds we love that festival; are you looking forward to it?
TOM- I’ve been to Leeds once and been to Reading.
J- That’s the only festival that I’ve ever cared about; Reading and Leeds, sorry, Leeds and Reading is the main one. I always thought if we could get main stage there it would be amazing.
T- I’m trying not to think about it yet because it’s huge!


In terms of what you want to accomplish as a band do you sit down and have a checklist of things or do you go with the flow?
J- We definitely take stuff as it comes. I live very much in the now and know that all this could be taken away from me in a second. Even though I do moan a lot and may seem ungrateful, really I’m not, and I just take everything in my stride.
T- Reading and Leeds was one of my goals, sorry, Leeds and Reading [laughing].
C- I guess the main goal is to keep playing the music we enjoy and never write a record for anyone else but us.
J- Lyrically, I wanted to write and people to be able to instantly relate to it and I think that was a goal for me. But apart from that, I just want to keep enjoying it; if the fun goes then there’s not much point. 


Deaf Havana play on the main stage at Reading on Friday and Leeds on Saturday
Want to know what you can expect from Deaf Havana's live set? Click HERE to read our live review of their recent sell out headline tour!

And for Festival tickets click HERE