Friday 26 April 2013

Hit The Deck Nottingham - The Interviews // Pure Love


 Pure Love has a reputation that precedes them when it comes to their live show so it was no surprise that they were headlining Rescue Rooms in Nottingham. 

Jim Carroll took time out before the show to chat with us about playing live, working on the follow up to "Anthems" and Pure Love show injuries. 


To read the full interview and see what we thought of their live show click below...





So…Hit The Deck Festival. You’re headlining Rescue Rooms later this evening. Obviously you played the Bristol leg last night- how was it?
It was good yeah, it was fun. We’ve just gotten off a support tour with Don Broco and all the shows have been really good and last night in Bristol too so hopefully tonight will be just as good. Unfortunately we’re up against a few good bands, so it’s kind of tough.

As you said you’ve just finished playing with Don Broco. The shows looked incredible- were they as much fun as they looked?
They were a blast and we always have fun, that’s what we’re here to try to do every night; whether people want to get into it or not we kind of force them. We do our best to make sure everyone has fun, including us.

I feel like you’re the one band that people know if they are going to go see they know they get their money’s worth; you guys know how to put on a show.  The music you play may have changed but you still seem to bring that same energy and even more to the live show.  Do you approach the live shows differently at all now?
No, I mean we’ve both been playing in bands since we were teenagers and I think we both really took that from our bands- we just wanted to put in the most energy. We’re both just really energetic people in general so bring that to what we’re doing. Personally, if I finish a show and don’t feel like I’ve run miles I don’t feel like I did a good job. I need to be exhausted and have put it all out there. People are paying money and I’m playing because I want to enjoy it, first and foremost, but if people get something out of it then that’s even better. If someone’s paying to see a show then they should get a show.


And you’re renowned for getting out into the crowd and around the venues; are you having a look around during soundcheck to see where you can explore?
Errr, it’s usually spontaneous, but you’re around a venue for the most part of a day so you realise what you can and can’t do. There’s no plan though, if it just so happens you can climb on top of something and the moment is right in the show then…

What’s the worst injury you’ve had or seen someone have at your show?
To the best of my knowledge we’ve only had one person get knocked out in one of our shows. The floor was wet and he slipped and hit his head. Frank and I were both on the floor at this point and saw it, so stopped the show and security pulled him out. But by the last song he was back. That was the worst. I tend to keep myself in limber shape, always warming up before the show.

From the outside looking in you guys seem the happiest that you’ve ever been musically?
Just always happy [laughing], what’s not to be happy about? Musically though, yes and no. It’s definitely some of the strongest music that I’ve ever written, but over the years everything I’ve done has been a learning experience. I’ve been playing in bands since I was sixteen so everything’s happened for a reason and taught me something. It’s an ongoing education and is always step by step; you learn how to tour, how to write a song and right now with this band (I’ve said it before) it’s a band I wanted to do for a long time.

You’ve been writing material for a while that has gone on to become Pure Love songs, right?
Yeah, a lot of the stuff and ideas we started working on were things that I had from 2008. Just random little recordings and things I’d never used for other bands and I’m always trying to keep everything documented. So stuff I’m writing now could be used further down the line whenever it feels right. Sometimes things aren’t quite ready and you don’t have all the components together to put it out to the world. So we’ll see, it’s ongoing day by day, that’s all you can do.

Even the album title “Anthems” is assured
Well first and foremost there is a song on there called “Anthems” and that was one of the first songs we wrote where it clicked and we thought we’re doing something right here. That was one of the earliest songs we wrote and as songs came together we knew they sounded big. We want to play them in big rooms and take them to as many people as we could. Whether it’s kind of puffing up our chests, we still felt we could get away with it.

And what’s next for you guys? Are you constantly writing?
Yeah we haven’t stopped writing. When we went in to record this record we had a bunch of songs that never got used and we’ve had to cancel some shows so that we can get right in to it. We’re going to take a couple of months off, go back to Brooklyn and just write and hopefully get the second record done by September. Even though this record just came out the songs are over a year old ,so we’re going to play a new song tonight too. 

To read our full review of Hit The Deck Nottingham [including Pure Love] click HERE