Emerging talent Operahouse played the Cambridge Portland Arms on May 6 – CUR1350's Chiara headed over there armed with a recorder & mic to get some words from the boys; here's a transcript of the interview:
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Chiara: All right, just to begin with, do you want to give a quick introduction to who you are and what sort of music you make?
Johnny: My name’s Johnny, I play guitar in Operahouse and sing.
Jim: Hi, my name’s Jim, I play bass... and do a bit of singing myself – but not as importantly as Johnny.
Johnny: Not as much as me.
Jim: I’m second frontman, really.
Johnny: I wouldn’t even…
Jim: ...say that.
[laughter]
Jim: I try, I try and get closer to the front than him.
Johnny: He’s not though, ‘cause I stand in the middle. You stand on the left, makes you less important than me.
Jim: Okay.
[more laughter]
C: So you guys are from London originally, or are you just hanging out there for the time being?
Johnny: We’re just hanging out there for the time being...
C: Is that because it influences you as a place or is there something that really speaks to you about London, or is it just kind of the thing that upcoming bands do nowadays?
Johnny: I don’t know, I went there before we started the band.
Jim: Yeah, I moved down about five years ago to go to art school and uh -
Johnny: ...about four?
Jim: Yeah, we grew up together in the midlands. And then you uh – you needed a bass player or something.
Johnny: Yeah and I asked Jimmy. And he said yes.
Jim: Yeah. As a temporary, but I stuck around.
Johnny: ...and now he’s frontman.
[laughter]
C: So, you guys are signed to Marrakesh Records and the label kind of prides itself on having once upon a time signed the Killers. Do you ever feel that people because of that get a preconception of you like ‘Oh, it’s just another indie band’ – is that in any way limiting, or did you purposely sign to Marrakesh Records or do you not really feel that at all?
Johnny: Don’t really feel any presence from the Killers at all.
Jim: I think some areas of press sometimes say that as their first thing, like instantly so that people can compare you to someone else just because you’re an indie band, so therefore we must -
Johnny: I don’t think we sound anything like the Killers.
Jim: No, I don’t think we do either. I think my mom does.
Johnny: Yeah, so does my mine, but I mean uh -
Jim: She also says we sound like the Magic Numbers, so…
Johnny: It’s very difficult.
[laughter]
C: So who are some of your influences then?
Johnny: Velvet Underground, David Bowie -
Jim: I used to listen to a lot of Led Zeppelin.
Johnny: Led Zeppelin. The new Management album. [MGMT?]
Jim: Yeah, that’s good.
Johnny: I don’t know. Radiohead.
Jim: Yeah.
Johnny: Everybody but the Killers, pretty much.
Jim: That’s the one album I’ve got that I’ve never listened to.
Johnny: I don’t think I’ve heard it, either.
Jim: Got about three copies, cause of the label...
[laughter]
C: Is there anything in particular that you want to do with your music?
Jim: We just want to get into a position where we can get the album out. We know that’s going to happen, but it’s always just worry that it... wouldn’t... that it’s not gonna -
Johnny: I think we just want to get the record out and build up our live presence and get more people, play bigger venues.
C: So what are your immediate plans for the future then?
Johnny: This tour finishes tomorrow, then we’re doing a load of festivals in May –
Jim: ...and July, and stuff.
Johnny: We’re recording the album in June and then yeah, doing stuff in July, then might go to Ibiza to do some stuff.
Jim: Yeah that’d be good.
C: Is that going to be productive in any way?
Johnny: Probably not.
Jim: I think if we do go, it’s like we’ll be there for a week and we’ll do six gigs, in the same place every night. Should be good. So yeah, we gotta remain professional.
[laughter]
C: So you guys are an up and coming talent – do you know any other bands that maybe we should be watching out for?
Johnny: I don’t know. It’s really hard because you don’t really see any of the other bands who are sort of in your own position because they’re doing their own shows.
Jimmy: There’s a band called the Brute Chorus from London, they’re doing quite well anyway I think – getting a bit of momentum anyway. They’re really good.
Johnny: We’re just really concentrating on what we’re doing at the moment... [laughter] ... we’ve played in front of like four people on this tour in different towns, so you just gotta keep going at it. These are all the towns we’d never done before, so we knew it was going to be really hard. Some of them have been great, but some of them have been... disastrous. So we’re just focusing on what we’re doing at the moment.
C: So this is your second UK tour?
Johnny: Yeah.
Jim: Yeah.
Johnny: Second as headliners. It’s a bit early for us to be headlining, I think.
Jim: Yeah – we did a few good support tours back at the beginning of the year and we sort of think that’s the way and we want to go back to that. It’s a bit more fun. You’re not responsible for the amount of people in the room.
Johnny: Yeah – there’s a lot of pressure on us to sell tickets and stuff. And obviously various towns had never heard of us, and they wouldn’t have done ‘cause we’re not on the right radio stations or haven’t had the right press there or whatever. It’s tough.
C: Do you have anything you want to add to that?
Johnny: Diane [single] came out yesterday, May 5th – it’s available on itunes.
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Check them out - www.myspace.com/operahousehq
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