Meet: Habitats interview

One band who we fear we may have fallen head over heels with in the last few weeks and months is London quartet, Habitats. If there’s one thing we like to hang our hat on here at Backseat Mafia is tunes (and noisy shit and noodly guitars and time signatures and handclaps, but mainly tunes) and these boys are beginning to make a habit of writing brilliant ones. With debut single Diamond Days and new single Peace of Mind, they’ve dressed it down in rollicking indie rock and soaked it in sport guitars and this desperately attractive shuffle about them.

We jumped on board and talked to the band about, well, being Habitats.

Hey, Habitats – tell us a bit about yourselves, who are you, when did you meet and how long have you been together? – Hmmm well our original birth names are James (Guitar/bass/vox), Michael (Guitar/bass/vox) , Joe(Guitar/vox) and Adam (Percussions/Drums). We all met under various circumstances I guess… College was a starting point, in particular Drama and theatre, that’s where a third of the band came from anyway – a background of dressing up and acting like fools! Joe and James knew each other from a mutual respect of Skateboarding before that. I would say we started out just jamming really, playing around with random tunes… it wasn’t until about 2 years ago we started to write our own music properly and form Habitats.

Were there any bands/artists that influenced you, starting out? – Anything ranging from British Invasion bands to Post punk/Disco – David Bowie, Gang Of Four, Modest Mouse, Tame Impala, Future Islands, Local Natives, Dirty Mac, Florence, Friendly Fires, Bloc Party and Foals are some others but obviously there are too many to list and we wouldn’t all agree on these anyways. Although that’s what probably influenced us in general from the beginning of Habitats.

We loved Diamond days and now your new track – we’re they written around the same time? – Oh noooooooo..no, no, no … Diamond days was actually written and recorded a long long time ago and it was also a more difficult process to record as we did it with a few other early demos in our own house and a friends stinky bedroom with a Mr Bean Doll watching over us. Peace of Mind fell together very quickly and was written quite a few months after, then ultimately recorded in a proper studio in Shoreditch near end of this summer.

So, tell us about Peace of Mind – when was it written and whats it about? – Honestly cannot remember exactly when we wrote it, too much green tea and cod liver oil over the years?! It was penned mostly in the toilet at work though, that’s where majority of our creativity/idea’s flow… The song is based loosely around anxiety. Usually our writing is quite fictional but this one happened to be a little closer to home. Let’s just say the world can be a scary un nerving place at times.

And you’re signed to label Fandango – how did you get involved with those guys? – Not to be pedantic little scamps but technically we are not signed to Fandango, they have released our first single but we currently have a contract with them regarding management! It’s a long story but their connection with Fierce Panda and Simon Willams originally played a big part in finding us. We just have an abundance of love for them over there and it’s a tightly run ship for sure. Saying that though, we do enjoy trying to mess with them to see how much trouble we can get in without causing any early graves.

And you’re coming towards the end of a residence at The Old Blue Last – has that been enjoyable? – It’s been a blast, we have had an overwhelming turnout to every show so far including friends, family, industry, Vice parties and even bums off the street. The highlight though was definitely having Steve Lemacq come down as we are huge fans of his show. Just to have such an iconic figure come watch was an absolute pleasure.

So, you’ve a new EP out in February – what can you us about that to get us all excited? – It’s not as good as the next one but a hell of a lot better than the one after that.

And any touring plans to go alongside it? Yes, March – up and down the country (Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, London, Brighton etc) along with any festivals we can get our grubby hands on!

What’s rocking the band stereo right now – Anything or anyone we should be checking out? – Aahaha do bands have a communal stereo?? Ermmm Mac Demarco, JUCE, Foxygen, Superfood, Jungle, Wild Beasts, Cloud Control, anything BBC 6 and Paolo Nutini.

And the rest of 2015, what does that hold? – Pregnancies, marriage and a career downfall probably.