Peluché have been grabbing some well deserved attention of late. The Camden three piece have already featured as Guardian Band of The Week , and Q magazine Track of The Day. We recently caught up with them to find out more about their latest release – ‘The Guy With The Gammy Eye’ – and to find out a bit more about what makes them tick as a band.
BM: ‘The Guy With The Gammy Eye’ – Intriguing title, whats the story behind the tune?
Peluché: Rhapsody had a drink on Hampstead Heath just before rehearsal and passed a group of dodgy looking guys. They didn’t start anything. But she had that feeling of paranoia when something bad could happen in the next few seconds. At rehearsal we had a jam and her lyrics were based on this feeling.
BM: The tracks been released via the Speedy Wunderground label, who have a reputation for been pretty fast at getting stuff out, and from what I’ve been told, your track is arguably the quickest to date.
Peluché: Yes, we recorded it with the fantastic Dan Carey at his studio in Streatham a month ago. He released it on his Speedy Wunderground label on the 10th august. Dan is a producer we’ve wanted to work with for ages – we all love his style of production. We were really excited when he came down to see us play and invited us to record at his studio.
The song was recorded live, and on tape, which meant we didn’t have many chances to get it right! Dan really captured the energy of the song and played an unusual instrument called the Swarmatron, which is featured on all the Speedy Wunderground sessions and sounds like a swarm of musical bees flying over the track.
BM: You said earlier that song emerged whilst jamming at rehearsal. Seems quite instantanious, is that how most of your songs get written?
Peluché: We get together and jam. Sometimes it goes nowhere and sometimes a song comes out. Someone will start singing and we will harmonise here and there. We might scrap something and go back to it a few weeks later, or mix two songs together sometimes. Either way we really love a jam.
BM: Talking about getting together. How did you all meet?
Peluché: We got together, about a year and a half ago, it was like a breath of fresh air and we all felt like we had found something special.
Rhapsody and Amy met at art college in Camden and became friends. One day Rhapsody played Amy a song she wrote on guitar, apparently Amy laughed at her but actually Amy was very inspired and in awe and so she got a guitar for her birthday a week later so they could jam. They met Sophie one fateful day when a woman came into the deli that Amy worked in, and they started talking about this and that as you do with customers. Amy said she was making music with another person and they were looking for a drummer. Then this lady went into the pub where Sophie was working and noticed that Sophie had a cast on her leg, and wanted to know why. Sophie told her that she injured it drumming. This lady then told Sophie that she had met someone earlier who was looking for a drummer. Sophie trustingly gave the lady her number, and the lady (who’s name was Lucy) came back to the deli and gave the number to Amy. So we all met up at Scar Studios in Camden and had a great jam together. And it went from there.
BM: Is there any particular music that you all bonded over as a band?
Peluché: Tom Tom Club ‘Genius of Love’, ESG, Savages, Fela Kuti, War on Drugs ‘Lost in the Dream’ Tame Impala, Deer Hunter, Orange Juice ‘Rip It Up and Start Again’ they are all special between us.
BM: Would you say these bands have influenced your sound?
Peluché: The bands that have influenced us most are our friends Totem, who are no longer together but we all loved them. Their music was so interesting and weird and wonderful. And they are really nice guys who had a great relationship in and out the band. Grimm Grimm also, because he works so relentlessly and his album is beautiful. And Moribones, who have beautiful jams on stage! And who keep their band going even tho 2 of them live in Berlin and the other lives in London!
Sometimes we start jamming and somehow it sounds a little like ESG, or Talking Heads. But we generally don’t want to define ourselves. We are always stuck when people ask us how we sound… We just sound like a combination of 3 peoples influences mashed up together. A little punk, pop jazz and dub depending on how we feel that day. We never try to make our music sound like anything.
BM: What about playing live? How would you describe your live set?
Peluché: Fast then really fast then slow then fast. With mood swings but mostly happy.
BM: Can you remember your first live outing?
Peluché: At the windmill on New Year’s Eve! We had only written the whole set about a month before so we were terrified but luckily everyone was drunk and merry and liked it.
BM: What about your next one? Where can we catch you live?
Peluché: We are playing at the Speedy Wunderground Summer Party at The Windmill in Brixton on the 21st august. This is also going to be our single launch for ‘Guy with the Gammy Eye’ and then we are going on tour with Darwin Deez throughout the UK and Europe.
BM: And finally, please forgive my ignorance – but what does Peluché mean ?
Peluché: It means teddy bear in Spanish, or something soft in French.
‘The Boy With Gammy Eye’ is available now via the Speedy Wunderground shop.
Details of the Speedy Wunderground Summer Party can be found HERE.
Peluché will be heading out on a rather extensive UK and European tour soon and they need your help. They’re looking for assistance towards the cost of fuel, van hire, accomodation etc. and have set up a Kickstarter page for people to donate through. C’mon – we wouldn’t want to see them having to sleep rough and hitch their gear round Europe would we ? – click HERE for more details.
Tour dates;_
OCTOBER
11th Boileroom, Guildford, UK
12th Thekla, Bristol, UK
13th Sound Control, Manchester, UK
14th Workman’s Club, Dublin, Ireland
15th Limelight 2, Belfast, UK
17th Leadmill Steel Stage, Sheffield, UK
18th Electric Circus, Edinburgh, UK
19th The Duchess, York, UK
20th Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, UK
21st Rainbow, Birmingham, UK
22nd Concorde 2, Brighton, UK
23rd Scholar, Leicester, UK
25th Bodega, Nottingham, UK
26th O2 Academy 2, Oxford, UK
27th Islington Assembly Hall, London, UK
28th Théâtre des Etoiles, Paris, France
NOVEMBER
01st Biko, Milan, Italy
2nd Technikum, Munich
06th Chapeua Rouge, Prague, Czech Republic
07th Zoom, Frankfurt, Germany
10th Heimathafen, Berlin, Germay
12th Stollwerk, Cologne, Germany
13th Bibelot, Dordrecht, Netherlands
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