NEW RHODES INTERVIEW
Pyrrha attends a New Rhodes gig and interviews James and Chun from Bristol’s best new band.
Attending a New Rhodes gig feels suspiciously like being part of some elaborate hoax, or a huge mistake. Where are the hordes of A&R men and their chequebooks? Why am I not being trampled under a stampede of squealing girls? Why are this band not on the radio every 20 minutes, or on the cover of your weekly music periodical? One explanation is that it is only early days, because seeing the New Rhodes live (or even listening to their demo) there is an instant, shocking, recognition of a band who are going to ‘make it’. They’ve got everything (the talent, the look, the songs and an un-identifiable something else) to make an easy task of it.
In a converted country estate (now arts centre with a rock bar), the New Rhodes are drawing stares, particularly from the OAP acapella group who are trying to practise on the balcony over the bar to calls from Chun Leek, drummer, for “topless singing”. In such staid surroundings it is not surprising that the band are causing a stir. Clad in an almost uniform black boots, t-shirts and tight jeans (perhaps too tight as guitarist Joe seems unable to walk without stumbling in his), Joe, James, singer, and Jack, bassist, are fresh-faced and mop-topped, they look like your typical skinny indie rockers, with a 60’s NY vibe, but the band image is ruined by the presence of Chun. With hair flowing down to his waist, and an intriguing looking goatee, he looks like he’d be better suited to a Metallica tribute band. The others don’t care though, and it’s refreshing to see a band un-phased enough to break from the dictates of the “New Rock” look.
Even on stage, the exchanged glances and laughter is a giveaway of the friendship on which the band is based. Typical “band as gang” mentality. Jack and Joe were in a band together at school, as was James, but a rival band, the two of which hated each other. Slowly becoming friends while fighting over rehearsal space, they eventually formed the band. According to Chun, though, the New Rhodes were not really a band until he arrived.
“Well, before me they didn’t really exist anyway. They were in rival bands, they used to argue over rehearsal space. But they got together, and we still argue loads, but you caught us on a drunken good night. It’s all cool. We’ll argue and you’ll hurt the ones you love. And there’s nothing like beating the shit out of the other three in the band, man.”
Chun was acquired when the others placed an ad in a local listings magazine. Chun replied the very next day.
James: “Yeah, something happened.”
Chun: “Best thing that’s ever happened to them. Worst thing of my life.”
That was roughly nine months ago, and things have quickly moved on from there…
Despite having played Glastonbury, supported bands ranging from M.A.S.S to Ten Benson (“Yeah, we thought we were going to get beaten up, but they were really nice people”) and been playing two dates a week, frontman James still throws up before every gig. “It’s just lucky I’ve never been sick over the first row of the audience. I get so nervous, but then you could put me in a room by myself and I’d still be nervous,” he explains, back from a pre-show trip to the bathroom. This inherent shyness does not inhibit an excellent performance (or getting unceremoniously kicked out of various Camden watering holes during the course of Pyrrha’s interview the week before), not even when an abrupt end to the music leaves him singing alone for a few lines. It is a stupefying moment of intense atmosphere in the tiny bar, and you can only hope it is recreated in larger venues. Chun, by this point, is drumming topless, his mane of hair flowing around him, Jack stands to the right, head thrown back, oblivious in ecstasy, while Joe pouts, moving restlessly from foot to foot.
The music? When asked, the band avoids mentioning direct influences, claiming “Everything influences us”. Although Chun contributes “Pink Floyd is my thing when I’m really fucked” and James reveals that certain bands are a personal huge influence, but might not be evident in the music, like The Cure and the Velvet Underground. Read their reviews, and there are two bands that are always mentioned in conjunction with the New Rhodes – The Smiths and The Strokes. It is the bittersweet nature of The Smiths, the jangling fuzz-guitar pop overlaid with aching melancholy that is shared by the New Rhodes. Although it was not until they were compared to The Smiths that the band began to listen to them. “Basically I was compared to it, so I listened to it” says James “I do like The Smiths but I’ve never tried to base any of our stuff on The Smiths.”
As for The Strokes, do the continual comparisons bother the band? James – “It bothers us a lot. They’re an obvious reference point at the moment. I guess I can understand people saying it, but I think it gets on my nerves a bit.” Although Chun comments, “It doesn’t bother me. I’d rather be compared to The Strokes than, say, George Michael.” The comparisons with The Strokes are not completely unjustifiable, The New Rhodes too possess songs reminiscent of the early days of NY punk crossed with bands from 80’s Britain; and lyrics with a prevalent sense of confusion over young love and loss in an aggressive modern city.
The New Rhodes are frustratingly difficult to describe, although there are parallels with Interpol and elements of the early Wedding Present. The strong characters that feature in the lyrics (like Jenny Southgate of ‘I Tried’ or Jimmy Brown in ‘At Her Place’) are reminiscent of the storytelling of the Kinks. Live the songs are stunning, freakishly catchy, and memorable.
It is a busy period for the New Rhodes, they are completing work on their six track debut album, following in the wake of ‘The Life of Nelson Scamp ep’, that will be their first official release, embarking on a tour of Ireland (why Ireland? “Why not?”), and playing various gigs around the country in the mean time. According to Chun they aim to conquer the world to spread “peace, violence and extreme sex”. You would be advised to commit to memory the name of The New Rhodes, and make an effort to see them soon, they are a band you will be hearing about a lot in the near future.
