28 Mar 2011
Interviews
Interview | Alpines
Bob Matthews and Catherine Pockson, from sleepy Kingston-upon-Thames, stand at the bar of a South Kensington pub for our interview. After a busy day of meetings, the 24-and 25-year-olds are fresh-faced and well turned out. Their aesthetic is a combination of conventional good looks and ever-so-edgy couture. It’s certainly enough to warrant the double-takes they receive as they sit down in the corner of the genteel boozer. They’re not just two intimidatingly attractive people, they’re Alpines, and they’re tipped for big things in the blogosphere and beyond.
Catherine, who’s wearing a tasselled jacket and has waist-length black hair, says: “The aesthetics are very important. I don’t necessarily need Lady Gaga every time I go to a gig, but costumes are important and I like a bit of a spectacle. I call them costumes, they’re just a more flamboyant way of dressing.”
Alpines’ desire for coherent styling is not borne of a desire to follow what fashion is doing, but as a duty to audiences. Catherine continues: “I orchestrated the clothes for our EP’s photoshoot. I think it’s very important you have a continual aesthetic vibe.”
“We’d always want to do an impressive live show” Bob adds, “But now that it’s one of the only places where people are going to spend, you have to make it worthwhile.”
Alpines enjoy, and are surprised by the creative control they’re allowed: “I thought getting involved with a major label would mean getting told ‘We want you to be more like whoever sold the most records last month.’ And it’s not been like that. I never knew I’d be on a major record label where they’re telling you to do the least commercial option”
Almost as rare as Polydor’s approach, is that Alpines‘ recording contract came about through equal measures of hard work and good luck.
Bob and Catherine met at a wedding and musical collaboration happened organically as an offshoot of their friendship: “We started doing music together quite naturally. There was nothing about being a band or being a product, it just happened. That was in summer 2009. And by January 2010, we realised we had something really good. Only then did we start thinking about what we’d call ourselves.”
During the band’s pupaic stage, Catherine had her own management as a singer-songwriter. Bob was occupied with playing bass for his university band, Right Turn Left. The band met limited success; two years out of university, they were still trying to get signed.
Catherine says, while Bob nods in agreement: “Because we were involved in other projects and I was working with other producers, Alpines wasn’t our main focus. So we never saw it as that serious a thing. But it slowly started creeping up on us. It was good and people were interested. Then it snowballed in about May 2010.”
Ironically, they credit their success in getting signed on the lack of pressure to get signed. “Things had got a bit stale in our other projects, we’d got sick of how much work we’d put in. When me and Catherine worked together, there was a lot of freedom” Bob says, looking towards his bandmate.
This freedom has not only had an effect on their attitude to music, but the act of making music itself. By moving from indie bass-plucker to Logic knob-fiddler, Bob had a blank canvas to work with. “When I met Catherine I got more into the production side of things.” Bob says: “I’m not a dance producer, I’m just trying to make electronic music”.
Alpines‘ promotional material comes with the tagline ‘Night Pop’, a term they coined for a laugh. “We came up with this joke phrase to describe our sound.” Bob says. “Like a darker pop, in a tongue-in-cheek way. We don’t think we’re starting a new musical movement. I don’t want it to have any life, I don’t want to make proclamations about our genre.”
However, the term does make sense, and could be applied not only to Alpines‘ ethereal, intense pop but a handful of wunderkind producers from London making commercially viable pop music with an edge: James Blake, Jamie Smith of The xx, Kwes and Jamie Woon.
Bob nods, but muses: “There is a lot of pop around at the moment which has an edge to it, but it’s more dancey than us. When I was a kid, scenes were so defined, but that doesn’t happen anymore. I don’t feel like we’re part of a scene”
Catherine interjects: “People love to categorise,they say ‘You’re the new Portishead, Massive Attack, Cocteau Twins‘. I can completely see truth in the comparisons, but we don’t listen to them the whole time.”
Who inspires them, then? Bob’s listening to “A lot of artists that you might not hear in the music, loads of Talk Talk, Brian Eno, all that ambient stuff” and Catherine gabbles: “I love Burial. I’ll always love soul: Etta James, Aretha, Rihanna, Beyonce.”
“She’s had the Rihanna album on in the car non-stop.” Bob laughs. And why shouldn’t he? Although the big bucks are yet to come, they’re around the hillside, and these two know it.
Alpines‘ debut EP, Night Drive, is out on 28 March.
Sophie Wilkinson
[...] Their aesthetic is a combination of conventional good looks and ever-so-edgy couture. It’s certainly enough to warrant the double-takes they receive as they sit down in the corner of the genteel boozer. They’re not just two intimidatingly attractive people, they’re Alpines, and they’re tipped for big things in the blogosphere and beyond…[continue reading at TheGirlsAre.com] [...]
[...] Their aesthetic is a combination of conventional good looks and ever-so-edgy couture. It’s certainly enough to warrant the double-takes they receive as they sit down in the corner of the genteel boozer. They’re not just two intimidatingly attractive people, they’re Alpines, and they’re tipped for big things in the blogosphere and beyond…[continue reading] [...]