Arabella - Interview

Thomas Jewett (Drummer, Backing Vocals)
Matt Morton (Guitar, Vocals)
Adam Nicholas (Bass, Vocals, Bird)
James Sear (Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica)

You were formed in 2008 but how did you actually get together?

James: We sort of formed in pairs, there was Matt and Adam and they were working together, and there was Thomas and I doing our music together, all completely separate. We decided to link up and played a bit of blues together along with some covers and it just formed nicely as a band.

So, the name Arabella, interesting choice, where did that come from?

Matt: It’s not an overly interesting story to be honest. We were originally called The Bluestones and wanted to change that, so we were thinking of band names. I was speaking to someone from back home and they knew someone who was in hospital called Arabella, and thought it was a really nice home. We spoke about it, and decided that would be a good choice.

Were there any other names, maybe not so great?

Thomas: There was something about a Casino haha.

James: Casino Songclub.

Thomas: haha Casino Songclub!!

James: What!? I thought it was allright, quite liked that name.

Are there some connotations with that, that we don’t know about!?

James: No, we literally just picked it out of thin air. We just thought of cool words.

Adam: We’d spent about a month, looking at song lyrics, or whatever you can think of.

You’re very proactive in reaching out to your audience, how difficult is it being your own PR team effectively?

Adam: I quite enjoy the challenge to be honest. It’s kind of taking control of everything ourselves really. We know what we want to achieve, and the people who care about our music the most is us, so being in control is quite good. Of course it gets quite stressful, and you feel like there are times you are bashing your head against a brick wall. With the busking tour, and the new EP we’ve just released,, “Not Enough Soul”, so it feels like we’re getting somewhere.

Now that was a lovely name drop there with the EP, professional already!!

James: Oh yes, is that what I’m holding? What’s it doing here!? Well that’s fantastic!!

What’s the influence behind the name “Not Enough Soul”?

Thomas: It’s a lyric from the second track on the EP called “Out of Love”, and the chorus goes “Too much heart, not enough soul”, and we thought that was the catchiest thing we’d ever heard haha. Yeah, we just liked it.

So going back to the self promotion, how effective is Myspace, Facebook etc?

Thomas: Facebook is really effective, it used to be Myspace didn’t it. Everyone used to go on Myspace, but everybody has moved across to Facebook. In terms of like listening to the music, maybe more Myspace.

James: There’s something about Myspace in the fact so many people are used to typing band names into Google and going straight onto Myspace as a result. You still have to have a presence there. They all work in the same way, if you’re personal to everybody, and treat everyone as a fan, you obviously get further. As opposed to, you know, not bothering to respond to people, being distant.

Matt: Facebook is better though as it’s more interactive, where as Myspace, you have your page, and the commenting system isn’t great. Facebook streamlines it a bit better.

James: We don’t work for Facebook!!

You’ve had some great comments on your Facebook in response to your busking tour. How did it go?

James: Generally we get a good response from Facebook. When we busk we give our CD’s away like a donation, and we put inserts inside the CD sleeves with the Facebook address. Quite a few people log on and leave a positive comment, or we get offers of gigs, everything we’ve had so far has been very positive. So it’s good, it’s gone very well.

How do you see yourselves in say, 10 years time?

Thomas: 10 years…

James: 10 years…

Thomas: If we stay together, and hopefully we do, fingers crossed, just making a comfortable living from our music. Enough to get by and allow us to carry on making more music for the fans.

James: How heartfelt was that!! Nah we want fame!! Nah, not really.

How do you go about writing your songs?

James: It’s a band effort. Each song though is completely different. I remember at the start when we started writing songs I kept saying that we should find a system to write a song, in terms of “it should be like this”. But of course it doesn’t work out that way, it never is like that, every song is totally different. It might start with a drum part, it might start with the melody, it might start with a guitar part, it might even start out as a full structure worked out on an acoustic guitar. It varies between each song. I suppose that’s what makes each song a bit different.

So, talking about your EP, and the three songs on there, what’s the story behind each of the songs?

James: So “The Meaner Side of Me”, the first track, the single if you like off the EP. We’d just come back from a Blues festival in France last year, and we heard a lot of funk and soul and we wanted to get those influences into our music. So we started to writing some maybe more funkier styles of riff, as opposed to, well, we were quite bluesy at the time and we decided to get a bit funkier and mix a bit more pop in too. That was that one. “Out of Love”, was sort of a like, concoction, we had a week of writing and that came out. And “Just ‘Cos I’m Broke”, I think that stemmed from something Matt was playing on guitar. He was playing a slide on the guitar and got some nice sounds of it so we decided to go with that.

Where do you get inspiration from your lyrics?

James: It’s difficult because we all chip in with the lyrics, it’s definitely not just one person writing it all the time. It’s difficult to get the balance between the lyrics being creative and them actually making sense as well. Because some songs don’t make sense and some do, and you don’t always know which side to fall on. Generally whatever comes, we try to write it around the melody, if the syllables don’t work then we’ll just change it around. We’re musicians at the end of the day and we like t make it work musically.

Can you tell us about your own influences, and who inspired you to follow a musical career?

Matt: Influences are like early blues guitarists like Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix, and more recently artists for song writing, The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, things like that.

James: Same kind of thing, but I’m an absolute sucker for pop music, I just love it. Especially cheesy 80’s pop, I just love it. Musically, the chord structures, they just really do it for me, and just listening to how the songs are put together. Even, I hate to say it, boy bands / girl bands that were around just sounded great. Modern day stuff too like Rihanna, it’s pop music, that’s what comes on the radio, that’s what sells record, that’s what sounds great.

Thomas: Even though I’m the drummer, I suppose drummers aren’t on my list of influences. As Matt said earlier, White Stripes, were my favourite band, and still are. Amos Lee, John Mayer, people like that. Soul, blues music.

Adam: Though I’d change it around, and answer the bit on how I got into my instrument. My parents pushed me into the piano when I was small. I moved from instrument to instrument not doing very well. Didn’t do too well with the piano, moved onto drums. Wasn’t very good. Tried guitar, I was alright at that for a while, but now I’ve found the bass and I think I can cope with that. Just about.

Thomas: It’s just one note at a time!

Adam: Yes, it’s one note, and you just sit at the back, and you don’t have to do very much.

Have you always wanted to pursue music as a career?

James: For me, music came into my life because obviously my parents were listening to music all the time, and I started playing Keyboard, because my Grandad had a keyboard. I played piano and stuff for years, and then I got to University, I didn’t do anything music based, I did French and Business. Basically I didn’t enjoy it at all! Not that the course wasn’t any good because it was, and I’m still interested in learning a language, but the day was when I went round the music department there, saw all these studios and people practising their instruments. At that point I asked my self “What am I doing?”, and at this point I was pretty into playing guitar, so I changed, literally that day. I quit my course and I changed to music, pretty much an on the spot decision. I haven’t really looked back since.

What would you be doing if it weren’t music?

Thomas: French and Business!

James: HAHA, yeah, NO! What would I be doing? I probably wouldn’t be at University. If I’m honest, I don’t think I have the drive to do something academic. It would have to be practical. Maybe if I had an influence around me I might have got into video, media. Music though is the best way forward for me.

Matt: I got into music when I started playing guitar at the age of 10. Just like an acoustic. Went in and out for a couple of years, and then I was about 13, really got into it. From that point the only thing I wanted to be was a guitarist. I did music tech at Uni, I thought if I did that I would have a bit more of a broad understanding of music. Yeah I just want to be in music, playing guitar, or doing something else in the industry.

Thomas: I first got into music when my dad bought me a white Falcon Stratocaster, and from there, my first song I learnt was Oasis’ “Wonderwall”, and then that was it. Music all the way. I did music tech at A-Level, and that got me heavily into it. Everyone there, wanted to be there, and weren’t just doing “a course” for the sake of it. It was almost like a little family. I really couldn’t imagine doing anything but music.

Adam: I’ve always been interested in music, always wanted to work within that industry. Be around music, be something to do with music, and that’s why I went to do music tech at Coventry University, which is where the three of us were on the same course. It wasn’t until I joined this band that I really thought about making a living out of playing music. It always seemed so out of reach, or that I would actually end up doing something behind the scenes, recording, or working for a venue. But being in this band has inspired me, and hopefully we can make a living out of it.

Thank you very much for your time!

For more info take a look at: http://www.arabellamusic.co.uk/