Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs: “I don't like the idea of a 'rock revival'”

-

Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs erupted from seemingly nowhere – one minute they were a tiny underground outfit from London making a racket in dimly lit venues, the next they were being touted for success by anyone ‘in the know’.

Stampeding through blogs and magazines alongside a plethora of other axe-wielding riffsmiths and rock revivalists, Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs stood out due to a sweaty amalgam of ’70s NYC art-punk (á la Television and Modern Lovers) and sashaying britpop quirks.

The ‘Charlie Boyer’ part of their nom de plume is apparent – but why is he surrounded by ‘The Voyeurs’ you ask? “The group was always going to be Charlie Boyer and the ‘somethings’. We had a few things in the air, but we chose Voyeurs because of the dark, sexual connotation. It’s really nice to have a sinister edge, something I always like in rock or pop or indie… and also truly because it rhymes… it’s slightly throwaway.”

We’re at their make-or-break moment: the release of their full-length debut, Clarietta. If it’s great, we’re going to see a whole lot more of CBTV, but if it’s anything but, given the cavalcade of guitar-focused bands releasing debuts this season, they could end up swallowed whole, never to be seen again. It’s a critical moment for the for the five-piece. “We’re excited,” says Boyer briskly. “It’s going to be good to start playing lots of good gigs. We’ve started getting good as a live band now.” His pace and repetition of ‘good’ indicates he’s more nervous than he lets on, but there is a shred of excitement in his voice. It’s a nervous anticipation.

There’s been a lot of mumbling and grumbling and ‘oo-er’ing at the new wave of rock’n’roll – with only fragments of sound to go on, the hype machine went into overdrive. But Boyer and his crew aren’t letting the high expectations of others stand in the way of them. “I wouldn’t say there’s been much . People are being positive, but repeating themselves as usual… ultimately it’s not up to us. We’re doing what we want and not caring what others are doing.” They’re fine doing what they want to do, but one thing they’re not keen on is being lumped together with Peace and Palma Violets et al. “I don’t like the idea of a ‘rock revival’. These things don’t ever stop. Every six months there’s a set of three or four rock bands and every time people say its a revival. Acts are just doing what they want.”

Boyer was like Augustus Gloop at the chocolate river when it came to recording, marvelling at the process and getting his hands really sticky. “I really enjoyed the writing stages. We still had loads of work to do by December as we had studio time booked in January, and we were in the rehearsal space five days a week writing and stuff, trying to get songs done. When it came to recording, I’d never been in a studio for that length of time, I really enjoyed it. It was good to just use all this different equipment and give the record a real sound.” You can almost hear his eyes light up.

The writing process starts very isolated, with Boyer taking the reigns solo before workshopping his noodlings with bandmates. “I write the basic guitar and vocal separately, and then the band decorate it. I do the primitive sketches before passing it on the the band to flesh out.” He’s confident in his process, almost proud of it. “I think one thing is that I like to work quickly, do something and then move on. The personality of the band is immediate, and I think the simplest way of doing things is the best, that’s true not just in music.” Strangely, for lyrics/lyricists, he’s focused more on the grammar and sound of words rather than the actual meaning – obviously that’s vital too – but he uses his voice as an almost instrument, as Jonsí of Sigur Rós does. “I like having fun with different words and cutting them up and using interesting phrases, there’s no massive concepts, I’m just trying things out that I know. I like rhyme too.”

The quintet’s influences are far-ranging from “’80s yuppie stuff is great, Japan etc. the bouffants and big makeup and shoulder pads. I like that. We all obviously like Velvet Underground… Syd Barrett is great lyrically… all the ’70s New York art-punk… all the way through to The Ramones…” The way Boyer talks, you can tell he’s really into his music. He’s almost tripping over his words to explain everything he adores.

Chatting through the creation of their debut, Boyer rattles off the facts: “We recorded it with Edywn Collins in his Hampstead studio over fifteen days in January. We did live takes. We’d play it through a few times and then I’d sing over the top. Essentially it was live, but we would occasionally add another guitar or an organ.” During the recording of Clarietta, Collins imparted many wise words upon the young Boyer in terms of songcraft. “I think me and Ed really agreed (and he drummed away) on the importance of only having what’s needed, cutting away any baggage. Tempo is important if you’re playing basic, primitive songs: if they’re too fast they sound apologetic, like you’re trying to get to the end, but too slow is lazy. We worked out the exact speed, it really makes a difference. He knows a lot about that stuff.”

After spending a good portion of last year touring, they feel like they’re in a good position for performing, as Boyer has already mentioned. As such, they’ve been accruing more gigs. “We’ve started to get festivals coming in. We’re getting bookings later ’cause were pretty small at the moment, but we have Reading & Leeds, Field Day, Hard Rock Calling… It’ll make the band even more of a band.”

In their evolution as a live force, Boyer has honed a few tricks that remain firmly up his sleeve (for now). “I guess we’re going to try and introduce new songs… an interesting cover we’re working on that we might bring out, or a few pipeline songs. We’re going to develop live versions. I quite like the idea of developing songs from the record, and even though we recorded Clarietta live, I like the idea of having the live versions evolve and warp. When we’re playing sounds four years later we want them to be set apart from the original, like Velvet Underground did. We want to revisit old tracks and move on to a strange version of the to keep things exciting. Obviously we’re going to do it a lot quicker though.”

Clarietta will be released by Heavenly Recordings on 27 May.