Introducing :: Lofty Heights

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Photo credit: Anika Mottershaw

It’s very rare that we fall back on a press release or biography to describe a new band, but Lofty Height’s blurb sets the tone perfectly:

“Originally the brainchild of crooning minstrel Gregory Griffin; a Californian transplanted to the blasted wastes of Manor House, Lofty Heights have since evolved into a band of mid-20’s misfits peddling Colin Meloy style indie pop that plunges you into a strange world of lonesome ancient mariners and the perils of sharing the washing-up. Having honed their skills on pretty much any stage/floor/warehouse you can think of in the East London area, Lofty Heights’ live shows are a whirling dervish of surf melodies, moustaches, charangos and absurd in-jokes. Pretty cool, huh?”

Pretty cool indeed. New single ‘Eye Contact’ is a real gem of a song. Perhaps unintentionally, it apes the loose ramshackle feel of Swedish lo-fi Gods Suburban Kids With Biblical Names. Smothered in harmonies, banjos and clacking drums – it comes highly recommended from us here at TLOBF.

As a special treat, Gregory has given us b-side ‘Skeleton Apples’ to give away – so be good people and read the following interview whilst you’re waiting for it to download. Ok?

mp3:> Lofty Heights: ‘Skeleton Apples’

Can you recall the moment when you first decided you wanted to become a musician?
I learned ‘Norweigan Wood’ on the recorder in music class in the first grade back in California. I came home and figured out how to play it on our family piano. The school I think lost funding for music classes and sadly they stopped from then on (this was during the Bush senior days, go figure) but that was pretty much the moment I decided doing music was the great escape, so to speak.

Where do your songs come from? What’s your inspiration?
Lately, I’ve been entertaining myself with books that I fetch out of a skip around the corner from the warehouse that I live in. There’s this online book wholesaler in the complex next to ours that gets thousands of unwanted books from charities and dumps out the ones they can’t sell. These are usually crap, but occasionally there’s a gem: some classics, some hilariously cheesy ones, volumes of obsolete encyclopedias that were written around the time when people still professed the biles, and some books on mythology. I like to read out of these books that weren’t rated as classics and all but get swept up in the chasms of unwanted literary history. For example, one of my songs ‘The Gaul’ was inspired by reading from one of aforementioned books about the roman conquest of Britain in the first century.

Name your Top 5 records.
I kinda want to avoid answering so sweeping a question! So i’ll just say that I’ve been listening to a lot of this lately but also a lot in past years: Pet Sounds – Beach boys, Nasty Parlour Tricks – Modest Mouse, Mount Eerie – The Microphones, Internal Wrangler – Clinic and Cherry Peel - Of Montreal.

What was the first gig you ever played and was it a success?
It was back in San Francisco at a place called 330 Ritch Street. We were a rock band called ‘Turbulence’: we were just 12 and 13 years old, good friends from school. The manager of Santana came to that gig as he was interested in us and had a meeting with us after. He tried to convince us something to the effect of ‘either become a boy band or a heavy rock band if you want to succeed.’ So ensued weeks of jokes at his attempt to get us to ‘sell-out’, as we decided not to take his advice. Now he’s probably still hella rich whereas i sleep on my studio floor in a shitty warehouse. Viva integrity right?

What one piece of criticism has stuck in your mind and was it justified?
I have incurred splendid amounts of personal criticism in my life; but not really much for Lofty Heights that I can think of. Well, actually there was this one time before a gig that Nathan (lap steel player in Lofty Hights) and I were playing really loudly with these legos that a promoter had setup on tables for a laugh. Suddenly, a friend of the performer on stage confronted us and basically strangled me to get us to shut up while his friend was playing! After the show the musician whose set we ruined by being too loud said reluctantly that overall he liked our music but that at times was a bit samey. I agreed with him.

What one thing has caused you to waste your free time in the past 6 months?
Engish ale and German weiss beer compounded by good friends. Living in this city it’s so hard to not be out doing something every single night. This is not a great place to live if you just just wanna stay at home and write songs. That’s why I’ve been playing the same set for something like two years now!

If you weren’t making music, what do you think you’d be doing?
Working on some sustainable farm far far away in the countryside in southwest Ireland.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
I suppose it was when I first moved to London and in Kings Cross I took the first job i could get, which was for some IT telemarketing company in the most horrifyingly depressing industrial estate. It made me wonder why on earth I had actually willingly chose to move to rainy north London from the sunny rolling hills of California. My job was essentially to be vague in attempts to swindle businesses into buying IT support packages. I sat in front of a computer all day pitching monotonous phrases; getting rejection after rejection from douche bags and taking orders from managers who didn’t have a clue. It was after that job that I swore I would never work for anyone else ever again! But now I run a music studio that I started up in manor house, its called UNIT-RAD.

We’d like you to make us a mix-tape. Pick five tracks with a theme of your choice.
Theme: I don’t know… how about… “Creatures, monsters, sci-fi and scary all-sorts”
“Evil Dead” – Bones Brigade
“Ghost Mountain” – The Unicorns
“Creature Fear”- Bon Iver
“Where’s Captain Kirk” – Spizzenergi
“Zombie Holocaust” – Tristram
(bonus track) “Bleached White” – Wild Palms