Introducing: The Late Greats

No, they’re not a Wilco tribute band. The Late Greats are, in fact, a guitar toting 4-piece from the rock n roll capital of the UK: Eastbourne. (That last bit was a joke by the way). Anyway – they’ve impressed us with their hook laden single ‘Futures Gold’ (released June 2nd), so we thought we’d catch up with them to pitch our ‘getting to know you’ questions. Here goes….

For people out there that have never heard of you. Give us three reasons why they should…
First question and its pretty tricky. We’d like to think that its 1- because we’re quite good. 2- because we’re quite good. 3- because we’re quite good. One of the best things that anyone has said about us after a gig is “I actualy quite liked them”. Not expecting anything from nothing but coming out pleasently surprised about the results. I guess you’ve got to come see us play to make your own judgement. We will do our best to tickle your inner souls.

Can you recall the moment when you first decided you wanted to become a musician?
Collectively speaking, the band got together about three years ago. We’d all pleyed in different bands before, a couple of us in this band, another in that before we decided to form the Late Greats. We’ve all been aspiring to make some form of music for the last 10 years when we first picked up guitars and were listening to Nirvana and Beach Boys records like every kid does at that age.

Where do your songs come from? What’s your inspiration?
The songs are inspired by the town we live in, places we’ve been, people we’ve known and people we haven’t known who’ve had a direct influence on us. There isn’t much of a music scene in our home town which we like due to the fact that a lot of bands seem to get bogged down in a certain trend of the moment if theres too much going on around them. Its nice to go gigging in different cities or towns and be detatched from the ‘scene’ as it were.

The band name. A direct rip off from the Wilco track? Or is it purely coincidental…?
Yes the band name is a rip-off of the Wilco song. Although it wasn’t a stress free ride getting to that name. Some of our other very short lived names included ‘Carrot’, ‘The Last Picture Show’, There were loads until we settled on one.

What’s been your most memorable on the road story so far?
There was one gig we played a year ago in London. It was a show our record label had put on in Shoreditch and Eddie Veddar showed up with Pete Townsends brother (who we all at first thought was Pete himself). Petes brother kept asking us what our favourite Who album was and not being the biggest fans of The Who we plucked a couple off the tops of our heads just so we didn’t look like a bunch of ignorant wankers. That was quite random.

How much artist control do you possess over your music? Are you interested in how the album looks and how you’re marketed?
Its an important part of our band to remain as integral as possible. The indie label we’re on likes us for what we are – what would be the point in working on something that someone wants to come along and change and tell you how to do. Most of our artwork is done by our guitarist Max and our first video for our single ‘Destroy My Brain’ was created by our good friend Spookernox who is a visual genious. We like to keep it in the family.

What music are you enjoying right now? Any recommendations for our readers to check out?
So much music, everything from Pavement, Silver Jews, Guided By Voices to Yann Tiersen, Louden Wainwright, Talking Heads to Neutral Milk Hotel, Television, XTC to Teenage Fanclub, Beach Boys, Tom Waits – The list goes on!

Name your Top 5 records.
An impossible question for a band of four very opinionated people. So we picked one each that we’re listening to this week and the fifth is a Mutual love. This is in no way our lamenated top 5 – Impossible surely?!?!

Hefner – The Fidelity Wars
Teenage Fanclub – Bandwagonesque
12 Rods – Split Personality
Carole King – Tapestry
Converge – Jane Doe
Neutral Milk Hotel – In An Aeroplane Over The Sea

Shit we’ve got six.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
Again too many to name – Door to door double glazing salesman, warehouse, Clinton Cards, teaching English.

Tell us a joke.
Why are tractors magic? – Because they drive down a lane and turn into a field. Ha Ha indeed.

The Late Greats are playing Ginglik, Shepherds Bush with TLOBF faves The Wave Pictures and label mates Swimming on May 22nd. Get tickets here.

mp3:> The Late Greats: Kitty