TLOBF Introducing // Trophy Wife

In case you’ve been asleep for the last couple of months I thought I should preface this interview with a brief introduction to an emergent collective of musicians based in Oxford known as Blessing Force. Following in the footsteps of globe trotting math pop titans Foals, Blessing Force is a unique musical phenomenon that has barely had a chance to stretch its legs, yet already boasts acts such as Chad Valley, Pet Moon, Rhosyn and Trophy Wife who are all currently receiving various levels of media scrutiny -bizarre given how new a lot of the artists are.

Alongside the support tours and general industry leg ups from Foals the nexus of Blessing Force is weird folk turned funk poppers Jonquil. When Jonquil first formed back in 2005 – Jody, Kit and Ben (who now make up Trophy Wife) were playing together as a trio in a mathy post rock band called Wait For Coniston until they got swallowed up into Jonquil. Wait For Coniston were somewhat overlooked and I feel it’s poetic justice that the three of them are going on to achieve seemingly great things. It was plainly obvious six years ago that Jody, Kit and Ben have a really special musical frisson. May Trophy Wife blossom into the internationally renowned mega success story they deserve to be.

Why the name?

The name has been around for some time, it just seemed to suit the sounds we were making when we started up. When we were beginning, Kit had a load of old photographs he’d taken of windswept, desolate locations. We pasted the name ‘Trophy Wife’ onto them and really liked how they looked in unison. We liked the sense of detatchment and the contrast between the name and images.

Why Blessing Force? What are the criterion for membership? Who decides who’s in the gang?

There’s always been a sense of collectivity and a self-sufficiency. This group of musicians have been solidly touring and making music in various guises for some time now. We’ve learnt a lot from those experiences and feel more confident and independent now. It’s not some members only club, just a group of people who know each other through shared experience, have a similar outlook and are thus naturally affiliated.

How were the Foals support gigs?

We had a very fun time. It was a big deal for us playing those venues at such an early stage. There was a tangible pre-gig adreneline between us which I think fed directly into our performances each night. I think we let a lot of that energy off onstage and we were very grateful to the people who came early and saw us play. Our last night was at the Brighton Dome which was also the release of date for ‘Microlite’. I think that was our favourite.

You have achieved a hell of a lot for a band who have only played a handful of gigs, has it been a bit overwhelming?

Things have come together quickly and we’ve been very busy over the last few months. The biggest challenge for us has been getting the live show up and running as we had a very specific idea of how we were going to approach it from very early on. We started out as a studio project before even considering performing as a live band. We’re just really enjoying the opportunity to play live and for people to hear our music.

What bands have inspired you?

Hank Marvin, Polmo Polpo, Studio, The Monks, The Notwist, Nirvana, Thomas Mapfumo, Ennio Morricone, Tortoise, Fleetwood Mac….

Your live set up looks great, who made Kit’s rig?

The drum set up we use was built in the 1970′s by a jazz musician. It’s the only one of its kind and Kit learned to play drums on it during his youth.

How are you getting on with writing more material? Will you have an album ready anytime soon?

We’ve got a backlog of new songs and unfinished ideas sitting on the hard drive. In December we have a few shows but the rest of the time we’re going to batten down the hatches and work on new songs.

Have you got any more releases planned?

We’re looking to release something early next year to follow up ‘Microlite’. I think we’ve pretty much decided which songs we’d like to put out next. We’re starting to think about the artwork now.

Are there any bands from Oxford outside of the Blessing Force collective that you’d like to mention?

I don’t get out to gigs that often. When I’m not working or doing band stuff I’m usually in London. The last bands I saw were We Aeronauts who went over to Airwaves in Iceland recently, Minor Coles and Braindead Collective.

Microlite, the debut single by Trophy Wife, is out now on Moshi Moshi Records.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orXKsgmwD18