TEAR – as in ripping, not crying – are four glistening punks that bare a gritty sting on their honeyed sounds.

We described their latest single, Careless Again, as a “surefire DIY epic” recently and their take on garage rock couldn’t be better timed than today’s political climes.

Vocalist and bandleader Camille Benett is a familiar face on the London gig scene, while drummer Jed Cullen is recognisable as a member of Spector.

They’re joined by Ben Maier and Eve-Marie Kuijstermans, although Eve – as on the day of our chat – is often absent at their live shows.

Signed to The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess’ label O Genesis, TEAR are gearing up to unleash their new mini-album VINYL01 on 17 March.

Ahead of the release, Katy met up with the band for an extended interview on working with Tim, the punk scene today, and their unlikely appreciation of U2.

Thanks for taking the time to chat ahead of your Leeds show! Being from London, you’ve travelled quite a way for this date. Do you have a deeper connection with the region?

Camille: “Last summer we were playing a lot of shows in the north, but they were all for festivals, more up and down the motorway than going into cities. But we met Jed in Sheffield.”

Jed: “Can I just add, I grew up in Liverpool?”

Ben: “Yeah, so actually we’re quite intimately connected.”

Jed: “And The Cribs are from Wakefield, which is close to Leeds. And anyone that plays modern indie rock music will appreciate that Leeds is an important place. And the Kaiser Chiefs, don’t forget about the Kaiser Chiefs.”

Ben: “I don’t really… Yeah, I’ll take myself out of that!”

For those that aren’t so familiar with TEAR, what’s the story behind your beginnings and your highlights so far?

Camille: “Me and Ben grew up on the same street, so that’s how we know each other. Jed’s in another band [Spector] and he joined, we’d played Liverpool Sound City and we went to see them the next day in Sheffield. We didn’t have a drummer, but we were playing Isle of Wight Festival, and he offered to play drums.

“We had some demos that Tim Burgess wanted to record, and that’s how we started working with his label O Genesis. We recorded our first EP at Big Mushroom, The Charlatans’ studio in Cheshire. Then we’ve done some more recording as well now, and that’s what’s coming out!”

How closely do you work with Tim Burgess, being signed to his label?

Camille: “For the first EP, he produced that, so we were all in the studio together, basically living in that studio, it’s got rooms and everything! He let us do our own thing, it was him and Jim Spencer. He wasn’t really directing us, saying we should do this and that.

“I suppose the thing with O Genesis is, we’re friends, it feels like a little family. I know a lot of the other bands on there, the ones from London anyway. We’ve also done some recording with Toby [Kidd], who plays with Tim’s live band. We’re quite a tight knit group.”

Ben: “He’s like a godfather. He’s always been a fan of Camille’s, so he’s always very friendly and welcoming. We supported him recently at the Albert Hall, and that was really fun. He’s so lovely, and he’s also a legend.”

Camille: “We play loads of Tim Peaks stages at festivals as well, which he curates. That stuff’s separate to O Genesis, so we’re working together quite a lot.”

You recently released the video for your latest single Careless Again. What’s the story behind the making of that?

Camille: “We have this thing we’ve been doing, which has been that we like making our own stuff. It’s borne out of the fact that doing photos is quite awkward-”

I’ll bear that in mind!

Camille: “Well, you know what I mean? Posing and doing stuff, and we’re not necessarily very good at that. So instead we thought we’d just go to random places and get passing tourists to take our picture.

“We went to Los Angeles, toward the Joshua Tree! We were filming that as well, a road trip video. Then we went out in the desert, so we just kind of made it up as we went along.”

Jed: “We actually stayed in the motel U2 stayed in when they recorded The Joshua Tree.”

Ben: “And we got our U2 photo in front of the motel sign.”

I didn’t know U2 were such a big influence on you!

Ben: “Only aesthetically, not musically!”

Camille: “Oh my god, Jed got these sunglasses in LA – he actually gave them to a man with no teeth in Scotland on New Year’s – but he got these amazing sunglasses from a corner shop.”

Jed: “Bono sunglasses. You keep calling them The Edge sunglasses, but he doesn’t wear them, does he?”

Camille: “No, nobody in U2 actually wears sunglasses like that.”

Ben: “I think as a band we’ve got an image of U2 collectively as the best band ever, which is not actually the U2 that exists.”

Jed: “Although, did you know, this is a little factoid. Who wrote the theme tune to Goldeneye?”

Ben: “Bono?”

Jed: “Bono and The Edge! The demo of it on YouTube is amazing.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_iTQ4135Xg

Camille: “We also decided that U2 should be called ‘Bono and The Edge’, because it’s a much better name.”

Ben: “It sounds like a buddy movie. Like Lilo and Stitch.”

Obviously, you went over to the US to do that. It must be quite glamourous, as quite a new band? Not many would go that far!

Camille: “We played a show in LA with this band Gateway Drugs while we were there, which was pretty cool, and with Lucky Otis.”

Jed: “I feel like, maybe like early U2, we might be ambitious beyond our means! In videos of Bono playing at school, he’s being Bono, but he’s young and he hasn’t got millions of pounds.”

Camille mentioned at one point that, at gigs, she wants to kick people who talk during the quiet bit of songs. What other things annoy you?

Jed: “When people stand there with a camera or a phone, just videoing the whole thing? It feels really weird.”

Ben: “I do that!”

Jed: “Sometimes people do that for an entire show, I don’t like that. They’re not meant to be watching it through a phone!”

Camille: “When somebody’s watching something just through their screen, you think, ‘You know this, right here? It’s actually happening!'”

Ben: “There’s a guy in London who records every show. We played a gig at The Moth Club, and he just sits there in a corner, a well dressed guy with a paper bag. Our manager told us he has a recorder in his bag, and just sits with it.”

Camille: “That’s bootlegging, though. That’s pretty good, I like that.”

Jed: “At least he’s still watching and listening with his ears, he’s not got the recorder over his ears, it’s not like someone with a big phone.”

Camille: “There are things about playing live shows that are tough. Even now, still, being a girl sometimes you get really weird chat, like, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing.'”

Ben: “Jed and I always jump in and kick the shit out of those guys, though!”

Of course! Tying into that, have you felt typecast at all as a female-fronted band?

Camille: “I don’t think there’s anything I’ve taken offense to. It’s a tough one for me, because on the one hand, it’s a genre that doesn’t really imply anything, being female-fronted. But, I overwhelmingly love female-fronted bands of all genres. Probably all of my favourite bands have girls singing in them, so maybe I’m biased that way in myself? It wouldn’t really offend me to be grouped in with them.”

That’s quite an interesting take on it. Would you say, then, that it’s a good thing?

Camille: “I don’t think being grouped in with other bands for no other reason than that makes sense, but if it means you play with other good female-fronted bands, that’s positive.”

More generally, here’s a lot more bands like yourselves emerging at the moment. Do you think there’s a punk scene more noticeably again now?

Jed: “I definitely think that young people… I’ve been playing for four or five years, and I feel like a lot more people are just buying guitars, and liking live music again in a different way that’s not so cerebral. I don’t know why it’s happening, but I have definitely noticed it..”

Camille: “I don’t think that there’s ever been a time when there hasn’t been loads of DIY punk. I think it’s the getting the attention that’s the difference. Maybe that has changed.”

Do you think maybe it has anything to do with politics at the moment?

Jed: “I was just thinking that! We had a period where it just felt, in politics, nothing ever changed. It wasn’t necessarily positive, but everyone felt disenfranchised.

“I think when things go wrong in the world, you understand how important music is, and that it’s a positive force. All of the musicians that died last year also really brought that home. When Bowie died, all of the times his music meant something? You realise how important music is. As things get more grisly politically, people do feel energised.

Ben: “That strikes a chord with me because I listen to a lot of quiet folky stuff, and I get really bored now if I go to a gig and it’s not really aggressive. That’s partly to do with reading the news, and it’s all so bleak, that being angry and aggressive feels like a better response than being intellectual and thoughtful.”

Jed: “Like you know in Twilight how the werewolves, they’ve always been werewolves, but it’s only with the threat of vampires that they only turn into fully-fledged werewolves? It’s like that.”

Back to your music, and your mini-album VINYL01 is out in March. What are your thoughts ahead of the release?

Jed: “I’m quite excited! We’ve been screen printing and doing the artwork ourselves, and it’s great to see music in a physical thing you can look at. I’m glad that we’re making such a nice item.”

Camille: “I really like listening to actual records, our first EP was just a digital release.”

Ben: “Having a physical trace in the world is nice. Even if people just see you for a little bit, and they take a punt on the vinyl. I have vinyl I got at gigs 15 years ago, and to think you can be that to somebody else is pretty cool.”

You recorded the mini-album in two parts, with two different production teams. How do their contributions differ?

Camille: “They’re really different! The first part was with Tim Burgess and Jim Spencer, that we talked about before. Then the second session we did with Toby Kidd from Hatcham Social at Bark Studios in Walthamstow. I guess that second session is more garage rock.”

Ben: “It’s a bit dirtier, and it’s got two guitars, rather than just one.”

Camille: “The Toby stuff is more live sounding, as it was recorded that way.”

Looking at what you’ve said before about the meanings behind the various songs, is it fair to say they’re tied in to quite negative events?

Camille: “The time between writing a song, and recording a song, and releasing a song can be quite a distance. Songs just take on different meanings, or maybe that’s the way I write them, a bit more open-ended.

“So rather than meaning something that’s set forever, that can change. Or sometimes they change their words, sometimes I’m playing them live and I think a line needs to be something else. They’re not all about negative things, but yeah, they’re quite sad songs, and angry songs.”

Looking ahead, what are you going to be up to this summer?

Camille: “We’ve just confirmed we’re going to be playing Kendal Calling again, which will be fun.”

Jed: “With the Stereophonics, and the Manics.”

Camille: “Yeah! So, we’re supporting Manic Street Preachers in Penrith.”

Ben: “We supported Queen last summer [at Isle of Wight Festival], that was even better!”

Camille: “Ha, yeah, true! After that there’s others that haven’t been announced yet.”

Do you think you might be doing a more thorough UK tour? Your latest dates have been quite spotty.

Camille: “I guess at the moment, we’re waiting to get our releases sorted out. I’m hoping that maybe in the summer we’ll do more.”

Jed: “The next tour will definitely be more dates.”

Finally, beyond the summer, what are your ambitions from here?

Jed: “Fuji Rocks, a gig in Goa, Coachella…”

Camille: “Ha, Goa!”

Jed: “Drop down to Australia, go to New Zealand, over to Vancouver for a bit of skiing in Whistler, drop down to Boston and New York, go to Jacksonsville and say hi to Fred Durst. Then Disney World, and back to London!”

Is Fred Durst another secret influence there?

Ben: Again, only fashion wise! That’s why Jed’s called Jed.

Jed: Jed Durst!

TEAR’s new mini-album VINYL01 is out on physical and digital formats on 17 March. They’re also announced for Kendal Calling, between 28-30 July.

TEAR Upcoming UK Dates

March 12 – The Moth Club – London, UK
July 28-30 – Kendal Calling – Penrith, UK

Of the current crop of new bands in the UK, The Shimmer Band are the one that more than any seem ready-made for arena stages.

Their elated, anthemic, “f’kin double strato-havin-it” indie rock is a big sound that seems poised to take off as more and more people sit up to hear.

The Shimmer Band are typified by Britpop vibes, from brash vocals to bold riffs and synths, all amply demonstrated by new single Jacknife And The Death Call.

They’re currently on a sold-out tour with Cabbage and April – check out our photos and thoughts from the Sheffield date – ahead of their own headline shows in April.

The Shimmer Band are also confirmed for Kendal Calling and Truck Festival this summer, with many more appearances yet to be announced.

So, as they dive straight into what could be their breakout year, we decided it was time to get to know them better.

Katy met up with frontman Tom Newman and guitar and synth player Tom Smith before their Sheffield performance.

Read on for the guys on their fierce ambitions, escaping from politics, and not being typecast as a Bristol band.

Thanks for taking the time before your set for a chat. Right now you’re touring with Cabbage and April, how’s it been so far?

Tom Newman: “Yeah, it’s been really good, hasn’t it?”

Tom Smith: “Yeah!”

Newman: “Every night’s been sold out, the crowd’s been hectic, they’ve been crazy. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Did you know the other bands before the tour?

Smith: “We met them last summer, did a few festivals with them.”

Newman: “We played a few gigs with Blossoms, so we met Cabbage there. Same with April, we met them through [gig promoters] This Feeling, and Isle of Wight Festival.”

You’re on the road with a quite outspoken band in Cabbage. Should more bands be like that, and take a stand?

Newman: “It depends, really! If you’ve got something to say, then say it. If you haven’t, then don’t!”

Makes sense, yeah!

Newman: “To be perfectly honest, we try to stay away from it all, you know? We like to think our music’s pretty uplifting, and positive, and it’s more of an escape away from that sort of shit.”

I don’t know if you know that Bristol has a higher volume of musicians than any other city. Despite that, there’s not been many big alternative bands from there. Why do you think that is?

Smith: “Everyone’s trying to be too cool!”

Newman: “It’s a good question. Bristol’s a great city for music, it’s really diverse, lots going on, you can see bands every night of the week. But there’s not many big rock bands…”

There’s a lot of electronica, trip-hop, stuff like that.

Smith: “I think people just don’t go down the mainstream route in Bristol, do they?”

Newman: “It’s so well-known for trip-hop, and it’s almost a bit of a hindrance because people struggle to break out of it.”

Smith: “It’s got that identity, and I think people try to stay in with that identity.”

Newman: “We’re not really that Bristol musically.”

What’s the Bristol music scene actually like, then, in terms of other bands?

Newman: “It’s really diverse. There’s a lot of dance music, to be honest. Which is good, that’s cool, if you’re into that sort of thing. Lots of hip-hop.”

Is there anyone like yourselves?

Newman: “There’s not really. We’re from south Bristol, which is the crummy bit, there’s not really any musicians or bands from south Bristol.”

Smith: “We don’t even really play Bristol very often, to be honest.”

Newman: “We want to be our own thing, and not be labelled or hindered by being a Bristol band.”

You’ve recently released a new single, Jacknife And The Death Call. Is there a story or a meaning to the track?

Newman: “It’s sort of about capturing the feeling of being invincible, you know? Just before a night out, when you’re super excited and the world is your oyster. The feeling unstoppable, that’s what we’re trying to capture with that song.”

It’s got a bit of a flavour of the big bands of the 90s, Britpop vocals and stuff. Is that the sort of music you grew up on?

Newman: “Yeah, we’re big fans of Britpop. Also Creation Records, and all of the bands that were on that label: The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Oasis, Super Furry Animals, Teenage Fanclub, those bands were a big influence on us.”

I read, I don’t know if this is strictly true, that you take some inspiration from hip-hop as well?

Newman: “That’s probably a bit of a Bristol thing, because hip-hop’s so big there. It’s good, innit, hip-hop?”

It can be, yeah!

Newman: “Like the single, Jacknife, that probably came more from listening to Kanye West, Black Skinhead off the Yeezus album, with the really sort of aggressive, violent percussion.”

Smith: “When we’re on the road we do listen to a lot of hip-hop.”

Newman: “When you’re in a band and you play a lot of gigs, you listen to a lot of rock music and a lot of guitar bands, so it’s nice to dip in to other genres.”

I suppose there’s a lot more inspiration from other types of music around now. You’ve got the synths, which wouldn’t really have been part of a band like yourselves a few years ago.

Newman: “Exactly, yeah.”

What’s your favourite track that you’ve released so far?

Smith: “It’s normally the new one, but I still really like Freedom still.”

Newman: “Freedom sort of encapsulates everything that we do. It’s a big beat, a big groove, it’s euphoric. That’s what we’re about.”

It’s quite early on for you guys, you’re really just starting to come through now. Have you had any thoughts about an album yet?

Newman: “We think about it all of the time. For the past year we’ve just been releasing singles every couple of months, and we’ve had a pretty positive response from there, so that seems to be working. For the time being, we’re just going to carry on doing that.”

Do you think there might be an EP soon, something like that?

Newman: “I reckon at the end of the year we’ll probably go for an EP. People like EPs, don’t they?”

Smith: “We’ll know when the time’s right for an album. We’re seeing how this year goes, and I don’t think there’s any point in planning further ahead than that.”

Newman: “We’ll keep doing what we’re doing, put the singles out, and build it step-by-step. If it gets to the point where people are desperate for an album, then we’ll do a fucking album.”

Finally, you’re always described as an especially ambitious band. What is it that The Shimmer Band is setting out to do?

Newman: “We want to be as big as possible, you know? The dream has always been to be a big stadium rock band, when I was a kid that was all I wanted to do. There’s no reason that dream should change now.

“Glastonbury’s like home for us, a second home, it’s pretty local. To play there, that would be a big deal for us.”

Smith: “I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with being that ambitious, playing the massive festivals and the bigger stages. Every band should aim for that; If you’re not, what’s the point?”

The Shimmer Band’s new single Jacknife And The Death Call is out now. They’ll be headlining the following dates in April and playing festivals in the summer:

The Shimmer Band Headline Tour

April 12 – Brudenell Social Club – Leeds, UK
April 13 – King Tuts – Glasgow, UK
April 14 – Think Tank? Underground – Newcastle, UK
April 15 – Ku Bar (at Stockton Calling) – Stockton-on-Tees, UK
April 20  – O2 Academy Birmingham – Birmingham, UK
April 21 – Soup Kitchen – Manchester, UK
April 22 – The Bierkeller – Bristol, UK
April 29 – Camden Assembly – London, UK
April 30 – City Sound Project – Canterbury, UK

The Shimmer Band 2017 Festivals

April 1 – 2Q Festival – Derby, UK
July 21-23 – Truck Festival – Oxfordshire, UK
July 27-30 –  Kendal Calling – Penrith, UK

Fading Lines, the debut album from Amber Arcades, is one of the outstanding dream pop albums of recent memory.

Released last year and recorded in New York with members of Quilt and Real Estate, it’s a collection from the ether, showered in reverb and embodied by instrumental breaks and vocal gauze.

Behind the music Amber Arcades is Annelotte de Graaf, a worldly musician that once lived in a commune before migrating to the US and starting her music career.

She also, most famously and until recently, worked in human rights law assessing asylum claims in her native Netherlands, where she now again lives.

New music is on the way, and Annelotte has never been truer to the spirit of shoegaze than on the so-called Rock Song – it’s a working title – with its resemblance to Lush at their very best.

It’s set to be included on a new EP, as is Can’t Say That We Tried, a pretty lament that she’s been performing with her band on tour.

FEISTY’s Katy spent a day with Annelotte during her UK run, browsing the vintage stores of Sheffield and learning more about her new music.

In our interview she also revealed her thoughts on how Brexit might affect musicians from the EU, why she left her job, and how working for the government impacted upon her creative freedom.

Thanks for spending part of your day with us, and welcome back to the UK!

Annelotte: “Thank you!”

You’ve got quite the connection to the UK yourself, right?

Annelotte: “We have a label [Heavenly Recordings] here, and although I haven’t lived in the UK, I have lived in Ireland. Is that part of the UK?”

Well, that’s risky territory! The north of Ireland is.

Annelotte: “Oh, I don’t know. I was three years old at the time. I like the UK, though. We come here a lot, and we play more shows in the UK than anywhere else! I guess that’s our connection!”

Why do you think British audiences have taken to your music so much?

Annelotte: “I think foremost it’s because our label is based here, and they have quite a long tradition in the UK. People pay attention to what they release and their press team focuses on UK radio, they focus on UK magazines. That’s the business side of it.

“Musically? This kind of music does better in the UK. The Netherlands is a bit of a complicated country. It’s very small, so you’re done in a week of touring, because you’ve seen the whole country! Here there’s also a culture of going to gigs, even if people don’t know the band they’ll still go.”

Has living in the US and working as a human rights lawyer internationally helped you with your music? Over, say, other Dutch artists?

Annelotte: “I’m not sure! Indirectly, maybe. Moving to the US was a way of getting more into music, I played in my first band while I was in Philadelphia.

“Recording my record in the US helped. People could say, ‘Oh, she’s serious, because she goes to the US!’ And then a label has more confidence in it, you know?

“People always want to know about my job, but I’ve quit that already.”

Oh, you’ve quit your job? How did that happen?

Annelotte: “I quit in September because we were going on tour with Nada Surf for a month, and then we had a month of our own dates in the UK. My work was pretty cool about it and were fine with me coming back, but I already had in my mind that I needed to stop.

“The last year has been totally mad. I was driving to the UK every Friday in the summer, playing Saturday, driving back Sunday, then being in the office from Monday until Thursday. I was a bit burned out, and I had no time to write new stuff.”

Did doing that job have any impact on your creative freedom?

Annelotte: “Not in writing, but I mean, obviously I wouldn’t have been able to write about very intimate details of cases I was working on! It’s a bit weird to say that in a song anyway, like, ‘Hey, I’m working on this case!'”

Did you feel you could be opinionated about anything?

Annelotte: “In interviews, no, not really.”

I guess in that sense you did have to be a bit careful in expressing yourself?

Annelotte: “Yeah! And still, because maybe I’ll want to go back to that job one day! I don’t have any super radical opinions anyway, because I find it really hard to have an opinion about anything when the world is so complicated and half of the news is fake news. What can you know?”

We’re actually doing this interview during the week Donald Trump takes over as President.

Annelotte: “Oh, yeah. Scary stuff. I did have to be careful in interviews, especially if they asked me about the refugee crisis. As a representative of the government I couldn’t say, ‘Government sucks!’ It doesn’t look good.”

The world is changing at the moment. For musicians like yourself that come from EU countries, will it be harder to play in the UK in the future?

Annelotte: “With the Brexit, you mean?”

Stuff like that, yeah.

Annelotte: “Maybe! It’s such a messy thing. It totally depends on how it’s going to be played out, but in the worst case scenario then yeah, because there wouldn’t be free movement of people anymore, so you’d need a visa.”

I suppose my hunch is that less bands from Europe would be able to break into the UK and other countries if it becomes a lot more insular politically.

Annelotte: “I mean it’s hard to predict right now, isn’t it? Is it [Article 50] actually going to be invoked, how is it going to be negotiated.

“The worst case scenario is that it’s going to be fucking hard. If you go to the US for example to tour then you need a working visa, and we spent like $6,000 last time just to get one. That’s horrible, you can do it once, and then your money’s gone and you can’t do it again.

“If it’s going to be like that then it’s going to be a huge impediment for European bands to travel to the UK. But, I’m hoping it won’t be that bad! Fingers crossed, or, I’m just going to marry an English person!”

Yeah, that would help! So, your debut album Fading Lines was very well-received. How has that and being able to tour internationally changed your relationship with music?

Annelotte: “Ooh. Well, I guess it’s made me more confident. Our label, they’re so supportive of what I do, and that makes me feel more supportive of myself. You get pushed on by other people’s confidence in you.

“But, it also becomes more of a job. There’s so much other stuff involved. Not just music, but to take it to this next level there’s lots of meetings about budgets, about plans, about videos, what the label wants, what this guy wants, what this guy wants. There’s lots of production hassles.”

You brought together quite a supergroup for your first album. How was that assembled?

Annelotte: “The bass player and guitar player were from a band called Quilt, and they played in the Netherlands in 2014. I supported them in Amsterdam, and we kept in touch. I then decided which producer I wanted to work with, Ben Greenberg, and he lived in New York.

“I remembered they did too, so I was like, ‘Hey, you guys, I’m coming to New York to record a record! Do you guys wanna play on my record?’ They were like, ‘Sure!’ Then the drummer Jackson Pollis, he’s a long time friend of Ben. I’m a huge fan of Real Estate, so when I heard he was involved I was like, ‘That’s awesome!'”

Do you envision that when you record again you’ll go back in with them?

Annelotte: “I really don’t know yet. I recorded some new songs in September, and that was with the Dutch band I’m touring with.”

Some of that new music is coming out soon, or so we’ve heard!

Annelotte: “Well, we recorded five new songs last September while we were on tour with Nada Surf in the US. We did them with Ben again. Those new songs are coming out on the EP later this year, at the end of April or beginning of May.”

That sounds great! You recently released a Nick Drake cover. You’ve already said you’re a huge fan previously, but why did you choose the track Which Will specifically?

Annelotte: “It’s the one that’s always stuck in my head! I really like how the melody moves, and I already had an idea of what I wanted to make with the drum beat, so I just tried some chords over it and took it from there. I don’t know why I like it, the melody is just very mysterious.”

His music is still remembered and celebrated decades later. How do you envision your music might be perceived in 40 years?

Annelotte: “Well, I hope I don’t have to die a tragic death for my music to be remembered!”

Haha, that wasn’t what I was insinuating!

Annelotte: “I guess that’s how it works a bit, though. I mean, it’s such a morbid thing, that when someone passes away their record sales go up and all of these amazing articles are written about them. We saw it last year. It feels a bit arrogant to say people are going to remember me.”

I guess it’s impossible to predict, isn’t it?

Annelotte: “Of course, it’s what everyone that creates hopes and wishes for. Humans are all trying to come to terms with the mortality of life, trying to create something that is a bit more immortal than ourselves. I guess making music is a way to do that, to add something more permanent to this world. Maybe the earth will not even be here in 50 years!”

In an interview a year ago you said one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to make an album on which you play all of the instruments yourself.

Annelotte: “Oh yeah!”

Is that any closer to being a reality?

Annelotte: “I have started to teach myself some piano, which is going moderately! I’m mostly just writing new songs, but I’ve found learning keys leads to a very different way of approaching writing, so that’s good. But, I’m not really progressing very fast.”

I guess there’s other instruments like drums and stuff, too.

Annelotte: “Yeah! I definitely still want to learn drums. It’s a lifetime plan.”

I guess it’s not going to be your next album, then! That leads on nicely to my final question, what are your plans from here?

Annelotte: “Definitely the EP this year, and then we’ll have to see how that’s being received. We hope to be doing some festivals this summer, and there’s a UK tour with Grandaddy that’s just been confirmed, so I’m really excited about that.”

Do you think there’s a chance of another album this year?

Annelotte: “Yeah, maybe! It depends on how much we’ll be away in the summer, and how much time we’ll have to write. If we aren’t touring so much then I’ll write more. So certainly a maybe!”

Amber Arcades is on Facebook and Twitter, with a new EP due via Heavenly in the spring. Her debut album Fading Lines is out now.

Amber Arcades UK Tour (with Grandaddy)

March 23 – Potterrow – Edinburgh, UK
March 26 – Hoults Yard – Newcastle, UK
March 27 – Irish Centre – Leeds, UK
March 28 – Albert Hall – Manchester, UK
March 29 – Rock City – Nottingham, UK
March 31 – Colston Hall – Bristol, UK
April 1 – Concorde – Brighton, UK
April 3 – Roundhouse – London, UK