Music
Tell us a bit about the original formation of the group? How did your involvement come about?
About five years ago, I was asked to play in a band with my brother as backing vocals. About four years ago, the singer-songwriter and the bass player decided to leave. All of a sudden, I was invited to have a go at being a singer and songwriter of my big brother's band! We needed to get a new bass player in. The original lineup of Crosbi was formed [with] Ben and Simon Jones, Ben on drums and Simon on congas, and Jamie Owens was the bass player. They're all lads we've known for a long time, and we spent the last three years just working on that, getting as many gigs as possible to play these songs we were learning to write.
We got the chance to make a record - we got a record deal with Split Records, got whisked into the studio, recorded it in Rockfield in Monmouth - which is where loads of classic records have been made like 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. I remember thinking that the twelve year old me would have loved to have gone into the same studio. Initially, I was like 'this is ace, this is the same studios as 'What's The Story, Morning Glory'! We were working with experienced people in a really classic studio.
So tell us a bit more about the change in lineup?
The lineup changed [when] Ben, Jamie and Simon basically decided that they didn't really want to do the tour, didn't really want to keep doing the band if it wasn't going to pay the rent at the end of the month. They decided they'd rather just get on with another job, they didn't really want to do it. It gave us chance to get another bass and drum player in three months [ago]. The two lads now in the band, we've known since school - James as well, me and Steve were in a band with him about ten years ago. We're good friends, so at the moment, we're like a new band promoting our first record, buzzing off playing together. People might be a bit confused as to the lineup, [as] it's all so recent...Myspace and our website doesn't quite tell that story.
And what's happened since then?
We've done a radio tour, done a video, all sorts of things - the album is out in two weeks!
Why 'Crosbi'?
People - journalists - like us to have a bit more of an interesting [story behind the] name. But. We got invited to play in Manchester in 2003 when we really didn't expect to, and basically we had to get a new name. We were called Five Leaves Left - like the Nick Drake album. We drew up a shortlist of twenty words that looked good, didn't necessarily mean anything, but we were only given a couple of days. We didn't like Five Leaves Left as a name, we only had it cos we were so proactive as a band! Our management pointed out that we didn't like our name, so we should probably change it. We got down to about five or six, and then we went on the internet and Google searched...we were f**king amazed at how many bands with the same name - there would be six bands with the same names somewhere in the world!
Crosbi looks good. It's round, it doesn't mean anything - we just wanted a title we could grow with and evolve with as a band. Metallica, [for instance], are only ever going to be a metal band - we didn't want a name that would stifle us. It's like - The Flaming Lips could be an awful band but they have a glorious buzzing powerful [name]...The Super Furry Animals have got a really daft name, but [they make great songs]. It doesn't matter beyond a certain point what you're called, as long as you haven't got something horrendous. I'm happy with the name.
So what's it like being signed?
My perception of what it would be like making music and promoting records is very different to the reality of it. You assume - you fall in love with making music and getting into a recording studio, you don't think that getting a record deal would necessarily mean being skint for three years. I'm more than happy to do that, rather than being some boring old cunt with loads of money in the bank. It got the boys [of the previous lineup] down - they stopped enjoying it. I haven't seen them that much in the last few months, but we are all in touch and we all see each other.
When I was a kid, the two things I wanted to be was a rock and roll star - I played for a football club for a few years, and when I got to the renewal of the contract, I was like 'shit, I don't want to do this, I want to get pissed and listen to Nirvana'. It was really hard to explain to my mates that I didn't want to be a footballer. It's just one of those things, that if someone had come along and said 'it's 70 quid a week', they would have been happy with that, but there's not any money, and touring is a strain. That's the lads' angle - that's where they're coming from. They gave us a couple of months before the tour to get new boys in, so it could have been a lot worse. It's weird, cos we got James and Goundry in, and it's like a new band again. When we first started playing in a band that's a good laugh, they're all cracking up on stage and having a good laugh. All the shows we've had so far have been good, we've had good responses everywhere we've been. I'm quite realistic with it all. It's only our first record, and we don't know what's around the corner. We want to get our message across, express where we're coming from. We really want people to come see us live, buy the record.
It's crazy the way this industry works. I didn't know it would be this hard to get a record out. We're dying to get back in the studio and record a new record. When we signed our record deal it was brilliant. I've been writing a lot more, we have more than thirty songs. If enough people go to the gigs and pick up a copy of our album then we should get to go to the studio soon, hopefully.
Tell us about your new single 'Helayou'.
The single is a weird one. It's the first song we've done in the way of songs that are quite personal. The song is kind of observing a situation going on with some friends. It's like a conversation between an older and younger brother. In my life, where the littlest shitty things can really blow up and become the main things, you forget about what it is that you want to be getting on with. 'Helayou' - I grew up in a Scouse household in North Wales. In Wrexham, 'La' is a thing you stick on the end of most sentences - 'Helayou' is the message of the song. It's 'sort yourself out', but not in a selfish way.
What about the album?
We completed the album over a year ago. It's a bunch of songs coming from young people who are pissed off and a bit claustrophobic. Our album is mixed by Steve Busher who did the Stereophonics album. He gave it a big polish and that's what we wanted. That's how we've gone about and made our first record. Sincerely trying to make a record that we're going to buzz off. I'm still dead proud of that record. I'll probably smile a bit more about it - I think it'll stand up. A lot of bands' albums are going to sound embarrassing in a year's time. That's one thing we've left her in North wales. We've not got a bandwagon.
There's this message running through a lot of the songs, singing about what's going on with me. Most of the songs do have that feeling of sticking two fingers up at the man and doing what you want to do - leaving your town, getting a new job, f**king everything off. It's that feeling when you live in a town where you've only got Woolworths to get your records, you get shit thrown at you in town at night because you've got curly hair! There's that frustration in the album if you sit down and listen to the whole album, it works.
You've had stuff thrown at you for having curly hair?
[Where I'm from], anything outside the norm is mad.
So has your locality really had an influence on the music you make?
The last few years we've been gigging all over different cities. When we really got busy with the bands, loads of my mates were at uni. We saw it as important that we got out there - we aspire to be like classic bands who earned their stripes on the road and gigged and gigged. We started doing that, going about all these buzzing cities [including] Cardiff, Bristol and London, and it's like, people don't bat an eyelid at a mohawk or a facefull of piercings. It's like, 'get on with your own shit'. I'm not talking about Wrexham, though. Me and Ste moved to Wrexham cos we lived near Prestatyn, two counties west. That's where you go and everyone's dressed the same, there are no venues. When we left there were no bands. A bit more was going on in Wrexham. We're still in a town that wants to be something - and we're still faced with all the same frustrations that end up f**king you off. We moved here so we could do the band. It's quite a buzzing place to come to - there are a load of bands doing stuff, there's a lot of interesting people about. For a town, it's like it's really good, got records coming out this year for the first time, a few bands doing session for the BBC...it's starting to get a bit more organised. People are writing and actually doing it. It's stepped up a couple of levels the last few years.
I really got a feeling that your production sounded like the Stereophonics.
We've got a darker tinge [than someone like] The Stereophonics. All our songs have a bit of anger to it. I don't think you'd get that on a Stereophonics record. I can't really speak for other people. I don't really dislike them, I've never owned any of their albums.
So what sets people from your part of the UK apart musically, then?
People are hungry for attention, because the eyes of the world are not on Wrexham, and you really do have to bang really hard on the door to get them to come and answer. That hunger is driving people on. There aren't labels here, people are just getting on with the music they want to make. There are really great folk musicians, really good punk bands, lots of bands doing different sorts of things. There's never been an album come out of Wrexham, and there's going to be about four this year. I wish people wouldn't chuck chips at me in the street - ideally if they stopped chasing me for being Polish - and I'm not! Except for that, it's quite buzzing in Wrexham.
You seem very confident that you will eventually conquer the music industry. What makes you believe this? What sets you apart?
Maybe we're blessed with a bit more hunger, cos we're coming from a situation where it's so difficult to get attention, because nothing really happens and no one's expecting anything. It's like 'oh, North Wales'. It gives us a bit of hunger and drive, we're not suggesting for a second that we have more hunger than other bands, but we certainly do feel we have drive. It's now thirteen months after making our first record. We're well up for promoting it. It's not that we're confident we're going to conquer it - I don't think about music on that level. I've got total belief - we really believe in the record that we've made, we're not trying to get on a bandwagon, talk about what drugs we take and don't take. I think our record will stand up, the record will get heard, we'll make another one, hopefully that'll get heard. The [shows] give us our confidence, regardless of whether [the record] is going to be instantly popular. People will start to cotton on.There's a lot of bands making records just to fit a niche. Labels do it cos it's easy, and they can sell a slightly shitter version of a band to the audience of another band to get the records out there. It's f**king nonsense, it's not why I got into music. I stuck to my guns and made a record. It's kind of out of our hands.
So you're not a fan of the way the music industry is at the moment?
There's a lot of people who want to be on the front of music magazines and stuff, but don't necessarily want to be musicians for a living. I'm getting my guns out now, aren't I? I love finding new music and new bands, but I think the last few years of British music [have] been quite embarrassing. That's not to say there's [all] duff stuff out there - I know there's a lot of good new music that's about to happen. It's one of those things.
It seems that the bands successful nowadays have strong sounds - they seem to be coming from Canada and the US. It's f**king nonsense considering the quality that is coming out of Britain. Bands you see make one album and then split up because they make no money. Kids are buzzing off emo and the way I see [it] a lot of bands are making records because they quite clearly want to be on the front of the NME, or on CD:UK. I just think there are loads of people in bands making records that have got the wrong motives. There's a lack of bands that are out there to make records and do something interesting. [You can] consider us one of those bands.
When I was [young], [bands] had a lot more substance. We had Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, stuff that was really going on, you could get your teeth into. The kids have been starved in this country, given really bad soul food! When I was that age, I did want to get pissed, try some drugs, bounce on your neighbours car and have a good time - stick two fingers up. I was a little bastard! There is a market out there for kids who just want to f**king mosh and have a f**king crazy time. I read in a national music magazine about a song called 'K-Hole' and this particular journalist went on to make out that ketamine was basically like something...cool for kids. You just f**king shouldn't talk about it in a national magazine. The only people who hshould talk about that shit is teachers at school, not journalists that kids f**king look up to. We've got journalists talking about how taking ketamine made them dance around like a horse - [no], it puts horses to sleep!
It's appalling. the f**king Others, what a f**king joke! Bands like that - where they're coming from and what they've got to say is a million miles away from what we've got to say. It's nothing I would have ever buzzed off when i was twelve, to be honest. It's just some joke thing that clever people have managed to sell to kids. Everyone's starting to reailse it's a load of shit. Oasis wouldn't have seemed so fresh and rock and roll if it wasn't so shit just before they came out. It's just the way the music industry goes...I'm hoping that with it being so tame, it will snowball once it's out there. It's just folk music with a beat that you can dance to. People will get into it. We're coming from a good place here, people will identify with what we're trying to say. I just believe in what we're doing.
You played Clint Boon's (ex-Inspiral Carpets) wedding. What was that like?
It was a weird one, because there's a lot of people that it was really humbling to meet, like Andy Roper from The Smiths, and Tommy Wilson and Manny from Stone Roses. We were like, 'pinch yourself, pinch yourself' and remember when you were listening religiously to your favourite record, meeting people like that would blow your mind! At the same time, we are a new band on the scene, and we're quite confident, so we just got up and played. Manny was bounching around, off his head, in front of us! Clint actually sang a song with us. He got up and he had this cream suit on. He looked a bit of a dude. It was 'Another Girl, Another Planet' by the Only Ones. Clint and Charlie [his wife] really liked the tune - he sung it to Charlie, and that was the craziness, because there are all these rock and roll stars in the front, everyone's taking pictures [of us] and all that!
How do you know Clint?
We've known Clint for a few years now, he's always playing our records to people. He's a real good person in the record industry - he's just a genuine pop geezer.
But you enjoyed the experience?
We're not greedy, we're not in this to become huge and make loads of money. I know by making records we're going to travel and meet loads of [people]. It's a good way to live your life. When it works it's f**king brilliant. I can't think of any better way to live my life. Little things like Clint's wedding make it worthwhile, regardless of how many records we sell and that. I'm sure we're going to have funnier dates to come!
You're currently touring the UK. How have the first four dates gone?
The first show with a new lineup was in Liverpool a few weeks back. At that point the new lads were really focussed, as [they had to learn] a record in a few weeks, playing a whole bunch of songs people in the audience [would] know. There was a lot of tension on their part, but all that was banished within thirty seconds. The lads were just sitting, laughing, it was 'happy days' from thirty seconds in, by that time we were all smiley faces. The crowd was really buzzed - that was their biggest fear, how people might take the lineup change, but everyone that I've seen has really buzzed off it. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the shows, it's going to be good to go and play again.
What should we be listening to?
At the moment I'm listening to Echo and the Bunnymen's Porcupine. It's a record I keep coming back to, listening to every night and then not for a month or so, then coming back to it. I'm addicted to that. I've also been listening to Tim Buckley Symphonia. It's got some really nice songs on that. I'm getting into the songwriters and checking out the ways different people go about it. I like to learn loads of songs all the time, put my thoughts into music and come out with songs as much as I can. I like to learn people's songs - when you've got records punched in your head, the more blueprints you can get, the better understanding you have of creating a certain feling. At the moment I'm studying different albums...it's a bit geeky. There's a song called 'Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk' by Rufus Wainwright. I've had that floating around in my head. He's done a couple of gems. I really like that, we've had that on.
I'm still really in love with that Arcade Fire album Funeral. I think that was a big inspiration on our album of last year. It set some standards. There weren't too many bands meeting those standards. They've made a really good record, when new bands come out and do something, it's that little aspect of their sound that hits a new trend. In the next six months, there will be some album that comes out and changes trends.
Thanks for chatting, Andy!
More: Music
