Posted on Sep 3, 2007 by DevotedToMusic

The Sunshine Underground are a Indie British band based in Leeds.

After having a sellout first headlining tour it was obvious that they were going to go places and fast!

Fresh from playing The Glastonbury Festival, T in the Park, Reading and Leeds festivals, I Alexandra McLoughlin was given the honour of intervieiwng them.

Hello Guys. What are your names please?

Hello I’m Matthew

My Name is Stuart

My Names is Craig

I read that all of your shows were sell-outs on your first headline tour. How did that feel?

Craig- Ah we were just talking about our first headline show. Yeah it was cool. We played really small venues when we started out. On our first tour ‘Commercial Breakdown’ came out. It was really cool. It’s a nice feeling to play gigs like that.

Matthew- I don’t know how many tours we have done…about 3 tours but they pretty much all sold out.

Craig- They are just going to get bigger and bigger every time, which is nice.

Matthew- I felt like Michael Jackson (Laughs).

Craig- Matt feels like Michael Jackson.

I bet your parents were proud about your shows too..

Craig- Yeah mine have come to quite a few gigs actually.

Stuart- Yeah the more local ones when the tour swings by the midlands, where our families are from. They try to come when they can.

Craig- Yeah they kind of love it!

Stuart- Matt’s auntie is a big fan.

Matt- My Auntie yeah.

Do you get embarrassed about that? Your parents coming to one of your shows?

Craig- I know what your saying It’s a little bit weird because Your doing your thing anyway and your just kind of think “They are there and watching”. You kind of get over it.

Matt- You just got to watch what your doing when they’re around.

Do they come up to you and still treat you like kids and wipe your face for you?

Craig- They are going to feel like they can’t really do that anymore. They are going to feel like “Alright they are grown up”.

Stuart- For a long time it was always “Oh when are you going to get a proper job?” but it’s just on this last tour that when they saw the production and the lights and the fact that there was 2000 people there, they kind of take it serious now.

Do your parents treat you as though you are famous now?

Craig- Yeah a little bit. They don’t really understand how it works. It’s like our album came out a year ago and so it’s fair enough we’re not on NME every week. Every week that we’re not in NME my mum rings me up and she’s like “What’s going on?! What’s happened?! Do they not love you anymore?!” And I’m like not every band’s in NME every week. They don’t really understand.

Have they always been supportive of you and your career?

Stuart- Yeah!

Matt- Yeah!

Craig- Other then they didn’t want us to give up our day jobs.

(Laughs)

…Which were?

Craig- Next question!

(Laughs)

Stuart- Factories!

Porn Stars?

Matt- Factories.

Craig- Elderly Care.

Matt- I’ve always wanted to be a porn star actually.

When did you meet?

Matt- On the set of a porn film.

Stuart- On the set of a porn movie. We were all in it together.

No fibbing!

Craig- (Laughs)

Stuart- Daley our Bass Player who is not here sadly, he used to be a really big porn star in the early ninghties. He’s given it up now cause he’s got a wife and kids.

Craig- We all met at School/College things like that, years and years ago. I was the last to met everyone, when I was 16.

Stuart- Me and the Bass player are cousins. So we’re family.

Matt- Everyone went to school together, everyone went to college together. We grew up together.

Are there a lot of Squabbling between you Stuart and your cousin ?

Stuart- No actually. I don’t think I really argue with Daley at all, he’s kind of the quiet one.

Craig- Yeah the quiet one.

Matt- He doesn’t say much at all.

Stuart- He’s a good Porn Star.

Now talking about the album. Can you tell me the story behind it please?

Matt- We recorded the majority of it in a place called The Dairy in London and we had to stay in a mouse infested house.

Craig- The people who run the Dairy in Brixton are all here today because they are all friends with Tricky. We thought the house was haunted because you could here all these tapping noises when you were trying to go to sleep.

Did you not know it was the mice?

Stuart- Well we were looking around the house starting to find all these mouse traps around. It kind of gave it away really.

Are you sure they weren’t for you?

Craig- I don’t think they were.

Stuart- The place was infested.

Matt- It was driving me mad. In the end I started making my own traps and..I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Didn’t you bring in a cat to make sure a little ‘Itchy and Scratchy’ happens?

Stuart- We were close to catching one of them one day.

Craig- (Laughs)

What did you do? Did you start stalking the mice?

Matt- We just stayed in a corner of the kitchen and just wait for them basically.

Why didn’t you just bring in a cat?

(Long pause)

Craig- Yeah. You got a point.

How long did it take you to write the album?

Craig- About 5 years. (Laughs)

Stuart- With your first album, your kind of writing all the songs when you first start the band which for us was about 5 years ago, up until you record.

Craig- It took us 3 weeks to record it.

Stuart- We’ve been writing the songs for years.

Craig- Throuout these years we’ve been writing all these songs and thrown then away and then wrote all these songs and thrown them away. So really it took us years to write the album. There is no rush when you first start a band. It’s only when you get signed that you’ve got to make a new album in 6 weeks.

Is it hard to pick what songs you put on the album?

Craig- It’s not that difficult.

(Laughs)

Craig- I don’t know, it kind of seems obvious originally when you go into the studio and you know which ones you want to go on the album and also when you record songs they come out differently to what it sounds like in your head and the ones you thought would be big singles sound like B-sides.

What are your favourite songs on the album and why?

Craig- ‘Borders’ because it’s a big single that everyone loves and it gets the biggest response out all the songs we play and it was the last single we released. That’s kind of the best song for me. ‘The Way it Is’ is always the best one to play. It goes down very well live. It changes all the time for me.

Stuart- I like the first track on the album ‘Wake up’ I just like playing it. I just like the music and playing it.

Matt- I like ‘I ain't losing any sleep’ I quite like the progressiveness of it. I think the dance element of our band really shines through in that track.

You’ve played quite a few festivals this year. What were your favourite ones and why?

Craig- Glastonbury was obviously really good because it’s Glastonbury and it’s a bit of a dream to play it. I know it was a really weird gig but it was kind of good. T in the Park was really good. We headlined this little tent in T in the Park which was personally my favourite. We’ve just done Reading and Leeds which was ace!

Stuart- I’ve enjoyed them all to be honest apart from the Secret Garden Party. It just wasn’t a very good gig.

Speaking of the Reading and Leed’s ones. I just read that Jamie Reynolds, His girlfriend and his mum watched you play. ..

Craig- That was right in the top of the NME review on our show. “Watched on the sides by Jamie Reynolds and his mum”.

(Laughs)

Craig- Jamie’s a great lad.

Did you realise he was watching you at the time?

Craig- I didn’t know but I’m glad. Jamie has always been the supportive Klaxon. He used to come and tell us how good we were and he was always cheering us on.

Does the thought of having another band member who you like watching you, put a lot of pressure on you?

Craig- I think it’s quite cool because it’s always nice when someone’s interested in you. If you are confident to actually play live you kind of know you’re in a good band.

Where you pleased with your review form NME?

Craig- It was good actually. There wasn’t anything band about it. It was nice. They didn’t really mention much other then the new song is really good.

How did this years festivals compare with last years?

Craig- They were a lot bigger. The crowds were bigger, more people were singing to the songs. It’s weird for us cause we are in the middle of writing another album at the moment and you don’t know how easy it is to be forgotten as a band these days. We were doing all these songs at the festivals last year so it was interesting.

People keep trying to label what style of music you play. You have been described as psychedelic and Indie-dance. How would you describe your music?

Stuart- Yeah it’s really, really difficult.

Craig- We just sound like us because there are 4 songwriters in the band who listen to different kinds of music and it all kind of goes wahhgghh. We never really wanted to be a certain genre. We never wanted to be a Punk band or a Rave band. We just literally stand in a room and make some sounds and whatever sounds good we just record it.

What types of songs do you like then?

Stuart- Anything.

Matt- My mate gave me the new Timberland album. I don’t even listen to that. It’s quite R&B for me. There’s a few tracks like one with Dr Dre in it which is just amazing. Even the really Hip-hop songs, I think are really great.

Craig- What are you taking about?

Matt- The new Timberland album.

Craig- Have you got that?

Matt- Yeah it’s great!

Craig- He’s ace isn’t he?!

Matt- Every tack is like Timberland featuring whoever.

What other musicians do you guys like?

Stuart- Kings of Leon and Led Zeppelin.

Craig- The Maccabees are my new favourite band.

Do you like any heavy metal bands? Or emo/screemo bands?

Stuart- Rage against the Machine.

Craig- I like The Horrors! I’m not quite sure what they are.

Stuart- I like the Nine inch nails.

Go ask The Horrors!

Craig- (Whispers) What style of music do you play? I like that!

I’m going to dare you to do it!

Craig- (Laughs).

You were talking about how you all like Timberland. The Hives recently did a song with him. What did you think of it?

Matt- I love The Hives.

Stuart- It’s alright.

Craig- If he wanted to come a produce our album he just can.

How about Snoop Dogg?

Craig- Snoop Dogg is ace as well.

50 Cent?

Craig- Yeah I like 50 Cent.

Ja Rule or Usher?

Craig- Not sure about Ja Rule or Usher apart from that song he’s got with Ludicrous is very good.

Do you like a heavy metal band called Sepultura?

Stuart- Daley used to like them and Pantera. Daley was a big Pantera fan.

I forgot to ask you what bands you watched at the Reading and Leeds festivals and the other festivals you played. There must have been quite a few bands you just thought to yourselves I have got to watch them!

Craig- Yeah! I watched Hadoken! They were ace. I watched the Maccabees and I watched Klaxons and the LCD Soundsystem. All of them were really good.

Stuart- I only saw Nine inch nails.

Matt- I was just with them so all the same.

Craig- He hasn’t got a mind of his own.

What are you doing currently as a band? Are you currently working on any projects like Clothes Designing or anything like that?

Craig- Matt’s writing a novel. Aren’t you?

Matt- I’m writing a Children’s book.

Craig- Stuart’s doing a little Fashion Designing.

Stuart- I’m getting into my painting really.

Craig- He’s getting into his painting. I’m getting into Landscape Gardening at the moment and other then that we’re just making an album. We are going to Scotland tomorrow.

Are you looking forward to that?

Craig- Yeah. We have rented out this beautiful, beautiful house in the middle of nowhere in Dunfrese and Galloway on the Cost. We have no neighbours. We are going there for a few weeks to write an album.

How long are you going to be there?

Stuart- 2 weeks.

Have you got any songs yet for the album?

Craig- We’ve got about 7,8,9 or 10 songs ready. I can’t really count them all up. Hopefully if we can get about 15 or 16 songs we can get the best 11,12 and 13.

Have you got any new videos coming out?

Craig- We’ve got nothing really. It’s a quiet period for us. The last single came out months ago and we’re just concentrating writing basically.

How crazy are your fans?

Stuart- Some of them are pretty mental actually.

Matt- Some of them have quite a few court orders against them or restraining orders if that’s what you call it.

Craig- (Laughs)

Matt- There are some potential murderers who come to see us. You can see it in their eyes, you really can.

During your performances are there ever any Circle of death’s, Mosh-Pits or Wall of deaths?

Craig- Well we have a lot of people dancing really. That’s got to be our kind of idea for a band really. We want people to kind of dance but then I did see a big fight breakout in Leeds…was it Leeds Festival or Maybe Reading?

Stuart- I don’t know.

Craig- At 1 point I kind of saw people throwing people in and did you say Circle of Death?

Yeah!

Craig- I saw a circle of Death.

I nearly got in one.

Stuart- Did you? I once watched The Prodigy and I had to leave because I had someone’s foot on my head.

If you think that’s bad can you imagine a Slipknot moshpit?

Craig- Yeah. I imagine it’s pretty bad.

I really want to be in one.

Craig- (Laughs).

That’s my aim for next year! My final question for you is. What’s next after the album?

Matt- After the album? Oh God!

Would Domination?

Stuart- We’ve got to record it and after I’m sure there will be a tour.

Craig- We write the album these next 2 weeks then go and then we will tour with The Happy Mondays. We are going to do some dates with them for a month. I guess we will do another tour next year. We’re going to try and make an amazing album.

Matt- We will probably rule the world this time next year.

I believe you. The Aliens will be coming to get you.

Craig- Well…

Thank you for letting me interview you.

Craig- Thank you. We’ve enjoyed it!

Taken At:

Harewood House, Leeds

Taken On:

August 31st, 2007

Interviewees:

Craig- Lead Vocals and Guitar
Stuart- Guitar
Matthew- Drums

Related Links:

• www.tsuarmy.co.uk
• www.myspace.com/thesunshineund...
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Suns...

Interviews

Aug 31, 2007 Harewood House, Leeds