Justice For All

Profile: Magistrates

Words: Camilla Pia

“We wanna make pop music that pushes things forward,” Magistrates told The Fly in no uncertain terms earlier this year. So what exactly have they been doing about it? Following sublimely funky debut single ‘Make This Work’, which saw the
Essex foursome compared to everyone from Klaxons to (rather more bizarrely) The Style Council, we’ve heard nothing more. But during a quick catch-up with frontman Paul Usher, it’s clear that despite the distinct lack of new releases, this lot have been busy.

 “We’ve been holed up in a Wapping studio recording our first album,” he explains. And things are going well? “Well every day we get in and just lose track of the time, which has to be a good sign. Most of the album is being produced by Jason Cox who was involved in all the Blur and Gorillaz stuff.” So has Sir Damo given the tracks his seal of approval yet? “Oh yeah he’s popped in and we’ve done some stuff with him, chatted through ideas and played together for about three or four hours. It’s been really fun and interesting. I mean it’s Damon Albarn so he knows his shit and we grew up listening to Blur so it’s amazing to be associated with them in some way now. He is coming in again so we’ll see if we can get him to play on the record… he’s a very busy boy though.”

 Due out in spring this year, Usher explains that he can’t wait to get Magistrates’ debut offering done and dusted, as growing up in South Woodham Ferrers, he had music on his mind from an early age. “I have always wanted to be in a band. Mark (Brandon, guitar) and I met when we were about eleven and started learning instruments together… it wasn’t just about playing music, it was like let’s do this for the rest of our lives,” he chuckles. “He got better at guitar than me so I let him go off and do that. And because he was quite quiet when we were playing together and would never speak, I ended up singing and it grew from there.”

The childhood friends played in bands throughout school, eventually forming a Travis-esque outfit called Echelon with drummer Andy Grant and signing to Alan McGee’s Poptones label. But following that band’s demise the boys went back to their day-jobs – Usher working in the butcher section of a supermarket – before re-thinking and regrouping in 2007, new and improved with added white boy funk and Thom Galbally on bass. “It was good playing for all those years because we learned to be better at writing songs together and our sound changed naturally. Anyone who is learning an instrument will always try to be clever and do the most difficult thing possible, like play in a really awkward time signature trying to sound like Radiohead, but as you progress you realise it’s actually much harder to write a good pop song. That was our challenge, all the music that inspired us was really great pop and to be honest I’ve always had the same idea about what I want to achieve musically since I was a kid.”

Usher cites Talking Heads, Prince, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and even Madonna as huge inspirations, but as he goes on to explain, their appeal to the band is about much more than just the music. “We want to be like

Bowie and do something really different. All of our influences are grand people and big pop stars, with interesting characters who are distinctive sounding and timeless and who made intelligent, exciting pop. I guess that is what we hope to achieve. We want our music to define a certain time, break down genre boundaries and cross over to as many people as possible.” No pressure then. “Well yes, we are always setting ourselves huge goals but it’s about so much more than just getting a debut out. Of course we plan to make a great one but we’ve already started thinking about what happens next. We aim high, but I really think you’ve got to…” Click on Magistrates’ Myspace and you will read their definitive mission statement -  to ‘infect the world with a groove like some out-of-control STD’. Anyone feeling itchy?

Magistrates debut album is due out on XL in the summer.