Apr 03 2008 7:03 pm,
Profile: Late Of The Pier
Words: Camilla Pia
Scratch away at Late Of The Pier’s surface and what do you find? Weirdness, probably a hell of a lot of hallucinogens, and talent – buckets and buckets of the stuff. After a two year career, which has seen this amazingly inventive Castle Donington quartet play chaotic gigs half naked with squiggle-covered torsos and treat us to two thrillingly bonkers singles complete with squelchy synths, clipped polyrhythms and gloriously poppy choruses, the video for their latest release, ‘The Bears Are Coming’, finds them dressed as wizards, frolicking around in puddles of mud with giant puzzles and wildlife in the woods. Normality is clearly not the Late Of The Pier way.
We greet singer Samuel Dust on the band’s tourbus halfway through an intense run of live shows. His legs “feel like two pieces of concrete” following a photoshoot which had him jumping up and down repeatedly for an hour in an attempt to look like he was floating, his throat is raspy and he keeps spluttering mid-sentence due to a bad cold, but it takes much more than this to get Dust down. “We feel incredibly positive at the moment, there is a real buzz and things are definitely on the up,” he says animatedly while sipping on a glass of apple juice. “The album is almost done and we reckon it should be out in the summer, so everything is just working up to that now.”
The singer, who started learning his trade aged ten after obsessing over his computer technician father’s early music software, has good reason to be happy. The foursome’s debut is one of the most anticipated releases of the year and is shaping up to be something of a modern day masterpiece. It was recorded in different rooms around the house they all share together, with bits and pieces completed in the bathroom and in a huge porch room that has the acoustics of a cave. One song was even done entirely live in a coal shed.
Legendary DJ Erol Alkan is on production duties for the debut and, as Dust goes on to explain, his broad expertise has really brought out the best in the band. “He can recognise everything in our huge pool of influences and so has really accentuated each one. The album will be like a rollercoaster ride, wrenching you from one style of music to the other but trying to do it in a very listenable and enjoyable way. Maybe one day we’ll fall into some sort of style or particular sound,” he adds with a cheeky grin, “but I don’t see it happening any time soon.” Prepare to have your mind frazzled.
‘The Bears Are Coming’ is released on Zarcorp Records on March 3rd.
