Kagoule, made up of Cai, Lucy and Lawrence, are a three-piece band from Nottingham. They will be playing at Rock City’s event, “Our City” on December the 4th alongside Saint Raymond, D.I.D., Indiana and many more. Israel Bucko got a chance to talk to Lucy ahead of the celebration:
“Hey! So you’ve got the new album out, Urth, how does it feel to have released your first album?”
Obviously it’s really exciting. We’ve been waiting a long time. Actually, we recorded the album about a year before it was released, so we kind of felt like we’ve had an album for a year already when it was released which was quite odd! But it was so exciting to see it in the shops; when we went into Rough Trade in Nottingham there was a little stand with our CD’s and vinyl’s on, which was quite a weird feeling but was really great.
“Do you have a favourite song?”
I don’t know. I mean, probably ‘Adjust the Way’, which is one of our oldest songs but I just really enjoy playing it live and I love it. I don’t really know why, I just really like that song. It’s the song I don’t get quite as upset about hearing. If I ever hear the rest of the album I’m like, “No turn it off” and get really embarrassed.
“Do you really cringe out when you hear your own music back, then?”
Yeah because my Mum always has it on in the car, she always listens to it when she drives anywhere! So every time she gives me a lift anywhere, or we go somewhere together, it comes on, and I’m like, “Mum, no!”
“How would you describe your sound?”
I find it very difficult to describe our sound. I usually rely on other people; if I get asked that by someone up there I usually ask them to describe it, because we don’t really know what we’re doing. We don’t have an aim to make a certain genre of music. So it ends up just sounding like this or that; so I don’t really like to label it.”
“So let me reword that – who have been your greatest influences, as in, do you have a particular artist who you are inspired by?”
So Cai is the song-writer of the band, but as a musician myself I’m obviously inspired alot by the cool, 90’s chick musicians, you know. Like Kim Gordon is basically my idol because she is amazing, and really cool; I would love to be Kim Gordon but I’m not.
“So where did the name come from?”
Well, we thought it would look good written down and it has an O in the middle. It’s a really stupid name, we know. Its jut too far gone to change it. But there are worst band names so that’s fine.
“How did the band start?”
The band started through school, we all knew each other, all in the same year. I was really good friends with Lawrence’s twin sister, and I met Cai in a music classroom in our school funnily enough, neither of us were playing any music at the time, probably just messing about on the keyboard because that’s what you do in music lessons at school.”
“What’s it like being a musician growing up in Nottingham? Was it difficult to break into the music scene?”
I think of all places to be a musician, Nottingham is definitely not a bad place. It’s reasonably active and has good music scene at the minute. There are both commercially successful and underground bands here. We were welcomed early onto the scene when we started. Lots of people accepted us and were willing to support us. There are lots of people with lots of different genres here so someone will probably like your music. It’s better than London because there is not as many of us doing it. I can’t imagine doing it there because it will be very difficult to get anywhere. There are lots of bands trying to make it big and I have the utmost respect for them because I would not be able to handle that.
“Do you have a favourite band in Nottingham?”
My friend’s band Blue Bird are probably my favourite in Nottingham at the minute. They are very great, and I’d seen them before I knew them as people. They are a 90’s emo band. People have likened them to American football, so that kind of thing. They are really great. Oh, and another band that are super, super cool is Babe Punch! They’re like an all girl, riot girl kind of band. They’re really young, like 15 I think. They’re just really awesome, really, really great, and everybody should check them out too.
“I understand you’ve been on an international tour? What’s that been like? Has it been humbling?”
Gosh yeah! It’s been very humbling. We had never played out side of the UK and we went straight to NY and it was just insane. Everything is huge and you’re tiny and it was just crazy. It was just how you imagined it from films and things; but then people still came to our gigs which was the weirdest thing. You feel so insignificant in New York because it’s so huge and busy, but people still came. It was really amazing to go across the ocean and for people to still come and listen to our music.
“Was there a favourite moment on tour?”
New York was definitely up there. When we played rough trade in New York that was really exciting and crazy. I’m still coming to terms that that actually happened. It was so unbelievable; but… my favourite moment was probably getting out of a van after a 25 hour long drive to be honest. It was almost worth driving for 25 hours just for that feeling of relief getting out the van!
“Where was that traveling from and to?”
We were traveling from Toulouse in France to berlin. It was ridiculous, Google Maps said it was 16 hours and it took 25! We were losing our minds! Our poor driver.
“Are you excited about the event at Rock City showcasing all Nottingham’s talent?”
Yeah it should be really fun. We don’t normally play with these kind of bands. They’re not really the same kind of genre so it would be nice to see what everybody else is up to. Have a chit chat and a mingle!
“Thank you so much for talking, but I have perhaps the most important question now. So we’ve talked about music, the band Kagoule which is great, but let’s talk merchandise. Will you be selling any cagoule’s at the gig?”
We won’t be selling any cagoule’s I’m afraid haha; but don’t worry the thought has past our minds! We are working on it but we’re still yet to find the perfect cagoule. We are searching for the perfect one, you know, we can’t be giving you any rubbish cagoule’s. When we find the perfect one we will be selling them. But we got t-shirts. We got some new ones printed the other day so they’re fresh and new for you guys.
“That’s all my questions, but I really appreciate you taking the time out to talk to say hello.”
No worries, any time!
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