We chatted with Portsmouth based five-piece Clues this week. Inspired by the likes of The Beatles right through to Palma Violets, Clues have so far released two tracks, 'Confused' and 'Mr. Wayne' via Soundcloud. Here's what they had to say...
1. Who are Clues?
We're Clues, there's 5 of us, we live in Portsmouth (near enough) and we make music together. We formed a few months ago when Craig bought a guitar which meant I could come and attempt to play bass. After that, we've spend the last few months practicing in my shed which is um fun. Now our drummer Rob has joined we've got a bit more serious and are spending some money on rehearsing, which means working out how to use expensive equipment which as you'll see from our latest song we put on Facebook we found quite difficult.
2. Who are your biggest influences?
There's a lot of conflict in the band because Fraser and Sam both love The Beatles so I'm sure they'd love to class them as an influence but I think they're shit. So i suppose they're a bit of an influence. Probably a similar case with The Rolling Stones. But yeah, bands like The Clash, The Sex Pistols, maybe The Velvet Underground. Although that's probably not that obvious in the stuff we have on Soundcloud but I've think our sound has developed a lot since 'Confused' and 'Mr. Wayne' because they're pretty much the first two tunes we ever wrote together. Oh yeah, and of course newer bands like Palma Violets, Fat White Family and Baby Strange.
3. What has been the highlight of our career?
Well not much has happened yet but things are happening. Next month we're playing my favourite venue, The Joiners (21st July) which we're all very excited about. Also we should have some very very exciting news that we can announce soon too so keep your eyes peeled yeah. Well, exciting for us anyway.
4. How would you describe your sound?
Well, I think the stuff on our Soundcloud is pretty straight forward, typical indie rock or as our friend Cal from Vapour Trail Blog said 'indie rock with a psychedelic influence'. I think that's probably true with 'Confused' but I think our newer tunes show our punk influences. Well I'd like to think so anyway. Making the songs more energetic and raw was certainly our intention with the new material. There's a pretty dreadful recording on our Facebook which shows the direction of the new songs. So yeah, indie rock with a clear punk influence. Or, going by our Soundcloud - indie rock full stop. Saying that I think it's quite difficult to put a label on it ourselves, that's your job.
5. Where do you see yourselves in five years time?
Ah difficult question. Hopefully still making music together, be it still playing local venues, travelling the UK or even Europe. As long as we're still making music together that'd be cool.
6. What's next for Clues?
Well like I mentioned earlier we should have a very exciting announcement soon so I suppose that's what's next for us. That and playing some gigs around Portsmouth and Southampton, and hopefully beyond those fairly average cities. We might reach Winchester or something.
7. Where can we hear/find out more from you?
Well a couple of our tunes are up on Soundcloud. Our main means of social media is probably our Facebook page now so check that out as well as our Twitter if you fancy it.
