It’s the company I’m angry at,
Joel: I think that’s why the vocals are
and I had to walk back and forth to
not the people.
quite good.
Embassy [aka Cathays Community
James: The people are just
Rob: Because I care about the lyrics.
Centre, where the band are based],
suckers aren’t they?
Joel: Because some songwriters
it was just a bit of a drag and it’s
Rob: They’re just poor
don’t care about the lyrics, which is
something I thought I’d write a song
bastards who…
fair enough, but sometimes it’s boring.
about. It was the first full song I ever
James: Well, they’re not poor, that’s
We don’t really have many songs
wrote where I sat down and wrote the
the thing. They’re morally poor.
where it’s made up, silly lyrics. But we
whole thing. When you’ve already
Do you think that kind of… I don’t
have a few…
written two or three songs you know what direction you’re going in.
want to call it arrogance, but overconfidence…
Like ‘Helio’? [A fictional and tragic
When you write your first song…
James: It’s arrogance
song about a local Lidl employee]
like, ‘Locked Out’ doesn’t have any
So you admit it’s arrogance?
Rob: Helio has a couple of lyrics that
influences. We were influenced by
Rob: Yeah, but arrogance isn’t
I’m still proud of still, even though like,
bands in our head. We were into the
always a bad thing. I’m not saying
he dies at the end… But ‘Locked Out’,
same bands, like Talking Heads and
we’re always saints with what we do.
there’s nothing dark about that.
The Smiths, but I didn’t know how to
James: We’re dickheads.
James: He got locked out,
put influence into a song. You do that
Rob: We’re not that bad…
that’s scary!
when people compare you to things.
It’s quite a juxtaposition because
Rob: I do that with emotion as
Like when people first said ‘[Sound
you’re represented as quite twee [so
well, I wouldn’t just do that with a
of] Fire’ sounds like gypsy and ska
says Jen Long of Radio 1 and Mike
smile on my face. Most of it sounds
music. That’s when we thought yeah,
Williams of the NME], but then you
happy because I’m looking back
we can write like that, why don’t we
have all this anger. But you started off
on the situation, but that’s one of
add more influences? So, I suppose
being quite twee…
the only songs I wrote literally after
we were lucky that our first song was
Rob: Yeah, but it wasn’t intentionally
it happened. It’s a story about how
okay and not a complete flop.
twee. Because we were young
I was locked out, and it wasn’t my
and naïve.
fault and that’s what matters to you
Do you think another factor
at the age of 13. Obviously, 13
of your success is the fact you
So you’ve lost your naivety?
to 15 doesn’t seem that much of a
play strange instruments?
Rob: Yeah, in terms of our song
difference.
Rob: Even before we had our own
writing. There’s only one way that
original songs, we were doing covers
‘Hollister’ can be performed. It’s the
Do you regress ever y time
in one summer. Obviously we’re
lyrics to the song. I don’t perform it
you sing it?
really young… we’re still young now.
angry because I think “Let’s do it in
Rob: What happened on the day
We still got gigs; we got a gig with
an angry style.” We do it because the
I wrote… when I got locked out, all
Kids in Glass Houses. We still got
lyrics are relevant to how we feel.
of what happens in the lyrics of the
a reputation and stuff like that. We
song… it was alright at first because
wonder how we did that now…
Do you feel emotion ever y time
I get locked out a lot. It happens a
[We get interrupted by seagulls…]
you sing a song then?
lot “but this time it’s not my fault”.
Rob: It must be part of our success;
Rob: (nods)
But as people started to let me down
it must be to do with our instruments.