Issue 5 // 2012
“The first EP, they were just songs we’d written at university in a bedroom purely to be performed live, so I think that kind of comes across on the record. As for the second EP, we put a lot more thought into it about how we’re gonna play it live,” front man Ric Phethean explains.
“We do write the songs with the live performance in mind.”
But, while it sounds trite to say Tall Ships are a band at their best live, Tall Ships are a band at their best live, not least because of the instrument swapping that goes on mid set – nay mid song. Just ask anyone that’s ever seen them play. “We do write the songs with the live performance in mind. We write songs to perform because I think that’s when music is most powerful: as live performance,” Ric says.
Now the hype machine is whirring up again, with international tour dates booked in the band’s diary, where they shared the stage with the likes of Metronomy and Three Trapped Tigers, replacing the grimy student venues of yore and an album in the writing. It’s safe to say that whatever relative obscurity they may have been enjoying is now coming to a screaming halt
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Amy Lavelle Illustration
Billy Mather
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