LITTLE VOLCANOES Well, it’s a better name than Miniscule Earth Eruptions, isn’t it? M+ meets Phil Quinn from the band that’s been a Manchester live favourite for a while
Phil is fashionably late, running into Odd Bar, (Northern Quarter, Manchester) with a bearish vigour and a giant grin. There’s only a hint of breathlessness, and then a cosy scratch and ruffle of his equally giant coat as he sits down, just missing the city’s drizzle.
see how the band have translated from having a great MySpace following, to a Facebook one. “Yeah, but no-one uses MySpace anymore.”
“We’ve been playing old punk venues,” he says after getting a drink in. “It’s been great. It’s money we’re sticking away for studio costs. That’s why we’re on tour.”
“A friend from France, she called it ‘mad indie hip hop’. I don’t see the hip hop, but it’s quite nice,” he says with a proper hearty chuckle.
Phil is upfront and honest about the band’s studio work and the need to get more in. “Just because you’re a good live band it doesn’t mean you can just plug in and get ready. Time and knowledge, more experience.”
“So we’ve been going for two years,” he says. “Well, two years since we started getting good anyway. There was a different line-up: which we see as a different band. Completely different- apart from me, completely different songs apart from one, called ‘I’m Ashamed.’ It always goes down really well live. We play it much better now, better than we ever did.”
Little Volcanoes have been going for a few years at pubs, clubs and underground venues across the UK, gathering a hefty fanbase. Even Phil alone has over 3,000 friends on Facebook. Besides the point, it is interesting to
The first single that prompted attention for the band at the beginning was ‘Scars’.
Phil’s favourite venue in the UK so far was in fact, a festival. “The Willowman Festival.”