The Rumble Strips Interview: 22.07.09 (From The Northern Echo)

The Rumble Strips Interview: 22.07.09

8:39pm Saturday 25th July 2009

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Sophie Stratford talks to front man Charlie Waller from Devon based band The Rumble Strips, about their new album, festivals, and music influences.

The five some have just released their new album Welcome To The Walk Alone with help from Mark Ronson, it’s a tight melodic complication with cheerful string laden tunes, however lacks some depth and meaning.

What inspired the making of your new album Welcome to the Walk Alone?

Not sure really, lots of different things I suppose. Mostly about lots of things that were going on in my head that year.

Mark Ronson produced the album, how did that come about?

Well it started off us doing a remix of Black to Black by Amy Winehouse, but instead of doing a remix we played the song a different way and dubbed her vocals on top of it. He heard that and asked me to come and sing that version of Black to Black with him at the Electric Proms. That’s how we met him, and got to know him. Then he said how about we record some of your tunes for your next album and that’s how it developed.

How did Mark help you in the album?

Well I suppose he opened a lot of doors for us, in terms of orchestration and stuff and having that name behind him meant we could do some more ambitious things.

What’s it like working with Mark?

He’s good, a nice guy, very smart.

How would you describe the album?

I would say, Ethic and Strings.

What else in lined up for you for the rest of 2009 and into 2010?

This summer we are doing a lot of festivals so were in the swing of that, and a lot of promotional things for the album. Then we have a tour in September, and after that we have a tour of Spain I think.

What’s your opinion on festivals?

I love festivals. Well they can be good and bad. I prefer festivals that are more out in the middle of nowhere rather than London festivals for 1 day or whatever. If the weathers good they’re great.

Where do you get your music influence from?

It’s hard to say really, I’m a big fan of old rock and roll music and everyone in the band are big fans of Adam The Ants and bands like that. We all don’t know where some of the piano inspiration that Henry’s written comes from.

What’s the best and worst thing about being on tour?

The best thing is that you don’t have to think much, life’s quite simple, all you have to think about is at the end of the day you play a gig. You’re looked after you don’t have to worry about food or anything like that. I don’t think there is anything bad at the moment, but there has been times where you miss people.

What do you think the future hold for The Rumble Strips?

Who knows! We’ve known each other for a long time and whatever happens we have a tie strong enough to keep us going. I think we will definitely make more records.

What bands do you hope to play with in the future?

Well we’re really looking forward to this tour we’re doing in September, because we are playing with two bands one called Everything Everything, who are a really great band. And Bombay Bicycle Club, who are also really good.

By Sophie Stratford

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