Local band OffTheRadar recently embarked on a self-arranged mini tour of New York - quite a remarkable and undoubtedly courageous approach by an unsigned band yet to get their foot in the door of the music industry. I caught up with singer/bass player Tim, guitarist Daz, drummer Panda, and the band's PA Annie to get the lowdown on New York, the tour, their new-found connections with New Yorkers Aluminum Babe, the true meaning of "passion pop", groupies and a whole lot more...
Part 1 - New York mini-tour
How was New York?
TIM: (laughing) Just like I pictured it, skyscrapers and everything.
DAZ: It rocked.
PANDA: Totally.
How did the American audience react to an unsigned British band invading their shores?
TIM: They're very welcoming actually. You find that at the start of sets people are kind of interested because we're from the U.K they'd come down and take a look at us, we play some stuff and they were into it. We played to some audiences that... the rest of the bill wasn't really something that you'd naturally see us on - but they were up for it. The thing is, we're a bit quirky over here, but we're super quirky over there!
DAZ: You used the word "invasion" - it didn't quite feel like that, it felt really natural, it was a good thing. I mean, it was no different to playing down at the Rising Sun (Arts Centre in Reading) in that respect.
TIM: The New York audiences are really up for coming to see bands play. so you've got a bunch of people in front of you who really want to see live music - and they're interested.
DAZ: We've got this thing where, in this band, we don't necessarily invite our friends to our gigs, because we like to play in front of whoever's there.
TIM: A lot of friends know that we're playing but we don't rely on them to turn up. And often they don't! (laughs)
So it wasn't much different from playing gigs over here?
TIM: No! It felt like playing the Zodiac in Oxford actually, a lot of the time.
DAZ: Yeah, it was that sort of vibe.
TIM: Some venues the world over are probably the same as in the U.K - certainly the ones we've played in - you've got a bar and a room the size of the Zodiac or whatever and it's generally painted black: the usual scenario.
DAZ: The important thing about New York was that all the venues were cool.
TIM: They were very cool.
DAZ: Really cool!
TIM: And it's names of venues you've only dreamed of playing.
PANDA: It's just really laid back as well.
DAZ: And you just sense this very unpretentious kind of reaction from the crowd, they're actually just going to go and see a band and hang out somewhere cool.
PANDA: That's what they're out for, they just want to go and look for music.
TIM: But they're there to be entertained, and as long as you entertain them, they're fine with that.
DAZ: And they're not judging you by your haircut or something stupid.
TIM: That's right - and they come up to you afterwards and they say whether they were entertained or not.
I read somewhere that Tim picked up a brand new bass guitar in New York for less than half the price over here.
TIM: Yeah I did actually.
PANDA: It took you three days to do it!
TIM: Actually I saw it on the first day and then Tony (friend of the band) intervened and it took me three days to put the credit card on the bleedin' table. But the idea was to actually buy guitars over there, because of U.S immigration and stuff like that so we trawled round a few music shops and I saw a Rickenbacker bass for a reasonable price.
DAZ: I managed to pick up quite a decent cheese board. (more laughter)
Tell me a bit more about linking up with New York band Aluminum Babe.
TIM: I went out there at the beginning of July after we decided we wanted to play in New York - our approach was to get a limited edition of promo CDs done with a picture and biog and print off about 50 copies. Once I was out there I rattled around the venues and talked to anybody that would listen, handed out the promo stuff and met some really cool people. One of them was Jorge from Aluminum Babe.
PANDA: And they were fantastic.
DAZ: It's actually part of our vibe - if you're in a band it's just nice to meet like-minded people, people who are in bands who aren't necessarily majorly signed up or any of that stuff. We just want to play some good gigs with some good bands.
PANDA: And some great people.
But you chose to do it in New York.
ALL: Exactly!
TIM: And everybody should.
DAZ: I recommend it.
TIM: It's really easy - just get on an aeroplane, go out there and be cool! (chuckles)
Part 2
You guys have had quite a year on the live front - would you say that it's been a fairly meteoric rise?
ANNIE (PR): Blimey, that's a question!
TIM: I don't know what you mean by that. The thing is.
DAZ: We played about 8 gigs in May!
TIM: We did, but we really don't make a big deal out of it, we just go out there and play live. But a meteoric rise? The thing is, we don't make a big deal out of anything we do, so I suppose in some respects it's like. From the outside point of view we're not playing a gig every week, and all of a sudden the gigs we've played have suddenly got a bit of publicity, so it might look like that. But we've just gone out and played, there's not really much of a design to it. We're the sort of band that would stand in a rehearsal room 'til we're happy with the music, then go out and play. We don't necessarily expect anything from anybody, it's just like "here we are - this is how we do it, blah blah blah".
DAZ: We just thought it'd be really nice to put a different angle on it - we love what we do, we love playing live and it's nice creating a buzz locally and stuff like that. Actually, to just go "Look, this is us", this great 3-piece mentality as far as I'm concerned. It's really low maintenance - we just get on and do it, cos we're really proud of our songs and all the rest of it, we're just like "Let's just transport that somewhere else. Somewhere that we know is cool."
Like New York.
TIM: Yeah. (chuckles)
DAZ: We presume that it's going to be like kicking - and it WAS. It wasn't so much a meteoric rise in a sense of Reading, New York.
PANDA: That "Here we come!" sort of thing.
DAZ: Dustbin to four-poster.
TIM: Yeah, we just went and played somewhere else.
DAZ: We were enjoying ourselves somewhere else and playing and doing the thing we love in Reading.
TIM: I think people get confused because we're just a bunch of blokes down the pub really, but we really care about what we do. We do our talking on the stage - we let our music do the talking - we don't hang around and try to have an attitude with people, cos we're not like that. We're a bunch of blokes and we do our thing in the music.
DAZ: We may talk crap to each other down the pub but when we're onstage, it's like a job.
Your promo CD has been causing something of a buzz throughout the U.K, Europe and the States.
TIM: We put up on the website that it's available free of charge and we've basically had requests from all over the place. When we first did it we were getting 6 or 7 requests a week, which to some people doesn't sound like a lot, but for an unsigned band that nobody's heard of, it's quite a lot. And that was actually sustained for about 2 or 3 months. And then as we started doing things and getting in listings elsewhere, it (CD requests) keeps having these peaks and troughs where every time we do something, people start requesting CDs again, and you keep going back up to that level every time we go and play a gig somewhere new.
DAZ: We played a festival in the summer (Music On The Hill in Oxfordshire) which is our favourite gig of the year so far, and I personally gave out at least 50 CDs - people genuinely just said "Can I have a CD?"
TIM: I was really shocked because we played our last song and I turned away to unplug and pack up my bass, I turned round and there was a massive crowd around Daz and he was just passing CDs out like some trawler man throwing sardines into the sea for the gulls, it was unbelievable. I was rooted to the spot, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
DAZ: That was amazing.
TIM: Music On The Hill is a really great festival every year, it's just word of mouth but it's really quite a large thing, quite a big deal. We're really privileged to be asked to play it actually, it's been billed so well by the people that run it.
DAZ: They're big fans of ours.
TIM: Yeah. (chuckles) I dunno how we managed that either.
DAZ: They love us. (Panda & Daz laugh)
TIM: Yeah, I don't know why but they do!
DAZ: You know why. Because we rock.
ALL: Cos we ROCK!! (laughter)
ANNIE: Can I just chip in. I'm sending CDs to China, Mexico, America, France, everywhere.
TIM: Yeah. The message to people with a band is get a web presence, because people will ask for your CD from the weirdest places, they stumble across your website and you get interest from people, it's amazing.
You've been described as "purveyors of passion pop/rock" - do you think that's a fair reflection of your sound?
DAZ: I have to step in here and say that passion pop has become a term for us - the reason is I've spent a fair bit of time in Australia and there's a sparkling wine there called Passion Pop - it's like the Babycham of Australia, so I thought it'd be funny to call ourselves passion pop.
PANDA: We are the Babycham of the music world!
DAZ: The thing is, I came up with that term for our band - Tim was saying "Oh, we're like this - whatever band" and I said "No, we're passion pop" because there is the cheesiest wine in Australia with the same name. We coined the phrase and people pick up on it and keep using it, which is fine, that's what we intended - I'm happy with it! People need to go to Australia and drink Passion Pop. And they need to come and see us (cue laughter all round)
Part 3 - Influences
Are you all influenced by the same types of music, or does each member bring a different aspect to the group?
TIM: We've got a core of bands that we're all interested in and I think that early Police is a good example of that.
DAZ: What's funny is that in terms of inspiration and stuff, Tim & I met in a different band, which was a wholly different scenario - garage, Sixties and Sonics - with the Wig Outs.
TIM: Which we still play for now.
DAZ: In the early 90s I met Panda when he was working in a bar and he was always playing acid jazz - we were like big time into that then we all came together and there's this total respect for early Police stuff. What's great is we're all putting different elements in there, and what's good is the three of us now, we go see bands that are playing now, and it's like a bit of Tim saying "Well maybe we should go see this band" and "They are friends of mine", or "there's this band that are well-known", and we've kind of got into the swing of going to see music and we pick up on loads of different things now.
TIM: I think we've all got broad music tastes, I've always wanted to go out there and see new stuff and try and actually broaden my mind, or see stuff I thought I wouldn't like but end up liking, and it's meeting a bunch of guys that do the same thing. We all pull in different directions and we're discovering music that you'd have never discovered if maybe Daz hadn't said "Oh come and see this band", and I'd think "Oh I'm not too sure about that", and you'd go see them and they'd be great, it's the same thing with Panda.
DAZ: One thing I think is really relevant to how we are as a band is this - whatever you term it - this new revival of proper garage music. The Strokes, Bellrays, Libertines, this whole set of bands that are finally playing good stuff.
TIM: Exactly, just being bands.
DAZ: Also I love bands like Ladytron, because we can't play that stuff, we haven't got those instruments.
TIM: Yeah, it's great to hear it.
DAZ: But we'll go and watch a band like that and say, "Yeah, cool". And then go and see Supergrass because they ROCK. (laughter)
Which bands would you love to tour with?
PANDA: The 'Grass (Supergrass).
TIM & DAZ: Oh yeah, it's got to be the 'Grass, obviously.
TIM: Also Samurai Seven I reckon.
DAZ: I think personally, our mutual one favourite band to go on tour with would be the Libertines - they're a band that are happening now and if we went on tour with them we would probably die.
TIM: It would be mental.
PANDA: It would probably be chaos!
DAZ: I couldn't think of a better way of going out.
TIM: We'd be measured for coffins before we went out on the tour.
DAZ: I think of all the bands around at the moment, the Libertines have got something that is as far as we're concerned, that's where we're coming from.
TIM: Yeah, I think it's a band we identify with more than anything else - some say our music is similar, I don't know whether it is or not. But it probably is.
DAZ: And then when we go to New York next time hopefully we're going to support Nada Surf.
ANNIE: Now that would be cool.
DAZ: That's my next ambition.
Which band member attracts the most groupies?
TIM: I think Daz does (laughs) definitely.
PANDA: It's that surf-looking hair, dude.
TIM: He's been described in various reviews as "loveable beach bum" and "the dog out of Sesame Street."
ANNIE: There was also the sixth form science students.
That was me...
TIM: I couldn't compete with that.
DAZ: Mind you, when we went to New York, Panda was mobbed by people thinking he was the Strokes guitarist!
PANDA: Jorge (Aluminum Babe) thought I was bad.
TIM: I reckon I would attract more groupies than you if I were taller.
Finally, what are your hopes and ambitions for the future?
TIM: We might surprise you here, because a lot of bands would say "Ooh, to be signed to a record contract" -
we don't want to sign to a record contract, we want to license stuff out.
DAZ: We've got some real urge to play in Japan.
TIM: We want to be a band that people...
PANDA: Enjoy, really enjoy.
TIM: Enjoy, exactly, and they buy the records. I don't really care if we have a small audience that's just totally fanatical, really enjoys what we do and buys our stuff. Obviously it would be great to translate that into a massive crossover audience. But ultimately I think that the kick we get out of people coming to our shows or listening to our recordings is that the people enjoy it - there's nothing better than people coming up to you after a show and saying "Yeah, I heard the CD and I've been to every single gig you've played in Reading or Oxford or wherever. And I really, really love it." Ok, it's not happened THAT often cos we haven't got an audience of a million or anything, but there have been significant people that have come up to me.
PANDA: The important thing also is that they're not our friends.
TIM: Yeah. But I've had people come up to me and say "I've been to all the gigs you've played in Reading", and you just think "But I don't recognise you" and then they say "I've been to every single gig in Reading and I really love you", and we think our fan base should be like that. But if you have to sell out to convert people, then I'm just not interested.
DAZ: When you've got something you regard as being really special, it doesn't really matter where you do it, because it should work, that's the way I look at it. So when you put it somewhere else, hopefully people will just go "Woah yeah!" - you build on that and where it goes - who knows?
TIM: We just want to have people come to our shows because they love us and they really support what we do, and it'd be great for us if in 10 years time we'll be sustained by people like that buying our records, which would give us the money to go off and record the next record and so on, that's what I'd like. If we can afford limos and helicopters then that'll be even better - but the bottom line is we don't want to sell out to get that.
DAZ: The ambition thing is a separate thing, it's about how proud you are with what you've got. If you just take that as a single entity, then that's cool.
PANDA: Rather than aspire to something.
DAZ: It's not an engineered process here.
TIM: Yeah, just be proud of what you do.
DAZ: We're a very stripped-down, minimal 3-piece band and I think we're really chuffed by the results that we get when we get in the studio and we actually put our shit first.
TIM: But I think it's refreshing for people to come up and see us because a lot of people do lose sight of that - and we haven't. We will not bring a song out of the rehearsal room unless we're proud of it and... I can't speak for other bands - they're doing whatever they're doing and I certainly wouldn't start slagging anybody off, cos they're doing stuff that they're proud of I'm sure. We just look internally, we just say "Are we proud of it lads? Let's play it." And if people respond to that then that's all we can ask for and that's all we can ever dream of.
According to OffTheRadar's website, the band are hoping to arrange several gigs in Reading, Oxford or London in November, with support from Aluminum Babe.
For more information on the dates and venues of OffTheRadar's recent mini-tour of New York, check the Dates page on their website. You can also order a promo CD free of charge on the site and hear for yourself just what all the fuss is about.
Interview by Simon Eales
5th October 2003
More information on Aluminum Babe can be found at:
Aluminum Babe on Mother West
and:
Aluminum Babe