20 | October 17, 2013 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
Music
Deaf Havana: “We’re like the most unorganised bunch of idiots in the world.”
H
AILING from stick-of-rock central Hunstanton, Norfolk, Deaf Havana are an alt-rock six-piece often put in the same bracket as We Are The Ocean, The Blackout and Young Guns. Currently made up of James VeckGilodi on vocals, Chris Pennells on lead guitar, Lee Wilson on bass, Tom Ogden on drums, Matthew Veck-Gilodi on rhythm guitar and Max Britton on keys with Grace Barrett on backing vocals, there’s basically a lot of them. Since starting out in 2006, there have been several line-up changes, a quite successful debut album (Meet Me Halfway, At Least), followed by a slightly more successful second album (Fools and Worthless Liars), and now, new album Old Souls, which is quite different to their previous stuff. They’re playing the Cambridge Corn Exchange on their autumn tour (with support from Charlie Simpson and Big Sixes) and we nabbed a brief chat with lead singer James. This is how it went: So, you must be the most successful band to come out of Sunny Hunny right? I think we’re the only band to come out of Hunstanton aren’t we? So we sort of win by default. It’s been a busy year what with Zane Lowe backing you (he made single Mildred his Hottest Record), an acoustic tour in the spring and a whole load of summer festivals (they headlined LodeStar). What’s been the highlight? I think the highlight has been Reading. Reading Festival this year was just phenomenal, that’d be my highlight because I didn’t expect it to be as good as it was. The tent was completely full and it
Editor: Paul Kirkley Writer: Ella Walker Email: whatson@cambridge-news.co.uk, ella.walker@cambridge-news.co.uk
ELLA WALKER caught up with Deaf Havana’s lead singer James VeckGilodi who, complete with hacking cough, had almost definitely been woken up by her call ᔡ Deaf Havana, Cambridge Corn Exchange, Thursday, October 24 at 7.30pm. Tickets £14 from (01223) 357851 / www.cornex.co.uk
was so much better than the festival was last year, even though we played the main stage last year (this year they made the BBC Introducing stage). But didn’t you also support Bruce Springsteen at Hard Rock Calling in June? How was that? It was pretty weird, but amazing at the same time. We’re still pretty new to massive crowds so it’s a bit daunting but the best thing about it was the fact that the people there weren’t necessarily like fans of the band so we had to win ‘em over. I quite enjoyed that because you can play loads of new songs. And what about supporting Muse on the German leg of their tour – did you get to hang out with them? Not really, we met the drummer (Dominic Howard), but that was about it, they keep themselves to themselves… Shame. Still, six lads on tour, you must get up to enough rowdy antics without adding Matt Belamy to the mix. It must get pretty mental sometimes?
Every day! It’s awful, there’s a lot of unnecessary boozing going on and a lot of things that I won’t mention. Pretty much it’s all a bit over the top. It is fun, and then it gets a bit tedious (laughing). You’re really selling life in a band… Well… Are there ever any moments when you consider giving it all up? There’s loads of moments when you think about that because it’s quite hard at times. It looks like it’s a laugh and everything’s easy but, especially when you’re away from home for ages, you can get pretty down about stuff. I have thought about it, but to be honest, if I give it up there’s not really anything else I can do, so I’m pretty much stuck with it. So you’ve not got a fool-proof back-up plan? Not really – I’m crap at everything else. I can’t do anything. That can’t be entirely true… Trust me – it is.