Ideals are a conundrum. On the one hand you have their debut EP that so many thought would launch them into the stratosphere are Britain’s answer to the Killers. On the other you have this return to what made Britain the musical epicenter of the post punk revival in the early to mid eighties. Do bands that don’t want to align themselves in the trajectory of Mumford and Sons rise to fame still stand a chance in the ever changing music scene? Ideals are trying to get on the forefront of a revival, for lack of a better word, that has been taking place in the US for a few years now. I’m convinced. The real question is will the American consumer be? That remains to be seen.
Here’s my interview with Ideals and as you know from my piece that went up February 6, I had a lot of questions.
Matt – When I first heard your single “Lungs” in 2010 I thought you guys might go on to become the next Killers or the UK version thereof, but with this EP you’ve changed so much that you now sound like The Church or the National. What was the impetus for such a dramatic change in sound?
Matt – What are the differences in musical tastes between the UK audience and the US audience?
Ben S – I think there is alot of respect from either side of the Atlantic, at the moment the whole noise pop revival is coming to a head with bands trying to sound like JAMC or My Bloody Valentine…again, which to be fair alot of bands do well. I think NY is pretty similar to London, sometimes the audience is pretty stand offish depending what part of town you are playing in, and sometime they get right involved, it’s our job to make sure they do.
Matt – Does the need to please a certain segment of that constituency make the band collectively cater to the audiences needs?
Ben S – In terms of playing live, no. If the crowd love you then you’re doing something right, but similarly if they don’t and you feel you are playing well there ain’t anything you can do but what makes you as a band feel good. We all get off on the fact that we think our songs and sound is cool. At the end of the day that is good enough for us.
Matt – The comparisons to bands like The Church, Echo & the Bunnymen and Depeche Mode seemed to rattle around our offices as your new EP played. Do think comparisons like that detract from the message you’re trying to get across?
Ben S – Not particularly, if anything it is flattering. We write songs that our true to us, there is no preconceived plan for them to sound in any particular way. We’ve all grown up listening to a lot of dark music, the Cure, Joy Division etc all those bands that are hailed as epic and magical, so it makes sense that creatively they take on similar attributes.
Matt – What is your drink of choice after a show?
Simon- There’s always free beers knocking around so we probably just stay on them until they run-out.
Ben S – Anything in a short glass with lots of ice.
Matt – What is the best thing about touring? The worst thing?
Simon- We’ve been to Europe a couple of times and seem to have been almost everywhere in the UK but we haven’t seen the worst side of touring yet. Anything bad that might happen on tour is usually always out-weighed by something fun we get to later that day. You hear about bands that can’t stand to be around each other let alone tour so I’d hate to imagine that being like that.
Matt – When will you be touring in the US?
Ben S – You put us up and we’ll be over next week.
Matt – Why did you change the band name from It’s a Trap to Ideals?
Simon- We didn’t really change the name. It’s a Trap is a completely different band to Ideals. Me, Andrew and Ben were 17-18 when we were in It’s a Trap and as we started to write better songs we wanted a fresh start with a new band.
Matt – How did you get your voice to go down 500 octaves to the point where you almost like Matt Berninger from The National?
Andrew – I’ve always found singing in a fairly low baritone style more comfortable. In songs like Lungs I was more just playing around with vocal styles; I think I’ll stay low for now. Listening to Aha’s Take on me also helps a fair bit.
Matt – What do you want the band to achieve in the future?
Ben S – To release a debut album that we are extremely proud of for all our hard work turn into something we can do for a living full time. Then buy a house with a pool.
