Life in a Rock band is a hard life, the parties, the ladies, the touring, so I was pleased The Glitterati's friendly lead singer Paul could find some time out of his day to talk to a girl like me....

How did you guys get scouted and signed?  Well we'd all been in bands in Leeds, and basically we were starting a new band and found out our bass player was in London. How it all worked for us is we recorded a demo before we all moved down to London and that got into a few peoples hands who we knew. We never really sent anything out to try and get a record deal; it just got out to the right people, through other people. So we just got our shit together live and went out and played in really remote places and kinda stayed out of London for a bit, built up a bit of buss in London, and came back a played a few shows, and it went from there.

So was there a bidding war between the record companies for you?  There was bit of bidding war yeah, cause at the time we'd just moved here and we were completely broke. 5 of us were all living in a two-bedroom house, so what we used it for first was to get as many meals out of people as we could. Because we didn't have a manager either, so we were meeting a lot of managers, as well as record and publishing companies, even the ones we thought were useless and we'd never want to go with we'd keep taking out for a second meeting so we could have another meal!

At what stage did you get a manager then?  Well it was strange, cause how it worked for us is we signed a publishing deal first. The first people to really be interested in us before we even came down to London was Universal Publishing. So we just wanted to take a bit of time before we signed a record deal, so we signed the publishing deal first, and that allowed us to do the band full time so we wouldn't have to get crappy jobs. Then they organized meetings with managers, so we got a manager in between signing a publishing deal, and getting a deal with Atlantic.

There is a lot of debate about whether it's better to be on a major label or an indie label, what do you think?  Well our first single came out before we even signed to Atlantic on Poptones, so we've had experience of both. They are completely different, and you can't deny that. The Indie label works on a lot more of a personal, friendly level and basically the major label is a huge business and you've got to really come to terms with that. We always wanted to be on a big label, we never set out to be a band that would be an underground band, doing the Indie D.I.Y thing, we always wanted to be on a big label and hopefully make as many people hear us as possible. Sometimes it can be hard work on a major label, but it's the same at most labels.

What are the main benefits of being on a major?  Well there are lots of bands on Indie labels now who are big, but it's basically the majors have the funds to promote you and the funds to keep you out there touring. To be honest when you're on an Indie it's a lot more on a personal level, and you probably have more control over things. On a major label you've got to be aware that it comes down to money at the end of the day a lot of the time, so you've just got to have your bullshit detector on all the time.

What makes you think you stand out from other bands?  I don't know, we just try and do out own thing and since we've started the fashions have changed about 8 times so we've always tried to do what we like as a band. And I think right now we stand out because everything sounds like Franz Ferdinand or The Killers or whoever the band of the minute is, so we never made a conscious effort to necessarily stand out we just made an effort to be a band that WE would like.

Did you put a lot of thought into your Image in the beginning when you were trying to get signed?  It wasn't really a style we had, it was a case of having no money at the time. We basically look like we've always looked, even when we were back in Leeds in separate bands we always looked like this, but our favourite bands have always been bands that we thought looked good, and had some kind of look. We wanted people to be able to tell we were all in the same band, so we wanted a single band look for the lot of us.

So do you think bands just starting out should really think about their image?  I don't think you ever think about it, but you should be aware that it's part of the thing that will make you an attractive band to getting somewhere. Have your look and just stick to it really, and don't just go with what's the in thing of the minute. I think for some time bands with striking images have done well, I mean you look back to bands like The Rolling Stones, The New York Dolls, and bands like that were all bands that had a look and it played a part in them being successful. It's never been 100% about the music, and that's the way it'll always be really.

You've got a song called 'Do You Love Yourself?' Do you think having a self belief in yourselves and your music is why you are so successful?  I think we do have a lot of belief, and I think you need that with a band like us who probably take as much criticism as we get praise. We didn't wanna be kinda in the middle; the band that everyone thought was just ok. So the song isn't really about us loving ourselves (laughs), or anything like that. But I think if you're gonna start out in a band, you really need to 'cause if you don't believe in your own band you're just gonna get swallowed up. All we've ever done is have the strongest belief in each other, and just wanted to be our own favourite band to start out with and then I think you've got a good chance.

Do you think you're a studio band or a live band?  I think we're definitely a live band, because really we're just a rock band so the thing about that is just getting out there and playing in front of as many people as we can. It's what we love to do.

Is touring as glamorous as they say?  Not at all no. I mean it is the best time you will have in a band, I don't know about glamorous, it depends how you're touring and how much money you have behind you, it's not so glamorous but it is the best time you'll have.

And do you prefer to play smaller venues when you're touring or the bigger ones?  We kinda love both, 'cause we live playing big show and being up there cause we think we can handle that and we think that's where we wanna get to eventually, so we like that too, but obviously there is a completely different atmosphere at a really tiny packed gig. We just like playing, it's never really mattered to us (this is one of the things that got us noticed originally) if there are 20 people or 20,000 we always put on the best show we can. To us if there is only 20 people there, they should get something substandard. Even if the crowd are totally not into it, we're gonna enjoy as well, but usually it works out ok.

What's the most ridiculous rider you've ever asked for?  Rider?......Well our last tour manager tried to get different house plants at every show, for no apparent reason, just to see if he could. And all the venues were getting really pissed off with it, so we had to tame that one. We do get some really good riders, but nowadays we try not to go for anything too fancy, as the venues seem to get a bit pissed off, and you'll find your food then might not be quite up to scratch (laughs).

So where do you stand on groupies?  Do I stand on groupies? (laughs) Well they are there I don't deny it, it's something that I think for anyone that ever wanted to get into a band, that was part of the reason whether they admit it or not. I wouldn't necessarily call them groupies, I'm not for it or against it if that's what they enjoy doing, it's fine by me I don't mind, it's entertainment anyway, especially for the crew.

Are you following the up and coming Leeds scene at the moment?  It was totally dead in the water when we were there, as soon as we moved it became brilliant!  But when we were there Kasier Chiefs were, then there was a few other bands that came up, but we haven't been in Leeds for 3 years now. I know Black Wire, but a lot of the bands that I know are still there and haven't gone on and done anything, and I’m friends with a lot of them as well! There's good bands in every city. You could start a scene anywhere really.

Do you think Anthony and the Johnsons should have won the Mercury Music Prize?    (laughs) errrr I'm not sure really. I don't know I wasn't a huge fan of any of the nominees, Hard-Fi are nice guys and on our label as well so maybe it would have been nice to see them win. But I think he's got a cool voice, an unusual one!

What would you do with the £20,000 if you won it?  Get myself a new vacuum or something (laughs)

What bands are you friends with?  Well, we've always kept ourselves to ourselves really. But basically bands we've toured with before, like The Killers we get on really well with, and The Black Velvets who we toured with on our last tour. It's more just a case of you see them at festivals and hang out with them, they're not coming over every night or anything like that. They're not all invited out for our birthdays, but if we see them out and about we'll go for drinks with them.

So you all still based in London then?  Yeah, me and Nick are still in the same house that the 5 of us were in when we first got here. So this is how far I've come in the world! Same house, just with a bit more room in it. (laughs)

What's next then? What are your immediate plans?  Well at the moment we're in the studio right now just demoing up new tracks and then a week on Saturday we're playing the Scarborough castle, which reminds me of Iron Maiden or something like that! We're playing with The Wild Hearts, 80s Matchbox and after that we've got a 35 night tour of our own to go out on.

The Glitterati album is available to buy in all good records shops now....so what are you waiting for?
 

www.theglitterati.com