Interview with Chasing Tigers
"Yeah, since we did your music festival, this summer’s packed with festivals now for us, everything from Jelly Fest to god knows, it’s just packed." - Chasing Tigers look forward to a packed summer...
Introducing Riverside Music Festival winners, Chasing Tigers…
How did Chasing Tigers come to be? Dylan: Well I lived in Sweden and played in bands in Sweden, came back here where I met Laurence at work, realised he played guitar, played a bit down in Cornwall and then back here, and Laurence found JJ at a wedding. Very serendipitous! JJ: Yeah, of all places! Dylan: Well JJ was a DJ and he used to do a lot of free parties and they just got talking together, and he was also a drummer, so that’s how we got together. And Lee, well…
We’ll come on to Mr Vann, as he’s a late addition! So the workplace, can we name and shame it? Dylan: No. Nah, we worked at Norwich Union as it was then, so that’s where we first met and it carried on from there. We decided to form a band and we was lucky enough to meet J, then later we went to a four-piece and it didn’t work, so we went back down to a three-piece, and then Lee’s just recently joined us.
Jaundiced? Dylan: No, joined us! Yeah, he had jaundice but he’s alright now, haha!
I was interviewing another band earlier and I was saying that it’s one thing to want to form a band, and be able to play instruments, but there has to be that common ground, like ‘Yes! I like that. That’s the kind of music I want to make.’ Was that the case with you guys? Dylan: I suppose there was common ground because otherwise we wouldn’t have done it, but at the moment we’re split as to what we like. JJ: I suppose that’s the thing, in my opinion, why it works because we come from such a varied background musically and we all like such different styles of music between each other that it just seems to work for us when we bring it together. Dylan: I’m more aligned to JJ’s type of music than Laurence’s, or maybe Lee’s – JJ: It’s gangster rap isn’t it? Mainly gangster rap and R&B, hahaha. Nah, like old school hardcore but at the same time punk – Dylan: Yeah, post-punk and stuff like that. JJ: Whereas obviously Laurence is into Spice Girls and stuff like that, haha. Laurence: No, Incubus was always my favourite band; I was quite Indie, and when we got together I brought that in, and JJ brought in his heavy drums and Dylan brings his bass in – Dylan: Yeah, ‘cause originally I was a guitarist, but the other bassist left and we couldn’t find another one, so I started playing the bass. That’s how I ended up on the bass unfortunately!
So you’ve got quite disparate influences – how does that reconcile itself when you come to writing the songs, and who writes the music and who writes the lyrics? Laurence: With the lyrics – JJ: It’s a group effort from all of us most of the time, but they work to different ways, I mean, I’ve written the lyrics before and between Dylan and Laurence they’ve written the music to it, then I’ve brought in a beat that I think goes with it. It’s just a build up from all our minds. Dylan: It’s a big organic, like there’s no set routine to it. I might be sitting at home with an acoustic guitar or something and come up with a riff, or he might be sitting with his and he’ll have something in his mind, and have a riff somewhere, so that’s how it works. JJ: Sometimes we’ll be together and go, ‘Oh, this actually sounds alright!’ and we’ll have a little jam, you know, and it comes from that as well. Obviously Lee Vann has sashayed into the line-up – how did that come about? Especially as I know from our previous conversations that you’re quite busy all the time! Lee: Yeah, I’m quite busy but I’ve known all the lads; I met them through gigging in Norwich and since we met, they felt like they wanted to try something a little bit different just to fill a gap. Laurence: Yeah, you get complacent when you’re doing all the same stuff and me, myself, when I’m writing guitar parts I find myself doing the same stuff and it isn’t ‘til someone else comes in and says, ‘look, this sounds a bit similar, you need to change it…’ Lee: And I was quite honest about it as well, because I really love the music that the fellas do and I said, ‘do you mind if I come up with a few ideas and have a jam’, and we played together once and it sounded really good and everyone started coming up with new ideas. We’re doing this interview because you won the Riverside Music Festival Saturday show – it was a while ago now, but do you still remember it well? Dylan: Yeah, we do remember it. JJ: We were pretty shocked! What was the atmosphere of the day, and did you have any inkling you’d won? JJ: No, there were some good bands playing, wasn’t there?! Laurence: I just thought not to expect anything and just play our set and it went really well. The sound engineer there and the quality of the sound was amazing. At that time, we weren’t used to such a big set-up; that was big for us really. Dylan: We went on to do the Project after-party as well, so it was chaotic. We’d done the rounds and done untold open mics, wherever they would have us really, then – Laurence: That was our biggest thing really… Dylan: Yeah, then we went on to play Project, so it was great, yeah. Laurence: Yeah, we had a really good response in there, that night too. It was a weird one at Project because obviously they started to do music there, then that faded off and now it’s finished but it was a really good night and we had everyone on their feet.
With each of those big live performances, and festival appearances, is it a game-changer in terms of growing your fanbase? JJ: The right ones, definitely. Dylan: Yeah, since we did your music festival, this summer’s packed with festivals now for us, everything from Jelly Fest to god knows, it’s just packed. Laurence: Yeah, Jelly Fest, we’re doing this thing at Playfest now… JJ: VW Whitenoise, Dubs at the Hall and Holt Hall… Dylan: We’re just waiting for a few more to drop in and then that’ll be us done for the summer.
That’s a really strong summer of festivals, so tell us, what are your festival essentials? Laurence: I think there’ll be a lot of alcohol involved… JJ: Yeah, I think that’s got to be number one! Dylan: You don’t need to worry even about a tent if you’ve got enough alcohol. Laurence: Just being with the boys is all you need really. JJ: Yeah, alcohol, instruments and being together. Baby wipes – wipe off and start again, hahaha!
You guys can switch it between acoustic and plugged in and it’s allowed you to play in different places – how do you think you do down in both respects? Laurence: We’ve recently done an acoustic session at EPIC studios and for us, when we were all there and doing that with Lee for the first time on acoustic, it seemed to work really well. We had a really good response from that going on to YouTube and people looking at that. I really enjoy playing acoustic, but you don’t so much, do you? JJ: Yeah, I like it; there’s a time and a place for it but the music that I’ve always been in to has never been that acoustic, summery sort of sound. It’s not my thing; I like to be behind a big drum kit smashing the drums, but I really enjoyed EPIC, it came out really well and we’ve done one or two acoustic sort of things, so I can see more happening and I still enjoy it. Lee: I think the thing is that it shows you’re not just a one-trick pony, you can do lots of things and mix it up. Dylan: We chuck in a few cheeky covers here and there; I think it just makes us more accessible. There are some bands who will only play what’s got an amp at the end of it, but I suppose it gives you the opportunity to play more places by switching when we need to.
I said to Lee when we interview him that the Norwich music scene works really well when it works together and not so much when each band is insular, and at the moment it seems to be as strong as it’s ever been – how do you guys feel about the Norwich music scene? Dylan: It’s very strong at the moment and you could possibly go out three or four times a week and you’ll find music somewhere. Laurence: It’s good because we’ve got so many bands who’re in bands like Lee, Crumbs for Comfort, all of them that are about and it just seems that everyone sort of chips in and helps you with a gig where you need it, like when you say, ‘we’d like you to play this’, or ‘can you play this acoustic set for us?’ Everyone all digs in together and wants to help out; it’s a really friendly thing, it’s brilliant. Dylan: It’s more friendly than bitter; people don’t seem to be envious and they’re willing to help you if they can.
I saw from your website that your music’s taken you elsewhere, and you’ve played London… Laurence: Well before the London one, we done a couple in Cambridge, didn’t we? Dylan: Yeah, typical circuit type pubs… Laurence: We’ve pulled away from some of the London ones recently because the agents there book you and want you to turn up with 30 people, which can be quite hard, getting 30 people down from Norwich on a Wednesday! Dylan: I can see us going out again, but not as far – maybe Cambridge because it’s quite cosmopolitan, like Norwich.
Your music has travelled the airwaves too; you’ve been on a local Manchester station, Milton Keynes… Laurence: Yeah, the bloke’s sort of latched on to us in Milton Keynes! We’re booked to do a live lounge session and he said he’d put us up for a night at his house, which is worrying… haha. Dylan: It is quite surreal when it comes on, you’re like ‘turn it off!’ We’ve played acoustically on Future Radio too, and been interviewed.
Are we looking at any releases from you guys? Dylan: 22nd December is release date for us really; we need to get the festivals out the way then we’ll knuckle down towards the end of the summer. We’ve booked Open, so 22nd December will be our release date. Laurence: We’re gonna book in and do our recording at Mill Studios; we’re looking at four songs. Dylan: You can also find the details on www.chasingtigers.co.uk, or on our Facebook page!
You’ve got a big gig coming up at the Waterfront Studio – are you looking forward to it? Laurence: Yeah, really looking forward to it; it’s gonna be the biggest one we’ve done with Lee and we’re gonna be breaking our songs down and changing them round a little bit, so we’re really looking forward to bringing something a bit different…
Witness the show for yourselves at The Waterfront Studio on May 18th. For tickets, go to www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk
