As I enter the squashed room, the aroma of used leather beanbags and musky retro furniture greets me. It seems an unusual place for a band to practice, but I’m convinced that once speaking to The Palominos I will understand why they would not be suited to a better place, and if I do say so myself, the dull, dim and quite frankly deathly hole-does feel strangely cozy for a bands first major interview. Would be nice if they would have had a few tea and biscuits or a ‘Gin and Tonic’ or two at the ready.
The Palominos are your very own, and slightly better established ‘the band next door’ kind of group. They come across as vey friendly and completely unchanged by their popularity. Their music lies somewhere between rock and indie- following and supporting many indie bands but not quite losing grasp of their love for 80’s rock. The band have played in a large variety of venues stretching up and down the country, visiting small pubs and also larger venues such as Liverpool’s Carling Academy. The band maintains and appreciates their fan base and continues to create new songs solely through a love of music and close friendship. Currently, the band is battling through a few ‘minor’ issues, with the lack of a lead singer, but Barry-on lead guitar, Ugo- on bass and Connor- on drums are eager to not let this put them off. I thought it would be a touchy subject, resulting in me asking very few questions about the lack of –in my eyes- the most important member of most groups, and see this upcoming band for what they are.
If you were an animal which one would you be and why?
B: We've been asked this before on a radio show and I’ve said cheeky Belmont fox-Connor said a frog [At this point the band bursts into laughter. Leaving me to assume that it is some kind of personal joke. When I asked, they weren’t open for discussion]
Who are your major influences in music and why?
It’s a lot to do with 60's and 70's rock and roll like the British rock band Zeppelin and erm there’s a lot of American influences in there as well.
Do you have a record contract? Or are you interested in getting one?
Well we haven’t got one but we are interested in getting one (So if any readers are reading and want to offer you one...) yeah yeah yeah
Could you ever see yourself on the x factor?
[Awkward Pause] No! (Why?) We do our own stuff we are not interested in doing covers or anything.
How do you feel about shows like the x factor, which take fresh talent and get as much money out of it as they can?
The thing about the x factor is- there is talent out there but it sometimes doesn’t take into account that it is a hard job, and it is very hard to make money out of. It’s a bit of an unreal world really but that’s not to take away from the fact that there are good people out there.
So, you're an upcoming band, how do you feel about the music industries nowadays?
(U: Is that your phone?) (C: Sorry yeah) B: It's quite... we probably are more interested in things like in America really where you get an album deal and they are more interested in developing you after a few albums. It's a bit more based on short term in England. U: It's more commercialized, the hits are there and then.
How do you promote yourselves? Do you have a website?
B: Yeah we've got a website (what is that website?) www.thepalaminoes.co.uk and we've got MySpace and promoters as well. (Who are the promoters?) glasswork
Do you tweet?
C: We do yeah! It opens up a lot of interest for more people not just on MySpace and Facebook and places like that, so yeah.
Do you think your home environment has shaped you as a band?
B: Yeah because we're not from Liverpool, we are from different parts of Cheshire really, Connor is from the Manchester end of Cheshire, and we're from the Merseyside end so we're not proper ‘mancunions’ or ‘scousers’ or anything so we're a bit outside.
You've been accused of jumping on the bandwagon of other local bands such as The Wombats, how do you feel about this?
U: We have been?! [Laughs] We were going before the Wombats! B: We taught them all they know! [Howls of laughter probably attracted passers by, the band were clearly highly amused by such rumors.]
For any readers who aren’t sure who you are, what genre would you describe your music?
B: It's rock but we play and support a lot of indie bands so its not, you know, its kind of half indie half rock, we do a lot of indie shows. [Simple-honestly.]
Have you got a fan base together yet?
C: Yeah we do we’ve got erm… a lot of the same faces coming back time and time again and not only to the Liverpool gigs we see a lot of the same faces coming back to a lot of the gigs. We see the same people from a lot of the gigs from around the places we've done from Birmingham and up towards Newcastle. The thing is, we're not a pop band so we don’t get hundreds and hundreds of people every time but people will come and see us who like our style of music.
Is there a band that you aspire to be like?
Yeah well there’s the likes of the bigger bands, we obviously aspire to be like them. Like Led Zeppelin, Kings of Leon, White Crows, White Stripes, long-lived bands with die hard fan bases.
How do you feel about handpicked bands? Or should bands be formed through a love of music and friendship?
Yeah they should be. (So you’re close friends?) Well yeah, we went to primary school together but then different high schools.
What inspires you to write your lyrics? Do they have much meaning?
They do have meaning but it only comes out afterwards just... usually it starts out as nonsense but it means something later on. (Who writes most of the songs?) B: me
What is your favorite memory as a band?
Its tough because we’ve been together a long time and done lots of things that we wouldn’t normally have done if we wouldn’t have been a band in the first place, its been a lot of fun from the start U: Suppose it's the Hoosiers having less fans there than we did at the carling academy!
What is the goal in the end? Would you like to go as big as world tours or just stick to the UK?
World Tours!
Who chooses the bands outfits? Do you ever hate them?
We have a stylist (Do you?) no [Very sarcastically] we just tend to wear casual clothes.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve done at a gig?
I don’t know we would really have to think about it! (Ok, ill get back to you on that one if we ever have another interview)
So, after that I’ve come to a rather unusual conclusion- that this band seems completely nuts. But that could be that extra spark that they need to really make it into the music industry. They are offering the industry their own twist on the indie genre. They certainly have the potential to make something of themselves. Just so long as they find a lead singer anyway. Maybe, I don’t know, Auditions?
BOLD text in answers will be drop quotes
