YMC Backstage Interviews - TALK TO ANGELS

Yorkshire Music Collective interviews Talk to Angels backstage at Milo before their charity gig

YMC: Can you introduce yourselves and say what you play?

Talk To Angels: I'm Craig and I'm the singer, I'm Jamie and I play drums, I'm Mickey and I play keyboards, I'm Chris and I play Bass

YMC: Your doing a really special concert tonight in aid of a charity, can you tell us a bit about it?

TTA: All the proceeds from tonight and from the Christmas single we have released all go to St. Georges Crypt which is a fantastic company who do a lot for the homeless around Leeds. We went up there and we played a show not too long ago and we helped out, did some dinner lady sort of things and they were very welcoming. Its really enlightening to go somewhere like that and learn about what they do, it really does take your breath away when you realise what they do.

They are very good at this time of year with the cold and the snow it just gives people a place to go, a place to get off the streets and have a warm bed for the night and hot food.

YMC: I've seen on your facebook profile that you have been there a few times, its not just that you're putting on a gig you have implicated yourselves in the project

TTA: Well we recorded our version of Fairy Tale of New York about 3 years ago and every year we've thought about releasing it and every single year we've left it too late and this year we remembered we needed to do something with it. We thought we can't just put it out and take the money for ourselves, we need to do something more worthy so a friend of ours told us about they Crypt. So we got in touch with the Crypt and told them we were thinking of doing it and wanted to give them the proceeds and they were just blown away. So since then we've been down there a few times and made a lot of friends. There were a lot of smiley faces when we were playing a gig in the cafeteria!

YMC: I've been watching you for a few years, one of the things that most impressed me was that so young you went to SXSW festival, it must have been a huge thing for you when you were about 17

TTA: I can't remember how old we were, 18/19 maybe. We just turned old enough to be able to do things legally in England then we jetted of to America where you can't do anything legally.

YMC: You have to be 21

TTA: Maybe you can marry your sister in some states but not Texas!

YMC: Was it a positive experience, SXSW?
TTA: Yes on the whole, we had an absolute ball but bands go out there full of hopes and dreams and expect that you're going to come back with a big record deal and its not like that, its basically just a huge record industry piss-up for want of a better word to describe it. Get together! Yes so we played some shows and had a great time, its costs an absolute fortune to do it as well, we had an amazing time. I think it helped to get the band's name out there. There are so many bands out there, big names, Metallica turned up as the secret band that year, we're glad we did it - all in all we had a good time, so to answer the question yes it is positive.

YMC: Well now you are of legal age a lot more venues are open to you, have you struggled growing up in music and finding places for your fanbase to come and see you.

TTA: More recently, we never really knew what our fanbase was and to be honest we still don't, we never intend to write songs for a direct target we never write for a certain genre, the audience changes every single night we play. We've recently struggled and people say we want to get there but tonight we've sold out and people are trying to get in the venue and we are struggling to get people tickets coz there's nowhere to go, but that's a good sign for us. I think it is hard when you are young but at that time for us there was a lot more venues open because bands were so much more the in thing, where as now its sad because you see a lot of venues shutting down because I don't know maybe people don't go out because X-factor is on.

YMC: Do you think there could be a trend in young people more towards dance music than watching live bands
TTA: Not sure really, the biggest enemy is crap on Saturday night TV. But next year we want to change the way we do gigs, not just in black painted square rooms with a PA in one end and a bar in the other. We want to try and find much more unusual places to play and hopefully that will make it a lot easier for people who are under drinking age to get there as well. So far we have secured a disused swimming pool that we have permission to use, a boxing ring, an art gallery, a multi-storey carpark, a ball pool, a launderette. So we just thought it would be much more fun than your regular kind of square room with lights and sound.

YMC: I suppose its enticing people away from drink too

TTA: Yes, all the big venues in London are called the Carling this. I think also because we've done some gigs and people have said I really want to bring my younger children or my children want to come and there's not a lot of venues out there where 14 and 16 year olds can come so doing gigs like that allows the fanbase to come.

They're the future of music really. We're hoping people will get in touch with us and say we've found a perfect venue will you come and play it because we spend quite a bit of time trying to find these places. Hopefully we'll get the ball rolling but then word of mouth will mean that people get in touch and say will you come and play in our local woods, quarry, cave, anything.

YMC: I think that music is most important when you're 13-14 and start listening to your own stuff, and there is a real void for these music fans.
TTA: We're planning to fill it.

YMC: Very best of luck with that!

TTA: Thank you.


The recorded version of this interview can be found in the downloadable podcast:
http://www.podcastfm.co.uk/files/32/mp3/yubs_16th_jan_2011.mp3