An interview with Robot Heart 27.07.10

You kicked off our Great Escape experience this year with your gig at the Fortunes Of War, was this your first performance for Brighton’s showcase festival? Did you enjoy the gig?

This was great actually we were playing overlooking the sea on a raised wooden platform in the bar like we were actually playing on a pirate ship type thing. I found out afterwards that people could only actually see our silhouettes with this bright white glare form the sky behind us. That it looked really ethereal. We went from that to the following day playing a press showcase in the skint records board room, which was really intimate and acoustic. Playing a gig for someone whose 2 feet away from you is intense, but it was lovely, and the lovely people from the press gave some great review, hurray.

Your songs take influence from a wealth experiences, does writing and performing such content offer any release from the stresses of negative ordeals?

On a good night performing the songs feels amazing, I can kinda drift off in a cloud of bleeps and harmonies, and re connect with the songs and lyrics. The last few shows have felt euphoric at points, although the subject matter is born from some negative stuff ultimately we feel positive playing the music

How did you form as a band?

I had left my home town due to some really dark stuff that happened -some friends died and I had got mixed up in drugs and the like and I was generally stumbling about with a broken heart too, bad times. I travelled around for a few years and lived in a few different cities -Jerusalem ,Copenhagen,Dublin and London before settling here in Brighton. It was time to make a band, and I found theses people.

Astra Forward blew me away when I heard her singing a haunted melody a cappella at an open-mic night in a church; Bob Dingle whose voice I first heard through the plumbing of a student house, while he sang a Sparklehorse song somewhere in the building; And Daniel Ladd who auditioned for us after he bootlegged our early gigs as a folk trio on his phone, and who finally planted the perfect heartbeat behind the music.

What do you make of Brighton’s music scene?

I think Brighton is a good place get your music together . There’s lots of venues of varying sizes to play, and open mic nights to develop the songs in front of people. Apparently there’s 1000 bands in Brighton which is mental for a place this small. Playing in front of a room full of musicians isn’t a very normal audience so that can be a bit odd. But you do get some good stuff here.

Which Brighton acts are you fans of?

While we were getting our stuff together we played with some nice things on the acoustic nights like Bleeding Hearts Club .

Birdengine is probably my favorite though.

Which artists inspired you during your childhood?

The cure were a massive band for me as a kid – and probably the first ‘cool’ band that I liked. They did( and do) sucha range of generally ace things – Huge 10 min long goth ballads about Isolation and some of the catchiest 3 min pop songs you’ll hear.

Tell us what it was like working with Rik Simpson (The Cure, Portishead, Coldplay and PJ Harvey) on your recent mini album release.

He was amazing he came down to see us rehearse in a studio in Brighton and we played an album’s worth of stuff to him expecting him to pick 2 songs for him to record. But he loved all of it and said lets do an album.. we got into the studio with him and he was very keen to try and capture the vibe of us playing live so the bulk was done live with backing vocals getting recorded at the same time. It was an amazing studio that had been designed by Brian Eno and the guy who produces Arcade fire. There were great instruments everywhere – beautiful pianos/harpsichords/synthesizers . All the gear was really vibey modeled on the best 60′s valve stuff. Once we settled in I was so excited to be recording with this guy, I couldn’t get to sleep at night during those 2 weeks, I was dying to get to the studio to play with my toys. We instantly relaxed he’s such a mellow and sweet guy, he really got the best out of us

What are your aspirations as a band?

We have the full album of the Rik Simpson sessions to release (3 songs of which are on the current e.p Dust).

I guess the ideal scenario would be to be touring and reaching people. Have the album come out and for people to hear it, we are fiercely proud of it so to be making a living from it would be ace although I know that its hard right now.

What does the rest of the summer hold for you?

We are supporting Ben (the big voice ) from Gomez. We have some other lovely supports coming in, so gigs. Planning to shoot a video for the next single. Also recording B-sides and new stuff to accompany the next releases.

A question from Duke Raoul – What’s your favorite time signature?

I think the most amusing one is 6/8, Toto own that groove but if a groove could be smarmy thats what it would be.