King Eider
1) Who are you, who is in the band, who does what in the studio and on stage?
Reuben Tighe – Guitar, vocals
Sam Chapman – Drums, vocals
Lucy Frankel – Violin, vocals
Sam Palmer – Bass
Josh Casali Bell Linnemann – Keys, vocals (recently replaced cellist Jennifer Usher)
2) How long have you been writing and performing in this way?
We have been together 2.5 years and have been performing and writing for the extent of the bands life time. We have gigged in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and parts of France.
3) How exactly do you work / write / record?
Reuben writes songs which he then brings to the band once the structure is there. He also coordinates some ideas to try out for each musician, which the other musicians then develop and re write where necessary. We focus a lot on vocal harmonies, which tend to get written together as a group effort. We have recorded in various capacities and with various techniques, from layering with a click track to performing for one take live recordings. Each time we learn something new about how to record in the studio, which betters us as a collective.
4) How do you feel your studio/recording style informs the way you perform your music live? Does it make it easier or harder, better etc…?
Studio time has a deep impact on our live performances. When recording we notice slight errors in timing, pitch etc which we would not have otherwise noticed. Thus our performance can benefit in the sense that we endeavor to achieve the perfection found in 30 takes of the same track whilst playing live. On the flip side if one concentrates too much on this, one loses the stage presence needed to hold a crowd, so a happy medium must be achieved!
5) What’s been happening lately and what’s new with you?
We released an album in April called “The Deeper The Water” which we have performed this summer as much as possible. We have played a decent number of UK festivals this summer, including Kelburn Garden Party and Kendal Calling festival, and also had the opportunity to add to a line up in Camden’s Koko. From playing Koko we were immediately booked for the Isle of Wight festival next year. Now we are concentrating on recording a single and B side to be released in December, along with a music video we are recording on the 25th Oct in the West coast of Scotland. We are then planning to release a new album next April, which once again we will gig heavily next summer. We have played several BBC live sets in London and Scotland this year and funded our album through a kickstarter campaign raising over £2000.
6) When was the last time you played Edinburgh (and where)? What do you remember about that experience?
We last played in Edinburgh supporting a band called Red Kites, who had superb song arrangements. Nothing particularly notable about the gig. It was in Sneaky Pete’s.
7) If you’ve played Limbo before, what did you like/rate about the experience? If you’ve not played Limbo before, what have you heard about it?
We enjoyed our last Limbo gig, supporting The Gillyflowers. We found the experience to be very professional and well organised. The sound engineer was decent which is always a treat, and the promotion was handled well, so that we had a full audience despite only being a support act.
8) What’s next, coming up after this gig, for you and what are you generally looking forward to right now…?
So looking forward to (see A5). We are playing a gig in Sneaky Pete’s on the 30th of October, collaborating with a solo act from London called Ed Prosak. We also have a string of Edinburgh gigs to keep us busy between now and Christmas and also a lot of planning for next years summertime!
9) Any thoughts on Scotland post indy-ref…?
Mixed feelings!
10) If you have any other passions/opinions you’d like to share, if there’s anything else you feel strongly about, pls feel free to tell us about it here
I LOVE THE WILD BEASTS.
(answered by Reuben)
