1) Who are you, who is in the band, who does what in the studio and on stage?
Olly: I play bass on stage and sing a bit as well. I play bass and guitar in the studio. With more arms I could do more simultaneously.
Colvin: Live on stage, I do vocals, tickle synths/samples and slap drum pads. In the studio, I eat bacon rolls and drink coffee.
Ex-Stormy Seas and Braquework members William MacConnachie (Guitar/Keyboard) and Graeme Wilson (Drums) have recently joined the group and are primed to work on new material.
2) How long have you been writing and performing in this way?
Olly: With two arms, 8 fingers and 2 thumbs (luckily) since I was 12. My first band never gigged but was quite a concept- that ran for some time. We were called “Manic Mucalytic Shod”, album covers were designed and even rehearsals took place. Even a cover of “Wild Thing” attempted in Big Raymond’s garage where our senior singer (18, we were 12, worked in the village centre youth club) rattled off the names of stops on the Brighton to Portsmouth railway line instead of Reg Presley’s original lyrics (Worthing, your next to Lancing, you make Aldrington seem… groovy). We should have been huge.
Colvin: I have been steering the good ship, Snide Rhythms for over 4 years now. The crew keeps changing but the desire to create remains strong.
3) How exactly do you work / write / record?
Olly: I bring the melody, Colvin the words and we take turns on the structure. Drummers provide excellent grooves.
Colvin: I go the studio every week to work on the songs and then bring back ideas/bounces to the band in the practice room so we can progress further.
4) How do you feel your studio/recording style informs the way you perform your music live?
Olly: The songs are jammed out then carved into more solid form in the studio whence they are shuffled hither and thither, garnering baroque embellishments at every wonderful twirling juncture.
Colvin: Exactly so.
5) What’s been happening lately and what’s new with you?
Olly: I have recently been to the borders, stayed in a converted church. Got a kite caught in a telegraph line and communed with a family of ghosts from Dundee in a dream. And our single Acid Alliteration has been getting some airplay- which is braw.
Colvin: Went to The Crucible in Sheffield to watch the snooker on Aegir’s stag do. Like Olly said we are happy that Acid Alliteration is being picked up on the radio and we hope that they will discover our 2nd Difficult Album out on Mon 10th Nov.
6) When was the last time you played Edinburgh (and where)? What do you remember about that experience? Did anything remarkable / exciting / funny happen etc?
Olly: bETAMAX, playing at one in the morning, needed coffee, couldn’t find any so I drank a Buckfast bomb along with some rum and coke. Awell recommended combination. I gave our drummer Sam a hug because he can hit the drums so bloody effectively. You will hear that on Acid Alliteration.
Colvin: Yeah it was bETAMAX end of May @Studio 24, late night club show. The only time we have used an electronic drum kit because we had to. We performed a raw extended cover version of Dance by ESG.
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?
Olly: Many moons past with Randan Discotheque. The Voodoo Rooms is quite a venue. During a festival of Edinburgh yore I saw a Swedish Django Reinhardt impersonator pretending to be a gangster rapper simply by swearing a lot. There were minors and pensioners in the audience. I didn’t put any of my spare change in his hat come whip round time.
Colvin: Limbo was one of the first, if not the very first Snide Rhythms gig. Limbo has always been supportive and encouraging to us as a group. It would be good if other promoters took note on Limbo’s attention to detail and programming. Excellent engineers and top quality sound at The Voodoo Rooms too.
8) What’s next, coming up after this gig, for you and what are you generally looking forward to right now…?
Olly: 7 hours uninterrupted sleep.
Colvin: Straight after the gig I will be heading out to see Lord of The Isles at Teesh. Two days after the gig our 2nd Difficult Album will be released online.
9) 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:
Olly: Time and money don’t really exist do they?
Colvin: …can’t go on…must go on!
10) This question is no longer relevant so feel free to make one up….!
