Heaven or Las Vegas - Interview: Make Model

Glasgow is once more to blame for providing the world with yet another great band. Make model have a sound which can be traced back to The Arcade Fire and early Broken Social Scene. It's epic, fresh feel good multi instrumental and the chances are they'll be on everyones radar before too long.

HOLV: Where are you now?

MM: I'm lucky enough to be in my bedroom in my flat in Glasgow. We just got back from Manchester yesterday, and I had a tearful reunion with my bed. Tears of joy, that is. I'm listening to Wilkes's guest mix on the Beatsinspace podcast and wondering where to get food.

HOLV: How is the tour going?

MM: The tour's finished now, we've done our last gig of this year, which feels a bit weird to say now....! But it was a great time, especially going out with Malcolm Middleton. It's great to have some familiar faces on the road, that you just hook up with at points like the service stations, venues, bars and hotels. It's like dolphins swimming alongside each other and jumping out of the waves. Our own headline tour was longer and was quite a different vibe . . . As a support band, you get to just kind of show up and play, there's not so much pressure on you, and even though the audience probably haven't heard of you and may not even listen, it's a fun challenge to get up there and try to convert. But as a headline act, the stress is much more on 'get people in, show them a good time, make an impression'. It feels great to have that experience under our belts now though, it's the first proper tour we've done. It feels a bit like losing your virginity, almost. Now we're all walking tall, strutting around and showing off our beards. haha!

HOLV: Do you enjoy touring?

MM: I do and I don't. I love love love the gigs, the half hour where you just have to play and there's no logistics, schedules, business, tensions, tiredness, crap hotels, meetings, bullshit or narkiness at all to worry about. The rest of the time, when those things can creep in or even take over your head, that's a nightmare. It gets like groundhog day especially staying in travel lodges or whatever, waking up and going to sleep in the same room with the same people in the same mood. But I can handle all of that, as long as the music's fun and the shows are good, and there's some wine and some food. As long as everybody's nice to each other - that's the hardest thing to remember but the most important to sustain - then it's one of the most fun things to do. When everyone acts like a team, that's when I love it.

HOLV: What's been the highlight so far? What's the worst thing that's happened?

MM: Hmm..... I guess, from these last couple of tours (our own and with Malcolm), the London shows have both been exciting. I like playing in London; I used to hate it. Oh, and the Glasgow show in ABC with Malc was great! Normally home town shows are a complete stress cos you've got to do all the gig thing, set it all up, talk to everyone, and all your mates are there and wanting in for free and you've gotta try see everyone so they don't think you're rude, and then actually do the show... I'd rather not see familiar faces from the stage cos it puts me off a bit. But this one was really good fun and there was none of that and we all went out afterwards and got a bit squiffy!!
The worst thing that happened was probably when we were leaving York we got pulled over by the police and taken to a weigh-bridge. They weighed us and our van and declared us gloriously overweight and said that we were looking at a hefty fine and a ban and our driver was in trouble!! Turns out, the van we had hired was so heavy even with no gear in it, just 9 people, that it was exactly on the legal weight limit. We'd been ripped off! So as soon as we put 1 guitar or amp or tambourine or anything into the back we were immediately illegal. So we had to wait for about 3 hours by the side of the motorway in this crap little town near York, you know the sort, League of Gentlemen stuff. We went to the Local pub for Local people where we were, as expected, treated with hostility. Thank fuck we never have to go back to Tadcaster. At least I fucking hope we don't. And I'm not going near Hartlepool either.

HOLV: What can you tell us about the album? What are you're expectations for it?

MM: I can tell you that we've been making it for what seems like forever! We started in July and we're almost finished it now. It's got guitars, drums, singing, shouting, brass, strings, one of those tubes you spin round your head and it goes 'wooooooo' at a different pitch depending how fast you spin it, glockenspiel, moogs and other synths, clapping, stamping, chanting, horns, rain, cheering, crying, megaphone loops, and other bits and pieces on it. It's kinda hard to describe how they're all put together. We recorded it at Ca Va in Glasgow, with Geoff Allan who's been working there since the 90's and has done stuff with Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian, Franz, Arab Strap.... all the weegie heroes, haha! He's our pal now so we take him on tour when he's available too. He's great. I think we're about ready for mixing now, which is bloody exciting, getting to hear someone else's interpretations of what you've made. We decided to produce it ourselves (me, Lewis and Geoff), both to save money and to get the results we wanted. But we wanted someone else to mix it to give it an extra edge, flavour, whatever you want to call it. I can't say who's mixing it yet though,.... partly cos we haven't chosen! Ha. It's looking like it's going to be a spring/summer release.
My expectations? Honestly, I hope it does well. Obviously I want it to be heard by as many people as possible, so I guess that's what I expect. I'm not sure I can put an exact figure on that though! It'd be nice to have people knowing the songs at next year's festivals, and to see some of the other, bigger venues around the country. Oh, and I expect it to top the charts.

HOLV: How important is touring in promoting the album? Does Myspace do much of the work?

MM: Very important. You can myspace all you want but people still want to see it happen live in front of their eyes. Even more so these days, with more and more people going to gigs, it's become the most important part of the package. I think it's important not to ram it down people's throats too though. Myspace is a good addition to the traditional methods, but nobody can do it just on the web. That whole 'Arctic Monkeys made it big via myspace' story is a sham, a complete bullshit fabrication! They didn't even have a myspace until they got signed.

HOLV: Some people might think you've had it easy, signing to EMI at such an early stage of your career, is that fair?

MM: Completely unfair. It's an early stage in Make Model terms, of course, but with the exception of one of us, we've all been in bands for at least 5 years, and we've been round the circuit slogging it out and all that. That's kinda why we started this, because we knew we were all sick to the back teeth where we were at and we kinda thought 'ok, clean slate, lets start over, with like-minded people; friends. and let's do it right this time, use all of what we'd learned in the past to make a decent job of it this time'. I guess that's partly where the name comes from. Besides, getting signed doesn't make it easy. Before, you can do what you want. You can start over when you want. But this is it, there's a mark there and we've got to do right by ourselves now, we've got to work our arses off to make the best of our music and to get it out to people and to fight off other people who would tarnish it (whether intentionally or unintentionally). There's a lot of traps to avoid, and a lot of work to do. All this while trying to remain nonchalant and make the same sort of music you fell in love with.... it's a tough balance.

I'm not saying it's worse than working down the mines or anything, just that it's not a carousel ride. It's a career, like you said, and at the same time it's a hobby. The whole music industry is a weird dichotomy, which I guess kinda fits well with my schizo side.

HOLV: What would you say you're expectations are of them? Is there a lot of pressure to succeed with this album? Have they infringed on your creative wants at all?

MM: My expectation is that they'll put the album out and promote it well but not tart it about, treat it with respect and work as hard we have to make it a success. I'd hate to think they'd do like labels do for these bands like Scouting For Girls (or whatever the new band is when this is printed) and just stick up a few posters and hope for the best. I hope they are clever about it. They don't seem to operate like the other majors though, that's why we chose them - they're a bit more hippy in their approach. They've not infringed on the creative side of things at all, no. the opposite in fact, they've kept right out the way!

HOLV: Could you describe your sound? What are your principal musical interests?

MM: Like an orchestra on ecstasy and valium in a freewheeling vehicle on an unknown road, with no brakes. Haha, that's how I’d describe it if I wrote for NME! I guess it's pop music at it's heart, but there's a layer of dirt on the top of that. We try to extract our favourite aspects of crazy leftfield influences and hammer them into a song. Our interests are melody, strong rhythm and bass and then lots of layers. I'm also a total sucker for the other end, completely stripped back stuff where there's just one riff or beat carrying you through the song.

HOLV: How tight knit would you say you were? If a member left would that be it, or could you adapt?

MM: I honestly couldn't say, I don't really like to think about it! We were all good mates before we started the band, so I guess we'll always be that way.

HOLV: How passionate are you all? Is there anything you wouldn't do to get ahead in the industry?

MM: I wouldn't do anything with the specific goal of getting ahead in the industry... If we do something, it's because it'd be fun, or interesting, or whatever, and if it gets us ahead then that's great!

I'm not into all that networking side of things really... you know, saying things and buttering the right people up, making 'industry friends' and all that, just for the sake of it. If it happens, it happens naturally, that's my rule. I'm passionate about the music, not about the industry. I can't speak for everyone though; that's not to say others are different, I just don't know.

Interview By Neal Parsons