Emphatica Interview - January 2010
by Jodie Humphries
So we’ve reached 2010 already, where 2009 has gone is beyond me, it seems like only yesterday it was the end of 2008. Well anyway another year has gone by, but over the Christmas period, Sam and Tomm from the Bristol-based band Emphatica took time out from the eating and drinking to answer a few questions for me via email to start off January 2010 for LiveMusicScene. To give you an idea of how they were spending part of their Christmas, Tomm said, “Right now I am listening to Florence and the Machine while playing our traditional Christmas scrabble with my mum and sister.” Sam said he was “Listening to Horrors ‘Sea within a Sea’, and realizing how it could be a cover of Portishead’s 'The Rip'.”
To give you the opportunity to get to know Tomm and Sam, they gave a bit of information about the band and how they started. Tomm explained, “Me and Sam met on our very first day of university in Bristol, though he had short hair and I had long hair back then - that's all changed now.” Sam went on to say, “Yeah Art College seems a long time ago now, especially that first day. Only a week later, Tomm saw me throw up more than I have ever done - it was a beautiful bonding moment.” Talking about the name ‘Emphatica’, Tomm said, “We had a different name every week for a while because we couldn't come up with a good one. Then one of the other guys that was playing with us at the time came up with 'Emphatica' because we needed to put it on a poster or something to promote the gig and it stuck.” Sam explained that at the time, “We had some great names, ‘I just like owls’ will always be a favourite, but nobody had a clue what we were on about, and never remembered it. I think it might have to be the EP name.” Whenever I ask the question in a face to face interview, of how would you describe your music, I’m greeted by groans, I can’t tell you if Sam and Tomm greeted the question in this way, but I can tell you that Tomm described their music as “Melodic, riffingly good grungy, indie sounds.”
Talking about song writing and influences, Tomm said, “I am a massive old school Muse fan; their live performances are so amazing! Matt Bellamy is truly a legend of a guitarist.” Sam agreed saying, “Yeah old school Muse stuff is great, but anything Sigur Ros to Nine Black Alps. I often get more inspired to make good music by hearing shit music all the time than hearing good bands!” When asked how they find the song writing process, Tomm said, “Not easy at all. I'm terrible with lyrics but I'm pretty good with the music side of things I think.” Sam explained, “Songs riffs and ideas come together too fast for us to keep up, but lyrics are always tricky. I think each song we write is better than the last though, so it’s a very exciting process.”
Just before Christmas, Emphatica got a chance to play their biggest gig to date by playing The Thekla. I unfortunately had to miss them supporting The Future of the Left and Tubelord, but speaking to the guys about it, Sam said, “It was great sound, we played really well to a good crowd and got people moving at about 7.15, which was great. We also sold lots of CDs which is always a bonus. It was nice to play with bands we suited for a change, and we got some good advice on the night.” Tomm said, “We all had a great time playing to a crowd of people who mostly didn't know of us and we got to watch the awesome Future of the Left.” As I knew the gig was a big deal to the guys and a pretty impressive line-up for them, I asked what would be the prefect line-up for them. Sam said, “That’s far too tricky, it would have to be a festival! I think Sigur Ros are one of the best bands I have ever seen live and I would also love to play with both The Chapman Family and Last Days of Lorca again - two of my top bands this year.” Tomm said, “I saw The Subways supporting Nine Black Alps a few years ago – one of the best gigs I’ve been to. I’d love to play on a line-up with those two bands.”
I got the guys talking about the Bristol music scene as I’m always intrigued to know what local bands think of the scene. Tomm said, “There are quite a lot of Bristol bands out there, some good, some not so good. There’s probably something for everyone, and so many great venues to see them in.” Sam agreed with Tomm about there being a lot of bands by saying, “There’s lots of diversity, although it often seems everyone is only in it for themselves - venues, promoters and bands all just seem to get the most money they can, rather than putting on good events or working together.” Asking about what bands they recommend, Tomm firstly said, “Light of Words are a unique prog rock band that I quite like and are worth checking out. Turbowolf are mental and such good fun.” Sam agreed about Light of Words, “They really have blown me away.” He also stated, “There’s some great bands out there like Farthing Wood, The Naturals, Archimedes, On Off Switch, Roxy's Wardrobe, Call The Doctor, Countryside, Kill Cassidy, the list goes on!” As the guys are familiar with a number of venues in Bristol, I asked where their favourite to play is. Tomm said, “Well after playing The Thekla recently, I would probably have to say there. There was food and drink out the back for the bands in the little back room - I’ve never had that before!” Sam said, “I couldn’t agree more, although I love start the bus, its really cosy to play and the crowds are always really good in there.”
Talking about gigs, I asked what the worst gig Tomm and Sam have ever played is. Tomm said, “Supporting the Sliced Peaches. They weren’t a bad band, but kind of average. The gig was on really old school wooden boat, which was awesome, but it was their Christmas party and there were about 10 people there not really into it. Also the sound engineer was terrible and didn't know what he was doing.” Talking about the same gig, Sam said, “We had a power cut halfway through, and the other band played covers of Christmas songs - it was very bad. Although a gig with some local bands at The Loui was very bad - I don’t need to remind Tomm about that gig, it was really not good.” While we’re on the subject of gigs, I asked whether the guys would rather play to a room full of people they know, or a room full of people they don’t know. Sam said, “New people! I always feel more relaxed. I love meeting new people and hearing their thoughts. (Not in a weird super power way.)” While Tomm couldn’t seem to make up his mind, “Hmmm, I get very nervous before playing so probably to a room full of people I know. But I like playing to new people too.”
Looking to the future, I asked Sam and Tomm what their hopes are for the future for Emphatica. Tomm said, “To make some money and some good music. We want to get a proper record out hopefully too - something to impress my mum would be nice.” For the future, Sam said, “We want to get our EP sorted in the next few months. Recording our new tracks for it has been really fun; we have some songs we both really want to get sounding perfect before we release it. Hopefully a tour soon after that and potentially we have a few European dates which would be amazing, but more gigs like at Thekla would be very nice indeed. 2010 is going to be a very good year.”
It looks set to be a very busy year for Emphatica, so expect plenty of gigs from them in and around Bristol. I leave you with one last question that I asked the guys during the interview – what was the first ever CD they purchased. Tomm said, “I think it was Linkin Park’s ‘Hybrid Theory’.” While Sam said, “I can’t remember CDs; it might have been a copy of OK Computer, which I’ve now lost. The first cassette was Spice Girls - such a classic album.” I think you can say that you can expect the unexpected from this band when some of their previous musical taste featured the Spice Girls. Now what do you think the chances are of getting Tomm or Sam in those platform heels? Thankfully the Spice Girls influence hasn’t stuck and you won’t see either of them on stage with that sort of footwear. Instead you’ll see a band working their guts off on stage and in all areas of the band. Their hard work is paying off as a single, ‘Grey Colour Us’, will be available soon for free download – in other words you’ll have no excuse not to download it for yourself and check this band out.
