The Mirror: As a part of Gomez, you tour quite a bit. Is touring a lot like that kind of like being a work-aholic?
Olly Peacock (drummer): I guess so. There are times when the travel aspect is the difficult part of it, when you are essentially driving around on a bus with everybody else. Ultimately the music is benefiting, because we’re playing so much that we don’t ever need to actually rehearse. We’re never really a band to do much rehearsing, to be honest. The music definitely benefits from touring.
TM: Your new album “How We Operate” is getting a lot of acclaim. What do you think about the progress of your band so far, over the last 10 years?
OP: Obviously you try to take step back and be objective about it. I think as a whole, we play better together nowadays as a result of the live thing. And also as producers, writers and things, we’ve gotten a lot better. We’ve gotten a lot better at writing lyrics. For the same token, if we had free reign, if we got what we want, I’m sure the records would be really, really, ridiculously experimental. There’s a certain amount of freedom a band can buy, when they get big, having more money and record label support behind them. We’d like to keep it going, put out another album.
TM: Are you writing for it already?
OP: We kind of do bits and bobs at the moment. We’re touring this album, I guess until after April at least. And then more shows in the summer. So it’ll be a full year of touring. And in the later part of the year, we’ll begin honing in on the writing, and we’ll have the following year to get it released.
TM: What do you think about being called a non-jam jam-band? Maybe it’s because you tour in that festival scene so often in the US?
OP: Yeah, it’s kind of weird. I guess some aspects of our show are kind of… well all shows are kind of a jam. It’s part of the music. But we’re definitely not a jam band. But the people who are in the scene very much like it, so it’s kind of like, accidental. We’re not really of any particular style, so we could be hopefully like a rock band, just as much as people say we’re a jam band, or we could be a fucking pop band, whatever it may be. I think it’s kind of cool just to be distinctive in that kind of way – not being officially categorized. I prefer bands that kind of mix it up a bit more, you know?
TM: Fairfield is kind of a gymnasium set up, they say the sound will be great, and it’s a small place. Do you like the small shows or the big ones?
OP: A lot of these gigs [with O.A.R.] have been giant sort of arenas, and it’s kind of fun to do, in the aspect that you’re playing somewhere so ridiculously big, and it’s sort of an arena, stadium rock sort of thing. It’s amusing because we normall don’t do that shit. I generally prefer the smaller theaters, because it’s some sort of intimate thing going on. People can fucking hear you and see you. We did a lot of smaller places a couple years ago, touring with CAKE. It’s good to kind of get into the college scene, of course, because it’s massively important over here.
TM: Do you guys have any plans for after the show Thursday?
OP: Well, we were in Philly the other day and we went out, and went to the good area of town and hung out, had some food, had some drinks. Stuff like that. If we can hit somewhere, definitely we’ll go and hang out, and sort of see what the place is like.
TM: Your new album “How We Operate” is getting a lot of acclaim. What do you think about the progress of your band so far, over the last 10 years?
OP: Obviously you try to take step back and be objective about it. I think as a whole, we play better together nowadays as a result of the live thing. And also as producers, writers and things, we’ve gotten a lot better. We’ve gotten a lot better at writing lyrics. For the same token, if we had free reign, if we got what we want, I’m sure the records would be really, really, ridiculously experimental. There’s a certain amount of freedom a band can buy, when they get big, having more money and record label support behind them. We’d like to keep it going, put out another album.
TM: Are you writing for it already?
OP: We kind of do bits and bobs at the moment. We’re touring this album, I guess until after April at least. And then more shows in the summer. So it’ll be a full year of touring. And in the later part of the year, we’ll begin honing in on the writing, and we’ll have the following year to get it released.
TM: What are you guys listening to right now?
OP:Kind of varying at the moment. All sorts of kinds of stuff. There’s the new Tom Waits record which is kind of cool from what I’ve heard of it. I’d like to give it some more listens. I’ve been listening to an Australian guy called Josh Pike. A singer-songwriter but he also has a band too. That’s really kind of cool. And then I’ve listening to a guy called Finlay Brown, who I don’t know anything about. But I find that kind of ‘singer-song writery’… a very Crosby, Still, Nash and he’s American. So that’s what I listen to, really.
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