Modest as they are talented, Brighton’s The Island Club are turning heads with their intricate brand of melodic pop-rock. The Badger caught up with them before their packed out set at The Hope and Ruin to discuss songwriting and ambitions for the future.
Your songs are infectiously hook driven which I love, how do you go about composing that killer riff?
It’s normally together in a rehearsal room where the meat of the song will be written, especially the melodies and the hooks.
The best stuff we’ve ever done has just happened, as a group in the moment.
Everyone’s so good at their craft that they hone in and do what they do best, then everyone contributes to the other parts- a group effort!
When people compare you bands such as Peace are you flattered or frustrated?
It’s flattering, but at the same time when we’ve spoken to some people they’ve been confused by that as a comparison as they’re a bit more rocky than the stuff we do.
Being compared to a band like that is a huge compliment; if we can be half as good as them we’ve done a good job!
We discuss the more diverse comparisons, the best being “A cross between Coldplay and Duran Duran.”
Let Go dropped two weeks back, how has the response been?
I think we go in expecting nothing and anything we get is a huge compliment! We never go in saying “Oh it’s going to react this way.” Anything we get across the board: blogs have responded really well to it and we’ve had people talk to us and say it’s great. For us that’s amazing.
We’re just trying to do something we really enjoy, and if people get into it then that’s even better!
Have you got anything planned for this summer?
Nothing we can announce yet!
The announcement accidentally slips out, which, for obvious reasons, cannot be published.
We’re going to be writing a lot, we want to put an EP together.
We’ve been so busy the last six months, with the band and also finishing Uni, we haven’t had a real time to sit together and write; that’s going to be the best opportunity.
There’s some stuff we’ve had sitting around that we can work on now.
Finally, who are you looking forward to seeing later today?
We’re going to see Beach Baby…
I’m interviewing them! I cry rather overexcitedly.
There’s a lot of hype around them! The Amazons should be really good.
Blossoms, we supported them this time last year at the Prince Albert. They’ve come a long way, a ridiculous way, it’ll be really cool to see what they’re like now.
The Island Club’s latest single Let Go is streaming here: https://soundcloud.com/theislandclubuk/let-go
Glenn Houlihan
