Noise Kitten

Exclusive Interview with ‘The Cast Of Cheers’

Darcy recently caught up with Neil from ‘The Cast Of Cheers’ for a Noise Kitten exclusive Q&A…

I first came across you guys in 2010 via your first (and free) Album ‘Chariot’. 

How would you describe your progression as band since then?

Well the release of Chariot was the very beginning for us a band trying to get our name out there. We hadn’t played a gig or even told anyone that we were making an album. The idea was to release it free online and see if anyone would catch on and start spreading it. They did thankfully and that led us on to playing pretty decent gigs in Dublin a month or two later. We managed to skip the couple of years bands usually spend playing to empty rooms, although we’ve all done this under various other musical guises in the past! 

After that it was just about getting the live show as exciting as possible and taking it wherever people would have us! We played A LOT around Ireland and figured the next natural step was to try and build a UK and European fanbase. This culminated with us moving to London last summer. We spent the few months then after the summer recording our new album with Luke Smith. A really exciting process that was too. Luke pushed us with our tunes more than anyone had before and the benefit of that shines through on the record.

So what do you guys have coming up in 2012 and what are you most excited about?

2012 is definitely going to be manic year for us! Its only February and our new single “Family” has been doing the rounds on radio across the UK and Ireland and getting good responses! We have a co-headline tour coming at the end of this month with Theme Park so we’re obviously thrilled about that! It’ll be our first UK tour and we really can’t wait! Theme Park are really sound guys too and an amazing band so we’re all really excited about this line-up. 

At the end of April and in May we’re supporting Blood Red Shoes on their UK tour so that’s going to be an ear melter! The kind of gigs I love! Been listening to them a lot lately and getting very excited about making lots of noise onstage and going a bit wild!

In between those tours we’re heading to Europe for a few dates. We’ve played to European crowds a couple of times before at Berlin Festival and Eurosonic in the Netherlands and the people there who came to see us were amazing. The weather should be pretty good in April too so we’ll definitely be getting our suntan on in between gigs! ;)

After that its music’s favourite season of the year… Festival season!

There have been some great acts coming out of Ireland in the last few years.

Are you close with any other acts from Ireland who you think will be stirring things up this year?

There is such a thriving music scene in Ireland at the moment. Over the past five years there’s constantly been amazing gigs to go and see every weekend. We’ve all played in various bands over the past years in the Dublin music scene so we have loads of pals there! Bands like Adebisi Shank and Enemies were right there for us at the release of Chariot. If it wasn’t for them spreading and tweeting about the free album we had just released we would never have got the exposure we did and as quickly. Super Extra Bonus Party who have since become We are Losers were an amazing help to us also. There are so many great bands and pals in the Irish scene that I could never list them all here.

What’s your crowd like when you play a home show in Dublin?

There’s two places that are my favourite to play and they are Dublin and Galway. We have been so lucky to have had multiple shows in these cities and every time we’d play there would be more people there and everyone dancing like nutbars and generally having a great time! That’s what we enjoy most i think at a live show… its seeing the crowd get so into it that they’re having a deadly time bopping around to the tunes you’re playing. It’s an unreal feeling!

Apart from other bands, where else do you take your influences from and what inspires you?

I think most inspiration within the band does come from other music but apart from that we’re all well into films and I think we all read quite a lot too… except Kev. He’s from Canada and we all know they can’t really read. ;)

On Chariot there was a lot of conversing about 1984, The Road and World War Z. We were all apocalypse obsessed then i think. Maybe it was with 2012 coming over the horizon… who knows!?

The new album has elements of that in it too but i think there’s definitely a broader range of themes throughout it. 

I think our main influence at the moment would be the cast of Seinfeld though! That George Costanza is an enigma of a human… not to mention Cosmo Kramer… and crazy Joe Davola.

What was your favourite track and favourite album of 2011?

There were so many superb albums in 2011 its all really hard to pick one so whenever i do one of these i usually pick a different one! I think we’re all a bit fickle like that anyways, always changing our minds about stuff. An album that was played a lot in our house was The English Riviera by Metronomy.  There’s just such a lovely feeling and coolness to that album, not to mention the song writing and performance. It’s a top cookie. I’ve had Zonoscope by Cut Copy and the SBTRKT album on pretty heavy rotation also. Not forgetting Hurry Up We’re Dreaming by M83. I’m obviously leaving out loads of deadlies too though!

Other than yourselves, Which upcoming bands / artists do you think will be ones to watch this year?

Well the first band that springs to mind is Theme Park for obvious reasons. A band we played with recently that impressed the @£$%^ out of me were Racehorses. I think they’re from Cardiff and they were doing a UK tour last month. They were so powerful live and played so tight I couldn’t take my eyes of them for the whole show. An amazing live band that everyone should go to see over the coming year. Citizens! are also ones to watch in 2012.

Many Thanks to Neil for taking the time to talk with us.

Debut single ‘Family’ is out today! Buy here

Grab a Free Remix of ‘Family’ here 

Find out more about the band @ thecastofcheers.com

The Craven Braves - Rough Diamond

Discovered and signed by Gary Powell (The Libertines) after witnessing 1 show, 2012 sees the release of The Craven Braves highly anticipated debut single ‘Rough Diamond’ out on 13th FEBRUARY 2012. Creating a buzz already with such reviews as:

Raw, rough-edged Rock ‘n’ Roll. It captures the excitement and slightly dangerous feel The Craven Braves have as a live band too” -JOE MOTT SUNDAY STAR

“The Libertines drummer signed these boys to his new label. But that’s where The Libs comparison ends. Good rock and roll and a more than solid start. Roll on the next Rough Diamond!!” -SOCCER AM

Only just into their early twenties the band are going from strength to strength, and, 2012 looks set to be a big year for TCB. After meeting in East London the boys bonded over a shared love of Rock and Roll and formed The Craven Braves in summer of 2008. Drawing inspiration from both their working class roots and musical idols such as Johnny Cash and The Clash, they consider themselves a band of the people, creating music that everyone can relate to. Good rock and roll and a more than solid start.

‘Rough Diamond’ to be released Monday 13th February 2012

Catch their launch party TONIGHT @ The Bowery, London

Get this widget →

Jeuce - As We Move

Woohoo! Our 2nd Release is just around the corner + you can pre-order it from today here

Jeuce - As We Move

featuring remixes from Dirty Disco Youth , The Killabits & Kastle

Preview the tracks here:

Jeuce - As We Move (snippets) by Noise Kitten

Leeds based live act ‘Jeuce’ was created by 4 Hertfordshire born students as a way for them to bridge the gap between their love for dance music and their passion for playing live. They are no strangers to the music scene with official remixes released for the likes of Ellie Goulding , Crookers & Miike Snow, Haudouken and many more.

This hardworking group of friends were also named ‘Dance Ones To Watch’ By BBC Radio 1 DJ Kissy Sell Out and have had great reviews and support in the past…. “10/10 - EXCITING & HOTLY TIPPED” (i-DJ)”

“ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING LIVE ACTS AROUND” (ATM Magazine)”

To celebrate the first Remix E.P release on Noise Kitten, we have pulled out all the stops to bring you this great selection of carefully crafted remixes for your attentive delight.

The original track is followed by the hugely tipped German producer and DJ ‘Dirty Disco Youth’ who provides 5 minutes of blissful electro house on his superb rerub. Next up, Canadian Duo ‘The Killabits’ really break the track down and completely rework it with their immense moomachore style edit. Finally, hailing from Pittsburg, ‘Kastle’ put’s his great spin on the track with his ever popular, bass heavy dance/garage style. We hope you enjoy the package as much as we do 

Pre-order now

Justice - Planisphère Part 1 (Eby Le Beatz remix)

Some Sick Electro for your ears!

We’ve been keeping an eye on the electro-rock project that is Eby Le Beatz.

Not only has he topped Beatport charts on numerous occasions, he has also produced this great remix of Justice - Planisphère Part 1. 

Grab The Free Download while you can! 

Justice - Planisphère Part 1 (Eby Le Beatz remix) *FREE DOWNLOAD* by Eby Le Beatz

I feel there have not been enough decent remixes of tracks from the latest Justice album but we have discovered a few hidden gems via bootlegs.

We previously blogged a Free remix from upcoming Producer ‘Das Heat’ of Justice’s ‘Ohio’ but the limit has now been exceeded. You can stream the track below:

Justice - Ohio (Das Heat Remix) by Das Heat 

Enjoy x

Darcy

The Shins - Simple Song

Yes, The Shins are back! It’s been 5 years since their last Album ‘Wincing The Night Away’ - which was absolutely stunning and even received a grammy nomination. 

Their next album is to be named ‘Port Of Morrow’ and is due for release 19th March 2012. You can pre-order this now from The Shins Website

Here’s a first listen to leading single to be taken from the Album entitled ‘Simple Song’

Let us know what you think….