Like A Thief Interview

7 months ago 10th Apr 10:18

I made the first move and legged it down to London. About six months later Den came too and we started a new band down there.

We auditioned some drummers and Ian was one of them. Apart from his amazing brilliance on the drums we were impressed by his total ability to talk utter nonsense so we got him.

When our bass player suddenly did a runner (almost, but not quite a middle-of-the-night one!) he brought his friend from home in Portsmouth, Matt. And there we have it. Two Scarborians and two Portsmoothians! Lovely.

You are very much the face of the band and many are saying move over KT Tunstall and Dido how does that make you feel?

That's cool. I mean, we are a band, but it's sort of mine! I don't think the boys mind me saying that! I mean it's brilliant cos I've got the best of both worlds. I can go out on tours, like I am doing next month, just by myself. Just me and my car and looming solitary madness! But also we can do the fun band thing.

I don't mind the "move over Tunstall" stuff, but I am glad I'm not just another female singer songwriter... I know I kind of am one, but it's not a genre that particularly excites me.

And also it's not like being just another indie-pop band. Hopefully it's something of the two which is a bit more exciting. That's how I like to see it anyway!

You are also the songwriter what inspires you to write?

It's hard to say really. When I've got a song brewing I tend to start mis-hearing lyrics from other songs and go "wow, that's a good line" and then it turns out it's not that so I can use it for my own! That sort of thing.

The lyrics are the easy bit to trace where they come from, but with the music, I never really know. It's one of those things that just happens, and after you've written it go "Hey. That's weird. 5 minutes ago that song didn't even exist" It's a strange but brilliant feeling that I don't think I'll ever get used to.

You write about interesting topics nervous breakdowns, getting too big for a small town - have you purposefully tried to be different?

Well, I'm a bit of a bookworm and I'm well into my stories. I often get an idea for a song thematically first. Like I'm trying to write a song at the moment which contains the same sort of excitement that Robert Louis Stevenson captured in Treasure Island! Sounds a bit ridiculous I know, but that's how I think of them. Each song a different story and the music is the tone, the atmosphere, the setting.

I think, because of the job that I've been doing the past 3 years (piano bar in posh Mayfair clubs / bars) it's given me a lot of time of being on my own. I think solitary people think a lot. Perhaps too much!

But there's a lot of reflection and stuff that goes into my songs. I mean, doing stories and stuff is all very well, but it has to mean something to the writer as well. So most of it's just my own life experience made a bit more romanticised and interesting.

How would you describe your sound?

I find this a really difficult question. I really hate it when people say this, but I genuinely am pretty eclectic in my taste, so I just pick stuff up from all over the place.

For this single 'The Hours We Kept' for example I'd just gotten the Beatles first album for my birthday and it blew my brain away! So that sort of early sixties and even the late 50s sound was very much on my mind when we were recording this.

Also we made it go dead Policey in the middle and stuff and, I don't know. I like experimenting and will try anything really, though only with real, authentic instruments. I like to keep it real sounding, definitely.

You are about to release your third single is there an album and what can we expect from it?

Yeah there will be at some point. I'm a bit of a pain when it comes to agreeing to finally leave songs alone. I'm forever rerecording them and changing them and stuff. I guess one day someone will just have to lock the songs up in a big heavy cupboard, then there will be an album!

You distribute your music independently how does that differ from working with a major label?

Well I never released anything with Mercury so I don't really know how it differs to be honest.

Do you prefer the independent route? Why?

I waaaaay prefer doing music with an indie. It's awesome, you're so in control and it's so much less like a business and more like doing something amazing and creative. If I have an idea for something, I can just call up someone in the label at 10pm on a Sunday night, you know? I just feel so more involved and creatively in control.

You come from Scarborough but you left at 21 to live in London why did you make this move?

As I said, we'd played in the Alps and were on such a high when we got back I didn't want to just get depressed going back in to the normal humdrum life I'd always known so I just turned up in London, Dick Whittington style and then went "crikey. What happens here then?!"

How do you find city life?

I do love it, I mean it's so exciting. There's so many opportunities as well, that's what really struck me, is the doors that could open to you just by talking to one person. Stuff like that doesn't really happen in a small town.

I am a seaside girl though, and a countryside girl. I couldn't have lived more extremes I don't think, not in this country I mean. But it's just the expense, the time it takes to get everywhere, the noise etc. It's a cliche, but it really does get to me.

You worked as a pianist and a singer at The Ritz how did that come about? How did you find the experience?

Yeah I didn't really know what I was gonna do when I turned up in London. I was in a restaurant and someone was singing and playing piano and I thought, "well I could that".

So I hassled and rang up people and blagged people and made demos and went for auditions and learnt a billion songs and before I knew it I was down the Ritz and The Millennium Mayfair and The Churchill living a very different life, with very different people to what I was used to in Scarborough!

What did these performances teach you?

Oh God it taught me so much. I gained so much stage confidence. You'd have to switch from being a ghost in the background to the focus of everyone in the room, and it's just gotten me so used to audiences whether they are listening or not.

I had a great time doing that job, it did wonders for my piano playing, my singing, my endurance (there'd be weeks of 7-hour sets, or some months where I was playing every single night). It was the most amazing and incredible, yet at times, lonely and melancholy existence.

Finally what is next for you?

Well, I've quite all my work now and it's Like A Thief all the way. Doing some solo touring (Sticking with the lonely vibe again!) and more band stuff, releasing this single etc. Just hopefully doing a bit more each time we release stuff.

But I'm genuinely excited about doing loads of live stuff. I've spent a long time in recording studios and a long time playing other peoples' songs I'm just itching to get my songs out there straight to the public!

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

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