The Pigeon Detectives
After two years away from the limelight, five piece band, The Pigeon Detectives return with a new album this April and a 14 date tour ending in their hometown of Leeds. Drummer Jimmi Naylor tells us why he thinks 2011 is ripe for an indie revival.
- It’s been a couple of years since the last album - what have you been up to in-between?
We had a bit of a break really. At the end of 2008 we did a massive tour, the last gig was Alexandra Palace and then we just took it easy. Slowly but surely we started to write new songs but we decided to just really take our time and instead of just instinctively writing what we’d normally write, to start from scratch in the studio and experiment with sounds.
Then we started to look at producers but we waited until we were ready to book a studio. It’s been a little bit longer than we anticipated but we ended up recording in New York last summer.
- People have referred to the death of guitar music but it seems like a lot of indie bands are emerging and reemerging now - do you think we’re seeing a bit of an indie revival?
Hopefully, yeah. There’s a few bands that seem to be knocking about this year, The Strokes have come back, Pulp have come back, hopefully people haven’t forgotten about it.
To be fair though, people will never stop going to gigs. Guitar music may not be selling as many records but people still love going to a gig.
- Those bands are evolving though - how have The Pigeon Detectives evolved since the second album?
Well with the first album we just really recorded what we’d been playing live. We’d write a song and go out and play it and we just recorded what was happening. Then with the second we had about 14 songs ready anyway so we just went in and recorded them.
With this album we’ve really taken our time. In terms of melody we kind of went against our instincts of doing something instantly hooky and tried to be a bit more subtle with hooks, I think we’re still very catchy but it’s definitely more subtle.
We’ve experimented a lot with different guitar peddles, electric drums and bits of synth as well as big symphony sounds with orchestras. We just tried to have fun with it really and the album’s what came out of it.
- Have you had any early feedback on the album?
The few people that have heard it have loved it and I’ve played it to a couple of friends who did too, a few people have said it’s our best album yet.
We played a few tracks live in December and they went down really really well so I think people will like it. People who liked us before I think will like us now but I think we’ll get new fans from it as well.
- What’s the lyrical content of the album?
It varies. One song we have is about the recession, that’s called What you gonna do? There’s bit about relationships but not boy-girl necessarily but around relationships between us or the record label and things like that.
A lot of different things really, we don’t really like to explain too much about what the songs are about we’d rather leave it open to interpretation.
- And what does the album title Up Guards and At ‘Em mean?
It’s a quote from a war, I can’t remember which now, but more than anything we just liked the sound of it. It’s not defensive, it’s supposed to be positive and just means 'right lets go', and we just really liked the ring of it.
- Is being signed to an indie label important for the Pigeon Detectives?
Definitely yeah, because we’re involved in every decision, there’s been no one in the studio telling us what to do in anyway shape or form.
We kind of are the label really - they started small before us but we’ve been the band to make that label. So working on the album was just the five of us and a couple of other people and it’s just like a small family really.
We can call them directly whenever and they’re based in Leeds so it’s just really easy going.
- What’s your favourite thing about being in the band?
Getting to play live really, it’s unbelievable at times. We’ve played Glastonbury and Alexandra Palace and nothing beats playing gigs like that. You can struggle to match that high when you’re off tour because you’re just doing exactly what you want to do.
There’s other things too and we just have a really good time, getting pissed all the time and having fun. It can be serious but at the same time there’s a lot of messing about.
- So is the tour what you’ve really been working towards then?
Yeah in a way, it’s what we’ve always been about but to be fair, we had one of the best times of our lives making this album.
We went off to New York for two months and it was just brilliant to be in the studio but yeah, we’ve always been about playing live, we love it and I think the music steps up a gear when we play live.
- The five of you in the band were friends first - after making three albums together are you still as good friends?
We’re still really close because we’ve been through so much together. You do find that a lot of bands get together for music first but we’ve been friends for years and the music is secondary to that.
Of course there have been times where we’ve had massive arguments but shortly after we’re back to being best friends again so not a lot has changed really.
Up Guards and At ‘Em is out April 4. For gig listings and tickets visit gigsandtours.com.
FemaleFirst Antonia Charlesworth