Q&A - Population Four

In the run up to the final of Battle of the Bands, here's a few Q&A from Population Four


Obvious one first, really. Why did you enter BOTB – what did you hope to get out of the contest, and have you enjoyed your heats?

We entered BOTB because we’re a really new band and it’s a great way to get regular shows and exposure in Preston. We've all been playing in bands for years and have all got to know one another through playing shows together. We’re really pleased to have got through to the final, after all, and we have only been playing together for about 7 or 8 months.

For those in the audience who may not know you that well, how would you describe your band and the music?

Our band sounds like we’re having a great time. That’s the most important thing to us, we write songs that we love and that we can rock out to. We have a pretty contemporary alternative sound, crossing elements of punk with metal, and some catchy riffs and choruses that people can sing along to.

How you tend to practice and write songs – every waking hour or as-and-when?Song writing is a pretty collaborative process for us, we write new songs at practice or when we’re hanging out at someone’s house. Its great to have the facilities to write and record ideas on a day to day basis in one of the members own homes, having a Studio set up has allowed us to experiment with new ideas much more easily.

So you’re stuck in a lift for an hour. How do spend the time before help arrives?

We would play I Spy, Either that or work on some harmonies maybe so that we could form a vocal acapella band.

Do you tend to keep your influences close or separate from the music you’re writing at the moment? How have your influences shaped your current set?

We all have a lot of different influences and favourite styles of music; it’s pretty eclectic, we listen to a lot of different kinds of music; a band favourite is the Jurassic park theme tune by John Williams. We figure any band or group of musicians should have a wide interesting in music in general that extends beyond the style or genres of music they write of perform. We bring all our own influences together in a weird kind of controlled chaos, obviously we know what we want to play and write, but that doesn’t have to be the only kind of music we enjoy.

This contest is one of the many gigs going on in Preston – what are your opinions of the scene we have here? Would you spend more or less time gigging here after your experiences at the BOTB?

Like any band with aspirations we want to break out of Preston, and have already started to do that. But it’s great to have a home town to come back to. We have cut our teeth here in Preston with our other bands, and the experience we have gained playing shows here has obviously contributed to the band we are today when we perform. The scene in Preston waxes and wanes like any scene in any City.

Despite the problems with the Preston scene there are people here who really care about music in this city, people like Des who puts the BOTB together every year. People that have a real passion for live music in this city. Even people like Joe Ivers who are spending there own money putting out independent complication CDS of bands around Preston its great that people have that kind of passion, even though a few people defiantly lack it.

Where’s the best place to get a drink round here, anyway?

Ha-ha, who knows man, we tend to hang out at the guild and have a pint if it’s sunny and we have time to kill before band. We used to go to The Mercury Flux pretty frequently before it shut, we had one or two kick ass nights there. Any night out can be a great one if you are with your friends. Who cares where you go really?

If you had the chance to put on a gig with a local band and one of your favourite all-time groups, who you would choose, and why?

We would love to play with Alexisonfire. Pretty sure that would make for a great time its probably difficult to find any band that rocks out as much as they do. I guess our local band would be Exit State, we had a great time playing with them in our second heat and it would be cool to play with them again.

Win or lose the BOTB final, where you going to be this time next year?

The pub? Come hang out with us! Maybe we will enter again, maybe we won’t, I guess we will decide in about as year’s time. Hopefully we will still be playing some shows to a bunch of people that have taken the time to listen to us.

SF

For the first semi-final in the LEP supported Battle of the Bands at Preston’s The Venue, it seemed necessary for the judges to agree on how many rounds of paper-scissors-stone would be implemented in case the four excellent bands dared to try that little bit harder.

Without Motive were late-minute replacements without warning, whose set really impressed with a devil-may-care attitude from the start. Gloriously outrageous rock in the best British style, the guitar skills were the very best example from the local brotherhood of metal. Population Four fired up the attitude for a really promising set from a young band whose energy brings a fresh approach to the skater-punk style. They were given the prized ticket for the final with House On Fire, the three piece who sound like the result of a dozen. Although some of their songs go for a wander without ever coming back, the ability is unquestionable, making their place in the final unquestionable.

Like so many post-rock bands, Red Winter Kapital can allow their compositions to flow and weave with no consequence to time signatures or conventional understanding of melody. Their stage presence was somewhat minimal which took a lot from otherwise strong songs.