The Cherry Wave [Interview # 113 // Paul]

1)     You are one of the first bands that I have heard with so much of the distortion that they call fuzz.  Is there a special name or could you create one for this genre of band?   Something like fuzzgaze only not as unoriginal. 

Haha, we're ok with Fuzzgaze, that sort of sums it up nicely I think. We're pretty obsessed with fuzz. We definitely just think of ourselves as a Shoegaze band though. I think we're doing music that Shoegaze purists would probably really dig, because I personally am a Shoegaze obsessive. None more 'gaze.

I feel like there's a ton of crappy Indie bands calling themselves Shoegaze nowadays, because they own a delay pedal and a Jazzmaster. There's also a raft of bands that have taken their cue from Slowdive and ran with the whole ambient side of 'gaze rather than the over the top fuzzy, noisy, oppressively loud type of 'gaze that we tend to lean more towards. We obviously adore Slowdive, but I'd like to see some more variation and aggressiveness in the genre to be honest. I want guitars to sound like guitars, not synth pads, and that's what we try to do. Shoegaze that sounds like a Hardcore band playing it.

2)     Being from Scotland, why is it that bands outside of the U.S. rock so much harder than those that are inside it?

I don't know man, a lot of our favourite bands are from the US. I remember I read somewhere someone suggesting that Shoegaze was done particularly well in Celtic countries because people from those countries have grown up around Celtic folk melodies and droning instruments like bagpipes haha. Whether that's true or not I dunno. Probably definitely not though.

3)     Your newest song is on a compilation called “Under The Wildflowers Volume 1” on Lamppost Records.    Lamppost is from Glasgow like you.   Is that why it was so easy for you to get onto that label, or was there some struggle?

It's our label. We wanted to put out our music and put out the music of some of our favourite bands, so the way to do that was create a vehicle for awesome music, which is where Lamppost comes in. We're gonna be putting out some more stuff this year that we're really really excited for. I think it's that Black Flag attitude, want something done? Just fucking do it then, and that's what we intend to do.

4)     Your EP has been released on cassette courtesy of Good Grief Records.   Do you feel that cassettes are important in the modern music scene and will all of your future releases also be available on cassette?  (Side Note:  I don’t have the cassette, so a re-release would also appeal to me)

Well, that cassette sold out, so people must still dig cassettes but the primary reason we wanted to put out a cassette was because it's cheap to do, and it's a cooler format than CDR to us. I like that it ages and changes as it ages. It feels like a very natural format.

5)     From the self titled EP last year to the single this year, are there any plans for an upcoming full length?

Yeah, we had the debut EP, which was essentially a demo recorded by ourselves, then we put out Blush, our second EP which was recorded a million times better and is something we're super proud of, and then we put out the single on the Lamppost compilation. Hopefully we'll have a full length recorded this year. We're talking to some people about getting a full release for it, but failing that it'll be out on Lamppost. We'll likely re record some of the demo EP songs for the record, we love those songs and want them to have a proper recording.

6)     If you could pick any two or three bands from Scotland to tour the U.S. with, who would you choose and why?  Would there ever be a Lamppost Records international tour?

No, there'll definitely never be a Lamppost tour haha. We can barely afford to get the bus to rehearsals, never mind pay for a tour. 

There's a few cool bands from Scotland right now that we like, there's a band called Young Philadelphia which is sort of a Hella type band. Two brothers who are great musicians and great guys. There's a band called The Yawns which is an awesome guitar Pop band, who are writing some of the best music in the country right now, and there's a band called Wraiths from Edinburgh that do incredible vast sounding noise. That'd be a pretty awesome tour.

7)     Final thoughts, shout outs, cherry recipes, etc…??

Shout out to you guys for asking us to do this, and shout out to Slayer. 

Nah, Cherries are only cool when drenched in fuzz. 

Gazing at shoes to make music to gaze at shoes to.

Paul (The Cherry Wave)