Amelia’s Magazine | Little Fish at the Old Blue Last: Live Review

Rob Ryan, <a target=physician All It Took” title=”Rob Ryan, salve All It Took” width=”480″ height=”612″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-29087″ />
Rob Ryan, decease All It Took.

There is something heartbreaking about Rob Ryan’s art. His work shows us a world full of beauty, where people love and long for each other so all-consumingly that everything else pales in comparison. The surrounding scenery, intricately carved out in the tiniest details, cushions the people in Ryan’s world, creating a protective bubble where they can speak the most beautiful words in order to tell each other how they feel. While the characters in Ryan’s images seem to be in this intense state all the time, in the real world these special moments come and go. But most of us will at some point have experienced them, and so you’ll find yourself standing in front of one of Ryan’s large-scale cut-outs, craning your neck as you follow the winding text incorporated in the image, and think, ‘Yes, exactly. That’s what it’s like.’

Rob Ryan by Holly Trill
Rob Ryan by Holly Trill.

The private view of Rob Ryan’s new exhibition, The Stars Shine All Day Too, drew a crowd last Tuesday night at Mayfair’s Air Gallery. Large papercuts and screenprints, mostly monochrome in black on white, lined the walls of the small space, buzzing from the heat of the crowd enjoying vodka-champagne drinks. The artist himself was surrounded by guests eager for a chat, and a signature in their copy of the book, which pairs Ryan’s papercuts with a story by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Also on display was a collaboration between Ryan and the designer Lulu Guinness. The limited edition fan-shaped clutch bags, embellished in Swarovski crystals, go on sale Monday.

While the partnerships demonstrate the broad appeal of Ryan’s work, the act of viewing his art feels distinctively private. Especially studying the originals, where the slight paper-buckling causes delicate shadows, provokes an image of the artist hunched over a massive desk, knuckles white around a scalpel as he carves out leaves, birds, words and people. Undoubtedly a very time-consuming and fiddly process, you wonder how romantic Ryan feels if his knife slips and he cuts off the delicate paper strip connecting a shooting star, or even the heroine’s head. But the resulting work is romantic to the extreme, sincere and generous without a shred of irony. ‘Stars and galaxies rotate eternally, and you and I circle each other. For you are my universe entirely, and I will always be yours,’ reads the piece entitled Countless Moons, where the couple bathes in a pool under the stars.

Rob Ryan, Countless Moons
Rob Ryan, Countless Moons.

A few of the works lack text, such as Starry Night, showing a couple on a bench under a densely-starred sky. ‘Maybe it’s better that way, as you can interpret it how you like,’ my friend pointed out: ‘Like here, maybe she’s telling him to get his hands off her.’ I laughed, as this caption would get more giggles, for sure. But I can’t help but think we get our fill of sarcasm elsewhere, and we can always tune in to a re-run of ‘Mock the Week’ later if all this loveliness is getting too saccharine sweet to bear. In fact, there’s something very refreshing about the unapologetic tenderness of Ryan’s work. ‘If you believe in love but find it difficult to explain, this is for you,’ Ryan once chiseled out – that sounds about right. Not that everything Ryan does is about romantic love, mind, as demonstrated by one of my favourite pieces at the show: ‘Look closer and closer and look further and further and listen harder and harder to the noise of our earth and the silence of the stars, and what you will hear is a small voice that whispers – don’t try to get, try to give …’

Rob Ryan by Jessica Stokes
Rob Ryan by Jessica Stokes.

It took me all night, but I finally managed to steal a minute or Ryan’s time in the end. I asked him, where does it all come from, the inspiration for all this? ‘Oh no, it’s an interview!’ he laughed, before he shrugged: ‘I don’t know anymore, I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I get to go to my studio and do something I love. It just comes to me.’ Or at least he said something to this effect – by this point it was very loud and hot in the gallery, and having skipped dinner I should have declined that last vodka-champagne. Either way, Ryan’s disarming manner made me feel confident enough to tell him how I’d discovered his work, several years ago as I came across a picture in a magazine. It was a very simple papercut with large text over a row of houses: ‘Maybe in this very city or in a field a thousand miles away, but you must be patient and never despair, for one day we shall truly find each other.’ I’d just been dumped and was feeling something akin to despair at the time, but Ryan’s little print made me feel better. I don’t know what I expected Ryan to say to this, but his response was moving – his eyes lit up and he thanked thanked me for sharing it with him. Maybe that’s the sort of reaction he’s hoping for with his work, I wondered, but I didn’t get the chance to ask as autograph-hunters were circling closer and my moment with the star of the night was up.

Rob Ryan, Your Job
Rob Ryan, Your Job.

As the title of the show suggests, stars are a feature of most of the works displayed at the Air Gallery, but one piece stands out from this pattern. It’s a smaller cut-out in red, featuring not a couple but a boy and a bird. It reads: ‘Your job is to take this world apart and then put it back together again … but even better!’ And you read it and you think, ‘Yes, exactly. That’s what it’s like.’

See Rob Ryan’s The Stars Shine All Day Too at the Air Gallery, Dover Street, London W1, until 20th November 2010. For more details check out our listing.

Rob Ryan, <a target=order All It Took” title=”Rob Ryan, buy All It Took” width=”480″ height=”612″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-29087″ />
Rob Ryan, web All It Took.

There is something heartbreaking about Rob Ryan’s art. His work shows us a world full of beauty, where people love and long for each other so all-consumingly that everything else pales in comparison. The surrounding scenery, intricately carved out in the tiniest details, cushions the people in Ryan’s world, creating a protective bubble where they can speak the most beautiful words in order to tell each other how they feel. While the characters in Ryan’s images seem to be in this intense state all the time, in the real world these special moments come and go. But most of us will at some point have experienced them, and so you’ll find yourself standing in front of one of Ryan’s large-scale cut-outs, craning your neck as you follow the winding text incorporated in the image, and think, ‘Yes, exactly. That’s what it’s like.’

Rob Ryan by Holly Trill
Rob Ryan by Holly Trill.

The private view of Rob Ryan’s new exhibition, The Stars Shine All Day Too, drew a crowd last Tuesday night at Mayfair’s Air Gallery. Large papercuts and screenprints, mostly monochrome in black on white, lined the walls of the small space, buzzing from the heat of the crowd enjoying vodka-champagne drinks. The artist himself was surrounded by guests eager for a chat, and a signature in their copy of the book, which pairs Ryan’s papercuts with a story by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Also on display was a collaboration between Ryan and the designer Lulu Guinness. The limited edition fan-shaped clutch bags, embellished in Swarovski crystals, go on sale Monday.

While the partnerships demonstrate the broad appeal of Ryan’s work, the act of viewing his art feels distinctively private. Especially studying the originals, where the slight paper-buckling causes delicate shadows, provokes an image of the artist hunched over a massive desk, knuckles white around a scalpel as he carves out leaves, birds, words and people. Undoubtedly a very time-consuming and fiddly process, you wonder how romantic Ryan feels if his knife slips and he cuts off the delicate paper strip connecting a shooting star, or even the heroine’s head. But the resulting work is romantic to the extreme, sincere and generous without a shred of irony. ‘Stars and galaxies rotate eternally, and you and I circle each other. For you are my universe entirely, and I will always be yours,’ reads the piece entitled Countless Moons, where the couple bathes in a pool under the stars.

Rob Ryan, Countless Moons
Rob Ryan, Countless Moons.

A few of the works lack text, such as Starry Night, showing a couple on a bench under a densely-starred sky. ‘Maybe it’s better that way, as you can interpret it how you like,’ my friend pointed out: ‘Like here, maybe she’s telling him to get his hands off her.’ I laughed, as this caption would get more giggles, for sure. But I can’t help but think we get our fill of sarcasm elsewhere, and we can always tune in to a re-run of ‘Mock the Week’ later if all this loveliness is getting too saccharine sweet to bear. In fact, there’s something very refreshing about the unapologetic tenderness of Ryan’s work. ‘If you believe in love but find it difficult to explain, this is for you,’ Ryan once chiseled out – that sounds about right. Not that everything Ryan does is about romantic love, mind, as demonstrated by one of my favourite pieces at the show: ‘Look closer and closer and look further and further and listen harder and harder to the noise of our earth and the silence of the stars, and what you will hear is a small voice that whispers – don’t try to get, try to give …’

Rob Ryan by Jessica Stokes
Rob Ryan by Jessica Stokes.

It took me all night, but I finally managed to steal a minute or Ryan’s time in the end. I asked him, where does it all come from, the inspiration for all this? ‘Oh no, it’s an interview!’ he laughed, before he shrugged: ‘I don’t know anymore, I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I get to go to my studio and do something I love. It just comes to me.’ Or at least he said something to this effect – by this point it was very loud and hot in the gallery, and having skipped dinner I should have declined that last vodka-champagne. Either way, Ryan’s disarming manner made me feel confident enough to tell him how I’d discovered his work, several years ago as I came across a picture in a magazine. It was a very simple papercut with large text over a row of houses: ‘Maybe in this very city or in a field a thousand miles away, but you must be patient and never despair, for one day we shall truly find each other.’ I’d just been dumped and was feeling something akin to despair at the time, but Ryan’s little print made me feel better. I don’t know what I expected Ryan to say to this, but his response was moving – his eyes lit up and he thanked thanked me for sharing it with him. Maybe that’s the sort of reaction he’s hoping for with his work, I wondered, but I didn’t get the chance to ask as autograph-hunters were circling closer and my moment with the star of the night was up.

Rob Ryan, Your Job
Rob Ryan, Your Job.

As the title of the show suggests, stars are a feature of most of the works displayed at the Air Gallery, but one piece stands out from this pattern. It’s a smaller cut-out in red, featuring not a couple but a boy and a bird. It reads: ‘Your job is to take this world apart and then put it back together again … but even better!’ And you read it and you think, ‘Yes, exactly. That’s what it’s like.’

See Rob Ryan’s The Stars Shine All Day Too at the Air Gallery, Dover Street, London W1, until 20th November 2010. For more details check out our listing.

Rob Ryan, <a target=pills All It Took” title=”Rob Ryan, patient All It Took” width=”480″ height=”612″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-29087″ />
Rob Ryan, order All It Took.

There is something heartbreaking about Rob Ryan’s art. His work shows us a world full of beauty, where people love and long for each other so all-consumingly that everything else pales in comparison. The surrounding scenery, intricately carved out in the tiniest details, cushions the people in Ryan’s world, creating a protective bubble where they can speak the most beautiful words in order to tell each other how they feel. While the characters in Ryan’s images seem to be in this intense state all the time, in the real world these special moments come and go. But most of us will at some point have experienced them, and so you’ll find yourself standing in front of one of Ryan’s large-scale cut-outs, craning your neck as you follow the winding text incorporated in the image, and think, ‘Yes, exactly. That’s what it’s like.’

Rob Ryan by Holly Trill
Rob Ryan by Holly Trill.

The private view of Rob Ryan’s new exhibition, The Stars Shine All Day Too, drew a crowd last Tuesday night at Mayfair’s Air Gallery. Large papercuts and screenprints, mostly monochrome in black on white, lined the walls of the small space, buzzing from the heat of the crowd enjoying vodka-champagne drinks. The artist himself was surrounded by guests eager for a chat, and a signature in their copy of the book, which pairs Ryan’s papercuts with a story by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Also on display was a collaboration between Ryan and the designer Lulu Guinness. The limited edition fan-shaped clutch bags, embellished in Swarovski crystals, go on sale Monday.

While the partnerships demonstrate the broad appeal of Ryan’s work, the act of viewing his art feels distinctively private. Especially studying the originals, where the slight paper-buckling causes delicate shadows, provokes an image of the artist hunched over a massive desk, knuckles white around a scalpel as he carves out leaves, birds, words and people. Undoubtedly a very time-consuming and fiddly process, you wonder how romantic Ryan feels if his knife slips and he cuts off the delicate paper strip connecting a shooting star, or even the heroine’s head. But the resulting work is romantic to the extreme, sincere and generous without a shred of irony. ‘Stars and galaxies rotate eternally, and you and I circle each other. For you are my universe entirely, and I will always be yours,’ reads the piece entitled Countless Moons, where the couple bathes in a pool under the stars.

Rob Ryan, Countless Moons
Rob Ryan, Countless Moons.

A few of the works lack text, such as Starry Night, showing a couple on a bench under a densely-starred sky. ‘Maybe it’s better that way, as you can interpret it how you like,’ my friend pointed out: ‘Like here, maybe she’s telling him to get his hands off her.’ I laughed, as this caption would get more giggles, for sure. But I can’t help but think we get our fill of sarcasm elsewhere, and we can always tune in to a re-run of ‘Mock the Week’ later if all this loveliness is getting too saccharine sweet to bear. In fact, there’s something very refreshing about the unapologetic tenderness of Ryan’s work. ‘If you believe in love but find it difficult to explain, this is for you,’ Ryan once chiseled out – that sounds about right. Not that everything Ryan does is about romantic love, mind, as demonstrated by one of my favourite pieces at the show: ‘Look closer and closer and look further and further and listen harder and harder to the noise of our earth and the silence of the stars, and what you will hear is a small voice that whispers – don’t try to get, try to give …’

Rob Ryan by Jessica Stokes
Rob Ryan by Jessica Stokes.

It took me all night, but I finally managed to steal a minute or Ryan’s time in the end. I asked him, where does it all come from, the inspiration for all this? ‘Oh no, it’s an interview!’ he laughed, before he shrugged: ‘I don’t know anymore, I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I get to go to my studio and do something I love. It just comes to me.’ Or at least he said something to this effect – by this point it was very loud and hot in the gallery, and having skipped dinner I should have declined that last vodka-champagne. Either way, Ryan’s disarming manner made me feel confident enough to tell him how I’d discovered his work, several years ago as I came across a picture in a magazine. It was a very simple papercut with large text over a row of houses: ‘Maybe in this very city or in a field a thousand miles away, but you must be patient and never despair, for one day we shall truly find each other.’ I’d just been dumped and was feeling something akin to despair at the time, but Ryan’s little print made me feel better. I don’t know what I expected Ryan to say to this, but his response was moving – his eyes lit up and he thanked thanked me for sharing it with him. Maybe that’s the sort of reaction he’s hoping for with his work, I wondered, but I didn’t get the chance to ask as autograph-hunters were circling closer and my moment with the star of the night was up.

Rob Ryan, Your Job
Rob Ryan, Your Job.

As the title of the show suggests, stars are a feature of most of the works displayed at the Air Gallery, but one piece stands out from this pattern. It’s a smaller cut-out in red, featuring not a couple but a boy and a bird. It reads: ‘Your job is to take this world apart and then put it back together again … but even better!’ And you read it and you think, ‘Yes, exactly. That’s what it’s like.’

See Rob Ryan’s The Stars Shine All Day Too at the Air Gallery, Dover Street, London W1, until 20th November 2010. For more details check out our listing.

Rob Ryan, <a target=symptoms All It Took” title=”Rob Ryan, drug All It Took” width=”480″ height=”612″ class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-29087″ />
Rob Ryan, check All It Took.

There is something heartbreaking about Rob Ryan’s art. His work shows us a world full of beauty, where people love and long for each other so all-consumingly that everything else pales in comparison. The surrounding scenery, intricately carved out in the tiniest details, cushions the people in Ryan’s world, creating a protective bubble where they can speak the most beautiful words in order to tell each other how they feel. While the characters in Ryan’s images seem to be in this intense state all the time, in the real world these special moments come and go. But most of us will at some point have experienced them, and so you’ll find yourself standing in front of one of Ryan’s large-scale cut-outs, craning your neck as you follow the winding text incorporated in the image, and think, ‘Yes, exactly. That’s what it’s like.’

Rob Ryan by Holly Trill
Rob Ryan by Holly Trill.

The private view of Rob Ryan’s new exhibition, The Stars Shine All Day Too, drew a crowd last Tuesday night at Mayfair’s Air Gallery. Large papercuts and screenprints, mostly monochrome in black on white, lined the walls of the small space, buzzing from the heat of the crowd enjoying vodka-champagne drinks. The artist himself was surrounded by guests eager for a chat, and a signature in their copy of the book, which pairs Ryan’s papercuts with a story by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Also on display was a collaboration between Ryan and the designer Lulu Guinness. The limited edition fan-shaped clutch bags, embellished in Swarovski crystals, go on sale Monday.

While the partnerships demonstrate the broad appeal of Ryan’s work, the act of viewing his art feels distinctively private. Especially studying the originals, where the slight paper-buckling causes delicate shadows, provokes an image of the artist hunched over a massive desk, knuckles white around a scalpel as he carves out leaves, birds, words and people. Undoubtedly a very time-consuming and fiddly process, you wonder how romantic Ryan feels if his knife slips and he cuts off the delicate paper strip connecting a shooting star, or even the heroine’s head. But the resulting work is romantic to the extreme, sincere and generous without a shred of irony. ‘Stars and galaxies rotate eternally, and you and I circle each other. For you are my universe entirely, and I will always be yours,’ reads the piece entitled Countless Moons, where the couple bathes in a pool under the stars.

Rob Ryan, Countless Moons
Rob Ryan, Countless Moons.

A few of the works lack text, such as Starry Night, showing a couple on a bench under a densely-starred sky. ‘Maybe it’s better that way, as you can interpret it how you like,’ my friend pointed out: ‘Like here, maybe she’s telling him to get his hands off her.’ I laughed, as this caption would get more giggles, for sure. But I can’t help but think we get our fill of sarcasm elsewhere, and we can always tune in to a re-run of Mock the Week later if all this loveliness is getting too saccharine sweet to bear. In fact, there’s something very refreshing about the unapologetic tenderness of Ryan’s work. ‘If you believe in love but find it difficult to explain, this is for you,’ Ryan once chiseled out – that sounds about right. Not that everything Ryan does is about romantic love, mind, as demonstrated by one of my favourite pieces at the show: ‘Look closer and closer and look further and further and listen harder and harder to the noise of our earth and the silence of the stars, and what you will hear is a small voice that whispers – don’t try to get, try to give …’

Rob Ryan by Jessica Stokes
Rob Ryan by Jessica Stokes.

It took me all night, but I finally managed to steal a minute or Ryan’s time in the end. I asked him, where does it all come from, the inspiration for all this? ‘Oh no, it’s an interview!’ he laughed, before he shrugged: ‘I don’t know anymore, I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I get to go to my studio and do something I love. It just comes to me.’ Or at least he said something to this effect – by this point it was very loud and hot in the gallery, and having skipped dinner I should have declined that last vodka-champagne. Either way, Ryan’s disarming manner made me feel confident enough to tell him how I’d discovered his work, several years ago as I came across a picture in a magazine. It was a very simple papercut with large text over a row of houses: ‘Maybe in this very city or in a field a thousand miles away, but you must be patient and never despair, for one day we shall truly find each other.’ I’d just been dumped and was feeling something akin to despair at the time, but Ryan’s little print made me feel better. I don’t know what I expected Ryan to say to this, but his response was moving – his eyes lit up and he thanked thanked me for sharing it with him. Maybe that’s the sort of reaction he’s hoping for with his work, I wondered, but I didn’t get the chance to ask as autograph-hunters were circling closer and my moment with the star of the night was up.

Rob Ryan, Your Job
Rob Ryan, Your Job.

As the title of the show suggests, stars are a feature of most of the works displayed at the Air Gallery, but one piece stands out from this pattern. It’s a smaller cut-out in red, featuring not a couple but a boy and a bird. It reads: ‘Your job is to take this world apart and then put it back together again … but even better!’ And you read it and you think, ‘Yes, exactly. That’s what it’s like.’

See Rob Ryan’s The Stars Shine All Day Too at the Air Gallery, Dover Street, London W1, until 20th November 2010. For more details check out our listing.

little fish by aniela murphy
The Old Blue Last by Aniela Murphy.

The Old Blue Last pub, nurse just off Old Street is a 120 capacity pub and live music venue owned by Vice Magazine that has recently undergone a refurb. Sure the stage area is small and the dressing rooms a little neglected, patient but the atmosphere is warm, the toilets work and there’s something about the place that reminds me just why live music is so great.

littlefishinterview_anielamurphy
Willemÿn with Little Fish singer Julia, by Aniela Murphy.

The main reason I’m here is to see Little Fish, an Oxford based duo who have recently confirmed they’re a three piece with the permanent addition of their Hammond player, Ben Walker. Before they hit the stage, support band AWOLNATION threw an unexpected blistering thirty minute set. Hailing from America to promote their debut EP Back from Earth, and in good spirits, the band got a relatively meek crowd’s heads bopping and hips shaking. Opening with their fan pleaser Guilty Filthy Soul, their set merged dance beats, killer hooks and catchy rhythms, it’s clear this band have got energy, bags of charisma, and a hot lead singer. Off to a good start then, and one to keep an eye on.

On to Little Fish, who took to the stage after a swift set change, bringing out the bigger drums and bigger guns it would seem. Opening with the title track to their debut album Baffled and Beat, it didn’t take long for the room to fully get into the swing of the night. A couple of tracks in, and the floor was literally jumping with the crowd lapping up every ounce of sweat pouring from the stage. Lead singer and guitarist Julia ‘Juju’ Sophie never once showed sings of waning. Her vocals spilling over with raw emotion, it’s clear she absolutely loves what she does. The drums, courtesy of Nez Greenaway, thunder throughout the set, only letting up during the momentary softer close to a few tracks. Hammond in tow surges from back of stage through Little Fish’s explosive ferocity, bringing extra solidity to their sound, and allows them to sit comfortably above many other garage bands out there today.

 Little Fish Live Shot
Little Fish live. Photographed by Willemÿn Barker-Benfield

Stand out tracks of the night include the vastly popular Darling Dear, Whiplash, and the sonically awesome Die Young, which confirms how far the trio have come, whilst retaining their classic stripped roots that scream a passion for conviction, since their debut EP Darling Dear last year. It’s tough not to compare Juju’s vocal ability and physical prowess to other women in rock, like Juliette Lewis and Courtney Love, both of which Little Fish have toured with, and why not? There aren’t enough women out there packing a rock and roll punch these days, and Little Fish aren’t scared to get their fisty cuffs out. If you like your rock hitting the garage mark hard, then head on down to their next gig and bring your dancing shoes. Brilliant.

Their debut album Baffled and Beat is out now and released on Island.

Categories ,Aniela Murphy, ,Awolnation, ,Back from Earth, ,Baffled and Beat, ,Ben Walker, ,Courtney Love, ,Darling Dear, ,Die Young, ,Island, ,Juju Sophie, ,juliette lewis, ,Little Fish, ,Nez Greenaway, ,Old Blue Last, ,Whiplash

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Amelia’s Magazine | In conversation with Little Fish

Little-Fish-by-Octavi-Navarro
Little Fish by Octavi Navarro

I saw you guys at the Royal Albert Hall, advice supporting Them Crooked Vultures, clinic and was completely blown away when I saw you play and by your sound, but what was it like for you to play a venue of that size?
I don’t think I realised how big it was until we got on stage-I knew it was big, but I don’t really think about it until I’m on stage and then I go, ‘shit there’s loads of people and lights, and there’s a huge screen behind me, a huge screen!’ It felt a huge privilege to support Them Crooked Vultures as they’re such a great band, it was nerve wracking, and it’s a big prestigious venue to play.

Are you fans of the Vultures?
Definitely. We met them briefly, and Dave Grohl was really lovely. He’s got the reputation of being one of the nicest men in rock and roll and he really was. It was for the Teenage Cancer Trust, [a trust founded by The Who’s Roger Daltrey to raise funds and awareness for teenage cancer] and there were loads of kids backstage and he was really nice to them.

I’ve unashamedly had a crush on Dave Grohl for years, have you ever had any rock crushes like that?
Ha! I have had a couple of rock crushes, I even wrote a fan letter to someone once, and that was probably the hardest letter I’ve ever written! Trying to write a letter to someone you don’t know is pretty hard. It was to someone who had written a song with ‘devil’ in it, and it was the first time I’d ever heard a dark song and I was so inspired by it, it kind of changed my whole way of writing. I used to write really happy songs and I realised you can be dark and angry. So I wrote a letter, and said thank you for inspiring me. I wrote an answer to them in one of our songs called ‘Devils Eyes’, which is a response to their song ‘The Devil’s Song’.

Little Fish

Your debut album, Baffled and Beat, was produced by Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes fame, I hear it was at times a gruelling experience and recording process, was it quite intense? Or was it a good way to progress further as a band?
It was a big learning curve because we’d gone from just doing a demo in a garage to recording in a big LA studio with a big producer, and it was really shocking. It made me question what I was doing and why I was doing it. Was I doing music because I wanted to be a rock star? No was the answer. I was doing music because I loved it and I found that hard because when you’re thrown into that situation, automatically you’re in a position where you’re supposed to be a rock star and I felt like that wasn’t why I was doing music. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in that situation, but then I realised actually I love writing and I love doing music and it’s what comes with it so I carried on. But it was hard to realise.

How long did it take to record?
We recorded the album really quickly, over three weeks, pretty much live, and what took a bit of time was choosing the songs. We didn’t do any pre-production really, I think that was the hard thing, it would have been nice to have a bit more time, but it was the first proper experience and we learnt so much, and Linda Perry makes you work very hard, so we really learnt how to work hard, and that was great because now I think we’ve stepped up a big gear and we’d like to record our next album.

When I listened to your EP and your album, I heard a definite change, but it still sounds like you kept the rawness there, but it’s slicked up. Is that your take on it?
Yeah, I think we’ve also developed as a band, as we got signed as a two piece and now we have our Hammond player [Ben Walker] as a three piece, so now we’ve evolved as a band. We were in LA as a two piece, and now we’re three, and creating different sounds and writing different songs so we’re evolving and that’s magical.

Have you had pressure to add more instruments or do you want to keep the sound as stripped as possible?
We’re quite purist in that way, and we like to stay true to the challenge of staying pure. A lot of bands have got their five or six pieces, a wall of sound, but I like the human side of things, I like the calamity, and I don’t like things to be perfect. I like that struggle, and I think you’ve got to keep things with a little bit of a challenge and stay small.

With the garage sound, it doesn’t stay that way for many bands, and it’s good to see as a band gets bigger, you’ve still kept that sound.
I don’t know if that works against us in this industry- I think a lot of people like the instant, big, quick and simple sound, but it’s a bit more challenging with us. We’re definitely going to stay true to [our sound] for a while.

Back to the album, many artists see their work as their babies; do you have a favourite baby on the album? Or is the whole album one big baby for you?
I think I’d like to give birth all over again. The baby is good, but I think that because we were so inexperienced in a way, I’d like to have that opportunity to really record an album that is exactly what I’d like. We were learning with the recording process, so I think that album is a discovery album, I think there are some bits we will take and some we will leave for the next one. I’m really happy with it, to have had the opportunity to record an album is amazing, and to have someone like Linda Perry support you is amazing, I just want the opportunity to keep going.

Little Fish by Little Fish

You guys picked up music at different ages (Nez started drumming at five, whereas Juju began playing the guitar much later), do you think that’s helped create the distinctive sound of Little Fish?
Probably! Nez and Ben are really proficient, well taught, trained and naturally amazing musicians, I’m a bit of an eclectic, self taught manic person, who jumbles songs together. I think that mix helps it because Nez really helps ground the songs, and I think if we were both too calamity we would be a real, calamity sound! To have the privilege to play with such great musicians is really grounding and they’re so good they allow me to explore things, which is great. It makes us who we are.

What’s the writing process like? Is it difficult, or do you have to be in the right mood?
I used to think I had to be in the right mood, but when we did the album with Linda she would just send me off in the morning to write a song, and that was a lot of pressure, obviously everybody’s waiting for a song! You realise that you can write, you’ve just got to apply yourself. It’s more about applying yourself then being in the mood! I tend to brew, and maybe not write for a month, because I’m brewing, and then I get really depressed, and just write!

Have you written a lot of songs waiting to come out?
Yeah we’ve recorded a few new demos, and we’ll be recording a few more in a few weeks. So that’s really exciting. We’ve no idea when a second album will come out, but not too long. It’s going to be called ‘Re-baffled and beaten’!

What do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t doing this?
I don’t think I’d ever go down a different path until I’d have to, but whatever I do I just apply myself 100%, this is more like a compulsion. I love writing and singing and I think it would break me if I had to do something else. I’ve always written, I love writing little stories, poems, I’ll always write songs whether I’m in a band or not, whether I’m a mother with lots of kids running around-I have to do it, if I don’t I just don’t feel well, it’s kind of like therapy. The best advice for anybody in a band is to not have a plan B.

There’s a bit of buzz recently about the position of women in rock today (see the recent Elle article on Elle honouring women in the music industry). Do you see yourself as one of the woman in rock?
I never thought about it before, it’s only now that I’ve started to realise it since I felt, dare I say it, a bit of sexism for being a woman in a band. You realise how much you actually have to step up a little, and it’s only recently, I never thought about it before and didn’t care, and you realise the women [in rock] today are already big icons, but how did they get there? It’s not impossible for a woman to be the forefront of a band, but it’s hard. That’s why I want to make people aware of it, to dip into people’s consciousness.

Little Fish’s video, Whiplash

Categories ,4 Non Blondes, ,Ben Walker, ,Dave Grohl, ,Elle Magazine, ,Juju Sophie, ,Linda Perry, ,Little Fish, ,Nez Greenaway, ,Old Blue Last, ,Roger Daltrey, ,Royal Albert Hall, ,Teenage Cancer Trust, ,the who, ,Them Crooked Vultures

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Amelia’s Magazine | In conversation with Little Fish

Little-Fish-by-Octavi-Navarro
Little Fish by Octavi Navarro

I saw you guys at the Royal Albert Hall, advice supporting Them Crooked Vultures, clinic and was completely blown away when I saw you play and by your sound, but what was it like for you to play a venue of that size?
I don’t think I realised how big it was until we got on stage-I knew it was big, but I don’t really think about it until I’m on stage and then I go, ‘shit there’s loads of people and lights, and there’s a huge screen behind me, a huge screen!’ It felt a huge privilege to support Them Crooked Vultures as they’re such a great band, it was nerve wracking, and it’s a big prestigious venue to play.

Are you fans of the Vultures?
Definitely. We met them briefly, and Dave Grohl was really lovely. He’s got the reputation of being one of the nicest men in rock and roll and he really was. It was for the Teenage Cancer Trust, [a trust founded by The Who’s Roger Daltrey to raise funds and awareness for teenage cancer] and there were loads of kids backstage and he was really nice to them.

I’ve unashamedly had a crush on Dave Grohl for years, have you ever had any rock crushes like that?
Ha! I have had a couple of rock crushes, I even wrote a fan letter to someone once, and that was probably the hardest letter I’ve ever written! Trying to write a letter to someone you don’t know is pretty hard. It was to someone who had written a song with ‘devil’ in it, and it was the first time I’d ever heard a dark song and I was so inspired by it, it kind of changed my whole way of writing. I used to write really happy songs and I realised you can be dark and angry. So I wrote a letter, and said thank you for inspiring me. I wrote an answer to them in one of our songs called ‘Devils Eyes’, which is a response to their song ‘The Devil’s Song’.

Little Fish

Your debut album, Baffled and Beat, was produced by Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes fame, I hear it was at times a gruelling experience and recording process, was it quite intense? Or was it a good way to progress further as a band?
It was a big learning curve because we’d gone from just doing a demo in a garage to recording in a big LA studio with a big producer, and it was really shocking. It made me question what I was doing and why I was doing it. Was I doing music because I wanted to be a rock star? No was the answer. I was doing music because I loved it and I found that hard because when you’re thrown into that situation, automatically you’re in a position where you’re supposed to be a rock star and I felt like that wasn’t why I was doing music. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in that situation, but then I realised actually I love writing and I love doing music and it’s what comes with it so I carried on. But it was hard to realise.

How long did it take to record?
We recorded the album really quickly, over three weeks, pretty much live, and what took a bit of time was choosing the songs. We didn’t do any pre-production really, I think that was the hard thing, it would have been nice to have a bit more time, but it was the first proper experience and we learnt so much, and Linda Perry makes you work very hard, so we really learnt how to work hard, and that was great because now I think we’ve stepped up a big gear and we’d like to record our next album.

When I listened to your EP and your album, I heard a definite change, but it still sounds like you kept the rawness there, but it’s slicked up. Is that your take on it?
Yeah, I think we’ve also developed as a band, as we got signed as a two piece and now we have our Hammond player [Ben Walker] as a three piece, so now we’ve evolved as a band. We were in LA as a two piece, and now we’re three, and creating different sounds and writing different songs so we’re evolving and that’s magical.

Have you had pressure to add more instruments or do you want to keep the sound as stripped as possible?
We’re quite purist in that way, and we like to stay true to the challenge of staying pure. A lot of bands have got their five or six pieces, a wall of sound, but I like the human side of things, I like the calamity, and I don’t like things to be perfect. I like that struggle, and I think you’ve got to keep things with a little bit of a challenge and stay small.

With the garage sound, it doesn’t stay that way for many bands, and it’s good to see as a band gets bigger, you’ve still kept that sound.
I don’t know if that works against us in this industry- I think a lot of people like the instant, big, quick and simple sound, but it’s a bit more challenging with us. We’re definitely going to stay true to [our sound] for a while.

Back to the album, many artists see their work as their babies; do you have a favourite baby on the album? Or is the whole album one big baby for you?
I think I’d like to give birth all over again. The baby is good, but I think that because we were so inexperienced in a way, I’d like to have that opportunity to really record an album that is exactly what I’d like. We were learning with the recording process, so I think that album is a discovery album, I think there are some bits we will take and some we will leave for the next one. I’m really happy with it, to have had the opportunity to record an album is amazing, and to have someone like Linda Perry support you is amazing, I just want the opportunity to keep going.

Little Fish by Little Fish

You guys picked up music at different ages (Nez started drumming at five, whereas Juju began playing the guitar much later), do you think that’s helped create the distinctive sound of Little Fish?
Probably! Nez and Ben are really proficient, well taught, trained and naturally amazing musicians, I’m a bit of an eclectic, self taught manic person, who jumbles songs together. I think that mix helps it because Nez really helps ground the songs, and I think if we were both too calamity we would be a real, calamity sound! To have the privilege to play with such great musicians is really grounding and they’re so good they allow me to explore things, which is great. It makes us who we are.

What’s the writing process like? Is it difficult, or do you have to be in the right mood?
I used to think I had to be in the right mood, but when we did the album with Linda she would just send me off in the morning to write a song, and that was a lot of pressure, obviously everybody’s waiting for a song! You realise that you can write, you’ve just got to apply yourself. It’s more about applying yourself then being in the mood! I tend to brew, and maybe not write for a month, because I’m brewing, and then I get really depressed, and just write!

Have you written a lot of songs waiting to come out?
Yeah we’ve recorded a few new demos, and we’ll be recording a few more in a few weeks. So that’s really exciting. We’ve no idea when a second album will come out, but not too long. It’s going to be called ‘Re-baffled and beaten’!

What do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t doing this?
I don’t think I’d ever go down a different path until I’d have to, but whatever I do I just apply myself 100%, this is more like a compulsion. I love writing and singing and I think it would break me if I had to do something else. I’ve always written, I love writing little stories, poems, I’ll always write songs whether I’m in a band or not, whether I’m a mother with lots of kids running around-I have to do it, if I don’t I just don’t feel well, it’s kind of like therapy. The best advice for anybody in a band is to not have a plan B.

There’s a bit of buzz recently about the position of women in rock today (see the recent Elle article on Elle honouring women in the music industry). Do you see yourself as one of the woman in rock?
I never thought about it before, it’s only now that I’ve started to realise it since I felt, dare I say it, a bit of sexism for being a woman in a band. You realise how much you actually have to step up a little, and it’s only recently, I never thought about it before and didn’t care, and you realise the women [in rock] today are already big icons, but how did they get there? It’s not impossible for a woman to be the forefront of a band, but it’s hard. That’s why I want to make people aware of it, to dip into people’s consciousness.

Little Fish’s video, Whiplash

Categories ,4 Non Blondes, ,Ben Walker, ,Dave Grohl, ,Elle Magazine, ,Juju Sophie, ,Linda Perry, ,Little Fish, ,Nez Greenaway, ,Old Blue Last, ,Roger Daltrey, ,Royal Albert Hall, ,Teenage Cancer Trust, ,the who, ,Them Crooked Vultures

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