Ten Questions With Lucky Soul
By: Anna Dobbie
May 6, 2009 – London, United Kingdom
On a lazy Saturday afternoon, SoundProof caught up with lead singer Ali Howard and guitarist Andrew Laidlaw of indie-pop band Lucky Soul. Laidlaw got things started by giving us a brief history of how Lucky Soul came about.
AL: The main band got together late 2004. That's when we all descended on London. We were in Greenwich for a long time and then they knocked our studio down, so we moved slightly closer to the centre and have a new studio in Camberwell.
Sorry? They knocked down your studio?
AL: It was in an old fire station and it got bulldozed to make luxury flats. It was just a space we hired, so no big loss.
Back in the days when the O2 was emerging from it's grubby millennium dome cocoon into the beautiful arena-butterfly it has now become, weren't Lucky Soul one of the first bands to give it a test drive?
AL: They did an event for Greenwich residents and everyone in the borough got a ticket. It was two days before Bon Jovi played there and about 12 thousand people came, which was pretty bizarre; we'd never experienced anything like it before, because it was just before the album came out so we were still playing to smallish crowds. It was pretty soulless. I'm not really an arena fan so I've never been back; I prefer smaller venues.
So what has the band been up to recently?
AL: The last album came out two years ago. We're still recording the second half of the album at the moment, so it should be out around October. We wanted to get "Woah Billy!" out so we have a good few months to get back into the swing of it.
And your most recent gig, promoting the single, was at Camden Barfly. How did that go?
AL: It went really well but it was roasting. The air conditioning broke down and it was totally sold out; I've never sweated so much in my life.
AH: We're really proud when people turn up and know all the songs. We've been away for a while and were amazed we could still pack out a place. We've been gigging but it's been sporadic.
Have you enjoyed the globe-trotting the band has done?
AH: Japan's definitely my favourite country for gigging in. The trouble with gigging is that you treat it like a holiday but you don't get to see enough of the country, just a hotel room and a venue, so it can be a bit frustrating. When we go, we do try to make the most of it. If you can get an idea of the local culture before doing a gig, it helps. We only did two gigs there, a festival and a headline show, and a few radio sessions, but we were there for a week. I prefer that to UK touring, where everyday you do a different city. It's weird because we haven't actually seen a lot of the UK. It seems more difficult to gig in the UK – you just go where there's an audience.
The band received some brilliant reviews in national press, and were championed by Radio 1 DJ Colin Murray, who listed their single "Ain't Never Been Cool" in his top 20 tracks of 2007. How has that affected the band?
AH: We got really good press; it was quite overwhelming. It makes your expectations quite high for the next album, and it makes you start to wonder what the press are going to say. We've all improved, in terms of singing, playing and songwriting as well. We've all stepped up a gear so we hope it'll be better.
Why did you chose to release your debut on your own record label, Ruffa Lane?
AL: It was basically me and Nathaniel [Perkins] who used to be our drummer, who left to concentrate on the label full-time – more of a businessman than a drummer! We were bored so we set up a label. The first demos were recorded in a little house on Ruffa Lane in Yorkshire. We were making it up as we were going along. Now we've got a separate office, because we've expanded a bit and taken on a few other bands. It was weird, because it was always the plan to self-release the album. It's nice that it's all worked out according to plan because it was a little pipe dream.
You mentioned that other bands have recently signed to Ruffa Lane. How did that come about?
AL: That's just fallen into our laps really. A couple of the acts are Swedish. Napoleon badgered and badgered us to come and play a gig with Lucky Soul, they came over and they were just amazing. I've actually just been over recording with the Stockholm Strings to use on the new Lucky Soul album. They played on Brian Wilson's last album; it's weird because the strings do actually sound slightly Swedish!
How does being a female lead singer affect the band?
AH: I think it makes it easier because you stand out; I've never experienced any prejudice. I think if you are a girl in a band, you have more to prove and you do have to be good. You're easily identifiable rather than just being yet another boy in skinny jeans with a floppy hair cut. If you're a blonde girl in a band with boys, it's inevitable you'll be compared to Blondie. I always find people need a hook and if that's the hook, that's fine. Obviously Amy Winehouse was the big watershed moment. A few years ago, you had your pop stars and you had your bands, but I think it's all merging at the moment. The girl from The Noisettes is such a brilliant show woman. I think it's a really exciting time for female-fronted bands.
Video: "Add Your Light To Mine" by Lucky Soul
