No cool fools: Coz Kerrigan, Micko Larkin, Edward Larrikin and Alfie Ambrose |
Larrikin Love – no rock ’n’ roll clichés
LARRIKIN Love were probably the best band at the Camden Crawl, as a Carlsberg ad exec might say. A four-piece from west London, they were signed by Warner in November last year, and formed two years ago. Their biggest single so far, Edwould, charted at No 49. They release their debut album in September. Charlotte Chambers spoke to drummer Coz Kerrigan.
Q: Your album’s called The Freedom Spark – why that name?
A: It’s a concept album. The first half is all claustrophobia and wanting to break out – and then right in the middle there’s an acoustic song called At The Feet Of Ré (a Greek sungod). And then after that all the songs are about getting free.
Q: What was the breakthrough moment for you – from playing the Water Rats late last year to the festival circuit now…
A: The NME show at the Astoria with Elbow – not many people would go to an Elbow gig to look cool, they just went to enjoy the music.
Touring with the Zutons was also a massive break, that was all really big venues. (Your Camden Crawl gig at the Electric Ballroom went really well). Yeah that’s one of the best gigs we’ve done.
Q: Any tales of rock ’n’ roll excess yet?
A: No, we’re not rock ’n’ roll clichés. (Do you sit around drinking tea and eating crumpets?) No I like chocolate fingers although guitarist Micko loves crumpets – we were talking about them the other day.
Q: What’s your rant?
A: I hate ‘Thamesbeat’ – bass player Alfie Ambrose made it up, and it’s supposed to describe the music scene we’re in – along with the Mystery Jets and Jamie T. Now everyone uses it to describe us, I don’t understand why we have to be branded.
Q: You’re from Twickenham – Ian Broudie once bought the PJ and Duncan single Psych from Woolies there. Any cringeworthy moments of your own?
A: There are probably some Blink182 CDs in my closet, but PJ and Duncan were always cool.
Q: Have any stars you’ve bumped into not been what you expected? Any goss?
A: When we met Carl Barât and Gary Powell from Dirty Pretty Things we didn’t think they’d want to talk to us but they were really lovely, and Carl kept saying: “I really like your band’s name” over and over. We went out with them after the Camden Crawl to KOKO. (And you say you’re not rock n roll – pah!)
Q: What’s with the birds tweeting on your website? Original yes, annoying… maybe…
A: Yeah, they are really annoying – you should be able to turn them off, I need to have a word with the web guy.
Q: What’s the difference between communism and socialism in 50 words.
A: God… (Ok, why did communism fail?) It had the wrong people in charge. I loved the idea – Joe Strummer, from the Clash, once said: “There’s always going to be someone riding around in the black cars, there’ll always be someone controlling and it will end up a dictatorship, so it will never work” – I think that’s true.
Q: Where do you stand on ASBOs?
A: I bought one in a market in Liverpool – it was quite cheap.
Q: Give a “shout out” – as they say on kids television – to your favourite unsigned band.
A: Air Hammer – best band in the world – and My brother’s band, Marner Brown, too.
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