Lost In Audio

OK, so there’s been, like, a lot of buzz about these guys in Scotland, they are shameless self advertisers and whether or not they sing your tune, that is certainly a cool trait. Jenni Gould went off to chat to lead singer/guitarist Joe and drummer/backing singer Ewan about the Edinburgh music scene, Iceland and their thoughts on getting ahead in the music industry…

When you first meet Lost In Audio you could be mistaken for thinking they are a signed band. Joe definitely has the gift of the gab and whether or not you like their music their ambition cannot be dampened. On the day of the interview Joe and Ewan excuse themselves as they rush off to talk to Lights, a Canadian singer whom they saw in concert the night before. They are certainly all about networking and in their own words will “go that extra mile” to get noticed. Joe states: “I will go out of my way to infiltrate a smashing pumpkins gig and get backstage. That’s a true story. I actually gave Billy Corgan our EP and he went ‘ah cooool’ (in true Corgan impression mode) It was the same with the Foo Fighters. A lot of artists like that, a lot don’t but in the end we ended up supporting lots.”

For a relatively young band they have a plenty of experience under their belt having supported many signed bands and selling out venues in their own right. I asked if any of their headlining bands had been (let’s put it politely) less than welcoming, to which the reply rang as follows:

Eh… Yeah. The worst has to be Boy Kill Boy. They definitely had small man syndrome. I wouldn’t bad mouth any of the other bands we’ve supported. Most of the other bands have been great in helping us further our career. We sold out Cabaret Voltaire in February, then Boy Kill Boy played there, we supported them and they had 69 tickets sold. Boy Kill Boy had a drawing power of minus 181 people. The Fratellis were really cool; they invited me down to their studio to check it out. The subways really helped us a lot… The View… I perhaps shouldn’t comment on that one. I don’t like bad mouthing other bands but I don’t have a lot of respect for The View and I’ll say that on the record.

I don’t like bad mouthing other bands but I don’t have a lot of respect for The View and I’ll say that on the record

But when it came to the crunch, the interview was about them. A band which has had various line ups in the past few years and recently changed their name from The Dials to Lost in Audio. This became a conscious change of direction for the band “It’s like putting on a pair of headphones and literally getting lost in audio.” It also meant that the band could change their musical direction if they wished and as Joe stated “we could play death metal If we wanted to”… now that could work. The bands influences range from Nine Inch Nails and obscure Japanese Metal bands to Justin Timberlake. I am assured they would never listen to a JT album all the way through but in terms of performance he seems to be the man. They are influenced by anyone who has good songs, put emphasis on the fact that they are “a song based band” and feel that this will set them aside from the generic Indie rock crap that appears to be taking over radio airwaves of late. When they thought I called them ‘generic Indie’ I was almost slaughtered, so their stance on that one seems clear. Their views on the political world seem less blatant and it’s obvious that although they feel politics and music go hand in hand they focus more on personal politics, writing about things that they can relate to. (They also joked about being neo-Nazis – I can however assure you this is not true)

Many have commented lately that the Edinburgh music scene is frankly shit in comparison to the likes of Glasgow and Dundee but LIA assure me that this isn’t the case:

Joe: Well put it this way. We played Sneaky Petes and sold it out. It can’t be that shit. We’ve been in Whistle Binkies where it’s been rammed to the back, people have been going fucking nuts, we’ve been knocked over by people coming on stage. We’ve been in Studio 24 and had stage invasions. I stand by the fact that you can’t stage dive in a city where the music scene is shit.

Like them or loathe them, for an Edinburgh based band with an average age of 20 you really can’t fault them for trying.

So if they’re already fighting off the fans during gigs where to they go from here? Well if they had to eradicate any band and take their place it would be Coldplay (If only that could happen soon and stop my ears bleeding.) But what lengths would they go to in order to really make it big?:

Joe: I think we’d go to most things. For us, we’re in second gear at the moment in terms of promotion but for song writing and practising we are working really hard. We want to absolutely unleash the promotion in a year or two. I think our tunes are brilliant and are as good as the stuff coming out on the radio, our live shows are getting better and better and better. It’s a lot better than people expect. People say it’s not what they expect from an unsigned band. I don’t think we really need to sell our souls if the tunes are good enough you’ll get signed.
But if push came to shove… anything as long as it’s not sexual.

Ewan: well sexual or otherwise really. If it comes down to it you can sacrifice me and I’ll do it.

Lovely. So there we have it, they are all about the music and don’t want to be recognised for merely being weird or quirky and want the songs to speak for themselves. With the self promotion the way its going they might just achieve their goals. Recently they supported the Von Bondies and have signed to a new management company, not only this they will be performing on the main stage at the biggest festival in Iceland this summer to a crowd of 14,000. So maybe world domination is a bit far fetched right now but when it comes down to it, like them or loathe them, for an Edinburgh based band with an average age of 20 you really can’t fault them for trying. So if world domination does beckon, or they manage to eradicate Coldplay (here’s hoping), you heard it here first folks!

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up coming gigs: