Features

Where are you at the moment?

Thomas: We are currently in Darren's flat in west london, speaking to an Australian, excited about our trip to Australia, but more imminently our trip to Dubai tomorrow for a festival, we still need to pack, so we're really busy at the moment. We're touring basically all over europe and America. So we've had a couple of days off here and we're off again tomorrow. We're right in the middle of our autumn/winter touring.

How did you meet?

Dede: Well, me and Thomas are married, we met at work and then we met Darren at work. So we all met working at the same company.

Where did you work together?

T: We all worked at a record company, at EMI Records in London. We did desk jobs... Fairly unexciting work there, we were small cogs in a big machine. But we left all that behind. We learned bits There's nothing really that's relevant to our band... it was just prepping artists, that sort of thing. Obviously we worked in music because we loved music and we loved being in that environment, but in terms of it giving us a path to what we're doing now, it wasn't that much help.

What was the decision like to leave work to concentrate on the band?

De: Well, we didn't leave to start the band, me and Thomas actually left to go travel and Darren was leaving anyway. It wasn't leaving work as such, it was more of a happy coincidence, so when we got back from traveling all of us could concentrate on the band properly.

When you're writing songs, do people have specific roles?

D: Well, Thomas is manning the computer entirely, and Dede and I are kind of, we're yelling, and he's telling us to slow down and telling us what isn't possible and stuff. But generally we all write melodies and we all write lyrics and also, crucially, for each other. It's not like a band where one person writes, we each sort of share everything. You know, Thomas is recording guitar and bass, so when it comes to recording bass lines, he's doing that. We prefer to all be in the room when we write things, and speak together, and just sort of throw ideas out, that's how we get the best things, so we really try to stick to what we think is the most productive way to work, and that's it basically. You know, you write a melody and you can't think of the words so someone else writes them... and it's really, it's more exciting. You know, no-one ever comes back ad says, I've written a song and teaches it to the others. 

What was it like winning Glastonbury Emerging Talent?

D: It was amazing, actually. Absolutely incredible. In Europe, I think it's the most important festival - the history of it is phenomenal, it's been there for many eyars, it was incredible so to have their seal of approval, it doesn't get any more exciting that that, I think.. and we played some really large crowds, it was like, wow. It was brilliant. It was a lot of running around, actually. It was quite fun because they kept taking us around in this little jeep, because it's so busy and it's just a little village so they have to drive you around. It's quite fun.

One of last years joint winners, Golden Silvers, got a record deal after Emerging Talent... Have you had any offers?

T: Yes. We're talking to a few labels now. We launched the album a few weeks ago and we're finishing our touring so now we're going to work out exactly how we're going to release it. It will come early next year and it will be signed to someone, we're not 100 per cent sure just yet, but we'll get it out in a proper way early next year. That's the plan.

Are you going to tell me who you're talking to?

T: Not really, no...

D: Also, it's in quite an advanced stage at the moment, so in the next two or three weeks, we're hoping to tell everyone what's happiening. We will tell the world soon! It's been finished for a while now so it's exciting to be putting it out.

What's it like working with producer Gareth Jones [Grizzly Bear, Depeche Mode, Eurasia]?

D: He's great and the people he's worked with in the past are amazing. He was brilliant because he wasn't the producer who came in and said change thins, change that, let's bring in the horns and stuff. He really wanted to see us live and he came to see us and the first thing he said was we really have to keep this live feel. That was the sort of mantra of the recording sessions, he kept pulling us back. and saying no no, let's keep this raw. And he knows his stuff and I think he didn't want to drown it in polish so I think when people hear the album, it's bigger and certainly in terms of the pace of some of the songs and there's some much slower things and stuff you might not expect. It's not too shiny, you know? You're not going to have to scrub away the polish to find where we were six months ago, people are going to know, this is We Have Band... you know, we're expanding - in what I think is the right way.

Stay tuned for an album from We Have Band soon. For more on We Have Band check their website, wehaveband.com.