Life in Film Interview

 

London based guitar band Life in Film is made up of Samuel Fry, Micky Osment, Edward Ibbotson and Dominic Sennétt. They caught the attention of industry giant Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur) who has been working with them on their album and been asked by fashion label Burberry to play an acoustic session for them. When we speak to Ed the excitement the boys have for the music they are making and the tour they are just about to set off on is evident.

How did you guys meet and decide to start making music together?

I’ve known Sam since we were at school together, we did a few half arsed band things when we were at school but then we both went to Uni. That’s where Sam met Dom and Mick. They played about a bit but nothing serious and then when Uni ended they broke up and Sam came back to London. We started playing about with guitars and the other two moved up to London and we decided to give it a go. Dom says he remembers the first time I met him and it was in a pub in Acton, I seem to remember that being ages after I met him so that’s an on going dispute.

We all get on really well, we pretty much spend all of our time together and it’s quality. I think it’s pretty much all we have wanted to do. In an interview we did a while ago Dom said that most of our humour is based on insulting each other so if it ever came down to an argument we have already said the worst stuff you could possibly say already, it would almost be pointless to have the argument. It’s wicked, there has never been a big bust up and we are all quite close emotionally and sort of look after each other.

How did you come up with the bands name as there are several stories around. I read that an Indian guru told you that you needed to be in a band called My Life in Film, that’s not true is it?

I quite like the guru one but it’s absolute bollocks. I got told that the other day, I think Dom said that I’d gone to India and meditated with a guru or something like that, it’s absolute nonsense. Although I kind of wish it was because that’s far more interesting.

It came from this film called American Movie, this sort of documentary about this guy in America. He is obsessed with horror movies and he is trying to make his own movie but it’s really low budget and he is slightly deluded and this documentary follows him trying to make a horror movie. Although he was the guy that was desperate to make the movie this documentary was actually following him, so it was kind of his life in film, even though it was all about him trying to make his own film. We liked the ideas running through that. We spent ages trying to think of a name and we came up with some bad ones. I think it’s a bit like hearing the sound of your own voice. It always sounds a bit alien.

How was it working with Stephen Street?

Yeah that was brilliant, that’s probably been a high point for all of us. We like the same music but also each like our own different things but I think the Smiths and Blur are probably the two bands that we would say are big influences, probably the Smiths more than Blur and so that was just a dream. I think a lot of people that aren’t in bands maybe don’t know about producers but even before I was in a band I knew about Stephen Street. I just thought it would be amazing to work with him. I think he had heard a couple of early demos and he knew that we weren’t signed at the time so he just did it because he obviously really liked. I know people always say what an honour it is to work with someone but for us that was a pretty big thing, probably the biggest thing that’s happened to me.   

What can we expect from your album?

The good thing about him (Smith) was that he didn’t really interfere too much with the sound of it. We have a few more up-tempo tunes, we have just released an EP which we tried to show different sides to us. There is a fast tune, a slow tune, a mid tempo tune, all that stuff and I think that carry’s over on to the album. There are a couple of nice acoustic slow ones and enough fast ones to keep everyone occupied and then just a lot of nice pop songs. It’s quite hard to pin it down, we only just recently got together the full track listing for the album and I looked at it and it’s quite varied, it ticks all the boxes and they are great songs. Fucking wicked.

Do you think it’s as important for artists to release albums as it was years ago?

I’m a bit confused about it myself. When I look at the singles charts, being a guitar band and looking at the singles charts as they are, it’s a lot harder. When I look at the album charts, last week most people in the top 10 were guitar bands. There were the Vaccines, Two Door Cinema Club and people like that so I think for us, just in terms of knowing the sort of people that are in the album charts is quite important. It is a funny one, I hope that people will buy the album but I know that it’s not what its like these days, I guess we will just have to wait and see.

You don’t want to release a couple of songs, you want to release as much as you can. I think one song doesn’t really explain the whole sound of the band. I think that with pop acts, they will release two or three singles and then when it comes to the album it’s a lot of filler while with us the album is really important. I grew up listening to albums not singles. I would sit and listen to the whole thing so I think we probably come at it from that angle, obviously knowing that the singles are going to have to be fast, attention-grabbing songs. Some of my favourite songs on the albums aren’t the singles. They are the slower ones, the more sort of introspective stuff. Again to hear those you have to get the album. 

Is image something that you consider as a band, do you call each other before photo shoots to see what you’re wearing?

To an extent, I think we all have a similar style. Actually we have done a couple of things where we have gone in to pick up some clothing and we have all come out matching because the items that we have all gone for look like the items we would individually go for. I will always go for anorak. Sam will go for a Harrington jacket. Sometimes we will call up and say ‘no one’s wearing a stripy top are they?’

When we did a video recently we just thought we are not going to dress up smart we will just dress how we normally dress. We all came in blue denim jackets and blue denim trousers and desert boots. Our manager was like ‘what the fuck is that all about, I thought you weren’t going to do any sort of thing’. We were like ‘none of us had discussed this, it’s just how we dress’ so we all looked like fucking Brian Adams. No one is going to come out in a pair of flares or something daft. Actually Micky came out with a Hawaiian shirt the other day and he got a talking to about that but I think that’s understandable. We played a gig recently and he threatened to wear that shirt, I think he did that just to piss us off.

Who would you most like to tour with and why?

We’ve done a couple of gigs with this band called the Book Club, they aren’t as well known as they should be but we love them and we really like their music. If I was going to go around the world then that’s a different matter.

What does success look like for you as a band?

I don’t know. To be honest just people acknowledging the music and hearing it played on the radio. I don’t think any of us are particularly that bothered about the fame side of it. I want people to just be buzzing about it and spreading the word. The idea of it being played on the radio and people are buzzing off it, that’s my idea of fame, what I would like to take from it.

Which historic gig do you wish you had played at?

I would say Oasis at Knebworth. I remember my mate going down there and I was really jealous. We were probably a bit too young to go and his older brother was taking him and I remember seeing all the bands that I was just starting to get into. I would have loved to have played at that.

Anything you want to tell the world about your band?

We have got so much coming out, it’s taken quite a while to get to this stage in terms of getting the album together. We’ve got the tour coming up in October so we are really busy. I think we are fucking good. I don’t want to end up sounding like a Liam Gallagher but I think every person in a band thinks they are the bollocks. Sometimes we do a rehearsal and at the end of a song we are just like, ‘yeah that’s fucking good, if only someone else had heard it.’ 

Published in Agogo Magazine