IC1s interview February 2012

With 2012 looking to be the year that London band IC1s break through into the mainstream I managed to catch up with them before their show at London's legendary Borderline venue for a few questions about the bands direction, ambitions and carrying the torch for true Rock and Roll music.

The interview was with Dan (lead vocals), Jesse (guitar), John (guitar), Jacob (bass) and Andy (Drums)


With the music industry declining in physical album sales and the world of downloads and file sharing on the increase do you still see the concept of an ‘album’ as being important to the band?

Absolutely. People nowadays tend to pick their favourites from an album rather than downloading the whole thing. Albums should read like a story and each track lead nicely into the next. Only playing your favourite tracks loses the magic of music – John

Do you write singles as ‘singles’ or do they tend to just stick out more in the set as the more commercial tracks?

With regards to writing, I never set out to write a single, they just come out that way. If I wrote down a list of our songs on a piece of paper, all we have to do to pick the singles is close our eyes and point - Dan

Are there any bands out on the circuit or currently making records that you feel a kinship and affinity for as being on the same wavelength musically?

I don’t think there are any bands out there making the music we are. We’ve played with so many bands made up of ball bags from Hoxton with retro Casio keyboards playing the same shit as the shit band before them. I like Tribes and Exiles, they are both decent guitar bands - Jesse

You play both club and venue gigs as well as summer festivals; do you think you need to ‘perform’ more when playing festival slots as the crowd is further away than in smaller venues where they are face to face?

Nah, we just get up and do our thing no matter where we are. Gotta love a giant stage but the sweat boxes are the best ones. Until we’ve headlined Glastonbury in 2013, I don’t think that’ll change. - John

What is your opinion in the commonly held viewpoint among some in the music press that “guitar music is on the way out”…

I think it’s stupid. The press are always moaning about the fact that there are no good guitar bands, begging for the next guitar band, “Is this the return of the guitar band?” so that itself suggests that people still want to hear it, but unlike IC1s most of it is shit. So I’d say shit guitar music is on the way out, so we’re safe. - Jesse

It’s said that bands have their whole life to make their debut album. Are you writing a lot of songs for possible inclusion then picking from the best or is the debut going to be simply an accurate picture of your current live set?

Bit of both I guess, we want to make the best debut album and judging on the reactions we get live, we know we can do that! - Dan

What are IC1’s plans for 2012?

Keep building. Get out on tour in the UK and Australia and hopefully do an album. Obviously the first two singles did well but we’ve a long way to go yet. No sleep till Wembley Stadium. - Jesse

You had sponsorship recently with Lambretta clothing, would you say this is the type of scene and image you want IC1s to be part of i.e. more Mod then Rock?

I don’t think you can ignore our mod influences, but I wouldn’t call us mod at all. We are as much mod as we are rock. Lambretta wanted to throw a grands worth of sharp clothes at us, we were hardly going to say no. I don’t think we fit into any stereotype which is great. - Jesse

With the return of The Stone Roses and more recently The Happy Mondays in 2012 it’s fair to say that early 90’s music and culture is going to be making a return this year, is this something you want to be associated with or do you think its dangerous to be labelled as ‘retro’ before you’ve even started?

Mani (from The Stone Roses) came and watched us at 'Friends Of Mine Festival' in the summer and came over and told us he “Fucking loved it” and there’s been rumours on the web circulating that we are going to support The Stone Roses at Heaton Park since then. Genius. We are all Stone Roses fans, so are happy to be associated with them. - Andy

You’re playing The Borderline in London on the 12th February, how do you feel about playing such an historic venue that has such a rich history of great bands/artists perform there before you? Inspiring or nerve racking?

I’m really happy about it. I’ve always wanted to play there so I can’t wait. We don’t really get nervous anymore, we want to play at bigger venues and to as many people as we can. The Borderline is what this band is all about. - Jacob

thank you

IC1s will be playing The Borderline as part of the 'Next Big Thing' shows on the 12th February.

http://venues.meanfiddler.com/borderline/listings/featured/6166

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