The Recoupes are a London based indie-pop band who have similar vibes to The 1975 and The Vaccines. They have recently released their new single ‘All I Know’, the upbeat track is a slice of slick tropical-pop and was produced by Gavin Monaghan.
Here we speak exclusively to The Recoupes about their new music, touring, 2018 goals and much, much more;
Growing up who inspired your love of music?
LC – I think my dad played a big part, he kept all his records in the loft and for ages I don’t think he trusted me with them so would show me videos of the bands on YouTube and from there I’d look into them all more and start finding things for myself. Luckily now he trusts me to use his records. Through him I was introduced to bands like The Jam to The Doors which have stuck with me, but getting older you want to start finding your own music.
AL – I’d say my parents. For my first birthday they got me my first guitar which was this little acoustic that was bigger than me! Musically, I’d say The Beatles.
MN – My music taste comes from my parents as well. My dad loves music and has a massive vinyl collection with artists from The Who and Bowie to The Damned. My mum is more musicals and Country and growing up I would always have Johnny Cash and Dolly playing in the car. When I really started to get in to music around the age of 8, I started taking guitar lessons. Around this time my dad bought Arctic Monkeys first album and I was hooked to Indie music from then on. After that I saw them live on Jools Holland where I was blown away by Matt Helders. After seeing that I started taking drum lessons. I’m still rubbish but might be alright one day.
OZ – Probably my dad cause he loves music, he used to buy me a new CD every couple of weeks for me to listen to. It’s through him that I first got into Oasis, David Bowie and The Killers etc
Who are your musical icons?
LC – In terms of bass, I’d say Bruce Foxton and Dallon Weekes. But for music in general it’d be Paul Weller as he keeps moving forward, doing things that’s always new for him, and Tim Burgess just for his love of music and records.
AL – Pete Doherty, Julian Casablancas, Kelly Jones and the Gallaghers
MN – Matt Helders is the reason I play drums, But Eddy Thrower, Hayley Cramer, Colin Jones and John Bonham have heavily influenced the way I play.
OZ – Liam Gallagher, Ian Brown, John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix
What would be your dream collaboration?
LC – Paul Weller or The Charlatans
AL – Big Narstie
MN – Mac Demarco
OZ – My favourite collaboration would be Maldini holding the defense together, Stevie G working the midfield and Tommy Finney banging them up front.
How did you guys meet?
We met in school, we’ve been a band for a while now in terms of being together, but actually going out and doing things properly for a few years. We used to practice at lunch times and after school, albeit only about 3 covers as our bass player Louie is left handed and the school didn’t have any left handed equipment so he would be playing a right handed bass upside down.
How did the band name come about?
It came about in an IT lesson where Alan came up with it and I (Louie) thought it sounded quite cool so we put it to the others and it stuck. But it had a deeper meaning in how it coincided with the unfortunate event of our drummer getting cancer (which he’s overcome now) and so he was recuperating.
What inspired your new single ‘All I Know’?
The song ‘All I Know’ came about at one of our band practices a few months ago, and we put it into
our live set straight away, maybe even before we’d worked everything out, but the reception it got
was too good for us not to record it as soon as we could. It’s definitely one of our favourites.
It’s quite a simple song and has a feel-good, danceable indie vibe to it straight from the start making it a really fun song to play live. The lyrics for ‘All I Know’ were written about the girlfriend of our singer and it’s basically about knowing that you can’t be perfect – especially when you’re young, and you feel like you’re still getting the hang of life. But despite that, you find someone who accepts that and you want to give your all to that person. It’s that classic line “It’s not much, but it’s all I have.” A part that’s quite special in the song is the middle eight where we go from talking about the situation to directing the words straight at who we’re talking about, and we came up with that part in the studio which we’ve never really done before but were pleased with how it came out.We recorded ‘All I Know’ at Magic Garden Recording Studios in Wolverhampton being produced by
Gavin Monaghan and engineered by Joe Murray who’ve worked with Robert Plant, JAWS, The
Sherlocks and Ocean Colour Scene (among a lot more). We really enjoyed the recording experience there, especially getting to see the sidecar from the recording of David Bowie’s Space Oddity (recorded 20th June 1969, Trident Studios, London) as well as old BBC equipment that Gavin has got as part of his set-up. Even one of Bernard Sumner’s guitars was hanging around the collection there. For us the song came together quickly in the studio and we’re very pleased with the outcome and excited to see the reaction it gets when it comes out. We hope that people will get on board with the song, enjoy it as much as we do and come and dance
to it at one of our shows.
You toured the UK last year do you have any touring plans lined up for 2018?
I don’t think we’d really call it touring, but we were happy to play a few gigs outside of London as it’s something we’ve wanted to do for a while. We’ve always felt that London is a tough place for people to take notice, and although we have started to notice more and more people coming back which is great we wanted to experience what other scenes are like. But we’ve spoken to bands from everywhere else who really want to get into London, so I suppose it’s the same for bands from everywhere, even New York.
Can fans expect an album from you soon?
Not an album yet, we want to have a secure fanbase before we do anything as big as that. But we’re planning to start work towards an EP for the end of the year so that’ll be something to look out for, definitely more singles as well.
What do you hope listeners take from your new single?
Mainly just to be uplifted a bit really, there’s nothing better than having a song that you know will make you feel better and we hope that this can be that song for some people. And then when we play it live it’ll be a big party and release for everyone.
What are your 2018 goals?
For 2018 we want to build on last year, more gigs around the country and more festivals. Gaining support slots as well for bands we really like would be great as well to give us a bigger opportunity to play to new faces and try to win them over. I feel like we’ve started the year well with this single, so we’ve just got to keep the momentum up.
Make sure you follow The Recoupes on Twitter @TheRecoupes to keep up to date with all their latest music and tour news!
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