Tuesday 6th February, Brudenell Social Club played host “Folk Horror”, dream-pop quartet, Still Corners, featuring songs from their debut full- length “Creatures of an Hour”. So naturally I absolutely had to arrange to meet them and have a quick chat… the following is what ensued!

STEPH: So when researching the origins of the band, I read that you guys met through some sort of train incident?

GREG: I was on a train to London Bridge, which was labeled wrong, and I ended up somewhere 20 minutes in the wrong direction. It was dark and wet and gloomy… typical English weather and I saw this girl had gotten off too. She came over, asked if I had gotten off at the wrong stop too, and mentioned she was going to miss choir because of it… I was on the lookout for a singer, we swapped numbers and started recording some demos.

It’s funny because I later found out that Tessa had been about to sit on a bench, but as it was wet she decided not to and that is how she ended up talking to me… It is scary to think that this all happened because of a wet bench.

STEPH: Yes very scary… luckily we have an abundance of those, so it was bound to happen at some point.

GREG: Yeah, wet benches everywhere.

STEPH: A lot of reviews make mention of the cinematic attributes of your work, and liken it to the work of David Lynch, what is your view on that?

GREG: That’s great I love David Lynch. I think it is a really atmospheric record, I really like 60’s and 70’s horror, so it’s pretty eerie and a bit creepy.

STEPH: It’s not too creepy, I think it’s quite lovely.

I’ve seen that you have been doing little films of the places you have been to, I saw the ones you did of Glasgow and Manchester. Are they just for your own enjoyment, to look back on? Or will they serve a greater purpose for your future work?

GREG: I think they are just a record for us, to remember the cities we have been to. We wanted to show them captured through our eyes. Almost an “hommage” (pronounced DEAD sophisticated… like how a French person would say it) to each city.

STEPH: Yeah, I like how you have filmed them really arty, and then there are scenes of you sat in a take-away, eating terrible food.

TESSA: That food was actually really nice!

STEPH: Yeah it tastes so good, even though you know it’s so bad for you…

AH! Your t-shirt brings me to my next point (picture Greg, wearing a Jumbo Records T-shirt). Didn’t they vote “Creatures of an Hour” their Record of 2011?

GREG: Yeah they did! That was so great, we love the guys, and girl, at Jumbo.

TESSA: Yeah it’s been really nice actually, we have had an extra day between tour dates to spend in Leeds, so we went up there earlier and spent some time with them.

STEPH: That’s nice you get to have some down time. I saw you sent them some sort of Polaroid package?

TESSA: We found this really cool book of Polaroids, and cut them all up into little cards.

GREG: Yeah we felt pretty bad, because it was a really nice book. But there were about 50 different cards, with little messages on them.

STEPH: Oh yeah? Do you have any examples of a message you wrote?

GREG: UMMM… I can’t quite remember. It was a lovely quote from a lovely poet… maybe I will remember and email it to you.

STEPH: Yeah, that would be good! Now I’m sure this is one of those questions you get asked quite a lot, but still interesting for us non-the-less! Are there any musical influences from the past that really ring true to you and you feel they have influenced you?

GREG: Yeah sure, I really like Simon & Garfunkel and Nick Drake. Tess really likes Nick Drake.

STEPH: That’s cool! I also wanted to ask you about all the comparisons to current artists I have read about in articles. There have been a lot of comparisons with people like Dirty Beaches, Wild Nothing, Washed Out, Beach House and Trailer Trash Tracy’s. Is that something you would agree with?

GREG: Yeah, well I haven’t heard too much from Dirty Beaches and Wild Nothing yet, but certainly Washed Out and Beach House, I love those guys so that’s really great to hear. I think I might have heard that Dirty Beaches was approached by David Lynch to collaborate on something actually.

STEPH: Oh really? That’s pretty cool, maybe that is where the comparison to you has been drawn from… literally every article I have read on you guys refers to how reminiscent your work is of David Lynch films.

GREG: Wow that ‘s a really great compliment.

STEPH: Yeah, must be nice to hear. Of the current bands that are around, is there anyone who you feel you can really relate to?

GREG: Yeah, well certainly Washed Out and Beach House are both bands that I really connect to. I think with Washed Out especially, there is a certain nostalgia their music brings. It takes me back to when I was 8 years old, riding around the Texas Suburbs, listening to my walkman. I love it.

STEPH: That’s nice. I was wondering how you would describe your music? I’ve seen a lot of reviews labeling you as, “dreamgaze”/”fuzz pop”/ “surf”, with major 60’s influences.

GREG: Hmm, yeah… I don’t really think we are shoegaze, maybe one track, Into The Trees. I think at the base it is Pop with dreamy, folky influences, and it’s all pretty electronic and atmospheric. Definitely atmospheric. I think demons could even be described as Folk Horror.

STEPH: Folk Horror… I like that. Now, last question! You describe yourselves as “Love Veterans”…

GREG: Veterans of Love.

STEPH: Yeah. Your songs explore a lot of deep emotions such as love and obsession… is the subject matter personal to you and your emotions or is it inspired by other things?

GREG: I think we try to write all of our music from personal experience. So a lot of it is personal to me, like I went through a really bad break up.

STEPH: Ahh okay, I see. Well, thank God for the bad break up then, because I think this is a really great record. I’ve listened to it a lot. Like, A LOT.

 

… And I really have listened to it a lot. Like, A LOT. Greg and Tessa are the loveliest of the lovely and everything I could have hoped for with my debut interview for The Met Online. From city to city, they have been documenting their tour with short video montages… check out the clip they put together from their visit in Leeds. You may recognise a few friendly faces and local haunts…

Still Corners UK tour 2012: Leeds, Feb 6 from Still Corners on Vimeo.

http://www.facebook.com/stillcorners

http://stillcorners.tumblr.com/

https://twitter.com/#!/stillcorners

http://www.subpop.com/artists/still_corners