I haven't been able to write much in a while due to exams mostly. Thankfully that's all over with (for the next few months at least) and last Wednesday I managed to get along to The Sunshine Underground's gig at the ABC. They were supported by Cosmo Jarvis and Shannon and I were lucky enough to interview him backstage. It was all a bit of a disaster as we weren't really prepared and his dressing room was stupidly close to the stage meaning first support, Dead Seal Souls, played a large part in the recording of the interview. But it was all good fun and Cosmo's a lovely, not to mention extremely talented, guy. Plus he let us steal some beer from his rider.
How’s the tour with The Sunshine Underground been so far?First two dates..first date was shit. They weren’t prepared to have any kind of live music in that venue, I can’t remember the name of it. It was a club night, a glorified club night, it was a club night with live music if you like. The sound was terrible, the monitors were shit, the sound guys were pretty awful. Next night was good, tonight is the best bet, I really prefer here. They’ve sorted me and mine out and the sound’s good and they read all the text sheets we sent them. And, yeah it’s been cool and I’ve met all the guys and it’s good…and their merch man’s amazing, he’s called Sam and he’s really funny.
How have The Sunshine Underground compared to other bands you’ve supported?Yeah good, they’re nice, normal human beings. Well rounded human beings, not arrogant fuck faces and just really nice. A few have been dicks, that I’ve toured with.
Like? Panic At The Disco, I asked them if they could sign a napkin for my mate and I wasn’t even allowed anywhere near their dressing room but they knew I was trying to get them to sign this thing. So yeah, that was annoying. Gabriella Cilmi was amazing, we’re all pretty good mates, and all her back up band as well are cool, we all get on really well so that was good. But there are the occasional knobheads.
What have your previous experiences of Scotland been like?Cold! Best motorway rest stops that I’ve ever seen. There was one that we went to and it had a barbecue and really good food. And you know both speakers? They have a shop here and they have like a both speaker cinema. You go in the shop and you sit in the cinema and they demonstrate the speakers just for you, we did it last time I was here and that was amazing. But yeah, good, good place.
Is it strange how quickly everything has progressed for you?I’m pretty much in the same place I was last year! I haven’t really gotten that far, my album did pretty terribly.
Did you not support Muse?Oh yeah! That was good! Yeah, because of that loads of people have like come to my shows and say like “I saw you at Muse” and I’m like “Sweet!”. Even though, for me, that wasn’t my best played show at all, it was pretty poor. But yeah, that was good, that was a good experience and there was a lot of people. Thank you for reminding me!
How did you first get involved in music?Just always played, like, piano. I listened to music since I was a baby and played piano and piano wasn’t cool, all my mates were playing guitar and I was the knob cheese in the corner playing piano and nobody cared, especially girls. So I started playing guitar and listened to Tenacious D and I started recording the odd kind of mess around, pisstake satire songs and gradually I started writing more seriously. And I started playing drums and bass and a bit of cello and gradually started recording all the bits and kept that up pretty much.
What would you say your main influences are?Boredom! I like a little bit of everything, it depends on what mood I’m in. Sometimes I really, really love Sugababes, like “Too Lost On You” is one of my favourite songs, it’s fucking amazing, I love it! Sometimes I listen to Crash Test Dummies, sometimes heavy stuff and then sometimes folky stuff like Tom Waits and Jack Johnson and his album for Curious George which is awesome. Anything really, whatever’s a good song. I usually don’t like artists as a whole, I like songs.
Are there any modern day artists you admire?There definitely are…at least one. *long pause* Yael Naim! She’s like a French girl, she did that song called “New Soul” *starts singing said song*. Have you heard that? It’s really good. She came and went pretty fast but her songs were really good.
If you were to shoot a film of your life, who would play you?Who would play me? Oh man…I dunno. I’d like…there’s so many people I could say! Daniel Day Lewis, he’s the best actor ever I’d say so probably him. If not, Benecio Tel Toro from Fear and Loathing, I think he’d get me…probably.
Last question, what’s in store for you over the next year?Album two, which will be better than album one. Not like in quality, it’ll be shorter so people who can’t take in a lot won’t be like “oh my god, there’s too many songs”. So that should be about twelve tracks and then I’m going to SXSW in Texas to do some stuff. And then I’m making this feature length film called “The Naughty Room” about this kid that gets locked away by his mum because basically he caused the car crash which killed his dad and his mum just basically blames him for it, the scripts written for that so hopefully I’ll make that this year. Yeah, that, album two… and the next single’s coming out, “Crazy Screwed Up Lady”, the video for that’s done, I’m editing it now actually. As far as I know that’s it but we’ll see!
Listen to Cosmo's music on his myspace and official site.Also check out his youtube for his feature length filmsReview of the gig to follow...
Cosmo Jarvis isn’t the most obvious choice of support for a band like The Sunshine Underground. That’s probably why there was more people at the bar than at the barrier when he took to the stage at the ABC. However, it only took him a few minutes into opener, “Clean My Room”, to grab the attention of everyone in the room. Initially it was his unconventional lyricism which got people talking, with a prime example being “I’m going to burn my room and kill my girlfriend” from said opener, but soon he had everyone immersed with his unique collection of acoustic folk-y songs.
