In
Conversation with
‘Sister’
September
2008
A
little background:
Apologises
to ‘Sister’ for the delay in the publication but life at ‘Setting Sun’
Towers
has being very busy over the past month or two with Andy N being under the
weather
and then when recovering going away on a working holiday and since he
returned
has being snowed under amending and fixing things on ‘Setting Sun’
But onto
the brilliant ‘Sister’….
East
London based Sister according to their
press release ‘are not one of those
fly-by-night,
formed-all-of-thirty-seconds-ago MySpace sensation-type bands. Under
various
guises, in various forms, they've been making music together, sharing the same
headspace
for some time now. Sister, as the name suggests, are family. Singer
Gemma
Banks, guitarist Alan MacFeely, bass player Steve Hackett, keyboardist
Jamie Wright and drummer Matt Jones have been
living, rehearsing, writing, plotting
together in a warehouse in east London,
crafting till everything is just right.
Takin'
their time...’
Certainly
listening to their music when I first stumbled onto their music through
some
hotlinking around myspace.com, speaking from a Setting Sun angle, I was
impressed
by the variety in their sound from Phil Spector, an acoustic
Jesus and
Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine alongside a good dosh of
guitar
driven melodies with an confident female singer which for me thankfully
didn’t
fall into the easy trap off P.J.Harvey and for that reason, because they are
not
falling into the easy traps of too much music are a natural for interviewing
by
Setting Sun.
So of
course, I emailed them and they got back to me a few weeks time and
the rest
as I like to say is history.
Sorry
again to the band for the delay with this interview.
For more details
on the band – please go to their myspace.com which can be
found at www.myspace.com/sistermusic
Many
thanks again
Andy N
Setting Sun:
How are things and what's happening at the moment?
Sister:
Things are really exciting for us right now. We're
releasing 2 songs
simultaneously on september 1, 'lovers of today' (on
10" vinyl) and
'down, down' (on download). We've been playing festivals
at the
weekends and recording new material whenever we get the
chance. it's
hectic.
Setting Sun:
Next, can you tell us a little bit about the history of Sister – how
did you all
meet, Or as I like to say who fired the starting pistol etc?
Sister:
Although we met In London, band members come from
Ireland, Wales,
leeds and London. hmmm...how did we meet? Well, me and
Alzy met
through DJ Errol Alkan. I was making music with Errol at
the time, and
Alzy was a mate of his. We met the others through mutual
friends,
shared interests...ie clubs and drinking etc haha. We all
gravitated
towards each other, maybe it was their record collections
I was
after?!
Setting Sun:
What are your influences (music wise) and what are you listening to at the moment?
Sister:
Christ, what a question! Where do I start. Well, there's shared love
of the rock'n'roll classics....Stones, Nick Cave,
Siouxsie, Patti
Smith, VU, Iggy, Bowie etc, country classics...johnny,
Hank, Dolly,
Willie, Kris...and the list could go on
I'm currently listening to Queens of the Stoneage, Pj Harvey,
Glasvegas, and The liars, Im also going through a Bob
Dylan and
Leonard Cohen phase again.
Setting Sun:
I see from your myspace page that you play concerts? How do
you compare to your recordings? Is their one you prefer
over the other?
Sister:
Ya, we play a lot. It's a particularly great feeling, when you kick
around a new song in rehearsal and then play it that
night at a gig.
We adopt a similiar 'suck it and see' approach in studio.
If it sounds
good, it is good...if it doesn't sound good going down,
forget it for
now.
Setting Sun:
What's the
inspiration behind your name 'Sister' out of interest?
Sister:
We're family
Setting Sun:
Following on question 5 – the same applys to one of your songs on
your myspace
which is probably my favourite off us
'Black as Fate' – what is the story behind tha?
Sister:
Black as Fate, was written on the first day of intense heat in the
summer, when everyone goes stir crazy, and theres a
feeling of
violence in the air. It's about that and generally feelin
crap about
my life and my lifestyle.
Setting Sun:
What is next for yourself? Do you have any more recording
planned / any
concerts?
Sister:
Always! please check out our myspace for dates. we're
always playing. I think we might record an album this
side of xmas
Setting Sun:
A few fun questions to finish off with, what would you be your
dream job if you weren’t in ‘Sister’?
Sister:
Isnt that an oxymoron? dream job – lol
Setting Sun:
Sister:
Gardening
Setting Sun:
Lastly, what
will you be doing when you are 60?
Sister:
Writing about love and hope from a
different perspective