The IPO (The International Pop Overthrow) is coming to Liverpool this coming week and as one festival of music closes so begins another. These are exciting times for the city music-wise as there never seems to be a day where you cannot head into the city centre and find something to listen to.
Amongst bands and acts coming from America such as Asbury Keys and Norman Kelsey plus Liverpool’s own burgeoning groups is a band from Lincoln who are releasing their debut album over the week, titled Cool Cats For Pop Dogs and who also sound refreshingly good. Lincoln may not be the first port of call for anybody wanting to get grips with music from the U.K. but as vocalist James Styring explains to me, times and music are changing in that part of the world. I was able to catch up with James before he and the band started making their way across country to join in this year’s Pop Overthrow.
Are you looking forward to coming to Liverpool as part of the festival?
James: “Yes, I can’t wait. We got the chance to come along and we thought what a great way to launch the album. There’s not many that have played in the Cavern Club for an album launch. Originally the album should have been released last year but on the strength of this we put our plans back and focused completely on Liverpool. I think it will be fifth year there as part of the International Pop Overthrow. I was there with my last band and we had such a great time and the opportunity came up, David asked us if we wanted to come with The Popdogs so we said yes. We just can’t wait as some of the lads have never been to Liverpool. It will be an experience.”
It is a long way for you to come from the other side of the country, it is a fair way to come from Lincoln for a couple of shows.
James: “It is such a great festival and so many great bands playing, there are over a 130 bands taking part and from all over the world. Some of the best power pop you will see really and most of the gigs are free, I think there is a small charge at The Cavern Club at certain times; you get to see so much. Even if we weren’t playing we would still be coming to watch. You can discover so many new bands which is fantastic.”
Quite rightly so. Forgive me for having mentioned it in the album review but I have been to Lincoln a few times and shall we say it’s not the liveliest place in which a new band can come from and I don’t mean that with any disparity to the city as it is very beautiful.
James: “No, I know what you are saying. It’s like anywhere rural in Lincolnshire. We do have promoters and bands that are working very hard every week to make things happen and make a name for themselves. There is a scene, especially in the University students.”
Would you suggest to anyone who enjoys your live set over next week to check out more bands from the area?
James: “Oh yes certainly. Look on Lincoln bands or Lincoln unsigned, there is a scene happening there.”
I said way back at the latter part of last year that your album is very cool and how good it is. It reminds me of the Merseybeat era, Gerry and the Pacemakers for example.
James: “I am a great fan of Liverpool music in general, Lennon and McCartney and the whole Merseybeat scene and through to the era of The La’s, I can’t really help but put all that type of music into The Popdogs stuff. The way that I write always reflects on the music around me and that’s why it’s such an honour to come over and play again in Liverpool. It’s quite a pressure cooker really.”
Congratulations on the album, I’m looking forward to the launch, thank you for having sent it to me back in last year. It is a very, very good album to listen to, I listened to it again this afternoon. The tunes on it sound so exquisite, so cool!
James: “Thanks, they are so powerful, we set out to write what you’d call a ‘power pop’ album and to keep all the songs short and to the point and so keep the album short and to the point and hopefully fill it with melodies and choruses that once listened to hopefully people will remember. Nothing too dark and heavy, just a good guitar-driven pop album really and touch wood, up until now, with the feedback we’ve had, we’re over the moon. I’m very excited to be able to play the songs live to people now.”
I’m sure they’ll go down very well, music in Liverpool, I’ve mentioned many times, the audiences, as long as you are sincere and you show the enthusiasm and the love for your own music, they usually end up loving you for it.
James: “When we recorded the album, we always held back a little on the recorded version so you’ve always got somewhere to take the song when you play it live, you can always give it a little bit more in the live environment. So, we’re well fired up for playing these songs live and the rest of the guys are excited about coming over as well, we can’t wait, we’re counting they days down.”
Well, hopefully I’ll catch you at some point but I must ask about a couple of things to do with the album. Where did the name for the album come from?
James: “Well, we wanted something that would fit in with the style of music but nothing over the top or long-winded but one to remember. So I remember Tim saying what about the Popdogs? Then we sort of looked at each other and said why not, let’s go with that, it’s not too heavy and it sums up the sort of feel for music, so we went for that. I think you can agonise on the name of a band for too long. I honestly think if the music is strong enough, then they accept the name.”
It’s a good name, it’s catchy and I like it, it does remind me very much of the 1960’s, with this very whimsical way of recording and playing, a positive attitude towards the music. There’s some great tracks on there, I want to know who was Kissing Alicia?
James: “Without going into too much detail, Alicia was a girl that we all used to like when we were at school and she always stayed in my mind but some of the lyrics in that song aren’t necessarily make much sense but I know what they mean as I’m singing them!”
I think it’s a lovely song; it’s one of my favourites now off the album. There’s that and there’s Queen of the U.S.A., which is really cool.
James: “People are picking up on Queen of the U.S.A., we’ve had that mentioned a few times.”
How long have you all known each other?
James: “The lead guitarist and the guy who I write all the songs with, we’ve known each other since we went to school together and we’ve always been involved in music in one way or another, either in bands together or writing together or recording together. Tim was the first person I approached when I was putting this album together and then he said I think we can do something with this and in a very short space of time, we’d got a few songs written and I thought yeah, this might just work. By the end of the album, to be honest, we’d probably got enough ideas for songs for a further album. We started off with a possible single, then two or three songs and then we decided to write an E.P. but then the songs were coming out so thick and fast that we thought we’d better do an album and do this properly. So, we’ve still got quite a lot of songs waiting in the wings as it were for a follow up, if we ever find time to do it if this one goes well.”
The adage used to be that the first album that you write always was the easiest one as you’d be writing it all your life and that the second album was the hardest, that doesn’t seem to have happened with you?
James: “We’ve been lucky, we’ve had so many good ideas and in the end we’ve had to put a stop on it as it was going to become a double album! No one is going to buy a double album these days, so we said let’s just pick out nine or ten tracks and put the rest to one side for a later date.”
Well you’ve picked some fine tracks, hats off to you for producing one of my quirkiest, favourite albums of last year. I know you’ve not released it yet as such but I heard it last year and it was great.
James: ”Around the time you heard it last year was supposed to be the original release date and then the opportunity came up with the I.P.O., so we said let’s put our plans back six months or so because you don’t get a better chance than to release an album. It comes out on Monday 13th May for download on i-tunes and so on and the c.d. will be available to purchase from Kool Kat Musik. All our details are on Facebook if people need any more details.”
Ian D. Hall