Headliners of this year's Benicassim festival, China Rats, have offered a few words for TLB this time round. They're easily the biggest name to have ever given my humble website their thoughts and, for that, I thank the rising starlets.
I'm gonna kick this off with, surely, the most exciting thing to have happened to you guys - Benicassim. How did it feel to be chucked in front of tens of thousands of people as a stand in for Bat For Lashes?
It was madness. Not in our wildest dreams could we have imagined being put on that slot, we were buzzing after the small villa camp stage so we were pretty pretty shaky when we found out what was happening. The crowd were rad though and everyone was well oiled so it was good fun. Hopefully we'll get the chance to do something like that again but if not we can die happy!
Who was the biggest artist that you met/befriended, during your Benicassim experience?
There were a few big names sloping round backstage but we actually struck it best With Kurt Vile and the Violators who played before us on the Trident stage. Watching them play side of stage was sweet and we had a good chat after they finished. They were so chilled man, it was like they'd just done a set in their garage or something.
How did you ready yourself for the big stage and thousands of people? Any rituals beforehand?
Loads of Heineken and pure adrenaline. I love a good packet of Trebor extra strongs as well to get the juices flowing.
N.O.M.O.N.E.Y. was backed by beloved Radio One DJ's, Fearne Cotton and Scott Mills, how did that come about and was it a shock to be played to the nation?
It was Huw Stephens that got us on Radio One through BBC Introducing I believe, so Fearne and Scott played us on his recommendation! It was pretty surreal especially when you hear these people putting on tracks to the masses on a daily basis. All of a sudden we were hearing ourselves, pretty hard to believe, so we had all our family and friends sat round with it on full whack waiting in anticipation.
The two events above are, probably, classed as your biggest feats as a band, but, what other things have been happening recently that list highly on your greatest moments together?
We've just finished another couple of tracks in the studio and each time we go in everything seems to work better and better. We're getting a lot more used to the process so it won't be long before we've got an album together! Other than that I guess we're pretty proud to have grown from the Leeds music scene, there's some Rad bands in Leeds and the scene is sweet, everyone's ready to party no questions. We did a charity night at Oporto in Leeds last week and the place was packed out ,the line up was sick and they ended up raising over £500 for Cancer Research!
What's next for China Rats? You seem to be moving quickly in the world of music … so what can we expect?
A lot more music hopefully. We're getting in the studio when we can, to get ready for future releases. We've also just announced a string of UK dates so we're hyped for getting about the UK and having a dabble in some places we've never been!
I've heard many comparisons to the Vaccines when people are talking about you - Does it annoy you to be judged as being like someone else or do you think it's a fair judgment to make?
It doesn't annoy us The Vaccines are sweet! Its a fair judgment to make though. But we didn't set out to sound like them! People are always going to compare you to someone else so I suppose it urges you to try something else and try and be different. We've recently been recording through one of the Gibb's brothers old mixing desk so maybe our next record will sound like the Bee Gees, who knows?
(At Least Those) Kids Are Getting Fed is the new single and, somewhat changes the way in which I first perceived you. Is it a desired effect to be versatile and capable of adaptive change?
It's definitely sweet to be called versatile! We love playing fast and hard but its nice to slow it down now and again. I don't think we'll always make such simple music but for now it's what we're digging its nice to see the crowd giving it the large ones!
When is the new track released? … and what about an album?
Kids are getting fed is out on the 8/10/2012. There are no immediate plans for an album release, but hopefully it will be soon. We're in the studio quite a lot at the moment so its just a case of the right time and place.
And finally, you have plenty of gigs coming up, which one are you most looking forward to and why?
Razzmatazz Barcelona, I've never been into the city so I'm hyped for having a little gander round town if I have a couple of minutes spare! There's alot of buzz surrounding Razzmatazzz as well so it'll be nice to check out the venue. We're excited about getting back to Spain who have been very kind to us of Late. It's also got the coast and San Miguel, man this gigs got everything!
A brilliant set of answers from a band that are quickly having experiences that some can only dream of. As explained, their new single, Kids Are Getting Fed is out on 8th October and, to accompany the new single, a brand new video is now about.
Paul.