Their name is "Pop Art" and they come from England. Their music has the classic form of pop music, we all loved at 60s and 70s.
The next month's issue of Uncut gives 4 stars to their album "The Sound of Pop Art" and this means a lot.
First of all, let's see who Pop Art are:
Vocals : Mr Tony Jenkins
Guitars BVs : Chris Free ( The Users - A Craze )
Drums / Keyboards : Andrew O'Hanrahan ( The Users )
Bass / Keyboards : Michael Cole
Dimitris Antonopoulos spoke with Pop Art and you can read below the "art of their pop music". You can also listen to 'That Summer Feeelin', Chris and Tony played together in Chris' kitchen.
THE BAND:
The band formed in 2008. Chris had formed Cambridge's first punk band THE USERS, then signed for Paul Weller's Respond label in the 80's and formed A CRAZE with Lucy Loquette. Lucy's is the voice that can be heard on the song 'Shootin' Star'. I had sung with the Aurbisons in the 80's, then had a couple of bad experiences with indie bands! Chris and I started meeting and playing in his kitchen, just acoustic guitar and vocals. We played a few gigs as a duo, sometimes Andrew O'Hanrahan (the USERS drummer) would playkeyboards. We decided to make an EP or album and brought in Mike Coles on bass. Mike's an incredible musician, he plays the piano on 'Run Away Baby' too.
THE INFLUENCES:
It would be obvious to say sixties pop: Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Who, but the album is quite eclectic. You'll find Motown beats, power pop chords and jazz chords alongside gentle acoustic strums. It's a similar experience to the Style Council's 'Cafe Bleu', an album that we love!
THE ALBUM:
Relief, that it is finished. Pride, in what we have accomplished. There were times that it felt like we would never complete the album. It has taken a lot of hard work, on a limited budget and I think Chris especially, can take a lot of credit for what we have achieved.He has lived with making the album on a daily basis, writing the material, arranging and editing the songs and producing the artwork! The final track 'Honeycat', which is just Chris and his guitar sounds like someone having fun, knowing that all the hard work is done!
THAT SUMMER FEEELIN':
We actually played 'That Summer Feeelin' the first time Chris and I played together in his kitchen. It was always a very popular live number and great fun to perform. Before recording the album we went into a rehearsal studio to run through the songs and 'That
Summer Feelin' was the first song we recorded in the studio. Chris, Andrew and Mike were in one room and I was in a totally separate booth to provide a guide vocal, I couldn't even see them playing. As soon as Andrew hit that drumbeat at the start I thought, "this is
something else"! Those guys really raised the bar with their playing and I knew each time I recorded a vocal or harmony that I had a high standard to achieve.
FORTHCOMING GIGS:
We have a couple of low key gigs arranged. We are now a four-piece live band with a new bass player Ben, but we are still rehearsing to try and get a strong live sound. We then have a London gig in May and a session for BBC radio but it would be nice to get one of thesmaller festivals because I think a festival crowd would really get into our sound.
INDIE SCENE:
I used to work for an independent mail order company based in Cambridge and knew a lot more then about the indie 'scene'. Things have changed greatly recently with things like myspace and facebook. It is much easier for band's to record their songs and make them
available. It does seem that the audience in places like Greece, Sweden and Germany and also the United States and Canada seem to have a much better idea what is going on.
GIGS IN GREECE:
We would love to come and play in Greece, we are just waiting for the offer!
Pop Art - That Summer
Feeelin