Opening our June Saturday Social are Brighton-based indie-popsters 4 Or 5 Magicians. Who? See, that’s the joy of our Saturday Social events: we get to introduce you to great new bands, and you don’t pay a penny for it.
The NME-tipped (“they’re going to be the new Manic Street Preachers,” they say) five-piece is formed around the lynchpin figure of Dan Ormsby, whose songwriting influences are drawn from a wide spectrum of guitar pop – key acts identifiable in the 4 Or 5 Magicians mix include Weezer, Guided By Voices, Nirvana and Pavement. It’s truly pure sing-along fare, albeit delivered in a delightfully lo-fi skitter-rock fashion.
The band’s debut album – apparently called ‘Empty, Derivative Pop Songs’; we trust tongues are in cheek – is scheduled for release later this year, and 4 Or 5 Magicians aren’t afraid of hopping in the van for a show or two of a weekend: clicking to MySpace will deliver into your eyes a decent list of live dates.
Catch them – ‘them’ being Ormsby alongside Sam Clarke, Ivan Berry, Alex Wilkinson and Graham Pembrey – on June 27 at the Clash Saturday Social @ RoTa at the Notting Hill Arts Club, London W11 3JQ. Doors are 4pm-8pm, and entry is FREE (over-18s only). Over to Dan for the answers to our regular Live Talking questions…
Are you a band that records to tour, or that tours to record? Or do you not see the two as separate parts of what you do?
We’re a band that exists so I can exorcise the demons of these catchy melodies and witty rhyming couplets from my head. Inevitably we end up recording, and touring, and both are enjoyable ways of scratching the itch.
Do you feel you translate well as a live act, perhaps better than on record, or have live shows been a bigger learning process than writing/recording?
We’re pretty loud live – more so than our recorded output may suggest. This is for two reasons: I listened to ‘From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah’ by Nirvana far too much when I was a kid, and the fact our drummer Alex is an absolute animal. I really like it loud, but this one guy recently at a show in Middlesbrough was all like: “I wasn’t expecting you to sound like this… I really liked your MySpace – reminded me of early Blur”. Our new recordings sound a lot nearer to the sound of our live show, as we’ve mixed them really loud, but then nobody has heard them yet!
To date, what show stands out in your memory as the best you’ve played?
We supported The Thermals earlier in the year, and that was great – especially as they were cheering our set from the side of the stage! Sound wise though, we always enjoy playing at the Notting Hill Arts Club because the soundman, Neil, is so good!
What’s the best show (by another band) that you’ve been to? Perhaps not ever, but certainly of late…
Well the best show I have ever been to is more or less a dead heat between Beck’s solo performance at the Royal Albert Hall a few years back, the first time I saw Mogwai, or any one of the times I saw Fugazi. Recently though, two shows stand out: Pulled Apart By Horses at The Albert in Brighton, which was just nuts, and at the complete other end of the spectrum I saw Laura Groves a.k.a. Blue Roses at the Great Escape festival, which was simply wonderful. What a voice!
And what about the worst show? By yourselves… is there a venue/town you’ll happily never return to?
We recently had a complete nightmare in a little town in Lincolnshire called Louth. We played last summer, as we were offered a way above-average gig fee (at the time). We arrived missing a member, and played the whole show with no lead guitar, and to me sounded absolutely terrible, but the 100 people crammed into the little place went mad for us, totally loved it. Anyway we went back in April to play again following the great reaction we got, and the show started great, a mosh pit broke out at the front, and the first song went fine, with people singing along, until I broke a string. So I borrowed a guitar, then in the next song a string on that snapped too. Cue five minutes of silence while I tune another borrowed guitar to our half-a-step-down tuning. Then on the next song – you guessed it – I snapped a string on that, too. I would be surprised if this has ever happened anywhere before in history – three strings snapped in three songs, unbelievable. I think we stumbled through another two songs with broken strings and out of tune guitars before we apologised and left the stage after about five or six incomplete songs and 20 minutes. This would have all been bad enough, but apparently we were far, far too loud, and we sounded like a massive mush out front, and in the melee nobody communicated this to us. Pretty ridiculous. That said, I hope one day we can go back there and play a blinder.
Say you’ve the budget to put on your ultimate four-band bill, featuring yourselves – who plays and in what order? No bringing anyone back from the dead, here, but defunct bands can count.
This is very hard. Do we have to play? If so we’d go on first obviously. Followed by Fugazi. Followed by Tom Waits doing mainly stuff from his ‘70s period. Headlined by Nirvana, and I’d step in and be Kurt for the night. The crowd would probably hate it, but I’d have the time of my life!
How does the band keep itself entertained on the road? Any bus games you break out for motorway gridlock?
Sam’s got this game where you write a letter on a piece of paper and then you can put another letter either side, but the aim is to not write a word, and to try and force the opponent into only being able to write a word. I’m a bit of a master of this. WOAH, WE’RE SO ROCK AND ROLL.
What tips would you give a new band about to embark on their first ‘proper’ tour?
Top five tips…
* Don’t eat at motorway service stations. Find a 24-hour supermarket before you leave town. You’d be lucky to get a single egg and watercress sandwich for less than £4 on the motorway. In Sainsbury’s for instance, you can get a Taste the Difference Israeli couscous and feta, an extra large sausage roll, and a carton of pressed apple juice for that. Or you could just get the extra large sausage roll and save yourself £3.30.
* Always ask the promoters of each show beforehand about the parking situation. Saves you masses on paid parking / parking tickets / hassle if you find out about those little secret places. Nothing quite like local knowledge!
* Take some great cassettes or whatever. There’s only so many times you can listen to ‘Top tunes of 1999’, ‘Stoosh’ by Skunk Anansie, or ‘Roland Rat at the BBC’.
* Watch the road, not the sat nav.
* Don’t play in Swindon. Even though it’s conveniently halfway down the M4 to Cardiff / Bristol.
Will you have any records available at the show? If not, what’s coming soon on the release front?
No, we will not have anything available at the show I’m afraid. You can still buy our two singles to date on the internet I think, at Alcopop and Fake DIY, but we have run out of copies to sell ourselves! Our debut album is out in October through Smalltown America Records. It’s called ‘Empty, Derivative Pop Songs’ and I think it’s really good. But there’s no way I can be objective, as I’ve listened to it too many times in the mixing process. Promos will be winging their way out at the end of July I think, so I’m sure it will leak around then. Look out for it!
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4 Or 5 Magicians play the Clash Saturday Social @ RoTa on June 27, at the Notting Hill Arts Club, London; doors are 4pm-8pm. Also playing live are William and Talons, plus there’s DJ action from Clash. Entry is free (over-18s only), and drink offers are available at the bar.
Facebook users can find details of this show HERE.
Find 4 Or 5 Magicians on MySpace HERE.
