From the depths of the West Country come The Rumble Strips, ready to take on the world with a ramshackle sensibility and a debut album bursting with hooks.
Yet it could have all been so different for the band. Before their first limited edition single ‘Motorcycle’ was picked up by the Transgressive label, the members were grinding away in day jobs. Some more unusual than others: “I was an undertaker and a hypnotist before,” trumpet and piano man Henry explained. “As we got bigger it was crazy having to drop everything to go pick up a dead body. I’d wear the black undertaker’s uniform in rehearsals.”
Lead singer Charlie chips in: “It was handy to have the van to drive our equipment to gigs though.”
The four-piece’s musical journey started back in Exeter where Charlie (guitar and vocals) and Matt (drums) were friends. Thanks to Charlie’s dad’s Saturday music club they met Tom (bass and sax) and Henry who spent much of their youth playing in ska bands.
The Rumble Strips and their brand of soulful pop-rock were only fully born when the members moved to London and created interest in late 2005.
The aforementioned ‘Motorcyle’, with its catchy chorus “If only this bike was a motorcycle, I wouldn’t be sad anymore”, caused a stir and they ended up on hot tips for 2006 lists.
With their sing-along hooks and bounce around brass the Strips’ sound is certainly accessible. Refreshingly they’re not trying to be trendy with obscure references or scenester posturing either.
“We bonded over Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, they’re the one band we all love,” said Charlie, who with his chiselled cheekbones is a probable future indie heartthrob. “But apart from that we’re into Elvis, Springsteen, The Pogues and old rock ‘n’ roll.”
Other members of the band cite Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart as influences while Charlie claims Ray Davies and Lou Reed as song writing inspirations.
They spent seven weeks of autumn in LA writing and recording their debut album with anglophile super-producer Tony Hoffer.
Henry said: “Tony hasn’t really got his own sound, he just tried to bring out our strong points. He was with us constantly and kept pushing things along at a good pace.”
Though Hoffer has worked with Beck and Air his recent credits include The Rumble Strips’ chart slaying label mates The Fratellis and The Kooks.
Luckily the producer didn’t get rid of the group’s endearing rough edges: “He understood what we wanted to do so it sounds pretty epic, but in a makeshift way,” said Charlie.
When Clash met the band however it was in the more real world of a student venue on a wet Wednesday. The four-piece were launching their ‘Cardboard Coloured Dreams EP’, which despite being tipped for so long is their first proper release.
Lead track ‘Oh Creole’ (re-recorded for the album) gets stuck in your head so easily you wonder if it’s a rock ‘n’ roll standard from the 50s, it also has a hilarious video set on fairground dodgems.
The group have already got a reputation for riotous videos – the second low-key single ‘Hate Me You Do’ saw the Strips all at sea and dressed up as fishermen (they’ve already got the beards for it).
Tom said: “Filming that video was one of the best days ever and it only cost about £500 to make. Our mate Harry, who directed it, spent a week with the fisherman in Plymouth persuading them to lend us the boat.”
I was an undertaker and a hypnotist… As we got bigger it was crazy having to drop everything to go pick up a dead body.
Live the group switch between instruments at an alarming rate and often-mid song. “It’s a really important part of the band playing live,” Henry told Clash, “and it’s been good to be out on tour again.”
“We’ve just got our old friend Sam to start playing bass with us to fill out the sound,” said Tom. “Because there’s only four of us we have to put more effort in”
Helping to expand the sound is The Rumble Strips’ recently acquired piano that will feature more on the album.
“We wrote some new stuff in LA, a lot of which isn’t as brass-led,” explained the sax man. “‘Building A Boat’ is one of the new tracks which developed in the studio, it has a lot of Henry’s piano on it and might be a future single.”
‘Alarm Clock’ is set to be the first proper single and will be released in February with the full backing of their major label. “It’s like a brass-led song with a three-part harmony,” said Tom. “It’s got stomping brass and hopefully will be an indie-disco hit and get people dancing.”
With the LP scheduled for a late spring/early summer release the only problem for the band now is narrowing the tracklist down from the 15 songs they recorded. The band will also be getting back to their roots with a likely tour of the South West.
“I just hope people get the album cos it’s different to most things that are about at the moment,” Tom told us. If there’s any justice the Strips’ differences will be exactly what makes them a success.
