As Hackney’s hipsters sway to the sound of tepid synth-pop, over on the other side of London, 65daysofstatic are busy sinking their teeth into something a lot meatier…
Clash meets Paul Wolinski of Sheffield quartet 65daysofstatic in Kingston, Surrey, where he is gearing up to play a show at one of the county’s finest indie havens. Keeping in mind the varying demographic that constitutes their fanbase, it’s no surprise that they are met by a broad cross-section of enthusiastic gig-goers, who have already started to form the inevitable sprawling mosh pit. Some bands make non-invasive recordings; others seek the thrill of a live performance – with their penchant for visceral sonic assaults, 65days certainly belong to the latter.
With their brooding, drawn-out chord progressions, the band’s instrumental persuasion is by its very nature post-rock, and so it would be fair to file 65days alongside acts like Godspeed! and Explosions In The Sky. But there is also a metallic sparkle to their sound, born from a love of electronic music and a knack for programming. “We always wanted to be a hybrid between a dance act and a guitar band,” admits Wolinski, a self-confessed dance head, who cites Orbital and Underworld amongst his biggest influences.
The band’s fourth full-length album, ‘We Were Exploding Anyway’, is still laden with frenetic guitar riffs but is more heavily bejewelled with glitchy electronics than any of their previous offerings. Crafted from complicated studio processes, it is 65days’ most ambitious album to date and incidentally the one with which they have had the most troubled relationship. “We learnt an awful lot from the record and we’re incredibly proud of the songs. But we went down this path and thought it was where we wanted to be,” admits Paul. “We were left with touring a record for eighteen months of which we could only play half of the songs live. We built them in the studio from so many different things; five grand pianos and a string section, things that we couldn’t recreate without cheating.”
In response to the album’s inability to translate well in a live setting, the band chose to release the ‘Heavy Sky’ EP, a companion disc made up of additional tracks recorded at the same time as the LP. The band can comfortably perform these separate tracks live, without having to rely on any artificial aids.
Having toured with The Cure last year, the dulcet tones of Robert Smith also feature on their track ‘Come To Me’. So, have they got any plans to explore this new vocal territory in the future? “It’s not that as a rule we wouldn’t do it again but there just never seems like there’s enough space in our songs,” says Paul. “It would also severely limit our live show. That is what we are pouring all our energies into at the moment and is what we are looking forward to building on more and more as time goes on.”
Words by April Welsh
