Saturday 17 October 2009

"We tried planting astro turf and gazebos into venues but they just weren't having any of it."

The Candle Thieves are two lovely chaps from Peterborough and I was pretty happy when I found out I had the opportunity to interview them. Their 'Sunshine EP' was released in early September and I had a chat with members Scott McEwan and Glockenshiels who aren't into your generic interview answers. On asking them to tell me a little bit about themselves, Glock told me this: "Hi! We both find our jokes worryingly too funny and we both love Domino's Pizza. Scott's even made up a name for his favourite selection of toppings." An interview that starts off like that is definitely going to be interesting!

Scott and Glock are the only members in the band and they play an amazing range of instruments, from the simple acoustic guitar, to the lesser known melodica, these guys are extremely talented but haven't completely ignored the idea of adding more members: "We kind of like it as we are right now, but definitely wouldn't rule out mixing it up a bit. Would love to do a show with a string quartet or doing a full on rock thing. There are no rules really." Scott tells me, with Glock adding, "Yeah, first rule in Glock club is, there are no rules!!!" Good to know!

This summer, instead of spending their time playing gigs in stuffy venues up and down the country, The Candle Thieves decided it would be a better idea to gig in their friends and fans gardens. Glock tells me, "We tried planting astro turf and gazebos into venues but they just weren't having any of it." To be honest, that's fair enough. "Ahhhh, of course we didn't!" Oh, well, then that's a bit more understandable. So what exactly did happen? "We did a 'Live in Your Living Room' tour last year which was so much fun that we wanted to do it all again but with a bit of a different spin on it. With 'The Sunshine EP' coming out too it felt pretty nice to be outside."

For those of you who've already heard 'The Sunshine EP' and are desperately wanting more, don't fret, because debut album, 'Sunshine and Other Misfortunes' is just around the corner: "It was recorded by Andy Dawkins and Cameron Jenkins is mixing it. It's nice to have a full length to get a few more of our sides across." Scott tells me. Glock also decided to let me in on an interesting fact about the recording of the album: "If you look back into the figures, for those couple of months we were recording, there was a soar in sales of Ginger Beer and Monster Munch in the Leeds/Headingly area." And those two items are definitely good ingredients for the making of an epic first album.


You can find out more about The Candle Thieves at www.myspace.com/thecandlethieves

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