A few interesting facts about Jeremy Warmsley:
He is one of the latest signings of Transgressive Records, the discerning & upcoming label that already brought us Mystery Jets and the Young Knives; he recently toured with NYC’s darling muse Regina Spektor; he writes hyperrealist lo-fi electronica; his live performances are bold and jubilant, especially when accompanied by a full-blown band, which goes from cello to piano, via laptops and trombone. All are pretty good reasons to make you want to keep an eye on him!
A new EP and a video for « 5 Verses » were the perfect excuse to meet whizzkid for an interview and a bit of a rhyme.
1- On a cold Sunday morning in January,
Heavenly cries came down upon our Jeremy
Hark! Hark!, said God excitedly
I got brand new stone tablets for Thee!
(Jeremy had an « epiphany » at the beginning of the year and forever turned his back to indie music.)
« Thou shalt not make plodding, boring indie rock »
« Thou shalt not fill thy songs with boring guitars »
« Thou shalt not write the same predictable songs as thy peers »
Whether I’ve succeeded in following these commandments, I don’t know. Although, some of my favourite records of the last couple of years have been guitar records… but it’s not for me.
2- Jeremy got up and packed his books,
Added some beeps vocals beats and loops,
But his mother called out from the downstairs pantry,
« Morbleu! What have you done with your French books Jeremy? »
I think it’s hard to say what direct influence being half-French had on me… I haven’t even spent that long in France in my life… but I think growing up in a multi-cultural family has definitely been a good thing, maybe between that and living abroad (I lived in South America when I was a kid for a few years) I’ve ended up more open-minded than some people, I hope. And obviously that’s had an effect on my music too! As for French artists… not very many, I’m afraid! I like Jacques Brel, but of course he’s Belgian. I like some Edith Piaf, some Françoise Hardy, even a bit of Maxime Le Forestier, stuff I’ve dug out of my mum’s old records…. And I’m afraid I’ve not read much French literature – past Asterix & Lucky Luke it gets a bit hazy!
3- Boldly Jeremy marched on,
Shoegazing was frowned upon,
He listened to all, he listened to none
Indie angst he shook til it was gone
Ultimately, being producer of my own material means that I have the final say in everything. And… I have a lot of confidence in my own opinions, actually. When I first ditched all my old songs and started working out my new sound and played them to my friends, everyone hated them. But I was sure my new stuff was better, and I played them to some people who hadn’t heard my old stuff and they really went for it (well not everyone obviously!)
That’s probably pretty arrogant and I expect I’ll start getting it wrong eventually. So I do seek the opinions of my friends and family, and the guys at my record label, who have a lot of the same intuitions as me.
4- (intro) Friends and foes pounded on the door,
Fell into a little heap right there on the floor
Hmm. OK, one thing I really can’t stand is the legions of shitty, identical garage rock bands around in London at the moment. Naming no names! But they’re all so dull – Libertines-obsessed losers with 4 chords per songs, and every line rhymes with the next. Actually the ones who claim to hate the Libertines are even worse…
There are loads of people around who I really like at the moment, both well known and not: Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, Mount Eerie, Regina Spektor… great songwriting, with really interesting music. Less well known artists – Emmy The Great is a fantastic lo-fi, anti-folk-ish singer-songwriter, Ladyfuzz are a brilliant art-rock-y band with a twist, ditto Roland Shanks, Optimist Club is a great post-hardcore really fucking loud rock band, Simon Mastrantone writes really spooky ballads and has an incredible voice and After Christmas make slightly skewed, wrong, distorted power-pop!
4- (continued)
Why is it I’m doing all the chores?
he asked grugingly sweeping up the floor,
Why is it I have to make it all clean,
Have I now become part of the scene?
I guess it depends on what you mean by a « scene »… there’s this West London « scene » of bands that know each other and have played on the same bills, bands like Mystery Jets, Larrikin Love, Jamie T… but none of us sound remotely like each other, I think. (All are really good though, especially Mystery Jets) And then people sometimes try and lump me in with other singer-songwriters who use electronics on their songs, like Patrick Wolf, Tom Vek, and the like. But I don’t know either of those guys personally, and I don’t really think my music bears much resemblance to theirs (not that I’d lump them in together, either!)
5- Jeremy sighed and jumped out of the window
from the groundfloor he knew he’d leave no widow
« Let’s run away and get some work done
Cos in 10 years time god knows I’ll be 91! »
I’ve just put out my first EP with Transgressive Records, and I’m currently working on a new EP with the help of a few musicians I’ve been playing with recently. I’m also on tour with Regina Spektor in the UK which is really cool (she’s awesome). And then some time in the near future, we’ll be putting out my first album which will actually be a compilation of these two EPs and the first single I put out earlier in the year, plus a couple bonus tracks.
My schedule for today: work on some music for a short film my friends at Spoiled Milk (who do all my packaging) are making. And I’m going to do a bit of singing for my new record, hopefully. If I get time. Oh and I have to get some stuff ready for my gig tomorrow.
Where I’ll be in ten years time? Oh god, I’ll be ancient. Knitting hats for our boys at the front, probably. And telling anyone who’ll listen about how I used to be a musician, you know.
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