Lesser Panda Interview

5 piece dance-rock act Lesser Panda have been treading the watery London scene since 2006, after Hispanic heartthrob Mariano Robles allegedly “frogmarched” 4 startled guys out of an East London bathhouse, straight into Hot Chip’s studio in Brick Lane.  The result of this urban tale? Quite simply a band successfully creating something mood intoxifyingly melancholy yet dripping in prog-dance commanding beats and comparisons from early 80’s The Cure, to the new Bauhaus or Interpol if only they lightened up a bit.

Already attracting praise from the tastemakers that matter, this band are currently riding the wave of acclaim thrown their way in the aftermath of single releases ‘Happy Birthday’ and the superbly brooding double A side ‘Ghostdance’ and 'Carousel'.  With an EP set for release early 2009,  further exploits courtesy of their warehouse party night ‘Pandaphelia’ and an album on the horizon, there is no chance of extinction with the continued new wave re-emergence and a band capable of making it so darkly euphoric.  

Along with frontman Mariano, Lesser Panda are Ben Chatwin, Chris Fenner, Chris Howarth and George McLeod and we caught up with them on the eve of their stunning headline Hoxton show as part of Clash Magazines’ ‘In The City’ showcase.  

4ortherecord – There seem to be numerous urban myths flying around about how Lesser Panda formed, in particular the bath-house story, care to elaborate or put any of them to bed?

Mariano – Well I personally really like the bathhouse story, but what’s the truth?  Like seriously people don’t want the truth, it’s boring.  I guess you know we just decided to get together make some music and give it a go.

4TR – Ok then, for the purposes of this interview we will go with the bathhouse story.  So what about the name, does it stem from your empathy with the current plight of the panda?

Fenner – Not really.  Well basically when we got booked for our first gig, we didn’t have a name at all and we needed one to go on the flyer; Chris was smoking a horrendous cigarette from china called Lesser Panda, like they blow your lungs apart and so we just went yeah that will do and that was the name we stuck with.

Ben – This was like 6 or 7 months after arguing about a name, so it got desperate.

4TR – So you just saw it on a fag packet and went with it? 

Fenner – [laughing] And we don’t regret it one bit!

4TR – actually there is an exhibition by the name ‘Lesser Panda’ by an American artist and it was a film about the Beijing Olympics, so I thought in some way you might have done the music or something for that?

Fenner – [laughing] What us being all arty or something? No that was nothing to do with us. 

4TR – 2008 has seen you release 2 singles, most recently the double A-side ‘Ghostdance' and 'Carousel', so do you feel you have set the foundations for big things to come in 2009?

Ben – Yeah, yeah definitely.  Well we are going into the studio this month (October) to start recording a 4 track EP that we have got ready to go now and we are working with a great producer, so fingers crossed we will be ready to release that in February.

4TR – Your singles were released on new label Superdark, will that relationship be continuing?

Fenner – Well we don’t really know yet.  We have released through Superdark but it would be quite nice if a bigger label came knocking on our door. 

Ben – It’s great for us that we have got Superdark there you know, they have been great to us and whatever happens regardless of whether we do find another label we can always fall back on Superdark which is nice to know.  It means we can just concentrate on the music really; the label side of it is kind of out of our control, whatever happens, happens!

4TR - What kind of label are you looking for?

Fenner – At the end of the day we want someone with credibility about them.  It’s important to look at a label and see what they are releasing.  Just look at Moshi Moshi for example, they are the one that everyone kind of homes in on and are known for putting great music out, so personally for me I want us to go with someone with that ethic and credibility.

Mariano – I think as well we are in this for fun, we don’t want to get involved in the whole sort of music industry bashing that goes on, so are open to possibilities. 

Chris H – We also appreciate that it’s not necessarily the only option for bands these days you know, you can still get a great fan base and support without a label because of MySpace and just gigging as much as possible or giving music away for free.

4TR – So with the EP are you working with a producer or is there more of a DIY ethic within the band?

Fenner – Now we are working with a really good producer actually, it’s Sam Annand from Architeq.

4TR – So has the recording process been along the lines of what you expected?

Fenner – To be honest the recordings we have done before have been quite painful, like to start with we worked with another producer and he basically promised us a lot of things and messed it up, so we took it to Sam Architeq and he rescued it.  So our previous stuff probably doesn’t reflect our complete sound because of that.  

Chris H – I think we have got a lot to offer but we have not really recorded that yet, so I think we can really do something good now and are looking forward to going back into the studio and working on producing something we can be really proud of.

Mariano – Plus we are going to Monnow Studios to record, which is a big deal for us.

4TR – Didn’t you previously record in Hot Chip’s Studio?

Chris H - Yeah well we actually used to practice there for free.

Ben – Yeah they were such nice guys and really good to us, I mean we were just starting out and really got off the ground because of them, they were so supportive of what we were doing.

4TR – You are known for djing and remixing other peoples music, have you found that this other element to Lesser Panda has impacted on your fan base? 

Fenner – I think it’s a good way of getting our music out to other people and plus when I was younger I listened to dance music so my way of getting to know about bands was listening to remixes of those bands.

Chris H – And all of us are really into dance music so that is a natural side to our band.

Ben – Yeah that’s the thing, it just sort of turned out that we ended up being a live band but it could have quite easily just gone down a more electronic route. 

4TR – So what is ‘Pandaphelia’?

Mariano – Pandaphelia is the name for the parties we put on, the last one was crazy!

4TR – Don’t they happen in a secret location, which is only announced on the day?

Fenner – Yeah that’s right, well that was in my house and now I don’t live there anymore.

[all laughing]

Mariano – Basically he got kicked out afterwards.

Fenner – Well I sort of got away with it for a bit, but then the landlord got in contact with me and sad I heard you had a party and I was like yeah it wasn’t that big, but there was actually like about 700 people there.

4TR – Err how the hell did you fit 700 people in your house?

Fenner – Well I used to live in a converted warehouse in Stoke Newington, it was like a ridiculously big place, but then a month after the party I had to move out, but it was worth it.  At the moment we are working on putting another one on, you should come!

4TR – We will!  Have you found a venue for the next one then or is one of you going to risk eviction and have it at their house?

Ben – We still have to find somewhere to put it on, that’s what’s taking the time, trying to find somewhere suitable as well.

Mariano – And we are really scared for the next one because it could be massive, so we need somewhere huge.

4TR - Did you perform?

George – Yeah we did and we had quite a few bands actually, like Mirror Mirror, Architeqs, loads of people.

Ben – DJ Nightmoves from Kitsune played as well.

Mariano – So watch this space, the next one should be in January or February and it will be massive.

4TR – Your live shows have been described as quite dramatic where you have a big influence on the crowd, was that intentional or something that has just developed?

George – We write the music so that not one person just writes the songs, we all contribute and write together.  So a lot of the tracks come out with 5 different peoples energy and that can make for a dynamic show.

Fenner – At the same time our shows are kind of like a journey, because but it kind of dips in and out so it’s not a constant party, some of our tracks are darker.

Chris H – Definitely, we try to write different kinds of songs you know, some are up beat songs, some are darker, and we just try to give the crowd something that’s not all the same.  I mean you see so many bands just playing the same kind of song over and over again and that is just boring.

4TR – What sounds will you be aiming for with the EP and album?

George – The next EP definitely is darker.

Chris H – But it’s also going to have some really dancy elements to it, quite bruising haha

Fenner – [laughing] Yeah bruising is a good word, but we want to bring some dance in to go in on the album

4TR - Where is the weirdest place you have heard one of your songs being played?

Mariano – On a cancer research TV advert 

Fenner – Yeah they used our track ‘Happy Birthday’…

George – But what they didn’t realize is that we are actually kind of named after a packet of cigarettes and that is not really the best advert really for cancer research.

Mariano – Yeah it’s basically a teenager party with people smoking and one of the girls looks like a granny or something when they light their cigarette, and they say you will age and look like this if you carry on smoking, and we actually did the soundtrack.  Oh dear!

4TR – There have been loads of comparisons made, for example Anthony and the Johnsons and Bauhaus, do you see that as a good thing?

George – We get them [comparisons] a lot, I blame Mariano for that [laughing]

Mariano – Yes it is my fault i'm sorry, I want to apologise for the fact that I apparently sound like other people.

George – I find it frustrating that people can’t use their imagination and just suggest that we are trying to copy someone. That’s never been the way it actually is.  

Mariano – Hello, I’m a fucking flamenco gypsy why would I do that hahaha, why would I copy anyone else?

4TR - Do you do flamenco Mariano?

Mariano – Of course I do, I live in a flamenco world.

4TR - So can we expect some percussion courtesy of maracas and your flamenco shoes?

Mariano – Yeah that kind of sound is coming out in the album definitely haha, or maybe I will save that for a solo record.

George – Seriously though, we are very conscious of the bands people say we sound like and stuff and so we try to not sound like that anymore and change things.  I mean music goes through stages, so it’s very hard to be completely new anymore.

Fenner – It’s not contrived in anyway, all our sounds come out naturally and obviously we have listened to loads of bands and music but I would not pick any of them as my favourite and direct influences, its more natural to us than that.

Mariano – If you compare me to anyone can you compare me to Robbie Williams please?

4TR – This year you played at the premier for the Joy Division documentary, in front of press and friends of the band – how did that come about?

Chris H – Well basically the organizers got in touch with us just before and what an enormous compliment that was for us, it was a fantastic experience.

Fenner – We did 3 covers of Joy Division songs, ‘Inside’, ‘Decade’ and ‘She’s Lost Control’ in the end and some of our own material.  We sort of went for 2 not so big songs and then ‘She’s Lost Control’, because they were such a massive band and so we didn’t want to do all their biggest hits.  It’s quite hard to get the same essence to their music when you are covering them so we wanted to do tracks that we thought we could do justice to.

4TR - Did you put a Lesser Panda edge onto it?

Fenner – Yeah definitely we put our mark on the set and we actually got some of the recordings from it which we are going to put together properly for people to hear.

George – And we got a really good response from the show as well, but you found it quite hard didn’t you Mariano singing Ian Curtis’ lyrics?

Mariano – Well coming from a flamenco gypsy background it was quite hard [laughing].  No, it was great, it was amazing and an honour to do that show.  Learning the lyrics was hard, because I never went deeply into understanding them so that I could perform them before, so it took some time to rehearse.  

Chris H – Plus everyone there were genuine music fans as well, and a lot of people in the audience had had something to do with Joy Division in the past so it was very cool

4TR – The video for ‘Ghostdance’ was very dark and atmospheric in itself, what was the thought process behind that? 

Chris H – Actually the directors are over there, [to the directors Joe and Tim, come over here and talk about your video.

[Tim Main and Joe Dixon who go by the name of ‘John Major’s Daughters’ (JMD) join the interview]

4TR - So Joe and Tim, you have worked with the band on their first and second videos, tell us the ideas behind the ‘Ghostdance’

Joe – Well for starters this video was a completely different from the first one, which had more of a humorous element to it.  But as the band have developed and we have got to know them better, we thought there was more maturity to their sound, and because of the way that we had progressed as directors as well we wanted to do something with a lot more mood.  

Originally our idea was just to use light bulbs without any kind of magic happening along with the song, but then as Mariano is a good friend with one of the chaps from UVA [United Visual Artists], an amazing lighting company, they managed to help us get the lights all in sync with the song, so it really had something special.  

4TR – And finally, Mariano you have been described in certain press as a ‘Hispanic heartthrob’ – how do you feel about that?

[all laughing]

Mariano – I feel great, it’s what I aspired to be since I was a boy.  In our first video you can’t realise the heartthrob aspect but in our second I look brooding I think.

Fenner – That was the makeup, he’s still wearing it now.

www.myspace.com/lesserpandamusic

Check out their facebook group for details of the next Pandaphelia party.

Interview by Francesca Strange

Photos by Gareth Jackson www.myspace.com/jacksonfoto

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