Rapids : Interview

Bournemouth based Rapids are a rather interesting prospect.  Not only are they one of the first bands to come out of a slowly developing rock scene in the area more notorious for it’s thriving house and dance music but they are directing a sound that is upfront, visceral and brimming with ambiance that blows expectations out the water. 

Rapids formed in September 2009 with the common theme being to create music that bridged the gap between indie, rock and dance. Brimming with musical ideas from projects that came before, the first few months of existing as a 5-piece was about forming a concensus in sound. Job done, as driving guitars meet with searing synth sounds and attention grabbing beats while front man Matt Holliday captures the stage in a maniacal frenzy.  

A self-recorded, self-released debut EP ‘Maps’ saw the light of day at the end of the year showcasing their raw talents via invasive gritty recordings that were actually a pretty damn good DIY effort.  Continuing the trend although with more time and money spent on laying down a follow up 6 track EP, sees a limited run of 200 copies lurking in the background before being unleashed at their official release this summer on the 1st June.  

Courting labels and playing shows seems to be a daily occurrence, yet not naïve enough to believe in all this professes to mean, Rapids are a young band dedicated to hard graft and developing their already expansive sound.  Maybe it’s the beginning of an alternative music revolution in Bournemouth, as the likes of the 02 Academy brand moves in to the grade ii listed former Opera House and maybe Rapids are ready and waiting to encourage and drive this scene forward.  Exciting times for the seaside town and for this burgeoning talent, but if recent shows supporting bands like Errors are anything to go by, Rapids need to be appreciated live if the overwhelming salvo of energy is to be understood.

www.4ortherecord.com spoke with Rapids after a barnstorming set for This Playground records at Proud Gallery in Camden.

Rapids are: Matt (Vocals/Synth), James (Drums), Tim (Bass), Steve (Guitar 1), Rob (Guitar 2)

4or The Record: Each of you have been involved in previous musical projects before this band, but why did you decide to come together and form Rapids?

Tim: pretty much we were all doing different kinds of music, but 4 of us were in a band together before Rapids when we started getting interested in this emerging fusion of indie and dance music together really, it really grabbed our attention and that was something we wanted to take forward 

Rob: Yeah back in the day we spent a lot of time going to Slinky at the Opera House in Bournemouth and listening to trance and stuff like that, so then we merged that with our indie influences and have ended up with Rapids.

Matt: I think the most important thing is that we all like different music but there are a few things that tie it together which I think is what makes it such a nice blend.

4TR: So this amalgamation between dance music and guitar based indie inspired you to form a band based around it, so in that case did the Rapids sound appear instantly at first rehearsal?

Rob: [Laughing] it wasn’t love at first sight no.  But we spent time just finding that common theme that existed between us as musicians; we really didn’t know what it was to start with.

Matt:  It’s hard to put a name on the common theme isn’t it, put it this way we have had a lot of fights getting towards the sound we are at now.

4TR: Was it a case of 5 people with 5 differing yet similar opinions trying to be heard?

Steve: [Laughs] yeah pretty much, but at the same time it was just a voyage of discovery, we were trying to find this common thread that we'd all enjoy playing and I think that started before we even formed Rapids and then we found Matt and asked him to join on vocals.

Rob: We had actually tried a few people out before Matt but not to great effect and when we heard his vocals, which we thought were quite unique, they worked well with the sound that we'd just hit on for the first song we had written, 'The Elitist'.

Tim: It seemed to come in at the right time, just as our new sound was coming out we were looking for a new singer and Matt emerged and everything sort of fitted and it took the band in the direction we were heading; the combination was finally right

4TR: In that case once you found a consensus how has the sound developed?

Steve: Well everyone has an opinion on it obviously, but in my head it wanted to be a mogwai-esque kind of sound quite spacy in some parts but still with more of a rock element to it.  But again then the dance element came through from the other members of the band especially with Jamie’s drums as well which changed things again. 

Rob: [Laughs] This is our sonic destination, I think as we started getting the new songs together we realized the common theme was pretty much having energy in the song and making it dynamic rather than linear and still retaining the ambiance in there at the same time. 

James: It is about energy but positive energy, whereas before it was very much more wall of sound influenced by punk and grunge.  I think it was perhaps a tad inaccessible to the people we wanted to play for so we incorporated a bit of melody and developed it to where we are today.

Matt: Yeah its definitely become more melodic as we have gone through the songs now they have got a lot more to them, there is a lot of parts, each band member plays a role in each song and we are not just talking about straight songs you know verse chorus verse, there is a lot more to it than that

4TR: Each of you clearly have a defined role within the band at the same time as holding your own strong opinions, so how does Rapids go about writing a song?

Rob: Actually it used to be a nightmare [laughs] but it’s getting easier I think – less argumentative with only a few sticking points now.

James: I think everything each of us suggests ends up in there though and we are definitely writing and contributing more collaboratively, probably because we know what we are doing and where we want to go with a song.

Matt: Because we come from different influences its always going to bring something different, like all of the different sounds we have in our head on how we would like to see a song go.  Like Steve and Rob run off very similar ideas in terms of what would work with the guitars and that is very melodic and then Tim’s bass always just seems to fit on top of it and then you have James drums it all just fits together.  I think it’s good because even when we do a song like that has a positive vibe to it or where it’s quite upbeat we always manage to retain a certain degree of melancholy to things which is important to us.

Tim: I think the big thing for us when we start writing a track is that first and foremost it’s got to have atmosphere.

4TR: So what are your direct influences?

Steve: Early Bloc Party and Foals are the main ones. 

4TR: But if I was to write a review I would never say they were the main obvious influences.

Steve: it’s more about their energy I think

Tim: We respect and admire what they do and just try and branch out from that, we're not necessarily emulating those bands by any means but we really like what they are doing

Rob: Rather than trying to emulate their songs we break down the different parts of their songs so we think they do a good bit of sampling in that part or the rhythms they use is cool, we don’t copy that rhythm but it makes us think about what kind of rhythm could work.

Tim: So how can it be re-purposed into something that is fundamentally rapids and not bloc party or Foals, it’s just about how they inspire us.

Steve: Ultimately for us we want to make a unique sound, we have got all these diverse tastes and interests, so I think that helps

Matt: we are drawing from so many different influences like the bands we just mentioned those are the bands we sit around and listen to generally so you could say they are the common factor, but if you asked each of us what our favourite bands would be it wouldn’t be the same as each other like Foals and Bloc Party are the interest, or the bond between us

4TR: From hearing your demos to seeing your live show it actually surpassed all expectations and any preconceived notions of how you would translate your sound – it’s much bigger and has the power to resonate within the room you are playing in.

Matt: Everyone seems to be surprised when they see us live to the extent that we have been reviewed as being much better on the live basis and that it can only improve on record and that’s quite true. We are very visceral and raw live, that comes primarily from the fact that you know we all come from back in the day slightly heavier bands and so that’s always under there – and comes across live and that is something people don’t expect until they see us

Steve: Yeah, we actually played with the Errors the other day and the crowd there was really responsive, everyone was getting into it and you could just see looking around that there was a positive response and people were into it.  Playing to a big crowd seems to work really well for us.

Tim: We all love playing our songs live, that’s why we got together, we get a massive buzz from doing it and giving it 100% at every show, I would like to think people recognized that we were really up for it.

4TR: Matt – you are quite a dynamic front-man actually and you do seem to give it everything up there.

Matt: I try to; I don’t think any form of art can be received unless everything is being put into it.  I remember I went to see white lies and I was expecting a lot but I thought they were boring as shit live because there is nothing behind it and to believe in something you have to put everything behind it.  I am completely and fully behind Rapids.

You know we are limited on funds because we’re a new band so we can only create so much in the studio that’s why live you cant fuck around there’s no budget hiding the fact, it’s purely what we sound like.  Live is Rapids in its purist form; its how we start how we practice and how everything is done.  All we can hope to achieve at this point is playing to people and people liking it.  I know that probably sounds pretentious like of course you want to get signed and be fucking huge but at this point whenever someone comes up to us and says I liked you or that was amazing it’s a huge deal.  

4TR: What is happening in terms of interest in Rapids from the music industry?  Have any labels expressed interest in what you are doing?

Rob: We have had label interest and lots of positive comments and feedback from medium sized labels, which is idea as we would love to work with an independent label.

James: We are recording tracks at the moment and are pretty happy with what we have put down so far, and hopefully we will get it out there in June ourselves and then will see what kind of response we get from that.

Steve: Yeah I think we are giving ourselves a better chance of getting noticed this time, because our earlier demos were laid down in a couple of days, they weren’t mastered, were just in their  raw form and we put them out there like that.  We have a bunch of songs that we are happy with now and we want to get them out there

4TR: So what next?

Steve: At the moment just playing live in as many places as possible, but not limiting ourselves to where we come from which so many bands do and fade into obscurity.  We want to get out and play to different people, different scenes, different crowds and see how we go down, that’s the exciting thing about being in a band.  Or it should be anyway.

James: Definitely I always found underground music more interesting than the mainstream because the mainstream stuff has to pander to so many people that its harder to strike gold because it becomes diluted, we just do what we want to do and we like what we are doing and if other people like it and want to come and hear us play then that is awesome.  

Words: Francesca Strange

Snow
Posts: 3

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Reply #3 on : Wed November 30, 2011, 11:52:15

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And I thhuogt I was the sensible one. Thanks for setting me straight.

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Reply #2 on : Tue July 26, 2011, 11:32:50

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Kaylynn
Posts: 3

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Reply #1 on : Mon July 25, 2011, 23:08:24

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This does look priomsing. I'll keep coming back for more.

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