"Crystal Seagulls in itself means everything and nothing at all"
"It's kinda like words that don't fit together, like the whole William Burroughs thing, like soft machine and naked lunch"
Last week, I was lucky enough to have a catch up with Crystal Seagulls just before they jumped on stage at the George Tavern... Here's how it went!
Okay, so tell me about yourselves guys?
John: Yeah we're a rock band, we're based in London but we come from all over the country and tonight we're playing at the George Tavern!
WOO! & give us fun fact about yourselves....
Elz: My names Elz, I'm 5ft 8", and A fun fact about myself... I can sing the alphabet backwards in Arabic
Okay we might need to leave that til last, Actually no! Have a go now!
Elz: I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head - I can't do it
Jim: Make it up! No one will know.. (
proceeds to pretend that he can speak the Alphabet backwards in Arabic...)
Oh wow you can do it?!
John: What did you say about my mum?! (
lol) I'm John, I do some singing and I'm from Birmingham, and errr an interesting fact... I play the bass ermmm.. I dunno....I was in a car that nearly run over Danny Osmond, that was exciting.
Ah really, what was the situation there?!
John: He just suddenly came out from behind a bus outside of like a posh hotel in Birmingham, and then nearly like, well my dad was driving the car and then he was just on the bonnet, and I was like that's f*ckin Danny Osmond and he was like sh*t you're right! He was alright about it, it was sorta like, it was his mistake...
Just a bit shaken?
John: yeahhh, so my dad nearly killed Danny Osmond
Haha cool, nice claim to fame there!
Jim: My name's Jim, I play rhythm guitars, and do a little bit of singing. Err what can I say, I've got three pairs of leopard print socks, all of which are.. as raucous and ferocious as the last pair...
What about your drummer?
Jim: His names Ben and he plays the drums.
John: And he likes yaks milk.
I feel like I've kinda rumbled you here, I met Jim at BBC Three Counties Introducing which is meant to be a 'local' music show, but you're from all over the place! And Ben your local guy has gone walk about...
Elz: He's the guy who keeps it local to Hertford, because he's from Hertfordshire!
Cool, so wait where are you all from?
Elz: Cheshire
John: Birmingham
Jim: London!
John: We're mutually diverse...
So how did you all meet then?
John: College! Music College, ICMP in Killburn
Was it good?
John: Was alright, met these lot so it can't be too bad! Yeah it was alright, me n him [Jim] were on the same course and you [Elz] were on the guitar or whatever, and Ben was doing drums... And yeah so we all just met at college.
So you kinda just formed?
John: Yeah it was a casual affair, And all these years down the line we're still going.
And how many years has that been?
Elz: Two years?
John: Two years
Alllll these years down the line...
John: Two longgg years
Jim: Alll these years..
John: Two long arduous years hahaa! Those grinding years...
Elz: That's how close we are, feels like about 10 years, we're so tight
John: Yeah it does doesn't it
I know you must probably get this all the time, but what does 'Crystal Seagulls' mean? Was chatting to Jim earlier, and I think he mentioned you were being hashtagged in... what was it, a jewellery thing?
Jim: Oh no no. it was sexting... We were being hashtagged in sexting...
Oh what...
John: We're all about the sexy hashtags..
Jim: Crystal Seagulls in itself means everything and nothing at all
Elz: It's kinda like words that don't fit together, like the whole William Burroughs thing, like soft machine and naked lunch
John: What's that?
Naked Lunch? So like, opposites?
Elz: I wouldn't necessarily say opposites
Jim: It's an oxymoron
Elz: You're a moron!
Jade: I like that in a band. So how old are you guys? (Jade got to think of one question to ask the boys... Solid work)
Elz: I'm a fresh faced 22 year old
John: Not so fresh 25 year old.
Jim: 23 year old.
John: Ben's 14...
Jim: Ben's 14
John: He looks about 14...
Elz: We don't really know his age, he looks about 12
John: 14 and a half
Jim: 14 and three quarters
Ells: He looks like if Justin Bieber was on a come down....
Have you guys played at he George Tavern before?
Jim: Nope first time tonight!
Yeah we haven't been here before either, we thought it was some sort of run down place...
Jim: Yeah we thought it was closed, we thought we were going to get ambushed.
We got followed over here, I mean they might have been coming to the gig but, who knows...
Elz: Well you scared em off now!
John: Ya never know, they might have looked at you n thought sh*t they're gonna try and f*ckin mug me mate - 'The Ripped Knee Sisters' strike again! It's like a gang around here called 'The Ripped Knee Sisters'...
Well we did stand around outside for about 4 minutes coz we were early and I thought woah, no, we should be fashionably late...
Okay so, what have you got lined up for the future?
John: Absolute world dominationnn! Nah just more gigs probably! We're gonna get our new material recorded by the end of this year
Jim: And have a video shoot
John: Video shoots coming up soon
Jim: Using zombie run
John: Yeah there's gonna be a load of zombies in it, it's gonna be like well scary and that.
You know what, one of the bands earlier looked like they could be zombies...
John: Yeah Sonitus!
I wasn't gonna name them! What are you gonna do for Halloween?
Elz: We're gonna play a gig!
Jim: Yeah we're playing a gig, we're playing Nightmare Festival in Camden, which is a bit like Camden Rocks, so all the venues are taken up in Camden and I think we're gonna be playing in Dingwalls, and apparently all the bands have to dress up in fancy dress
What are you gonna dress as? Are you gonna go as a themed thing?
John: Maybe, I wanna go as Marilyn Monroe.
Ells: I'm going as Snow White.
Jim: I'm going as Super Mario.
What! That's very eclectic...
John: We should all go as princesses!
Jim: We'll go as Disney Princesses...
Whaaat so Marilyn Monroe, Snow White and... Super Mario?
Jim: Yeah. either that or Golem.
I like it, and what about Ben your drummer?
John: Playboy Bunny
Jim: He'll go as what's her name, Nicole Smith... the one with really big boobs who died, something Nicole Smith who was on Naked Gun 3. That's Ben.
This must be like a pornstar we're missing out on... Anyway back to tonight! Do you have anything fun planned for the set?
Elz: We've got a tasty lil cover of a famous pop star called Jason Derulo
Niiiiiiiiiiice, LOVE Jason Derulo. What song?
John: Ah you'll have to wait and see...
Is it 'Trumpets'?
Elz: No. But it has got trumpets in it.... But it's not called Trumpets, we haven't got a trumpet though!
(In the end they did a wicked cover of 'Talk Dirty' which you can catch a glimpse of:
here)
John's dad was also keen to give a quick review of the boys, have a listen (make sure to listen all the way to the end!):
Ps. Sorry this took so long.. didn't think 8 mins of audio would take about 8 hours to type up - rookie!
Check em out:
Stay Tuned.
JJI