INTERVIEW

let’s be honest - last year’s nme tour belonged to the rapture, cementing their rep as one of the most vital bands in rock. prior to the date at Norwich UEA, Loz... caught up with a bleary-eyed but justly content Luke Jenner (vocals/guitar) to talk tours, new records and Scandinavian metal...

Trash: what do you think of the other bands on the tour?

Luke: I like funeral for a friend because they remind me of growing up in San Diego, there was a shit load of bands that sounded a lot like them, really heavy. We’ve been getting on well with the Von Bondies and Franz Ferdinand… it’s like being with a circus, there’s 15 people trying to drag you out somewhere every night.

Trash: are you getting used to the bigger venues now?

l: Yeah like, we had a day off in Oxford and we played a smaller show and i was really depressed about it. Funeral for a friend are actually headlining but i don’t mind that, I like the antagonism- there’s Funeral for a friend fans who show up and really don’t like us. But then they also have fans who show up and like… we change their lives or something. Everyone changes their lives, it’s really awesome cos a lot of their fans are super-young, some of them have never been to a show before, they’re like ‘what the fuck is this?’. It’s pretty awesome. I took pictures of some of them from last night actually...

(gets out digital camera. the FFAF fans are indeed pretty damn teeny)

Trash: have you had any time to get new songs down in the past few months? it feels like ‘house of jealous lovers’ first came out a long time ago and you’re still touring off of that.

l: Yeah, forever ago. I’ve written songs and Matt’s written songs, but we haven’t as a band gotten it together, and it can take a long time. Sometimes songs come together quickly for us, other times it can take a year... or a lifetime.

Trash: are you getting frustrated, not being able to get back to writing.

l: Yeah I’d like to get back to it definitely- we really opened ourselves up in the studio for the first time on our last record, and I’d like to get back to that.

Trash: do you see the last record as part of a continuing progression from ‘mirror’ and ‘out of the races…’, or does it feel like a new start with everything that’s happened to you?

l: I never really view things as a new start, i think it’s almost a problem with being young, or young at heart is that you always want to start everything over, and you never accept that that’s not actually happening…

Trash: you’ve been dj’ing on this tour too, is that something you’ve always done?

l: A little bit, yeah, I’ve been doing it for the past few years, i started working at this bar where they had house music every night, i’d just go in early and play around. Then i got my own night there, and it went on from that…

Trash: what sort of thing do you play?

l: ‘Smells like teen spirit’ with the volume at 11, a lot of disco records… i really love house music but it’s impossible to get indie kids dancing to acid house.

Trash: is that an influence for the remix choices on the singles, like the Tiefschwarz version of ‘Sister saviour’?

l: Yeah but no one dances to that either in the indie world, you can’t put that on at an aftershow party and have people dance to it.

Trash: i saw 6 people dancing to it the day after Christmas actually.

l: That’s an accomplishment.

Trash: when you make it into the studio again, are you going to keep working with dfa?

l: I’d like to work with dfa; we haven’t quite got to the recording stage though... we’re definitely thinking about it, I’ve been sitting on the tour-bus trying to learn this program ‘logic’- but my brain capacity, it’s pretty dim.

Trash: it’d be interesting to see what would happen if dfa take up these Janet Jackson/Craig David etc offers they’re getting.

l: They’re just a press juggernaut you know, that’s probably their biggest strength.

Trash: i’m not sure what they’d bring to the pop arena.

l: i don’t think they want it, they’re into being cool, they’re into dj’ing parties for 20 people in Tokyo and they want to be legends, that’s their thing and they’re setting themselves up for that.

Trash: like the velvet underground?

l: yeah but on purpose - the velvet underground wanted to be huge but they just... failed.

Trash: and yet their legend lives on…

l: well it lasts, but in a way it’s only… academic.

t: apparently there’s a Finnish death metal band also called the rapture…

l: I’m terrified of them. I’m hoping they’re not those black metal dudes with all the teeth…

Trash: the ones who accidentally kill each other in ritual band games?

l: Yeah, i got kinda nervous when i went to that part of the world.

Trash: did you get any accidental crossover fans?

l: The biggest problem we’ve had actually is with this drum and bass night in San Diego of all places, called Rapture. My friends keep turning up to be like ‘i just paid $25 and I’m at a drum and bass night, what the hell is going on’…

Trash: where does the name come from, is it to do with the religious rapture thing?

l: Vito (the drummer) named the band - at the time we were this antagonistic, aggressive punk rock band, ‘the rapture’ sounded like the end of the world so we thought ‘that sounds good...’

Trash: i guess it’s an original way of phrasing the end of the world, makes it sound quite fun...

l: It gave us something good to try and live up to - live, we tried to create The Rapture…

Trash: is that still the plan?

l: we’re a lot happier now. But we still try to fuck shit up.

Loz(tohellwith)

http://www.therapturemusic.com/