Why The SOURFACE?
Not many bands can say they’ve played fake weddings and multiple lockdown gigs in the UK and Paris, so naturally we had to check in with Sourface. Drawing from Bossa Nova, jazz, synth fusion and more, their music boasts a range of genres that come together to create songs with hints of hope, melancholy, and not to mention, hard-hitting French spoken word.
Last week, we sat down with frontman Ludo, to talk about the band’s influences, the gig moments that have stayed with them during another painful round of lockdown, and what’s next in store for the band (and let’s just say the future’s looking very bright!)…
LAST BUS: Can you tell me a bit about how you guys met?
SOURFACE: We’re all at uni together in London so we met through that. There’s four of us; me (lead vocals), Matthew (keys), Alex (bass) & Tom (drums) and it started with us just messing around and playing whenever really. The first time we all played together properly was actually at a fake wedding.
A fake wedding?
Two of our friends were toying with the idea of a civil marriage for EU citizenship, and even though it never happened we thought it would still be fun to hold a fake wedding to consecrate the non-marriage! We were asked to play the reception which consisted of us playing instruments, shouting and Tom banging on some pots and pans. And that was the first time we played together… if you can call it that!
The band name. Where did it come from?
Matthew would be the person to ask about this… we’ve always had this joke (that’s really only funny between the four of us…), whenever we go on a night out we make someone get onto the surface of something like a table or a roof or whatever, and everyone goes ‘he’s on the surface!’. It came to choosing a name and as a joke we decided that it had to have surface in there, and then Matthew added an ‘o’ and Sourface was born.
What makes you pull a sourface?
Ha! There’s this one song of ours that you won’t have heard yet that’s coming out later this year, and when Matthew plays it live, if you look at all four us us we are all gone. All pulling the same face every time. The whole thing has actually become a bit of a paradox because when you hear ‘sourface’ you think of really heavy music or something like that…
Yeah, like death metal.
Exactly. And we are pretty much the polar opposite of that…
I really like your video you put out for Sweet Dreams Suburbia. It has such a DIY vintage aesthetic, which is so easy to watch. How do you come up with the music video ideas? Is it something you start to envisage whilst you’re writing the songs or does it come later?
That one was really random. It was the week before the first lockdown and we had all been on our year abroad and were racing back to England as everything was slowly shutting down. We all went to Matthew’s house where the video was shot & Matthew’s father runs a small TV company that films sports events, so we were lucky enough to have proper equipment to use. We really just bounced off of the lyrics really, and just wanted to have fun, slightly drawing inspiration from The Goodies. It was all done in two days and then almost immediately we were in full lockdown, so pretty spontaneous… which I think is what makes it fun. It’s similar to the whole EP really, none of it was planned and now it’s all just there!
Your most recent single Entre Inconnus came out in November. For our non-French readers, what does that mean? What’s the inspiration behind the song & why French?
So Alex wrote that one. I’m half French, Alex is French and Tom is English but grew up in France. Entre Inconnus means ‘between' unknowns’ but in French is more specific to people, like when you’re in a crowd of people but don’t know anyone. The song sets a scene of being alone on a train and knowing no one or feeling alone in a crowd in an environment that’s so alienating. It’s all based around commuting.
What’s so cool is how you guys encompass so many different genres; you’ve got the jazz fusion, the synths and then the guitar based stuff. Who are your musical inspirations that perhaps people wouldn’t expect?
Something that we all are into is Bossa Nova and general Brazilian 60’s music. I think it’s just the best.
Totally. Especially for this rather sedentary lifestyle that we are all living at the moment.
Extremely nostalgic, sunny music.
If you could get any musician to collaborate on a track, who would it be?
Famous or not famous?
Either.
Not famous, would be our friend David who is an amazing jazz pianist. This is a shout-out to him, I guess! For someone famous I would say Gil Scott-Heron.
Great choice. Do you think you could quarantine with him?
I reckon so yeah! Although I may go slightly stir-crazy…
You guys were lucky enough to put on some socially distanced gigs, both in Paris and Tower Bridge. How was this experience? I went to a couple of socially distanced gigs over summer and from an audience perspective, it was wildly different but I’d be really interested to hear from the musicians side of things.
The one in Paris wasn’t actually that socially distanced in the end..! That was back in September so was the most relaxed that everyone’s been about COVID so far, but the ones in London definitely were. The Tower Bridge one was quite strange because it was the first seated gig we had done. It sort of makes you feel like you’re back at school performing in assembly. We’ve had two gigs since then and it’s been a good opportunity for us to get comfortable just playing live and working out who we are on stage. Having that pressure of people not being allowed to dance and just sitting with the music made us think more about the performance side for sure.
What’s a gig spot that you’re dying to perform at?
We are all based in Camden so would love to play at Camden Assembly or Dingwalls, we’ve got a massive list of them that’s been building up over the last few months now. Also our Paris show at Le Truskel was amazing so we’d love to go back there.
So focusing on lockdown, what have you been listening to?
Lots of Papooz, they’re always playing. Shuggie Otis also - during the first lockdown there was lots of Shuggie. Also Lowdown by Boz Scaggs, that’s a great song. Oh! Also, personally I’d never really listened to Joni Mitchell before lockdown and within the first two weeks I had listened to all of it so anything she’s done.
What have you been watching?
Over the first lockdown I watched The Eddy. Really, really good.
And finally, a game-changing fact that you learnt.
This is not game-changing at all, but is the first thing that came to mind : there are 5,000 different kinds of potato in South America. I’m sorry that’s the best I’ve got.
That is exactly what we’re looking for. Looking forward, what’s on the horizon for Sourface?
We’ve got another EP ready to go so hopefully that will be coming out this spring/early summer… and hopefully playing a load more gigs, we’re going to say yes to absolutely everything and anything once we’re allowed out.
As we all will I’m sure! To finish off, who do you listen to on the Last Bus home?
I will be listening to Avalanches. The album with the blue painting on the front… ‘Since I Left You’.