Foot stomping folk with punk sensibilities, Exeter band Eat the Rich have a reputation for their live set. We spoke to Matt Brown of the band about love, loss and standing up for what you believe in

Describe the band Eat The Rich.

Eat The Rich is a high energy blast of heart-thumping music – folk played with the sensibilities of punk! With a rhythm section tight as a gnat’s chuff, great fiddle playing and thrashing guitar and soaring vocals you might love it or you might hate it, but it’s impossible to ignore it. Our songs are about love, loss, drinking and standing up for what we believe in – or sometimes just a rant, like Bull Bars! But above all you can dance to it – and buy yourself a little bit of freedom in this world. The deeper stuff’s there for those that want it but at the end of the day it’s good time music.

You say you ‘mug traditional songs in a dark alleyway’, where do you find the songs and what makes a tune/song endure?

Well, the songs come from all over the place. We write quite a few ourselves but the reality of gigging is that you have to do some cover versions as well or you don’t get booked. Songs range from straight covers of the likes of The Levellers and The Pogues, to covers you wouldn’t normally expect from a band like us, Holiday by Green Day, Higher Ground or Word Up, for example. The traditional songs are things like old standards such as Black Velvet Band or The Fields of Athenry. These are definitely mugged and played like punk tracks, usually with heavily distorted guitars and pounding rhythms.

A song endures, I think, if retains relevance. Songs about love and loss fall into this category. But some songs are so woven into our culture (like Black Velvet Band, Dirty Old Town etc) that they are comfortable and can be sung along to. Boring if that’s for the whole evening, but variety is spice of life. The tunes endure if they lift off and you can retain relevance by adding interesting backing and melding tunes together – we do quite a lot of that!

How long have you been going and what’s the biggest challenge in being a band/musician in the South West?

We’ve been together for five years now, although this is the fourth incarnation of the band. And the best yet. The main challenges of playing in the South West are that you have to play down the original material in order to get gigs. If you’re playing your own stuff you don’t mention it til afterwards when everyone’s enjoyed it. Which is brilliant when it happens – there’s no feeling like watching everyone dance and jump around to something we’ve written.

Other challenges are the distances we have to travel and that it’s a fairly enclosed scene. Your chances of being “discovered” gigging are pretty thin although they would be anywhere to be honest. The other challenge is trying to break into the festival circuit – really difficult if you don’t have the contacts and no one ever responds to your emails or telephone calls. Grr!

But the best gigs we do are usually out in the villages. Everyone gets really into it and are generally there for the night, so you can really whip up the atmosphere. In the cities the crowd are usually more self-conscious and also are usually on their way to somewhere else. But overall it’s great!

In your influences you mention your ‘eyes and ears and the headlines’. What’s the sort of thing that will inspire you to write a song, and how does the writing process evolve.

Influences are indeed eyes, ears and headlines. Often songs emerge with a tune that’s good but needs something else to go with it. Lyrically they often evolve out of personal experience or just thinking about stuff in an Exeter coffee shop! How they evolve is weird. Apples, for example, was written in about 10 minutes flat yet Bull Bars went in and out of the lab several times before we got it right.

Often we can be a bit too clever with a song and they are often better when they get taken back to the lab and have the unnecessary bits removed – a tight song is usually much better and most songs of four minutes and over benefit from having a bit chopped off. Even a bit you’re really proud of sometimes has to go. Murder your darlings! To be melodramatic about it. If a song has stopped going somewhere and is just repeating itself then 99 times out of 100 it’s time to end the song!

You are choka-bloc with gigs, what is your live appeal and how to you keep up the energy to perform so frequently?

Gigs are indeed flying in thick and fast. We’ve kept most Saturdays in the summer free to try and book festivals and weddings. We love doing those. But the list is filling up. We’re popular because we’re a really tight live act that gets the crowd going, gets people dancing and because we’ve found the balance between maintaining our distinctive style and sound yet providing enough variety.

Pounding tunes all night would quickly get boring and some things really work because of their rarity value. We also like to engage with the crowd and get people involved. I like to think of our gigs as events rather than just four blokes playing in a pub. If people are enjoying it then the energy is no problem! You give a bit, and if the crowd gives it back then you give a bit more and so on and so on until you have glorious night! In other words – we love playing live!

Is there anything you’d like to add?

Only thing to add is that we’re planning an album release in 2010. We’re in talks with a producer about it and hopefully it will give us a platform to get onto the next stage and give our fans something to play again and again.

We won’t be able to translate our live sound to CD – if that were possible then that’s all anyone would do but a gig is an event and if you’re not there then you won’t get the atmosphere. So instead we have to concentrate on production and making sure our songs are as good as they can be. Oh, our website should also be up and running by the end of 2009.

Subvert & Survive

Eat the Rich, thank you.

• Listen to Eat the Rich, and music from throughout the South West, on Radio Free South West.

Eat the Rich were number three in the Radio Free South West people’s chart for September

This article first appeared on the People’s Republic of South Devon

Exeter-based band Sound of the Sirens harmonised their way to number two of the Radio Free South West people’s chart last month. We caught up with them to talk about their performances, influences and what makes a perfect song

Who are you and what do you do in the band?

We are Lisa Eyre, vocals and percussion, Abbe Martin vocals and guitar, and Hannah Wood vocals and guitar

We don’t look at any of us as separate, as it’s the combination of the three of us that makes the complete sound. A lot of our music relies on harmonies and so we all have to work together in order to achieve the sound we want. Our rehearsals are always good fun and there is always a lot of eye contact between us on stage prompting each other and supporting each other. We are a good team.

How did you get together and how long have you been performing?

Before this we were all involved in music and performing through college or university in one way or another, but we all came together when Hannah moved to Exeter in 2004 ish. Our nights out ended with us singing and harmonizing our way home.

We finally put it to good use in a local functions band. We sang with The Loose Cannons from 2007-2008 at weddings, parties and various different functions. This band was great for us because it gave us the chance to perform together and showed us how much fun we could be having.

We made a decision to leave and began singing covers and writing original songs in summer 2008. Our first gig was in September of that year.

How would you describe your music?

Sometimes our music can be very sweet and lighthearted and at other times quite edgy and dark. I like to think that we don’t have one particular style. It’s nice to be flexible and put your stamp on anything.

Our lyrics come from writing together. We jot down conversations as we talk or listen to other people’s and use what they say. Sometimes the lyrics will be connected to an event or a person around at the time. We always find it hard to describe the type of music we sing. Some of faster songs are very rock influenced others quite folky and some a bit poppy.

Your influences include Blondie, Fall Out Boy and Coldplay, how do they figure in your song writing and performing?

We all have different tastes in music and are very open to listening to anything.

Obviously, all of the music you listen to influences you to some degree, even if you don’t like it! We all introduce different bands to each other and enjoy watching live music, where you are always going to be inspired by someone.

I don’t think that there is one person or band in particular that we have based our music on. We all enjoy listening to harmonies, so I guess bands with the ability to exploit this would appeal to us.

Listening to popular music gives you ideas for lyrics, how to arrange songs and lets you know what works. Our live performances aren’t based on anyone else’s style; we just have fun when we’re performing!

What makes a perfect song?

We all know the sorts of songs that people can’t help but sing along to, songs with catchy hooks that stay in your head all day. Songs that build up and leave you in suspense for the end so you are singing along passionately when it reaches that part.

Memorable lyrics, interesting use of language, lines that people repeat when the song has ended. This is how we know that we like a song! A tune that is easy to remember – can you whistle it? – that’s a good test! We don’t think there is a perfect song, but some songs are perfect for specific moments.

Sound of the Sirens, thank you

This article first appeared on the People’s Republic of South Devon