Interview
Reuben
Jamie Lenman, Guy Davis and Jon Pearce
28 June 2007 (released)
28 June 2007
Three years after their debut 2004 album gained them much attention and saw their single releases climb up the charts behind their friends like 'Hell Is For Heroes’ and 'Hundred Reasons’, Surrey trio Reuben (Jamie Lenman, Guy Davis and Jon Pearce) are releasing their third album. Music News caught up with them backstage at the Hyde Park Calling festival to find out what the lads have planned next.
MN: Your new album 'In Nothing We Trust’ is out tomorrow, how are you feeling about the release?
Guy: Excited!
Jon: Yeah because we’re the label now ourselves and after we’ve been sat in Jim’s house, playing things, doing pictures on the computer and all this business, it’s really nice to finally see the result.
Guy: It’s a real sense of achievement because we’ve set up our own record label Hideous Records, and this is our first album we’ve released on Hideous. We did our DVD before,.
Jamie: It’s funny isn’t it, I keep on thinking that there’s someone above us doing it, but it’s not, it’s us. I keep imagining that there’s other people doing it, but we’ve done it all and that’s really good.
Guy: Yeah, and it gives you great sense of achievement.
MN: Are you planning to put other bands on Hideous?
Guy: It’s purely an outlet just for Reuben.
Jamie: If we had other bands we’d have to put up the money for recording their album, so it’s not really an option. It’s not out of the question, but certainly not at the moment.
MN: Your last album was much more varied than 'Racecar,’, is 'In Nothing We Trust’ moving more along these lines or are your returning to 'Racecar’?
Jon: It’s a bit of both, you know we’ve done the 'Racecar,’ thing and we’ve done the 'Very Fast,’ thing, and we’re on to something else now. We’ve still got influences from records we’ve done previously, but each album we try to make specific so it’s different from the previous ones. There’s nothing worse than just releasing the same album.
We’ve experimented a lot more with samples within songs, that when we tour in September there’s some triggers and stuff like that.
Jamie: Triggers? That’s pretty serious.
Jon: I thought we were?
MN: So basically cut Guy out and replace him with an electric drum machine.
Jamie: That’s been the plan since the beginning.
Guy: Yeah, to be honest, I need a job that pays.
MN: After directing the video for your new single 'Blood, Bunny, Larkhall’, are you looking to get into more directing?
Jamie: You have to juggle these things I mean, while the band is going on I’d like to do some more directing. I’m going to do some on our next video when we get round to it.
For the next single off the new album?
Jamie: Yeah, we’ll be releasing a new single in September.
MN: What will you be doing between now and your tour in September?
Jon: Loads of one-off shows, festivals.
Guy: Yeah, and filming the video for the next single. We’ve just been recording B-sides for the new singles. Things like artwork for the next single, all these things take time.
Jamie: It’s all on, it’s all go.
MN: How did you come to join up with Ashley Wood for the new artwork?
Jamie: I just emailed his address, it was crazy, I thought I would get some curator answering, but it was just him and he emailed back saying 'ah cool, let’s talk about it'
MN: So you had seen his work previously?
Jamie: Yeah, I’m a big fan of his, I’ve got lots of his books, he’s awesome. I just found this picture on the site that I thought would be great for the album cover, asked him if we could use it and he’s like,.'yeah'.
Guy: And he provided the artwork for the singles as well. It’s just incredible, they’re amazing.
Jon: He’s really gone out of his way to help as well.
Jamie: The amazing thing is I got one of his calendars I got for Christmas above the toilet, so I take a wee-wee looking at our single cover, it’s mental.
MN: Good luck with your performance, will you be going to watch Aerosmith?
Jamie: No, we’re going to have to peg it home and go to this signing.
Guy: Yeah, we’ve got a midnight signing at Rockbox.
Jamie: I said 'peg it' for the first time in like ten years
'In Nothing We Trust’ is out now.
Guy: Excited!
Jon: Yeah because we’re the label now ourselves and after we’ve been sat in Jim’s house, playing things, doing pictures on the computer and all this business, it’s really nice to finally see the result.
Guy: It’s a real sense of achievement because we’ve set up our own record label Hideous Records, and this is our first album we’ve released on Hideous. We did our DVD before,.
Jamie: It’s funny isn’t it, I keep on thinking that there’s someone above us doing it, but it’s not, it’s us. I keep imagining that there’s other people doing it, but we’ve done it all and that’s really good.
Guy: Yeah, and it gives you great sense of achievement.
MN: Are you planning to put other bands on Hideous?
Guy: It’s purely an outlet just for Reuben.
Jamie: If we had other bands we’d have to put up the money for recording their album, so it’s not really an option. It’s not out of the question, but certainly not at the moment.
MN: Your last album was much more varied than 'Racecar,’, is 'In Nothing We Trust’ moving more along these lines or are your returning to 'Racecar’?
Jon: It’s a bit of both, you know we’ve done the 'Racecar,’ thing and we’ve done the 'Very Fast,’ thing, and we’re on to something else now. We’ve still got influences from records we’ve done previously, but each album we try to make specific so it’s different from the previous ones. There’s nothing worse than just releasing the same album.
We’ve experimented a lot more with samples within songs, that when we tour in September there’s some triggers and stuff like that.
Jamie: Triggers? That’s pretty serious.
Jon: I thought we were?
MN: So basically cut Guy out and replace him with an electric drum machine.
Jamie: That’s been the plan since the beginning.
Guy: Yeah, to be honest, I need a job that pays.
MN: After directing the video for your new single 'Blood, Bunny, Larkhall’, are you looking to get into more directing?
Jamie: You have to juggle these things I mean, while the band is going on I’d like to do some more directing. I’m going to do some on our next video when we get round to it.
For the next single off the new album?
Jamie: Yeah, we’ll be releasing a new single in September.
MN: What will you be doing between now and your tour in September?
Jon: Loads of one-off shows, festivals.
Guy: Yeah, and filming the video for the next single. We’ve just been recording B-sides for the new singles. Things like artwork for the next single, all these things take time.
Jamie: It’s all on, it’s all go.
MN: How did you come to join up with Ashley Wood for the new artwork?
Jamie: I just emailed his address, it was crazy, I thought I would get some curator answering, but it was just him and he emailed back saying 'ah cool, let’s talk about it'
MN: So you had seen his work previously?
Jamie: Yeah, I’m a big fan of his, I’ve got lots of his books, he’s awesome. I just found this picture on the site that I thought would be great for the album cover, asked him if we could use it and he’s like,.'yeah'.
Guy: And he provided the artwork for the singles as well. It’s just incredible, they’re amazing.
Jon: He’s really gone out of his way to help as well.
Jamie: The amazing thing is I got one of his calendars I got for Christmas above the toilet, so I take a wee-wee looking at our single cover, it’s mental.
MN: Good luck with your performance, will you be going to watch Aerosmith?
Jamie: No, we’re going to have to peg it home and go to this signing.
Guy: Yeah, we’ve got a midnight signing at Rockbox.
Jamie: I said 'peg it' for the first time in like ten years
'In Nothing We Trust’ is out now.
