1) Could you recommend 3 places for our readers to go when they visit LA, please?
Yeah! There’s a bar just down the road from where I live in downtown LA, it’s on Spring Street and it’s called The Varnish. It’s a really old restaurant in LA and they claim they invented the French Dip Sandwich. There’s a wooden door in the back of the restaurant, that’s not marked or anything, which you go through and there’s a 25-seat bar where they mix really old-school drinks, so it’s a good place to hang out. The Museum of Contemporary Art in LA is really worth seeing, too. And Amoeba records is really a must-see, too. It’s the biggest independent record store in the country and it’s on Sunset Boulevard. It’s like a warehouse, you can find anything there. Really worth a look.
2) What’s the thing you miss the most when you come to London?
Hmmm, I would say THE GOOD WEATHER! That and Mexican food. There’s so many good Taco stands. You can walk up with a couple of dollars in your hand and walk away with an amazing meal. I love that.
3) What are your favourite places in the UK? Are you down with pubs?
Oh yes. My favourite thing is going to watch a football match in a pub. The last time I was here though I got to go and see a couple of football matches live, that’s fun. In terms of going to a sports event, I’d much rather go to a football match in London than go to the Superbowl back home. I follow Tottenham Hotspur, but we’ve gone to see QPR aswell as we stay in Key West hotel in Shepherd’s Bush a lot.
Why do you like it?
The culture is amazing. You can’t go to a sports match in the U.S where people are chanting and singing and are nearly as engaged. There’s something about that which I love. The songs are really old but the lyrics change over time. Whoever writes the lyrics is so clever. It’s so applicable to what’s going on. Some of the songs for certain players are hilarious. It’s really interactive. I seriously love it.
3) Who are your musical inspirations?
Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys is probably the biggest one, but New Order and Blur are definitely up there. And Aphex Twin is also a big inspiration.
4) Who would you compare yourselves to musically and stylistically?
It’s so hard to say. I feel like the music that we make has grown from a lot of different places. It’s not really genre-specific, so it’s really hard for me to say. When we set out to make this record and start the band and stuff, the band I most respected that are still around is Blur. They went off and they did what they wanted to do. Look at Parklife: that record is all over the place but there’s continuity there. But they also did whatever they wanted to do. There’s songs that are heavily electronic and there’s songs that are just more chilled-out and acoustic. It’s quirky pop: really intelligent music but you can still sing along.
What about style-wise?
Andy Warhol. I love what that guy has done for art in general. Taking a normal everyday image and making it beautiful; he opened up people’s eyes to be able to look around their mundane life and realise that it’s actually gorgeous.
Do they house any of his work in the Museum of Contemporary Art in L.A?
Yeah, yeah they do.
5) What was the last album you bought? And the last movie?
I just bought ELO’s Greatest Hits. And the last movie I bought was Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove. It’s my favourite movie of all time. I’m a huge Kubrick fan. The satire of it is brilliant. George C Scott and Peter Sellers are just spot-on. You're watching both of those guys at their best, and the script is amazing. It’s so random and ahead of its time.
6) Describe your current album “Torches” in two sentences?
The underlying theme for Torches is “Hope for the underdog”. And musically it’s one of those records that’s very accessible, but still musically intelligent.
7) What’s usually on the band’s rider for a gig?
I’d have to say “sugar” and that’s not code for cocaine. Our drummer has the biggest sweet tooth ever.
He needs it if your live performance is anything to go by. Your set is hugely energetic. Has that developed or has it always been that way?
That just kind of evolved.
8) What’s been your favourite gig ever?
The last show we played on our last U.S tour was in Washington DC and there was something very sentimental about it. We were touring with a band called Grouplove, who became our good friends on that tour, and another band called We Barbarians. The last time playing together on that tour we played Helena Beat [first track from the album] and everyone came up and crammed onto this little stage just jamming. It was so euphoric. People were jumping, screaming, hugging. It was my favourite gig I’ve ever played.
9) What’s your plans this summer?
We’re playing two gigs at The Great Escape festival, and doing a little European run.
What city are you most looking forward to visiting?
Amsterdam.
Does that signal a pothead amongst you?
No comment.
10) Okay, thanks for your time, Mark. One more: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Baby powder! (No chafing.) [Pause] Hey, I don’t know if this is a super-strict format but I just wanted to say that it’s crazy that I’m talking to you right now for Maxim Magazine because as a kid when I was flying I would always go to an airport and buy Maxim before I flew. And then it turned into this weird superstition, so if I flew and I already had that month’s issue, I would buy another one. And so it became this weird, unhealthy thing which I’ve had to stop now. I just do Ring o' Roses backwards now and make sure my seat number’s divisible by 3...
Hehe, that's made us feel all fuzzy. Good luck this summer, man. Stay in touch.
Cheers.
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