Interview - Little Man Tate

Written by Sophie Shuttleworth | Tuesday, September 26, 2006 |

The trains late, the weathers crap, I’m hungry, She’s tired and neither of us have any idea where we’re going. Something tells me this could all go horribly wrong.New York - the city that never sleeps. Wolverhampton-the city that always rains, I say no more.

Running through Wolverhampton with hoods up and wet feet, we must look like a right pair, but it’s all in the name of something…or some people very very special, and they are Maz, Ben, Jon and Dan, collectively known as Little Man Tate.

Arriving at the venue, hair in all directions, clothes pretty much drenched and lungs that could stop working any minute, we find the band unloading their equipment. Offering to give Jon time to finish unloading before the interview, he declines the offer and assures us that he more than happy to do the interview now (whilst all his band mates are left unloading…how convenient).

Too many flights of stairs later we find backstage and sit down for the interview.
       
We’ll start with a short history of the band, it just seems logical.

‘We met through playing football in Sunday League when we were young in Sheffield. Me and Maz (guitar) have been mates since we were about seven. We’ve known Ben (bass) since we were about 18, just from playing in different bands and stuff, and Dan joined us on drums when we started Little Man tate which was last June.  We knew Dan from drinking in different pubs and us all being in Sheffield.’

And the name?

‘It’s that Jodie Foster film. It’s nothing to do with the film, we just thought it sounded good. We’re really crap at naming songs, so naming the band is proper hard. So we went for that ‘cause it sounded good.’

Describe the band in one sentence

Jon thinks for a second. ‘Not very good.’ I’m sure he’s supposed be trying to gain fans not put people off. ‘No, ummm’ another long pause. ‘We’re kind of like rock/punk/pop, we love it, we love playing live, it’s our favourite thing. I think that was two sentences though.’

It’s ok I used a comma, no one has to know.

Do you get a lot of comparisons with the Arctic Mokeys as your both new bands form Sheffield? And do you mind?

‘Nah, we’re used to it! I dunno, people are like oh yeh your going to sound like Arctic Monkeys, then they see us and we don’t really sound too much like them.’

Whats the music scene in Sheffield like at the moment, do you feel part of it?

‘Better than it’s ever been really. I’ve said before it’s not just this rock/punk vibe, and all this lyric thing, there’s other bands that are brilliant. Really good bands that just aren’t getting anywhere. I mean, we’ve been lucky enough.’

You’ve had a lot of recognition, quite quickly, how did you first get noticed?

‘A lot of it’s been luck I guess. You know, the right place at the right time and all that. Someone put a song on different forums and stuff. The people that likes them started coming to our gigs. Yeh we got a bit lucky there I think.’

How do you feel you’ve progressed as a band since you’ve started?

Jon looks around and laughs ‘That’s a hard question. I don’t know. But I want to answer it.’ There’s a long pause whilst he gets his head around it. ‘We can drink more. Oh yeh, and musically we’re getting better. I think..I hope.’

5 heroes and why?

‘5 heroes…’

Yes

‘Another hard one, you like these hard question don’t you?’

‘Well, John Lennon definitely, just because we all grew up listening to the Beatles. Chris Waddle just remember watching him on the TV with my dad when he played for Wednesday. I really don’t know.’

Two will do

‘No, I want to do it. I know, there’s to many I don’t want to miss anyone out.’

Who are your musical influences as a band?

‘As a band I’d say The beatles, John Lennon, again! Sex Pistols, The Clash, Oasis, Pulp, the whole Manchester scene really. Well, there’s loads, I’ll stop there.’

Whats the best thing that could happen next with the band?

‘Getting into the top 40 with What?What You Got?’

And they did it!

Describe your show visually and musically.

Pause ‘How do you write such hard questions? There quite good. Right, musically, the way I see it, is it we do what we want to do and we’re lucky to be able to do that. Visually we don’t put that much into it as we focus on the music. And none of us have very good fashion sense anyway. Yeah it’s all good.’

Who writes the songs? How do you go about the song writing?

‘Me and Maz write the songs. We get a couple of chords then we sit down think of the words, make more of a tune, and just build it from that point really.’

What’s been the biggest obstacle for the band so far?

‘Trying to get all of our gear back after it got robbed. We were playing a gig in York and during the after show piss up, we went up to get the van, and it had gone. Then maz went ‘stay calm, maybe sombodies moved it!’ How and why would someone move it!? So we had  to get the train home. It was nightmare. But, the police woman who was helping us was pretty fit, so there is that upside.’

What’s been the biggest achievement for the band so far?

‘Don’t know. We’ve just seemed to achieve so much so quickly. I think everything we’ve done has been an achievement. Getting a record deal, seeling songs, playing gigs. Yeh, all of it!’

Ok, some time out from these serious questions…Choose one of the following

Pete or Carl? Long pause ‘Carl probably.’

United or Wednesday? ‘Wednesday, but Maz would say United’

Small or Big venues?  ‘We only ever play small venues, so theres not much choice in that one.

Pubs or clubs? ‘That’s right hard. Umm pubs THEN clubs.’

Sex, Drugs or Rock ‘n’ Roll?  Long Pause. ‘Sex’ Another long pause ‘But with Rock ‘n’ Roll you get the other two. So rock ‘n’ roll’ But you can have sex but you can’t have rock ‘n’ roll, well, unless, no, rock ‘n’ roll, it entails the other two.’

And, finally would you like to add anything else?

‘No, I think it’s all covered.’

So they have a single out now, album out in the summer, a summer tour PLUS festivals dates. You better think of a good excuse when I ask you why you haven’t seen them!

http://myspace.com/littlemantatemusic
http://www.littlemantate.co.uk

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