Walking into i concur's rehearsal room, it's easy to see how some interviewers might have misinterpreted their ethos, portraying the band as overly-staid, rather than, more accurately, just very earnest about their music.The state of the room itself is a neat metaphor for the band: unpretentious but also unexpectedly tidy, full to the brim with musical paraphernalia, with a rogue gummy bear on the floor - the latter to be interpreted either as a metaphor for the band's fundamental pure enthusiasm, or just as a nice descriptive addition. Or to use the bands own words, that they "put on an impression that, through the music and the websites and stuff, we might be a bit miserable, but we're all quite chirpy usually!" Similarly, as life mirrors art, their music is that of "a pop band that likes their post-rock".
Straight away, even in response to the docile question about the beginnings of the band, their complete and utter devotion to music is apparent. Guitarist Chris Woolford explains the rather complex story of how i concur evolved following a stint with singer/guitarist Tim Hann and drummer James Brunger's old band when they lost their keyboard player:
"After that, we kept in touch and all three of us bumped into each other at a Whirr gig. When I got fed up with my band I said to Tim, "I'd love to hear what songs you're coming up with and let's get something going."
James concisely and cheerfully tells their side of the story as "We actually couldn't get rid of him, basically!", which cues more animated banter from Tim and Chris - "Then we found Toby [Page, bass] through an internet dating site for musicians!", "He was all oiled up in a topless shot and we just had to have him!".
James says of their influences that "It's a pretty mixed bag. We connect on a few bands which are probably close to what we sound like, I guess, as a result. We're all into Low and National and The Smiths and all that sort of malarkey. Tim's probably the hard-core shoegazer."
"I think Tim's main music has come out more than anyone else's really, I think we're all getting more into shoegazey type stuff", interjects Chris. "I guess it's just because I'm a loud guitarist, but hopefully there's still some melody in there!"
The final word on this comes from James: "We've got a bit louder since we started. I think we've doubled in volume and fuzz and noise and distortion!"
And what do they think of the bad reputation and bias that shoegaze is sometimes subjected to?
"I can't say we've had any; I can only say we've had positive feedback," Tim says, visibly taken aback at the concept of unfounded prejudice against shoegaze. "With bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine reforming, so it's all coming back full circle.
"From the beginning I don't think we said we were shoegaze-y, people labelled us with that."
Broaching the subject of Hann's lyrics and their often semi-political content, there is the first and only glimpse of reticence: "I'm quite unwilling to talk about that side of things, and I always will be, there are a few songs with very political slants in them, some are very much of that mould, but it's not something I'm terribly comfortable talking about." This is quickly followed up by an amiable "I don't want to be difficult," and a burst of vibrancy about the instrumental side of songwriting.
"Most of the songs are written on acoustic guitar, so all the loudness and jingly delayed guitars come afterwards."
"Your guitars tend to sound almost like country songs when you first write them. He's quite a finger-picking guitar player," Chris comments.
"It's written in that kind of style, which is why we always put 'alternative country' on most of the stuff that we do; not that most people get that because, by the time it's the full band, it sounds totally different."
The topic of conversation then turns to the Leeds' scene - i concur are more of an adopted Leeds band rather than the conventional born-and-bred, having moved to Leeds and become involved in the scene about fifteen years ago. Chris tackles the legend of the Leeds clique head on:
"When I was in a band based in Bradford, there was, never from me, but there was always a feeling that... You sometimes come across this idea of the Leeds music scene as being kind of clique-y and the band never really had much success. I think they sometimes thought it might have been down to that, but personally I think that they could have been improved. It's surprising when you do put some good music together how unclique-y the scene is, and you're actually quite well accepted and there are people that are prepared to work together to do some good stuff."
"If you see it as a big barrier then you start to see things that aren't there, which is, I think, where a lot of the rumours that sometimes fly about come from, but we've never really noticed any sort of barrier or clique," James agrees. There is then a brief dry addition from Toby: "You never know, we might be right in the middle of it and not see it..."
They have also become heavily associated with Leeds alternative venue the Brudenell Social Club, which Chris sees as almost an inevitability.
"I was going to tons of gigs in Leeds, and about ninety percent of them seemed to be there, and the music that influences you obviously influences what music you make so the fact that you go there anyway is just a natural thing. I think it's the best venue in Leeds, anyway."
Tim points out that this is anything but hyperbole by mentioning Chris' extreme fondness of his Brudenell merchandise:
"You've got a Brudenell t-shirt spray painted to your body in symbol of allegiance! Admit it, have you got it on now?"
"No! I've just got a normal t-shirt on now. It was a good shirt that, for eight pounds. There's only one place I don't wear it, and it's at the Brudenell!"
"I would think about getting one as well, but I'd just be dismayed if we both turned up with the same one."
James then makes an excellent point - "You'd have to phone each other up saying, 'Ooh, are you wearing your Brudenell t-shirt tonight?'".
Despite this repartee, there's a distinct core of ambition and aspiration to the band. Having played their first gig just thirteen months ago, the band seem to have jammed as much as possible in to this time.
"I think that's because we all enjoy it so much," explains James. "This is the first band where I've enjoyed every ounce of it, and it makes you want to do as much as you can in what ever spare time you've got."
Their newest project is the single release for Lucky Jack/Build Around Me on local label Brew Records. James is assigned the task of detailing the process and promoting it:
"It was a big labour of love, that one. It seemed to take a long time to get done, but definitely worth it. We tried to make it a bit more analogue and lo-fi, out of the comfort zone, but I think it really paid off. It got closer to the kind of live sound that maybe we didn't get to with the EP - I don't know, it was a different beast. I think we're all really happy with the two songs we got out of it. We had a 'mare about which one goes first and why, but because it's on vinyl there are two sides, make up your mind whichever one you put on first, equal standing I guess."
I also ask Chris how the link with Brew came about.
"I've known Simon [Glacken, co-manager of Brew] for about four years now. I could have been in a band with him before this band! Then he set out to form a label with Tommy [Bellhouse] and asked us to be on the compilations. Then I assume one of two things happened: either we're the band they really wanted to put out because our stuff is that good, or they couldn't find anyone else to put out!"
March 8th has been set as the date for the launch and for a launch party in celebration - a headlining set from i concur with support from their favourite bands at, naturally, the Brudenell. Toby compares this to their EP launch party:
"I think it's good to have a sort of an EP launch vibe, where we had lots of really good bands that we all like, it was just an amazing night. We would repeat that, anything like that would be brilliant. It's a bit of a selfish thing, really, a night we'd want to go to ourselves!"
And what other projects does the future hold for i concur?
"The launch is at the start of a tour we're going to do in March and for a short spurt in April. We've re-recorded a song and one new one with Tom [Woodhead] from Forward Russia who's mixing that and hopefully we'll put that out later in the year. We'll keep gigging through out the year, hopefully do some festivals, then start thinking about putting something else out, maybe an album as we have about an album's worth of material. Gulp!"
Toby perceptively adds, "Take a month off work for that! Or maybe six months."
