Rant n' Rave With John Nagle

Photo credit: Oliver Peel

Los Campesinos! became a critical darling in 2008, releasing the double whammy of Hold on Now Youngster! and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed.  The band’s enticing mix of Pavement-style avant noise and poppy melodies also appeal to the indie rock faithful, packing venues around the world.  I sat down with the band’s drummer, Ollie, before their show at the Ottobar to discuss touring, influences and the origin of their name.

John: You guys were on break for awhile and this is the first date of your East Coast tour?

Ollie: We finished touring in November. We did a Christmas show in Paris, but other than that we haven’t really done anything.

John: When was that?

Ollie: It was the 18^th of December. That was the last show we played.

John: When you start a new tour, does the first show set the bar for the rest of the dates?

Ollie: It can. If it’s a really good show it can set the standard.

John: What are your expectations for this tour? Is it the first time that you’ve really toured the US?

Ollie: We toured here in May and June, but we didn’t come to Baltimore or a lot of the places that we are playing on this tour. We did a big tour then, but we’re playing a lot of new places that we are looking forward to.

John: Does the setlist stay static or do you try to change it up every night?

Ollie: We have a core setlist that we sort of chop and change in case a song isn’t working live or if there is something else that we feel like playing.

John: Do you try to incorporate new songs in the setlist to test them out?

Ollie: We have before, but with the last record, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, the songs weren’t finished when we were touring, so we didn’t get a chance to test them out.

John: How are American audiences different from European audiences?

Ollie: It depends. In Holland we’ve had really good, party animal-type audiences. Spain is always really good. Germany and Belgium are usually very reserved. Britain is always very mixed; it depends on where you go. American audiences are really nice because they seem to get us more than people in Europe. It’s really good, because people actually know our stuff. It’s very impressive.

John: Your two records were very critically acclaimed in the US. Were you surprised by the reaction?

Ollie: We were really pleased, but it was a bit of a shock to get support from Pitchfork and Rolling Stone. The reaction has been much better here than it has back home in Britain.

John: Really?

Ollie: Yeah.

John: Well, indie rock is very big over here right now. Do you notice a difference?

Ollie: Yeah. It seems like all the bands that we are into have a big following over here. Back home, it’s all the same kind of music; the London based skinny-jeans, post-Strokes, post-Libertines style.

John: Your band name roughly translates to “the farmers” or “the peasants” in Spanish. How did you come up with the name?

Ollie: Neil used to take Spanish in school and he suggested the name when we were coming up with names. We liked it and how it read, and we put the exclamation mark to put a cap on both ends. It’s got no political meaning or anything. When we go to Spain, people take a lot of interest because it’s a Spanish name, but we’ve never meant anything by it. We never thought people would ask us what it meant.

John:Why did you guys decide to take Campesinos! as a surname? Was it a tribute to The Ramones?

Ollie: I suppose it can be taken that way. Mostly it’s because we’re one big family.

John: The band released two records in 2008. We’re in a time now where the album is losing its importance. Why did you guys take such a gamble when most bands release one record every two years?

Ollie: The second one, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, was never actually intended to be an album. We’d been playing a lot of the stuff on Hold On Now Youngster! ever since we started the band, and we were getting bored with it. We still enjoy playing the songs, but if you play them every night, it can get old. So we decided to make an EP at the end of the year so we’d have three new songs to play and people would have something new to listen to. Back home, we toured about three times in one year and if you come to see us three times and we don’t play anything different, it’s kind of like “Well, what’s the point of going to watch them?” It’s good to have new things to play. So the EP with three tracks turned into ten tracks, which people are now calling an album.

John: Do you feel pressure to remain so prolific?

Ollie: I don’t think so. We just enjoy doing what we want. The labels let us do what we want, so there is no real pressure to do anything a certain way, which is really good.

John: You guys have been described as indie-pop, but I hear a definite punk rock influence in your music. Who are your influences?

Ollie: I suppose our core influence is Pavement. We’re real big fans of them. We’re also influenced by bands like Grandaddy, Deerhoof and Yo La Tengo. Those are our core influences, but we’re all influenced by different people and different bands. For instance, Gareth is really into riot-grrl music. We’ve all got very varied musical taste.

John: So each member brings something different to the table?

Ollie: Yeah.

John: Who is your biggest influence?

Ollie: I’ve always been a fan of ‘90s grunge music, so bands like Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone and Soundgarden.

John: How do you guys approach songwriting?

Ollie: (lead guitarist) Tom will come up with an idea and bring it together. Then he sends it across to (lead singer) Gareth, who will write lyrics for it. Then the rest of us will go into a practice room and come up with ideas, arrangements and change things.

John: So it’s very democratic?

Ollie: Yeah, if something isn’t working, we’ll all come up with ideas for it.

John: But Tom and Gareth are your main songwriters, your Lennon/McCartney if you will?

Ollie: (laughs) If you wanna call it that, yeah.

John: Hold on Now Youngster! is a very effervescent record, while We Are Beautiful is more introspective. Was this done on purpose?

Ollie: We Are Beautiful is more autobiographical. The songs are taken from experiences that Gareth had whilst touring North America in May and June, whereas the first album, is just kinda stuff he wrote about. For example, there’s a song where he talks about throwing up outside a Mexican restaurant, he actually did that. He’s become more confident with writing about himself.

John: So do you think the songs are more mature?

Ollie: Yeah. I think it shows how we’ve developed as a band, so the songs are more complicated. They are still pop songs at their heart, but they are more developed pop songs.

John: What are your plans for the rest of the year?

Ollie: We’re doing this tour and perhaps a bit of recording. Then we’re going to do a Canadian and West Coast tour, which will be really fun and then a bit more recording. By then it’ll be festival season, so we’ll be doing festivals.

John: Who would you most like to open up for?

Ollie: Probably everybody’s would be Pavement. When we over here touring last May and June, Stephen Malkmus was touring the UK and his booker asked if we were available. So we could have opened up for Malkmus but since we were doing a huge tour, we obviously couldn’t. If we could open for Pavement, that would be a dream.

John: Why was 2007 the year that punk rock broke your heart?

Ollie: (laughs) I don’t know, that’s Gareth again. I don’t want to get in trouble for saying the wrong thing.