We Have Band "Nobody’s been duped."
A quick glance at We Have Band’s myspace sees them notching up the kind of air miles usually reserved for superstars. There’s New York, SXSW, Paris, Moscow, Zurich, Berlin and Glastonbury as one of the festival’s Emerging Talent finalists. Not bad for a band that first stepped on a stage less than a year ago and whose back catalogue features just one limited edition 7 inch and two compilation spots. But then that 7 inch was on 50 Bones , home to Little Boots , and the comps were Kitsuné Maison 6 and Pure Groove One .
“It’s all a bit crazy,” admits Dede, one third of WHB with husband Thomas and former colleague Darren, over email. “I’m especially proud we’ve done all this without a record label,” adds Darren. “Because everything we have we’ve worked fucking hard for and it’s real. Nobody’s been duped into liking us by clever marketing.”
Instead they’ve recruited followers at breakneck speed with one very simple secret weapon: killer songs. Synthtastically seductive tracks like Oh and You’ve Had Band grab you by the scruff of the neck and deposit you on the dancefloor. The effect is universal, leaving audiences sweaty of brow, short of breath and adrenalined up to the eyeballs. What’s doubly exciting is that while some electronic acts lose something in translation when they perform live, We Have Band’s raw and urgent vibe is amplified. “It feels like one big party, like we all create something together,” says Dede.
Next up is a double A-side for the Filthy Dukes ’ shiny new Kill Em All label: the whistle-laced You Came Out and a canny cover of West End Girls , pegged for April/May. And between the jet lag and tour bus cramp, every spare minute has been channeled into their debut long player. But where do you write when you’re don’t know whether you’re coming or going? “Anywhere we can,” writes Thomas. “We’ve done some writing and recording in Hereford in my grandmother’s old house. She recently passed away but still very much approves.”
And might she should, with such a democratic writing process. “We just chuck loads of ideas and sounds and melodies and lyrics at a song,” explains Darren, “and then work backwards to see what should stay and what should go. We’re really not afraid of that beginning bit of writing a song where you’re not sure where it’s going.”
It’s that head-first attitude that has propelled them through the last year, but – perhaps understandably – they don’t want to rush finding a home for the album. “Everything has happened so quickly that we’re waiting a little bit,” says Thomas. Whether or not the nuclear momentum they’ve created will allow that pause is, of course, another thing altogether.
