News Crushed Beaks: ‘We Practice In My Shed’

Debut singles need to make a statement and Crushed Beaks spell our their abilities, influences and potential for all to see, within the space of two momentous tracks, ‘Sun Dogs’ and ‘Close Ups’. Showcasing the close-knit nature of this two-piece - a pair who continually bounce ideas off each other - the songs outline an illustrious future for Matthew Poile and Alex Morris. DIY catches up with the two to talk the previous twelve months and the many years that lie ahead.

Being in a two-piece must be quite fun, considering you’re used to playing in bands with a few members. How easy is it to meet up, record, play shows in comparison?
Matt: It’s so much easier. We practice in my shed so we can rehearse pretty much whenever we want. A little and often is the way forward. It takes a lot of the stress out of making music, I mean in terms of logistics, we don’t have to phone round a bunch of people trying to find a date that everyone can do and then drag all our gear to an expensive rehearsal room, it’s all just set up ready to go. I spend a lot of my time in that shed. A few weeks ago I decked it out with posters and stuff. We even have a fridge in there.
Alex: It’s not a shed, it’s a Wendy house. Yeah, before we used to practice in the spare room of my old house, we can fit in wherever really. It’s the same with gigs, our sound checks are always super-short. Not like all the disco biscuits who have dozens of DI’s.

Could you tell us about ‘Sun Dogs’? Was there a particular sound that you were going for or a particular theme or concept within the song?
Matt: I wanted to make a huge pulsing sound wash, a panoramic sound that envelops the listener. I wanted people to feel like they were listening into the distance to this endless noise that goes as far as you can hear. Sun Dogs are these halos that form around the sun when conditions in the atmosphere are just right, I read about them in an encyclopaedia of the universe around when I was writing the song, so I was thinking big, cloudless cold skies…
Alex: …hence the church. I think it definitely did the trick, the drums sound crisp but with reverberations, and there are points, especially in Close-Ups, where you can hear the snare ring out for ages.

What led you into deciding to release that song along with ‘Close Ups’? Did you have a few to choose from?
Alex: Yeah we did but, rather simply, we chose those tracks because they work well together and we really like both of them.
Matt: We’re writing new songs all the time so we had plenty to choose from, but we chose three to record that we thought best represented where we were sound-wise at the time. Also we knew we were going to record the drums in the church, so that probably had an impact on the songs we chose. Sun Dogs was originally the one we were going to leave off the single, and Close-Ups was always intended to be the lead track. It was only when I started adding guitars and vocals to Sun Dogs that we thought it would sit much better alongside Close-Ups. The third track from that session will emerge at some point though I’m sure.

It’s a mundane question but which bands influence your sound and your set-up?
Alex: I don’t think any bands influence our set-up, it’s just something we tried that seems to have worked. With regards to sound, I think there is a lot of difference to the stuff we listen to (I listen to quite a lot of electronic music, if you listen closely to my drumming live, I’m sure you will hear an Amen break here and there). However, there is an overlap, and I guess this is the influential part.
Matt: I wanted to have a totally stripped down set up, the bare minimum, to keep the focus on the songs themselves and not to get too sidetracked worrying about what effects pedal to use or whatever. It also makes things a lot less stressful when you dont have to worry about remembering loads of stuff and carrying it all to a show. It also gives us room to expand in the future, if it made sense at some point to add something else to the mix, then there’s room to do that.

Was the band always a serious project or did it just end up that way after playing rehearsals and shows?
Matt: I had some songs recorded, and I wanted to try them out with some proper drumming. We booked a rehearsal to see if it would work, and it did. I don’t think we take ourselves too seriously, although we are definitely better organised these days, especially when it comes to chasing up opportunities and stuff.
Alex: It was our show at St. Moritz I think and the fact that we’d had a small amount of press around that time which spurred us on. Prior to playing in Crushed Beaks I’d largely given up drumming, it’s not easy when you live in halls of residence and shared housing to play drums without seriously pissing people off.
Matt: Yeah, I think getting press early on gave us a lot more confidence to carry on doing what we were doing. I know how easy it is to get downhearted when you put loads of effort into a project and you don’t get anything back. So yeah, hearing from people that were liking the demos and asking to play shows definitely gave us the boost that we needed.

Tell us about the best show you’ve played so far.
Matt: We put on a show with some friends in my neighbour’s garden. He built us a stage and we had a giant golden eagle in the trees with a strobe light in its eye. It was totally rad. We were blessed by the weather gods with glorious sunshine and we had bands playing all through the day, including Torches doing their second ever show. I think we were pretty shit to be honest, I was pretty drunk by the time we played but it was a beautiful day. Playing at La Shark’s club night in Deptford was also a lot of fun, the theme that night was Fantasy, and Lewis (La Shark’s bass player) was dressed entirely in pages from porn magazines, that was special.
Alex: Yeah, I mentioned that in a job interview a while ago, and it may not have gone down too well.

Can we expect any changes in sound/direction on the new EP?
Matt: The songs that we’ve been writing since that are from a different bag, so yes, they will sound different. It will still sound like us though, we’re not going to write a jazz odyssey any time soon. I think there will be greater emphasis on the melodies this time round, they won’t be quite as buried. But you’ll have to wait and see.
Alex: I think the stuff we’ve been writing recently will have a totally different sound to the single when it’s recorded and, to be honest, some of the really new stuff will inevitably change a lot before it’s even recorded. I think it usually takes a few shows before a song feels ‘right’ and finished. It’s good that we have got a lot of shows coming up I guess!

Sun Dogs by Crushed Beaks

Crushed Beaks’ new single ‘Sun Dogs’/’Close Ups’ will be released on 21st November via Too Pure Singles Club.