News Novella

London trio Novella have just released their debut double A-Side single, ‘The Things You Do’ and - our personal favourite for the title alone - ‘Oh Brian’. The girls tells us how the band formed, and what they’re up to.

Hello! Who is it we’re speaking to, and what’ve you been up to today?
All of us, via the magic of email.

So, there are three of you in the band - how did you get together?
Hollie: We all met when we were living in Brighton. Suki and I lived together and formed a band with our friend Linda (now in Echo Lake) called Houdini Kill Sale, but none of us were ever brave enough to sing. Then we all moved to London and decided to form a band with Sophy – we were all listening to the same kind of bands at the time so it just kind of made sense.
Suki: Hollie message me on myspace Dec 3, 2006 and said: ‘Let’s form a band!’… EVER SINCE!
Hollie: Can’t believe you looked that up! December 3rd 2006 was a beautiful day.

What’s it like being a young band in London? Have you always been based there?
Sophy: As Novella, yeah. It’s pretty fun! We can play shows with our friends and there’s a new band to go see almost every weekend.

Do you get much opportunity to play elsewhere in the country?
Hollie: Our second ever gig was actually in Brighton but since then we haven’t played any other gigs outside of London, but hopefully will do some point this year.

Your debut single is out now. Why did you settle on ‘The Things You Do’ and ‘Brian’? Do you have much of a catalogue yet?
Hollie: We have six finished tracks that currently make up our live set, and we have another six songs we’re working on at the moment. ‘The Things You Do’ and ‘Oh Brian’ just seemed like the right songs to put out as our first release, I think that they reflect our different influences and sounds pretty well.

Is there a principle songwriter in the band, or do you all muck in?
All: No, we all think an important part of Novella is that we are all completely equal in the songwriting process

How have you found recording with Rory Attwell? He’s been working with some great artists lately.
Hollie: We had a really fun two days working with Rory – lots of cups of tea and café burgers – and we managed to be really productive and finished six songs.
Rory did a great job, really pleased with how the tracks sound.
Sophy: Those burgers…

Do you think you’ll work together again in the future?
All: Of course! Forever!

How much do you find yourselves being influenced by other people, or musicians?
Sophy: Err, a lot. We’re all just as much in to consuming music as we are making it. As a band we have our favourite bands and songs. Right now we’re working on getting a bunch of covers together to pull out at shows…we have a special one planned for our single launch as a matter of fact! But it’s a surprise.

We read that you hire a drummer for your live show, then the rest of you swap instruments - what can you all play?
Suki: We don’t hire drummers for any of our live show, is only two of them which are our friends - Melissa and Ian.
We all can play various type of instruments but live Sophy and Suki swap guitar, bass and synth.
Sophy: I wouldn’t say hire. We play and practice with two drummers who are both in other bands as well. Me and Suki share bass and then we all play guitar and sing too, although Hollie sings on all of the songs. And I don’t know about the rest of you guys but I can play the flute too, have I ever told you that? Maybe we should get it involved. Jethro Tull vibes.
Hollie: I didn’t know that!! I can play clarinet as well so we could totally get a whole wind thing going on… or not. Soo not into Jethro Tull vibes.
Sophy: Can I just make it clear that I’m not really in to Jethro Tull.

Are there any instruments you’re not currently using that you’d like to introduce?
Suki: Egg Maynayz. Maybe, But i think we are happy with what we have at the moment
Sophy: To be honest, I think I’m pretty happy without a wind section.

And finally: we had a look on your Tumblr. You seen to like posting pictures of girls with long hair?
Suki: Why not? They are all peculiar!
Sophy: Girls with long hair are less susceptible to brainwashing

Novella’s new single ‘The Things You Do’ / ‘Oh Brian’ is out now via Dirty Bingo.

Taken from the April 2011 issue of DIY, available now. For more details click here.

Oh Brian by Novella.