Interview Situationists

While bands across Britain are pretentiously staring at their shoes, trying to change the face of music with their inept drone, there is slowly a wave of artists who are just out to have a good time. Groups who care more about having fun onstage than the money in their pockets, and make your night considerably happier within seconds.

Situationists pride themselves on being one of these groups. Having met via the classifieds board at Sheffield University, their post student indie pop is like no other. With their light guitar solos and upbeat rhythms the group have found themselves to be one of the chirpiest in the north.

However the group are now moving onto new areas with the ‘Onwards and Upwards’ EP. Although the band are not exactly slitting wrists they admit the writing process has taken a different approach from their previous recordings.

Lead singer Dan quips: ‘We definitely set out to make fun music, and don’t necessarily feel qualified to be all dark and moody! Two of our songs over our last two EPs have been less upbeat than our normal songs, and I suppose that’s something we’ve sought.’

‘When we write an upbeat pop song, we aim to make it catchy and succinct too - a nice mixture of immediate tracks and growers is important I think.’

With their part vocals and light guitar melodies the group have been compared to the likes of Hot Club De Paris and in general student rock. But with the band eager to move on, they admit being pushed into a student category is not the worst thing to expect.

‘We don’t really feel being former students has a negative connotation, but of course a continuing association with it now that most of us have finished would no doubt start to get annoying. We aren’t Sheffield locals and don’t purport to be so I suppose it’s the next logical place to put us,’ says Dan.

‘Hot Club are a great band, and we all have listened to their albums and sing along when we see them live. Some of that has to rub off on us, there is no doubting it. There are a good percentage of our songs that sound quite different from Hot Club though, so I’d like to think they’re one of many bands that someone can reference when describing our sound.’

The band also namecheck The National, The Futureheads and Talking Heads, with their inspirations apparent in the new EP. With many vocal led melodies, the group are clearly not a run of the mill indie band. Next year the group are planning to spread their positive vibes to Japan in the form of an album release, before finishing the third in a string of EPs. As far as ‘Onwards and Upwards’ goes, do the band see themselves turning to the dark, angst ridden ways?

‘It would certainly be interesting to explore a darker side to the band, but I think we would opt for more of a subtle approach than a ballad.’ says Dan, ‘Plus Meatloaf has probably taken the anger ballad as far as it can go! Perhaps if we ever reach such hefty heights as to be able to attract a guest appearance from Slash on the album we could use a track to explore it more deeply and get some soloing in there!’

But we wouldn’t have it any other way. The world needs bands like Situationists - to make us smile, dance and forget all our worries. So plug in your earphones, snuggle up tight and let Situationists lift those winter blues.