Interview Sky Larkin

have a lot coming up - a new single, their much anticipated debut album, and all sorts of tour dates. Luckily for us they managed to make time for a quick chat.

Hello Sky Larkin! How are you today?
Really good, I’ve just rearranged my lounge to fit in my recently purchased turntable and amplifier. It’s always a good feeling.

So, you recently signed to Wichita - how’re you enjoying your new label?
I don’t think I’ve found a negative thing about them, and I’m usually very pessimistic. They’ve given us the freedom to do what we want from the beginning, and shown a lot of confidence in us - for example, sending us to drive ourselves round europe supporting Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band within a month of signing.

You spent some time recording your debut album, The Golden Spike, in Death Cab For Cutie’s studio - how did that come about? Did it have any influence on the album?
Well, the producer for the record John Goodmanson is friends with Death Cab and has worked with them before. As we arrived, they just happened to be going out on tour, so their studio space was free and Jason (Death Cab’s drummer, who got the space initially to store his many, many kits) was happy for us to use it (and his drums!). It turned out to be a brilliant place to work in, amazingly equipped, but with a really homely feel and two AMAZING technicians. And the Mixing desk from the actual Hollywood Bowl. For Real. I think the main influence the place had was on the sound of the drums. When you’ve got 20 or so kits, and more snares and cymbals than you can count you can do pretty much anything. Mostly, for Nestor this was break things.

Is there anything you’d change about the recording process in hindsight, or did it all go pretty much as planned?
I was going to say the place where we lived, as it had nothing at all, just a fridge and a hot tap if you wanted a cup of tea. Oh, but no cups. But this meant we spent more time at the studio. So, it was all good really… Maybe it was ploy by John, thinking about it.

We very much like the album, by the way, how have you found the reception to it so far?
Thank you very much. Lots of people have been blogging about it, and leaking it - which although annoying, is quite complimentary really. But DON’T DO IT KIDS! Hopefully people can see that it’s the sum of all our time as a band, so there’s new songs and old, established songs but I think we’ve made an album that works as a whole as well as a collection of individual songs. We’re really happy with it, and hope people enjoy listening to it as much as we did making it.

Single ‘Beeline’ will precede the album as a download bundled with a special ‘Beeline’ watch - who’s idea was it to release it that way? Why a watch?
We were email brainstorming about what to do for the single, 7’s so often don’t get played, and we figured that as people are usually listening to singles as MP3s it’s not really important what format the physical release is anymore. The lyrics of the song relate to time so when someone suggested a watch it was a bit of a Eureka moment. I liked the idea of commemorative plate; Charles & Di style, but they’re a bitch to post apparently… Next time, maybe.

Is this kind of release going to become a theme, with each single coming with a new Sky Larkin product, or is it a one-time-only deal?
Who knows, we’re still deciding on the next single but I’ve got some ideas already. Lava, or a syringe of blood, or a piece of red cloth. we’ll see. There is hopefully something very special coming out of the camp soon, which I’m really excited about, we’re just waiting to see if it happens. But seriously, it’ll blow your mind.

Pre-order ‘The Golden Spike’, released 9th February, here.