Everything Everything talk festival season: “We want to win people over”

This weekend, a former military airfield in Trenčín, Slovakia will be transformed into the country’s biggest music festival, and let’s just say it’s set to be quite the event. The incredible St Vincent, SOPHIE and The Chemical Brothers are just some of the big names headed to Pohoda, alongside more DIY favourites such as Danny Brown, Tune-Yards and Everything Everything.

In the lead up to this year’s edition of the fest, we spoke to Everything Everything’s drummer Michael Spearman - who will be taking to the main stage on Saturday - to talk their recent Ivor Novello nod, festival sets and unfortunate noise curfews.

Hello! You must be pretty chuffed at the Ivor Novello nods [The band were nominated for both Best Song Musically and Lyrically and Album Award at this year’s edition]!
Hello! Yes, they were a really nice surprise. We’ve been nominated before but have never won one so hoping this is our year. It’s tough competition but we’re really pleased to be in among it.

…and itching to go with 2018’s festivals, we’ll assume?
Yeah, we love festivals. You never quite know what you’re going to get with a festival: what the crowd will be like, the atmosphere of the festival in general, getting to see other bands that we normally might not see, having nice local catering. It’s fun.

It must be pretty cool, now you’ve got a few albums under your collective belts, to be able to bring out what are now people’s ‘old favourites’ during festival sets?
We try to play new songs as much as possible but yes, festivals are kind of a ‘greatest hits’ set. It’s different from our own shows where it’s fair to assume the crowd will know the new record quite well. At festivals we want to win people over who might not know us.

Have you played in Slovakia before?
We have! BA City Beats on the river in the middle of in Bratislava in 2013. It was us, Aloe Blacc and Wyclef Jean. Katy B’s show had been too loud the night before and there had been complaints (too much sub bass) so there was a severe noise curfew on the day we did it and everyone had to go on two hours early. It was the least well attended festival we’ve ever played but was fun afterwards hanging out at the hotel with Wyclef and his security team.

I went hiking in north Slovakia (near Ždiar) and saw how beautiful Slovakia is. Great people too. We’re looking forward to coming back.

And finally - have any of you read the book, or watched the film ‘Everything, Everything’?
I was on a flight and saw a bit over someone’s shoulder. Something about a girl in a glass house dreaming about going to the beach or something? Looked dreadful and makes our band harder to google so it displeases us. Also we get the odd tweet sent to us saying how someone adores the film. Sometimes we reply.

Everything Everything play Pohoda (5th - 7th July) where DIY is an official media partner. Tickets are on sale now. Visit diymag.com/presents for more information.