Liverpool Sound City: Thumpers: ‘Don’t Peak Too Early’

Tonight, London duo Thumpers will be drawing the first day of Liverpool Sound City to a close, when they take on the city’s Zanzibar in the early hours.

‘We’ve sort of done it before,’ says the band’s John Hamson Jr. about their 1.15am set. ‘How late was it when we played Dot To Dot? That was pretty fair. Each three days, you either had an early, middle or late slot. Pretty much every band had the same treatment.’

Asked if they have any rules for playing at such an after-hours time, Marcus Pepperell offered the following rules: ‘Don’t drink a lot. And don’t eat really late and really heavily. Just don’t do that. It’s pretty much the same rules for punters. Don’t peak too early.’

The band, who are gearing up to release their brand new album ‘Galore’ later this month, also have clear ideas of what their audience might take away from the record itself.

‘What I actually hope people do with the album,’ offers Marcus, ‘is listen to it really loudly. Because it was meant to be quite body-orientated, really. The idea of having really loud drums, you need to turn your stereo up. It is an album to move to, I think. There are so many layers as well, the way we recorded things, was like throwing stuff on, different sounds, different things, different percussion, and really stacking. It’s a stacked album, and I think it benefits a lot from being played really loud.

And if all else fails, they want you to come to a show and experience it first hand: ‘Or come and see us live,’ he continues. ‘Playing live recently, and having Sub Pop see us, really re-confirmed the power of what a live, a good, hopefully, a good live show is about. It won people over, and it coloured the way some people thought of the album.’

See Thumpers play Zanzibar at 1.15am, 2nd May.

Thumpers release ‘Galore’ on 19th May.