Pasty Tasting With Tall Ships

Pasties are good currency for bargaining with a band formed in Cornwall. Tall Ships finish all their tours with a final show in Falmouth and corralling them for an interview during the few pre/post show hours has previously proved impossible. They instead spend this time reliving their three years of necking moonshine-cider and piss-drenched house parties, full of fire stick wiggling crust monkeys. That lifestyle in mind, it's pretty understandable that they struck out and began creating they’re own refreshing brand of synth rock.

The plan was to get a deep insight into the recording and touring of their critically acclaimed debut album Everything Touching loosely hung on the pretence of an ironic pasty tasting. What I actually got was a faint recording of three ravenous dudes on the arse-end of their album launch tour, nailing back Cornwall’s most famous export as if the Conservative party were about to re-instate their working-class-snack-tax at any minute. I suppose that’s what you get for trying to employ wanky interview techniques.

Noisey: Hello gentlemen. Happy to be back in Cornwall?

Jamie: Yeah man always nice to come home.

Ric: Weird being in here (The Shop Gallery). This was my little brothers lounge a couple of years ago and it was a shithole. It’s scrubbed up pretty well.

Yeah we still get his post. He owes Barclays and Specsavers quite a few quid. When was the last time you boys had a pasty?

Jamie: Too long man.

Matt: Last time we were here, January. We don’t eat them outside of Kernow y'know.

I see. Any on the road substitutes?

Jamie: Greggs bacon and bean bakes have been going down a treat.

You started playing together as students in Falmouth. How did that come about?

Ric: Well Jamie and me grew up together just outside Brighton but we found Matthew as a fresh-faced student down here.

Matt: Our mate had a spare room on Weber Street that we used to practice in, it was just for fun really. The place was a bit of a crack-den.

When did it become something more serious?

Jamie: When we started practising in the Women’s Institute. They put on a fantastic spread for elevenses.

Ric: I guess when people kept coming back to watch us. We put out some scrappy EP's and people really responded to them. Even now with the album out it's overwhelming when so many people come out to watch us.

You recorded the album down in Devon. Could you tell me a little more about that?

Jamie: It’s all about the pastry, if your crust is no good you may as well go home. Sorry I wasn’t listening.

Ric: We did it in a place called Bovey Tracey which is a village set at the foot of Dartmoor. It’s a beautiful place but it’s quite isolated, after a few weeks it began to feel more like Roysten Vasey.

Matt: The only problem with recording in Devon is they can't make a decent pasty. If you're ever in Bovey and want a pasty you're best bet is the local Spar, they import their pasties from Kernow.

I’ll bear that in mind. Were you producing new material?

Ric: Yeah, we went in with a few songs and some rough ideas and licks, and then worked out a lot of it in the studio with our producer James Elliott Field.

Did you feel you had to make any changes to your style/sound to translate it from EP's to a full album?

Jamie: Yeah, totally. Albums and EP's are totally different entities. With our EP's they were rushed, with limited equipment and time. With the album instead of hours or days in the studio we had weeks.

Ric, your dad starred in the video for Gallop. How was he to work with?

Ric: He was great man. He loved it.

There must be ‘frontman’ in the Phethean bloodline. You played Reading and Leeds earlier in the year. How was it?

Ric: It was a teenage wet dream come true.

Matt: We played at the same time as the Foos and still had a crowd, which was crazy.

Dave Grohl sound clash. That’s big. Not as big as the peppery taste of a Rowes pasty though Jamie?

Jamie: Yeah to be fair you’ve hit the nail on the head there. They’re not afraid of seasoning at Rowes.

You’re getting stuck into that classic steak from Oggy Oggy Matt. Your thoughts sir?

Matt: If a girl’s vagina had this much meat I’d be happy.

Lovely.You’re finishing up your album tour tonight. Any highlights?

Ric: Being out on the road with our support band Dad Rocks!, who make beautiful delicate music but are a bunch of fucking drunken Danish Vikings. We love them.

Nice to sell out?

Ric/Jamie/Matt: Fuck you.

I meant tickets! You’ve sold out most of your shows, including tonight.

Jamie: Ha-ha, yeah man it’s awesome, selling out to a crowd that know the words to your songs is mental.

What’s next?

Matt: Same old. Tour tour tour tour.

Ric: Maybe go and do SXSW if we get the funding. Oh and write the second album.

Are you going to play Seven Days tonight?

Jamie: No mate that ship has sailed.

Ric: Quote me on this: We will only play seven days again if Craig David is stood on stage with us.

Matt: Yeah that would be insane. INSANE.