Peggy Chats with: Norman
Your weekly go-to new music guide brought to you by our London music journo, Peggy as she uncovers the latest ‘bands and artists to watch’ in the post-punk, new wave, jazz and indie communities. This week she discusses recording in the pub, the merits of mixtapes and isolation soundtracks with Jack and Henry of genre defying, Bristolian quintet Norman.
@peggyfromearth
Jack Ogborne (Vocals, Guitar, Percussion, Tape Manipulation)
Henry Terrett (Drums)
From cornets to violins, organs to tape manipulation, you have an enticing set up emanating that of the typical ‘guitar band’. How did you come to form and create this unique style of playing?
HT: We were initially your standard line up in terms of instrumentation, the synth/organs came a bit later. Soon after we started gigging we managed to link up with Harry, our cornet player who was annihilating Bristol’s avant-garde Free Jazz scene, and since then we got him playing more and more gigs with us and now we’re stuck with him. I think the violin was something we just had lying around and just thought we’d see what we could do with it to fit it in a song.
As with the unconventional set up, is it safe to say your music looks to defy the constraints of any one genre? Which artists or genres do you seek influence from?
HT: Yeah, I personally like that we don’t fit ourselves under one genre. I think it’s cool to try to steer off that path a bit, or at least do things differently to how they’ve been done before. However it does make it difficult when people ask how we’d describe ourselves. On the subject of artist influences, I think the fact that there are very few artists which mutually influence us contributes to the fact that we don’t necessarily fit under one genre. In March of this year, we heard your first release in the form of, Mixtape Vol. 1 ‘Songs from the basement, The Old England etc’. Why did you choose to amalgamate the three singles as one whole body? JO: We felt like it was a good introduction to the variety of styles we cover in the project. Also the fact that it’s an audio-visual release means we could establish our visual aesthetic right from the get go. Are the rumours true that the mixtape was part-recorded in The Montpelier pub? JO: It sure was. Me and Harry recorded his cornet parts there I guess almost a year ago now. My laptop completely died on the day, so I ended up recording his parts with my phone. We managed to get a pretty good sound anyway. Running seamlessly from an average haircut, to a ‘sing-a-long’ graveyard gig to a pizza box attack, can you talk us behind your visual processes for the accompanying music video? JO: