The fourth member of Alighting

Sam - Blast Reporter

Now, I really enjoy these guys, and have seen them over the past year. I finally decided to grab an interview with them as I think sooner or later these guys are going to make it...

Who thought of the name Alighting and why?
It's a name I think that sounds quite exciting and rock and roll - it's got the word lighting in it and a lot of people pick up on that - but really that's nothing to do with it. It means to depart from a train/plane etc - and that can be quite romantic depending on where you're arriving. I think the thought of it meaning to arrive somewhere you want to be, I like that!

Have you got an image?
Well I guess every band has got an image. Visually we don't dress in suits or matching jumpers or anything. We're just a jeans and t-shirt type of band - but hopefully nice jeans and nice t-shirts! :-)

Who are your inspirations?
I think there are two types of inspirations - there are the ones who motivate you - irrespecrtive of their type of muisc and those whose music you really draw a lot from. In terms of motivating - I love the values of bands like R.E.M, Suede, U2, Beatles. Musically I think a lot of acts like Travis, R.E.M, Mercury Rev, Neil Young, Aimee Mann, Crowded House. I think more than anything we're a song band and we get into songs more than attitudes.

What genre would you call your music?
Think we get labelled as indie quite often, and I'm fine with that. We're not alternative, not punk, at the moment we're quite mellow and acoustic based, so we're not particularly a rock band.

How did you all join as a band?
Myself (Chris), my brother (Richard) and Marcus have been with the band from the start - about 4 years ago. We just kept meeting up and gradually took up or roles. Our new drummer (Anna) has been with us just over a year now - she has recorded the demo with us and played quite a few gigs too. She's fit in great.

Can you see yourself doing this in ten years?
Definitely. I wouldn't do it another day if i didn't think i'd be doing it in ten years. Hopefully by then we'll have got a lot of feelings and songs out of our rooms and into people's music collections...but they'll still be things we need to write about.

Do you want a career in music?
I would like that a lot, but it cant be the aim of doing all this. The music has to come first - you make the music and if it gets picked up by radio/record companies, then great - but if not - keep making the music.

Do you have an E.P/CD? If so what can be expected? (Here you may blag your cd if you have one!)
Sure do. You can download it all free from www.alighting.co.uk. It was very kindly played on Radio 2 and has had some nice reviews written about it - we're now starting to put together our 2nd demo. The 1st demo has three songs - There's No Heaven, Baby Lie and Crashing Cars. People expect from those titles for it to be quite agressive music, but it's very mellow and jangly. All tracks are very close to 3 mins and if you're the sort of person who likes that type of thing - its pretty catchy stuff.

What are your future plans as a band?
We're actually looking for a lead guitarist and pianist/keyboardist to join us. Either permanently or just to record the next demo. So - if you're out there get in touch!!

What are you up coming gigs?
December 18th 2004 - Man On The Moon

Sam's verdict:
As I said they definitely know what they are talking about and with a different type of sound than regular bands I think these have got something really special. I will be attending many more of their gigs, so I really advice you to too. Man on the moon – a great venue, and a great band. What more could you ask for?