Sam Forrest may have fallen out of love with Manchester, but he remains enamoured with Liverpool, and he's looking forward to playing the city this month.
“Our first album was shouting out of your bedroom window at the world,” says Sam Forrest, Nine Black Alps, willowy messiah, of the Manchester rockers thunderous debut Everything Is. “It was the album I had wanted to make when I was younger, Nirvana, Pixies, Sonic Youth and all. Whereas this album is where I am now.”
Nearly two years on from their critically acclaimed debut album, Nine Black Alps have a new record, Love/Hate, which sees spleens vented, demons exorcised, and a band who have come of age.
Sam puts a lot of this down to leaving Manchester. After years as the golden boy of the city’s reborn alternative community, Sam packed up all his books and all his vinyl, left Manchester and moved back to his hometown of York. “I kept the vinyl,” he says, “But there’s an Oxfam in South Manchester that must have most of my life in there.”
One of the downsides now is that he has to travel across the country to rehearsals in Manchester with the rest of the band.
“The worst thing is when I’m on the train and my phone goes off,” he laughs. “I’ve got this techno ringtone that came with the phone and I can’t get rid of it. It’s really loud, and everyone looks round. I try to brazen it out and pretend it’s not me. I just look round and wait for it to stop.”
Despite falling out of love with Manchester, Sam remains enamoured with Liverpool.
“I’m looking forward to playing in Liverpool again,” he says. “We always have a good time there.
“I like the Liverpool music scene – there are some really good bands. I really liked The Little Flames before they split up. They had a great sound. We toured with them for a while, and I could see them being huge. I still think they’re really talented – Eva has an amazing voice, and I like The Rascals new stuff, so hopefully they’ll all get that success in different ways.”
Nine Black Alps play the Stanley Theatre on October 14. For more information see www.myspace.com/nineblackalps.