Sound City highlights: White Lies and Wave Machines

White Lies

It's not easy being one of the biggest bands in rock and roll at the moment. For Indie rockers White Lies satisfying your growing fan base as your status is enhanced worldwide can be a frenzied affair.

Struggling to remember exactly where he's been these past few weeks bass player and lyricist Charles Cave at least recalls a five-week US tour and a week in Japan since they last played Liverpool in March.

Just last weekend they were in LA and Santa Barbara and after what was to be another fantastic live performance at Liverpool's O2 Academy as one of the main Sound City headliners they were off to Edinburgh that night. When you've just had a number one album, To Lose My Life, things can get busy.

"We're just building our status everywhere," says Cave. "But there's only so many days in a year so we can't be touring everywhere at once."

But if they could, they probably would. The band are loving it as much as they are enduring the constant hours on the road and gigging as Cave points out: "It's been amazing. I don't remember having the best time on our first headline tour. No one really knew all the songs.

"But all of the last shows we've done in the UK especially Glasgow have been amazing. It's a completely different league now that the album is out and everyone is very much aware of what's happening. You feed off the audience in a much better way."

The pace at which they are performing shows and growing in popularity continues over a busy summer where acclaim outside of Britain means they will try to do an equal spread of summer festivals to satisfy a growing worldwide fan base.
Many are already asking about a second album but it's already been confirmed that this will not be on the cards until early 2010. Cave adds: "We're starting to formulate rough ideas but nothing can be fully formed until we get it together and have time off January. We need to
be in our own zone to do that. We can't do it on tour, it just doesn't work for us."

But sitting down and writing and recording albums are nothing compared to being on the road. Having had to write and record the first album in just four months, Cave hopes they are under similar pressure again this time: "The sooner it's out, the sooner we can start touring again," he adds.

"We're not the kind of band that's going to take a year to make our next record if we don't have to."

Wave Machines

Perhaps not used to the media attention just yet Tim Bruzon, guitarist, keyboard player and singer in Wave Machines has to take off his jacket and sit down again, he's got one more interview left.

He wanted to nip home and pick up some things before he and fellow band members Carl Brown (guitar, keyboard, percussion, vocals), James Walsh (bass, percussion, clarinet, ukulele, vocals) and Vidar Norheim (drums, malletkat, vocals) took to the stage at the 02 Academy as main support to Sound City headliners White Lies.

Their fast growing status means they are second on the bill that night ("We paid him!" jokes Carl) and are therefore garnering more and more media and music world attention.

Their sound is difficult to define. The Guardian called it "soft and smooth, sugary and sweet white funk with pop bits: Hot Chip dipped in Hot Chocolate." There are lots of ticks and bleeps but also catchy beats as showcased in "I Go I Go I Go" the video for which has found its way on to Kanye West's music blog.

"We have a common interest in what we are doing at the moment," says Tim when asked about the sound. "We wrote a lot of different songs and treated them all in different ways and ultimately found that this way had a certain type of energy that people responded to better in gigs."

Their debut album Wave If Your Really There is not yet released (June 15) but its cover is already a talking point with a picture of a stag disfigured by red and green wedge shapes, a kind of Photoshop gone wrong. It's the work of Scott Spencer who the band closely collaborates with on all their artwork.

"It's natural organic forms being cut up by low-fi graphic images. Something somehow seems to fit very nicely with the sound," says Tim.

"It does a similar job to a lot of our music where we've got a lot of natural organics guitars mixed up with digital things," adds James. "We're messing around with sounds and this seems like it all meshes together really well."

What's also getting people talking is the bands on stage apparel, facemasks. Why? "We're trying to have a fun," says Tim. "Also to get over a bit of stage fright. As long as we're enjoying it and it feels good then we'll do it.

After their Sound City gig there's a mad dash to Manchester to do another gig. The summer is awash with festival appearances but like any up and coming band Wave Machines are more excited about just being there: "The thing that is really coming across this time is that we're doing all the really big festivals," adds Tim.

"All the things we want to go to we get to go to, so that's excellent."

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