Is this your first tour of Australia?
Yeah it is and none of us have ever been to Australia before, so it’s a first time for everything.
What do you think of when you think about Australia?
Mostly the kinds of things I thought of when I was three years old. Kangaroos, wildlife, the sense of scale, the outback, all of that. And a few of your cultural exports, like Neighbours. That’s kind of why it’s exciting because we have very few preconceptions.
How was Glastonbury?
It was so great, we played the festival on Saturday and then on Sunday we played a smaller, almost secret, pub gig but it was in a tent. The festival is always great, it’s so big and the scale of it does not compare to anything else.
Are you a Glasto veteran?
I have been going there for 10 years as a punter and the last four years we’ve played. I only have good things to say about it, especially when the weather is good, which it was this year.
What were you highlights?
I enjoyed James Blake, I really liked Bobby Womack too. Saturday night, by the time we finished playing, I didn’t see any bands I just wandered around the grounds. Because we were playing two shows this year I didn’t see as many bands as I normally would.
Did you meet anyone that you happen to be a big fan of?
Everyone is on good form, the festival brings out the best in people. I was hanging out with a guy from Elbow and he introduced me to Ed from Radiohead which was a great moment for me because I am a huge fan, of course. And he was just a really sweet guy, just really charming.
I saw on Twitter you ran into Nick Cave in Denmark, what is he like?
Yeah, we didn’t really speak to him but we spoke to quite a lot of his band. We didn’t speak to Nick directly because we’re kind of frightened of him. But we saw him play at this festival in Denmark and he was amazing.
What’s the music scene like in Manchester?
For a long time the only thing you could read about Manchester was that it’s where Oasis came from. And we knew there was far more to it than that. I don’t think that we’re doing anything new, or that there aren’t other bands out there like us, but we for whatever reason we happened to coincide with a lot of other bands who are doing different things with but with the same kind of approach.
Any bands we should look out for?
There are a lot of young bands who I think are fantastic, this band called Money who are doing great things, they’ve got a record coming out in August. They have a completely fresh sound. But the idea that there is a particular sound from Manchester is a complete falsehood.
You don’t sound like you’re a Manc, actually
No, I am from the south, from Kent, south of London and moved here 10 years ago to go to University and that’s how I met the rest of the band.
What were you studying?
Music. Studying at Uni just seemed to be the thing to do, it seemed like the logical step, I didn’t particularly want to go to Uni but I thought if I was going to go, I may as well be studying music.
I read somewhere that Destiny’s Child are an influence of yours?
It’s just atypical, I suppose, for four guys in a band. We basically love certain singles and we love the rhythmic audacity and the simpleness of the vocals and also the sense of humour – whether or not it’s intentional, we’ve always found it kind of fascinating. And we didn’t see why we couldn’t provide those sort of vocal techniques, those incredibly technical vocal techniques to kind of more traditional alternative rock context.
What is the meaning behind the name?
I think we liked the look of it written down, we liked the sound of it, there’s something musical about the rhythm. We liked the openness of it, it’s the opposite of exclusive – it’s inclusive and optimistic. So we thought we’d try it on for a while and see how we go and we immediately liked it. People never forgot it or misheard it. And we’ve never changed it, I still really like it. We didn’t want to get stuck with a name like the Arctic Monkeys and think why did we do that? And to this day we have never had any regrets about it.
What’s getting a lot of play on your iPod at the moment?
I’m listening to the new Vampire Weekend album a lot. This always happens with their records, they kind of get ingrained under my skin after a while. There is something really sumptuous about the melodies and the words, Also the new James Blake record, new Stokes album, I feel more confident about music in general these days, more so than I have before, I don’t really know why.
Do you think music is better these days?
I don’t think it’s necessarily better than it used to be. I think it’s party because I have an iPod and I’ve been able to catalogue all of my CDs and vinyl onto one device, which is great because we’re doing so much travel this year.
That should help on your 24 hour flight
Yeah – what happens, do you stay in the air for 24 hours?
No, you’ll stop somewhere halfway to refuel!
Oh that’s good to know, I’m glad we can get off the plane. I don’t know whether we have a day off when we land but the guy from Elbow said to insist on a day off when we land otherwise we’ll feel awful.
Catch Everything Everything in Melbourne (July 26), Splendour in the Grass (26-28 July) and Sydney (27 July). See: everything-everything.co.uk
