The boys of Chapel Club are bright and fair; charmingly deferential, self deprecating and quick to accommodate. Pre interview Clash were fortuitous enough to witness a spine tingling acoustic warm up set featuring an unexpected (and rather good) Flaming Lips cover and a much shyer front man than we witnesed on stage later that night. I suspect all of the band have something of interest to say but it was vocalist Lewis Bowman and guitarist Michael Hibbert who bestowed me with their full attention in the quiet of the tour 'bus'. Some genuinely luminous moments were shared in that humble grey van; wide eyed and earnest, heart on sleeve moments. Running the gamut of lyrical poetry, communing with nature, the pitfalls of fast track fame and lamentations on the lack of magic in the everyday world . Ladies and gentlemen, we give you...
Are you wary of being thought of as a buzz band; we all know how hard the hyped can fall?
LB: I think we were at first but don't really think we feel like that much of a buzz band anymore. It's been a while...once upon a time maybe.
Lewis, you've been writing poetry since you were a young man by all accounts but I know that you've been active as a promoter and a DJ as well. Were you aware you could sing, or indeed have the desire to sing before joining the band? Or that your poems could be translated successfully into lyrics?
LB: I would like to say first of all, just because it comes up a lot, although I'd written poems, I'd written all my life, it wasn't anything particularly special. There's a helluva lot of people out there, including my Nan and stuff that write poems, it doesn’t mean that they’re a poet. And there's probably some people who don't think they haven’t translated into songs very well at all (laughs). When I used to run club nights and DJ at first I really embraced it and got into the whole hedonistic thing. It was when indie had just made a come back, around the time of the Strokes and I just had a really good time with it. But there was a point, I don’t know if it was to do with getting older or it was simply because I had some kind of desire to do something else? I did start to think, you’re playing other peoples records and you’re watching other people perform but you’re not actually doing anything. You're going into your work 5 days a week in a normal job and not really pursuing anything with a clear focus. So there was a sense that I'd like to do something else but never thought a band would happen just because I thought I'd be too self-conscious to sing. I kinda thought sometimes in the car my voice sounded all right with someone elses voice behind it (laughs). I still think that to be fair...
And Michael, had you always yearned to be a musician, was it path that you'd always wanted to follow?
MH: Not really. It took me quite a long time to, I dunno, it always seemed like the sort of job that someone else could do, that it wasn’t for me. I think a lot of people maybe feel that way so it took me quite a while to get my head round the idea that it’s gonna be easy to find the right people and set up band and just go for it. But it was more due to a realisation that if I didn't, I'd have to get a job and I just wasn't prepared to do that! I've spent most of my life avoiding any work so this seemed like a foolproof way.
Do you find there's an equal footing in the writing of the music, or is there a clear leader?
MH: No, I think we all chip in, all five of us write quite a lot, we're often emailing songs to each other and most of the songs that end up sticking are the ones we write together in the rehearsal room. I suppose one of the good things about playing together for 18 months or whatever, you start to develop this other sense of when you should be playing or what the other persons gonna do. And at this point in our career we’re quite into embracing that. The best stuff comes when we're all together in a room and were all present and of the same mind set.
On that note, do you write your lyrics at the same time or are you constantly scribbling away, thinking that lyric would go with that riff?
LB: It depends really, I don't have a prescription for how best to do it, it literally happens. With the first album I would say it was mostly the music with me listening to the guys. I was pretty nervous back then and wasn’t even sure that I could begin to write melodies or lyrics that would work. What do the sounds bring out in me? and what lyrics do they deserve, as it were. But its kind of evolved over time, as I've perhaps gotten a bit more confident. So now I probably have a whole albums worth of lyrics sitting on my laptop just waiting to be used. That should be easier and a lot quicker because they boys write so quickly, we've been pretty prolific really over the last six months and so I’ve found in order to match how quickly they can work I need to have lyrics ready so that when they bring me something I say can say right, okay I can see what might fit. It makes it more exciting, as we can have something like a day or so later, mocked up and ready to demo.
There are notions of existentialism and religious imagery (in your songs) that people always seem to comment on, perhaps because it's fallen out of favour. A lot of people don't feel very comfortable writing about these sorts of things, unless you're Nick Cave maybe. Was it conscious to focus on these subjects?
LB: A bit of a mix I think. It's stuff I'm interested in genuinely and naturally. It's not over considered. Like, what should I be reading about or writing about? It kinda worries me a bit because some people think it's silly to be writing about those subjects. Or it sounds as if you’re being too clever or something like that. But honestly it’s just stuff that I've thought about a lot of the time. It's inspired by films I've seen, or books I've read or other music I've listened to. You can stick to what’s around you, just the surface of things. But I think for me personally it's just the way I am. I'm constantly thinking about what could be beyond it, in a psychological sense, maybe a spiritual sense and its just something that comes out in the lyrics. But I would say that they're not necessarily outward facing lyrics, it all comes from me and my experience, so I wouldn't like to say that I'm a non selfish lyricist. I think I’m pretty self absorbed. I think is quite important for anyone that is trying to create something that's gonna last or have some kind of meaning perhaps to try and explore that a little bit. Even if it's quite cack handedly done when I do it (laughs).
I think it probably does come across that way; it doesn't appear overly contrived. I grew up listening to a lot of bands where it was pretty much the order of the day to be tackling such subjects but that's fallen by the wayside, in fact it’s entirely out of fashion…
LB: I've said this before and again I get frightened of appearing like I'm trying to be the librarian of the music of Britain or something but I do think its quite strange that I've been lambasted, like in the NME review of our album, for mentioning Greek myths in songs and things like that. But surely someone just trotting out really simple clichés because they fit but they don't say anything or give you any idea of who they are or what they're about, surely that’s just laziness? It's just an extension of who I am, I don't know why I'm that way, it’s not as if I’m wandering around with my head in the clouds. To spend the day with me you'd probably think I’m a vulgar, common little guy making stupid jokes.
I remember reading a lot of stuff when I was younger and being obsessed by Ted Hughes. The essence of lyrical poetry in this country; I can't believe I'm talking about poetry again, getting myself right in the same trouble! A lot of lyrical poetry starts with an observation about everyday life and moves onto something vastly more profound, or that’s the intention. When you're reading poems like 'The Horses' by Ted Hughes, he’s gone for a walk in the hour before dawn and sees the horses in the woods and there’s a beautiful description of that, then suddenly its as if the cosmos is shaking itself apart around him and really it’s just the sun coming up. But this is an evocation of an experience of nature and I am someone who feels things quite strongly. Because the band were making music that I found very powerful and emotive and evocative I always thought this is a chance to take these feelings and use them. Like looking at the clouds or whatever. That’s actually become a joke for the band cause I have like a thousand photos of clouds from on tour but it’s just that it’s the sort of thing that inspires me. If anyone’s going to listen to the music I'd rather they listened to it and that I'm trying to take them away from the mundane, not in an escapist sense but trying to take your mind off somewhere else, away from the everyday because I find the everyday dispiriting sometimes.
Read part 2 here
