a feast of local music
We ran into these guys on a snowboard trip recently and found them all to be jolly nice fellows. They told us all about their Jersey band so we thought we?d tell you!
What’s the story behind your band name?
The name of the band was a very hard choice for us, with so many groups jumping on the ‘the’ bandwagon we were really keen to stay away from being ‘the’ anything.. After much head scratching we came up with Banquet. There’s two obvious references there, but it’s more than that – we thought it matched our genre – a feast of different styles. We’re not fast food.
What are your songs about?
We tend to write about experiences we have either had or been able to empathize with… Demons, one of the two track we recorded in a few hours in a rented room at La Motte St. Youth Centre, is about not being yourself in presssurised situations, taking an argument too far for example and not staying true to yourself throughout. Ice Age is about making something happen as opposed to waiting for something good to jump into your lap…
I think the songs mean something slightly different to all of us, for Brett who sets the scene for the majority of the the lyrics, it can mean something very specific. We try to write music that is true to ourselves and at the same time our hope is that other people will take to what we have done with our sounds and ideas and relate to them in their own way. We’re not in it to take the newest indy fad and create something that everyone likes, it would be boring and predictable, there’s no “mystery box” effect. For all we know we could be booed off the stage because of a particular direction we take with a new song whereas an acceptable Arctic Monkeys recital will normally always receive a polite response.
How did the band start?
Chris and Brett were in Coloured Room for a long time together doing covers and playing regularly at places like Chambers, both deciding to leave the covers behind and push on with original material for a fresh break. Paul played in Wilmor for 6 years playing Jersey Live twice and a good few other places over the years until it came to its natural end in ’04. We started out as an idea in a bar late 2005.
We were wanting to do something different, something we believed in. We wanted to try and be our own favourite band. They were good times and after Aaron Brown joining up on bass for a while and creating an MDF palace in the world?s smallest bandroom we moved on to a farm in St. Lawrence where we found the NEW world?s smallest bandroom. It was then we met Tim “Howard Moon” Horsefall, it was cool and brought us closer together as a band… Steve and Sue are legendary for putting up with what they did, nice one guys! Tim really gave us the boost we needed and with such an expansive musical knowledge to hand had a great effect on the band. Getting that bottom end back in place again put the last piece in the puzzle and we felt like we were once again ready to get it together for a stage.
What’s your coolest band story?
The one with the Banquet umbrella wire break-in scandal… (hmm… says Gallery)
If you had the chance to interview your fans, what would be the first question you ask them?
Did you experience any “Brown Noise” during the performance ?
If you had a space in your band and the whole world wanted to join, who would you accept and why?
It would be difficult to pick and choose between all of our various heros and mentors of music but i think Thom Yorke would be pretty high up on all of our lists. How about spending one day with every one of the people we admire and draw inspiration from?
You’ve made it Rolling Stones big and you
come back to play a homecoming outdoor concert in Jersey, where would you play?
Who are the Rolling Stones…? – That was a joke for all of the people that might hate us before they hear us! The Airport runway would be cool but any massive expanse of land would do, pick somewhere big, pay all the land owners and have our own Glastonbury weekend with all our favourite bands! Wait… what about the police costs? We could do it in Guernsey !?
What’s the plan for 2008?
Top of our list is always to find somewhere more permanent to rehearse where we can leave all of our toys and recording gear set up and ready to go. Currently about 50% of our time together goes into setting our gear up and taking it down again, that’s no joke and it can be quite frustrating sometimes! Our big goal is to get a good 12 songs complete and record our progress. We have been playing around with the recording process for a while, recording our demo for the Jersey Live playoffs and experimenting with our sound and what suits us. Keep and ear out for us in ’08 we’ll be out there soon we promise! Hopefully at Jersey Live.
Banquet would like to thank a few people while we have the chance. Firstly Ivor and the crew at La Motte St. Youth Centre for doing such a fantastic job with the place, it really did bring hope and a smile to our faces when we laid eyes on it. Keep it up, the young musicians and rockstars of the island need it! Also, Aaron?s dad for the warehouse bandroom antics where the band first made its first sound. And all of the people that have heard the word “soon” for so long…
Look out for local performances soon after Chris gets back from his honeymoon!
www.myspace.com/banquetmusic
