As I write this, it is Valentine’s Day. As you read this, it’s not, but as I write it, it is. A day chock full of romance, allegedly, and how appropriate then that I’m writing up February’s NEW BAND OF THE MONTH today, given that our New Band of the Month this month are a band with a penchant for the romantic. Whether it be romantic literature, romantic poets from the long, long ago right up to modern day lyricists, or a romanticism for the realms of rock ‘n’ roll history and legend.
The band I’m talking about are Thieves, a four-piece from London who roll out their own brand of rock that displays a deep appreciation for the blues, a penchant for garage, a taste for the classics, their heads in the clouds of rock’n’roll hedonism, one foot in the past, and the other foot stepping forward into the future. So, have a listen to your New Band of the Month and have a read of the words what they responded to my questioning with.
Hello, how’s things, and who am I speaking to today?
Hi! We’re Thieves, a four-piece blues and rock’n’roll band from London town.
For those reading this who aren’t familiar with yourselves, how would you describe your sound, and what are Thieves all about?
There is a definite 60s revival sound that you’ll hear in some of the songs however as the word revival would indicate, we’ve taken these vintage sounds and put our touch on them. Hopefully what you’ll hear is something that was anchored in the British beat generation but that’s set sail towards a much more contemporary generation. Beside the music there are various different inspirations that come into the mix with Luke having a very literature orientated approach, and Perry having been involved in Hip-Hop production.
To my ear your music takes classic rock’n’roll and brings it up to date, creating a mix that’s equal parts The Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival as it is The Libertines and Dandy Warhols, and then amps up the blues. Would you say these are influences upon yourselves? What would be some of your biggest, key influences?
I think that there is a definite link to those bands, which also transcends the bounds of music especially with The Stones and The Libertines. They were both counter culture bands that created a world of their own. For us, there is a definite appeal to bands that manage to create a legacy that covers not only their music, but also their spirit as a whole. Bands like The Smiths and The Sex Pistols managed to do that too, and they’re the bands that are still talked about now.
As for influences every member of the band has very different influences… Luke is really into his British beat music and 60s psychedelic movement listening to bands like The Bare Facts, The Masters Apprentices, Them…
Mike comes from a hard rock background with the likes of Aerosmith and Hanoi Rocks..
Perry is into most stuff going from Brian Jonestown Massacre to some very heavy metal.
As for Tom, he’s solidly anchored in the American rock scene. It’s always great to share our different music tastes with each other and be constantly discovering new bands and sounds.
You originally started out as a two piece, but then evolved into the full band that is Thieves today. Was it initially something that was more for fun but lead itself into something more?
We probably didn’t always admit it but the plan that was in the back of our (Luke & Mike) minds was to get a band going. We just bode our time and waited until we felt the right people were around us and we were incredibly lucky to find Perry and Tom as fast as we did!
Outside of music, and the band, what else is important to Thieves? Any other big passions?
As we mentioned before Luke is very much into his literature, in particular late 19th century French texts as he grew up in France. He’s also doing a literature degree at Queen Mary, which is where he met Mike who is studying physics. Mike is into his motor sport and races cars in his spare time.
Tom has got another musical project and Perry as we said earlier is doing a lot of experimental recording and production. Last thing he told us was that he was putting recordings of Happy Meal toys with loads of affects into his demos…
What releases do you have out at the moment, and are there anymore in the pipeline?
At the moment we have the ‘Stung and Sober’ EP which was released in December 2014. We’re heading to the studio around the 20th of February to do a re edit for ‘I want You’ and then we’re very exited to be going to Real World studios in March. The list of superstars having recorded there is endless.. From Jay Z and Tom Jones right through to Paul Simon and Massive attack, it really is phenomenal. While we’re there we’re going to record around 4 or 5 songs of which a couple shall be released as singles over the summer and the others will probably come out at a later date- perhaps on an EP.
How’s your diary looking at the moment for gigs and tours? Where do we need to get ourselves along to?
Well we’ve found that we’re playing less gigs however that’s purely by personal choice as we decided that we prefer to play bigger venues once or twice a month rather than small venues with poor sound systems a few times a week. Hopefully in the next year there’ll be some kind of tour be it supporting a big act or on our own, but for the moment we’re concentrating on London as there are some great nights in our big old town.
Upcoming gigs / events:
Croydon Radio, 21st of February
Cherry Cola Club Night at The Purple Turtle, 7th of March
The Dublin Castle, 13th March
Upstairs @ The Garage, 11th of April.
Speaking of gigs and the like, are there any bands you’ve played with we should look into, or just any up and coming bands you’d recommend?
We’ve recently become friends with the lads from Hidden Charms who are doing very well. We actually met them at Purple Turtle when we were on the same lineup. We played at The Finsbury the other day and their was a very new band called Peter Cat that was cool, also on the bill were The Hallucinations who are making a name for themselves.
Lastly, at Cultured Vultures we have our very own cultured vulture named Voltaire. If Thieves had themselves a particularly cultured pet vulture, what would they call it?
Hubert Cumberdale
Vulture Note: Since this Q&A was published, Thieves have undergone some changes and now go by Smokey Taboo. You can keep up to date with the now Smokey Taboo via their new Facebook page.
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