INTERVIEW: 485C

September is upon us, and to be honest it feels like it came out of nowhere. Although it’s still sweltering in London, my morning walk to the station has a new soundtrack of the first leaves to fall breaking under my feet. I can’t be the only person that still equates this time of the year with ‘back to school’; new pencil cases and patent black school shoes fresh out the box. Incidentally, it’s my favourite time of year, which I gather says a lot about me (read: nerd). No better time then, to listen to something truly energizing and exciting, something that is equal parts dark and light, punk and indie. Enter 485C, the elusive, pantone-named newcomers set to take the indie scene by storm this autumn. I spoke to them ahead of their set at our very own New Moons show last week:

KM: Can you tell me the story behind your name? It’s pretty obscure.

A: Well it’s supposed to be conceptual you know, but I also feel like it’s an attempt to propose a different identity of what a band can be. We found the process of choosing a band name quite tedious and derivative, so we decided a colour code would be more fitting.

KM: You’re relatively new onto the scene – in terms of commercial releases anyway. How did you start working together as a band?

D: We’ve been playing together for years and we started gigging around London a couple years back independently. We did covers when we were younger and then started writing songs as the band developed.

KM: You’ve already garnered quite a bit of attention, from no less than BBC Radio 6’s Steve Lamacq. Did the fast turnaround of it all take you by surprise?

A: Yeah it’s great, it’s really cool to hear guys like Steve and John Kennedy playing your track, I found it more surreal than surprising.
Dom: Yeah it’s definitely surreal, but it’s good to feel the wheels in motion.

KM: You’re definitely going places – your latest single, ‘She’ll Lie’ is a set to become an indie hit, with a brilliantly jagged chorus. Tell me about the song-writing process for this track.

D: It came together pretty ordinarily to be honest, we had a riff and a few chords to jam with and we built the song around it from there. We also had initial ideas to make the song longer, but after a lot of experimentation we realized that it was under our nose in the sense that keeping it quick and impactful was the best feel for the song.

A: We actually wrote it when we were seventeen. It’s the oldest the song in our set and the approach we have to songs is different to how it was back then. It’s sort of evolved with us in a sense.

KM: Perhaps that’s why the track evokes that sense of ‘live-ness’ and teenage rawness. Do you see yourselves as more of a live band than studio artists?

D: A bit of both really, I sometimes think that we play like a live band when we rehearse in the studio, so the two sides to it intertwine a fair bit. We wanted to give the track the same feeling that it has when we play it live, which speaks for the lively nature of the song.

A: It’s interesting that you get a sense of liveness from the track because I think it sounds completely different when we play it live to the way it does recorded.
 

KM: You’ve been quoted as saying that more people should be making art, as we need it more than ever. Can you explain what you mean by that?

A: Where to start! The deceiving, classist, bigoted media, the open attack on our generation from the policies of this government, the stagnation of free speech… art is the best way to escape that reality, and hopefully piss off anyone who stands for it.

D: This year has been particularly bleak and, like Adam said, art is a very valuable way to vent, what with all the current problems in the world.

KM: What’s on the cards for 485C? Can we look forward to an EP in the future?

A: We should have another release out before the end of the year. And big plans for 2017…

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