Let me take you back a few years: I was a student in Leeds & one of my housemates had just formed a band called
Downdime with a few pals. After one particularly boozy night out, the guys started mucking about with guitars and an impromptu jam had begun. There was a set of drums set up in the flat so I jumped on and started bashing away (No formal training with the instrument didn’t hamper my enthusiasm, my philosophy was to hit them and hit them HARD). After half an hour of what, to my mind, sounded a lot like an early Can session we’d acquired a new fan (By fan I mean angry neighbour banging on the window shouting “YOUR TAKING THE FUCKING PISS LADS”). That was my first and only appearance on stick duty for the band (Although I’ve recently acquired a Cow bell). Thankfully they have come a long way since then.
Downdime have long since been Leeds best kept secret. That they are currently not playing enormodome’s gives you a little insight into the state of the UK’s mainstream ‘indie’ scene. Maybe that’ll change with the release of debut long player ‘Knowing Too Much’. 8 tracks: 30 minutes packed full of sublime indie pop: ‘Joanne’ has long been a live favourite and is still a chart hit in-waiting. ‘Time runs to slow’ is just beautiful, delicate vocals mingle with gorgeous harmonies. ‘Backpedalling’ is beauty and the beast, prodigious pop song with an undercurrent of filth. Watch out for the little kraut section too. ‘Shine’ is the type of quiet/loud/quiet album closer that no record should be without. Top notch.
What’s that you say? What are they like live? The bollocks. I’ve seen DD countless times and each time is different. They play with an intensity rarely seen these days, as if they’ll burst into flames the very moment the gig is over. And they’re four of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet. Quite the package ain’t they? We sent some words over the pennines and Ged, Ste, Liz and Eddy sent some back:
Tell us a little about Downdime.
Ged- We are a shimmery noise pop band that plays songs with a certain smile and a hidden sadness, we have played together for a good few years and enjoy doing what we are doing. The songs are unashamedly pop but played with a classical and punk rock approach, we love bands like Rocketship, Plastic Mastery Human Television and The Ramones.
Did you always plan to release your album in the same week as the US president inauguration? President Obama plans to lead the US out of their current crisis(es), do you plan to do the same to Indie pop?Liz- It's mere coincidence that two such momentous events should occur in the same week, but both feel like they've been a long time coming. The crisis in the States is down to mismanagement and greed on a grand scale, and the same could be said for mainstream indie pop's current malaise. The old model of finding one successful artist then churning out releases by substandard acts whose sound is similar has resulted in tags like 'landfill indie' being bandied about, which might end up getting applied to the genre as a whole rather than a particularly unimaginative cul-de-sac if we're not careful, now that girly electro pop is apparently going to save the music business or something. Alternative indie seems to be doing fine as far as we can tell, so I don't know if we're gonna lead anyone out of anything but we're having fun doing our own thing. If you like what you hear, come on over - let's party like it's 1929.
Ged- There was never any direct intention it just seems to have worked like this, I don’t necessarily think that things are in crisis with music at the moment, there is lots of good stuff happening in the world if you know where to look. Although everything is in crisis in industry with retailers falling by the way side, hence industry big wigs must be chomping at the bit looking for a new act that they can make a big load of cash out of, what this saviour of the music industry should be I wouldn’t like to think, i just want to be saved by the four horsemen of lo-fi , bring back Lou Barlow and Belle and Sebastian.
Ste- I have been to the mountaintop... but I was wearing converse and my feet got wet.
Describe your best dance moves.Ged- Ballet / Jazz / Tap --usually when my good friend Jonny playing us all his latests, it’s a weekend and there are lots of hours left in the night. Doing any thing Friday?
Liz- I'm either a) wearing heels b) drunk or c) both, so hips and hands are a'swinging but feet are generally just doing their best to compensate. If it's early in the evening and 'Superstition' is playing, you might say the overall effect was pretty good. If it's late at night and Daft Punk is playing (at my house or yours) then stand well back there may be casualties...
Ste- Pitched somewhere between the cissy strut and the moonwalk
Kill all hippies?Ged– XTRMNTR is a fucking ace record.
Liz- Who, us? A band full of fun-loving slackers waging war on the hippies; how would hostilities commence, I wonder?
Ste- All hippies is a bit strong, I’d just eliminate those over thirty.
Eddy– Plus those under 29.
Best/worst things in music in the last 12 months?Liz- Elbow winning the Mercury made me very happy / I now flinch whenever I hear the word petticoat.
Ged- Grunge and lo-fi making a comeback / Britney Spears making a comeback
Ste- The rehabilitation of the seven inch single; the purest and most beautiful way to consume music / The untimely demise of Ron Asheton
Eddy– My Bloody Valentine reforming/ Ocean Colour Scene still not deforming.
Which actors/actresses would play the band in the film of your lives?Ged- I am Arnie, Eddy is Danny De Vito and Liz and Ste are Posh and Becks
Ste- Kenneth Williams, Sid James, Barbara Windsor and Charles Hawtrey. In no particular order
Eddy– Lassie, Flipper, Gentle Ben, and Wellard.
Liz- I bagsy Lassie...
Can you name a few of your favourite things:Records:Liz- Remain In Light - Talking Heads; Friend Opportunity - Deerhoof; The Sebadoh - Sebadoh; any early Black Sabbath. We have you surrounded.
Ged- The Dirtbombs; The Pains of being Pure at Heart.
Ste- The Nuggets box set is my all time fave. Recently I’ve been enjoying Workout Holiday by White Denim and Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea by Silver Jews
Eddy– Right now… Anything by Another Sunny Day in Glasgow, Bilge Pump, or Human Television.
Books.Liz- The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck); The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov)
Ged- I just read a book about communism, I also like books about mental health at the moment.
Ste- Narcissus and Goldmund (Hermann Hesse). Although due to the disease that is the diminishing attention span I’ve been gravitating towards books with small words and big pictures
Eddy- The Singularity is Near, by Ray Kurzweil.
Insults.Ged- wank stain
Liz- ¡Me cago en la leche! - A charming Spanish phrase, short-hand for ‘I shit in the milk of the whore that suckled you!’
Ste– Republican
Eddy– Penis breath.
Obsolete media format.Ged- Them big video discs they were pretty cool
Liz- Ever since my visit to the National Street Organ Museum of the Netherlands, holes punched in paper.
Ste- The horse
Eddy– Facebook please?
Who is the best?Liz- you, that's who. (Correct answer)
Ged- Gordon Ramsay is a god!
Ste- Josh Anderson of Wellington New Zealand can eat a twelve inch pizza in 1 minute 45.37 seconds.
Eddy– Like, Sarah Palin?
Downdime- Backpedalling (Download)‘Knowing too Much’ is out now on
Squirrel records.
