New boys on the block and signed to Trangressive Records; the label that gave us Bloc Party, the Subways and the Young Knives. The Edge caught up with Battle when they supported Cooper Temple Clause at Southampton Student Union and talked gimmicks, the virtues of Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms and why the NME are rubbish...

How did you guys get together?
Jason: We’re all from various places around the M25. But me and the lead guitarist Jamie went to school together and have been playing music since we were 15. Then we went to University with the expressed intention of forming a band. And that’s what we did.

So your sole purpose for going to University was to form a band?
Yeah. We had a friend in the year above us and he said that if we wanted to go to a vibey University, we should go to Manchester, or one of the major cities. But if we wanted to go to some place where the workload’s really easy and the life’s really laidback, we should go to Kent and Canterbury. So we were like, cool, let’s go there and not get hassle for rehearsing instead of going to lectures. That’s where we met the others.

Have you had many different names along the way?
We certainly have. Morphic Fields…Casper Jack…The Killing Moon…
Jason: I wanted to call the band Bass and the Bargainauts, like Jason and the Argonauts, but that didn’t work out.

What’s the thinking behind your name, The Battle?
Well basically, we’re quite an unlucky band. So everything we’ve done really has been a bit of a struggle, a battle. And isn’t all really good art and music born out of some sense of dissatisfaction, or struggle anyway? A bit of pressure is always a good thing.

Who do lazy journalists like to compare you to and does it bother you?
When we first started out we used to get a lot of Bloc Party, Joy Division, but lately we’ve been compared to Neil Young, Smiths and Gene. People like to compare us to the Cure a lot too, for some reason, but we’ve barely listened to them. We really don’t mind at all though, we understand that people need someone against who to measure us for their own comprehension.

Have you got a favourite venue?
There’s a couple actually. For hospitality, it’d have to be King Tut’s in Glasgow. We played it for our first gig for our first ever tour and they sat us down and gave us a meal and a bottle of wine! We were so surprised. Normally you only get given a cup of water, and then only begrudgingly. But for sound and stage, we’d say Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms.

Do you enjoy the student crowd?
We’re playing a lot of student unions on this tour actually, and we’ve had a really positive feedback. Students just come along to see you with an open mind; they’re really up for it and unreserved.

You’ve had a lot of good press, from people such as the NME, what do you think of the whole NME hype thing?
Oliver: I hate the NME. I think it’s a load of b******s. And they haven’t been that nice actually; they said that our first single, Isabelle, was about as essential as a scatter cushion. I’m not sure they really know what to make of us because we’re not as stylised as some.

I hear that your current single (Beautiful Dynasty) comes with free stickers and that there’s a competition for who can best decorate the sleeve? Is that a gimmick?
(the band then proceed to produce a bag full of foam animal masks; dogs, cats, pigs, zebras etc). We need a thing basically, something to sell ourselves Our record’s out, we haven’t got a very focussed aesthetic; so Oliver’s been making masks. We’re thinking of jumping the nu-wave bandwagon quite soon and this might just be the look…

Will you be wearing them tonight?
Umm, nope. Probably not.

Disappointing, But what about the stickers?
The idea is that you buy the single and then plaster the sleeve with these animal stickers that come with it, take a photo, send it back to us, and then the best one will get loads of good stuff, including tickets to every headline show we play this year.

Have you got any groupies?
Not that we’re aware of, we don’t encourage it anyway. That side of the band isn’t important to us, and it doesn’t really help young men to stay focused and write music. We’re not really hedonists; we’re quite boring like that.

What’s you favourite sound?
Oliver: I’ve got this one. I hit my shoulder against the side of a Perspex shower cubicle thing in some hotel room the other day and it made the best sub-y note I’ve ever heard. Jason: I like the sound of crunching gravel; do you remember the opening credits of the bill with the two Policemen? Like that.
Jamie: A complete cliché, but really heavy rain is good, especially with the window open

With what song would you start the ultimate mix tape?
Would have to be ‘Everywhere’ by Fleetwood Mac.

Are there any classic albums of music history that you cannot stand and don’t understand the draw of?
Oliver: I hate Queen.
Jason: I’d probably say Clash’s ‘London Calling’. I don’t like music where you need some prior knowledge, some context, just to enjoy it. Music shouldn’t work like that. You could take Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ to Eskimos and they’d be like, that’s bad ‘ass, but I don’t think they’d get the Clash. So based on the universal measurement of the Eskimo, it’d have to be ‘London Calling’

What music do you only listen to in secret?
Jason: ‘No Strings Attached’ by N-Sync.
Jamie: ‘Hot Fuss’ by the Killers.

 

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