Chewing the Rag with Lend Me The Twelve
As I start to pack up for the night, my brain is a little hazy, my fingers are overworked - I come across a very polite and friendly email from Oscar over at Full Power Records. Luckily for him, I’m the biggest fan of polite and friendly emails, and I’m a huge new music enthusiast, so I was more than happy to take a look at the EP he’d just buzzed over from a genre-bending new band, “Lend Me The Twelve”.
Lend Me The Twelve immediately fuck you right up with this strange, disorienting cacophony of sounds on Devil’s Avocado, including acoustic guitar, lacklustre, strangely thrown together vocals and an energy much like that of a midwest emo band going through a Primus phase. The production on these tracks is also something to be mentioned, it’s as if you’re being infinitely propelled by noise - steely sounds and little wood blocks corner you into your chair like a 100mph thrust of wind.
Birds ‘n’ Bees is one of those tracks that gets me going, and the vocals seem like an ironic take on Anthony Kiedis. It’s definitely more of a punchy one, straight off coming in with this slap bass and nice vocal line - “the in, the out!” - immediately grabs hold of you and leaves you waiting for these edging buildups, which lead to more buildups. The vocals also take super interesting turns throughout the song, which is really fun to listen to.
The final track I listened to, Twelve Angry Men, is real nice and soft to start off with, holstering a math-rock-y atmosphere throughout the whole ordeal, and gripping hold of that throughout the highs and lows of the song, with tinges of a psychedelic ambience thrown in there in between soft spoken yet riffy vocal lines and fun drum breaks. It’s also worth mentioning that whoever’s drumming, they’re doing a very good job of keeping it cool and knowing when to be quieter or louder between all these quick stops and lines.
With that being said, I figured I’d get the band in to answer a few of my pressing questions about their new EP, Songs of Interest, out now on all major streaming services. Without further ado, here’s Sam, James and Callum to entertain you.
How has life been recently for all of you? Where are you all at, studying or working or just milling about?
It’s been really exciting to release our first EP! We’re pleased with the response that it’s been getting and looking forward to releasing more music in the future. We all work full time, which given the current climate has been imperative in enabling us to produce and play music.
What brought you all together and motivated you to start a band together?
We have known each other since school and have always been connected through music. We started working on Lend me the Twelve after enjoying some Brind© together - that is definitely the driving force behind what we do.
Are there any artists you look up to and can see yourself touring or playing with in the coming years?
Full Power, the label that released “Songs of Interest”, works with an array of great bands and artists that make up a community we feel part of. We love playing alongside these guys and want to take that into bigger venues and eventually tours.
It feels like there’s a lot of inspirational pulls on this record, can you name a few bands or acts you’ve been spinning whilst working on Songs of Interest?
Milton Nascimento, Maximo Park, 3 6 Mafia, Meshuggah, Prefab Sprout, Gilberto Gil, D’Angelo, WII music, Solange, LFO to name a few. Generally, anything brindbending©.
What sort of thinking did you apply to the production, it’s fairly unique, I’m super interested in the 360, surround-sound-ish panning you’ve pulled off, can you tell me more?
We recorded everything independently in Area 12. The mixing was done by Elliot and Max Batten of Sorority, who definitely left a sonic signature, especially when it comes to panning, that complemented the songs.
What is a Devil’s Avocado, for people who are less educated? All I can find is a bunch of pictures on 9gag of avocados with horns and a trident.
Devil’s Avocado was a sort of nickname for a friend who was a notorious devil’s advocate. Sam then took that phrase and put it in context of the devil’s avocado being the anxiety that holds us back, with different fruit representing different emotions.
What’s next for Lend Me The Twelve? Any gigs coming up, any plans to tour or release more music?
We’re planning our next E.P that we hope to be recording very soon. We are also playing at an all dayer at The George Tavern tomorrow and at the New Cross Inn on the 26th of October!