Plaza, hailing from Hartlepool, bringing fresh indie-pop. We caught up with them, to chat about their origins, influences and whats up next.
ICM: Tell us a bit about Plaza, how did it all start?
PLAZA: Well, it all started one summer in Matty’s summerhouse. We were tipsy on warm fosters, listening to some mucky math rock, losing our minds over peculiar time signatures. This is when the prospect of starting a band began to arise. We live in Hartlepool and as you can probably tell there isn’t really much happening here other than bicycle theft and keen racism, so we thought starting a band might be better than getting addicted to happy shopper energy drinks or amphetamines. Here we are just over 2 years later, still a rockin and a rollin.
ICM: What band/artist inspired you to start making music?
PLAZA: I know that collectively we all grew up listening to all sorts of different stuff. Me personally I was spoon fed lots of soul and disco tunes. One of my earliest memories is doing a full solo, song and dance performance of ‘Superfreak’ by Rick James in the living room for my parents and their friends, looking back now it was probably a mild form of child abuse. Speaking on behalf of us all though, we all hammered guitar bands for a lot of years. The likes of Phoenix, Queens of the Stone Age, Joy Division, Radiohead and all that jazz (not jazz). I think if we had to pick one artist that made us all wanna be a rock star its gotta be Prince. I don’t really need to elaborate any further than saying his. For god’s sake just look at the man.
ICM: Is there a song that reminds you of the days when it all started?
PLAZA: Oh those early plaza days. Balloons by Foals, Shamu by Colour and FACK by Eminem, these tunes give me some serious plaza nostalgia. Apparently, if you put them all on at exactly the same, us 4 will appear in your bathroom mirror.
ICM: What would you say is the tour bus favourite?
PLAZA: Some current tour bus favourites are Thundercat, Yellow Days, Floating Points, Com Truise and we’ve been hammering Blaenavon’s debut album in preparation for our dates with them in November.
ICM: Looking into the future, what are the plans for Plaza?
PLAZA: We’ve got some big tings coming up. Lots more songs, lots more fun, lots more touring, lots more being silly buggers. Maybe an album, maybe a Presidential campaign, we might even try on some silly hats. You’ll have to see what Plaza Claus brings to the world.
Check out their latest single ‘Speak It’ here.
