The Pigeon Detectives are set to release their 5th LP in February and we managed to speak with Matt Bowman about the upcoming release, on-tour traditions and also Bradley Walsh!
Broken Glances’, will be released on the 24th of February and is actually 4 years since your 2013 LP, ‘We Met At Sea’. What have you been up in this 4 year break?
Oh you know, just the usual; writing music, recording music, playing golf, walking dogs and marrying wives. Jimmi also opened a new studio (recording not dance)…
Your soon-to-be released album, ‘Broken Glances’, comes as your 5th studio album. What sets the album apart from all the other material you have released?
This album is reflective, it’s a thank you and an apology, it’s all the songs that we were never previously brave enough to write and it’s the first time we’ve had enough self-belief to say “we hope you like the record, really we truly hope you like it, but if you don’t – who cares, we love it”.
Hugely successful tracks, ‘I Found Out’ and ‘This Is An Emergency’ are taken from separate albums. Do you see a killer track waiting to be released on ‘Broken Glances’?
In all honesty I never know what a killer track is, until the fans tell us it’s a killer track. It’s the people who buy the music that decide which the killer tracks are, not the people who write it. The most important thing for us this time around was to really try and say something, we really wanted to deliver something to our fans that have followed us for a decade that was reflective of that decade together. We probably wrote 100 songs for this album but only 10 made it on. I’d even suggest that it might not be the best songs we wrote that made it on to the final album…but it was the right songs. We’ve created a record to enjoy and discover things about on each listen.
You are taking the album, on a 12-date UK & Ireland tour. What is the greatest aspect of being on the road?
The best aspect of being on the road is the adventure! You never get bored of the adventure and you get to do it with your 4 best mates! Every day you wake up in a new city and every night you get to play a gig to people that have a real connection with songs you’ve poured your heart and soul into for 10 years, its such a treat and very humbling. The fans pay at the door to come in, but in all honesty if they didn’t pay we would still play the gig anyway – we get just as much satisfaction from playing as they do from watching!
Many bands have little traditions or memories that they associate with being on tour, have you obtained any over the years?
Me and Dave have invented a weird tickle game that gets played every night before we get into the bunk beds on our tour bus. Neither myself or Dave are actually willing participants in the game anymore, but it’s become a case of tickle or be tickled – so you kind of get sucked in! It’s an absolute nightmare..some nights I literally have to just sit awake in the lounge of the tour bus because I’m too scared to go and get into my bunk in case I get tickled. So yeah, that’s probably the weirdest answer I’ve ever given..but it’s 100% true and it’s late at night as I write this so I’m not re-writing it.
Within 2016, Jack Garratt, Zayn Malik and Blossoms were all pipped to the post by Bradley Walsh, who won highest selling British debut artist. What do you think of this?
With 100% sincerity, out of all these people you’ve just named I have only ever heard of Blossoms. I like Blossoms though so this Bradley Walsh you speak of sounds like a right p***k.
In today’s music society, we consume music in many ways, Streaming, Downloading, CD’s, Vinyl and Live Performances. Please could you rank these in order of importance to you and explain the reasons?
Number 1 – Live Perfomances. All my favourite bands of recent times were discovered at a live gig or a festival first. You really invest in a band and connect with them when you see them live first and then embark on an adventure to find their music afterwards.
Vinyls – Mmmmmmm mmmmmmm mmmmmmmm, give me that sweet vinyl to hold in my hands and display on my shelf to show the entire world just what lengths I’ll go to in order to find the original first press of Rufus Wainwrights Want One! I love vinyl. It’s severely hindered by impracticality, but it’s really f**king delicious none the less.
CD’s – Ahhhhhh, the good old CD! Will CD be the vinyl of the future? Probably not. But this is how I discovered all my favourite bands and their back catalogues as a kid! There’s still a good deal of pleasure to be had from flicking through a cd collection and actually putting a tangible object in a machine to create those amazing sounds! There’ll be a place in my heart for CD’s and I still buy them today to own something that’s been created by a band I love.
Streaming – I hate streaming. It’s shit for the artist, it sounds shit for the listener (over compressed/poor quality) and it cuts out when you hit the motorway or a country road in your car. That being said, I listen to spotify every time I get into my car so I’m a big fat hypocritical idiot.
Your hometown is Leeds and we are approaching the 10 year anniversary of your debut album, ‘Wait For Me’. In comparison, how has the music scene in Leeds changed since when you were starting out 10 years ago?
I don’t think much has changed in terms of attitude and desire. Obviously there are new faces and new hungry bands (with stupid new band names)… but Leeds is a famously musical city with a steady stream of successful talent emerging – that will always be true. From what I can make of Leeds these days it has a scene that is just as energised and thriving now as it was 10 years ago. If anything, it’s probably a little healthier now than before as bands have become a lot more savvy in self-promotion and social networking. Bands don’t just turn up to a venue with guitars now and complain when there’s nobody there to watch them… they actually get out there and make things happen! I like that aspect of bands these days and as a result I try to get out and support local bands as often as I can.
