Bury might be famous for its motormouth football pundits (Gary Neville) and prolific game composers (David Whittaker), but there’s a new set of players in town…Signal Committee are a four-piece alternative rock band who wear their influences on their sleeves and strut their 80’s alt pop sound with a very Northern swagger. Drop equal parts New Order and Arcade Fire into a blender, add a slice of Depeche Mode, some lime and ice and et voila, you’ve got a pumping monolith on wheels that’s destined to bowl (roll) you over!
We caught up with the cheeky, Northerners and occasional Radio 6 botherers recently to find out what makes them tick…
How are you guys?
Bobby – Good, thanks Benni – Yeah I’m Alright (sorry I’m trying to put Beth Gibbons on)
When did you first become interested in writing music and what drew you in?
Bobby – Probably when I couldn’t be arsed learning other people’s stuff.
Benni – I wrote a track about a stalker when I was 11 in a band called Species with Parky, COD and Livesey (aka miniBodz). My brother found a demo tape and played it to his mates and they still take the piss out of me for it.
Your influences are front and centre in your work, but since your debut album ‘A 1 for a 0 (and we’d all go binary)’, you’ve been developing your sound…what inspires you now?
Moreso dance and electronic music like Bicep, Jon Hopkins, Kelly Lee Owens, Fourtetand Julia Bondar. More recently, Young Fathers. Vocally.
There’s no doubt that Thom Yorke is an influence, ever pushed him for a collab?
Not got his e-mail address yet. Working on it.
Who writes the songs or is this a collaborative process?
Collaborative innit.
What was it like to work with a range of artists on your ‘Beleaguered’ remixes? Sounds fun?
It was a great experiment. Artists from completely different genres all coming out with completely different interpretations. Our friend, Liam, says the Phat Controllers Remix is better than any of our original tracks. Maybe we should remove it.
You’ve been involved with Tom Robinson’s ‘Fresh on the net’ channel. How did you find your way into this and what do you take from it?
It’s a bit like that episode of Vikings where the King of France cuts a deal with Rollo to keep some land in order to avoid a mutiny.
There’s a new album in the pipeline (Raise the Regolith), any surprises in there?
Oops. I better update our profile (gritted teeth emoji). Actually, maybe we’ll retrospectively compile the current stream of singles into an album. Nobody will notice.
Any plans to tour this?
Bobby won’t let us. He says everyone has to come to our studio if they want to see us play live. We might setup our own festival down the road too, SpenceStock. Probably best to put a plan together once we figure out how to actually play our tracks live.
What are your hopes for the future?
Benni – Get Through Another Week
Parky – Another Russian Revolution
Bobby – To Be Happy.
Phil – Produce some wonderful music and hopefully some people will listen to it.