The rich are out to get me, they want to see me hung, drawn and quartered

If you fall in love easily, then you will easily fall in love with The Sunbathers. Their beautiful melodies and stipped-back sound evoke a yearning for simpler times. Close your eyes and you could be in a place where you felt at peace, but were more than willing to fight your corner. You were kind and gentle, but not afraid to show which side you were on. Things are more complicated now, the seemingly concrete ideologies of the past seem almost quaint. Are we all fighting for the centre ground, or just fighting to remain grounded? If my last post didn't make any sense, then maybe it's because I am confused at the moment, not knowing which way to turn. One of my mottos in life has always been to keep things simple. The Sunbathers demonstrate beautiful simplicity. With a 7" single due any minute now on the always wonderful Dufflecoat Records, I thought it was time for one of my five question interviews with Paul and Julie Sunbather:

Stephen: You have quite a musical history. Where did it all start? How did you meet? Who does what? Who writes the songs? Are you in any other bands?

PAUL: I met Mark (Fat Tulips, Heaven Records) through my old band The Artisans. On one occasion we needed another suitable band for a gig so I contacted Mark who kindly brought his other band Confetti, down to play. I’ve been friends with Julie ever since. The songwriting is a joint effort. I’ll put together some chords that form the nucleus of a song and Julie will add a vocal melody and words. From there we’ll work on arrangements together, add percussion, if needed etc. Some songs evolve quite dramatically from where they started. I don’t think either of us really have enough spare time to be in other bands. !

S. What are your memories of the Sunday Records days and the bands around at the time? Where did you hang out? Did you go to many gigs in those days? Are you still in touch with the Heaven Records guys? Any anecdotes to share?

JULIE: Although Confetti did the single & flexi for Sunday we didn’t really come into contact with that many of the other Sunday bands, probably with Albert being in the States. I knew Po! From living in Leicester but the band we played most with apart from the Fat Tulips obviously were Heavenly. I spent a bit of time in Nottingham arounf then, although Leicester did have some good venues. I hadn’t seen any of the Heaven guys for years but we bumped into Paul Huckerby at our first Indietracks and I’ve recently got back in touch with Matt via Facebook. I believe Sheggi’s in Canada and I think Mark is still in Nottingham. No real anecdotes as such, just happy memories of riding in Matt’s Dad’s van singing 80s pop songs.

S. I love the sparse arrangements of your songs and the beauty and fragility. What are your main influences? Who inspires you? How would you describe your music?

PAUL: We both like a lot of early 80’s stuff such as The Marine Girls, Young Marble Giants, Postcard Records as well as more contemporary artists like Camera Obscura, The Middle Ones and Rose Melberg who we were thrilled to meet at Indietracks

JULIE: Lyrically I’m inspired by things I see or happen to me every day. Our songs are very unpretentious.

S. Is it hard to find time to write songs and record? What inspired you to start playing again? Do you have day jobs? What do you like to do away from the world of indiepop?

PAUL: Yes. Especially as we live 30 odd miles apart. There was no big inspiration behind starting The Sunbathers. I made a rough recording of some ideas I had and gave it to Julie one day. She wrote some lyrics and it kind of snowballed from there.

JULIE: Paul works in the murky world of printing and I’m doing a PhD in regional TV (I kid you not). Away from Indiepop – sleep mainly and Paul is busy renovating his kitchen.

S. A question I like to ask people who were involved in the scene years ago is, how do you think the indiepop scene is different now? Who are your favourite bands at the moment? What are your future plans for the band?

The internet has changed things a great deal. Before then it was the printed fanzine – now it’s instantaneous with Twitter and the like. In one way it’s great because we can reach out to fans across the world. But with all the bands and music out there using the internet it’s sometimes harder to get noticed. We are starting to get known in the Indiepop world. It’s a great scene to be involved as everyone is so nice and enthusiastic There are so many great bands it’s hard to single out favourites but perhaps a mention for the Hobbes Fanclub Future plans are hopefully to have some more records released and play some more gigs. We’d quite like to play abroad somewhere.

Thank you Paul and Julie for a great interview.

The Sunbathers - Northfield Lane