It's been five years since their last release but Practical Lovers have released a stunning EP through the Nottingham label 'I'm Not From London' and the guys kindly gave me an interview.....
Lockdown has been an ideal time for playing Practical Lovers music, dark and emotional, perfect for isolation and solitude. I featured their latest release Post Mortem EP, on a weekly radio slot where I introduce new material, the reaction was positive and the studio asked that it was played again the following week. Jack Wiles and Mark Connell kindly took time out to talk about where they've been and where they now are now.
Thanks for the interview guys, can you tell us about your musical backgrounds, how you first got together and describe your sound?
Jack: Mark and I have been involved in several musical projects together. Before Practical Lovers we played as part of a twee indie folk band and then a pretty heavy stoner rock outfit. This was our third generation musical endeavour and it seemed to really gel.
Mark: Jack had all these electro tracks he’d put together as a solo project, a concept record about love and heartache in the modern world. We were cripplingly hung over on a train journey to a mate’s wedding and he played me some - I was instantly taken by them and asked what his plans were. He wanted to perform some of the material but was struggling to handle vocals, bass, backing tracks etc on his own, and asked if I’d play bass at some open mics, see what happened. We pretty quickly decided to just go ahead and be a band.
Who are your biggest influences and what are your most treasured records in your personal collection?
Mark: I haven’t owned any records in ages! I’m all Spotify now. I used to have a colour vinyl of Lullabies To Paralyze by Queens of the Stone Age that was apparently pretty rare. No idea where it is now though. Influences are pretty wide ranging if that’s not a boring answer. I’ve always listened to a lot of hip hop, stoner rock, punk and that whole early 2000s emo scene. Last album I got really excited about was the last two clipping. records - both incredible.
Jack: I’m in a similar position to Mark actually. I’ve got a few white label drum and bass records kicking around somewhere. I still do a bit of DJing but it’s all digital now. Influence wise I took a lot of inspiration for Practical Lovers from 90s skate punk which I still really enjoy. I see a lot of the tracks, especially the earlier stuff as punk songs with a veneer of retro synth production. I’ve also been really really enjoying clipping. this year - the sound design, concepts and lyricism are mind blowing.
How has the lockdown affected your creativity, and did it present any difficulties in getting the new Post Mortem EP out?
Jack: Lockdown was an interesting time to say the least. It was one of those situations where suddenly you’ve got all this time but actually the creative energy was quite elusive I found. I guess even though we were just sitting at home there was a lot going on under the surface. I found myself digging through some of our old demos and found these 3 tracks that didn’t quite fit on the album. Turns out they go quite nicely together so we re-recorded a couple of parts and gave them a polish. I’m a sound engineer by trade and have a pretty decent home studio which was a big help.
Mark: Probably the biggest lockdown related challenge actually went to Dave Lankester, who did our video. Dave’s done all our videos to date so it would have felt wrong to go anywhere else, but it felt like a bit of a tall order saying “ok Dave, we basically don’t have a budget for this, we can’t be in it for obvious reasons and you can’t leave the house. What can you come up with?” Needless to say he smashed it - he came up with the concept, shot, edited and starred in it with just a little help from his housemates pouring paint over him. We’re really chuffed with how it came out.
I understand the Post Mortem EP is the first release by Practical Lovers for 5 years. Can you tell why it has taken so long and the idea or theme behind the project?
Mark: To be honest, the band was kind of wrapped up and done with the release of the LP back in 2015 - the songs are lyrically pretty autobiographical for Jack, and I think everything he wanted to get out there is on that record. After that, with us living in different cities and getting on with careers etc, it seemed a natural place to retire it as a project, but with Jack unearthing these three tracks and breathing a bit of new life into them, it’s nice to revisit it.
The new EP is again through the Nottingham label 'I'm Not From London'. This is obviously a much-loved label for Nottingham folks, why was it important to maintain that relationship with this release?
Jack: Will and I’m Not From London were such a great home for us and they really supported us when we were active all that time ago. It would have felt wrong to go anywhere else, and with their ‘15 years of blood, sweat and beers’ celebration going on everything fell together really nicely.
Mark: Agreed, we’re close with Will and everyone involved there, and I don’t think we’d ever have considered looking anywhere else. INFL means so much to so many involved in music in Nottingham for the last fifteen years, and it’s great to be working with them again.
What's next for you?
Mark: It’s funny, even after all this time people still occasionally ask if we’re going to get back together as a band, and with this retrospective EP I guess that’s only going to continue. Although we’d never say never, I think it’s probably fairly unlikely. Practical Lovers is such a personal project and we’re both quite different people to what we were back when the project was conceived.
Jack: We do still talk about working together though. I’m planning to open a recording studio in Bristol and we were considering having a crack at some sort of remote project. It would be interesting to see how it worked being in two different cities.
Where can folks get to listen to your music?
Jack: We’re on Spotify, Bandcamp, iTunes, all the usual places.
Mark: Also videos on YouTube - the single from the EP as well as four from the album, and a recent cheeky upload of a cover we used to close a lot of sets with - still one of my favourite things we’ve done.
Various links below folks and Keep On Keeping On........
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