Tangerines have become one of the most addictive bands to listen to of recent times, their single ‘You Look Like Something I Killed’ became quite the unforgettable ear worm. This brand new talent named after everybody’s favourite easy peelers were in town for The Great Escape playing not one but seven shows scattered around the city. They gave me an interesting insight into how the Big Smoke works for bands breaking through the roots of the city, how that city helps and also how it hinders young creatives. Ultimately though, it was a nice insight into this band’s mentality that is rooted there: how to survive in London is easier when surviving as a pack rather than sole individuals. Tangerines came across as a gang of four, Gareth, Isaac, Miles and Ricky – they have a purpose and drive to be a saving grace of contemporary rock’n’roll music. Here was my sit down with four very interesting individuals:

So, you guys seemed to play a pretty full show at The Haunt last night for Q Magazine, how was that?
Miles: Well, we came in through the main entrance and then about 15 minutes after it was crazy, there were people queuing outside. It was cool that they made it on time because we were the first act on the bill and we weren’t, you know, expecting that many people.

Isaac: I must have left the room straight after and there was nobody there, it was still empty and I thought we may have had about 20 people, something like that?

How has your Great Escape been so far?
Isaac: Well, we haven’t seen many acts yet, man. We were going to try and catch some but yesterday was just non-stop.

Miles: So, this is our day. We did this session at The Joker with the Red Bull thing, and then we go on to The Haunt and we did the soundcheck there and then we play. Then we go and play there and then drop the stuff off back at the house afterwards. After that, we got a call asking about playing at Brighton Electric so we go on to that gig and by the time we played that, it’s y’know, 1am, 2am sort of time, we were just shattered.

Isaac: It’s nice, it’s got a good vibe down at Brighton Electric.

Busy so far then. What are your plans for the rest of Friday? Have you got anything going on?
Isaac: Well, I really want to try and check some bands out. We’ve got a gig going on at seven today so I want to do something in the day. Tomorrow, we have a show in the evening at Brighton Youth Centre with Acid Box which we are looking forward to.

Gareth: Yes, we have a show at Charles Street Bar with an American band called Wray. Then tomorrow we have a show at East Street Tap too and then the one at Acid Box. Yesterday we did a show at the Red Bull thing at The Joker, just sweating away in the blazing heat for two hours, buzzing on Red Bull.

Miles: Well, I really want to go to the Spotify thing today.

Ah, okay, what’s the Spotify thing?

Miles: It’s just a lot of free stuff. Free beer, free food. Free massages!

How did Tangerines initially come about as a band then?
Isaac: Well, me and Gareth are very, very old friends. We know each other from school. So, we started jamming and it started just as us two at first. He’d written a load of tunes and we just would play in his shed, or his garden or whatever. Then we got Ricky when we needed a bass player, we met him in Stoke Newington and we had a few rehearsals, we met him through Pete (manager). That’s when Gareth met Miles in Brixton after a party.

Ricky: Didn’t you meet at like half 4 in the morning?

Miles: Yeah, we were coming from different parties and we just bumped into one another. It was so random, we were the only people in the street so we just had a chat, like you do I guess.

Interesting, because I read all you guys are quite scattered around London?
Isaac: Very scattered. I’m very East, whereas these guys are very South but we have a studio where we do our rehearsing in Peckham and that’s basically where we hang out.

Ricky: London’s a very hard place to go. It tends to spread people out very sporadically. I mean we would be living near each other if, er…

Isaac: If Ricky didn’t smell so much… [Laughter]

How do you find London on the whole, do you enjoy it?
Isaac: No.

All: [Laughter]

Ricky: It’s the worst city to live in at the moment. It’s more expensive than Hong Kong, than New York. It’s just quite difficult to have fun and do what you want to do. That’s my only problem with it.

Isaac: I don’t know about that. I think it’s easy to have fun, it’s expensive, but easy because there is so much going on.

Miles: I think, when you get your rent sorted. There is a lot you can see and do for free, or do for very cheap. Just, if you know the tricks, you’re never going to need to pay for a show. You can scrounge a good meal. Still, I think it is changing and the last mayor was a fucking asshole. London’s changed a lot in the last eight years since I have been there.

Are you all from London initially?
Gareth: No, he (Miles) is from Sicily, I’m from Essex and he (Ricky) is from Canvey Island.

Do you play in Brighton often?
Isaac: We’ve played down here three times now I believe? We played down here at the Green Door Store in March and we also did a Halloween show one time which was really fun. I worked in the day and then we came down to Brighton straight from work. It was interesting pottering around London and everyone is dressed in normal clothes and then you came down to Brighton and everyone was just dressed up ready for the night. Yeah, that was a funny gig. I had this huge mask on which was made of paper and card.

How do you find London differs to Brighton then in terms of what it offers you guys?
Gareth: Just a bit more breathing space I guess.

Miles: I guess Brighton’s very busy right now though with the festival and stuff going on.

Ricky: Yeah, when we played down here for Halloween, it was fucking mental. I guess we never really get an honest picture of how Brighton is everyday.

Gareth: I really like Brighton. I’d always live in Brighton or London I think.

Isaac: Whenever I come to Brighton, it’s always the intention to have fun so whenever I come down, I always get the sense that there is a holiday atmosphere down here. Something lighter going on. It’s slightly more laid back. London sometimes feels like, when you’re out, it’s a competitive thing where everybody is competing against one another to see who can have the best night out. It’s a weird vibe I seem to pick up on when out some places. It’s like there’s pressure to see who’s having the best fun.

Do you find London nurtures Tangerines or is it a hindrance?
Ricky: I guess it’s really helping us at the moment. Everybody has been quite good with us, we get a lot of support there right now.

Gareth: Half and half I guess. We have all been in bands before I guess so we know not to dick about too much and waste too much time. We got straight into it from the start. We didn’t have to try too hard and stuff.

Miles: London is hard too though. You have a limited time there and you only have so much energy. After three years you’ll probably die because after that time you’ll be so stressed that you’ll probably just go.

Have you each spent time individually away from London then?
Miles: I had a few months at home in Sicily but whilst I was away from London, I was kind of terrified to go back.

Isaac: I went to Bath for uni actually, I needed to get away from a big city and Bath was just pretty and yeah, it was nice. After three years though, you know that you are just going to walk across town and everyone you see, you will know because it takes about half an hour to walk across it. You would come back to London for Christmas and whatever, you would go to Waterloo Bridge and look over the Thames and just see everything, you miss it. It’s nice to see it all, you know. It was refreshing to have a time away.

Gareth: It’s hard actually to get time away from London. Even with things like this, we all need to book time off work or whatever.

Do you tour regularly with dates up North then?
Isaac: Yes, September we will tour I am told. We have Tramlines in Sheffield this July too.

Gareth: We are doing Liverpool Psych Fest in September, that’s the beginning of the tour we are doing. Then we have dates in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham. We’ve never been to Manchester before actually. We’ve only ever really done Sheffield up North. We were meant to play at The Adelphi Club in Hull actually!

What other acts are you looking forward to at The Great Escape then?
Gareth: Yes, we really want to see a few, we just don’t have a schedule! There’s a band called Peluché playing at BLEACH who we want to catch.

Miles: There are loads of good acts that I want to catch who are from New Zealand. Anthonie Tonnon being one and then there’s a girl called Aldous Harding.

What would you guys cite as your influences?
Miles: From my side, a guy called Robert Quine who is the guitarist with Richard Hell, Television, Lou Reed and that sort of thing.

Gareth: Talking Heads, The Clean, The Stones, The Bee Gees, T-Rex, I guess.

Ricky: I’ve been getting into a lot soul and disco. Stax Records stuff.

What are your plans for the future then, asides from touring, more release-wise?
Ricky: Well, our debut album is recorded, it’s just getting mixed right now.

Gareth: There are plans for that to come out this autumn. We’ve actually started writing a second album even though the first one is not even mixed yet. We are just trying to write, record and go with it like that. We don’t have so much of a plan as such.

Isaac: We are actually staying at the guy’s house who was in Chumbawumba, when we have that many Chumbawumba posters, we know we have made it. It’s a lovely middle class house, just randomly plastered in Chumbawumba posters.

As I left the boys from Tangerines on such a high note, discussing their future in relation to Chumbawumba, it was intriguing to see how they are poised in such a fascinating position within music. The hype and general reception they received over the weekend was incredible, now we look forward to their future and where it is all going to go.
Tom Churchill

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