Interview: Olympians

NorwichÔÇÖs Olympians popped in to the Quench base to catch up with Charlie Mock ahead of their S┼Án Festival set. Warning: contains puns.┬á

 

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First of all welcome to Cardiff! You’ve got a lot of live dates at the moment- how are they going for you?

Dan: Totally mixed. WeÔÇÖve had some totally good ones. But, we played in Norwich with Focus and all the people there were fat, old beer soaked men looking at us like we were absolute hell because they were only there to accept people who played flute and jigged and yodeled. Whenever we play in Cardiff itÔÇÖs totally excellent to be honest, so we should be completely fine. Kingston was good last night!

Is being on the road something you look forward to during the writing process?

Dan: No, no, no. We like playing gigs; we like seeing people but the mechanics of it are totally horrible. It involves us stuffed in a hatchback smoking loads of fags.

Chris: We have a car big enough for a mum, some football gear and two kids.

Parkin: I actually had to have my arm around you the other day.

Dan: I only volunteer to drive so they donÔÇÖt touch me.

Do you have to sleep in there too!?

Dan: No, thankfully not. Usually, we just drive all the way home and get back at five in the morning.

Parkin: I tried to sleep today but they woke me up to tell me we were on a bridge.

Dan: It was the Severn bridge, we were excited! WeÔÇÖve only been over it maybe four times, so itÔÇÖs great.

Tell us some more about your twitter presence, in particular #pubrockcoversbands.

Chris: We do lots of stupid twitter games, like curry cars. You take a brand of car and assign it a type of curry as the model.

Dan: Renault madras.

Chris: Vauxhall korma.

Dan: Fiat pasanda.

Chris: You get the idea.

Any more puns coming up in the next few days?

Chris: We have got a long car journey home so

Dan: All of our twitter presence is based on if weÔÇÖre all in a car and really bored. We sit there in silence and someone will suddenly say something and weÔÇÖll go ÔÇÿtweet itÔÇÖ. And thereÔÇÖs a voting system to whether itÔÇÖs up to our exacting standards. Ben just sits there constantly tweeting as we shout stupid things at him. ThatÔÇÖs his job.

Your EP ‘Adventure Gun’ was released earlier this month and has been described as ÔÇ£synth-based harmony porn OdysseyÔÇØ. How would you describe the record?┬á

Dan: Some good old lads playing some standard songs.

Chris: Good time bamboozlers.

Dan: Synth nonsense? I donÔÇÖt know, a totally okay music band. Trying at least.

You’re playing the stage at Fuel this year, which is curated by your label Barely Regal records. What are you most looking forward to about the festival?┬á

Dan: Tonight, apparently there is a night called ÔÇÿUltimate PowerÔÇÖ, which is going to play only power ballads and IÔÇÖm beyond stoked about this. IÔÇÖm looking forward to doing some fist punching.

Chris: Fist punching?

Dan: I think fist pumping is what I meant. IÔÇÖm looking forward to dramatically acting out some big key changes. My favourite time at S┼Án was when they had the silent disco, where I refused any headphones and just wandered around laughing at people. Just watching people try and sing two awful songs over each other.

Olympians’ EP Adventure Gun is available for download now.┬á

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