CityLife

Coves & Caves: Proud to declare they are pure pop

Indie Kids playing pop Coves & Caves

You would never guess it from their bookish, softly-spoken manner, but Manchester’s Coves & Caves are a band with a clear destructive agenda in mind.

The subject of their ire? Prepare for musical bloodshed as the Manchester band begin their mission to eradicate the current pop world’s incessant use of, erm, prefixes.

“Everything is ‘something’ pop these days,” begins Billy Payne, the band’s guitarist, over drinks in a Northern Quarter bar.

“It’s all lo-fi pop or experimental-shoegaze-pop or some other variant.

“It’s like guitar bands feel the need to qualify making pop music by giving it this alternative slant.

“Maybe that’s because pop is still seen as a dirty word. We don’t mind it though – we’ll happily be dubbed pure pop.”

Coves & Caves, as you may have gathered, have spent a long time dissecting pop music’s modern lexicon.

Studious pop professors not shy of an opinion or three, the Manchester outfit pay short shrift to bands who overcomplicate their pop mechanics (Everything Everything are singled out as big culprits), while the pure pop of a Britney Spears track is joyously hailed as “brilliant – what pop music should be”.

All this pop theory is good hearty fun, but it’s clearly Coves & Caves’ field work that really demonstrates their commitment to the pure pop cause.

The Manchester five-piece has spent the best part of 2011 colonising the hearts of Manc audiences and discerning blog trawlers in equal measure with their (pardon the prefixes) synth-laden, symphonic swoon-pop.

Equal parts New Order and Metronomy with a smattering of Flaming Lips woozy invention, the Manc outfit don’t so much grab you with pop hooks as forcefully submerge the listener in multiple choruses signposted in bright neon pop lights.              

“Writing pure pop music is one of the hardest things you can do,” argues the band’s singer, keyboardist and principal songwriter James Eary, “because it’s all about not over-thinking things.

“As a songwriter, you can write the most simple, direct melody, but there’s always a tendency to overcomplicate things and be self-indulgent.

“It’s a fine line, though; writing a direct, universal pop song and potentially straying into something a bit naff. Hopefully, we’ve got that balance.”

“I was reading this interview with Paul Simon the other day,” adds Payne, “and he was saying how good songwriters only have a limited number of perfectly crafted pop songs in them.
And after a while, they run out of those songs and they start over-intellectualising the songwriting process. That’s something we’re very conscious of.”

In fairness, Coves & Caves surely got that over-intellectualising part out of their systems a long time ago.

“Formed just over a year ago, the Manchester five-piece – Eary and Payne, joined by drummer Stephen Puntis, bassist Andrew Haines and guitarist Gavin Stretch – have their roots in more leftfield bands on the Manchester gigging scene.

The group’s creative nucleus – Eary and Stretch, life-long friends who grew up together in New Mills – performed for a number of years in the Manc
experimental outfit My Side Of The Mountain.

Dissolving in 2008, that band, by their own admission, was “a bit indulgent,” says Eary. “We would sort of jam for hours and hours and basically try to find a song from within that.

“It was hard work and it definitely wasn’t pop music.”

An unlikely pop mentor for the pair came in the form of Manchester’s Marc Rigelsford, aka acclaimed folktronica songwriter Magic Arm.

In 2008, the Manc songwriter was in need of a backing band for a number of high-profile gigs, including an appearance at Glastonbury on the prestigious BBC Introducing Stage.

Eary and Stretch, both at the time in creative limbo and without a band, jumped at the opportunity.

“Working with Magic Arm was a big turning point,” Stretch enthuses.

“In terms of songwriting, he definitely influenced us. He writes this perfectly crafted pop; it’s got great melodies and is really accessible, but it’s got this very experimental side too.
Playing Glastonbury was a big highlight for us – I think we even got a 30 second appearance on BBC2!”   

Parting company from Magic Arm in 2009 (“All very amicable,” they add), Eary and Stretch made tentative steps on their next musical project. Following the recruitment of members Payne, Haines and Puntis via online adverts, and the arduous process of choosing a band name (“Coves & Coves is actually the name of this old TV documentary about, you guessed it, coves and caves,” Stretch smiles), Coves & Caves officially took flight when a newly pop-focussed Eary tasked himself with writing songs that were, as he describes, “just more direct and energetic. I wanted something more accessible and that would connect instantly with audiences. I was very consciously writing pop music.” 

It might be early days (the band have played only half a dozen shows), but Coves & Caves’ full-blooded pop songs are clearly making that instant connection Eary so clearly
desires.

With Manc music’s current lo-fi pop revolution in full swing, and all manner of new bands submerging their melodies in swathes of feedback and distortion in the name of Pitchfork brownie points, Coves & Caves much prefer to embolden their pop hooks; a band whose melodic concision already sounds like it could fill stadiums and, hopefully before this summer’s out, maybe exult huge festival crowds.   

Nevertheless, writing glorious pop music and embodying that pop music are two very separate things entirely.

Following a recent live performance at Manchester’s Night and Day Cafe, one online critic praised the band’s obvious songwriting chops, but was rather more dubious about their sense of pop showmanship. 

“One reviewer said we were too serious on stage!” laughs Stretch.

“But we’re still fairly new and finding our way as a live band.

“I think the main problem is that we’re just a bunch of shy indie kids who love to play pop music. But those pop performers will hopefully emerge over time.”

Coves & Caves play Deaf Institute on Wednesday 17 August 2011.
For more info visit – covesandcaves.co.uk.