CityLife

Slow rise to debut album

The Slow Readers Club

You often hear about bands going to quite extraordinary lengths in order to precipitate some new change in music direction. They might relocate to Berlin and immerse themselves in hedonistic excess for a few months (like every art-rock band ever); they might listen exhaustively to another genre of music in hope of inheriting some new found spirit of adventure (Radiohead and the entire Warp Records back catalogue springs to mind); or, perhaps, they might just employ the services of rockprofessor Brian Eno so he can do all the innovation searching for them (hello, erm, Coldplay).

In the case of new Manchester band The Slow Readers Club, however, any attempts to undergo a musical sea-change weren’t quite so extreme.

Just over a year ago, the Manchester indie four-piece – then attempting to draw a line between their previous band and their exciting new project – decided that just one small step was required to kick-start the musical revolution they all desired: that was to, quite simply, cheer up.

“Well, that was the original plan,” sighs Aaron Starkie, the singer/lyricist of The Slow Readers Club, a man whose permanently furrowed brow suggests he’s more of a glass half-empty sort of chap.

“When we first started this band, we thought it would be a good idea to write a few lighter songs; chuck in a few major chords in there. But it didn’t really work out in the end – we binned those songs ’cos it just wasn’t us.

“At the end of the day, some bands are meant to wallow in melancholy, and others are meant to write party music. We know where we belong.”

Indeed. Just like a leopard can’t change its spots, this group of Wythenshawe-based late 20-somethings were also never going to dramatically alter their downbeat musical DNA – as it turns out, though, that’s undeniably a good thing.

Formed from the ashes of late-noughties Manc rockers Omerta, the newly reconstructed Slow Readers Club – Aaron Starkie on vocals, his brother Kurtis onguitars, James Ryan on bass and Neil Turvin on drums – are a textbook lesson in following a musical urge through to its natural and beautiful conclusion.

Where Omerta’s brand of slow-burning melancholy received modest acclaim over a string of low-key, self-funded EPs, The Slow Readers Club appear much more of an expansive proposition; a band who take their inherent downbeatdispositions and darkside melodies and explore them intensively over the course of a full-length album.

That eponymous debut album, released this coming Monday, firmly vindicates the band’s decision to not radically overhaul their musical DNA.
Awash with Doves-ish sweeping melancholy with splashes of The Chameleons and Ian Brown’s solo work, the album’s 12 tracks evoke the palpable sense of a band being suffocated by their surroundings, the bittersweet soundtrack of young men waiting for life to start broadcasting in technicolour.

“As a songwriter, I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of how people are supposedly on this pre-ordained path in life,” Starkie muses. “Coming from Wythenshawe, we were always made aware of our expectation levels being really low from an early age.

“Aside from going on The X Factor or something like that, the very idea of attempting to carve out a music career is seen as a waste of time. People are pigeonholed and put in their place because of their social class – and that’s something that’s always stuck in my head as a songwriter.”

Starkie looks back with fondness on his early upbringing, he and his younger brother enjoying the perks of their father’s sideline as a local DJ.

He recalls: “Our dad had stacks of old vinyl ’cos he’d DJ around local pubs and clubs. The music we had on in the house was all the classics – Elvis, Beatles, Motown. That was like our musical education.”

More education arrived in the form of The Smiths and Joy Division during his teens (“Ian Curtis has always been the Manchester frontman who stood out for me. I’ve also got that deep vocal thing going on”.

Harnessing that Manc music lineage with his own socially astute lyricism, Starkie’s creative instincts found a home in Omerta.

Taking a short break to refocus, the band finally re-emerged last year with new member Kurtis on guitars (whose previous claim to Manc music fame was having a small cameo in the film 24 Hour Party People), plus a new moniker, one that nodded subtly to their Wythenshawe roots.

“The name Slow Readers Club is a reference to the reading groups at school,” explains Starkie, “where everyone is allocated a group depending on their ability.

“You have these expectations placed upon you and it’s like you’re tiered in life from that point on. But applies now too, in the music industry; bands and artists are pigeonholed straight away, and they struggle to break out of those shackles.”

The Slow Readers Club, after those initial stumbles and false starts, are thankfully having no trouble breaking free of such musical straightjackets.

Their stunning debut album, recorded in a converted barn in Surrey with celebrated producer Kipper Eldridge (Starkie: “It was solid work, like 14 hour days”), may not deviate too far from their epic melancholia template, but it’s what surrounds those sonic darklands that truly impresses: the juggernaut rhythms and experimental flourish of tracks such as One More Minute and Sirens suggesting a musical fearlessness that wasn’t there in Omerta.

So then, an effortless reinvention, an outstanding debut album and, no doubt, many plaudits and new admirers to soon come their way: finally, perhaps, The Slow Readers Club have a good reason to cheer up.

“It definitely feels like now is the right time to release an album,” Starkie enthuses. “We’ve been building a body of work over a few years, and this really feels like the culmination – it feels like a statement of intent.

“I just hope this album does well enough for us to make more albums; you never know, by album number three, we might dig out those happy-sounding songs we ditched.”

The Slow Readers Club play Moho Live tonight. Their self-titled debut album is released on Monday. For info visit theslowreadersclub.co.uk