2000trees Festival is just a couple of short days away and we'll be in tow by hosting the Main Stage, as we spoke about here. The Cheltenham, UK event has gone from strength to strength over recent years; winning a multitude of awards along the way and gaining a reputation as one of the most customer-friendly festivals going.
Friday night headliners Deaf Havana have, much like 2000trees, grown a lot of over recent times and are a UK band we should all be getting behind as they make that step-up to headline-worthy status. We emailed some questions over to frontman James Veck-Gilodi and he kindly returned some answers.
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Check out the full lineup on our 2000trees page here.
You've gone through some sound changes over the years, so 2000trees seems a perfect fit for you as it brings together a lot of different musical crowds into one place. What sort of lineups do you feel most comfortable on right now?
We have indeed! Always nice to change up the sound every now and then to add a wider genre spread to your back catalogue. I think the most comfortable line ups for me are the lighter ones, or ones with an even range of genres, so 200 trees is perfect for us. There is nothing worse than being put on a lineup where everyone else is a lot heavier than us - has happened many a time in the past!
Can you recommend one 'established' band and one 'emerging' band on the 2000trees lineup for people to check out?
The one established band that I absolutely implore people to watch, is Idlewild. We are all big fans and have actually taken a bit of influence from them in the past. The emerging band I would definitely encourage people to check out are Big Sixes. We are good friends with them and have taken them out on tour with us twice before - amazing band and very original.
There's a lot of debate in the industry at the moment about the role of record labels in an artist's career development and how these roles are evolving. How would you compare your experiences to working with both an indie and a major label?
Well I suppose the only major difference in our experience is the budget side of things, there are bigger budgets for recording etc which makes it easier to record records or videos in places that we really like to. We have never really experienced major labels trying to take away our creative control, so in that sense I suppose we are lucky.
What has been your most memorable festival experience as a band so far?
Playing the NME tent at Reading Festival in 2013! It was actually just amazing, in the first second of the first song my guitar stopped working properly but even taking that into consideration it was such an amazing gig. About 15,000 people were singing along to songs that we had written.
You're closing in on 100,000 listeners on Last.fm. Have you found your fanbase has totally changed as your sound has changed or do you still have a loyal following from the early Deaf Havana days?
The only main difference I have noticed is that we have a lot more older fans which is great! But we are also lucky enough to still have a lot of loyal fans that have followed us through the years and the various sound changes!
What can fans expect from your 4th album?
There is a bit more groove on this one, bit more to dance too. Definitely a bit darker and slightly heavier in places.
Will fans be treated to new songs at 2000trees?
Unfortunately only 1 or 2 new songs because seeing as we haven't played live in a long time we thought it would be nice to play a lot of older stuff!
Thanks, James!
Deaf Havana are currently writing their as-yet-untitled 4th album. Explore the band on Last.fm here.
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