So, go on then, how would you describe your music? It’s a very mixed bag.
It’s quite difficult, people always ask me that question and I don’t know. International psychedelia? There’s so many different genres. We are all music nerds. We love listening to music from everywhere and genres of all different sorts and so the influence coming into our records is wide.
What’s your personal influence?
There are quite a lot! It goes from East European jazz to Japanese bands like The Boredoms to Arabic Middle Eastern disco and funk. We all listen to similar things but it’s all so widely different that it adds to the flavouring of the music we are making; exploring multiple genres in one song. It makes it quite fun.
What is different about the sound of this album compared to when you started working together?
Yeah, the sound is… it’s quite an intense and euphoric record. We were on a tour for about two years and there was an aspect of the live show that wasn’t really in our record before. So on this record we really tried to capture that big live energy and intensity while recording. I think that’s a big difference. Recording and writing is so difficult – I lost my mind during the process! With live it’s the pay-off for all of that stress and hard work. We are performing it and people are enjoying it! That kind of interaction, finally getting to share everything you’ve worked for with them (the audience); that’s the pay-off for the hard work! It’s a nice relief, I think.
How does the Middle Eastern background come into your music?
We tried to capture that a lot more on this record than we have in the past. Particularly on the tracks ‘Koray’ and ‘Nizwa’. Because I’m half-Bahranian and half-Turkish, [on ‘Koray’] we were really trying to capture that Turkish psychedelia vibe, the song is actually named after Erkhan Koray who is a great Turkish musician, and with ‘Nizwa’ we were experimenting with strings quite a lot because we have figured out that we could bow one of our instruments with a string and it sounded really good, so we were working with Arabic scales, and making a kind of disco, electronic Middle Eastern number.
Have you got a favourite from your new record?
One of my favourite ones is ‘Moonshine on Water’. It’s not a single. It was meant to be an interlude which then turned into a lot more. I added a vocal verse really late in the game, a month before it wrapped up and I said, “Wait, I have a verse I can throw in there!” and that one verse kind of summed up everything I was trying to say on the album… in a nice, small package.
Have you been to Sheffield before?
Yeah, we did the Picture House Social before. I like that venue! They have that little video game area, right?
And table tennis!
Yeah! Well this is a really weird thing because I’m not a very good sportsman. I don’t watch any. One of the things, though, is that I’m just really good at table tennis. It’s the only skill in sports that I have. And I don’t know how it happened. I have an undefeated streak at the moment in ping pong. I should hustle everyone and tell them I don’t know how to play and then smash them…
Have you heard of Henderson’s Relish?
Henderson’s Relish… no. I do love a Relish, though! I work at a deli and I love all that stuff. I’m a bit of a condiment lover. I make my own hot sauces and stuff so it sounds right up my street, I’ll have to try it out. They might see me do that and say, “I respect this guy! He knows what he’s doing.”
Why else should we come and see you at the Picture House Social?
It’s a communal psychedelic get-together! That’s the best I can do.
You can bring the psychedelia, and we have the table tennis.
And the Henderson’s! I can’t wait.
Flamingods play Picture House Social on 15 May. Tickets and more info available from picture-house-social.com
