Noisettes' drummer Jamie Morrison chats to Linda McGee about being part of the band and gaining popularity...
For some reason, you always expect the drummer in any band to be a little bit of a rebel, a bit too cool for school and maybe not much of a talker when it comes to interviews. But Noisettes' drummer Jamie Morrison doesn't seem to tick these boxes. He rocks up the interview (which is mid-rehearsal) in his pyjama bottoms and Ugg slippers, compliments my shoes and then insists that he's in no rush and could talk all day when he's asked to head back to rehearsals.
Here are some of his thoughts...
On starting out in the group:
Well I think I have to start before I was involved. Dan and Shingai, they were in a band together for a few years, just doing things – mainly covers stuff – just trying to earn a living, just playing, being out there and playing. They dabbled in their own songs. I remember getting a call to go to a rehearsal room... they wanted to go and record some songs and so I'd just done Jools Holland with this artist, who's quite well known, and REM were on, and the guy who produced the first little thing for us 'Don't Give Up'... he called me up and said: "Do you want to come down?" so I went down to this rehearsals studio and I heard the song and I thought: 'Wow, they're remarkable, really interesting songs.' Shingai is obviously very talented but it wasn't very apparent as to what was happening and then we went and recorded and you know, recording studios can be quite stale... sometimes you've got to be a band for a bit longer.
We still made great work but a day later, after leaving the studio, only a day, they said: "Oh, we've got this little show. Do you want to come do it?" and I was like: "Sure". And we went and played the Mother Bar, which is this cool East London hip thing. And I remember the stage was in the middle of the room and we went on at about midnight and it was packed and I just thought: 'This is incredible already'. And we played and everyone was around us - there was no barrier or anything. And all the amps blew up and they carried on playing and they were just singing their part.
On the live experience:
The studio didn't really reveal what the live thing was. I don't think it ever did or ever has really revealed it. Our live thing has become world famous. You can be giving 110% but it doesn't always have to be energetic. There's subtlety, which we learned later on… it can still be intense but it can be subtle. You've still got to hold the audience. It can be mellow but it can't be washy. You've still got to have the audience in the palm of your hands. But it took us a long time to learn that sort of thing.
On getting to where they are now:
It was a very natural progression... it wasn't like all of us were like: "Let's work every day". It was more like we just kept getting offered gigs and then we got offered a tour with Babyshambles and then we got offered a record deal... and all of sudden now we do it every day. Sometimes it's like we know what we're doing but sometimes we don't know where we're at but that's great because we're all musicians so whatever headspace any of us are in it can inspire something else. If Shingai sings it slightly differently because maybe she's sad, or maybe she's super-happy, you know, as a drummer or a guitarist you change your style... all of a sudden the audience are involved, because it's something different, and that's great. But then, on the other hand, when everything's firing on all cylinders it feels great as well. We just like playing music.
On feeding off the crowd at gigs:
I do now because before that never used to happen. For years, people would just be standing there so I've worked out a way to do what I need to do without the crowd. Shingai feeds off the audience. Now the audience are great. Now I feel like I can look up and get something from them.
On being accepted and the struggles to be successful:
It's not just musicians, it's art. It's hard for everyone. It's the same if people start championing a magazine, saying: 'That's a great magazine' and all of a sudden you're popular. It's the same for everything. All of the sudden you're a famous artist because Mick Jagger just bought your painting. I'm just happy that it's growing. If it wasn't growing I wouldn't be happy...
