Spokes

Spokes singer Owain has just lost his job. This evening, Sandman pops round to see him, Liam and Ruth at their Fallowfield home because they've "not enough money to go anywhere", having spent most of it on their last tour. But this doesn't prove a problem. The day has been a particularly hot one, and as the sun sets we sit in the garden backed by a trickling brook. Skint or otherwise, we could be miles from the neighbouring estates and city, and it's enough to take the three back to their musical and spiritual home in Durham.

"It's a nice place in the countryside," describes the contemplative Owain, lying back on the grass. "There's a church and a big house with a little Sunday school attached; there's nothing else for miles so you can go there and play into the night as loud as you want."

It was in this North-Eastern sanctuary that Spokes wrote their album of spectral stargazing music, People Like People Like You. Released on Manchester label Everyone, responses were universally positive with journalists and new fans alike spotting every post-rock influence they could muster. Nothing out of the ordinary so far you might think, so what's special or justifying about this band right now? Guitarist Liam furrows his brow.

"That's a really tricky question because I ask myself that all the time. Maybe some bands should just stop." He smiles. "But then that's just a fascist attitude. I suppose we've found a lot of people that relate to us. We put a lot of feeling into what we do – whereas so many bands don't – and I think people react to that."

He's not wrong. Too many supposedly alternative acts lead inevitably back to their Sigur Ros or Explosions In The Sky beginnings. Admittedly, this quintet do share the aforementioned's love for an unconstrained, ringing melody – but unelaborated on, such comparisons sound pretentious or "chinstrokery" as Liam puts it.

"One of the problems is that music venues are always a place to go out and drink. So that makes it difficult to sit down, be quiet and listen to music. And fair enough, when I go out I've the same attitude, but you often need to be attentive to the music to get it."

Isn't it possible to have it both ways?

"Well I think we do somehow," the guitarist laughs. "People tag us with things like post-rock but we're not like that at all."

"We've made grown men cry at our gigs and one person pass out," notes violinist Ruth. "That's what's been really difficult, getting that bigness on record that we have live."

Along with drummer Matt and bassist John-Michael, Spokes create an all-out sonic assault that combines the noise of Hope Of The States with the rousing optimism of The Arcade Fire. The impact of such an emotional whirlwind is no better exemplified than the time they visited the tiny town of Lampeter – one of the remotest places in Wales.

"It's barely a town of 1500 people," starts Owain, "but it's got a university so when the students are there there's about 3000 people. We instantly sold out the union there."

Ruth beams thinking back to it; "I felt amazing, everybody loved us. They want us back. When it comes to Lampeter we might as well be Kylie Minogue."

When they're not being the starlets of Mid-Wales however, Spokes are evidently an easy-going bunch. At home, Ruth likes reading and listening to Classic FM whilst Liam, working for a record shop, listens to the pile of music he acquires. Owain definitely doesn't do anything sad like play Championship Manager on his laptop. He likes cooking.

"We sound intense but I'm very unassuming and quiet normally," Liam confesses. "All the things that build up through the week... practices become group therapy." Spokes Anonymous? He laughs. "My name's Liam and I haven't played music for a week."

But if making music is such a passionately personal process for Spokes, then how does it make for a broader appeal?

"It's quite down-to-earth," he continues, "It's just communicating things that are common to everyone. We got a message from a guy who was really depressed because he's got this mind-numbing job at a biscuit factory. I think he has to cut the excess plastic from the packaging and he said that he listens to our album on his iPod, on repeat just to get him through the night."

So whilst tonight, two miles down the road at McVitie's, one known soul will work into the early-hours to the comfort of People Like People Like You, in the morning another two or three might listen on the bus to work. This is why Spokes aren't just the sum of textbook references. Quiet, intense, laidback, difficult but clearly loving, there's a humanity about them that even they find hard to articulate.

"It's hard to be insightful about music that just comes out when you write it," says Owain frustratedly. This is actually the first interview he's ever done with the band, but after a number of amusingly exaggerated, ineffable pauses he eventually finds the words from someone else;

"I watched Don't Look Back, the Bob Dylan documentary, last night and he said to this guy from Time Magazine 'bloody write whatever you want, it's just what I do'. I'm gonna totally nick that cos it just is." The singer smiles. "Sorry."

Interview by Fran Donnelly
Photography by Karen McBride

www.myspace.com/spokessound