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Pictures from some recent gigs we've hosted:

29 March 2013 - Brixton, London

Viv Albertine, VuVuVultures, Left Leg, Mickey Gloss, Big Wave, No Cars, Arthur Gunn, Simon Love (Pictures)

8 March 2013 - Lexington, London

R.Ring, Golden Grrrls, Slushy Guts and Equinox (Pictures)

On Our iPod

Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold (album)

Antony Harding - Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear (album)

Black Angels - Indigo Meadow (album)

Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin (album)

Still Corners - Strange Pleasures (album)

Savages - Silence Yourself (album)

Mikal Cronin - MC II (album)

Can’s Ege Bamyasi played by Stephen Malkmus and Friends(album)

Victoria and Jacob - Festival 7"

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City (album)

Sauna Youth - False Jesii Part II 7”

Lightning Bolt - Oblivion Hunter

Robyn Hitchcock - There Goes The Ice (2x 12")

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Interview

Maps

Article written by Ged M - May 16, 2007

Maps, in recorded form, is a one man band - James Chapman from Northamptonshire - though live he�s joined by Ben, Phil, Matt and Andy. His music is clearly influenced by the sound sculptors of the shoegazing movement but he�s just as interested in pure pop music; his Myspace page lists 57 influences, including My Bloody Valentine, the Postal Service, Animal Collective, the Beach Boys, Nick Drake and Shostakovich so the music of Maps doesn�t fit into any neat electronica box. Maps self-released three singles before being signed by Mute, on which label the new album �We Can Create� and single �It Will Find You� have just been released. We spoke to James Chapman before his prestigious ICA gig in April 2007.

SXP: Your EPs attracted much attention, you�ve signed to Mute, and the Guardian and other press are tipping you. You�re really making a name for yourself!

James: Yeah, it�s been really pretty awesome to read some of the stuff that�s been written. I never really thought it would happen because I�ve been making music for so long. When I started, I did it because I enjoyed doing it, I never thought anything would come if it. It�s a pretty surreal position to be in, but it�s a good one!

SXP: Were you in bands before or have you always made music on your own?

James: I was in a band when I was about 17 or 18 with some friends from around Northampton. We didn�t really do much, we just played locally, but I wrote the songs for that band and when we split up I carried on writing by myself. I kind of got into it that way.

SXP: Do you still live in Northampton?

James: I actually live in a little village between Wellingborough and Northampton called Earls Barton � I�ve lived there all my life. It�s a great place to work really because it�s so quiet. It�s quite different to being in London I guess.

SXP: Are there many outlets for music in Northampton?

James: We�ve got the Soundhaus, the Roadmender, a few other little venues and various pubs that put on an indie night. The Soundhaus and the Roadmender are the two main ones � we played the Soundhaus a couple of times, which was cool because it got all our friends down for the first time. It was a good experience!

SXP: And now you�re playing the ICA.

James: Yeah, it�s pretty mental!

SXP: I�m a bit suspicious of electronica, partly because I don�t like the trancey elements and it can be very self-indulgent. But while you might be using electronic instruments, there�s a really strong pop sensibility and irresistible melodies on your album.

James: It�s nice that you said the melodies are good because what I spend most time on is getting a strong melody - it�s really important. I start with the chords and try and get the best tune possible. It�s a pretty basic thing to say but I do spend ages trying to get that right. And then I think about the sounds I�m going to use and how I�m going to use beats and things.

SXP: Your influences [listed on the Maps Myspace page] go from post rock to 60s psychedelia and stuff like the Postal Service who have a strong sense of melody. And then there�s Shellac!

James: *laughing* Yeah, I just listen to loads of different kinds of stuff. It looks funny just reading that back. But I just listen to such a varied lot of different music. I just put everything down there that I could think of!

SXP: And stuff that you might not associate with Maps like Elliott Smith and Nick Drake.

James: They were both amazing songwriters. The whole album is really song-based, it just uses electronic elements. They are basically pop songs but I try to make it as interesting as possible and try and experiment a bit more to make people think: �I haven�t heard that sound before�.

SXP: Is it true that you recorded your album in your bedroom?

James: I recorded most of it, yeah. I actually went to Iceland for a bit and worked with Valgeir Sigurdsson. Some of the stuff was started from what I�d done. We added certain elements like strings and brass, maybe played with the beats and changed instruments. But there�s some stuff on the album that hasn�t changed much at all since my bedroom and there�s one track in particular, called �Glory Verse�, which we started from scratch; I just has the melody and chords. Hopefully it all turned out well.

SXP: Did you work in your bedroom out of necessity or choice?

James: It�s just the best way that I find to work. When I was in bands, you�d try writing with other people and I just found it wasn�t as productive, it wasn�t the best way I got results. It sounds quite sad but I just like being shut away on my own and just spending hours working through the night!

SXP: Will you be writing more in the studio now or go back home for the next record?

James: I�m already thinking about the next album. The way I work best is to start on my own and just experiment: maybe just go away somewhere to a wooden shack in the country or something! I�ve got ideas so I can�t wait to start working on the new album, which is kind of strange as this one isn�t even out yet! The next album might involve more live instruments but we�ll have to see how the songwriting progresses.

SXP: I�m looking forward to seeing how you perform the songs live. I went to a festival once and saw an electronica artist and at one stage I swear he left the stage for a piss with his laptop playing, and then wandered back for the end of the song to press a button to start the next one!

James: I saw a guy once and I thought he was checking his emails as he was playing! Sometimes there�s a fine line with laptop sets. I�m not slagging them off but when I started the live thing I always wanted to have a band. I think it�s more interesting for us playing and for the audience to see something different from the record. Even if they don�t like it, at least they�ll see a different side to Maps I guess! We still use a laptop with sounds we can�t recreate live but we play over it with a lot of live instruments: we�ve got two keyboards, guitar, bass and live drums so it�s a quite different sound.

SXP: You�ve got some really good but quite subtle samples on the album. �So Low So High� has a sample of �Theme From A Teenage Opera�, and on �To The Sky� there�s a sample of Sweeney�s Men, a fairly obscure Irish folk band.

James: The sample is from a track called �Willy O�Winsbury� which is on a compilation I�ve got called Folk Troubadours. It�s the very first part of the song; it�s like a basic riff and it develops into more of a folky medieval love song I guess. But I just nicked the first part and it came together around that!

SXP: When you hear music, are you always actively listening for a part to sample? Or do you just stumble across things?

James: I never really thought about it before. But if I hear something in a club that I like, I often ask the DJ what it is and then perhaps take it home and listen to it. Some things do poke up at me and I think: �I�ll use that� but there�s other stuff that I have to spend a long time searching for. That�s the hard part of sampling, where you�re digging through records trying to find something fresh that no-one�s used before. But you can reverse it or muck around with it or something!

SXP: I understand that you were really inspired by shoegazing.

James: Yeah! Probably not the first time round but definitely now. Loveless is probably one of my favourite albums ever. There�s a lot of amazing stuff that was around at that time. Bands making amazing music that is timeless. Even stuff like Ride; I love Ride. Their album Going Blank Again is a great record, I�m not ashamed to say it!

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/mapsmusic