Jealous Lovers Club & Juxtaposed MicroFestival Line-Up Special – Samoans

Jealous Lovers Club have teamed up with Juxtaposed Club Nights to provide what will be one of the best live events this year- in association with Circuit Sweet and Cardiff’s Quench Magazine.

On the May 4th Bank Holiday Sunday, Jealous Lovers Club & Gwdihw’s Thursday night regulars Juxtaposed are teaming up to bring a day of outstanding music to Cardiff. With 12 bands from all over the UK set over two stages, one inside the quaint Gwdihw Cafe Bar, the second in the adjacent car park that transforms into a full festival stage.

By now you should all be familiar with one of the UK’s best music promoters Jealous Lovers Club. The hardworking JLC team are no strangers to our site. Last year we teamed up with the company to promote their fantastic array of live gigs. Jealous Lovers Club are a renowned promoters company who host regular nights in Cardiff, Newport & London, bringing you a mythical spectrum of music with math rock at one end and indie at the other. Every show they’ve put on to date is a must see and always has a talented line-up of artists across the UK and further afield. Their extensive lists of live artists that have played their shows is like something out of a music lovers dream. To date they’ve put on shows for the likes of Enemies, Tall Ships, Rolo Tomassi, Dads, El Ten Eleven, Physics House Band, Gnarwolves, Playlounge, Tera Melos, The Chapman Family, Native, Dinosaur Pile Up, Oh No Yoko ,Catfish & The Bottlemen, Man Like Me, Towns, Playlounge, Fight Like Apes, Stagecoach, Let’s Talk Daggers, Talons and Gunning For Tamar to name a few!

When Connor, founder of Jealous Lovers Club, told Circuit Sweet about another event he had in the works, we knew it was going to be unmissable. Every show with a JLC touch is something out of this world, be it from the talent that’s introduced or the atmosphere at each event. The forthcoming Microfestival on May 4th is a date all music lovers should mark on their gig calenders.

Having already announced an outstanding line-up which hasn’t yet been fully revealed, this is already THE festival of the year.

Tellison, Olympians, Playlounge, Her Parents, WOAHNOWS, Cleft ,Cardiff’s Samoans and Nai Harvest have all been announced to play on the day’s proceedings, with a few more acts still to be unveiled. Today the fantastic RADSTEWART have just been announced to the line-up. We are all in for such a treat.

Please note sadly Kutosis are now unavailable to play the festival but check them out regardless.

To coincide with the May 4th date, from now up until the Bank Holiday, Circuit Sweet will be hosting a special Jealous Lovers Club & Juxtaposed MicroFestival Artist Feature. Taking a closer look at all the talent playing and introducing our readers to each act in a more personal manor; as we talk to the musicians to find out more about their musical endeavors, their live sets and what we can look forward to from them on the day.

In the third of our Micro festival artist installments we introduce you to the tentative sounds of Cardiff quartet Samoans.

No strangers to our site, we were formally introduced to the talent earlier this year when they supported Tera Melos at Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach, another fantastic show hosted by Jealous Lovers Club.  Samoans consist of Dan
Chris, Calvin and Oli. Since forming in 2008 the band have established themselves as one of Wales’ up and coming talents, blending a broad mixture of influences and composing a set of genre jumping, intense, melodic songs. Think Biffy Clyro meets Manic Street Preachers with a math rock blend of Maps and Atlases.

They have worked relentlessly booking their own tours, gradually building up a dedicated following with their distinctive style of progressive math-rock. Live shows are notorious for their energy, fretboard mastery and exhaustive drumming.

2011 saw the band release their debut single ‘Somersault’ on Barely Regal Records with Strange News From Another Star. A second single followed on 49s versus Dolphins Records. The hard work and dedication to touring and consistent releases brought the attention of BBC Introducing who gave the band the opportunity to record their first BBC Radio 1 live session.

The bands third single, ‘Catamaran’ was released by Kissability Records (Transgressive Records/Jen Long – BBC Radio 1) in April 2012, followed by the addition of Chris Rouse (of Hold Your Horse Is) on drums. Performances at Reading & Leeds Festival and SWN Festival have proven the bands worth as a live act and the release of their long-awaited debut EP ‘Elevated Reflections’ in the September 2012 has been subject to critical acclaim, demonstrating intelligent song-writing and a markedly heavier direction from earlier material.

We were extremely lucky to spend some time with the lovely members of  Samoans to delve deeper into all things band and to get you more excited to see this homegrown talent play a local festival in a few weeks time…

Before we get to the details of your forthcoming live appearance at the Jealous Lovers Club & Juxtaposed MicroFestival on May 4th. We want to get to know more on you. Please introduce yourselves and your role within the band- How long have you been playing and performing live?

What was it that first got you to pick up your instruments- and then to write your own compositions and direct your creativity?

The usual. Boredom, escapism, etc.

How did you form and where did the name come from?

Calvin crashed my (Dan) birthday party back in 2008, we hit it off instantly. Started off holding hands then the heavy petting began. Like most bands the necessity for a name came out of throwing random names back and forth at each other. When we started out we were called Scissorkick Victory but we all agreed that we needed something better. Our drummer at the time, Todd Campbell (now of Straight Lines) came up with it and we liked it instantly.

So we want to know more about what you guys project live, we are so excited to see you live at the Microfestival in May,  and we want other music lovers to be enticed to come share the day with us all. 

How would you personally describe your own sound in one word?

Tampin

Describe what you think you each bring to your live performances, sell your showmanship, sell us your sets.

Well there’s definitely sound coming out of speakers at most times during our sets. Calvin plays the ‘banter’ mic particularly well and usually offers insights in to the psyche of the modern man. Chris hits the drums pretty hard even in quiet bits (which he is reprimanded for after each show by pulling hairs from his eyelids), Oli brings the professionalism (in other words, he actually knows how to play his instrument). I normally hope for the best and try and get my vocals right as I usually play ‘mime’ guitar to a backing track.

What is it that you personally get from your performance?

Sweaty clothes. Late night drives. Next day headaches from late night drives.

How would you describe the reception to your presence?

Like a queue in KFC. They’re all waiting for something to happen but in the end it’s just a mangled disappointment. But tasty disappointment

Is there a particular track that you all just love to play?

We all absolutely love to play a song from our new album called The Moth. It’s got this feeling that it could fall apart at any second but we seem to have it nailed down and it is insane to play: loads of riffs, heavy choruses, nonsense lyrics and a killer double kick on the end of the song by Chris. It always seems to get one of the best reactions in our sets.

What can we look forward to from your live performance on the day?

Lots of new songs played way too fast. Maybe some old songs played unenthusiastically. Calvin giving away our rider to the crowd. Chris sweating profusely. Oli having his eyes closed in probably every photo taken and I’ll probably take my top off.

Is there an artist you can’t wait to see at the festival, if so why?

Olympians are always the band we want to see as they are our musical soul mates. There’s no bullshit with them, just honest and sincere music (even if they do say it’s shit themselves)

Have you played a renowned ‘Jealous Lovers Club’ show previous to this special event?

Yeah we’ve played some amazing shows for Jealous Lovers Club over the past few years, notably supporting Native in 2012 and Tera Melos a couple of months ago. Both shows were rammed and we’ve never had such positive feedback as at those shows.

Enlighten us to what can we look forward to from you in the future- many other plans set for the rest of this year, be it touring, recording, releasing etc?

We have just finished writing and recording our debut album entitled ‘Rescue’ which will be out in June this year. It’s a bit of a departure from our previous math-laden sound and we’re really excited about releasing it. We’re playing a few festivals this year like ArcTanGent, Carefully Planned and New Age as well as touring with Olympians in the June and a German tour in November with Jemma Roper. So after a year of being on the sidelines due to my recovery from a broken back things are getting back on track!