Prior to their insane headline show at Nice N Sleazy in Glasgow, we met Evelyn and Saul from Clean Cut Kid. Read below as we talk their new music, festivals and their embarrassing moments on stage!
Hi guys! So, how did you guys form and where does the name come from?
Evelyn: Eh.. So me and Mike met 4 years ago and we started like playing together and he had already had an idea of having a band called Clean Cut Kid and the name came from when he was like experimenting. He had gone from playing like acoustic guitar to electric guitar, experimenting with more pedals and stuff and his brother had said, if you ever have a band you should call it something from the electric era, so he thought aw! I’ll just call myself Clean Cut Kid! He always had the name like floating around! So em yeah! We just started playing together as two, and then gradually we decided oh, we should make it into a band. And then we found Saul, he appeared to us in a dream!
Saul: Then we all found Ross.
Evelyn: We all found Ross. So that’s the quick story! And that was about 2ish years ago we worked out that Ross and everybody finally came together.
That’s cool! So you guys have just released an EP and a single! How do you feel about the reception they have received so far?
Saul: We’ve just had an email saying that it (the single, Make Believe) has 55,000 views in a day! On the video which is amazing!
No Way!
Saul: With all the different spotify playlists people have put it on you know! Vevo put it on one in America and stuff like that
Evelyn: It’s mad!
Saul: I never wrote the song but I love it so much! I thought this is gonna be big!
Evelyn: It’s funny you never, ever, ever expect the reaction, like you expect a bad reaction! But when it’s a good reaction, it’s such a nice surprise. Like we did our first ever live Q&A the other day. Me and Saul were gearing up to do it like ok, let prepare for only like 10 people to log in. We switched it on and there were was like a hundred questions, 300 people watching, it ended up reaching 10,000 people! And we were just like.. AW.. like it just keeps surprising us every time this reaction. It’s really really cool. Very surreal.
You guys had a very busy festival season, what was your stand out festival experience?
Evelyn: I loved Glastonbury!
Saul: I loved Glastonbury that was my favourite! It’s as good as they say it is!
Evelyn: It’s so good! It was just the whole weekend was a dream!
Saul: It was so good that I had to leave early! I just couldn’t handle how good it was!
Why!
Evelyn: He just had too much of a good time. Again, just shocked by the amount of people that turned up! That huge crowd and that reaction. It was so cool. And then like Saul and Mike did a RatBoy stage invasion at one point!
I think I saw that!
Evelyn: That was quite funny! Latitude was cool as well. It was our first ever festival last year that we had ever played as Clean Cut Kid. Then we headlined the late stage this year, a year later we came back and we headlined one of our stages that was like our dream stage to play last year. So that was really special as well. Like… there’s been so many… I guess that it was our first ever summer festival like season as Clean Cut Kid. Cause last year we had only done a couple but we had just signed our deal. We did like 5 or 6, this year we did 32!
WOW! That’s insane! So what is your typical songwriting process?
Evelyn: Well Mike writes the songs. Yeah, me and him have started writing together a little bit and there’s a song we’re playing tonight together. Mike mostly writes the songs and he just gets these ideas and he starts demoing them straight away, like on his laptop. So he used to just get the song finished like fully. So as soon as he gots one little bit, one little chunk of an idea, he’ll demo it up and then that will like inform the song and stuff. He does like the music and the lyrics all come at the same time really and he like chips away through it all the time. He chips away at all the different lines so it just says what he wants it to say. So it flows, he’s very very particular, he need something to be overly complicated. He’s very particular in the way something is said in a line and I think his ideas for the guitar just come from sitting and experimenting with pedals. Like he’s got obsessed with gear. Like the amount of like guitar magazines we have in our flat. He watches a video every single day on like a different pedal or a different amp. Like, he is just obsessed with guitars and gear and like… just stuff. Stuffs like always experimenting and finding stuff out. So his songwriting process is very much like intertwined with his love of equipment and gear. So it kinda goes hand and hand.
Fantastic! So we’re going to go on to a Quickfire round!
Evelyn: ohhhhhhhhh I love these!! I love watching Saul do these. It’s so funny!
So what was the first gig you ever went to?
Saul: The first gig I ever went to was the last night at the Kop. You know the stand at Anfield. Where they had.. eh.. eh… Basically everyone just stood up instead of having seats at a football match and because they had, had an accident in Sheffield where loads of people had been killed, they knocked them down all over the country so you could only sit down and this was called the Last Night at the Kop. They put on a big gig and Manic Street Preachers played and loads of bands. I just like ran away from my mum and dad and I was just like at the front jumping up and down for the whole thing.
Evelyn: I think my first gig, I was 10 and I think it was in the metro arena in Newcastle and it was band called YFriday. Why I had just found out, Chris, our sound guy now used to sound for them back then!
Saul: Wooah. Wow.
Evelyn: Like it blew my mind! It’s such a small world.
That’s the definition of small world! What is your most embarrassing moment on stage?
Saul: Compared to my life, this isn’t very embarrassing. But i’ve had a cold recently and something similar has happened again. But we had a gig in El Dorado Festival and I got hayfever and I don’t really get hayfever. I was ok and then the first drums clicked in and my nose just started dripping all down my face. It was down all my beard, all down my face and just had to turn round and not look at anyone cause I was covered in snot.
Evelyn: Mine is mostly wardrobe malfunctions like often my fly will be down or like last night I had a shirt on and the buttons were in a ridiculous place, like open so everybody could see. Mostly it’s a wardrobe malfunction so luckily I can hide behind my Keyboard but so far we haven’t had too many embarrassing moments. Like we don’t get drunk before gigs or anything like that and think that would be when the embarrassing moments happen. Where i’ve had a couple drinks before I gig, I have like played stuff wrong and kicking myself for days. Luckily we’ve safe until now, but I bet you we’ll fall off stage tonight.
Haha, what is your favourite vine or meme?
Evelyn: Ohh oh my god,.. mines the… oh my gosh.. when what’s her name from little mix tries to do a Jamaican accent.
Is it Jade? No
Evelyn: ah… Jess, it’s Jess.
Saul: Mine is Kermit drinking a cup of tea and he says that’s none of my business.
Well thank you guys!
Saul: quick! Quickfire round for you! How tall are you?
5’5
Saul: How short are you?
5’5
Saul: How big is your left foot?
Size 6
Saul: How big is your left hand?
Ehhhh *Holds up hand* that size
Then a wonderful interview closing high five occurs.
Why not check out Clean Cut Kid’s new music video for Make Believe below!
@ Club Decode 2016
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