In the minutes before they took to the stage of Glasgow’s Garage, we spoke with liverpool 4 piece The Night Café! Read below as we talk Stange Clothes, their upcoming UK tour, supporting themselves and playing a weird venue in Sheffield.
Hey guys! What made you guys want to pursue a career in music? How did The Night Café come to be?
Josh: By accident.
Sean: Yeah by accident.
Carl: I think we all really wanted to make music like when we were growing up and stuff.
Sean: Yeah it’s always a dream to be in a band.
Carl: We’ve been in bands throughout school. Like not this exact band but we’ve been in bands before in school.
Sean: We’ve been in bands with each other yeah.
Carl: and that’s just how it came together really.
Josh: There he is!
Carl: And here’s Aaron, the latecomer.
Aaron: I know, sorry.
Sean: You’re ruining my funny vibe here.
Carl: Yeah I think it was just coming together to be honest, instead of making us wanna be like celebrities. We just really wanted to do it just to make music and like enjoy it.
Sean: I don’t really want the side to it that comes… like I hope it doesn’t come for us, I hope we are one of those bands that people just love the music and that’s it. You know what I mean.
You’ve recently released your single “Strange Clothes,” how do you feel about the reception it has received?
Sean: It’s absolutely amazing!
Carl: It’s received a great reception! It went on a playlist the Friday!
Sean: Straight away!
Aaron: New Music Friday.
Carl: Yeah new music Friday and it’s got nearly 60,000 plays in over a week! Wait, just under a week sorry!
Sean: That’s the first time that’s happened for us as well.
Carl: It’s the first time. There’s been that much reception over the week to be honest, it’s normally like 20,000 then it rises with time. But it just seems to have gone up dead fast, we’re quite pleased about it like!
What was the writing process behind the single? Where did the inspiration come from?
Sean: To be honest, we had like a week or 2 where we were literally kinda smashing out random ideas and we made this song. And for like 2 months, we didn’t really like it that much and we just thought it was like your standard song. But then I think we spent a bit more time trying to-
Carl: Beef it up!
Sean: Perfect it yeah! We had to record a song didn’t we? For something I can’t remember! We got put on the spot to like record a song and it was in the studio where like-
Carl: It was very different to what it is!
Sean: Yeah like we wrote a bit more on it whilst we were actually in the studio. Like only little bits like backing vocals and stuff like that, but it made the song what it is now.
Cause from our point of view, it does sound very different from the other stuff you’ve released before!
Carl: We sort of like crafted it instead of you know… we just wrote the song.
Sean: I think it’s how the maturity is coming through in that song, cause like all our other songs we kinda just make a tune.
Carl: Jam it out and then it’s done.
Sean: Jam it out and that’s it! But this one we spent a little time working on it.
Carl: Yeah it took a few months didn’t it? It took a few months to write but it’s there now, it’s getting the reception it should be!
Definitely! You are in the middle of a tour with Sundara Karma, how has it been so far?
Carl: It’s been fucking sick! It’s been a pleasant few days to be honest. I loved every second.
Sean: The legless tour as they say.
Josh: I actually haven’t been drunk once.
Sean: I have been sloshed every night.
Carl: Skished. Skished every night.
Aaron: This is our last night tonight though.
Aw is it?
Carl: Tonight’s our last night!
Josh: The supports are changing, like the other band that’s been doing all the dates with us finished yesterday.
Blaenavon? It broke my heart that they aren’t here today.
Sean: Gorgeous lads them .
Carl: awww the lads.
Josh: Our guys.
Carl: We’re going on tour with them again!
You’re not on the Glasgow date though are you?
Carl: No we are only doing the down south dates though sadly. But we are coming back to Glasgow!
Sean: It’s cause I go on holiday, not because we didn’t want to do them! It’s because I had already booked going away.
Carl: We’re coming up to Glasgow on our tour!
Sean: Yeah we are!
That follows into the next question! What can fans expect from your headline tour in May?
Aaron: Ruthlessness
Carl: Yeah, some new material!
Josh: Frivolities.
Aaron: Good verb.
Carl: I didn’t even know that was a word mate.
Sean: I still don’t know what it means but it sounds right… I just think a lot of fun from our headline tour. I just think it’s gonna be hopefully a big step up from the first one. We are playing some of the same venues but like we’re playing some bigger ones.
Carl: Like we’ve moved up to Dingwalls in London. Which is like a proper sick venue to play and it’s only up from there then hopefully!
Sean: We played The Old Blue Last first and I think it’s up capacity by like 300 people.
Josh: That was like an 18+ venue though.
Carl: Yeah it sold out as well.
Josh: We can get that many people there and we can get all ages people as well.
Carl: With all ages I definitely think it should be ok.
Sean: All gigs should be all ages anyway.
Carl: They should… apart from babies.
Sean: Apart from babies.
Carl: You don’t want any babies mosh pitting around and all that.
What was a standout moment from 2016?
Carl: T in the Park
Sean: Trump becoming president. That was a bit weird wasn’t it?
It’s hardly a standout moment!
Sean: It’s like a standout moment in a bad way though.
Josh: That’s not a standout moment.
Carl: A standout moment for us was playing T in the Park in Scotland yeah.
Sean: Yeah that was boss but a standout moment for the band!
Carl: Yeah but we played the festival!
Josh: First sold out headline show and Birmingham was sold out as well.
What can fans expect from the next 6 months?
Carl: A lot of new music, we’ve got an EP coming out in March. That’s the first EP then… before summer is it? Or in summer the second one coming out.
Aaron: Yeah, 2 EPs.
Carl: After that will be like that album then. That’ll be early on next year hopefully! If everything goes to plan.
So we’re going to do a quickfire round! What was the first gig you ever went to?
Josh: Busted.
Sean: very quick!
Carl: I don’t know… Do you know?
Sean: No but I don’t know the name of them but it’s whoever sang who let the dogs out! It was when I was on holiday.
Was it not like the Baha men or something like that?
Sean: Whoever that was, that was my first gig.
We’ll google it! (It was indeed the Baha Men)
Carl: I went to see Biffy Clyro, that was my first ever gig in Manchester.
Aaron: I think The Wombats for me! Mental, yeah!
If you could have written any song ever what would it be?
Josh: A song called Desire by a band called The Cairos.
Carl: Yeah that’s it!
Sean: I’m gonna-
Aaron: Can we have the same answer?
Yeah if you want!
Carl: I’ll probably say… nah I don’t know. I’ll probably say that one! Cause that is-
Sean: That’s our band favourite song at the moment. That is my favourite song ever.
Carl: If it weren’t that I would probably choose like-
Aaron: A Steely Dan song.
Carl: Yeah Steely Dan – Black Cow, that’s what I’d choose.
What is your dream support slot?
Carl: Eh, you know what…
They could be dead or alive.
Josh: So we could watch us!
Sean: You know what yeah!
Josh: We never get to watch us! You know what I mean. Not from like a vain perspective, to see what we sound like to a crowd!
Sean: No but it would be interesting to see what we’re like!
That’s the first time we have ever had that!
Josh: I would like to watch us and be like we need to change that! Like that’s not cool!
Carl: On stage, everything doesn’t sound like it does off stage! You only get what you need!
Sean: We have always said we wanted to watch ourselves and just see-
Josh: That sounds so vain.
Carl: It sounds bad, it sounds bad! But we don’t mean it!
Sean: It sounded vague so you need to elaborate when we-
Carl: It does sound vain but-
You want to improve yourselves!
Sean: Yeah that’s it!
Carl: We want to do it so we can see what we can improve!
Describe The Night Café in 3 words?
Sean: The. Night. Cafe.
Carl: I would describe it as messy lads.
Aaron: But that’s 2 words!
Josh: Thick as thieves.
Carl: Messy lads club!
Aaron: Messy lads club?! We should say 4 words and have 1 word each.
Josh: Sickest band ever.
Carl: Go ahead! You start though!
Aaron: Sickest
Carl: men
Sean: I
Josh: know
Carl: The sickest men I know!
The weirdest or most interesting venue you’ve played?
Carl: Last night in eh-
Sean: NO! Weirdest!
Josh: Thekla?
Sean: The weirdest is when we were in Sheffield. And there was that bloody thing where there was pure pimp chains and that. Downstairs in the club. Remember? Pure like weird kinda sex fest.
Carl: I mean I loved it in there, it was great!
Aaron: That was the weirdest one yeah.
Carl: I thought you said the best venue!
Josh: The Plug it was called.
Carl: The plug! Where’s that?
Sean: Sheffield
Carl: Oh yeah! I remember that! That was years ago that!
Aaron: It was like… It was last year.
Carl: It was 2015!
Aaron: No it was like 5 months ago!
Your best festival or gig experience?
Aaron: Tame Impala in the Albert Hall, Manchester in 2013!
Carl: I would probably say Eminem at Leeds Festival cause I fucking love him.
Sean: When we went to see Kings of Leon. That was a really magic moment for me! It was in 2011!
Josh: I don’t know, I saw Roger Waters at Wembley. That was quite good but.
Your last question! What is your most embarrassing moment on stage?
Carl: Aw we’ve all had them!
Aaron: When you dropped your stick!
Carl: I mean, we were playing a headline show in Nottingham and it got to like the last chorus of the first song. Stick flies out my hand and I had to stop playing.
Sean: Yeah we had to restart the song.
Carl: and I just had to go, I’m sorry about that!
Josh: Remember our gig at the picket
Carl: Yeah we had to restart the song. It was bad from the off.
Sean: Remember when my guitar went off?
Aaron: Oh shit yeah!
Sean: We were playing a gig and I had this guitar which is like… if 2 switches go off in a certain place the guitar goes off and I didn’t know that cause it was a brand new guitar! We were mid song and my guitar went off and I was kind of like fuming at the sound man. Then I just looked down and the switches were there and I had stopped singing and everything. It was embarrassing.
Well thank you guys!
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