Neu! Magazine

Related Artist: One Night Only

If you're not yet familiar with One Night Only, chances are you will be very very soon. The video for their new single 'You And Me' is currently on rotation on MTV2, they're working on their debut album, and they'll soon be heading out on tour with The Rifles and The Pigeon Detectives. Phew.

Are you fans of your future tour mates The Rifles and The Pigeon Detectives?
Mark: To be honest I've not heard that much of the Rifles. I'd heard about them but they're one of those bands that none of us had heard that much music before but we checked them out when we got the dates and they sound really good.
George:: Pigeon Detectives; I can imagine they're gonna have a really intense live show. I probably wouldn't listen to the Pigeons record but I'd go and see them live, I'm sure all the songs are just great live songs.
Mark: We checked them out at Leeds Festival and they had the biggest crowd of the whole weekend. It was mental.
George:: People a mile away from it still queuing! We've both got the same sort of target audience.
Mark: Hopefully their fans will appreciate our stuff.

If you could handpick a band to tour with in the future: who would it be?
George:: A Kings Of Leon tour would be intense and then probably like Arcade Fire tour...
Mark: That would be amazing. Just tour with an absolute legend like Oasis or someone, you know, a legend.
George:: Foo Fighters, Foo Fighters I reckon, they're pretty hefty. But we're not hefty enough, we're not like "waaahhhhh!" (screams!) You've gotta have balls to tour with them. Do you know what I mean, like fucking Dave Grohl is hefty.
Mark: The Killers even, we went to one of their shows at Wembley Arena and that was really good.

How's your album with Steve Lillywhite shaping up?
George:: It's going pretty good actually, we had a lot of fun recording it. It's probably one of the best experiences we've probably all ever had: to make a proper record in a proper studio with a proper producer and to have time to live together for 6 weeks to make an album it's just like the dream, isn't it?
Mark: It's sounding far better than we expected.
George:: To be honest like now you can hear all the songs as a finished record it just like makes it all worthwhile. It's just all hefty really, a meaty album and we're really really pleased with the outcome.
Mark: We can't wait for everyone to hear it, it's like everyone has heard a two or three songs or the fans have heard five or six but it's a whole album now.
George:: Yeah, there's like loads of new songs on there. Steve's brought like new arrangements, ordering the songs just all these little touches that make it really good.
Mark: The main thing he's brought is energy to it. It's weird to say what a producer really brings to it but it's definitely a new energy to all the songs.
George:: He gets something out of you which you wouldn't get in a normal studio. I mean the vocal booth is like the last place I'd wanna be singing but when he gets you on a good vibe then that's like when it starts getting good. He's really enthusiastic and kept us going through the whole session. So it's really cool.

Can you tell us a little about your upcoming single 'You And Me'?
Mark: It's the oldest song we've got.
George:: It's just like the perfect first single really. Basically, you can't not like it, even if you hate it at first after the third listen you'll start singing it just cos it's one of those tunes that you can't not like... unless you're like a dark lord who likes chains and whips and stuff like that.
Mark: It's like where we are now, like at the start of our career and stuff, having fun and having a right good time. That's really what the song shows.

Where do you see your music career taking you?
George:: Stadium vibe!
Mark: Even without our first album out yet, with the single people will see that there's more depth to the album. Like I said, 'You And Me' is our oldest song even in the last year when we've written the rest of the stuff there have been so many progressions.
George:: Yeah, it's developed and it's become bigger and it's fatter.
Mark: People are gonna be really surprised when they hear the album.
George:: I think it's gonna be a shock. I mean 'You And Me' is a tune and then it's like double the tune. There's a song called 'It's Alright' that's just like amazing. There's a thunderstorm in it, that's all I'll say.
Mark: Yeah, we'll just go from there and see where it goes. I mean we love playing gigs so the more gigs we play the better we get.

Which bands, in and around your age-group, are you into at the moment?
Mark: There are a lot of young bands coming out at the moment, especially from London so being from up North we feel a bit detached from it really. There's all these bands like Cajun Dance Party etc etc who all seem to be in a similar age group but being from so far away we feel detached.
George:: Basically, there's no bands I'm into that are our age, that's just an honest opinion. I don't really know that many young bands, I like all these bands but they're not really my cup of tea. I think it's really cool that there's all these young bands doing it and I think it's important to bring youth into the music industry. We don't really hear enough of that.
Mark: I think everyone makes their best albums when they're young anyway, peoples first or second album are always their best albums.

What was your local scene like back in North Yorkshire?
Mark: Being out of any scenes or anything I think that really helped us cos we just played, we just played together, played gigs when we could and just kept writing songs and stuff.
George:: We weren't really following any other vibes of bands. We weren't trying to be like anybody we were just like hanging out as basically just hanging out as mates, skipping school to go and do gigs. We just basically had a good time and just did what we wanted to do.
Mark: Without knowing it we jut developed our own sound...
George:: Yeah, yeah, because we just kept ourselves to ourselves and didn't say "oh, we want to be like 'this'..." As soon as we got a keyboard player we just like did what we wanted to really and we like to think we don't really sound like anything else, too much. Everybody sounds like something but there's nothing really like this, especially when you hear the album you'll sort of be able to tell then. You get all these bands from cities who all sound a bit similar, and there's always one at the top. No-one's ever come from Helmsley, we've put it on the map! It's good vibes.
Mark: Yeah, you always get that that thing with Manchester, then Leeds, Sheffield, London...I think one of our main missions with the album is to put it on in 10 years time and it still almost be as relevant. Like people our age now discovering albums by The Smiths and Supergrass and Oasis from the 90's and it's still as relevant today. That's what we hope for our album.

Charlotte James

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