Ady Acolatse and Dominic Gore from Domino Records’ newest signing Little Cub met at the now closed Fabric club in London.
Bonding over a love of analogue synths and bands like New Order and Pet Shop Boys, they soon began merging mournful electronic pop soundscapes with worldly lyrics.
Their homespun production resonates with the heritage of early eighties’ British synth-pop, which harnessed an austere aural palette to touch hearts and minds.
With power and punch in equal measure, the trio, also comprising of Duncan Tootill, are fast becoming big news in their hometown of London.
This year, they’ve hosted a sold-out four-night headline residency at The Nines on Peckham’s Copeland Estate and supported M magazine faves Boxed In.
Now with their Domino Records’ debut single, Loveless, set to land on 11 November, we hear from Dom on where they’re headed…
We first started making music because…
We felt like we all liked certain types of music and no one really seemed to be making them anymore, so we thought we'd give it a go.
We have been making music since…
Forever. Well we've been producing, writing songs and playing for a bit but we only started playing live last year, so since then I guess.
Our music is…
A good representation of who we are as people and what we like. Even though our influences feel pretty obvious to us, we think what we've come out with doesn't really sound like any of them particularly, and as we're not super-stylised in one direction. It's kinda in flux depending on how we balance our ideas at that particular point in time.
The process of releasing music means you have to think about what your band is more and more, whereas when you're starting out it's more about saying what your band isn't. So now it's trying to find those reference points so that people who've never heard you can get a finger on what you're like without listening to you. I think most people like a lot of different things so we try and represent that in ourselves rather than trying to be one thing or the other.
You'll like our music if you listen to...
Lyrics and analogue synthesisers. We use a lot of synthetic sounds in our music and because we like to write songs in a more traditional sense, Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys seem to come up a lot. Also because we like to say things in quite a direct way bands like Pulp, Wild Beasts and LCD Soundsystem seem like suitable reference points.
Our favourite venue is…
Rye Wax. It's a venue, record shop and bar and they put on great nights. Also our friends Ryan and Lucy (@tacoqueen) make the tacos there so it's kinda Little Cub HQ these days. We also did a residency at the Nines in Copeland Park, Peckham, and the owners there, Polly and Sophie, have been really supportive of us so that's definitely up there. Ady and I met in Fabric so that would have made the list too but obviously...
Music is important because…
It does funny things to your insides. A lot of art requires thinking about and obviously that's important too, but cheesy as it sounds, there is something about the way music cuts through you thinking about other things and hits your emotions very directly. I want to say that lyrics and production are important but I think it's probably more nuanced than that. Music can be comforting or inspiring in a way that has nothing to do with what's being said or how great a kick sound might be.
Our biggest inspiration is…
Our friends. A lot of our friends do interesting things, so we get a lot of ideas from those ongoing conversations. In terms of specific references as a band, we all like different things but Pulp, Pet Shop Boys, Nick Cave, Leon Vynehall, Pepe Bradock, The Smiths, John Maus, New Order and Madonna sums us up pretty good.
Our dream collaboration would be…
Leon Vynehall. We've heard he plays drums and we're big fans so we think he'd be the perfect addition to our group.
To try us out, listen to our song…
Loveless. We've already finished the album so we'll be gradually putting out more tracks over the next few months. There's a couple of other tracks on the Spotify and SoundCloud and because we produce and DJ too there's also some edits and remixes out there that we're pretty pleased with.
If we weren’t making music we’d be…
Ady would be taking pictures of stuff, he's pretty good on the insta and likes arty things, so I imagine him with a camera in his hands. Duncs is wicked smart so he'd probably be doing something sciencey. I'd probably be languishing in a bookshop somewhere, like Bernard Black or Manny maybe.
In 10 years’ time we want to be...
Cast in bronze in the town we grew up in.
https://www.facebook.com/littlecubband/
Bonding over a love of analogue synths and bands like New Order and Pet Shop Boys, they soon began merging mournful electronic pop soundscapes with worldly lyrics.
Their homespun production resonates with the heritage of early eighties’ British synth-pop, which harnessed an austere aural palette to touch hearts and minds.
With power and punch in equal measure, the trio, also comprising of Duncan Tootill, are fast becoming big news in their hometown of London.
This year, they’ve hosted a sold-out four-night headline residency at The Nines on Peckham’s Copeland Estate and supported M magazine faves Boxed In.
Now with their Domino Records’ debut single, Loveless, set to land on 11 November, we hear from Dom on where they’re headed…
We first started making music because…
We felt like we all liked certain types of music and no one really seemed to be making them anymore, so we thought we'd give it a go.
We have been making music since…
Forever. Well we've been producing, writing songs and playing for a bit but we only started playing live last year, so since then I guess.
Our music is…
A good representation of who we are as people and what we like. Even though our influences feel pretty obvious to us, we think what we've come out with doesn't really sound like any of them particularly, and as we're not super-stylised in one direction. It's kinda in flux depending on how we balance our ideas at that particular point in time.
The process of releasing music means you have to think about what your band is more and more, whereas when you're starting out it's more about saying what your band isn't. So now it's trying to find those reference points so that people who've never heard you can get a finger on what you're like without listening to you. I think most people like a lot of different things so we try and represent that in ourselves rather than trying to be one thing or the other.
You'll like our music if you listen to...
Lyrics and analogue synthesisers. We use a lot of synthetic sounds in our music and because we like to write songs in a more traditional sense, Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys seem to come up a lot. Also because we like to say things in quite a direct way bands like Pulp, Wild Beasts and LCD Soundsystem seem like suitable reference points.
Our favourite venue is…
Rye Wax. It's a venue, record shop and bar and they put on great nights. Also our friends Ryan and Lucy (@tacoqueen) make the tacos there so it's kinda Little Cub HQ these days. We also did a residency at the Nines in Copeland Park, Peckham, and the owners there, Polly and Sophie, have been really supportive of us so that's definitely up there. Ady and I met in Fabric so that would have made the list too but obviously...
Music is important because…
It does funny things to your insides. A lot of art requires thinking about and obviously that's important too, but cheesy as it sounds, there is something about the way music cuts through you thinking about other things and hits your emotions very directly. I want to say that lyrics and production are important but I think it's probably more nuanced than that. Music can be comforting or inspiring in a way that has nothing to do with what's being said or how great a kick sound might be.
Our biggest inspiration is…
Our friends. A lot of our friends do interesting things, so we get a lot of ideas from those ongoing conversations. In terms of specific references as a band, we all like different things but Pulp, Pet Shop Boys, Nick Cave, Leon Vynehall, Pepe Bradock, The Smiths, John Maus, New Order and Madonna sums us up pretty good.
Our dream collaboration would be…
Leon Vynehall. We've heard he plays drums and we're big fans so we think he'd be the perfect addition to our group.
To try us out, listen to our song…
Loveless. We've already finished the album so we'll be gradually putting out more tracks over the next few months. There's a couple of other tracks on the Spotify and SoundCloud and because we produce and DJ too there's also some edits and remixes out there that we're pretty pleased with.
If we weren’t making music we’d be…
Ady would be taking pictures of stuff, he's pretty good on the insta and likes arty things, so I imagine him with a camera in his hands. Duncs is wicked smart so he'd probably be doing something sciencey. I'd probably be languishing in a bookshop somewhere, like Bernard Black or Manny maybe.
In 10 years’ time we want to be...
Cast in bronze in the town we grew up in.
https://www.facebook.com/littlecubband/
