Start Listening To: Pushbike

Pushbike talk Spinning Sister, The Cavern and the sweet spot between jangle pop and post-hardcore chaos.

At a time when nearly every music hub across England seems to have equally emerging fleets of early emo revivalists and jangle pop purists, Pushbike appears as an act both within and outside the moment. Straddling equal lines between the crunch of post-hardcore and the sugary melodies of classic indie, their music is as sweet as honey and as sharp and sudden as a syringe. The sort of band that can exist on both hardcore and indie lineups without purely slotting in.

Perhaps why Pushbike aligns across so many scenes is because they’re as classically indie as it comes. Running their own label, Spinning Sister, and putting on gig after gig at their hometown haunt The Cavern, there’s a purity to their DIY vision which harkens back to the bygone days of Flying Nun and Dischord.  Yet for all the well-deserved admiration of their DIY methods, the real excellence in Pushbike is their music. A thunderous blend of nearly everything excellent that’s ever been labelled indie, cooked down into blasts of pure sonic treacle.

For those unfamiliar with your music can you tell us about who you are, where you’re from, and a little about the kind of music you make?

Niall: Go on George.

George: Were from Exeter and were Pushbike. We make emo power pop music for fans of Teenage Fan Club and Cap ‘N Jazz.

In a lot of your music there’s a real mix of English and American indie sensibilities, like c86 and emo. Do you feel like your sound settles in one camp more than the other?

Niall: Think it sorta depends on the song.

George: Depends on our mood as well. I go through moods of different varieties of songs.

Jamie: It’s maybe a more British indie ethos even if it’s not reflected in the music so much.

Niall: Maybe more of an American hardcore ethos alongside the British indie. There’s definitely some that are more Sarah records oriented than others.

Do you think that American hardcore and English indie ethos also comes into you guys running spinning sister as a label?

George: Yeah, one hundred percent.

Niall: The reason why it exists really is to be against what most other people are doing.

George: The more labels we run into, especially independent ones, the more surprised we are that they don’t run it the way we do.

Are there any labels in particular you look at as reference points for Spinnin Sister?

Niall: Definitely Sarah and Dischord, they’re probably the two big ones.

George: Flying Nun as well.

Niall: Postcard as well though maybe not so much. But also, Esco Romanesco we worked with them recently and they’re really nice people. They also seem to be on the same page as us which is always good.

You guys play a lot of your gigs and put on a lot of events at The Cavern in Exeter is there anything significant about that venue to you?

George: Well, it’s the venue where all of us kind of met, and it’s the main hub for all the stuff we do. Me and Niall met there watching a band called ‘Midway Still’ they were doing a cover of ‘You Made Me Realise’ by My Bloody Valentine. Then we met Tom there through Bramwell and through other friends we started hanging out with Jamie and putting on Jamie’s first band Kurtz when Spinning Sister was starting. It’s our home base. It actually just celebrated its thirty fifth anniversary and should be renowned as the last great independent venue still running.

Niall: It’s the only ever great independent venue.

Jamie: It’s the best one we’ve played.

Niall: It’s the best one ever, you’ll never get better than that.

George: Can’t touch it.

Are there any venues you’ve played that compare or does everywhere else just fall short?

Niall:  There’s nowhere I’ve been that’s even close. It’s got everything you’d want. Everyone the works there is into music and interesting. I don’t think you get that in other venues. Sometimes they can even seem-

George: Slightly corporate.

Niall: Yeah, slightly corporate. Even a uniform behind the bar or the bouncers are a bit weird.

George: Specifically, I think because of the 35th anniversary. They do these big compilation videos of the pasty thirty five years and you can see all the love and care there is in what they do. It’s been owned by the same people since like 1985, the cavern opened in 1991, but they were putting on gigs beforehand. They run it the same way they did and will continue to run it.

Jamie: It’s not like Spinning Sister, this revelation in the indie scene. It’s a continuation of what’s been going on for years.

George: And y’know when Spinning Sister is gone someone else will do it cause its proven and it’s a good way to run it.

Niall: We said it in another interview, and I don’t know if it got picked up in the final thing but specifically hometown atrocities their promotion company is what we modelled our first posters off. It means a lot to us that venue and how they run and continue to do things.

Do you think it’s in anyway had an influence on your sound?

George: There’s definitely a surrounding thing of post-hardcore at the cavern. Cause they’ve had good helping of those type of bands and indie as well to be fair.

Niall: Being behind the bar and talking to people. Like our friend Dan has a Jesse Garon and The Desperados T-Shirt and that’s become just a ubiquitous band amongst all the people were friends with there and I don’t think you’d find that elsewhere. So, I guess it does but maybe not int the most obvious way.

George: It’s kind of a melting pot of post-hardcore and indie pop.

Niall: Which is kinda what we’re trying to do in a way.

Talking about that mix of post-hardcore and indie are there any bands you each view as real reference points for what you bring to the band?

George: I’m a big fan of Husker Du and Texas is The Reason and those more emo bands even though I have a lot of love for the jangle pop bands.

Niall: I say it every time but Boyracer, Cap’n Jazz as well. Their guitar work and the way its phrased I like a lot and I try and emulate that a lot.

Tom: I was gonna say Boyracer as well is quite representative. Cause it’s really noisy but they were on Sarah. The connection between noisy pop with a mod aesthetic as well which is a big part of it.

Niall: Proper modernists.

Jamie: When I do influence the songs, it’s trying to get in as much of that Teenage Fan Club poppy sound. Or trying to make it sound as much like The Clean as possible, which won’t ever happen because we don’t have an organ player. Boyracer is the main one I’d say.

Tom: Big four is Boyracer, Husker Du, Teenage Fan Club and Cap ‘n Jazz but there’s loads. Oasis (laughs).

Niall: Frankie Vallie and The Four Seasons (laughs).

Going back to Exeter are there any local bands you wanna give a shout out to who deserve more love?

George: There’s plenty: Boys Want Cars, The Motorcycles, The Jesus Commune of America, Hugs From God, Marys, Bramwell, The Maisonettes, Silk Cuts, Big Shipping, Lady Shoulders.

Niall: You don’t wanna forget anyone.

George: The cut ups, Annelise, West Midlands.

Jamie: That’s where No Band is an Island comes from. West Midlands ‘Kingdom of Hits’.

Niall: It’s actually a John Donne poem (laughs).

Jamie: That’s ‘no man is an island’.

Broadening that a little bit further of course you guys do a lot of work with No Band is and Island, and both Pushbike and Bramwell which Toms part of have played gigs with our mutual friend, are there any other bands that fit in with the ethos of what you guys are doing?

Jamie: El Well, Vehicle, The Cindys, Autocamper. It’s those Esco Romanesco bands, Speedway Star, Prima Star Power.

George: Its specifically loads of bands from the northwest. We have lots in common with those types of things, were spiritually from Manchester though Exeter is the centre of the universe.

Niall: Were in a Manchester bands group chat but were not from Manchester.

George: Were actually the only band not from Manchester.

Niall: But also, Westside Cowboy. It feels like an obvious one to say.

You guys have been playing for over two years now how do you feel your sound and style has evolved?

Niall: We had two different members. Me and George were in the original line up then we’ve had this line up with Tom and Jamie since the start of last year.

George: The first gig we did with this lineup was supporting Westside Cowboy at Gullivers. I think our sound has become more what we envisioned it at the start; it just took us a little while to get there. So even though we’ve been going for a little bit of time were more comfortable with how it sounds now than it did at the start.

Niall: I think everyone now is on the same page when it comes to influences, no disrespect to the last two members but they just liked different things.

With your sound being more realised now have you had any eureka moments in gigs you’ve played recently?

George: It’s more like we’ve road-tested a lot of songs that will be coming out over the next year. So, when we went into the studio it was easier to get them recorded right off the bat.

Niall: Yeah, I can’t think of any particular eureka moments.

George: The eureka moment is when we play together.

Tom: It’s probably the first time we all practiced we were like this is how it’s supposed to be. I was a Pushbike fan before I was in the band, so I’ve always wanted to serve the songs better.

Speaking of the studio you’ve recently been recording with Jack Ogborne of The Cindys, what’s that been like?

Niall: Phenomenal.

Jamie: To go into a room with someone who has seen Pushbike before, knows what we’re trying to do, likes the same music as us it was so great to have that.

George: For recording it was really important for us to have someone who’d seen it live. 

Niall: He also likes all the same stuff as us, so the reference points were really easy. Also, just a really nice person.

George: He is the nicest chap.

You mentioned the struggles of doing production with people who hadn’t seen you live, is that why you released your last two singles as live versions?

George: Yeah, we wanted something to be released and those were the things we had closest enough. So, for the first EP and that live single I did the mixing and mastering on that so it was nice to not have to do that. But with the live signal were big fans of live stuff as well.

Niall: Boyracer the live in Tokyo version of ‘Vitamin B / He Gets Me So Hard’ sounds like it’s all breaking which was the same with the live single. Tom was basically dying on the kit.

Jamie: We weren’t planning on recording it the sound guy was just a nice guy who sent it to us and then George did a good job mixing the guitars and stuff.

George: That was record on my birthday.

Niall: And then it came out on my birthday. I actually didn’t even realise that till just now.

What mood do you think your new material fits into more American post-hardcore/emo or UK indie?

George: Very equal.

Niall: Near fifty fifty right down the line. I mean it’s very very short, six minutes for four songs.

Jamie: That’s the Boyracer influence.

Niall: It’s like hardcore Boyracer but just pop songs. Pop songs don’t need to be longer than a minute and a half.

I remember when I met you guys after seeing Shearling you cited ‘Song For Ciara H’ by Mitsubishi Suicide as a big influence. Do you feel much of a kinship with the current UK screamo scene that’s happening at the moment.

Niall: We really like all that stuff, I don’t know how much we’d say it’s an influence. Maybe it is in subconscious ways.

Jamie: They’re really nice people.

George: They’ve got really cool scenes going on in Birmingham and Glasgow, they seem to have the same kind of ethos of doing it all themselves very DIY. We played at Centrala in Birmingham, and it was very DIY, no annoying sound things just everything as loud as possible. That set is actually up on YouTube.

Tom: I think we all played into the emo influences more at that gig and you can see that in the video. It’s even in the way the stage is set up like a basketball hall or a floor show like those old Cap ‘n Jazz gigs.

George: The crowd reaction seems to be more intense at those shows than maybe some of the more radio sixy shows.

Jamie: But people enjoy the music in different ways. At the emo/screamo shows people react to it in a crazier way which is fun to play to.

George: There was a fun crossover at the Old Blue Last gig we did where it was more of an emo crowd. We did a cover of ‘Take The skinheads Bowling’ and someone was two stepping to that, which is the greatest crossover I’ve ever seen in my life.

Niall: I like the scene though because I don’t feel we necessarily fit in too closely. Like that Centrala gig a powerviolence band was on straight afterwards and they had the same amount of enthusiasm for them. It’s nice to see people being more open to enjoying music live.

Jamie: It’s a lot less judgey.

George: Arms crossed.

Do you think your energy live is in anyway different to the studio?

George: We tried really really hard and managed to capture the way we sound live onto the EP. That was a very important thing.

Jamie: I guess there was less jumping but still were always focused on playing our instruments correctly when we do play live anyway.

Niall: But there’s mistakes in the recording in an interesting way which is more reminiscent of a live show. 

George: How we recorded it was just like takes, just take after take till we got one.

Tom: It was really easy recording the EP.

Jamie: The tempo is different though. We often do play the songs faster live, its sorta a Ramonesy thing. There were some songs we played so fast they ended up like seventy seconds long and we had to go out and do another take.

George: It was really really hard to get the EP to be six minutes long, it could have been four (laughs).

Niall: (laughs) We can’t get signed because if they’re like you have to make it forty minutes long that ain’t happening.

Going back to spinning sister and the zine you do alongside it are there any non-musical influences that inform the look and feel of your work?

George: I mean Niall your el-capitan on the look of the label specifically.

Niall: I look at a lot of old zines form the eighties and stuff. Theres, one called ‘fifteen minutes later’ I found a copy of that with Jesse Garon, The Razorcuts, The Wedding Present, The Shop Assistants and the original line up of My Bloody Valentine. It’s that sort of zine where its maybe less serious and translating that into something more professional but without losing the independence. Whereas there’s some zines at the moment where there’s no middle ground. They’re either really really DIY which is cool or they’re really trying to be professional. 

George: Their zines are too easy to read whereas ours is really hard to read.

Niall: Somebody said you can’t read it and I said that’s the point.  

Tom: The best zines from the eighties are quite harsh, just like white and black straight on, screen photos and jagged text.

Niall: A handmade element.

George: We’ve been very conscious about the way that looks. But when you have the music, you know how it’s supposed to look.

Niall: I don’t think we’ve got a particular interest in advertising ourselves or posting. We don’t do any sort of behind the scenes we have no interest in that. I get why people have to do that and it probably hasn’t helped us not doing it.

Tom: Part of the aesthetic is not doing that. Because people read into the lack of something.

Niall: Like Mitsubishi Suicide have always been very minimal with that. Even gig announcements, they did one the other day which just said they’re playing in London.

George: It’s a sense of you just have to go to the gig to see what’s happening

Niall: The last time I saw them they played a completely new set of unreleased material, it was great.

Tom: Spiritually a fifteen minute Jesus and The Mary Chain set in everything we do.

What do you love right now?

George: The thought in my head of buying a slice of pizza for £1.75, paying more than £1.75 for a slice of pizza is a bit of a crime.

Niall: I’ve been collecting a lot of cigarette cards and postcards as of late. Theres a place in Exeter that has really good ones near the key. I collected a really good one the other day of bologna. Theres a poster for the Cindys and I got all the stuff for that from there.

Tom: As of the last twenty four hours been really into Daryl Johns and Bar Rock. Sped up pop.

Jamie: I’ve been loving my ophthalmologist. I lost my glasses in London, and she sorted me a prism so I would stop seeing double from Moorfield eye hospital even though she lives all the way in devon.

What do you hate right now?

Jamie: We hate negativity.

Tom: The Molotovs.

Niall: The rain.

George: That’s a collective the rain. It’s been raining too much in the southwest and I got a big leak in my ceiling.

Niall: The only day it wasn’t raining was yesterday when we were in the basement of the cavern. So that was great.

Name an album you’re still listening to from when your younger and why its still important to you?

Niall: My one is 39/Smooth by Green Day because I think that is actually a perfect album. Before Trey Cool they were really really good. It’s like Husker Du, The Who obviously it’s actually quite similar to what we’re trying to do now. I never realised that till I listened to it again the other day.

Jamie: I’ll go Julian Cope Saint Julian I think most Julian Cope and The Teardrop fans from bank in the day hate this album because it was him selling out and wearing leather trousers, but that album is brilliant.

Niall: And then he got on the pogo stick and went mental.

Jamie: He did go mental, but when he had short hair and leather trousers, he was the coolest guy in the country.

George: I’m gonna go with Daydream Nation cause I’ve had a love for that album for the longest time. I’ll always continue to try and write a song as good as ‘Teenage Riot’ but that’d a difficult thing for me to do.

Tom: Farewell To Kings by Rush, I was big into that.

When someone hears your music for the first time, what do you hope sticks with them?

All: permanent hearing problems.