SXSW Artist Spotlight: congratulations
360°Sound had a chance to speak with Jamie Chellar and Leah Stanhope of congratulations, a Brighton-based four-piece indie rock band. congratulations recently wrapped up a UK tour behind their acclaimed debut album, Join Hands.
congratulations play upbeat, funky guitar-and synth-based music that’s been described as “Tune-Yards meets Sleigh Bells meets Prince.” This is the band’s first appearance at SXSW, and they are scheduled to play the following shows:
March 12 – 4:15 p.m. at Cheer Up Charlies
March 12 – 10 p.m. at Palm Door on Sixth Patio
March 13 – 6 p.m. at Sam’s Town Point
March 14 – 11:45 p.m. at Low Down Lounge
March 15 – 4:15 p.m. at Mama Dearest
March 17 – 9:15 p.m. at Hotel Vegas
In this exclusive interview, Chellar (guitar) and Stanhope (vocals) talk about how they got their band name, the influence of Prince’s guitar tone, and their frenetic live shows.
Editor’s Note: This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. Scroll to the bottom to view the full video interview on our YouTube channel @360degreesound.
360°Sound: How’d you come up with the band name congratulations?
Chellar: When we were trying to come up with the band name, we all had a big list of names, and each of us thought we’d absolutely nailed this. And then bringing in this huge list, every single one was rejected by someone. We had said we all had to agree on the band name.
We were inspired by Radiohead and how they took their name from a Talking Heads song. Greg [Burns, the bass player] went through his iTunes library looking for inspiration, and it was actually the second MGMT album, which is called Congratulations. That was the first one that someone didn’t immediately say no to. From there, we were like, “Okay, well, I guess that’s the only one we like of the bunch, so we’ll go with that.”
I was intrigued when your publicist told me your sound was like “Tune-Yards meets Sleigh Bells meets Prince.” How do you feel about that description?
Chellar: That description is pretty apt, to be honest, especially the Sleigh Bells and Prince, because they are two direct influences. I think our strength as a band is that we love lots of different artists. We all have pretty different tastes, and I think everyone has their influence in their corner of the square that is congratulations.
Leah, who are some of your influences?
Stanhope: For me, personally, it was like ‘80s Europop bands like Erasure. My mum and dad are massive Erasure fans, and that was the core band that we listened to as a family. Beyond that, it was Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, and bands of that era.
The really flamboyant vocals, like those of [Bronski Beat’s] Jimmy Somerville shaped my sound specifically. It’s quite tedious to say, but it really is everything. We see the beauty in so many different genres. I’m also a huge metal fan. It just rocks, you know?
Jamie, I understand that you take a lot of inspiration from Prince. There are a lot of funky guitar licks on the Join Hands album. Is there a particular era of Prince that you gravitate to?
Purple Rain was always the big one. That was always on in the car with my mum. But my mum’s favorite album was Parade. The specific guitar sounds that I was trying to get on this album really do harken to the funky sound on tracks like “I Wonder U” and “Kiss.” It’s a really clean sound.
Who does the synths in the band?
Leah: That’s mainly Greg, one of our songwriters and the bassist, and our producer, Luke Phillips (also an artist called ICEBEING), who are really into their synths. I can’t really say much more than that.
Jamie: It’s not really our area. But again, we were trying to channel a lot of Prince, like the 1999 and Controversy albums. We were trying to channel those sounds on tracks like “Fought 4 Love.”
What can you say about complementing the synths with your guitar?
That’s quite interesting because we don’t have an actual synth player, but we’re very conscious of the parts. It’s really key that nothing plays over each other. You can see it in a lot of groups, especially when they first start out, there might be a guitarist, a bassist, and a keyboard player, and they’re all playing the same thing.
We’re very keen that the interplay between the instruments is paramount and that nothing steps on each other in terms of parts. But in terms of the sounds as well, because the guitars are all very brash on the album. There’s not much room for the synths to be playing the same thing.
Join Hands was released this year, and you recently finished a UK tour behind it. How’d the tour go? And how’s the reception to the album been?
Leah: Wildly positive. We were sort of getting in our heads about it and assuming it was not going to be very good, and that four people would listen. But it went better than we could have imagined. I think everyone’s been waiting for us to release something of this size for a while. It was our first proper tour, and it was a really great reception.
The single “Dr. Doctor” is a fun track. Has that been a crowd favorite?
Stanhope. Yeah, it has. It’s got quite clubby elements. What I really like about “Dr. Doctor” is the references sound like drug references. When it goes “Can you drop me off a little before?” it sounds like “Will you drop me something off?” It’s actually saying to drop me off a little before because I don’t know how to be in this situation, and I need to have a word with myself. It’s a funny double meaning. The actual meaning is not as cool as it sounds.
A lot of our songs are designed to get everyone up and dancing. We just love throwing ourselves about. I think that one is especially good for that. “Ice Tea,” which is not on the album, is another absolute screamer for getting people up and bouncing.
Chellar: I completely agree. We put “Dr. Doctor” out as our third single to show off another side of the album. It wasn’t necessarily because we thought it’d be the most commercial, but it has really resonated with people. I don’t feel like many other bands could have written that song the way we wrote it because it goes all over the place. But I think it hangs together nicely.
Why should SXSW festivalgoers check out congratulations?
Chellar: We’re there to have a good time, and we want everybody else to do the same. There will be something for everyone in our sets.
Stanhope: I think people will feel hard-pressed to stand still.
Check out the full video interview on our YouTube channel, @360degreesound:
