Comprising of Alex (guitars/vocals),Mim – (keytar/synth/vox ), Dave JaVue (bass/vocals) and JC (drums/effects) Le Bone are art rock aficionados and hail from Wolverhampton and play their own brand of music termed “pink pop prog”. They’ve been brightening our world for well over a decade, so we thought it was high time we sat down with the band for an exclusive chat. Without further ado, here’s what they had to say:
Can you tell us about the band’s origins? Where did you meet?
Do we have to go through the silly joke name origin? ….it started with a silly joke name (Comeshot Calypso), making it up in a pub. Then I went back and made some music for it, and go, “look, I made it for that silly name that we came up with to be so comical”.
We had one practice and about fourteen songs like that, and nothing happened after that. Did it? I totally forgot all about it. But you’ve been listening to it all those years, and then about how long? Ten to twelve years later, you come back and go, “Hey, man, do you want to do something with me?” I was like, “Really?” I knew I did. I knew I didn’t. Donkey shoes, diabetes, right? And that was it.
So me, Dave, and Jason were in a band a few years ago. Just a few years ago. Ten years ago now. About ten years ago. And we weren’t doing anything musically, and I’d always been a big fan of Cumshot Calypso, so I was like, I’m in. Let’s see if we can get Dave from our old band, and Dave was in, and that was it. The band was born.
What are the musical influences of each band member, and how do you forge them into a cohesive whole?
Life, cats, beautiful moments. Probably my bass basis, Ryan Martini. Probably got his name wrong. I’m great at that. He does the whole slappy tappy, like fingers become like piano sheet, kind of like hammers.
I think it’s okay for the nineties old thing. And then they started messing around with different genres coming into my kind of thing. So because of that, I got into different genres. Actually, the root of that kind of thing. Your Faith No Mores, and Mr. Bungle. But I want to hear the actual jazz people. I want to hear the things. And I’m going to say Cardiacs for the first time as well. Stuff like that starts popping up. It’s about ten years ago, so it took me a while to actually get down the family tree to them. But I haven’t mentioned them before, so my brain doesn’t actually say it. We often get compared.
I think since I was little, I just always wanted to be Joni Mitchell. But I’m absolutely nothing like her. But I still want to be Joni Mitchell. But I think I’m probably more like Madonna or Bush. I want to be Mitchell one day. Bush, I mean like Gavin Rossdale. Swallow, it’s not the wrong swallow. It had elements of peaches as well. You got this punk thing as well. I think I’m more influenced by this stuff that I know really well. That kind of thing, and there’s some because they got the colours in there as well. That’s what Indilopier stuff like that is. But I wanted to be Mitchell, but I’m nothing like her.
Can you tell us about your local music scene? Is it supportive? Are there many places to play?
I think it can be a bit cliquey. But I should probably not say that on an interview because people might read it and think, “Oh.” But it’s tricky to break into the scene of all bands. Dive bar is really cool and inclusive, and the people there who run it are great. But it’s tricky getting people to get into the door because there’s a lot of steps, and I think we know a lot of that don’t like steps.
I think it’s quite hard, especially now. Because Wolverhampton isn’t very big in a social going out. People don’t have a lot of money, and so going out to see bands and going out into town, it just isn’t very busy. I disagree with that. It can be. It’s got to be for the right people and the right bands. It’s not for our kind of music. So we do struggle.
When we were young, there was a period of time when me and Alex were going out, and when we were writing, town was busy. I lived in town, and town was always busy. And it isn’t. It isn’t the same. And I don’t think it’s the same anywhere really. So I think that’s quite hard.
It’s like the Specials talking about Coventry, becoming a ghost town. Because it was mad. You just walk from place to place, and like in the late nineties and early two thousands, like Velocity, Roland, and Madeline also was part of that group. And clubbing was a big thing in Wolverhampton. People used to come for dance music and so yeah. I think it’s slowly over time turned into something else.
What’s the best and worst thing about your local scene?
Best thing is dive. Worst thing is Wolverhampton. We’re always going to struggle because we’re so close to Birmingham. I think as well.
Can you tell us about your band’s discography, demos, singles, albums?
We have debut album, Glory Hole, 2012 ish. A bunch of floor check demos like that. Second album Pink & Brown, which is kind of out. We’ve released as singles, but is being crystallised and is officially coming out as a whole on the 12th of September. With real instruments. All real instruments. No electronics. No drum machines or anything. No AI. It’s all real. Disclaimer: no AI in any of Le Bones’ music. As for demos, the next third yet untitled album is demoed, highly polished demos, I might add, put together by Alex. Highly polished. Which we’ll put together over the next couple of years, I’m sure, for the third album. So we’re looking forward to that. We’ve also just done a video for ‘God Of Spaces’ …..it’s on YouTube. JC did the video.
How do you feel you’ve evolved musically throughout your career?
Gone from being a child in a home with parents and little equipment, and little skill, and then life experience and growing up. New equipment and being able to play with different things and play with different people, in an appropriate sense. Life experiences help you write different songs in different formats and such. Made you the massive slapper you are today. Slapper the base.
Oh God. I guess the same thing with the thingy from primitive equipment of Casio keyboards and some plugs straight into a four track with a Boss pedal, kind of things. If you want about that stuff, gradually building up to quite a decent thing. But computers made it so you can just literally make albums in your own house, can’t you? The whole thing, but I’ve gone from getting more tracks and through the orchestra in more and more sheets, and going from I don’t know the typical primitive learning you things by simplistic songwriting to more complex arrangements, and then just more skilled on your instruments through life.
My first attempt of recording was on my dad’s double tape deck with a microphone input, and you’d record on one tape. He’d switch them round, and then you’d play that tape whilst recording on the other one. So you play what you just recorded, but then you can record over it. The issue was that you can’t really keep in time very easily. Then when I eventually got recording equipment that had a click on it, it was like, oh my god!
Because I did something so similar. I’d like to do a drum beat. On one cassette, everything with the condenser mics and the old boombox type of things, record the drum beat, then put that through a stereo system, my mum’s boyfriend’s stereo system, blast that out while playing the guitar over the top, keep on adding things, trying to get the levels right. Nothing to change. And then I was borrowing a four-track from school. The old Tascam four-track. I was in the music room all the time, and when I don’t know, I was about thirteen, and I heard that Sergeant Peppers was done on a four track, and as a music lesson, I was like, “Oh my God, you can do that with these four tracks!” And that’s how we got into.
I probably haven’t because I’m still really like doing the same things as kind of when I started, really. I don’t know. You’re taking on the grades and incorporating all these different things. That’s not what comes to Le Bone. What I really love about being in Le Bone and a lot of bits and bobs and that I do is that I actually really like collaborating, writing and doing things like that. That’s the bit that I like, and I like singing with other people, and I like the kind of lovely trifle of music. So that’s what I like, and that’s where I’m best. Where I’ll be like, I’ve got a bit of something, and then it will go with someone else, and it will turn into something better. And that’s how I like. I’m probably best at really.
But don’t forget that you become a multi-instrumentalist through it. Because I go, I’ve put a trumpet on this one. Or can you learn to play a trumpet again? And then bang stuff on that one. So you’ve got to get another trumpet. Then it’s like, I want flute on this one. There you go. So you are expanding. Not everyone starts as a multi-instrumentalist, do they? But no, you are. Like me. Don’t forget that.
Me. No. I want to know your story. I had a drum kit when I was ten. My dad was in a band at the time, and the drummer from that band gave me some lessons, and I played along to Simply Red stars. And being the faddy person I am, didn’t last very long, so that went by the by. Until a few years later, my other brothers were into music. I drummed with them (badly) for a bit, and then. Before I moved to Wolverhampton, I was in a position in my life where I needed to make a change in my life, and I thought I’ll see if I could join a band as a drummer. I can play a beat; pretty much all what I could do. I looked at the paper, and Rob’s band at the time was advertising. So that’s what brought me to Wolverhampton, seeing that advert and auditioning for Whitmore.
Tell us about tours you’ve completed, and the question after that is: Will we see you on the road anytime soon?
We haven’t toured. No plans to tour. We’d like to tour. We’re constantly gigging. That’s true. Two different things. But we have got really, really excited about a headline gig at a festival this weekend. Alice’s Wicked Tea Party that we’re looking forward to, along with our album launch on September 12th amongst other gigs that I cannot think of at this moment. There’s two stokes. I’m in Birmingham. I’m really looking forward to the Japanese day gig . Stoke. Just me and I have big Japan fans on me. That’s really exciting! I’m going to wear my kimono, which I’m very excited about. I’ve got a pink kimono, saving it for Edo Fest, so that’s a big deal.
What’s next for the band?
We’ve got to mention the album launch on September 12th, Dive in Wolverhampton. We’re excited about that. We’re going to play the album in its entirety. The album is called Pink and Brown. After that, it’s all going to be about working on the next album. Looking forward to those songs. They’re fantastic, and keep on playing Alex’s music.
What’s the one question and answer interviewers never ask but wish they would?
They never ask why you wear pink. It’s such a big thing. They never ask us that because these are set questions. They ask generic questions. It’s kind of like the same questions, just mixed in a pile and then given in a different way. The one question interviewers never ask but wish they would. It would be, how much money can I give you?
