I Talked To Sky Larkin

Sky Larkin released one of funfunfun's favourite albums of 2009, The Golden Spike (To find out how much I liked it, check back next week for my end of year list). They also released a cassette ep back in May, headed by, and entitled after, my fav track off the album, Antibodies, and which contained personal b-sides created by each member of the band. Singer/guitarist Katie took some precious time out of the band's hectic schedule to answer some questions posed to her by funfunfun. Her responses were meant to feature in funfunfun zine #2 but it never saw the light of day so here they are:

Why did you decide to release Antibodies ep as a cassette?

We wanted to release it on a format that offered us the opportunity to do some different and exclusive content- side b of the tape doesn't exist digitally!

Did you listen tapes as kids? What was your first/favourite? I had Parklife and played it continuously for weeks on my My First Walkman. Happy times :)

My friend Felicity made me a Nirvana tape when I was 12 which had a pencil crayon cover.

The b-sides really show off different sides of the band. How did the idea for it come about? And how did each of you decide what to use your ten minutes for?

I liked having the opportunity to explain myself and to feel like I was having a direct conversation with the people who listen to our music. Nestor loves bassy rumblings and Doug loves gumtree.

What would be your Gumtree personal advert?

Three headed hermaphrodite seeks ears for intimate relations.

The Golden Spike came out earlier this year. Have you been pleased by the reaction to it?

Definitely! We had no idea how it would go down and it's amazing how and where it has ended up around the world- apparently good old British Airways have it in their inflight entertainment system!

Having got a lot of attention from the first demoes you put online, did you feel pressure at all to live up to the hype with The Golden Spike?

I guess we didn't want to disappoint ourselves so we worked hard to get the album what we wanted it to be before we left for Seattle, what we do is rooted in playing live so that was important to us

You went over to the States to record the album with John Goodmanson. Why did you feel he was the right person for the job? How was your time over there?

He has been at the helm of some great records and is a real gent! Our time in Seattle was intense but fun, flavoured with coffee and trips to the aquarium, experience music project and sci-fi museum.

You're one of the bands that contribute to the Awesome Pals blog. Would you say that the AP bands form a sort of community/scene? And what do you think connects them all?

Quite literally the internet does- I guess our generation of bands can not only connect with fans more directly but also each other. It means scenes don't have to be geographically located and can be more about attitude and ethos. And bumping into each other around the country and having fun.

If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life, which one would you pick?

Some huge extensive box set I guess, the new Pixies one would suit me just fine.

Sky Larkin - Smarts