Fri
09
May
2008
Rolo Tomassi
Can you introduce me to Rolo
Tomassi?
James: Rolo Tomassi is a rock and roll band from Sheffield. We’ve been touring pretty hard over the last year, and we’ve
just finished recording what is going to be our debut album which will be out later this year hopefully September.
Tell me about the album.
James: It showcases what we’ve been doing for the last three years as a band. We put out a few other releases, but , like,
this is the first time we’ve been able to fully sort of experiment with all the ideas we’ve had, and it kind of brings them all together.
Joe: It’s a much broader picture of what we can do as a band. And it’s sort of an evolution from the old stuff into…it’s a little bit different I suppose. It should
be good hopefully.
Those other releases you mentioned include your EP which you put out on a small label
called Holy Roar. Would you say that that EP has been key to where you are at now?
James: Absolutely. Without the help from Holy Roar, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing now. They gave us a lot of
support, and really helped things. It is really important when touring to have a release to support yourself, so people can actually take home something, so people will know what you sound like, and
just to kind of get your name about more.
But the album isn’t coming out on Holy Roar, is it?
James: It’s not, no. We’ve sorted something out with a new label, errr I can’t say who yet because the deal is not quite
done, but we’re hoping to tidy that up in the next couple weeks.
Live, and musically, there aren’t many people doing what you’re doing. At all really. How
do people respond to what they see and hear?
Joe: We get mixed reactions really. Some people at the back say ‘what are you doing? What’s the point?’ But we get a lot
of enthusiastic responses too, like ‘that was really good’, and ‘wow’ [laughs].
James: I think is totally depends on the kind of gig you’re playing at. I mean, this year we’ve toured like three times and we’ve been supporting out friend’s bands,
and it kind of varies from band to band the reaction you get. I mean, the headline shows we do where people might be there to see us more specifically we often get much better reactions, but that’s
not to say that playing with other bands we don’t go down particularly well. But like Joe was saying, it’s like Marmite; people either love it or hate it.
So who inspires you to do what you do on stage?
James: We’re into a mix of bands really, but I’d say that the artists we all agree on would be musicians like At The
Drive-In, Dillenger Escape Plan, The Red Cord, Converge…especially bringing it into a live situation…we’re all fans of the way At The Drive-In looked when they played live. But that’s not to say
we’ve got a rehearsed stage show and we copy other people’s moves. Everyone kind of does what they want to do and is expressive as possible, more because it’s fun, rather than to be eye catching I
suppose.
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