Ahead of thier EP release in a couple of weeks, Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea get a grilling from Brighton's excellent Source magazine...Post-rock four-piece Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea have covered a lot of ground since they began playing shows last year. Their sound is ever evolving, taking post-rock and making it poignant, relevant and interesting again. Complex rhythms and intelligent lyrics sung with agitated, shouty vocals lead to far flung comparisons, ranging from Cursive for their similarly narrative songs to the restrained rage of Fugazi and At The Drive In. Already a favourite of BBC 6Music's Tom Robinson, Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea are destined for great things.
What kind of bands did you grow up watching?
Dave: Having always lived in Brighton, none of the bands I grew up watching were similar to us in the slightest. Until I joined I could never really find anything I liked on the Brighton music scene, I guess I was looking in the wrong places. As soon as I met these guys though they started dragging me to gigs unwillingly and then eventually I started finding bands that were actually quite good and had their place on the scene here.
Some people would say that post-rock is a bit of a staid genre these days having gone through so many phases, why do you persist in that scene, what makes you different?
Andy: I wouldn't particularly say we're a post-rock band.
Steve: I'd say we're more post-hardcore to put a name to it, or you could even say post-punk because it kind of fits in with that too. The thing is that we all like different music, we all call our band by a different genre anyway and we all take different inspirations and bring it to our songs.
Andy: I still kind of see it as just writing songs, and they just end up sounding a bit like that...
Sean: I don't want to speak for Dave but, I'm pretty sure Dave and I don't know anything about post-rock, we have all these other influences from other bands that we like to listen to, and I suppose they reflect the style we bring to our songs. I've always mainly been into electronica and IDM myself, I didn't really go to gigs before I joined the band, I was all about going to clubs but that's all changed now.
How did the band end up in Brighton?
Andy: Me and Steve both moved to Brighton to start a band individually, Dave our bassist is from Hove, and Sean moved here for university, so we all met up with each other about a year ago. I grew up quite close to Brighton and went to gigs here quite a lot when I was younger. I suppose Brighton's always been notorious for its music scene.
You've played quite a few shows in Brighton, especially when you first started out, what's your favourite venue?
All: Hector's House.
Steve: The sound guy Jack's great, it's the best live sound we've had, I think.
Sean: There's always a good crowd of people in there because the gigs are usually free, and it's always locals that you play to.
Dave: The promoter there really supports local music, he puts local bands’ EPs on sometimes in between bands playing at shows.
What other local bands have you played shows with that you'd recommend?
Andy: We're friends with a band called Illness who we really like, we've also played a few shows with Everyone To The Anderson, who are great. Hold Your Horse Is have to get a mention too. We've played quite a few shows and a tour with them earlier this year, they're fun to gig with.
FYI LIVE: With Amateurs at Hector's House, Thurs 19th August
WORDS BY THOM DAVIES
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