You are reading an interview with Secondsmile
conducted by Dan Claydon on 24 November 2004
This is an interview I did with Olly from Secondsmile when they played Islington Bar Academy on the 16th of October 2004. Happy reading
Hi, who are you and what do you do?
My name is Oliver Goodland and I’m the singer in Secondsmile.
How did Secondsmile get signed to BSM?
Well ever since we did our first demo Kevs been emailing us, and he’s always seemed like a really nice genuine person and I quit the band recently, but then when I rejoined I really wanted to work with a label. And I thought about all the labels I really liked and BSM was top of the list because Kevs always been emailing us, he seems really genuine and I like all the releases he’s put out, wicked bands like Jeniferever. So I said to the band we should work with BSM, and we did. That was it.
Why did you leave the band?
Personal reasons, things to do with family and shit. Where I felt like I was neglecting them for a little while and a couple of events happened that made me feel bad because they happened while I was on tour in 2003. So I thought I’d quit the band to spend more time with my family but they basically threw it back in my face so I rejoined the band and I moved in with Phil and I don’t really speak to them anymore.
Who has influenced Secondsmile most musically?
At the beginning we listened to a lot of Hopesfall, and hardcore bands. We don’t listen to a lot of hardcore now, but we still listen to bands like The Bled and Every Time I Die and stuff like that.
*guy walks in, big interruption. Hooray.*
We all listen to loads of different stuff you know like Minus The Bear, Sonic Youth, shit like that. Just loads of indie. But we listen to loads of shit man but at the beginning we just loved Hopesfall, like everyone does..
*guy turns out to be bassist, starts talking to Ollie about Hopesfall.*
Lots of indie, mellow shit. Jeniferever who are on our label; they’re really cool.
You’ve got a new EP out now, is this your only release?
No, we released a two track demo in 2003 which got reviewed in Rocksound. Got 8 out of 10 which is quite nice and then we hooked up with BSM after Kev had our demo and liked it. We don’t play either track on the 2 track now because *trails off*
If you could use ten words to try and promote your EP what would they be?
Er- “if you like secondsmile buy our ep, its good! Wicked.”
You did a video…?
Yeah we did a tour with Aconite Thrill in September and the singer took a lot of footage of us, and he did the DVD that came with the Aconite Thrill album, so we said ‘oh do you want to do us a video’ and he did us a video. Kev, our record label guy, is trying to get it on Scuzz at the moment.
Is it just live footage?
Yeah live footage from our September Aconite Thrill tour around the south of the UK.
Do you know if its actually going on scuzz yet?
We’re trying to sort it at the moment but apparently it’s being bought out by MTV or something so, erm, it might not happen but we’re trying. Our record label guy is trying his hardest. They’ve got it there, it’s just whether they play it or not.
What’s the new website like and when’s it going to be finished?
We had our old website and then I left, so they put up a temporary site. When I rejoined, and we done our EP, there was a different temp site. This guy called Marcus from Fury Fanzine he’s doing it he’s been a good friend of ours for ages. It should be up in the next month or so. It’s going to be based on the EP artwork, so it should be cool. It’s annoying not having a website.
Yeah its hard to find out info about you!
We post a lot of stuff on our forums for people to read, but we need a website pretty bad. They guy who does it has a lot of other work so is just doing it in his time.
What’s the name about?
It was thought up before I joined because the bands been going since 2001 and I joined in 2002. They took it from a name of a song; there was a song called Secondsmile and it doesn’t really mean anything, Ross thought it up and said we should be called ‘Secondsmile’. But apparently someone told me it was the slang term for vagina, the female genital organs. That, we didn’t know but apparently there’s erm.. I think its Elliot smith who sings about Secondsmile, I don’t know if he means it like a vagina or not but it doesn’t really matter, we just let the music speak. I don’t really like the name that much but people associate our sound with it so it’s pretty cool.
What’s planned for the next year or so Secondsmile wise?
Ross is writing our album at the moment, he stays up late at night with his guitar and keyboard writing. We got two new songs since our EP and we’re going to re-release a couple off the EP and, like, the demo and rewrite them and stuff. We’re not sure who its going to be produced by, we’re not sure who its going to be released by, but we are writing it now so its ready for when we do get the chance to record it , but end of next year or middle of next year hopefully…
Full length?
Yeah well it’ll probably just be about ten tracks, just like an album, ya know.
*bassist and woody from my awesome compilation come in, hooray.*
Anything you want to add?
Thanks for showing an interest in Secondsmile, thanks for listening to what is essentially five strangers making silly music. I appreciate people who give a shit, you know? It’s nice of you to do an interview with little ‘ol me.
Thanks!
read 366 times