MD: You've been pretty busy with releases and more national gigs recently, how's that all going? 

Fab: It’s all been pretty nice thankdee, we’ve always been under the impression that if you actually want to make it in music then you’ve got to work ridiculously hard. As a band and with our manager Craig and with other people who’ve helped us we’re always striving to play more and write more and expose ourselves to as many people as possible. Plus we really like it… it’s always fun to tour and we’ll never get an experience like it again. Playing in a faraway place and having people know all the words to your songs is arguably the best thing in the world.
 
MD: You toured with CSS last year. 

Fab: We toured with CSS last year which was amazing, and I made numerous advances to Lovefoxx but she rubuffed me with her fists each time, which just fuelled my desire if I’m honest. To get the chance to play to 800 capacity sold out venues was unbelievable, especially when they were in CSS party mode. And as the only support band we got a much better reaction than we were expecting. I took photos of the crowd a lot and got some sweet bull-horns off a guy in Manchester Academy… so that’s a keeper on my wall. They were all super-nice as well, especially their road crew. I think Rory fell in love with the Bass Technician Ricardo, and Ricardo tried to start a fight with a bouncer in Edinburgh for Rory when he wouldn’t let him into a club... it was awfully romantic. They taught us lots of Portuguese swear words... did you know kabeedie in Portuguese means coathanger? So Lovefoxx came onstage in Norwich with a coathanger and a box of coco pops. Genius. We also supported Futureheads in Norwich, at the waterfront, which was amazing too – early on in our kind of… careers? They were great guys too, Barry has very very big cuddly arms and told us about how he uses ancient chinese remedies a lot. Magazines always mistake playing with the futureheads once as a whole tour, which is pretty lucky so we sound well good.

MD: Any good on-the-road rock n roll anecdotes to share with us? 

Fab: Although we usually have good stories involving Evan’s penis… Evan and I (Fab is me) once wrestled in a hotel room in Birmingham for 2 hours after eating 2 Mcdonalds each, Evan threw up first and had to sit in a cold shower. This was with everyone still in the room trying to get to sleep at about 2am. Once in Sedgefield Evan and Rory chased some sheep while I was trying to get through to Katie Perry on the phone to tell her I loved her, but the sheep turned out to be less than accommodating and they returned poo-covered and dishevelled. Haha and we always have weird times with our buddies Fresh Legs who’re a band from Southampton, and last year after our gig with them, we went to a Mercy type club (not nice) and ate candyfloss… that’s major major rock and roll for us. Rory once ate a litre of plant food.

MD: You're probably one of the most successful of the current Norwich bands; what does it mean to you to have a tight knit, small town scene to come back to? Do you ever find that being from norwich holds you back at all? 

Fab: It’s a mixed bag really… because Norwich is so small, it shines a spotlight on the big bands who emerge from there. NROne Records do a marvellous job of pushing those bands to the nation, such as Violet Violet, Uh Oh’s and The Brownies recent successes. It has lots of downsides too, there’s a surprising amount of backstabbing and inter-band rivalry which is a bit unfortunate – but I would imagine it’s the same in a lot of places, and I suppose it’s not necessarily unhealthy. It’s lovely to come back to the town itself as it’s gorgeous and completely feels like home to us. We’ve got all our friends here, and all of our friends bands to play with – so a Norwich gig is always the best. Anyone who says that being from Norwich holds you back is making excuses. There are far too many talented bands here to lend that any weight.
 
MD: what do you think of the hot city sounds festival?  

Fab: We think it’s a fantastic idea, especially from the early seeds of last years festival at the B2, which we really enjoyed playing at and watching. It’s great for us as performers as we don’t often get to go to gigs, but now all of our favourite Norwich bands are in one place! I don’t think people in Norwich know how lucky they are in terms of a multitude of good bands/promoters in Norwich, they’re spoilt for choice – and Hot City Sounds just makes it more convenient for them to see amazing bands. Plus it’s good for the city and it’s culture, mixed with the street fairs, the Norwich lanes and pubs and such – it can only help the city. Especially with the inclusion of the Arts Centre and Waterfront venues, it’s something Norwich can call it’s Camden Crawl.

MD: Do you have anything special lined up for your gig? 

Fab: We’re allllways hoping to impress our home crowd and give them something special, so we’re keeping it under wraps at the moment. But we’ve got several new songs that people won’t have heard yet and we fully intend on going nuts and letting our pent-up studio anger out! And hopefully the crowd will be letting go of their exam-angst… Essentially it will be an explosion of relief… and it’s bloody good to be playing on such a good lineup!

MD: You've said you're finishing the recording of your debut album at the moment, how's it going? 

Fab: It’s going graaand thank you. We’ve sorted all of our record company woes, and now we’re fully focused on making our album. Although Rory is liable to be distracted by Johnnys ‘space goo’… and Katie will end up with it in her hair. Stupid Rory.
Studio time is always tough for us, not only do we have to eat sausage rolls for a week, but we have to beat Vanilla Kick’s score on SuperMonkey Ball. Plus trying to capture a live sound is what we’re about and it’s very difficult at times. We’ve just finished recording a dark surf song called ‘Surfin’ Kraken’ for Artrocker Magazine, and it’s completely different to anything we’ve ever done before. It’s kind of shown us that using effects can really augment our music, and if we can find a balance of keeping our sound and improving it with effects we’ll hopefully be on our way to happiness.

MD: Do you have a title or any working titles for the record?

Fab: Yeaaah, we decided last night in the studio. Our album will be called ‘Rumpus’. Which we think is nice, and fairly fitting.

MD: Who will be producing it?

Fab: The wonderful wonderful Johnny Cole, of the Mill Studio – Winfarthing. Who is a complete genius and has managed to cope with us in our basic sound, and in our mental psychedelic surf sound… and also Rory sticking Kerrang posters up in his studio… Plus he lets us listen to Dub-step remixes of Dizzee Rascal.

MD: Are there many new songs on there, or mostly familiar favourites? 

Fab: We’re trying to strike a balance between old and new, because obviously a lot of old songs are still going to be new to most people outside of Norwich. But we’re also trying to write for ourselves, and we always prefer our new stuff to old. So we don’t want to cheat people out of songs they may really like, and songs that we may be too blind to see are good, but we also don’t want to release a record we feel could be better. So we’re expecting serious tracklisting arguments. We’ve got at least 5 new ones to put on there, and we’re expecting a 14 track album.

MD: You’re taking a lot of time out over the summer to record it. When will it be released?

Fab: Well pending on record company details, we’re aiming for an Autumn release and a September single. It’s been so long in coming, 3 years in the making so we’re itching to release it. Hopefully we’ll have a nice tour in place for the album, we’ll definitely be touring in some capacity… we’re working with Ed Thompson from 13 Artists Booking, and he’s brilliant so hopefully we’ll have a niiice big tour to look forward to. Being tour-support to a big band is still our dream though… maybe Queen?

MD: Norwich seems to a hot spot for Indie bands in the UK, making it ideal for Hot City Sounds. How does playing to crowds on the road compare to home town?

Fab: Hrmmm…. That’s a difficult one. Neither is better or worse. It’s a wonderful wonderful feeling to know you’ve reached people who don’t know you as friends and have never heard of you – yet they’re going nuts and having a sweet time. And will always come up to you and have a chat afterwords, and you feel you’ve made some fans and helped them have a good night. But then, the crowds when we play in Norwich are always insane, and amazing. It makes us feel so at home onstage. The kids and adults are always so appreciative, and we always try and pull out all the stops. We’re under more pressure, but the reward is always fantastic. PLUS I get to put make-up on…

MD: You’ll be playing the Dockville festival in Germany this summer. Can we expect The Kabeedies to be spending more time in mainland Europe?

Fab: Yeaaah, we’re so looking forward to that. We’d love to spend more time in other countries playing and looking around. Our time in Norway and in Paris was completely amazing, and we dream about touring America, Japan and Europe. Obviously money is a constraint… and I think at the minute Dockville is a one-off. If we get the chance to go abroad we’d jump at it, I know getting to travel is one of the reasons why I’ve always wanted to be in a band. That and the free Mars Bars.

MD: You played Latitude last year, which was great for the band. How do you feel this year’s festival roster is going to shape up?

Fab: Ahh Latitude. Our favourite thing ever. Nothing I think will compare to last year for us, and I doubt we’re going to get the chance to play again this year. The lineup was a bit controversial (although I love the Pet Shop Boys), but I think people have to understand that the big festivals like Reading and Glastonbury have a monopoly on all of the big acts (who sign deals promising they’ll only play those festivals) so it’s really really hard for organisers to get in contemporary big acts. I think they’ve found a great balance between old and new. And mainly because Bombay Bicycle Club are playing, it looks bloody good to us.

MD: So, who is always the victor when it comes to Mortal Kombat? 

Fab: ME! HAH! I won last time. I’M RAIDEN. I BLOODY WON. I beat Rory (scorpion) in the final. Although Katie is getting quite handy as Nightwolf. Evan is Ermac, he is green and floats.

Photos > Andi Sapey, Alexandra Bone & Rhian Brighton