MD: Tell us how the band formed?

LL: Chris and I (Iain) started the band as a duo, purely to make our first EP. We felt we had a great idea and needed to see it through. We gradually turned into more of a band over time. We are now a 5-piece with Steve, Owen and our newest member Ed. 

MD: The name of the band comes from the Mario Game, and your lyrics and artwork is influenced by video game culture. How did this come about?

LL: We weren't really aware of video game culture or anyone else making video game inspired music when we started out. To us it was a perfect metaphor that allowed us to write songs that reflected how we felt at that stage of our lives. Also, having such a strong musical identity made decision making loads easier. 

We did a lot of video game inspired artwork for our last single 'The Early Sheets', mainly because we had such a great videogame inspired music video made for us by a brilliant animator called Steve Jones. Plus the song itself was a new version of a track from our video game EP, so it seemed appropriate.

MD: Super Mario: The Lost Levels had a reputation for being super hard. Your music is very deep and complex. Do you think it is 'difficult' in any way?

LL: It may well be difficult in places, I think our audience can handle it though, they are clever.

MD: There are strong electronic elements in your songs, are you influenced by the recent trend of Chip Tune music?

LL: No. Our use of synths and electronic stuff comes from being children of the 80's... and listening to a lot of a Dibidim.

 

  

MD:You've already released a lot of EPs and such like, but you're now working on your first album. Have you found this a very different process? Can
you give us an idea of what the album will be like?

LL: It's a big project for us, we are recording and producing it ourselves so we can take our time experimenting with sounds and recording techniques etc. We are still very much in the middle of it at the moment so it's hard to say exactly what it will be like when it's done. I think it will be grand and psychedelic, more of a return to our original Progressive sound. I think as people we have all grown over the last year or so and this has had quite an impact on our writing. We are now much more altruistic.  

MD: What do you think the importance of a festival like Hot City Sounds is to Norwich and its music scene?

LL: If it brings more outside attention to Norwich and the artists who live and work here then it's great. I think the Norwich music scene is pretty healthy at the moment though, there seems to be more bands than ever before.   

MD: If you had to score a video game what would it be?

LL: We are really into the music from the Legend of Zelda games, so it would be great to do a big adventure game like that. Our first EP was meant to be the soundtrack to a game though, so in a way we have already done it... It's just the game hasn't been made yet.  

MD: What are your plans for the future?

LL: The plan for the near future is to make a great album. It's hard to think past that at the moment. Hopefully when it's completed we will get the opportunity to put it out with a good label, play some good gigs and carry on making music together, can't really ask for more than that.