Welcome to In Conversation, our interview column where we chat to our favourite artists who are producing incredible music. Returning to our interviews at 2000trees, we had the honour of chatting to another long time favourite of BoolinTunes. Joe chatted to CJ and Daniel of Love Rarely about their rise in popularity, 2000trees performance and CJ‘s Vinted strategy.
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Joe: I thought that your set earlier felt quite special.
CJ: Thank you.
Joe: You have obviously done the hard graft in terms of just doing tons and tons of shows. We have seen you at a fair few shows and other festivals such as Burn It Down. You would look around during your set, and it was a huge crowd. When you asked, ‘Who knows who we are?‘, there was a good response, and you could see people singing along and everything. So, how was that set for you guys?
CJ: It was surreal. It was the biggest set we’ve ever done. Seeing that many people put their hands up, we were just like, ‘Okay, then. People are properly getting into us now‘. It’s a bit weird because we’ve never had this before. It’s like finally getting to a point where people are invested, singing along, and it’s quite jarring for us.
Daniel: Yeah, it’s nice to see people actually turning up to the gigs and knowing the words to our songs and being able to sing along. When they get to a part of the song where it’s appropriate to mosh and that kind of thing, they just do it of their own accord. We’re not having to… I mean, we’re not a band that would prompt a crowd to do it anyway, but it’s just nice to see them doing it on their own.
Joe: It feels like you’ve had a massive 18 months or so. You dropped the EP Lonely People, and then it just feels like you’ve done festival after festival, tour after tour. I know you’ve been doing this for a fair while now, so how has that shift in gears been for you both?
CJ: It’s been quite overwhelming. We keep going through phases of almost self-doubt, in a way. Like, ‘Oh, this is a bit out of our comfort zone‘. Then we’ll get here and we’ll do it, and we’re like, ‘No, we deserve to be here‘. It’s a constant circus in your brain, a little bit. A little bit of imposter syndrome, and a little bit of, ‘No, we’ve grafted. This is what you get from grafting‘. There are so many feelings with it. It’s very overwhelming, but yeah, we’re just enjoying it now. We just go through the emotions, don’t we?
Daniel: Yeah, I think the imposter syndrome can be quite real, just because we’re not in our early 20s; we’re in our late 20s, early 30s. We’ve all tried other original bands before, either together or in separate projects. Evidently, it hasn’t worked out. So when you get to this sort of level, it’s nice to know that people actually care about the music. People are turning up. It’s not like you’ve missed your chance, you know what I mean? You can still do this. So it’s nice for this to be happening now and to still have the potential to keep growing and growing.
Joe: It feels like you’ve really captured something recently. It feels like people just hear your band and it captures their imagination. What do you think has made people so drawn to your band, both performance-wise live and also on the records?
CJ: I think it’s us finding that perfect puzzle of the members, the writing, and the look. When we started, it was our second band, and we said to each other, ‘We’re not half-arsing this‘. We’re going to brand it, we’re going to do everything professionally, we’re going to do social media right. And I think that is what’s currently paying off. It’s obviously surreal for us to understand why people are identifying with our music so much because, as the person creating it, you can’t really get your head around it. You’re just writing songs and people are giving you all this positive feedback. Like, someone got a tattoo the other day with our EP cover and it’s like that’s great.
Joe: I think I saw that, yeah.
Daniel: Somebody in America who has never actually seen us live, just someone who listens to the music.
CJ: I think math rock in America is just… yeah. Like, that’s where it is. That’s where you want to be. Yeah. Math rock, I love it.
Joe: I always get the feeling when I see you guys that you always just really enjoy performing live. I can remember when we saw you at that show in Nottingham, where you were dressed as Tinky Winky. I find that your live show just always has an infectious nature to it whenever we see you guys.
I know you’ve been quite busy, I know you’re working on, I assume you still are, working on a full-length album?
CJ: We’re calling it a project.
Joe: I know you’ve talked about it a bit, but how is that coming along, and also, how are you balancing doing that with all these shows and tours?
CJ: It’s hard work because we all work full-time as well. Luckily, Lou, our guitarist, is producing it, and we’re all recording in a spare bedroom.
Daniel: Very DIY.
CJ: So literally, we get home from work and we record, just chipping away. We are very close to finishing it.
Daniel: I would say the main bulk of the next project is written and complete. There are obviously finite things that need to be recorded, but then it’s all the post-production, mixing, and that kind of thing. We’ve released “Disappear” and that’s going to be on it, and that’s obviously got a music video. We need to finalise whether we’re going to release more things from the next project of that calibre, where it’s a song with a video and all that kind of thing.
It’s moving at a very good speed. A pace that we’re comfortable with, and we’re not rushing through anything just to get it out. We’re going to take our time and make sure it’s right, and we’re happy with the progress.
CJ: We want this one to stand the test of time. We don’t want it to be a case of, ‘Oh, we just want to put this out for the sake of it‘.
Joe: I feel like amongst the band, there are so many different influences. Leo, for example, he loves his hardcore, and you love your math rock stuff. When you’re writing the music, how do you make that all work when there’s such a range of music that you all like in the band?
CJ: So basically, Lou and Dan write the meat of it. They always write about the same number of songs for each project we do, so it’s balanced out, and you’re getting a bit of everything. Then Leo does the drums now, that’s where his influences come in. Luckily, doing both singing and screaming, I can incorporate everything. Leo‘s got his way of incorporating his love for stuff, Lou and Dan do that, and then you do it as well (Daniel).
Daniel: Yeah, Leo’s got a very wide variety of musical tastes. So when it comes to writing his parts, I think he’s very much ‘for the song‘. He’s not writing in a specific style because he wants it to be, like, a beatdown song. He’ll write what’s appropriate for the song, so whether that’s the most interesting thing for him to play or whether it’s just straightforward.
Joe: And I guess you guys played quite early today. You were here yesterday as well, weren’t you? I saw you at La Dispute in the forest. I assume you’ll catch them later as well?
CJ: Yeah, absolutely.
Joe: Who else have you been checking out today? Any of the bands?
CJ: Not much today, have we?
Daniel: I caught Daytime TV. If I’m totally honest, I caught them on the basis that I’ve not properly given them a listen yet. I used to be a really big fan of the guys that are in Daytime TV‘s previous band as well. I loved that band. By default, I went in thinking this new project would also be awesome. And it was, it was really great. I really enjoyed that. And then later on, I’m going to go and see Calva Louise, a band we supported previously in Leeds.
CJ: Alexisonfire and letlive. as well.
Joe: You’re also doing ArcTanGent in August. I think it’s about a month away now. Do you have any plans for your set or do you know who you want to see there?
CJ: I’m excited to see Karnviool and The Callous Daoboys playing, I love them guys.
Daniel: I’m super excited.
Joe: And then I’ll end on a slightly random one for you, CJ. Our team loves your Vinted posts. What is your Vinted strategy and your method for finding all your fun and cool outfits?
CJ: I use Pinterest a lot for it. But I really love the 1950s, like flapper girls and stuff like that. Doing the curls in the hair and all that. It’s literally just whatever I’m feeling at the time. I’ll put it in Pinterest and then I’ll find a little outfit and I’ll curate it that way.
Daniel: I think we have it on our merch at the moment. We used to have a t-shirt with a 1950s pin-up girl, which is quite reflective of that.
CJ: Yeah, I literally just love the vintage vibe.
Joe: The cat one recently, and we were just like, ‘That’s amazing‘.
CJ: If I see a wacky outfit, I’m buying it. It’s getting to be a problem. Every gig that comes up, I’m like, ‘I’ve got to buy a new outfit‘ And then I’m like, ‘No, I’ve got to reuse my old stuff‘. You get an image in your head and you’re like, ‘I’ve got to have that on stage, I’ve got to have that in my pictures‘. I need to sort it out.
Thanks to CJ and Daniel for sitting down with us to have a chat at 2000trees. You can check out our coverage their 2000trees festival set here.