We continue with our interviews series from 2000trees this year. We caught up with Jodie Robinson (Vocals), Josef Parkes (Guitar), Joe Dean (Guitar), Sam Mattison (Bass), and James Luker (Drums) of IOTA to chat about their early morning performance, upcoming new material and their creative process.
How was your trip up? I know you’ve mentioned before that some of you are Cornwall-based?
Jodie: Just me!
James: For the rest of us, it’s about an hour, so – fine!
How did you find getting up at five o’clock in the morning? It’s not pleasant.
Jodie: It was fine, actually – I’m used to it now. We’ve been quite busy, so I’m driving up every weekend doing different things. No traffic, it was a breeze.
And I assume 10:30 is probably the earliest you’ve ever played a set?
James: It’s the earliest I’ve ever played any music, ever. But it was a really good turnout – we were really impressed. People show up for this festival, man. Half ten in the morning and it was a pretty full tent, and everyone was loving it. We loved it – it was really great.
Jodie: It was weird when we got the offer in – we were like, oh my god, what’s that going to be like? But we kept getting told it was a really good slot, because no one else was playing. We were just happy to be here – we would have played anything. And we think it was an amazing set for that set time.
I do feel people turn out for the first bands now – most festivals I’ve been to this summer, the early slot’s no longer a throwaway. Festivals put strong bands on early because people show up.
Jodie: That’s good to know – hopefully that’s the case!
This is the second time you’ve been up this way recently – the Frog & Fiddle show, two months ago. I was there – I’m from Cheltenham.
James: Same! I’m from Cheltenham originally. Love the Frog and Fiddle.
Jodie: It’s a beautiful venue, actually, the beams and stuff. The barn is cool.
I’ll take that as a seal of approval for the Frog and Fiddle. Great sound in there too.
Jodie: We played with Terminals, and they’re just an incredible band. They blew us away, actually.
Are you looking forward to Burn It Down? I know the answer’s going to be yes – but is it a festival that’s always been on your list? How do you feel about playing it at the start of September?
Jodie: This line-up in particular this year – I’m so excited to be part of it. There are a bunch of really cool bands on there. Every time we’ve played it, it’s just been the best time. It’s really similar vibes to 2000trees – they really look after you, you have the best bands playing, and it’s just a really good time. So yeah, we’re really excited for Burn It Down.
You’ve done a fair few festivals over the years, of all kinds. What makes a good festival?
James: People. For me, it’s all about the people – a good [line-up], good punters who come, nice, good people. That’s what it’s all about, man. And the crew as well – the crew here are [great].
Jodie: Good sound as well – that makes such a big difference. It can be quite hard at festivals, making it all sound right. Having good sound on stage, and having a stage where – we were really grateful to have a stage where I could literally do a cartwheel on it today. We don’t get that very often!
Josef: I can’t think of a bad festival we’ve played, really. Festivals are just incredible – we love being part of them. We want to do more. We’ve never had a huge festival season, really. Trees has always stayed very true to its roots. It’s my favourite festival – I f***ing love it. And it doesn’t sell out [to the corporate side].
“We’ve been coming here as punters for so long – to be part of it now is what we’ve wanted for so long.”
Jodie, IOTA
Jodie: We’ve been coming here as punters for so long, just enjoying it – so to be part of it now is what we’ve wanted for so long. So many people would come to the shows and say, “why are you not playing 2000trees?” And we’re like – we don’t know! Get us on there! It’s really cool to be on the other side of it this time.
I know one or two bands like that, such as Prodigal – they always come to Trees as fans, and they’re playing the Cave after you. It’s really cool when bands go to festivals as fans too. You seem to have quite the schedule: up here, Torquay, London, all over the shop. How do you keep up with that without burning out?
Jodie: We really want to grow our audience – we’ve got a big release coming up, so it’s really important that we’re getting out there. And IOTA as a band – it’s really important to see us live. We try and capture what we sound like live on the recordings, and with Sam Bloor, who we’ve been working with recently, the recordings are closer to that live sound than ever. But the energy we put out, the show in general, is just really fun – so we’re trying to say yes to everything. It is easy to get burnt out, but that’s just what happens. We know our limits – if an opportunity comes that’s not realistic for us, we might say no. But we don’t very often say no. I don’t think we’ve ever said no – we always make it work.
You nicely mentioned it – a big release coming. You’ve done a lot of singles, and the last EP was 2022. Is there something on the horizon?
Jodie: I don’t even know if we’re meant to be talking about it, really – but who cares, let’s spread the word. We’ve written an album. It’ll be our first ever album. And we haven’t released any of the songs off it yet – it’s all new songs. So you can imagine there’s a lot to do right now, and there’s going to be a lot of releases happening soon.
You mentioned Sam Bloor – which ties into my next question. You draw on a lot of different influences, the ‘gaze bits, the grungy bits, and Sam works with bands like Graphic Nature who sit in a similar vein aesthetically. When you’ve got a single coming – music video, artwork, sound – what’s your process for putting it together?
Jodie: It’s hard, because usually I’ll take the song when we’ve finished it and have this idea in my head of what I want it to look like. Then I’ll bring it to the boys and we’ll all chat about it and make it our own – everyone has input. Across the whole process it’s very equal: from the writing to the music videos to everything, we all have a say.
Josef: There’s not really a set process, is there? It’s just really collaborative. We work with Kieran Gallop and Ben Head – Ben’s great, he filmed some of our set today. Ben has shot a lot of our videos and Kieran’s shot a lot as well, and it’s good to have their input visually. Naturally, as the sound progresses, so does the visual side – the look we want to go for, the themes, the branding, all that jazz.
“Hopefully they can’t find anything that’s exactly like us!”
Jodie, IOTA
A twofold question, because the genre has become quite a busy space over the last five to seven years – grunge-gaze, shoegaze and all that. Do you do anything to try and stand out, or do you just make your best music and let it speak for itself?
Josef: We’re not trying to stand out. If something’s too contrived – if you’re trying too hard to do something – it takes away from it. You lose the authenticity. We all have so many different influences, we all listen to different things, and we come together and write what we want to hear, what we like. There’s not much thought of “we need to stand out from this band.”
Jodie: You might listen to a song and get inspired, and that forms a guitar riff, and that forms into a song – but usually what we start with sounds completely different to what we end with anyway.
James: We’ve never listened to a song and gone, “let’s write a song exactly like that”. What’s the point?
Jodie: There’s definitely songs where you’re like, “oh, I wish I’d written that one” though!
For anyone who wandered into the Marshall stage this morning, caught you, and went “I love that sound” – what bands would you recommend they go and spin for more of that vibe?
Jodie: It’s hard – we take inspiration from lots of different places. Bands we take inspiration from are probably Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones, Superheaven, Hole, No Doubt… even Cocteau Twins, with the shoegazy vibes. There’s so much. Hopefully they can’t find anything that’s exactly like us! Something energetic and fun. Even Fun House – The Stooges, the album – that’s the vibe I want to portray live.
Final one from me – more band questions. Who else have you seen today, or who will you be catching over the weekend?
Jodie: Higher Power – we saw a bit of them, but then we came here. They’re really cool.
Josef: I’m excited to see Sunny Day Real Estate – very excited.
James: Yeah! And I wanted to watch House of Protection – but they’re on now…
Well, this is my last question, so I’ll let you sprint down there! No – I’m joking.
James: It’s fine – it’s your fault! No, we’ve got another interview in a minute anyway – it’s their fault. Divide the blame!
