Music Features

As a band, they are only just over a year old but young Bedfordshire band Look See Proof have already released a single, played a live gig on BBC Radio One and now, they're playing Glastonbury.

I caught up with them before a gig where they told me how they did it all!

How would you describe your style of music?

Indie pop with a bit of rock. It varies, it depends how we're feeling!

What about your musical influences?

Gang of Four, The Maccabees, The Dykeenies, The Runners and older bands like The Police. A wide variety really - eclectic!

How did the band get together?

David and Lee are brothers so it stemmed from that. They were both in bands before but decided to form a band together. Then Jason got involved and we practised with someone else but he dropped out so we advertised for a drummer in Hitchin with posters and Jonny phoned up. One practice and that was it, we wrote our first single at that session.

So the first time you all got together you wrote a song and it became your first single?

Yes - Tell Me, Tell Me, Tell Me was the first song we ever wrote at our first practice and it became our first single so that was pretty cool.

How did you get this first single out? It's always confusing - who gets a deal and who is self-signed or whether things are available on download only? What was your journey?

It all started when we had a gig at the Angel in Bedford. We had no deal previous to that but it happened that Gill, who is one of our manager's now was managing one of the bands that we were supporting and approached us. She picked up on us and is part of Tigertrap which is what we released on. They came to see us at a London gig and then wanted us to release on 7 inch and download. Basically they came to see us and liked it!

So you released the single - and it was picked up by Steve LeMaq?

Yes - he got a promo and loved it which is pretty overwhelming for us considering we all look up to him as a pioneer in new music, so for him to actually listen to the stuff and give us the opportunity to go on Radio One ... He came to see one of our gigs at the Buffalo Bar and booked us the next day to go on his show, so that was quite cool! A bit daunting but it was good!

So he booked you to play at the Maida Vale studios. This sounds like a whirlwind - what's the timescale for all this?

Basically we'd been together around two and a half months before Tigertrap picked us up and that was May/June last year, Steve came to see us in September and we played Maida Vale on 16th October, the same day that the single was released.

So you got your deal, have you got a new single coming out?

Yes - it's called Casualty and it's coming out on the 6th August on 7 inch and download on Weekender records - a different label this time.

How would you describe that single?

Powerful, very poppy and in your face. It's more us now than how we were - it's nothing like Tell Me, Tell Me, Tell Me. We were still very unaware of a lot of stuff in the music industry, but this is definitely a clear sign of our progression as musicians. Whether people think that's a good or bad thing is pretty irrelevant, it's just an indication of how our music's changing because we're still a young band - we're only a year and two months old.

Now you're playing at Glastonbury? That's pretty exciting! You're playing on the John Peel stage - how did this come about?

We've got a booking agent who came to watch us at a gig and was interested in us becoming one of his clients and so he is the one who actually got us a slot and we owe a lot to him.

It's the most nerve-wracking thing ever and a massive honour. The bands that are playing are bands that we love and listen to and are on after us - it's just crazy.

We've got a gig back in Cambridge the same night so we can't stick around but we're going back later!

So, from what you've told me about your story it's a case of being in the right place at the right time, so I would hazard a guess that your advice to other bands is to keep gigging?

Yes - don't play gigs only in your local area, you've got to go into London and everywhere. In our first year we've played like 100 gigs and it definitely gets you noticed more than if you stay in the same place. Only one gig out of 20 might have been worth doing but it doesn't matter if you only play to three people, at the end of the day you've got three people who know your music. We've played to three people before - and travelled two hours to get there!

Also, put effort into your MySpace as well but it can't just be that - you've got to do MySpace and gigging!

You're not going to play to thousands when you first start, you've got to start somewhere and work it up. We're lucky to have what we have now, especially after such a short period of time. And our following are just amazing, and it's hard to think of a way to repay their support so when we do play a gig, what ever it may be we put everything into it.

You've got a loyal following already have you?

Yes - it's small but it's getting bigger! Each gig we do we seem to see people that we've never seen before more and more so hopefully we're doing something right!

What's it like locally for gigging opportunities?

There are good venues and the proximity to London is good as well. The Marquee in Hertford is an amazing venue. They book really established bands like The
Maccabees and give local bands the opportunity to support these bands.

So what's your ultimate ambition as a band?

Glastonbury was one but we've got that one so to tour with another band in America and go to Japan and then write a really good album - that's ultimately what we want to do. Just keep touring and gigging and gigging until hopefully one day we'll be picked up by someone bigger - so EMI if you're reading this ....!!

We've had a good year but I mean we've only got a single deal so to progress things will take more time. But the more you commit to it the more you get out of it so we're just going to keep gigging and building our fan base!