I caught Suffolk/Essex/London band Lost Movies and their excellent tuneful indie rock at 'The Smokehouse' a couple of months ago and with an excellent debut single in 'Love Runs Cold' and a fun and engaging live show, they come highly recommended. Guitarist Richard Williams took some time out to answer a few questions for 'Ballroom Blitz's Man At The Back' about the band, future plans and songwriting when you live miles apart - do try to catch them if they pop-up nearby in 2024!
Lost Movies are Martin Williams (Vocals), Richard Williams (Guitar), Kerri Butcher (Guitar/Backing Vocals), Ben Wilkins (Keyboards), Roman Atkin (Bass) and Sam Leppard (Drums)
'Love Runs Cold' is available on all the major digital and streaming sites. More music to follow in the coming months.
Hi Guys, thank you for taking some time to answer a few questions for 'Ballroom Blitz's Man At The Back'. First off for those readers who may not be familiar with Lost Movies, could you give a short history of the band?
We’ve been together about 18 months now. Some of us were previously in Absent Kid, who were very active on the Essex scene in the early-00’s, and some of us in Warm Winters who disbanded in 2018. We’re all good friends and during lockdown, when frustratingly you couldn’t really do anything musically, there was talk of us doing a joint comeback gig as soon as it was all over. That somehow morphed into us creating a new band together! I hesitate to use the phrase super group, but Rom from Nothing Existed joined us on bass, and we cherry-picked some of the best Absent Kid and Warm Winters songs to get a live set together quickly, we then added some new ones we wrote together, and here we are today!
And who would you say were the main influences on Lost Movies?
With six of us in the band, our influences are quite varied, as you can imagine, but overall I’d say bands like The Cure, Manic Street Preachers, Radiohead, REM, Idlewild and Pavement.
You released your debut single - 'Love Runs Cold' - in April this year; do you have a sense of how it has fared out 'in the big wide world'?
The response to it was very positive. It’s a big song for us live and I think (producer) Michael Hemmings did a great job of capturing its energy. It was named BBC Essex Introducing ‘Track of the Week’ too which was great - nothing beats the excitement of hearing yourself on the radio still.
Any plans for some more single releases or a longer format release - an EP or album perhaps?
We’ll definitely be getting back into the studio early next year, whether that’ll be for some stand-alone singles, or to build up an EP we’re not sure yet, but we’re excited to get some new stuff down on tape for sure.
Any songs that you've not yet released or played live that you're excited to 'get out there'?
There’s a song called ‘Lost in Thought’ that we’ve been playing live for a while and not recorded yet and a new one called ‘Modern Doubt’ which we’ve played a few times. There’s some others we’ve been working on - ‘Instant Honey’, ‘Everything Forever’ and ‘You Are Here’ - which will hopefully make their live debuts in the new year too. With 30-45 minute sets it’s difficult to road-test new songs as much as you’d like, but sometimes you have to throw caution to wind and mix it up a bit - you learn a lot about songs and their dynamics from playing them live which you can't really replicate in the rehearsal room.
What is the writing process within Lost Movies? Does somebody come in with a strong idea of how the song should go or do they come out of a more 'jamming' scenario?
With studio time at a premium and the band being split across locations - Martin (the singer) and I live in London and the others in Essex/Suffolk - we don’t have as much time to jam as we’d like, so songs tend to be born out of home demos people work on, or smaller acoustic sessions between members. We then get together as a band to flesh them out and hone the structure etc. 'Love Runs Cold', for example, was a home demo I’d put together before the band started, which we then worked on together, and it evolved accordingly.
You've played a few gigs since getting together - any particular show(s) that stand out from the ones you've played?
The New Year's Eve show at Colchester Arts Centre with The Meffs was great, as was the Robin Cancer Trust All-Dayer at Three Wise Monkeys; just a really good vibe across both of those shows from the crowd and everyone taking part.
Any upcoming shows you can tell us about?
The first few months of 2024 will be mainly focused on recording I think, but we are playing at The Smokehouse in Ipswich (a great little venue) on Friday 26th January.
Favourite part of gigging? And least favourite part?
Favourite part has got to be that feeling when you’re on stage and connecting with people in a very visceral way. I play a lot of acoustic guitar at home but nothing beats the feeling of playing at full volume with the band when you’re all locked into a groove together. Least favourite part is probably the same as most bands - all the admin, the waiting around to soundcheck, all the lugging equipment up stairs etc. At smaller venues it’s sometimes a struggle to fit all six of us on stage too!
Do you think there is a healthy original rock / indie scene in Colchester and Essex at present? Any bands from the area you'd recommend to readers?
Absolutely, I think the town is really benefitting from new-ish venues like Coda, Three Wise Monkeys and Queens Street Brewhouse giving bands a platform to perform. Best Days Vintage (clothes shop & record store) in the town centre also gives bands a hub - every time I go in there I meet someone from a local band or a musician of some sort just hanging out there. Band-wise, I hear good things about She’s in Parties and we were really impressed with BIG big Sky when we played with him. Lianne Kaye and Emma Sanderson are two up and coming singer-songwriters we’ve played with too.
And finally, what plans for Lost Movies going forward in 2024?
I think with this band, it’s really been about enjoying making music and playing live together again without the pressure to try and ‘make it’ we put upon ourselves when we were younger (Absent Kid released an EP on Fierce Panda records and had some major label interest circa 2006). Having said that, we take a massive pride in what we do and want to push ourselves as musicians as much as we can, especially when it comes to recording, and are looking forward to putting some new stuff out in 2024, and making a glorious racket together throughout the year!