The Edge interviews guitarist MC Lord Magrão and bassist Aristazabal Hawkes before Guillemots‘ show at Wedgewood Rooms, Porstmouth.
First off – how are you guys? Are you excited for the new tour? Is there anywhere you’re looking forward to playing most?
AH: We’re really good, and we’re really excited to be playing here. It’s the start of our new tour here, since we just finished touring Brazil.
MC: I’m always looking forward to playing in Glasgow, I love the Scottish. To be honest, I haven’t finished looking at the schedule yet so it’s a new surprise every week. Oh, and Liverpool!
How was it playing Glastonbury this year, and doing four shows in two days?
MC: It was really cool. On each day we had a main show and an acoustic show.
AH: It wasn’t fun at one point because we had to carry our gear up a huge hill because nothing could go up it.
MC: Some guy in a buggie took our stuff to the bottom and we were like “Well, what happens now?” and the guy just said that we had to carry it from there.
When you were there, what bands did you try and see?
MC: I saw U2 on the Friday and we saw Warpaint twice on the Saturday, at the park and on the John Peel Stage — they were really good. We tried to see Radiohead but we couldn’t get in, and QOTSA were fantastic on the Sunday because it got louder and louder. And The Horrors were good.
It’s been about five years since you released your debut album Through the Windowpane – does it feel like a long time since you released it?
AH: Yes! The longest five years of my life!
MC: We were together for like a year and a half before the album was released, then we practised for a year with Aristazabal before we got signed but we’ve done a lot since then, although it does feel like a long time ago.
How did you guys start playing together, and what bands influenced the way you guys played?
AH: We never used to sort of cover any bands really. It was a whole new world for me personally. MC used to bring his keyboard to rehearsal in a sleeping bag because he had no case. Then one day Fyfe [Dangerfield, lead singer] was like “Can we play one of my songs please guys?”
MC: One of the first things Aristazabal said to me was “I hate guitars”. But we realised you can’t play gigs by just jamming for hours so we had to play some songs. We just made weird sounds for hours and hours.
One for MC – is it true you used to play gigs in Brazil with a gigantic clothes peg as an instrument?
MC: Yeah that is true. Since it’s made of wood, it’s hollow and it becomes really percussive so we used it as like a drum. My friend Jon found it and then tried to use it as like a sofa but he couldn’t since you can’t really sit on it.
When you’re on tour going between places, what do you guys do to relax and keep sane?
MC: Pornography! That keeps me entertained. I joke. It depends where you are really. If you’re in Brazil, you just go outside and enjoy the sunshine, but it’s usually a bit harder to do that in the UK. I watch films I guess, but it gets tiring traveling about so often.
AH: The last couple of months we’ve just been flying constantly like every day at five in the morning. I’ve been having dreams about airports! I think about them and it feels like home.
Guillemots are currently touring the UK.
