Interviews

The Candle Thieves

Alec Plowman 10/08/2009

Alec Plowman caught up with Glock from Peterborough born musical dreamers The Candle Thieves, the duo Scott McEwan and Glockenshiels bring with them a warm blend of sunshine drenched melodies punctuated with sometimes melancholic but always astute song writing cobbled together with instruments straight out of Toytown.

Your debut EP "The Sunshine EP" is scheduled for release on September 14th through Alcopop records. How did you find the recording process and what can we expect from the EP?

Glock: Yeah it was a lot of fun making the EP and are so happy we have Alcopop putting it out. It's pretty much a light introduction to The Candle Thieves. It's a little hard to get across your point in just 4 songs but it shows a few different sides to us and gives a 1st clue for what you might be in for when the album comes out.

You originate from Peterborough, a town with a mere 163,000 populace. How important do you feel this location was in harnessing your sound? Was limitation a form of innovation in this sense?

Glock: Wow good question. We've never lived anywhere else so it's all we know. I'm not sure it makes a difference. I think our ideas come from inisde ourselves and from our different experiences.

Both lyrically and musically, your work balances almost childlike melodies and hooks with a seeming world weariness and melancholic disposition? How does this come about?

Glock: That's great, you've listened to our stuff and get where it's coming from. Thank you! Me and Scott are a couple of big kids for starters. Also I think there's a real sweetness to the way children percieve things. It hopefully softens the blow of life not being very cool a lot of the time. I hope it gives back a little childhood positivity.

How has working as a duo affected the songwriting process? Do you find the experience insular at all, or would you say it strengthens you as a group?

Glock: Hanging out with Scott utterly opened the flood gates for my songwriting. We never really sit down together to write it's more of a bouncing ideas over to each other process that seems to work. Also I'm always tempted to complicate things and Scott seems to just say them how they are so we meet somewhere in the middle.

You've been taking to the road this summer with the "live in your garden" project. Do you feel it is important to explore alternative means of performing your music such as these? Do you like the idea of subverting the live format?

Glock: Awww absolutely. From the off we really wanted our live gigs to be as special as we could make them. If we can take people somewhere else for a little while and bring them back a bit lighter than when they left then I'd say we had a good gig.

Do nerves factor in to your live performances at all? How useful do you find harnessing these to be in a performance setting?

Glock: In my last band I didn't get nervous at all. For some reason The Candle Thieves has got me quaking before almost every gig. It probably helps a little and I think it shows that we really care about what we're doing.

What is on the cards for The Candle Thieves in the future?

Glock: We're looking to open a Candle Thieves Bar & Grill in Southwold in 2011. Hehe we've recorded an album that should be released later in the year. At the moment it's called 'Sunshine & Other Misfortunes'

We also have a ton of new ideas and have big plans for the follow up in a fingers crossed mission we make it that far.
Thanks for the interview, really appreciate the questions.

The Candle Thieves release their debut EP, 'The Sunshine EP' on the 14th September 2009 through Alcopop Records.