Interviews

Six By Seven

Alex Worsnip 01/03/2004

After 2002's excellent 'The Way I Feel Today' album Six By Seven seemed to disappear for a while. They've hit some problems, losing their record deal and their bassist, but they're now working on their 4th album and are putting the finishing touches to a new single, and they're back gigging in their home city of Nottingham. GodIsInTheTV catches up with singer/guitarist Chris Olley…

GodIsInTheTV: Your last album was quite eclectic. What direction is the new material taking? Chris: Difficult to say as we have written only half of it. Very heavy, medium tempo, anthemic, British comes to mind. A bit like Spaceman 3 meets the Stone Roses perhaps.

GodIsInTheTV: How are you filling the bass slot now that Paul has left? Chris: Well its being played by me.

GodIsInTheTV: You've played a couple of gigs in Nottingham recently. How has the response to new material been? Chris: Absolutely fantastic. It's always difficult playing new songs but these went down on a par with the old stuff. There were a lot of fans down to the gig to see if we could do it as a three piece and the respone was overwhelming, it was probably one of the best gigs we've ever done.

GodIsInTheTV: Will fans have a chance to see you gigging outside of Nottingham in the near future? What's in the live pipeline? Chris: We need to get something out, that's the next step, then we can do some gigs around the UK.

GodIsInTheTV: Last year you played both Reading/Leeds and the Eden Sessions. Will you miss the festivals this summer? Chris: We are trying to get onto Glastonbury at the moment.

GodIsInTheTV: You've also started an experimental side project, Twelve. Have you enjoyed doing something a bit different? Chris: Yes I have, it means that my love for softer sounding music has somewhere to come out. It's going really well at the moment. The idea behind twelve was to write 12 songs and release them in chronological order in the form of 6 singles. I've done two so far and they sound great. There is also a loops 'Album' of song start points which I did with a laptop whilst on tour, intended as start points for Six By Seven songs. We've actually made songs out of 2 of them and now they are copyright free for other people to make songs out of them too. It would be interesting to hear what other people do with them. You can get them from my website.

GodIsInTheTV: How would you describe the music of Twelve to fans of Six By Seven? Chris: A collision between Low, Codiene and Neil Young.

GodIsInTheTV: Are you into any new bands at the moment? Chris: My favourite new band at the moment is Brain Donor.

GodIsInTheTV: What about music in general? What have you been listening to recently? Chris: Mainly stuff like Boards Of Canada and Nine Inch Nails.

GodIsInTheTV: Where do you see Six By Seven going in the long term? To the top of the toppermost.

The new Twelve recordings are available now priced £3 each from www.atomoflife.co.uk, the website for both bands.

The new Six By Seven single, 'Bochum (Light Up My Life)' will be out later this year. Thanks to Chris for his time.