“I don’t
wake up every morning thinking I need to dress like a mod. I wake up and I put
on what I think looks cool, reflects me and the music that I listen to,”
Bastock explains as he sits sipping on a Desperado. Adjacent is another
20-year-old, Liam Lambert, the band's bassist, who goes for a slightly less
rock'n'roll choice of a cappuccino.
For any
band, music of the past is the key influence in shaping their sound and, for
Soldier On, it’s no different. What started from finding a few Beatles greatest
hits songs lurking about his house has become a way of life and a love for the
music that Bastock believes is timeless.
“I knew
I was going to be into Mod music in fifth year in school. I got a phone that
allowed me to put music on it. It was on shuffle one day in one of my classes
with the head phones and The Who's 'My Generation' came on and I thought that
was really cool man, so I listened to the rest of it.”
The Who lead
to Small Faces and The Kinks and so on. “When I listened to the music and saw
what these guys were wearing, it looked cool,” Bastock started his love for a
subculture which has kept going and watching Quadrophenia wasn’t required.
“It’s
one of them ones that are always on ITV4 and you always miss,” Liam adds. “I
never seen it till a year ago.”
Quadrophenia
is a film which referenced the mods of the 1960s when mod culture was at its
peak and, since the decade of some of the best innovative music seen, modernism
has continued to influence every generation ahead of it. From the 70s and 80s
skinheads, ska and suede heads to the Oasis and Stone Roses wannabes of the
90s, every generation has had its own mod take.
Soldier
On are one of the bands like The Strypes and Miles Kane who are keeping the mod
thing going, but Bastock believes accessible fashion and accessible music has
changed the face of subcultures for good.
“You
can’t walk down the street and spot what kind of music someone listens to
because of the way they dress. Those days are gone," he says. "Until
you get people who are absolutely fixed on a subculture and take it as part of
life, it’s not till then that you notice it.”
And
Soldier On are noticed in wherever they go, they feel their image is as big a
factor as their music, image is huge man,” he continues to explain why through
an example which Liam put to him a few weeks before this interview involving
men in Fila tracksuits looking complete, but to summarise “When you get that
collectiveness in a band and the musics churning out and people look at you and
think, that’s cool. That’s what it’s all about.
"We
don’t want to dress like anyone else. I want to stand out, I want to be cool
and I want to be fresh.”
After
the fashion discussion the attention turns to music and who Soldier On are
currently “digging”, to which Bastock replies there’s a few. He likes Miles
Kane, he likes The Strypes, he likes the Arctic Monkeys, but in a burst of
self-belief Bastock states, “I wanna be better than them.”
It’s an
attitude which he believes is absolutely key to being in band these days; an
attitude which drives Soldier On to do exactly what the name of the band
implies.
At this
point the chat swiftly changes direction and Ben Prescott, the lead guitarist,
joins us with a Subway.
As
Prescott, who works in the very bar we are all sitting in, begins to explain
how (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? is the album that influenced him to start
playing music, the stories of Subway blunders are heard from Lambert.
After a
very interesting conversation of Subway, a debate over fruit, that Emmerdale
episode where everything was taken too far, and why the Burns bar is far better
than this one—according to Bastock—the attention turns to a really important
gig for Soldier On at King Tut's in Glasgow Monday 28 October.
“To play
[King Tut's] is great. It’s walking up them steps and you see 1994 Oasis, 2005
Arctic Monkeys even bands I don’t really like have played there; it’s a
nostalgic thing they’ve walked up those stairs as well.”
The band
will support The Weeks—an indie rock band all the way from Mississippi—and even
though this is not the first time that Soldier On have played in of the UK's
best small venues, Bastock calls this the biggest and he can’t wait to get on
the hallowed stage.
It’s on
the stage that the eccentric front man comes to life, the charisma and energy
in performances has been noted by many, especially after their performance at
FreckFest—a small music festival held in Irvine.
Bastock’s
love for being on stage is clear when he recalls the time the band played
Broadcast in Glasgow, focusing on when the band played their single 'Eggs for
Breakfast', the song which Bastock is most proud of and the crowd started
dancing.
“We were
playing 'Eggs for Breakfast' in Broadcast and I felt it man, I felt this
feeling up my spine that me stand a little taller, feel a little braver and I
just danced,” Liam adds. “I just love seeing people’s faces when I’m playing.”
In a
year’s time, Bastock and Soldier On hope that those days of Argos are long gone
and can instead say they’ve played T in the Park and, if they work hard enough,
they believe they can make it.
“I’m a
craftsmen” Bastock says. “You can be a joiner, landscaper, a carpenter; I’m a
craftsmen as well. I don’t work with my hands, I work with my mind.” They are a
band with vision and that’s something Bastock also stresses as a main
importance: “You’ve got to have vision, we had the target of playing our first
gig within six months.”
And
they’ve come a long way since that first gig, an EP will be on the horizon once
they figure out a front cover and they continue to keep on gigging.
But what
makes Bastock tick? In a society consisting of “pop glamorised by celebrities,”
what makes him want it all?
He
concludes, “See if I’ve got thousands of nutters going crazy to 'Eggs for
Breakfast' and the five of us looking at each other saying we’ve made it. That.
We all want that."
Upcoming gigs include: -
27
November 2013 - Hoxton Nights, Harleys, Ayr - Supporting 'Nick Mercer of
Sergeant'
29 November 2013 - The Admiral, Glasgow -
Supporting 'Nick Mercer of Sergeant'
06 December 2013 - The Admiral, Glasgow -
Ocean Colour Scene Official Aftershow Party
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