Interview: Guillemots

Brummie Brit Award nominees The Guillemots are certainly far from the more conventional of bands. They embody a whimsical mysticism that extends far past the innovative and wonderful instruments that they use. Their music is like a dreamscape, vast and panoramic reaching the nether-regions of your mind. Being the front-man that he is, Fyfe Dangerfield is a mystery. He’s an enigma choosing not to reveal much about himself and keeping the secrets within the Pandora’s Box that is his mind locked up.

Speaking about his secret gigs Fyfe minimally says: “It’s about doing gigs in a much more exciting way than normal. It creates more of a fun adventure or everyone and in the future, we’re not sure how we’ll go. I’m sure things will arise.”

The band could be called teases in a way, playing with our minds and only satisfying them at the last minute. They did this with the secret gigs only releasing details at the last possible moment.

It’s the same with their third album Walk the River which has taken a staggering three years to make but with this comes the dedication that all good bands should have.

“We took a long time to write this record. About two years ago we started writing it and we just wanted to take a long time to get everyone excited rather than rushing in,” a calm Fyfe reveals.

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There’s a pathetic fallacy to the recording of the album which can be likened to that of a novel. Recording Walk the River by a mountainside proved beneficial to the stellar minds behind The Guillemots. As Fyfe opens up, he says: “It was magical. Greg went swimming in the river and it all was so beautiful. It was the perfect place to make the record.”

“It’s a beautiful image: The mountains lit up by the moonlight as the moons lunar rays emanating themselves onto it like a bedside lampshade decorated with pictures of stars. It’s like being transported to another world which Fyfe enjoys as he projects: “I don’t think too much into my dreams and I don’t like explaining who I am but I’m fascinated by dreams. You don’t have to imagine in reality really but it’s a huge part of who I am.”

Of course memories in reality are like dreams themselves. Recalling his earliest festival memories, he lists Oasis at Knebworth as one that he can remember well.

Recalling one of his favourite festival memories, Fyfe looks back it “Being at the Faroe Islands. It was a lovely festival and we rode a boat quite a lot.”

Fashion also merges in with his vivid mind where his favourite festival costume would be, as he says: “Wrapping myself in multicoloured foam and bouncing around. I have a coat that I wear a lot with multicoloured buttons.”

The Guillemots play Dot to Dot, Camden Crawl, Great Escape.

Interview: Guillemots

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