Lost Penguin Interview

The Final Vice/Fly53 promo booklet interview.


LOST PENGUIN

Considering none of Lost Penguin ever wanted to be in a band and they only got together in March to write one good song that people would remember them for (“like Aqua”), they make a thrilling noise. Jarring synth blasts and confrontational boy/girl screams bounce around a chaotic stage show that always seems on the point of collapse but is somehow sustained by a pounding rhythm section. They sound a bit like a load of 5RC bands having fight with a load of Skin Graft bands inside of an Ice Cream Van that’s about to break down. In a good way. We had a chat with Kev and Matt from the band after the soundcheck at the launch party for new single Pleasurewood Kills at The Old Blue Last. Charleigh who shares vocal and ‘machines’ duties with Kev was nowhere to be seen though….

VICE: Hello, where’s Charleigh?

KEV: Err…We’re not sure. She’ll be here for the show though.

VICE: Ok. You’re live sound is pretty chaotic, what instruments do you use?

KEV: Well, Matt’s the only one who can play anything so he writes bass lines and plays them out. Me and Charleigh play keyboards and sing at each other and we used to have a clapped out Yamaha keyboard that we’d just play the demo track’s out of...

VICE: Have you started using something else now?

MATT: Well, we’ve sort of got a bit more professional since we went out to Barcelona to play some shows and we’ve started programming our own beats. We’ve even got Andrew from the Violets playing drums on the b-side to the single.
KEV: My girlfriend always said she’d dump me if I was in a band and she gave me ‘til Christmas to finish all this so I never thought about it as a band past tomorrow y’know? We’ve split up now though so I’ve thought about the songs more. They’re more complex, darker. Not just about my dad being an Ice Cream man like the first record.

VICE: How did you guys end up playing together?

MATT: Well, Charleigh’s from Glasgow I think. She was just always around in New Cross and we decided we wanted to start a band but that it was probably better to have a girl singer. We asked some other people who told us to fuck off but Charleigh was up for it. She leads a pretty mad bohemian life that sort of adds to the general chaos. Which is good.
KEV: Me and Matt knew each other from going to University in Greenwich. It’s a shit Uni for people that didn’t get any grades. ‘Cos of that though it spurred us on to do other things like put on nights and be in bands.

VICE: What else have you been up to outside of the band?

KEV: I love playing live and being in a band but yeah I’ve been doing a lot of other stuff: putting out Toy Pirate which is a fanzine, writing for some magazines, looking after X-Ray Eyes, putting on nights and I’ve just set up a label called Me and My Brother Records. The first release is going to be compilation I’m doing with Mathew !WOWOW! called Bedroom Heroes. It’s going to be bands like us, the Rotters, Look Dancing Boys and these crazy New York people called Dreamburger. Just show people the alternative to what everyone thinks is going on you know?

Busy Boys.

www.myspace.com/wheresmypenguin