Exclusive Interview//Sensorites - Conversations in the Bat Cave
The back streets of Liverpool are mean by repute. But it’s in a downpour of epic proportions that they truly shine. Deceptively long walks down the celebrated and once very busy Dock Road (in the rain) lead to my destination where I would meet Sensorites. The bands tongue-in-cheek ‘Bat Cave’ studios are located down a once bustling street of warehouses, behind a large metal door that belies nothing of its interior but a number. But just as numbers are not a true indicator of the man, doors are often not true indicators of what’s behind them.
As cups of tea are made, cigarettes smoked and seats taken the band slowly assemble and when we do get the tape rolling the conversation begins in places far from our present location. Inspired by a mention of my recent trip to Tokyo, singer Natham lights up his cigarette and opens up the recording with an unexpected observation.
“Gazza told me they sell used girls knickers in vending machines (in Japan). Bit wrong innit?” Conversation about the possibilities of the band following similar income streams jokingly continues until it’s steered neatly to the topic of their most recent release, single Fool. Natham is cagey on its subject but he does say this: “It’s about something. I don’t need to explain it – it’s already out there. Wouldn’t give her the pleasure of it anyway…”
Sensing a good time to move on I ask the band about the remixes that appear on all their releases. There is a pause as Natham contemplates his cigarette while thinking. “I used to like the remixes and stuff on old singles. That’s what we’re doing here.” I mention the similarity to the old club mix single of anything up to twelve different versions of a song on and the band nods. “(We) put the acapella on the single so anyone can remix it if they want. A guy called Muz did most these remixes. That’s how we met. He just e-mailed me a remix out of the blue. It was shit hot and he’s been doing them since!”
“We’re gonna do an album with him as well. When we release our album, he’s gonna follow it track by track. It’ll be double sided – a sort of mad professor thing! It might even be better than ours!” Natham adds with a laugh. “(On Just Because You Can) we might have gone a bit wild though…” Perhaps, but on the six track strong single there’s not a lackluster moment to be found. Just as on all of the singles, the remixes compliment the original perfectly. But when the question of the bands favorite remix from the batch produced so far it’s one of the Spaceman remixes. “It’s not been released yet though! It’s like our number one dance track. We mastered it at the same time as Fool. We’re saving it for something; Maybe a Christmas present…but it’ll definitely be on the remix album!”
Now the location we’re at in of course, the bands ironically named Bat Cave studio. But how did it manage to claim such a name with nary a faithful butler in sight despite the matching technology? “It’s a piss take that stuck." Says Natham. "There’s no shutter like in Batman!” Adds Kurt. The band’s name is also one that is intriguing: “It’s from an old Doctor Who.” (The seventh serial broadcast way back in 1964 to be precise when William Hartnell held the role of the iconic character.) “They’re scared of humans – and afraid of lights. They’re also telepathic and ugly fuckers, too so it’s perfect!” Jokes Natham.
With the cosmic qualities of the band confirmed I inquired about the much mentioned album. “(It’s going) great. We’re just recording it now. It’s going to be in the bag for Christmas and out early next year in the first quarter. I don’t know (how it’ll sound) yet. These lads weren’t even here when we made the singles. They only completed us this year. But it wouldn’t be any fun if you knew what it sounds like!” Adds Natham.
Concluding our time I asked what the bands plans are for the future. “We want to do an album a year, for a good few years at least! Like The Beatles, they did two albums a year. And we’ve got loads more technology now so we can be more productive. That, and more gigs. Better gigs and we want to do be doing the festivals as well.” “Like Glastonbury!” Ash interjects “He offered us to headline but he wasn’t paying enough!” He adds with a laugh.
But it is Natham who sums it up best with four simple words “We want to cause a stir!”
And these four will certainly do just that, even the extremely quiet co-founder of the band Gareth, brother of Natham who said almost nothing during our session. But if silence is the quality of genius then the subtle yet powerful feeling of the songs released so far, the perfect Spacemen, during one performance of which they claim that “Neil Armstrong died”, Just Because You Can, Slipstream and most recent release Fool.
One to watch, people!
