Introducing | Stables

Ahead of the release of their debut album, we caught up with Stables.

After growing up together performing in bands since their school days, including successful folk-pop band Keston Cobblers Club, the duo recently rejoined to create Stables.

With their debut album ‘Beyond Brushes’ due out on August 19th via Circashaw Records, the band will celebrate the release with headline shows in Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham and Brighton.

Ahead of their debut album release, we caught up with – Matthew – from the band to find out more about the duo’s new musical journey.

What inspired you guys to rejoin to make music once again?

Daniel and I have been playing together since we were 16, it’s what helped us form Keston Cobblers’ Club with Jules and Tom and has never really stopped. Sadly, Daniel had to leave the Cobblers in 2011 as he was starting uni and wasn’t able to commit to the intense touring schedule we were just starting to enter. We stayed good friends through that period though and a little over a year ago I mentioned to him in the pub that I was looking at starting a little project on the side of Cobblers – I didn’t know what exactly, but I had some songs in mind. I was writing and had a few people in mind for a duo and Dan jumped at the idea and just said ‘What about me?!’ We went back to mine around 2am and played through some of my early ideas and it just worked!

How different is this release compared to the Keston Cobblers’ Club material?

There are definitely a lot of similarities. I write a lot of Cobblers and have done from the beginning and I’m still writing heavily with Jules for our third album. With Stables I decided I wouldn’t force a massive shift, instead I’d just write for two people who want to perform together so the sound is more intimate perhaps, but I still wanted to allow for us being joined by others as we move on. Eventually, I think the sound of Cobblers and Stables will be greater in terms of difference. This first album is to get us on our feet, I love it and I think Cobblers fans will also. With the second album we’ll start thinking about what it is we really want to move with and experiment more I think.

How would you describe the Stables sound?

It’s always a hard one – I’d say alt-folk with a bit of singer-songwriter. We’re heavy on the harmonies, guitar is generally the bass instrument for this first album, but we like to move around this and switch things up on stage. We have many influences; as I said for this first album, I wanted to keep the sound relatively simple, mainly acoustic with the occasional electronic idea, or a touch of orchestra, but something the two of us could take round a smaller circuit of pubs and halls and do justice with just a guitar, ukulele and floor tom.

Your new album ‘Beyond Brushes’ is due out on August 19th, what can we expect from the release?

I’ve gone for a strong melody and structure over experimental sounds with this album. I really wanted to write an album where Daniel and I can play all the tracks live and really do it justice with just the two of us. There are some big climaxes and multi-layered instrumentation, but at the core of the album, it’s a sound of just two people jamming together. We have plenty of years to evolve this idea, but that was the fundamental idea of this album. Dan and I will go mental on stage performing the tracks with as much energy on stage and not feel like we’re letting the audience down due to lack of instrumentation or production. It’s (hopefully) the perfect debut album to show people what we’re about.

Are there any tracks in particular that stand out for you?

Our favourites always change. ‘Steam’ is a special one as it’s the track I wrote which Daniel and I first played together after the pub. It was the ‘I’m starting a project’ moment, we had a glass of red wine at around 2am and I said “look, take this ukulele and play these chords and try to harmonise with me as you start to feel familiar”. It took about five minutes and the track felt complete.

You’re set to embark on a co-headline UK tour next month, what can we expect from these shows?

Energy – it has always been the thing Daniel and I have admired about our favourites and something we push at every show, just going for it and getting the audience to really feel it. Being able to play an instrument well is all well and good, but without the energy behind it, you’ll never fully pull in a crowd and leave them feeling fully fulfilled at the end. We’re not virtuoso performers – we play most instruments between us, but only to the standard we need to, to be able to do the tracks justice, the rest is our energy and excitement at being able to play to people who have given up their night and paid to see us. It’s exciting. In return for that one hour, our energy is through the roof!

For your live sets you add a full band into the mix, will you continue this for the tour?

We’re not going to be doing it for this tour, we’ve had a couple of shows now with friends and collaborators, but we’re wary of doing two much too soon. We want to perfect us two on stage, make sure that it works 100% and that people come away from the shows happy, then in a year or so, with a second album, we’re going to think more about a couple of full-time secessionists to give the show bulk. A great example would be The Tallest Man on Earth, who was solo for about six years and has recently added a full band to add that hit, but if you see him perform on his own, you certainly don’t miss the band either. It’s two different performances of the same song and until the two of us feel like we’ve completely mastered being just the two of us and not a full band, musical additions on stage will remain cameos.

What three things are guaranteed at a Stables show?

Energy on stage and in the crowd (I feel like I overused the word energy 2 questions ago..), bad banter on stage and perhaps in the crowd….. and two friends just having fun – I hope that shows to the audience because we love every second we’re playing.

What are your plans for 2016?

2016 has gone a little crazy. I committed to finish writing and record the whole album in January this year, we went live/public with it all in April and now we’re approaching our first UK headline tour, our debut album release, a possible small French tour and somehow we already have this lovely following of fans who are pre-ordering our music and booking tickets for the tour – it’s amazing! For the rest of the year, we plan to get back in the studio and start working on some new tracks, we’ll also being doing a lot more of our ‘Quickfire covers’ session – once a week hopefully – and working out how we’re going to top 2016 in 2017!

Anything else you wish to add?

Only how chuffed we’ve been already with the response so far – it’s been three months since we went public with this project and it feels like it must have been three years with how far we’ve come. We can’t wait to start getting out and playing to people.

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