St Edward's Chronicle October 2016

17

FOCUS ON MUSIC

ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Glass Animals

By John Wiggins, Contributor-at-Large

Left to right: Joe Seaward, Drew MacFarlane, Dave Bayley and Ed Irwin-Singer, all OSE

It was a pleasure and delight for the OSE band, Glass Animals, to chat with me (the Christopher Gray of The Chronicle ) just before an album signing at the Cowley Road Truck Store the day after the release of their second album, How to be a Human Being . When asked under which category I might find their music, Dave Bayley, the band’s principal writer and producer, playfully suggests ‘pre-owned’ but is interrupted by keyboard and bassist, Ed Irwin- Singer who helpfully responds ‘alternative’ ie not fitting any other genre. Various magazine and newspaper articles and Wikipedia suggest psychedelic indie-pop while iTunes list the genre as electronica. Spotify avoid such labels but have found the band to be very popular (200 million downloads for their first album, Zaba ). To my seventies-educated rock-glam- pop-punk ears they have a distinctive style that is both mesmerising and maturing. While the band is garnering greater interest and success in the UK, they are huge in both Australia and the US where they sell out to thousands at their live gigs; the new album has leapt into the top 20 of the respective charts. Appearing at all the big UK festivals including Glastonbury, Reading/Leeds and on US TV (David Letterman’s The Late Show and

band got together in 2010 and sought the assistance of music master, Rob Hughes, who arranged for them to utilise the brand new Martyrs Pavilion over the summer. Virtually living there for days on end spawned their early work, gigs at the Jericho Tavern and eventually an EP, Leaflings , in 2012. The big break came when they came to the attention of producer, Paul Epworth (of Adele/ Skyfall fame), and signed to his new label, Wolf Tone. Another EP followed in 2013 including the single Black Mambo which formed the basis for their 2014 debut album, Zaba , co-produced by Dave Bayley and Epworth, with which they have toured the world for two years. Epworth remains executive producer and while all the band contribute creatively, it is essentially Dave who writes and has produced the new work. In the two days since the launch they have been in Brighton, London, Oxford and then off to Los Angeles. Do try them out and see what you think. Oh, and by the way, let us not overlook the fact that the aforementioned Truck Store is linked closely with OSE brothers Joe and Robin Bennett, the driving force behind the store and the annual Truck Festival in Steventon.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ) they have most recently featured at the Wilderness Festival and, true to their roots, a ‘surprise’ gig at the Bullingdon in Oxford. They are not quite household names – yet at the time of writing ranked 23 in the BBC album chart – but neither do they take on any airs or pretensions and are genuinely pleased to see and hear support and plaudits for their work – from whatever source, be it music magazines – who seem to love them – or fans on Twitter and Instagram who decidedly love them! But what of their origins? All remain Oxford residents and were day boys at Teddies leaving the school in 2007 very well qualified and all off to university. Ed Irwin-Singer and Drew Macfarlane were music scholars with all the attendant involvement in orchestras, choirs and school bands and found themselves continuing together with further scholarships to Cambridge. The extent of collaboration at School was that Drew and Dave played a bit of guitar together but the university vacations found them all back in Oxford with time on their hands. Joined by drummer Joe Seaward (another Cowell’s man) the