INTERVIEW: Courts

We’ve been following Basildon band Courts for a while now and each time they release a new single, we’re consistently impressed by the feel-good, original nature of their tunes. ‘True Say’ is their latest offering, and it’s another humble, high energy track that will be sound-tracking the next few months of sunshine. We caught up with bassist Dan Baker to talk about what Courts been up to since we last spoke, what they’ve got planned for festival season, and what the Basildon music scene currently looks/sounds like…

 

Hello Dan! Last time we spoke you were about to headline a hometown show at Chinnerys in Essex, a lot’s happened since then. How’s 2017 treating to you so far?

2017 has been sick so far. We went away for a bit at the start of the year to record, now we’re back out playing live, the reception to the new stuff has been really good. We got included in NME’s list of bands to watch for this year and had some love on Twitter from Nile Rodgers as well which was pretty mad.

Sounds like you’ve been busy. You recently played with Adam Naas at Rich Mix in Shoreditch. Have you had a chance to listen to Adam’s music? If so, what do you like about it? How did the gig go?

Yeah the gig was really good. New faces in the crowd, and the set went down really well. We like Adams voice’, really smooth and soulful.

You’ve recently released two singles,  ‘Any of Us’ & ‘True Say’. Can you tell me a little bit about what inspired ‘Any Of Us’ and when/where you recorded it?

We recorded it at Modern World Studios with Clint Murphy. We spent a week with him and got a lot of new stuff down, we’ll be releasing the rest of what we recorded with him over the next couple of months.

Sounds good. You’re playing at this year’s Village Green Festival in July too. I know you’re proud of your Essex roots, so I imagine it means a lot that you’re playing on the main  at this Southend festival?

Yeah it’s nice to be playing it. It’s our only local gig planned for the year at the minute so we’re really looking forward to it.

Since your formation, how do you think the music scene in Essex has changed/developed? Do you think it’s more diverse now than it was when you first started playing together?

To be honest, there isn’t much of a scene locally. There’s nothing going on in Basildon, which is one of things that’s spurred us on to try and create something here. Down the road in Southend there’s bands like Youth Club and Asylums who’ve been doing well, but we all sort of fit into our own thing – there’s no scene as such. Every now and then a big band or artist breaks out, so The Horrors a few years back and more recently Nothing But Thieves but that’s not via a scene particularly. Don’t get us wrong though, there’s some decent Essex acts we rate like Lydia Kitto, Beach For Tiger, Wayde, Figures… but everyone’s doing their own thing, everyone has a different sound to one another.

You played Wirral Live a few weekends ago alongside Madness and The Farm. How did that go?

Yeah it was sick. It was the first time we’ve played in a football stadium so big up Tranmere Rovers for playing host to such a sick weekend, and shout outs to Madness and the Wirral Live team for having us.

Can you tell us where people can catch you over summer?

Yeah, festival wise we’re at London Riviera Festival on 18th June, Village Green on 8th July, Y Not Festival on 27th July and Lost Village on 25th August.

Finally, any more news on what that debut album’s going to be ready?

We can’t reveal too much, but we must have about two albums worth of tunes sat there now, so it’s just about releasing the album at the right time. We’ve got a new EP coming out on Kitsune on 16th June though, so keep you eyes out for that.

Thanks to Dan for answering my questions. Follow Courts on Facebook for more updates.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Kate Crudgington

Kate Crudgington

Assistant Editor for Gigslutz (2015-2017) Now Co-Founder, Co-Host & Features Editor for @getinherears