Introducing Interview: The Curious Incident

The Curious Incident are an international four-piece hailing from South Africa, Italy and Indonesia, as well as sunny England. Cavey Roberts and Diego Diaz met at school in The Netherlands before Cavey moved back to South Africa. Years later, with Diaz attracted to the sun and sea (and World Cup) in South Africa, the two paired up to start a life as penniless musicians. Dan Bowery and Mirko Piconese were eventually added to the mix and The Curious Incident was born.

Creating an eclectic fusion of sounds with tongues firmly in cheek, The Curious Incident released their debut EP earlier this year and are set to release new single, ‘Please Don’t Say’ at the end of the month. We caught up with the band to talk hobbies, influences, hometowns and – obviously – jerk chicken…

Hi, The Curious Incident! Can you introduce yourselves for us?

Cavey Roberts @caveyroberts – South Africa/The Netherlands
(vocals & guitar)
Mirko Piconese @mirkopiconese – Italy
(lead guitar)
Dan Bowery @dmbowery – England
(bass)
Diego Diaz @curiousdiaz13 – Indonesia
(drums)

When not writing and playing:

Cavey is a Jack The Ripper tour guide and sober bar crawl host
Diaz makes sure the Indonesian Airforce has planes to fly
Dan equally provokes and prevents riots near Oval Cricket ground
Mirko mashes up ‘Flight of the Bumble Bee’ with Iron Maiden on classical guitar

How did the name ‘The Curious Incident’ come about?

It also involved a bare bear and some beer. Clothes were fashioned for it and humans have been dressing up their pets ever since.

What’s your latest EP Penny Lonesome all about?

Money makes the honeys come around (or at least that’s what MTV told us). So yeah, Penny Lonesome is about not having enough of either of those two and wanting more, more, more (in a totally humble way of course).

What’s the music scene like in each of your hometowns compared to London?

London is a beast. It is the flower that every musician bee in the UK (and Europe) yearns to pollinate. In comparison, our hometowns are small fry but that come with a lot of their own charms as well. The South African music industry seems to be growing at a crazy pace since the World Cup and now more and more UK acts are heading over there to play sold-out shows (Rudimental, Crystal Fighters, John Newman etc) and we’re hoping to do the same one day. Same goes for Italy and Indonesia; the dream is to be able to ride back into town and show them what we’ve been doing in the Big Smoke!

You describe your sound as “Pop/Rock with a Caribbean twist that tastes like Jerk Chicken and lemonade and makes your troubles melt away” – what a line! Who influenced your sound?

We have open ears for ear-worms, whether they cometh from the realms of Hip Hop, from the favelas of Brazil or the townships of Johannesburg. Or from top 40 radio. I think we’d be able to sway fans of Sting or UB40, Bruno Mars or Chet Faker, Kanye West or Arctic Monkeys. We’re going to try to sway them all!

Can we expect the same energy from your live performances?

That’s where our whole thing started – we live for the live stuff! Just give us a stage (or soapbox) and an audience and we’ll make a fire!

Do you have any interesting stories from your time together?

We’ve nursed each other when food poisoned, given drinks to the thirstier and food to the hungrier. We believed Mirko when he told us that a beautiful South African girl walked right up to him on the beach in Durban and asked if she could kiss him (and did). She then disappeared into the haze of the horizon without giving him the chance to even invite her to our gig that night. We didn’t need proof. We had his word for it.

If you could perform with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?

Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Michael Jackson, John Lennon (endless list continues).

Where do you see yourselves in 5 years’ time?

We’d love to have recorded our debut album and toured it around the world. Hopefully enough people would like our music by then that we’d be able to quit the street-walking.

Penny Lonesome is out now, with new single – ‘Please Don’t Say’ – set for release on 30th March.