STREETLIGHTS
The SIS Interview by Dany Sloan

English group Streetlights want you to come to their gigs and buy their record, but they also want you to know a few fun facts about them. Their combined age is 98, four of them enjoy Pro Evo, they drink more tea than most bands do, and most importantly, at least one of them has a strong dislike of the music of Michael Buble.

Formed last year at Leeds University, this five-piece has been described as "melodic Blondie-esque buzzsaw pop," and although they have just one EP to their name, they are quickly moving forward with writing and gigging, all the while remembering that they're here to have fun. Tom from the band chatted with us a couple weeks ago via e-mail.

SIS: How did the band get together? What were your initial goals? How has that changed?

Tom Johnson: Three of us were in a band together when we were at school, so when we went to university getting a new band together seemed like the obvious thing to do. We wanted to change the music we were playing, too, be a bit more creative and play more grown up songs. We really wanted to have a girl fronting the new band because that can give bands a whole new dimension, so when we met Sim at university we all wanted her to sing straight away. Dave was a friend of a friend and he joined after we discovered how good a bass player he was.

As far as I'm concerned, what we wanted to achieve hasn't really changed much. When we got together, we knew that university bands are usually really short-term projects; this has never been something we've been looking to make a career of. Obviously everyone wants to 'make it big' but we don't have any expectations. Luck has a lot to do with it, I think. We just wanted to play music for the sake of playing music. We wanted to write songs we were proud of and play shows people came to, and that's what we've been doing, so we're pretty happy with that.

SIS:  Who do you often find yourselves compared to, and do you like or dislike that comparison?

TJ: People often liken us to a girl-fronted Bloc Party, which is nice, even if it's not justified. They've definitely been an influence on the way we put a song together, and I think you can credit them with making British indie bands cool again which I suppose is important for bands like us. We've heard some strange comparisons as well – from Bald Rapunzel to Berlin. Seriously.

SIS: What's one thing about your hometown that people don't know about?

TJ:Leeds is a really fantastic city. Until recently people didn't know how good the music scene is, but that's not much of a secret any more. It's the largest city in the UK to only have one football team. That's a good piece of trivia.

SIS:Who are some of your favorite bands to play with? Do you think any of them will take over the world?

TJ:Leeds is producing a whole lot of great bands at the moment; it's suddenly become a bit of a scene town. Of the local bands we've played with, the best live act was probably a band called Paperpushers. They're a six-piece who do incredible genre-skipping. Seeing a band who can pull off pop, house and reggae in the same song, live, is quite something.

Plenty of bands from our neck of the woods have the potential to become really big. Personally, my favourite Leeds band is Sky Larkin – we've never played with them but they're quality. I'm really looking forward to their album.

SIS:What is your favorite and least favorite thing about being on the road?

TJ:We've never been on a proper tour, actually. You know, we've never bought a van and played six shows in a week. I feel like we're missing out a bit there. We need to put those wheels in motion…

SIS:If any member of Streetlights were on the cover of a tabloid, who would it be and why?

TJ:It would definitely be Sim, she's the diva. She would either be seen dating a celebrity, or be mistaken for Amy Winehouse. It happens a lot.

SIS:When family ask you what your band sounds like, what do you tell them?

TJ:I just tell them we're an indie-pop band. And that we're fantastic, obviously. You can't really describe your own music, I don't think.

SIS:In 15 words or less, why should people buy your record?

TJ:Because we're students and we need the dollar!