Pete talks music and yarn bombing with Sophie from Derbyshire's own folk pop heroines, Haiku Salut.
Sophie, Gemma and Louise are Haiku Salut, an instrumental three piece hailing from the picturesque peaks of Matlock, Derbyshire. Between them, they play myriad instruments, creating delicious slabs of quirky, avant-garde folk pop. Earlier this year the trio released their first EP, How We Got Along After The Yarn Bomb - named for the group's fascination with the phenomenon of Yarnbombing - and are now set to embark on a busy couple of months of festivals and shows, both at home and abroad. Hatch’d recently got the opportunity to put some questions to Sophie.
HM: How did Haiku Salut get started?
Sophie: We were all in a band together before called The Deirdres which was started by Gemma and Louise quite a few years back now. We disbanded a year or so after forming and after a break, decided we wanted to try and do something completely removed from the music (if you can call it that) we made before - this idea coincided with Louise's dad buying her an accordion, and that was that. We wrote our first 5 songs within a month of being together, one of which we decided was going to be the best song in the world and was consequently terrible.
HM: There appears to be a running theme of primary colours throughout your artwork and attire. Is there any significance to this?
Sophie: I can't really remember where this came from! I know that I think it's quite nice to see members of a band linked visually by something, I don't know why... I think as well as being aesthetically pleasing it can symbolise a bit of solidarity which is always nice. As for the primary colours bit, there are three of us so it seemed to be already decided for us.
HM: What do you get up to when not making music?
Sophie: I know that we'd all like to do more sewing but there's just never enough time!
HM: Tell us all about Yarnbombing...
Sophie: It's a form of street art or graffiti that uses colourful wool instead of permanent paint or ink. It's something that we like to do at some of the gigs we go to - there's one on the cover of our debut EP, How We Got Along After the Yarn Bomb - the title of which is a Philip K Dick reference. I'm not sure what he would have thought of yarn bombing though. Not enough robots. Or Mars.
HM: Who are your biggest musical influences?
Sophie: We wear our influences on our sleeves and I will happily say that a main influence of mine is Detektivbyran (RIP). I love that band and I'd never heard anything like those two records before. A lot of people say we remind them of Yann Tiersen's Amelie soundtrack which is a huge compliment for me as La Redecouverte is my favourite piece of music in the world. Also Beirut are a band that Louise recognises as an influence to the pieces she writes. I think it would be easy to say that we sound a bit too similar to these bands but I think we're taking a step (albeit a small one!) away from that and into a more electronic direction and with Gemma's background in classical guitar we're beginning to take a different approach to writing.
HM: What does the future have in store for Haiku Salut?
Sophie: We've been thinking about doing some collaborations, we've recently joined My Psychoanalyst in a few songs during their live sets and we'd really like to write something new with them. We've also been in talking with A Little Orchestra, a twelve piece fronted by Monster Bobby of The Pipettes which could be amazing! But as a three piece we'd like to concentrate on writing and recording an album, it would be such a great achievement and we have a potential title already.
HM: What would be your dream show?
Sophie: We've always measured our success in how many steps away from playing with Madonna we are. Currently we've supported a band that supported a band that supported another band that supported Madonna so we are just FOUR steps away from true fame! I think we come across a lot better in smaller venues where we can control our own sound.. so that's wembley out. You reckon Madonna would be up for playing with us at Vines? [We'll have a word, see what we can do! - HM]
Haiku Salut will be playing at Indietracks ’11 at Midland Railway Museum in Derbyshire 29th– 31st July) and at Cosyden ’11 in Stockholm, Sweden (3rd - 7th August)
Their debut EP, How We Got Along After The Yarn Bomb is available from the Team Strike Force! shop.
For more about Haiku Salut visit www.haikusalut.com or follow them on .
Photography by Holly Booth Photography.