Not Squares are a Belfast-bred three-piece who need to be seen this weekend at Le Cheile before the release of their dance/punk/pop/something else debut album in September makes them as big as they deserve to be. We spoke to Michael about the band and the unique way they got ‘signed’…
So looking forward to Le Chéile on Saturday?
Yep. We played last year on a Sunday afternoon on the back of a truck in a car park. It was awesome fun, there were bouncy castles, candyfloss and Adebisi Shank. I think there’s video footage of it on youtube, it has to be seen to be believed!
This year, we’re playing a tent with loads of awesome bands from the Richter Collective. We’ll have to forego the bouncy castles, candyfloss and Adebisi Shank though. I think we’re playing later in the evening which suits the kind of music we play. It should induce more dancing and singing!
We’re big fans of the Richter Collective roster here at meg.ie how did you get involved with them?
Well if you want the truth: Mick and Barry hunted us down and arrived at a show we were doing with Health in our home town of Belfast. They found the venue and set bear traps at the loading doors. We all got ensnared on our way out at the end of the night, and they promised to release us if we joined the Richter Collective. We agreed and they set us free. We’ve forgiven them now, but Keith still walks with a bit of a limp.
You’ve put out a couple of singles in the past few months, when can we expect the album?
It’s hopefully going to get mastered later next month and will be released in late September. We have a 12inch coming out in August called ‘Release The Bees’ and that has some awesome remixes on there too. We’re pretty excited about finally having our record out in the wild as it’s taken us a while to get to a record that we’re proud of!
What bands/musicians have had the biggest influence on Not Squares sound? Do you all have similar tastes or do you all have you’re own favorites?
We’ve tried not to sound like anyone really. People have drawn comparisons, but they usually don’t relate to each other, so I guess our sound is our own. I guess the direction we’ve always taken is, if we were at a party what would we want to dance to, and we go from there.
We do listen to a lot of the same music and we’re always sharing new music with each other. I think that’s important. We also share a similar sense of humour, most of the time.
Anything special you’ve been listening to at the moment? Any recommendations for meg readers?
Well we share a new spotify playlist every couple of weeks or so on our facebook page and blog (notsquares.com). It’s usually an hour long and it compiles what we’re listening to.
At the moment we’re listening to lots of amazing stuff on the Daptone label, Ratatat, Hudson Mohawke, Yacht and Siriusmo.
By Kevin Donnellan
