Biography
computerclub are four young men from Birmingham, United Kingdom. The genesis of the band has been as painstaking and gradual as the path to perfection must inevitably be, but the motherboard sparked into life a few years back when old school friends Paul Hampton (vocals) and Jonathan Baker (lead guitar) met over a pint, spilled all about the tedious, cliché-ridden bands they were stuck in, and decided to send out a beacon for Birmingham's other inspired musical refugees. Fate was clearly at work, because three separate leads would point to Stephen Brookes - a local drummer whose propulsive, metronomic pulse plotted a new, exciting vector. The foursome completed by bassist Matthew Cross, the band were complete - but for a name. The group's first choice, Stella Starr, was stymied a couple of months in by the fact there was another band called Stella Starr, and they had a full page advert on the back of The Fly magazine. So instead, Steve suggested the name computerclub - not as an ironic nod to '80s nerd culture, but as a gesture of togetherness. "The idea was to build a kind of collective mentality," explains Paul. "To have all our fans in this club, to make everyone part of something. The idea of outsiders coming together." If the tech-friendly name suggests to crazy synthesisers and fantastical feats of post-production trickery, think again. There's no hidden peripherals, no synthetic add-ons to computerclub: these four young men are you classic self-contained unit. "We like making big sounds, but we'd rather do it with the raw elements that we've got. We don't want people to come see us live and be all like, oh, it's not as good as the record, or do what some other band do and get in some shadow member to play keyboard and not even mention them."
And while computerclub might yield some inspiration from rock's more melancholic touchstones - think: The Cure, The Smiths, The Stills - this is no gloomfest. "Optimism's a good thing," says Paul. "You can have the same atmospheric feel to those bands and not sing about killing yourself. That would be contrived, and we're not out to fake anything." Take the single, 'Snobs', for instance. A prickly, adrenaline-spiked tale of dancefloor seduction, it feels, if not quite like the first time, every bit as exciting. "It's all about my ex-girlfriend who I've been with for four and a half years. Out of the blue one day she just wanted to end it. I hadn't done anything with my life, so I spent the next year or so just going out solid. getting wasted, meeting as many girls as I possibly could."
That's the now. What's the future? Well, computerclub return to the studio in May with Paul Corkett, sometime producer for Radiohead and The Cure, to record their debut album. With biz interest from the US and Japan - not to mention some very high profile support slots coming together (watch this space) - isn't it about time you joined this club?
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