Based in London but with members coming from all over the place, The Cellophane Flowers have been firmly on our office playlist since their debut EP 'If I Was A Girl' landed earlier in the year. Combining psychedelic sounding pop and folk with a grittier guitar noise that you might expect. Still unsigned, they're definitely ones to watch for 2011.
Introduce yourselvesThe Cellophane Flowers are Fra, Ian, Luca and Nick. We're London's most fragrant psycho-pop band and we're busy right now pollinating London with the news of our new 'If I Was A Girl' EP.
Whereabouts in London are you based? Sell it to usHerne Hill. What's great? Well, The Half Moon is now finally gearing itself up to be a seminal live music venue again. A very cool music scene roundabouts Brixton and Herne Hill. Brockwell Park on a sunny summer's day. Breakfast. On the down side it's rather hilly.
Where are you from originally, what does London do better?Fra's from Italy, Luca's from Australia, Ian's from Brazil and Nick's from Suffolk. We all try hard to play up to our national stereotypes but what London does better than anywhere else in the world is that no one notices or cares where you are from.
What London location has been the most significant for The Cellophane Flowers so far?This is a hard one, there are plenty to choose from. We play most of our gigs around Camden, but it would have to be King's Cross, home to our rehearsal nest and second favourite London breakfast.
What do you reckon you sound like?Ask a million people, you'll get a million different answers. We say psycho pop, but some of the comparisons we get in our reviews are frankly bizarre! We have a real pop sensibility in how we pump our music out, but we throw in elements of prog, alt-rock, surf, folk, you name it. The results are as varied as our backgrounds.
Give us your most awesome reason for why we should check you out rather than every other new band out there?Because we're good. Very good. We're as fed up as the next person with watching dull people churning out dull music in dull venues to impress a few mates. We try to make our performances an event, play music for the head and the heart. Particularly with our Cellophonic Club nights, to get some different things going on. Not everyone's going to love what we do, but we've got asfar as we have so far on the back of people finding out about us and really getting into what we're doing, coming to see us again and again, or helping us out with the skills they have - the video for example was made on the back of a genuine love of what we're doing. And the singer's fit.
What's your favourite London venue and why?We love playing at Camden Proud Gallery, but Koko is our favourite.
What other new London bands / artists should we be checking out?We love a girl called
Anna Calvi who we happened to see at Punk last year. We can’t wait to seeher again!
And finally what's your London secret?Herne Hill. An anonymous village in the patchwork quilt of villages that is London. We even wrote a song about it - Village Metropolitana.
The Cellophane Flowers play Glasswerk at The Monarch on Tuesday 30th November. For music and more live dates check out their myspace.
