Prego
We caught up with the Prego lads for a quick natter.
We caught up with the Prego lads at their recent Southampton show for a quick natter.
For those who don't know, just who are Prego?
Edd: We're an indie-rock band from London, basically...
Caspar: Do you want our names? I'm Caspar, and I play bass.
Christian: Christian - I play guitar and keyboards, and a bit of backing vocals.
Paul: Paul, drums.
Will: Will, guitar.
Edd: Edd, guitar and vocals.
So how did the band come about in the first place?
Edd: I moved to London in about the end of 2004 and was searching for musicians, and had various friends helping out. Caspar was the first guy to join and we went through a period of having people joining and going, joining and going. This final line-up sort of came together within about June last year when Paul joined and it's been all go since then, really.
Paul: So, I'm the new boy, basically.
Where do you draw your influences from?
Edd: Give one each…
Caspar: A wide range. I'd say.
Edd: I'd say Death Cab For Cutie is a big influence for me.
Caspar: Sigur Ros.
Christian: Aereogramme.
Paul: Smashing Pumpkins.
Caspar: Will's gonna say 80s kids cartoon sound-effects, aren't you?!
Paul: Tom and Jerry!
Caspar: I think we're influenced by quite a lot of bands who are, like, post-rock bands, but other bands who kind of merge indie and post-rock, I guess; bands like Oceansize. I was a massive fan of them; I still am a massive fan... who else?
Paul: The list is endless, really.
Edd: ...and more chilled out indie-rock - stuff like Sparklehorse, Grandaddy...
Caspar: We're a fan of indie bands. The American terminology of indie.
Edd: As opposed to all the rave at the moment. Song-orientated post rock.
How about inspirations in terms of the lyrics?
Edd: Loads of different things from relationships, my faith, to issues that move me. Anything that has any kind of emotional movement in me I'll write about.
In light of those influences then, how would you describe the Prego sound?
Caspar: Song heavy post-rock.
Edd: Yeah, it is really; it is song heavy post-rock. That's kind of a contradiction in terms because post-rock isn't really song heavy but you know, we are. It's a merging of indie-rock and post-rock music, I think.
Caspar: We draw on a lot of influences but I don't think we sound exactly like any one. We work really hard to make something that's deliberately a little bit different.
Paul: We don't really fit into any particular genre.
Caspar: Three guitars, and not being able to tell... having it all sound like it's one guitar and not being able to tell which guitar is playing what is deliberately intertwined like that, rather than having three guitars playing in harmony and guitar solos. It's not really about that; it's not that kind of sound. It's about textures, layers. It's a wide sound. It's not as if we're heavy - it's not like 'metal' heavy; it's like a wide sound. It's not a wall of noise, as in white noise - it's big.
RL: Where did the name Prego come from?
Edd: It came from an ex-girlfriend who went out to Italy. Originally Prego started with me and a friend of hers and we were looking for a name and she came back and said "How about Prego?" and we were like, "Oh, that works." We came up with lots of shit names that were awful and it sort of struck a chord so we stuck with it.
Christian: Tell us some of the shit names...
Edd: No, I'm not ever going to tell you the shit names!
Caspar: "Edd's Cool Band"
Edd: "Edd's Rock-Fest!"
So, as an unsigned band, what does it mean for you guys in terms of booking shows, etc, is concerned?
Caspar: It's nice to get asked to play shows; we've been quite lucky in the fact that we're being asked to play a lot of shows but it's hard getting out of London because you do need an agent quite a lot these days, and we haven't go an agent. It's quite hard to get invites to good venues.
Christian: We don't know where to start.
Caspar: You can play an amazing venue in Manchester but it it's like, a Tuesday night and nothing's going on, and there's little point in it.
Edd: There's so many crap venues in London, you're bound to end up playing them now and again.
Caspar: Luckily this year has been pretty good - we're getting booked rather than booking ourselves. Also, playing with bands you actually really like and you want to play with. It's great to be playing with Soma High tonight; we really love the guys and love their music.
Paul: It's hard, because we have to pay for everything ourselves as well as organise the whole thing.
Caspar: We're pretty good at getting parking tickets as well...
How do you juggle a 9 - 5 job with the band?
Edd: It's a pain in the butt because come, you know, to be honest after a 9 - 5 we generally rehearse a couple of times a week in the evenings and it's like, to be honest, you know, you finish work and some of us have to trek on buses to the rehearsal studio and then get back home at one in the morning, and then get up at seven for work, and it's painful. The odd chance we do get to rehearse during the day, you just feel so much more alive and ready to do it. It's tiring.
Paul: It takes up a lot of your time; it's a big part of your life.
Caspar: But it's our hobby as well - we do it, you know, you'd pay to do a hobby anyway.
What do you guys do outside of the band?
Caspar: I'm doing my last year of my degree; I do Illustration and Graphic Design at Camberwell Art College. That's kind of hard - doing my last year. It's hard to juggle as well; it's good because I do all the artwork and the design stuff for the band. These guys are all on the dole…
Edd: I work in a church newspaper reception.
Paul: All I do is just play in this band, go to work, play in this band, see my girlfriend and that's it - that's seven days gone. I go out maybe once on a Friday night, rehearse twice a week and then a gig.
Caspar: You go out to a gig; to someone else's gig.
Paul: And that's about it - bit of snooker...
Caspar: ... bit of alcoholism...
Christian: I work as a sound engineer, and sort of temp work every now and then - such as guitar lessons.
Will: I work as an electronic engineer.
Paul: It's quite good because Will fixes all of our stuff when it breaks.
Do you make a habit of breaking stuff?
Christian: All the time!
Caspar: We blow stuff up, like Top Gear!
Edd: Will doesn't know this but behind his back we call him The Bitch - you're just the personal Simpson Bitch!
Caspar - this magazine you run [Antenna] - how do you fund something like that?
Caspar: I put on my own club nights, like bands, DJs, at Corsica Studios and yeah... Get them to do it for free, like, get the bands to do it for free - get the DJs for free... and the money goes into my pocket!
Edd: Caspar's the most cut-throat promoter in London!
Caspar: No, no. I spend quite a bit on like, promotion and stuff. It's hard getting sponsors and that; you've got to get sponsorship and advertising.
What can we expect from the Prego album?
Caspar: We're very excited about it. Hopefully it'll be all killer and no filler! What you can hope from the album is...
Edd: Big and beautiful.
Caspar: Yeah. And also we think b-sides that are just as good as the a-sides, definitely. Certain bands have this tradition for making their b-sides like… in the early days, Hundred Reasons b-sides were just as good as the singles...
Edd: What happened next?!
So tell us more about the recent single deal with Drowned In Sound Records?
Edd: It was basically, playing a few recent shows that Drowned In Sound came to, particularly a girl called Debbie who works for the label and they decided they were going to do this Digital Singles Club, and...
Caspar: They've got an amazing track record. They released Kaiser Chiefs' 'Oh My God'; they put out the first release of that, and then from there they did Blood Red Shoes, Metric, Bat For Lashes...
Edd: Jeniferever... It's a real honour for us to be asked to put a single out with them.
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