Me My Head Interview with singer Charlie and drummer Jonny at King Tuts.

Where in London are you from?

Charlie: Eeling – south west London.

Did you guys know one another before Me My Head was formed?

Jonny: We formed in January last year carrying on from Dave’s (guitarist) old band The Moths. We didn’t really know one another before. The timing was right to do something completely different – a change of direction and music.  If you compare what we do now to The Moths’ sound it’s completely different. Charlie came on board at the beginning of last year and became involved.

How would you describe Me My Head’s sound?

Charlie: Commercial dark epic

Jonny : Commercial dark epic pop-rock…

Rather than using ‘indie’, ‘pop’, ‘rock’ or whatever, well…we don’t really think about the ‘pigeon hole’ we’re gonna fit into.

Charlie: As long as it sounds good and big that’s the main thing! 

How did you feel debut single ‘Night Is On Fire’ (released in March) did? Quite well?

Charlie: We kind of thought we’d leave it and not press it too much. We used it more to get on the tour we were doing. We were touring with two other bands and it was good to have something to promote. 

Jonny: Actually, four days ago Big Brother used our single ‘Tumbling Down’ when they chucked out Angel. We didn’t know about it til after a gig and I had about ten text messages from loads of random people telling me ‘Oh my God they used your track’.

Charlie: I had no messages.

Jonny: I know a lot of very sad people!

One of your songs was also used on TV show The Hills wasn’t it? Pretty good as that show is globally successful!

Jonny: Yeah that was a while ago - about a year ago.

Are you ‘secret’ fans of the show?

Charlie: I love it!

Jonny: He’s not a secret fan! My flatmate has a big thing for it and always wants to get me into it. I don’t really get it though.

Charlie: It’s manipulative drama!

You guys have been touring in Italy. Can you speak Italian?

Charlie: A bit. We all took phrase books. I actually learnt a lot of Italian.

Jonny: Nobody could understand it though!

Is it more daunting playing in a country where you don’t really speak the language?

No not at all, it’s really good and has a different kind of feel to it – especially the kind of stuff we do - they love it. We had great feedback after it telling us to come back!

Where’s the strangest venue/place you’ve performed?

Charlie: That was last night (laughing). We played in Tunnels in Aberdeen. It was weird. It was also pretty quiet being a Sunday night. We went to Café Drummond before and it was the craziest place I think I’ve ever BEEN to – people were throwing up in their hands on the dancefloor and a punk band were fighting!

Jonny: I think the weirdest gig we did though was in someone’s front room once. Literally the room was 10 foot by ten foot and it was cramped!

What inspires you the most?

Charlie: Shall we be safe and say Barack Obama? Nah… Michelle Obama – she’s got nice arms. (laughs) Nah, I’m only joking. My mum… I hate my mother. (laughs)

Jonny: He doesn’t really!

Charlie: Editors. I love them. At the moment I’m also listening to a lot of Radiohead.

Jonny: Certain actors inspire me in a way more than musicians. One of our songs, we probably won’t play it tonight but, that was kind of inspired by ‘Blade Runner’ with Harrison Ford. Sci-fi, dark stuff really influences us. All of us are quite art-inclined so we’re pretty much doing all of our own art work too - like our design on MySpace (which Charlie created on Photoshop) and our own t-shirts.

What do you like to do apart from performing music?

Jonny: Riding motorbikes. I love it. I figure the faster you go the safer it is. (They both laugh) Art and films and stuff.

Do you have a lot of time to pursue your hobbies on tour?

On tour we get a lot of time as we’re travelling from place to place and waiting for things to happen. And we’ve been watching Psychoville the new TV show in our hotel room.

Charlie: Also, I like shopping. I’m annoyed with Topman now though. I used to shop in there a lot but now I like All Saints.

Finally, if you could have anyone’s head whose would it be? Or, if you could have two heads whose would your second be?

Charlie: My second head would be John Mayer. I really like his music. Also, he can have long hair and short hair and look cool. I can’t do that so I’m just jealous!

Jonny: (thinking and unsure)

Charlie: Darth Vader?

Jonny: Hmm…Somebody who could secretly whisper things in my ear…Actually, can I come back to you on that one?

Just before they were due to perform, Jonny did ‘come back to me on that one’ declaring that his second head would be George W. Bush’s. I asked him if it would only be for a few hours and he replied: ‘Nah that’s too long! I’d ask him why he’s done certain things and that would be enough. Then he can get off my shoulders!”

Me My Head followed Glasgow band The Banter Thiefs onto the King Tuts stage in Glasgow on June 29th. The audience seemed to have been made up of quite a few of The Banter Thief’s fans as the crowd drastically decreased when that very band went off stage. There were only ten people in the audience when Me My Head took to the stage, which can of course be the case with an intimate venue like King Tuts.   

The band began with an obscurely solemn tune informing us (in cockney dialect) we were the first people to hear this. Showing the band’s ‘darker’ side, the gloomy atmosphere created did reveal both the keyboard and vocal talents of Charlie.

‘Leave While You Can’ changed the atmosphere entirely setting pulses a-racing and hips-a-jiggling. The fast-paced, concise chorus showed Me My Head’s ‘other side’.

Song four of the set, ‘White Lights’, did occasionally resemble the sound of band White Lies. This is not at all a bad thing, and their huge commercial success is surely what Me My Head are aiming for.

‘Help Me From Myself’ should be Me My Head’s anthem. It’s catchy, fun pop with an electric feel to it. Vocalist Charlie put everything he had into ‘Night is On Fire’ which glistened with energy - definitely one you would find yourself jumping like mad to in a club or at a festival.  

By the end of their set, luckily, the crowd numbers had increased. Hoorah!

Visit www.musicglue.com/memyhead to download Me My Head’s debut album Survival in No Man’s Land. You can download half their album for free and pay whatever you choose for the rest of it!

Single Tumbling Down was released on June 29th.

Interview and Review by Tina Koenig