New band of the week
meet... Retrograde!
Retrograde are a young band from
the small, rural town Louth, in Lincoln-
shire. Since they have formed they
have been turning heads in the local
area but not for their talent or skill, but
for how weird they are. With smashed
up mannequins and random life size
plastic horse legs strapped onto mic
stands, Retrograde really stand out
from the other bands in their area. Lew-
is (lead guitarist) said “what we lack in
talent and musical knowledge, we try
and make up in the area of being dif-
ferent and a bit odd, we’ve played gigs
where we have not been allowed to ‘do
our own thing’ and we can tell no one
has enjoyed it, including ourselves”.
His statement has been supported by
the kings of weird British Sea Power
who Retrograde have supported “we
like this band. It’s a good change from
what young bands are nowadays. They
are moving away from the ‘indie abysis’
where bands go to go nowhere.”
I have followed Retrograde for a short
while to get an idea of what they are
like. Considering aspects such as, how
they do not release music on popular
distribution sites, make you wonder
what their aims are. When I asked
Kal (the drummer) this, he respond-
ed “Everyone feels the need to put
everything they record on Spotify and
stuff. We want to try and create a tight
community of people who enjoy coming
to see us live, rather than have ‘fans’
who listen music from their phone
but are not bothered about seeing
us”. After this I was keen to attend
a Retrograde gig. I decided to buy
tickets for a gig in their hometown.
Their were 5 acts on starting from
19:30 and about 120 people in the
venue. I wasn’t sure if all the local
pubs had just closed or something
but I went along with it. I spoke to
a photographer called Stuart Roy
Clarke who has built a career on
capturing photographs from festi-
vals all over the world. He is also
very interested by Retrograde and
has followed them for a while. He
said “I like how they don’t have an
urge to try and get famous like ev-
ery other musician, as this means
they are more relaxed and less
bothered about being judged.”
The three members of the band I
interviewed were Eddie (vocals), Lewis
(guitar) and Kal (drums). These three
members are the main writers and
original members.
What made you want to start a
band?
Eddie: “Personally I’ve come from a
musical background as my older broth-
er has been in bands for as long as I
remember. I guess as a group we have
always shared a similar taste in music
which has lead us to start making
music”
What kind of music has inspired
yours?
Lewis: “Loads of stuff has inspired
ours. For example, we spent ages lis-
tening to people like the Talking Heads
and the Cure, to try and involve things
that they have done. But I wouldn’t say
we have a select genre that we all lis-
ten to and use as inspiration, like we’re
the sort of people to turn up to a party
and put Miles Davis if that’s what we
feel like doing.”
What’s the worst gig you’ve ever
had?
Kal: “I think we’ve had a couple which
can be contenders, but I mean we’re a
newish band still so we are still testing
the waters. Most of our bad gigs have
been down to us getting a bit too drunk
to be honest. Oh yeah, one time Eddie
threw one of our mannequins into the
audience and it hit the woman square
in the face and broke her nose, which
was slightly inconvenient but it was
a good gig nonetheless. You can tell
when someone in the band is not en-
joying it because they turn a bit arsey
and climb on the PA or something”.
If you could relive any experience
regarding the band what would it
be?
w
Eddie: “I really enjoyed supporting Sea
Power, it wasn’t just the size of the
audience, it was more who was there.
Like, we saw Robert Wyatt rolling
about and someone said Marc Riley
was there, but we didn’t see him. It was
a really good place for a band to start
I think, sort of being thrown in at the
deep end infront of over 400 people,
who are all people that really know their
stuff when it comes to music”. Its mad
really, people still come up to us at Sea
Power gigs all over the country and say
‘hey you’re that band from Louth’. We
had an hour long conversation with a
drunk bloke in Bognor Regis, who said
he liked our ‘swagger’”.
Interview and photos by George Walker
CLASH MAGAZINE 20
 CLASH
MAGAZINE this months issue
We speak to Linclonshires new band Retrograde
Page 20

ALSO IN THIS WEEKS ISSUE...

Page 2: The story of BSP

Page 5: Blur or Oasis?

and what we
think?
WTHE STORY OF BRITISH SEA POWER
Page 7: Why the world Page 2
needs Sonic
Youth

Page 11: We talk to David

Byrne

Page 16: Which era was

best?
60's, 70's, 80's,
90's or 00's?

Page 20: We vist Retrograde

Page 22: Idles, the UK's best

punk band?

Page 24: Boy Azooga (our

new favorite band)

CLASH MAGAZINE 2