Getting Closer with Life in Film
Interview & Photography by Rachel Cabitt
Video by Josh Marten & Mary Kang
The last time I saw Life in Film I was at the Karrera Klub in Berlin, Germany. The show had just ended and our cheeks were flushed red from the crowd that was slowly dissipating. My friend Sean leaned against the barrier, still looking at the stage in amazement. He had just seen his favorite band play and wasn't ready for the show to be over. Eyes glimmering, he glanced over at us.
"Anyone wanna go backstage?" We all looked between him and the door where the band had just disappeared through. I shrugged my shoulders. "Let's do it."
October 2014 at the Karrera Klub in Berlin
So without thinking twice we slipped our sweaty bodies through the stage barriers and behind the door. Following voices, we made our way up a set of stairs and through another set of doors where Life in Film sat, laughing and smoking. Seeing us come in, they could've easily called security, but instead, welcomed us in like old friends and sat us down to chat about music, life, Berlin, and London.
Now one year later, I find myself in the same place, sitting with the same four British guys and talking about their music, acoustic style, and London once again. It's nice when you realize that nothing has really changed.
POND: What question do you hate being asked the most?
ED: Where does the name Life in Film come from?
DOM: Where did you meet?
SAM: We don't want you to run out of questions though...
** Don't worry guys, we have some good ones rolled up our sleeves **
DOM: What do you sound like?
ED: Who are your influences? Pretty much all of the stock, classic questions.
DOM: What's your phone number? Always getting that. *chuckles*
POND: How do you think your music has changed since first starting?
SAM: Absolutely a good question. We probably didn't know each other as well as a unit. We were more tentative with ideas and stuff like that, more sensitive about each other's feelings, where as now we just sort of say whatever we think. It's good and it's bad. Things move a lot more quicker now. There's less beating around the bush.
POND: You guys are a touring band. How do the scenes differ from country to country?
ED: America is pretty good. It's just a lot of positive stuff. People are really nice and friendly, and just sort of get into it.
SAM: And they're quite outgoing. I don't know, people at home are much more...
DOM: ...reserved...
SAM: and restrained. So it's nice for us. It's quite liberating for us to be around people who are so optimistic in a way.
Sam
Dom
POND: You guys do a lot of stripped down, acoustic sets. How do you think these sets change the song?
SAM: It exposes the song itself, I guess. For us, all of our songs really mean something special to us. So when you strip it back like that... sometimes with all the noise and all of the recording process and all of that sometimes you kind of forget what the sentiment is. And you've played it so many times that you become slightly detached from it. And then when you play it acoustically it brings it back to life, kind of what it was all about, which can be a bit sad sometimes, depending on the song.
POND: You all lived together at one point... Who was the messiest?
EVERYONE: Sam.
SAM: Me?! It was one of us (gesturing at Ed).
ED: No, it wasn't one of us! It was you!
SAM: I guess it was me.
MICKY: And he hasn't changed.
POND: Favorite drink at a pregame or party.
SAM: I've been drinking a lot of PBR here but then everyone keeps telling us that it's for like hipsters or something. But we didn't realize that. We're just trying to find something that's equivalent to like a weak English Lager. And we've found it.
ED: When we came in here earlier I saw all the beers on tap and I saw Bud Light and Bud and I got more excited about the Bud Light than the Bud because I was like "Ahh, piss wheat Lager!"
SAM: Someone bought us some shots of whiskey in DC last night for when we were on stage, but I don't really think any of us really liked it but we were all drunk so...
Micky
Ed
POND: Who would die first in a horror movie?
ED: Micky.
MICKY: Only because you'd all leave me somewhere on my own!
SAM & DOM: No, no, no.
ED: Okay, Micky would last the longest because he would have a system.
MICKY: Yes, I'd have a system.
ED: I think I would panic, and I'd just go, "I'm out of here."
SAM: Dom's survival instincts...
DOM: Yeah, my survival instincts. You'd have sex and then zip that's it. (gestures at Sam)
SAM: Why? What does that mean?
DOM: You always die in horror movies if you have sex.
EVERYONE: Ahh, right, right.
Thanks for the interview guys! See you all at the next venue I sneak into. Click here to check out more Life in Film.