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Five years ago, Dom Ruckspin and Tommy Evans formed Sub- motion Orchestra in Leeds. The band has gone from strength to strength, performing at festivals worldwide and hosting emotional and inspiring sell-out shows. Their fusion of 'bass-heavy electronica, soul and jazz' has set them out- side the classifications of a par- ticular genre, making their sound infinitely unique and hypnotic. Earlier this month they released their latest album, Alium. We caught up with Tommy Evans, the drummer about their unusual re- hearsal routine and some strange performances, along with a game of word association! FOR THOSE THAT DON'T KNOW, CAN YOU QUICKLY TELL US WHAT SUB- MOTION ORCHESTRA IS ALL ABOUT AND HOW YOU GUYS FORMED? It was myself and a guy called Dom Ruckspin, the engineer and the producer of the band. We were asked to write some music for quite a weird project in York Minster Cathedral. They wanted to do some live dubstep kind of thing to celebrate a kids' charity. It was a really weird project and it was musically very unsuccess- ful (laughs) but it brought the possibility to do something live. At the time, Dom was doing a lot of production and I was playing a lot of jazz and dub music, so we were trying to find something in the middle of all of that. SO IT'S THE PERFECT INTEGRATION OF TWO DIFFERENT APPROACHES AND INFLUENCES. Yeah, exactly. In Leeds at the time there was Sub Dub and Exodus, the big dub raves that we used to go down to. It was just beginning to come through. It had been around for years before but it was becoming more popular and it seemed like a good tool to bring together the combination of dub sensibilities and dance music in a dancehall. Interesting, contem- porary jazz sort of stuff was the idea behind it. Obviously it pro- gressed and evolved a lot since then, but some of those key ideas were still central to the music. COULD YOU TELL US WHAT WE SHOULD EXPECT FROM THE NEW ALBUM? HOW DOES IT DIFFER FROM YOUR EARLIER WORK SUCH AS FRAGMENTS? I think it's an extension of them. We have been experimenting quite a lot over the last two al- bums and this new album Alium, is also an experiment. The first al- bum had quite an acoustic sound- ing, then with the second album we explored electronic sounds. With this album we have tried to take it further in both directions. We have definitely broadened the pallet and tried to find a hap- py medium between all our dif- ferent influences and the thin line we walk between electronic and acoustic music, which is quite a hard thing to do. As soon as you start introducing electronics in with a live set it is a very slippery slope. Its really easy to find your- self playing everything to a click, line everything up and press play- this is the complete oppo- site of how the band started and what we wanted to do making sure everything is live. Essential- ly, when you see a live band you don't want to see some dickhead press play, you want to get into it and see seven people going for it. It's a kind of balance, which is dictated by the music and by how electronic the track is. We are constantly tweaking and finding ways to get the bits we need into the set from the album without them dictating the music. We still want to have the improvisation and conversational jazzy feel we had to start with. Given that we are all jazz musicians, it's what comes naturally. THAT'S A VERY GOOD IMPULSE AN- SWER! WHAT'S THE WEIRDEST GIG YOU HAVE EVER BEEN TO? HAVE YOU HAD ANY WEIRD GIGS IN YOUR TIME OF TOURING? Umm yeah we get booked at a variety of places, as our music is easily transferable. Whether it's working in a jazz club envi- ronment, a sit down theatre or a drum n bass rave with everyone gurning their tits off! We have also played at some strange plac- es, we did a gig at a Bulgarian night club to about three people. We stopped playing, went off and they started playing techno and suddenly there was about 1000 people there going mental. It was a case of one of those promot- ers completely getting the wrong end of the stick. IF YOU WERE TO THROW A SUBMO- TION ORCHESTRA DINNER PARTY, WHAT WOULD YOU COOK? O my God um. We all love a good Indian, so we would probably do a curry of some sort. ONE MORE THING BEFORE YOU GO, THIS MAY SEEM A BIT WEIRD BUT GUESTLIST HAVE STARTED DOING A BIT OF WORD ASSOCIATION TO END AN INTERVIEW. SO IF I SAY MU- SIC.... Life MARMITE Horrible PET Dead (laughs) ENEMY None DRUGS Umm (laughs) I don't know what I should say maybe move on INSPIRATION Love FAILURE Daily basis. " Our music is easily transferable. Whether it's working in a jazz club environment, a sit down theatre or a drum n bass rave with everyone gurning their tits off! " ED | guestlist.net Guestlist interviews Submotion Orchestra's drummer Tommy Evans! SUBMOTION ORCHESTRA Follow @Submotion INTERVIEW 27 Issue 69 / 2014 INDIE / ROCK guestlist.net