October 15th, 2017

5 Questions With Laminate Pet Animals

2017 has been kind to the Leeds based electronic trio Following their 7" vinyl release with Leeds based singles club 'Come Play With Me', we were over the moon to chat to them! 

I know most bands hate this question, but we have to ask... Where did the name 'Laminate Pet Animal' come from?  
Haha that's okay! Well. We really need to come up with a better story for this one but... we thought the idea of using a Palindrome for a band name would be cool. So we Googled 'palindromes' and 'Laminate Pet Animal' really caught our eye. Sounds kind of electronic-y. A lot people tend to shorten it to 'LPA', which is less of a mouth full. We were pretty torn between LPA and 'No Lemon No Melon'... Joking aside, we do try to tie in the idea of symmetry in a lot of the artwork too!
 
Your single 'Eve' was released on a 7" split as part of the 'Come Play With Me' singles collection! How was that? And how did it come about?  
This is a funny one really. Well firstly we'd like to thank CPWM, especially Tony Ereira the label owner, who have been so supportive and amazing! The readers should really check out CPWM and the other singles if they haven't already! We already knew Tony from meeting him at various gigs, so when we heard about the submissions to get a single on 7", we thought it would be silly not to apply. The track 'Eve' was a strange one because we felt it didn't really fit our sound. We knew we didn't want it on our EP, so we submitted the song not really expecting much. Turns out people actually quite like it haha and, to our surprise, we got accepted for a release! Working with CPWM was a great experience. Tony is a real genuine guy, always wanting to help and we continue to work with him now! The idea of a split single is great because it brings different bands together. We are now really good friends with Team Picture, who were on the other side of our single. Team Picture are just awesome too.
 
 
Your line up has changed this year, now been joined by UBER talented Charlotte Jones. How has this affected the band dynamic and writing process?  
You're definitely right there! She is amazing and completely made the band 100 times better haha! (She can actually sing, unlike Thomas and Tom). Charlotte actually joined because of 'Eve'. Many people think that the vocal sample in the chorus is Charlotte, but it is actually our friend Eve May Rowlands. Thomas had a recording of her from years ago and the main inspiration behind the track was Eve's vocal sample (so we named the track after her!). Thomas and Tom thought the track needed a female singer throughout...and the rest is history!
 
As a well respected Leeds based band, you will have played in some pretty cool local venues. What are your thoughts on the Leeds Music Scene and where do you enjoy playing?  
Aww we don't know about well respected, but thank you! Yes we are extremely lucky to have played in lots of awesome venues around Leeds! The Leeds Music Scene is packed full of great bands and opportunities. There is just a great community of musicians and like-minded individuals. It is especially good for electronic music, which is part of the reason we have stayed here. Our personal favorite has to be The Brudenell Social Club. The sound in there is incredible and the crowd is always amazing. We also love resident sound engineer Trevor Baines. He always makes us sound much better than we are haha! We are super excited to play the new Community Room on November 16th too for our next single launch party! (Shameless plug haha sorry!)
 
What are you listening to at the moment?  
We thought we'd give three bands each that we are listening to:
 
Thomas – Just looking at the last three downloads on my Apple Music, we've got PEAKES, a local Leeds band who have just released a new single, Waves. It's real nice! Vessels' new album, The Great Distraction is really good! And lastly Daniel Avery, I absolutely love his unique take on Techno!
 
Tom – I'm listening to the Kiasmos EP, Blurred which is lovely. Can't stop listening to Nate Wood! And also Half Noise. They are so so good, every song is awesomely catchy!
 
Charlotte – I'm listening to LCD Soundsystem at the moment, but I'm always listening to them really. I'm listening to Bon Iver because I'm in love with Justin Vernon and I'm also listening to Bibio because he's great!
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