INTERVIEW WITH ALLO’ DARLIN
You’ve played End of the Road Festival a few times, what is it you like so much about that festival?
Well, we’ve always had fantastic support from the crowd there. The first time we played in the Tipi Tent and was one of the first times where the the crowd were louder than the sound us. The second time blew all of us away though, because so many people turned up to see us at 1:30 in the afternoon. We really weren’t expecting that turn out and it remains one of our best shows. We also know Simon – he and Joe made our ‘My Heart Is A Drummer’ video – and we get on well with them! Also, it’s just a lovely location with great bands, so it’s the sort of festival we’d go to even if we weren’t playing with Allo Darlin
Some bands are offended by the ‘twee’ tag, where do you stand on it?
Offended by the twee tag? I don’t know that it offends me, but I think it probably gets a bit misused in our case. The thing I find a bit weird about it is that I don’t know very many bands that set out to be a twee band in the same way that people set out to be, say, a surf rock band or a grunge band or whatever. And now I’m thinking about it I guess there are negative connotations attached to it – fay, overly sentimental, cutesy and so on. I think what I could say is – we don’t set out to be twee. I don’t find Elizabeth’s songs or words twee. I think that the level of sincerity and honesty in the songs disarms people and they don’t know how to classify them, perhaps. Unable to find anything else, they use the word twee. I think that the naivety of the first record could have elements of twee laid at its door, but once the new record comes out I think it’ll be forgotten.
What’s it like being part of the whole FortunaPop! thang?
Being part of the whole FortunaPop! thang is fantastic. FortunaPop! was 15 recently and all the bands played over three nights at the Scala. Before we played a film was shown with message for Sean from members of the label old and new. Sean is a rare breed, a one off. Bonkers, bizarre, straight talking and sometimes wrong, but completely in love and brilliant with what he does with FPOP!
We loved Elizabeth’s recent collaboration with Darren Hayman on January Songs (I Know I Fucked Up). What’s the biggest fuck up you’ve ever done?
I walked naked down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh at 9:00am after losing a bet. That was fucked up. I shook with adrenaline.
Do you have any standout moments from last year’s worldwide tour?
Hmmm, completing it! It’s so difficult to single out individual moments, but a train ride from Bergen to Oslo in Norway had the most relentlessly breathtaking scenery I’ve ever seen. The show that springs to mind was the Black Cat show in Washington DC – not least because of some super fans we met that day 
And, on a personal note, playing supporting The New Pornographers at the Shepherds Bush Empire was exciting because that’s the venue I remember going to the most when I was a teenager and yearning to play on.
You’ve got a whole heap of different support bands joining you – who’ve been your favourite support acts to date?
Lots of support acts end up becoming friends. Eux Autres fit into this category. They are a very good band. So good, in fact, that we just
covered one of their songs on a forthcoming bonus CD. Obviously we very excited about having The Wave Pictures with us on our next American Tour, though we really don’t see them as a support act… it’s a double bill of amazingness.
What can fans expect from the Bristol and Cardiff gigs?
We’ve been rehearsing hard for this tour and, having been in the studio on and off for chunks of 2011, can’t wait to play some shows! So they can expect 4 very excited tour bud’s ready to give them a chance to dance, sing along and join us for a drink after…
Allo’ Darlin play Bristol Fleece on Tuesday February 28 and Cardiff Buffalo Bar on Weds February 29.
