Exclusive Spinner interview with Munch Munch

Exclusive Spinner interview with Munch Munch...

Playing a phenomenal eight showcase gigs at SXSW 2010, Bristol's Munch Munch look determined to work hard since three of the four members have now graduated from college. "We haven't played in the US before, there's so much stuff we've just realised we have to sort out at the last moment: like power adapters, car hire, visas." New single 'Cyclorama' is out this month on Fear and Records. Spinner caught up with Carrell in between car journeys to sort out all the details ahead of Munch Munch's neon-pop assault on Austin.

Could you please describe your sound in your own words.

Explosive. Some people describe us as ADD as we kind of change stuff a lot. Colourful, energetic.

How did your band form?

We all came together at university. Everyone's graduated apart from me -- I'm in my final year. I was playing a Eurythmics song at an open mic night and Rich [Manber] talked to me afterwards and we realised we were into the same stuff. We made some stuff on a laptop and then we decided we didn't want to be one of those bands with backing tracks on stage. Because we had complicated drum beats at that stage, we thought we needed two drummers to do it. That's when we got Jack [O'Connor] and Sarah [Renwick] on board.

What are your musical influences?

When we started out four years ago it was contemporary stuff like Animal Collective. I listen to mainly older stuff now. Fleetwood Mac is a big one at the moment and Burt Bacharach is someone I constantly listen to. Sparks are quite a big influence. Really pop, actually. We approach making music in quite a naive way, because I'm not trained in music. We just want to chuck stuff together.

How did you come up with your band name?

We had loads of stupid ideas. At one point we wanted to use 'Jesus Sex Party'.

A name like that wouldn't have helped your American visa chances...

Exactly! Rich likes a band called the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower. At their visa interview they had to lie about their name.

We just wanted something really dynamic, and someone said 'munch munch banana' and we just cut the banana off. We didn't realise that we would keep doing stuff. It was just stuff me and Rich were doing on our laptop, we just had to give it a name when we made the MySpace page. I guess lots of bands have names that don't really mean anything because they didn't realise they were going to keep going, and then get stuck with these names!

What's your biggest vice?

Fast food. Any really bad stuff -- I eat it! I feel really bad about it and everyone in the band has a go at me for it, which is fair enough as some of it is just really rough.

What's in your festival survival kit?

You know those tents that say they are two man when actually they can only fit one? I say always get a tent which is two sizes above than you need. I went to Green Man festival last summer and bought a tent from Argos. It said two man, but it wasn't! The person I was sharing with wasn't a small person either.

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