Paul Telfer - Guitar, Vocals
James Medlock - Guitar, Vocals, Bass
Simon Porter - Drums
Influences
Ride, Counting Crows, Pearl Jam, Catherine Wheel, My Bloody Valentine, Third Eye Blind, Feeder, Stereophonics, The La's, Shakira, Alice In Chains, Incubus, Sir Michael Tippett, The Thrills, Coldplay, Elbow, Jimmy Eat World, Jeff Buckley, Longview, Embrace, Bloc Party, Gene, Joe Satriani, Michael Jackson, Ordinary Boys, Aerosmith, Serafin, Korn, Television, The Band, Ash, Jackson Browne, The Kooks, Semisonic, U2, Lighthouse Family, The Beach Boys, Brad, Satchel, Neil Young, The Police, Genesis, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
Perhaps unbeknownst to the majority, one year and a few months ago "The Fantastic Four" set out to dominate the world with their butt-thrusting cock-rock, humping the world into submission through rock clubs and home stereos alike. With their gut-wrenching basslines, earth-shattering harmonies, and oven...heating funky-good-time grooves, they took the world by storm, but gave it all up to be superheroes...
Meanwhile, 4-piece alternative rock band Clémentine embarked on their journey to humbly contribute to the Holy Grail of British songwriting, to refine the genre from which they drew inspiration, and make people believe once more. In what, exactly, is uncertain, for they have yet to establish a "work ethic" of sorts. But with the perhaps now clichéd (albeit promising) desire to make the music "less about the image and more about the music", Clémentine's notable jazz influence and unconventional guitar tunings hark back to an age when bands whose key elements comprised jazz influence and unconventional guitar tunings were gracing our ears with their presence.
It all began back in March of 2005, in a small block of flats in suburban London - CAPITAL OF ROCK... "when Johan stamped his dirty trainers over my bed to get to the balcony for a fag", says softly-spoken frontman Paul Telfer, fondly reminiscing between sips of a fresh brew of camomile and limeflower tea. He sets down the yellowy-blue Peruvian china mug on the dark mahogany table next to his modest stamp collection. He stands up, paces slowly yet deliberately to the balcony, and sighs as he looks upon the reddish-hued Thames, basking in the glory of a good old English midsummer sunset.
"To quote a contemporary, 'it's not the fact that you got there, it's remembering the things you did that got you there'", says Telfer, turning from the balcony now, allowing a rare shimmer of inspiration to flare in his eyes. "Now, I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I believe in it and it's what gets me through the day." It's not surprising, then, that Clémentine have risen to such critical acclaim locally. The central song-writing nucleus of Telfer and drummer Simon Porter has been a recipe for nothing but rip-roaring success over the past few months, putting them well within the grasp of industry boffs, who continue to poise their collective claw ominously over the group, constantly retelling the haunting reminder: it could be you...
"Working with Paul has been great for me this past year" says Porter, settling next to Paul on the plush raccoon-skin rug. "I've worked with a number of musicians in my time - I don't want to name drop, but John Coltrane, Billy Cobham, Ella Fitzgerald, Steve Gadd, Buddy Rich... and they have all paled in comparison in one way or another to the songwriting genius I've discovered in Paul. He's often sending me tracks he's into at the time, and in return I send him stuff I like - just the other day I sent him [a track of] a man beating a stick against the ground, and we both found that immensely inspirational. We're often sharing ideas and drawing inspiration from one another. We work well as a team, and I think our music is testament to that."
If the cold, depressing winter months of 2005 and the slightly less unbearable period of spring 2006 has been a busy time, then summer has served as little respite for Clémentine. "Oh yeah, we're always practicing, man", chirps Johan, flicking a lock of beautiful brown hair to one side, to reveal his dreamy brown eyes. "We've all moved back to our respective homes since university: Paul to Shoreditch, Jim to Peterborough, Simon to Fleet, and me to Woking. But that doesn't mean we can't still practice together. We often send video uplinks to one another so we can practice via the Internet. We're living in a digital era, so we may as well embrace it". "Yeah we're well good", Jim interjects. Medlock's guitar-wielding antics have been likened to The Edge, Kevin Cadogan, and to a lesser extent, Van Halen, Petrucci, Hendrix, Satriani...
This year, Clémentine addresses love, hate, reconciliation, and perhaps peculiarly, whinging council estate residents... Allow this reporter a little audacity when he tells you: this is one band you do NOT want to miss.
Reviews
Who, or what, exactly, is Clémentine? The Oxford Citrus Compendium offers this: "a small, loose-skinned orange, akin to a mandarin but essentially seedless". A concise but apt description of the London-based quartet whose upbeat vignettes about social consequence manage to loosely capture the quintessence of modern living in their own inimitably wordless fashion. When performing live, all four segments of the band (Paul "santa's little helper" Telfer, Johan "not quite permanent" Vermunt, Simon "I wish I was a little bit shorter, I wish I was a" Porter and Jim "you can't call me that; just because i was born out of wedlock" Medlock) unite like some sort of cheerfully melodic Power Rangers. And you've got two choices: you're either with them, nodding your head, tapping your foot and generally succumbing to the kind of kinetic persuasion that typifies the group's Audio Stuff, or you're not. And I've never seen that happen so I can't describe it.
We just put out a new EP on itunes. Http://www.itunes.com/thebigheavy. Make sure to leave us a review. You f'ing rock.
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TBH
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