Carry On Campesinos

Maybe this is an obvious question but how exactly does one get a whole album out of death, sex and football?
“Well, they’re three quite interesting things to write about,” laughs Neil Campesinos (non-fans; the surname’s strictly for the stage). “Dying, shagging and football. Every day that goes by, that’s all we think about – even the girls, they love football!”

Romance Is Boring is the Cardiff-based seven piece’s third release in 24 months, something that Neil mentions never even crossed their minds.
“It’s just always the way we’ve done things.” he shrugs. “We finished university and immediately signed a record deal. The first thing we ever had to do was record an album and put a tour in between. That’s normal, that’s what we do.”

The quirky popsters proved just how serious they are on Christmas Eve last when lead vocalist Gareth Campesinos posted a response on the band’s blog to the early leak of Romance Is Boring.
“It really feels like ripping something out of my chest,” he vented, adding that he’d heard the news via-text at 5am that morning. Neil remembers, “It was pretty disappointing for all of us, but especially for Gareth. He just put so much into it. You’re kind of expecting a leak to happen and we weren’t very happy about it, but there’s always some dickhead who wants to ruin it. Besides going around there and having a pop at them, what are you meant to do?”

Gareth’s post suggested the leak was the result of a promo copy gone awry. Neil’s not giving anything away. “Sometimes people sell promos online but you can’t just blame the press. I imagine 90% of people in the press completely respect the position they’re in. You’d expect everyone to be mature enough not to play really sad games on the internet to get respect from their peers.”
Still, it seems you can’t keep a good band down, even if Los Campesinos! have lost a founding member since their last record. In late 2009, the band announced that Gareth’s sister Kim would be replacing ex-keyboardist Aleks, who has since returned to university to continue her studies. “It’s just been really natural,” Neil says of the transition. “Obviously, there was a worry that fans would be like, ‘Oh you’re not as good as Aleks’ or whatever, but most of them haven’t even considered it in that way!”

The crafty Brits have yet to announce an Irish date in their upcoming tour, but something tells me they won’t be forgetting about us lot any time soon, having made their first live TV performance on our very own Tubridy Tonight in 2008.
“We remember it very well!” Neil laughs. “The most exciting thing about that was getting to talk to Louis Walsh and Natalie Cassidy. All we were thinking was, ‘Who cares about us compared to Louis Walsh and Sonia off Eastenders?’”