Creole and the gang

Cajun Dance Party are a band you can expect to hear a lot more about in 2008. They have already released two cracking singles (‘Amylase’ and ‘The Next Untouchable’), are signed to the uber-hip XL label and have been cited by Thom Yorke as his new favourite band.

Sickeningly, they have achieved all this whilst still in school; the London five-piece are due to sit their A-levels this summer.
The group have recently found time in between homework assignments to put the finishing touches to their debut album, which is set for release later this year. Inspired by the strict no-filler policy so successfully utilised by The Strokes on their own celebrated debut LP, Is This It, Cajun Dance Party have opted to include just nine songs on the record, which was produced at Edwyn Collins’ London studio by ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler.
“He found us on MySpace before anyone else,” recalls Daniel Blumberg, Cajun Dance Party’s softly spoken lead singer. “He contacted us, apparently. We can’t remember ’cos we didn’t know who it was! He said, ‘I wanna produce you guys’, and our thinking at the time was, ‘Well, we just got our demos produced, so we’re not looking for a producer right now’. We didn’t actually reply, but it’s funny how these things came around in circles.
“Once we were signed to XL, he contacted us through his management at Rough Trade. We had a go at recording a couple of songs with him, including ‘Amylase’, and he just perfectly captured what we were looking for; he made it sound like a really energetic pop song.
“It was great recording in Edwyn Collins’s studio as well, ’cos it’s a place that has a real home feel to it. It has a lot of his stuff – including his stuffed animal collection – and his son was hanging around, who’s the same age as us. It took us a long time to record the album, because we’re still in school, but we’re extremely proud of it.”
Cajun Dance Party have certainly had a dizzying twelve months. Another influential figure who discovered the band on MySpace was BBC DJ Steve Lamacq, who awarded ‘The Next Untouchable’ the accolade of Best Demo of 2006. Since then, the group have played at Glastonbury and the Reading and Leeds Festivals, and last November accepted an invite from Jo Whiley to perform at the Mencap benefit gig at the Union Chapel in London.
Cajun Dance Party seem to be living proof of the adage that the smartest career move a young band can make is simply to write a great song – it will act as your agent and manager; it will get you gigs and open doors.
“I don’t know about ‘young’ bands, I don’t think that’s anything to do with it,” replies Daniel. “Having said that, you’re right, it’s about the songs. I wouldn’t say ‘song’, ’cos we had four tracks that people loved – ‘The Next Untouchable’ was probably just the most instant. But yeah, the song is king, as Edwyn Collins says."
Finally, what did the band make of the Thom Yorke endorsement?
“Apparently he’s said he’s a fan, but I don’t know too much about it,” responds Daniel. “All I know is that I met him in a clothes shop in Carnaby Street and he persuaded me to sign to XL. Basically, I just saw him in the shop, went up to him and asked him about labels, ’cos we’d really been talking about that as a band for a long time. I knew that he’d done his solo album on XL, having been signed to Parlophone for a long time.
“Parlophone were talking to us as well, and when you’ve got a label like that interested in you, who’ve got artists like Bowie and The Beatles, it’s difficult to know who you should go with. But Thom Yorke gave us some good advice and we went with XL. It was definitely the right decision.”

Cajun Dance Party’s ‘Amylase’ single is out now on XL