Mining For Gold

How many bands from Wiltshire do you know? Probably none. That's because up till now—according to Martin Badder and Dave Power, the drummer and keyboardist with idiosyncratic young indie act, Countermine—there haven't ever been any.

"Our difference," says Dave, trying to source Countermine's unusual sound—which is indie/pop/trip-hop, with some indefinable overlay that sounds almost Asian—"has a lot to do with where we're from, a small village in Wiltshire. Wiltshire's kind of removed from the rest of England in that there's no music scene there. It's also a very chilled-out county and everyone likes to do their own thing."

Both Dave and Martin feel that the lack of a contemporary music scene has freed their band to follow its own path without the pressure of having to live up to a preordained sound.

"You can go anywhere in England," continues Dave, "Manchester, Liverpool, London, and there's always been a scene, bands that come out of these places. Well there's never been anyone to come out of Wiltshire. There's hardly anywhere to play either. And I like that, because we do our own thing in our own way."

A listen to Countermine's "Which Way" and "Wife of Riley", newly released by Bright Star Recordings, verifies their claim to originality. Another remarkable thing about this band is their clear-headed take on things. Still in their teens, Countermine already know just what they want.

"When we were fifteen and sixteen," says eighteen-year-old Martin, "we were like, 'Wouldn't it be great to go up to a big studio in London?'. But now we realise that it's so much better to be in a rural country area. It's less hassle, and we don't like the busy thing, we'd rather be chilled out and not have to worry about thousands of people running around. The only thing we like about towns is the nightlife, but as for where our music's coming from, we prefer to stay in the countryside, where we can be more focused."

Dave agrees. "A lot of people have said, 'You've got a bit of money now, are you going to move down to London?'. We thought about it one time but no, we love where we come from. It suits us and it suits the music."

With their first album due out in April, Countermine feel full of potential.

"No one knows how it's going to turn out," says Dave, "but there's a feeling like a door has suddenly become open. There's a lot of excitement being created. And we're part of that, so it's cool."

How could you imagine yourselves handling fame, if you suddenly became really big overnight?

"Well I'm alright," Dave jokes, "because drummers never get famous. But we've been through such a progression already since we were twelve years old, and then playing Glastonbury when we were fourteen, and then it gradually got bigger and bigger and bigger. So it's not like we've just suddenly come into all this; we've been doing it for a long time."

Is there anything else you'd rather be doing?

"No, this is it for me," says Dave, "this is what I've always wanted to do. The feeling when you're playing a gig and people are into it—it's better than sex, better than snowboarding."

Keyboardist Martin agrees. I ask him for the biggest thing that the five members of Countermine have in common.

"Exactly the same dream," he responds. "We want to be musicians. Whether we're the next Oasis or the next band that plays at the Walrus and the Carpenter every weekend. We just want to be able to play music all the time and be able to make a living out of it. That's our dream. And it seems to be working up to it now, and we're happy with it. Long may it last!"

Countermine play Whelan's on Tuesday, 9th Feb.