Northern Soul

The lads in Kowalski may have an average age of 20, but in indie-boy dog years, they’ve thus far managed to fit quite a lot in. Quite aside from snagging a UK management deal (which, in itself, is enough to set them apart from most of their contemporaries), the Bangor four-piece have played a striking cameo in Northern Ireland’s ’07 show of the year (Snow Patrol’s triumphant Ward Park homecoming), co-headlined (with And So I Watch You From Afar) the first unsigned sell-out in fifteen years at The Limelight, and are currently hammering out their debut album at a studio frequented by Radiohead and Supergrass. From all that, you may deduce that so far they’ve enjoyed a fairly uninterrupted ascent, but don’t say so within their earshot. They see it a different way.

“It can maybe come across like that,” says frontman Lou, “but it hasn’t all been plain sailing. We’ve worked really hard, and completely adapted our lives around the band. We’ve done well – so far – but we’re all obsessives, and when you’re like that, writing and recording can be a real ordeal. That’s the difficult part, coming up with something that we all think is good enough. But we couldn’t be any other way. I think that makes us the band we are.”
And what kind of band would that be? Well, on the basis of one EP (Are You Noisy, Sunshine State?), a few scattered on-line fragments, a sole TV appearance, and a striking contribution to a recent compilation, fans of 4-4-2 meat and potatoes guitar rock should maybe hop off at the next stop. Kowlaski, you see, are a band who eschew the straight and narrow, preferring to veer along more interesting detours. When they played the big Limelight show, for example, they pulled out quite a few stops – hiring a horn section, extra percussionists and the Lowly Knights vocal choir to add some colour to their set. Similarly, their contribution to the recent Oh Yeah Sessions CD saw them call again on the services of the Knights, with wonderfully grand and atmospheric results.
“We try to push ourselves,” Lou resumes. “The world is full of generic guitar bands and I’m sick hearing them. We want to try things, freshen things up a bit, just make interesting music. I’m a guitar player, but haven’t really picked one up in a while. I’ve been buying keyboards and messing around with them. At the same time, we write pop songs. We love pop songs, love The Beatles. I just think we naturally lean to the left a bit.”
It’s an inclination that has served them well and brought them to the attention of some influential people. Last year, ATC Management, the organisation that looks after the likes of Faithless, Kate Nash and Nine Black Alps, stumbled across Kowalski’s MySpace site. So impressed were they by the tracks they found there, they signed the boys up on the spot.
“We’ve always known that having management was crucial in pushing on,” admits guitarist Daniel. “We tried to organise a tour ourselves once and it was a total disaster. We were all over the place, playing shitholes that were impossible to get to. So, we’ve been very lucky and really appreciate everything they’ve done for us.”
So far the association has helped them book regular UK gigs (Daniel: “We enjoy it. I think we stick out. There are loads of Arctic Monkeys clones knocking around. We bumped into one crowd, and even though they were from Manchester, they sang in a Sheffield accent. Pathetic.”), organise sessions at the Courtyard Studios in Oxford (“Radiohead use it for their tracking, and Supergrass demo there”, reveals drummer Paddy. “It’s great.”) and, in a round-about-way, brought Kowlaski to the attention of fellow Bangor-ite Gary Lightbody. An introduction that has so far not only seen them benefit from a fair few rounds of drink, but also snag an invite to their hometown’s biggest ever event.
“Gary was so casual about it,” reveals bass player Tom. “We were having a pint with him and he mentioned he was thinking of putting on a gig in Bangor and would we fancy playing it? We were imagining some sort of hush-hush show at a local pub, we’d no idea it would turn out as huge as it did.”
“We all still live at home, so every day for a fortnight before, we were walking past Ward Park,” adds Lou. “Watching them build this massive stage. And the posters and billboards were everywhere. Our name blazed across them, it was nuts. Everyone knew about it – our parents, school-friends, family, neighbours. Insane. But it turned out brilliant. We loved every minute of it.”
The prospect of headlining their own mega-gig rests with the band themselves. But according to Lou, they’re optimistic that their debut record will go some way towards fulfilling the expectation that’s steadily gathering around Kowlaski.
“The album will be finished by Christmas,” he smiles. “It has its own feeling. It’s very exciting. Anyone who listens to our MySpace page is going to be pleasantly surprised. We’ve really progressed since then. We’ve spent two years basically writing and no-one’s heard the results. We’re really looking forward to getting it out there.”