WHEEL ME OUT - Electricity In Our Homes

Electricity In Our Homes is Bonnie, Paul and Charlie. The past couple years have seen these self-proclaimed DIYers go from strength to strength with a flurry of gigs, recordings and some encouraging words from the likes of Record Collector. Wheel met up with the trio for a leisurely stroll through Victoria Park.

By Ananda Pellerin

What have you guys been doing today?

Charlie - Posing

Bonnie - Yeah we had a photo shoot this morning –

Paul - for our new mini-album that’s coming out this summer.

B - It involved posing with a lot of glamorous furniture so we’re still recovering.

Glamorous furniture?

P - Ridiculous furniture, massive –

B - Italian, like, supposed to be chic but really vile.

P - Very elaborate and expensive but very tasteless, which is what we like.

Is that a good way to describe your music? Elaborate but tasteless?

B - Yeah! And expensive.

How long have EIOH been playing together?

B - Two years, but it’s gone so fast. I can't believe two years I’ve been putting up with –

P - look at that fish!

C - Is that a pike?

B - it’s huge! I think he’s eyeing us up.

You’ve had an EP and two singles. When’s the mini-album coming out?

C - Third week of July. That’s the plan. The art work is –

P - done today –

C - as good as the music –

P - If not better.

C - We also have a Japanese album coming out. It’s basically a compilation of our previous releases because they were all on limited edition vinyl.

Speaking of singles, Record Collector recently listed your first single, Shareholder’s Meeting, as one of the most sought-after records of recent years.

C - I think it’s purely because we just did a few copies.

B - Yeah it was 200 limited and a lot of care went into them.

C - The packaging was really nice. The recordings were really rushed, we did them in like three hours.

There are a lot of bands that make 200 copies of a single that don’t get listed in Record Collector.

C - It was nice to be included. A lot of the other bands were more established –

B - like Depeche Mode. And then there was little old us, it was quite weird.

C - There’s three of them now!

P - He’s breaking the water and putting his fin out!

C - Moby Dick!

What can people expect to hear? Who are some of your influences?

P - Postcard Records.

B - When we first got together we were listening to a lot of the same things. The Orange Juice sound… the guitars on a lot of Scottish pop like Josef K have had an influence. I mean, we don’t sound like them.

C - My influences at the moment are probably Frank Zappa, Scott Walker, Talking Heads, Metropak… I’ve been listening to Psychic TV…

B - We’ve gone from listening to really poppy stuff to more loopy, indulgent stuff. You can really hear it in the music, things are drawn out – we don’t feel in a hurry to wrap songs up.

C - It still has that DIY mentality but we’re playing songs that are less afraid to not be ‘verse chorus verse’ – purely because we’ve learned to count to more than eight! We’re getting better.

So prog is the next step then?

B - Yeah that’s it. We did indulge in that Cream cover… WMO

Electricity In Our Homes will be playing in-store at Rough Trade East on the 25 July at 7pm.

Don’t forget to pick up a copy of their next 500 limited edition 12”, released 27 July on Parlour Records.

www.myspace.com/electricityinourhomes