Interview Blood Oranges
Camille Ainsworth meets a musically diverse Leeds band
Interview: Blood Oranges
Other Recent Interview Articles
As the saying goes, variety is the spice of life, and so when Ben Lewis and Rose Alexander from Blood Oranges roll out the different music each band member is in to, it seems that their differences might just be what makes the band work.
“Rose is in love with Maximo Park, being from the north east, and Brand New, but she also loves a bit of jazz,” says Ben (vocals, guitar and keys). “Ben is a huge Belle & Sebastian fan,” continues Rose (vocals, guitar and keys). “As well as loving 80s indie popish stuff like The Wedding Present, The Smiths and The Cure. Jack (Gordon, drums) is a massive Pixies fan and even has a tattoo of them, as well as a Radiohead tattoo, Sarah (Bell, bass) is big on her new music stuff and regularly goes to little gigs around Leeds.”
You’d wonder where the common ground fell to inspire them to club together and start a band “I think it lies in Los Campesinos really,” they say. “We’re all massive fans.”
Blood Oranges are the latest new Leeds indie band to be hop footing between some truly decent support slots - Two Door Cinema Club, Hot Club De Paris, Pulled Apart By Horses and Vivian Girls to name a few.
“Our stuff is fairly diverse,” says Ben. “We can play indie-pop nights, like ones with Milk White White Teeth and Just Handshakes (We’re British), and fit into that well, but we can also play comfortably on a bill with the likes of Pulled Apart By Horses and These Monsters without seeming too out of place.”
Ben and Rose started writing together after meeting at University and finding a shared love for soaking up the Leeds music scene. One year on and they nesting into the fold playing at Live at Leeds and being included on both a Plumptom Rocks and a Dance To The Radio release later this year. But all that is just a nice by-product of wanting to play danceable music with their friends (“Ed from Just Handshakes… is practically a fifth band member,” they say).
“What we all really want to do is make good fun indie pop really, stuff that people can get up to, instead of just staring at the floor,” says Ben. “Making fun, danceable music that can be lyrically complex, yet not pretentious, is something that we aim to do.”
Find out more at www.myspace.com/wearebloodoranges
Posted on Wednesday 3rd March 2010
Sending you to Twitter, hold on... 
