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Wednesday 9 December 2009

Myspace Magic: The Harlettes


While the Battle Of Bands brews nicely, NME-Europe returns with another myspace magic feature. Liverpool is once again the hunting ground for this week's feature and the band is called The Harlettes. Here's what we discovered about this five-piece.

NME-E: Who are you and how did you come about?
TH: We are The Harlettes and our members are Nathaniel Cummings, George Barclay, Thomas Dixon, Matthew Lancaster and Jonny Alderton. Natt sings, Tom and I play guitar, Matty plays bass and Jonny drums. We started in the late summer of 2008 after Natt and I tried to start a new band following the sudden demise of our former project, Hitler Can't Dance. Tom came to band once to cover me when I was away and ended up staying in the band so it worked out pretty well.

NME-E: Is there a reason behind your name?
TH: Not that I know of, you'd better ask Jonny that. I think it was more the fact we liked the sound of it to be honest.

Erm, logical-ish. A case of "right lads, what shall we call ourselves? The Harlettes? Done. Hmmm...

NME-E: The dreaded question. Dare you describe your sound?
TH: Well er, we have been likened to an ‘epic mash up of Kasabian and Kings of Leon’ and I’ve seen them both live and er, I’m forced to agree with that! Nah, it’s somewhere between rock and indie with a kind of pop influence I guess, Lady Gaga? Yeah, a bit like her.

Some heavyweight names in there. As per usual, I prefer the punter to make his/her own mind up. There are two tracks available to listen to on The Harlettes' myspace profile, suffice to give you a feel of what this lot are on about.

NME-E: What are your releases to date?
TH: We’d love to release something but we have about 20 quid to our name, which erm, a certain member of the band, decided to spend, so we’ve got no releases so far. We wouldn’t mind doing an E.P. soon though.

Ah, if only they'd entered the Battle Of Bands and had a chance at the prize money... (nudge, nudge, wink, wink, click, click...)

NME-E: If you could choose a band/artist to support you, who would it be?
TH: I’d probably choose Joy Division but that’s not really possible I guess, they might be a bit depressing too. Couldn’t go wrong with The Strokes though.

Joy Division is most definitely out of the question. As for The Strokes, they're probably too exclusive again now they've topped the NME (the other one!) Album of the Decade chart. For now it seems we'll have to settle for The Harlettes alone and anyone in Liverpool has the perfect opportunity to check them out this Friday (11th December) at The Masque (7pm, 5 quid).

NME-E: What's your favourite album at the moment?
TH: Not really sure, I go through phases. I’m a phase person. Julian Casablancas’ album is quality but music’s pretty terrible at the moment so there’s nothing that good out.

Hmmm, not so sure about that. Even during these crisis-stricken times, there's still a handful of albums worthwhile (more of that soon).

NME-E: Finally, could you tell us about your objectives/prospects for next 12 months?
TH: Ideally, we'd get signed, but the reality of that’s pretty slim. We like gigging though so we want to gig outside of Liverpool, get down to London for a bit and then record an E.P. That’ll suit us fine.

Well, that doesn't seem too far-fetched. Before they had south to make a name for themselves (and who's to argue they won't) check them out and show them your support.


NME-Europe would like to thank George and the rest of The Harlettes for sitting through the interrogation and wishes them all the best for 2010.

Last 5 NME-E interviews:
Four Dead In Ohio (Shoreditch, UK)
The Temps (Liverpool, UK)
The 48Ks (Doncaster, UK)
The Jacs (Liverpool, UK)
Cybiont (New Zealand)

Read all NME-E interviews

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