Before his Brighton gig I had the pleasure of interviewing the wonderful Luke Rainsford. He was an incredibly lovely guy and we chatted about everything from 2000 Trees and new music plans, to his worst interview experiences (luckily he didn't say this one!) and some of the weird and wonderful - and in this case, bird themed - things that can be found hidden amongst the internet.
So you just played 2000 Trees, how was that?
Oh it was great! I ended up playing like four sets, which was really cool. My main set was on Wednesday night so we didn't expect anyone to come, but it was really busy so that was cool as hell. I also played the busking stages where I played some weird sets, new songs and covers and stuff. It was really fun! I had a great time.
You've played Trees a few times before, what's your favourite part of it?
I love how friendly it is! A lot of festivals everyones there just to get super drunk and stuff, which is cool but Trees is a lot more chilled out! Also, the lineup is always so varied. My music taste is all over the place and it's really cool for that because I can go see like an emo band or a punk band, a heavy band or something more chill so yeah, it's really cool for that!
It's obvious you enjoy it, you played so many sets this year! What's your favourite thing about playing shows?
It depends on the show! I love playing small sweaty shows! With festivals and stuff it's always cool playing weirder places, like a forest with Trees or Slam Dunk north last year was a university campus, I love the weirdness. You always end up doing weird things and playing to weird people, It's really fun!
Do you have a favourite venue to play?
I'm a big fan of The Sunflower Lounge in Birmingham, that's great. Key Club in Leeds is great as well. Those are my favourites for sure!
Are there any venues you want to play that you haven't yet?
I've already kinda achieved my main goal - I always wanted to play Underworld [Camden] and I did that in March, which was cool as hell! If i was being ridiculously over-optimistic it'd be Brixton Academy - I saw Blink there when i was like 18 and that was rad as hell so, probably that!
Do you have a favourite song to play live?
This changes like every week - anything except home safe! At the minute it's probably new songs that I haven't been able to play much, I've been practising those for when I make the new record.
What about favourite song you've ever released?
Probably What I Hide Beneath! I'm proud of it, I think it was really ambitious. It goes through so many vibes in such a short space of time, and it doesn't really repeat itself which I'm really stoked on. I don't really play it live that much, because it's a killer to sing and it doesn't really translate solo, but I love it.
Do you prefer playing full band then?
100%! I don't really like acoustic music that much - I'm not ashamed of saying that! I've said it my entire music career, but I won't be playing acoustic stuff much longer! My new music is not gonna be very acoustic at all which I'm really excited about. obviously I still love acoustic shows! Theres just something about playing a tour with lots of people which is the best experience, the shows are so fun!
Favourite band you've toured with?
Holding Absence! No question, don't even need to think about that!
I gotta ask, what do you think of Luke Birdsford? [A twitter account that posts photos of luke photoshopped as birds, very entertaining stuff]
The internet is a weird weird place, but I think it's cool as hell that someone has dedicated their time to making really dumb memes about me! It's super funny and a cool way to interact with people in a different way. I love that me making music has led to a meme account about me! I've never experienced anything like that, It's really funny
Finally, thank you for doing this interview! I hope it wasn't too much of a disaster.
Not at all! I had an interview once where the interviewer knew absolutely nothing about me, she literally said "So, you released music? What was that?" So this is far from the worst!
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