Interview with Spacehopper

THIS STORY LAST UPDATED: 14 March 2005 1012 GMT Interview with Spacehopper

One of Swindon's most popular bands - Spacehopper recently played a sell-out headline show at The Apartment.

We caught up with guitarist Matt Kilford after the gig to find out more about the town's answer to Radiohead.

Spacehopper, who are Lee Alder - singer/guitarist, Martin Townsend - keyboards, Matt Kilford - guitar, Dave Corrigan - bass and Rich Millin on drums have a foot in both Swindon and Oxford music scene circles with members hailing from Swindon and Faringdon.


Over the years they have developed a strong local following through their intelligent, melodic Radiohead-inspired rock and outstanding live shows. High profile gigs have included slots with Easyworld and Goldrush and a UK tour with Scottish indie rockers Cosmic Rough Riders.

A one-off single 'Silent Film' was released on Shifty Disco records in 2003 and was added to the playlist on Steve Lamacq's BBC 6 Music programme and Colin Murray's Radio One show. The band also played an acoustic session for BBC 6's Gideon Coe.

BBC Wiltshire recently spoke to guitarist Matt Kilford who gave us an insight into the world of Spacehopper.

How long have the band been together?
Since around 1998. We started out as a three-piece playing Stone Roses covers and stuff. Lee was drumming and singing at the time. Since we got the other guys in and Lee came out front the sound has got a lot bigger. Since he now sings standing up his voice sounds a lot different, it used to be a Kelly from Stereophonics-type croak!

Did you all have Space Hopper's when you were kids?
Not really! The name didn't mean anything to us. We've wondered about the legalities of having a name like Spacehopper but we've just stuck with it. We're stubborn bastards so getting us all to agree on another name isn't worth the hassle.

How would you describe Spacehopper's music?
We get described as 'anthemic-guitar-stadium-pop-rock'. The songs are anthemic, but not intentionally, it's just the way we write. I guess bands we get compared to are Coldplay and Radiohead, Gene and Smashing Pumpkins. We don't really tend to have one style - its all different throughout the whole set. The melody still comes through as Spacehopper. We have all got different tastes. It causes probably more problems when songwriting, but the eventual outcome is better as more of the band have their say.

What would you say to people who would argue that the Radiohead/Coldplay bandwagon is a bit passé now?
We were playing in this style before Coldplay came along, it's just one of those things. We definitely play a lot more styles than Coldplay, it's up to peoples opinions if they think we are better songwriters than them. We're not going to dismiss ourselves from it because they are a good band. When it comes to Radiohead, yeah we're influenced by them but not in a massive way. Whoever we get compared to its all publicity and any publicity is good publicity!

Do you consider yourselves a Swindon or Oxford band?
We started off in Faringdon as that's where most of the band were brought up. Me and Rich come from Swindon and have lots of connections here. We started off here but then started playing Oxford. Then you have the Swindon/Oxford football divide so you have to be careful! We've always called ourselves a Faringdon band - it's a nice sort of in-between. You use it to your advantage. Oxford is great and we learnt loads from playing there. Being a university city it's so much more diverse, it definitely ups your game. University kids come into Oxford from all over the world and start bands so there's more variety. What's good about Swindon is that you get a lot of young kids confident in themselves doing the punk stuff.

What do you think of the Swindon music scene? Favourite bands?
Latitude Blue we've played with a few times, I suppose they are similar in style to us although the music is a bit darker. They are one of the best bands that we've seen. Also The Hour and Satellite 17. Darren from Satellite 17 is our singer Lee's brother. He used to play with us very early on. Its good that he's got his own thing going on now. Broken Daylight I always used to like.

We've heard you've made some interesting industry connections?
We're involved with Andy Ross, who when he was A&R man for Food Records signed Blur and The Supernaturals, Dubstar and Jesus Jones. He now runs a Boss Music night, that's his new label. He's doing his own thing. He came along to one of our gigs when we played in London. He's sort of looking after us. We haven't signed with him as such but he's helping us along. We told him of the problems we had with our previous management and he understood, as he knows what the music industry is like. We're going to release 'On The Spot' with him on his label and he's looking to get an agent on board for us. He knows so many people that there is a possibility of us working on film soundtracks, a tour to coincide with the single and MTV2 exposure. He's renowned through the industry so it's really nice to have someone like him involved.

What's up next for the band?
In September the single is out, and it's going to have a proper release and hopefully every chance of exposure. We also want to get the new web site up and running and write and demo some new songs. We've been given some free studio time through Andy in Oxford with a guy who worked on some early Starsailor stuff. Hopefully something will come about from then.

Spacehopper play The Zodiac in Oxford with Toulouse and Shortee on Friday 16th July. For further Spacehopper updates, join the mailing list on the band's official website.