Attention, please!

Sarah Stead • Published 17 Dec 2009 09:00 0 Comments

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WHAT do you get if you cross a group of talented twenty-something lads with some tattoos, some attitude and four completely different tastes in music? The answer may well lie with Wokingham band Attention Thieves and their recipe for success which has won them a huge fanbase in a very short space of time.

Their route to formation is fairly complex - all you need to know is that they all went to St Crispin's, they've all studied at ACM in Guildford at some point, and combinations of band members played in several different acts before the Attention Thieves line-up was complete: Ryan, Hag, Alex and Sim.

Alex (vocals and guitar) said: "Me, Sim and Hag were writing and jamming for ages until Ryan (bass and vocals) came along.

"We've been through many different styles and now after maybe 20 songs we've found our sound and our direction. We seem to be doing something different, but you can't really put your finger on it."

Sim (drums) chipped in: "Everyone in the band listens to different music, which I think helps our sound. It's gone from indie to indie disco to rock and roll to I suppose some indie punk rock fusion now."

Attention Thieves play indie punk rock, which might not sound so new, but in the current musical climate it actually is. In fact, anything without a girl playing keyboard in skinnies is news these days.

That aside, it's music earthed in a genre that hasn't reared its head in any memorable way for a few years, meaning the sound has a 2010 twist and feels fresh. So, why 'Attention Thieves'?

Sim hesitated: "Well, we don't really want to admit it but we went on a band name generator website. I think we put either 'attention' or 'thieves' into it."

"We were like: 'That'll do'," said Alex. "I wish there was a better reason..."

It's a classic symptom of the times and that this is a band irretrievably tangled with the Myspace phenomenon: they've only existed for 18 months yet have more than 22,000 Myspace fans, and their super-slick homepage is all part of their look.

You can even 'order' their four-track EP Fear To Lose from the site - and a copy will be hand-burned in Sim's bedroom, stickered, packaged and posted to you by one of the lads. 'DIY' doesn't really cover it. "We've had a couple of indie labels trying to get us but we're not really at that stage. We want to be perfect," said Alex.

"We recorded the EP in June and at the moment we just wanna sell it to people who wanna hear it and get fans. We're making them and selling them for whatever we can get for them really.

"There's no point in going 50/50 with a record label to get 5,000 printed when we can't shift them all."

Hag (lead guitar, real name James) said: "We wanna do it by ourselves as far as we can. It's better than owing lots of people lots of money!"

They're a hard-working bunch and are determined to make it by slogging it out on the gig circuit and writing, writing, writing - but they play pretty hard too.

Before the interview was over I'd learned their secret handshake and been shown their cleanest party tricks, and when I asked what a party with Attention Thieves involved Hag told me: "Tobogganing down stairs, indoor Olympics and a three-litre bag of Westons cider each - hopefully some girls - and trying to jump over a traffic cone on a BMX that's barely rideable.

"That was all on the same night too. Then we went to a casino at 6am, I won £170 and we went back to the house and carried on partying."

Just another reason to describe Attention Thieves as memorable!

So what's the plan now? "Now we're about to go and work with a guy called Adam Whittaker," said Alex. "He's worked with Mark Ronson, The Doves, Amy Winehouse, The Race and loads more. We're doing some recording with him, he seems to think he can really do something with us. We're gonna sort out a single, hopefully for an Easter release.

"We're just trying to get out there, I think you have to have belief in yourself but from the feedback we've got it seems that word's got around a lot."

Well, they do say good news travels fast...

l As well as London dates, Attention Thieves have some Reading gigs lined up: Wednesday at Face Bar, January 9 at Plug n Play and February 13 at Plug n Play with Doll & The Kicks.

Listen and order Fear To Lose at www.myspace.com/attentionthieves

This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 17 Dec 09

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