Clean Cut Kid interview: Band prepare for Liverpool Music Week

Liverpool four-piece Clean Cut Kid has been hailed as one of the hardest working bands in the business, and all of that graft is really paying off.

After securing a record deal with Polydor, launching their debut EP to critical acclaim and playing a whopping 29 summer festivals, the band will finish a nationwide headline tour with a homecoming gig at Arts Club for Liverpool Music Week.

Your Move caught up with keyboard player Evelyn Halls to discuss the group’s meteoric rise, their latest record and her feelings ahead of the upcoming Liverpool show.

Interview by Mark Langshaw

What does performing at Liverpool Music Week mean to you as a local band?

Liverpool Music Week is going to be the biggest show we’ve done in the city, so that’s massively exciting for us and it’s been a while since we actually played here. I think it might have been April when we were last here and that was at The Magnet. It’s mad to think it’s been that long but the festival season has kept us busy.

We’re also excited because we just love Liverpool Music Week – it’s a great event and there’s always a strong line-up. There’s nothing quite like playing your home city and we look forward to it every time. Whenever we play here it always seems to be at the end of a tour and this is the same – it’s a really nice way to end the whole thing.

Clean Cut Kid were prolific during the summer festival season. Do any of those shows stand out as a circuit highlight for you?

Latitude was really special because, the year before, it was our first festival and about our fifth ever gig. The first time we performed on a DIY stage called the Alcove Stage and we were walking around saying ‘one day we’ll play on a main stage at a festival like this’ – then the following year we went back and headlined one of those big stages. That was a really special moment for us, looking out on the crowd and realising how far we’d come in a short space of time.

Glastonbury was absolutely amazing, too. That was such a surreal moment because we went there thinking nobody would come and see us, but walked out to a full tent of 2,000 people with another 2,000 outside. The set went by in a blur because I was so overwhelmed by the whole thing but afterwards we were on cloud nine. Reading and Leeds were also huge for us – somebody at the front had made a Clean Cut Kid sign, our first sign!

“Being based in liverpool has definitely been beneficial for us. the culture and music scene here is so unique.”

The group’s lead singer Mike Halls also happens to be your husband. Are there pros and cons to being in a band with your significant other?

This sounds a bit cheesy but there really are no cons to being in a band with Mike. The only downside is when you get a little bit bickery and you have to have those minor arguments in front of the whole band. That said, we generally don’t fight. We’ve been best friends since we met and have gotten used to having to view each other as bandmates in certain situations. We both love it because we wouldn’t get to see much of each other if we weren’t in a band together.

You recently put out your debut EP ‘We Used To Be In Love’. Are you pleased with its reception?

The reception has been exactly what we could have hoped for because there were some slightly more self-indulgent tracks on the record and they’re quite a good indication of how the album is going to sound. We’ve got that quirkier side which doesn’t always get to come out on radio singles, but we can’t believe how well that’s been received. Nobody has said anything negative about the EP or said they didn’t like it. We’ve been overwhelmed by the response.

Clean Cut Kid has been described as one of the hardest working bands out there. Just how hard did you have to work to get your music heard?

It was a funny one for us because once we’d been heard things happened very quickly. But before that it was hard work.

We spent about eight months just shut away in our practice room rehearsing every day.

It was all we did, so that meant nobody could work a full-time job. We did function gigs here and there and were back and forth to London on the Megabus to take paid work whenever we could.

There was a lot of grafting for little money back then, but we had the best time doing it. We all felt so sure about the band that it didn’t feel like hard work.

Has being from Liverpool helped you get where you are today?

Being based in Liverpool has definitely been beneficial for us. I think there’s an argument to say that it could have taken years longer to achieve what we’ve managed in Liverpool if we were based elsewhere. It was affordable to live here and get by on the work we had. Our practice room was affordable compared to what bands have to fork out in London and the people on the Liverpool scene are so open and helpful.

The culture and music scene here is so unique. These days we’re only here for three days a month, but we love the feeling of stepping off the train when we return.

> Read more: Liverpool Music Week is one of our top picks for things to do this autumn – check out the others.

Related posts:

Thurston Moore interview: Sonic Youth frontman talks to Your Move ahead of Liverpool gig The Zutons reunion: Dave McCabe gears up for Liverpool tribute gig Liverpool’s exhibition on The Jam extended following demand The Coral drummer Ian Skelly talks to Your Move The Liverpool Mass: Interview with Thierry Balasse, the man performing 1960s music piece for the first time Packed family programme revealed for LIMF