Seven Stars

NOT so much a band as an extended family, Los Campesinos! are a 14-legged indie-pop machine.

Playing joyous, uplifting homespun pop, this seven-member collective are unlike anything else – enlivening their intelligent lyrical narratives with glockenspiels, horns, cow bells, handclaps, old fashioned keyboards, violins and a cheeky sense of fun.

Starting life as a trio of students at Cardiff University, the ranks of Los Campesinos! (the name means peasant, or country boys, in Spanish) swelled to incorporate student friends and acquaintances in the city, until they more resembled extended Canadian bands like Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene than the usual identikit British indie outfit.

“We couldn’t be more different to the usual four-piece band,” says violinist Harriet Campesinos! (they have all adopted the band’s name, reinforcing the family ethic. And yes, the exclamation mark is a constant fixture).

“There are so many all-boy guitar bands but they don’t interest us,” she goes on. “It doesn’t appeal.

“We have a much more diverse instrumentation and are coming from somewhere completely different.

“The thing that interests me is people being themselves and not being afraid to not be a rock & roll cliché of drink, drugs and singing about girls.

“I’m a violin-playing girl and I like a bit more diversity.”

With songs like You! Me! Dancing!, We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives, Death to Campesinos! and the angsty Don’t tell me to do the Math(s), their boy/girl vocals, real-life themes and wall-to-wall instrumentation have made them live favourites.

So how did it all happen, I ask.

“Neil, Ellen and Ollie were playing together, and then Neil met (lead guitarist and songwriter) Tom in a bar when one overheard the other talking about music,” she explains. “They knew people, and we knew each other and it grew – and stuck at seven.

“They didn’t need a violinist, but knew one, so I am here. I thought I’d do it for a bit of fun and just play a few shows in Cardiff for friends.

“I didn’t think anyone else would care – or that I’d end up touring the world. It’s still ridiculous really, but it all makes sense in a weird way!”

A classically trained violinist, surely Harriet would have been better employed in a symphony hall, or, at least, a chamber orchestra?

“I was never good enough,” she confesses.

“I totally fell into the violin and have been playing since I was a kid, but I’ve always loved pop, and for ages it was just lying under my bed. So, it’s fair to say, I wasn’t very good. I just made stuff up and did my own thing.

“But it’s great being in the band. And because I play the only classical instrument, I get to put a lot of my own identity into it. The violin can produce the most fantastic range of sounds you can get – and a lot of emotion too.

“My old violin teacher thinks it’s hilarious though, as out of all her pupils, I’m the one she least expected to do something like this. I wasn’t really her star pupil, as I was rubbish at practising my scales.”

“My dad plays the cello really well, though, and I would love to get him in the band.”

She admits things have moved quickly since LC formed in 2006 – with the band buoyed by the buzz which continues to surround them.

“We were signed off the back of nothing,” she admits. “We only had four demos, but these label people would come down and take us out for drinks. It was amazing!”

Harriet and the band have just returned from America, where they toured and recorded a new album.

Yet another band choosing to record across the Atlantic? What’s wrong with doing it here, I ask.

“There’s nothing wrong with the UK,” says Harriet. “But it is more interesting doing it somewhere different from where you are.

“And things have gone really well for us in America. Since starting we have had an affinity with a lot of North American bands – and we sound more like them than UK bands.

“But, as happy as I am over there, it’s nice to come home to the music scene here, which is so alive.”

Surely touring as part of a seven-piece band presents its own unique problems. Four-man bands often crack under the pressure of life on the road, so what’s it like touring as a virtual sports team?

“Our size does make it a challenge,” she admits.

“There’s so much stuff to carry around for one thing. But we know each other quite well – and can tell when someone needs their space, and when not to say anything.”

Finally, what about that Hispanic agrarian name; how much of a band of peasants are they really?

“Not at all!” giggles Harriet. “We like our mod cons and luxuries too much. But that’s not to say we’re sophisticated though!”

Los Campesinos! play the Oxford O2 Academy on Thursday. Support is provided by Copy Haho and Sparky Deathcap. Doors open at 7pm. Tickets are £8.