Louder Than The Music

Louder Than The Music are lucky enough again to have another great Interview with another great band, this time it is with up and coming acoustic band Portland. With a new album out very soon we had the oppertunity to speak to frontman and guitarist Rory Thompson

How did Portland band members all meet?

I met paul when I was about 10 years old, and he was 7. We lived opposite each other growing up, got to know each other through playing football and running round the neighboorhood as kids. Years later I was playing in a band, I left that and encouraged meds to learn guitar so we could jam togther. We passed a cash converter one day and he saw an acoustic bass, he bought it and it all started from there. We both met Sarah years later in Church, she sang in the quoir. I started seeing her and I loved her voice so I would get her to put harmonies to our songs, something clicked when we sand together, it just felt complete. We never offically asked her to join the band it just happend.

You have a new album out soon tell us a little about that and what was the inspiration behind your last album?

The idea with the first recording was to really get ourselves gigging and to broaden our audience. Its difficult booking gigs and getting people to listen to you without having a cd. So we knew by getting a few tracks out there it would kick start our way into doing what we love. It worked really well for us, we got loads of people who enjoyed it, got a 3 album record deal from it too. The first recording, 'Pretend to be stronger' consisted of 7 tracks and were varied in style, the idea was to show case what we could do and make it interesting from start to finish. The new album, These Broken hands' has a more consistent theme but still has a broad cross section of styles so it keeps it interesting. Its got folk, indie pop and rock influences. Its 11 tracks, I wrote most of the tracks at the start of 2008, 2 or 3 of them were older but were worth recording. We didn't re-record anything from the first album we wanted the whole thing to be new.


You have had contact with a lot of big names in the industry with this album, tell us a little about that?

We have been really privileged to work with some great people, like Dan Wheeler, Kipper, Mark Edwards, Paul Evans, Joe clegg to name a few. The amazing thing for us was to watch these people bring there skills and take it the whole thing to a new level. To work with Kipper was a real highlight for us just because he is so good at what he does. Having a grammy award winning producer mix your first album was just amazing.

Live you have a very acoustic feel, is that what you see yourself doing or will we see a bigger band sound in gigs in the future?

The live set up until now has been acoustic although recently we have added some electric guitar and drums. We love the acoustic feel but with some of the new material I'm writing it warrants having something a bit fuller. So I think were heading in that direction, although things have grown so organically up until now, were keen not to force anything to early on. I suppose the things we feel inspired by will carry us into a new stage of development in the future.

What's your song writing process?

I tend to play the acoustic guitar all the time at home so I often stumble across a melody that I like and take it from there. I usually start with a verse and then have a job building a chorus or vice versa. Once I have a verse and Chorus I tend to put it to the back of my mind and shelve it. I always have about 5 or 6 unfinished songs going around all the time. I rarely finish a song in one evening, except for a track on the new album called 'The Letter' that was done in one evening. Once a song is nearly finished I will sit down with Meds and Sarah and play it to them, then we build the rest from there.

Which do you prefer playing Live or recording albums?

Playing live, especially when the audience are into it and really connected. Recording an album can get tedious but we love that too, its just so different.

Where is the best gig venue you have played at?

We played some gigs in America last March, in paticular a place called Shades of Brown great coffee little shop in Tulsa. It was one of the favourites for me because it was intimate and I loved the atmosphere and vibe.

What's on your I pod at the moment?

Beatles, Bright Eyes, Damien Rice, Coldplay, Elbow, Fionn Regan, Willy Mason, Tim Hughs, Fleet Foxes, Kings of Leon, Sufjan Stevens, Joses Gonzales. Some other stuff but this is all I listen to at the moment. I tend to go through phases were I just listen to one album for weeks and get really into it.

You're stuck on an island, its hot, you only have enough battery life left to listen to one song on your ipod. What track is it?

Right now I would have to say Meadow Lark by Fleet foxes, amazing song!

What does the next year hold for Portland?

Hard work & great success God willing.

To find out more about Portland please check out there myspace at myspace.com/portlandmusicuk