Alt-rock trio Loose Tooth have been playing shows in support of their latest single AXIS over the last month, so we caught up with them to hear their top tips and stories from the road.
Favourite thing about touring:
Oli: I think for us it’s got to be the upbeat feeling, there’s always another gig around the corner, you feel like you’re working towards something and it’s a bit of dream fulfillment. There’s definitely the hope we never become jaded by it, I kind of owe it to my 14 year old self to enjoy as much of it as possible. Being young and in a band it was always my dream to get in a van, be a bit crusty for a week or two and play shows with my mates.
Least favourite thing about touring:
Adam: Probably just the organisational aspect, arranging when to leave, what to pack, making sure you’re getting paid petrol money and all the other tiny details that can make it a bit chaotic in your brain. Once you’ve left, if you’ve forgotten anything, at that point it can’t be helped so you just deal with it. You definitely learn to deal with forgetfulness on the fly on tour.
Five essentials for the road:
Josh: Toothpaste is definitely a must, never forget deodorant, dry shampoo to keep the grease away, baby wipes in case the venue doesn’t have a shower you can use and one of them portable phone charger battery things, they’re a life saver when Google maps drinks your battery.
Your favourite way to pass the time:
O: Probably just listening to music, we all like different bands so we play ‘I bet you’ve not heard this obscure artist’ a lot. Josh and Adam seem to love shouting at traffic as well. Me and Josh will usually geek out over the sound of the hi-hats on whatever album we’re blasting. I experimented with a yo-yo once, thought I might get some mileage out of playing with one, turns out they’re really boring when you can’t do any tricks with them.
“The Most”
Memorable moment:
J: To be honest, our most recent show at Level III in Swindon was pretty memorable. We went in not knowing what to expect and the venue has quite misleading pictures online, it pretty much just looks like a cool little stage with a good PA. You walk in and it’s this giant 300 cap venue with a massive stage and balcony. Darren who runs the place has recently reopened the venue and it’s a great experience. It sounded massive and we played to a really receptive audience of people who had never heard us before. All that good will made us play really well so the whole night was a rager honestly. It’s always amazing when shows like that happen, they really do make all the stress of touring worthwhile!
Hilarious moment:
A: Probably when we played in Camden recently at the Fiddler’s Elbow, we were playing on a really varied line up. We were the only band that night to use a drum set, so immediately you know it’s gunna get weird. The band who played before us were this incredible Post-Rock band from Canada called Novusolis. After us this crazy electro pop two piece band played. The singer took his trousers off at the beginning of his set displaying some pretty brave y-fronts, the bass player looked like he was dealing blackjack in Vegas and they sounded like Todd Terje. It was kind of nuts in the best way.
Embarrassing moment:
A: Probably when we drove all the way to Brighton to play a gig to find out the whole thing had a fallen apart. It was a shame because Brighton feels like a home away from home in many respects, you never feel out of place in that city so it’s always exciting when we’re booked there. Unfortunately this time we were all ready to load in to the venue at 5pm and we find out it’s not happening. In the end we just had to pick ourselves up and get back in the van to go home. You live and learn from these experiences though and it means you’re always more prepared the next time you got out on a run of shows.
Outrageous moment:
O: Funnily enough this comes from a story where we didn’t play a show, once again at the last minute. Basically we got offered a gig to open up for Ginger Wildheart, he’s a bit of a hero for me. I fell in love with Earth vs the Wildhearts when I was around 15. He was the guy that taught me it’s totally okay to put a billion riffs into a 3 minute pop rock song. Essentially he didn’t like the fact that we were going to open his quiet folk rock show with our horrible racket. So once again we’re getting ready to go an a message comes through saying don’t leave your house. It was really funny and I couldn’t be angry, it’s so much more rock n’ roll to get kicked off a show by one of your teenage heroes than it is to play with them.
Drunken moment:
O: Unfortunately we’re not huge drinkers! Josh sometimes has a few if he’s had a great show, but he’s such a good drunk you can’t really tell. That being said he does get Adam into some pretty in depth conversations about cars, I don’t know a thing about that so I tend to just fall asleep, I think those conversations have single-handedly contributed my new skill of being able to fall asleep in any situation.
Rewarding moment:
O: I think it was the first time all three of us got in a van and drove off on our first weekender. There was this palpable sense that we were ‘doing it.’ We’ve all been in bands to varying degrees of success, with less than enthusiastic members or lack of funds to get it going. It can become a bit of a demoralising slog a we’re just done with settling for less than what has come before. We’re all after the same goals and we’re hungry for it. The first time we got in a van together I think we knew we were going to do more in this band than we had ever done before. Funnily enough the first show on that run was when we met the guys in our label who have gone on to release all of our music so far and hopefully will do for a long while to come. All three of our separate journeys came to a head on that one and we’ve gone from strength to strength since then. We can’t wait to get out on the next tour.
Loose Tooth’s single AXIS is out now via Undead Collective Records, available to purchase HERE and stream HERE.
See Loose Tooth live at one of the following shows:
October
Fri 26th – NORTHAMPTON – Black Prince
Sat 27th – CORBY – White Hart
