Every Monday we will be bringing you interviews with unsigned UK or Ireland artists for Independent Music Monday. Recently we caught up with Olly from unsigned Nottingham band Cucamaras to find out more…
Who is in the band, how did you meet, where are you from and how did you come up with the band name?
There’s four of us – me (Olly), Josh, Lurky and Joe. I’ve known Josh and Joe since we were young, starting a band was whispered about for some time and around 2018 we bit the bullet. Lurky joined us about a year after.
The name ‘Cucamaras’ was stolen amicably from a bar in Nottingham. It’s not even remotely a bar where you’d hear our music but we like the contrast of that.
Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
When we were starting out it was all the pinnacles of alt-rock, you know, The Strokes and The Libertines. After some time we became disillusioned by those bigger names and indie as a genre, and started getting inspired by bands around us who are doing well for themselves. Do Nothing, Yard Act and Egyptian Blue are a few of our favourites at the moment, Sinead O’Brien too.
How would you describe your sound?
It’s quite a punchy live set, very driven and angry in places. Over the hiatus from playing live we’ve got a whole new set which’ll hopefully go down well.
What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
Our new single ‘Death of the Social’ came out on April 16th. It’s a blurry couple of minutes that hopefully gets a point across by the end. The inspiration came from a sociologist called Jean Baudrillard who argued the constant advance of technology would drive a wedge between real life communication. The title of the track is a phrase he used in an article, and the lyrics I wrote act to simplify the point he was making – it was just something that resonated with us.
What’s your local music scene like?
We’re truly blessed to be from Nottingham. The scene’s great, there’s some brilliant bands and brilliant venues to showcase them. One of them is Rough Trade, which always baffles me – how is the only Rough Trade outside of New York, London and Bristol in Nottingham? Clearly we’re doing something right.
What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
We’re pencilling in a bunch of shows to make up for the time off and have a few new tracks recorded. Hopefully we’ll be making our festival debut too but we’ve gotta keep it under wraps.
For me the highlight will be our homecoming headline at The Bodega on October 8th.
Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
Mark Ronson for sure, he always makes the grooviest records – without sounding like a dad. Or maybe Soulwax, if they remixed one of our songs I’d be over the moon.
Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
We played in the back of a community centre in Hyde once. There was a dog on the stage and spools of yarn for sale at the side.
What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
Tickets to see us are relatively cheap and our new music is our best yet (bear in mind only we’ve heard it). New faces are more than welcome to our shows, come on down, it’d mean a lot!
You can find out more about Cucamaras via Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, Spotify, Twitter or YouTube.
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