Indietronica act Cove are currently preparing to release their sophomore E.P next month, the follow-up to the group’s stellar self-titled 2013 début record which led to appearances at last year’s Electric Picnic and Hard Working Class Heroes festivals. With the trio recently spoke to theLastMixedTape about their new material and recording process.
Cove will release their second E.P this year. What were the differences for you as a band writing this record in comparison the last?
I don’t think there was any major change in approach when it came to writing the second E.P. We were happy with how the first release sounded so we actually made a conscious decision not to tinker too much with the writing formula. The first release was quite a spontaneous process without thinking too much about where things were leading. With the second E.P, the expectations were a little different and we thought a bit more about writing an E.P rather than 5 individual songs that are packaged as an E.P, which could be a criticism of the first release.
Did your studio process change in regards recording?
How do you think Cove’s sound has evolved since the first release?
As regard our “sound”, we’re still feeling around for the light switch in the dark a bit. We set out to write a slightly less “Electronic” batch of tunes this time around but we ended up with the opposite. We had a conversation about a more “guitar” focused EP (a la Slow City/Silhouettes) this time around but we actually ended up with a much more dancey batch of songs and we don’t know how that happened. That’s not to say we’re not happy with the finished product, we’re actually very proud of it, it just wasn’t the sound we foresaw when the process began. I don’t know if I’d call it an evolution of our sound, it’s more of a small side step really because, all in all, the sound hasn’t changed dramatically since the first release.
Is there a certain song on this E.P that cemented the direction you were looking to go with this record?
The EP is a nice snapshot of where we were creatively over the last few months but we probably won’t dwell too much on nailing a specific direction. For us, ‘Silhouettes’ was the track that really summed up Cove as a band and there’s one or two that do the same for us on the new release. It’s really difficult to judge how others will perceive the music your writing when the tracks have been sitting with us for a such a long time. Judging what directions to take with the music can be a hard thing to nail down when your immersed in the project for a long time.
Do you consider the live translation of your music when in the studio or do you see these elements as separate?
We tend to keep the two completely separate. We never think about translation of the recorded stuff to a live setting during the recording process. It would be a shame to compromise what we do in the studio because of apprehensions about our live capabilities, so it’s not anything we consider until afterwards. It leads to an intense process in the practice room prior to taking the new stuff on the road. We describe ourselves as our own tribute band in a way.
What do Cove have planned following the E.P’s release?
Yeah we have plans for a few videos, one of which will coincide with a single we release prior to the E.P. We haven’t been thinking too much about live gigs because of all the time we’ve been putting into the recording process. We’re kicking off the summer with an appearance at Vantastival the first weekend in May so we’re looking forward to that, and hopefully we’ll have a few more exciting announcements as the summer unfolds.
Cove will perform at the Grand Social in Dublin this Thursday (April 10th) with support from Plutonic Dust and Psychics. For more information visit grandsocial.ie.