07/00 - xfm online

"There's five people in the band and there's five writers so it's a collective crew - we tend to swing."

The Animalhouse's singer/multi-instrumentalist Sam Williams (NB: apparently everyone else in The Animalhouse is also a singer and a multi-instrumentalist) is describing the band's rather unorthodox creative process.

"We didn't want to paint ourselves into a corner or make it generally one thing." He continues "It's just open. There's an open crew approach we can take anywhere we want. Approaching the songwriting and playing live there's more of a DJ mentality than a traditional line-up."

Formed two and a half years ago by ex-Ride guitarist Mark Gardener, The Animalhouse, despite their vaunted eclecticism, are no random collection of influences. After Mark tracked Sam down to their native Oxford ("I got his phone number and stalked him for a while.") the core principles began to emerge.

Mark "Guitar music all seemed very generic and stuck in retroland. So a big part of what we're doing is to fuse a lot of styles that we're all listening to and just mix it up and try to get that guitar thing sounding fresh again. And take notice of the real movement that's going on which is dance."

Completed by Jason King, Hari Teah and another Ride alumni Loz Colbert, the five piece were catapaulted into the nation's consciousnessa few months ago via the limited edition single ' Small' and an appearance on Chris Evans' TFI ego-fest. Despite the exposure, being limited-edition that particular release didn't chart, but in the wake of Reef's schools tour how far would The Animalhouse go to compete on Steps turf?

Sam: "I think that's an interesting idea 'cos if you think what you're doing is good then the only way to really criticise that kind of pop thing is to participate and do it well and connect on the same level. But at the end of the day kids who're into that will pick it up anyway. You don't have to go and hang around with them at milk break - although that sounds like a lot of fun. We'd like to play to unborn children as well, just get right in there early before they get hit by Britney and all that stuff!"

Mark nods sagely "Yeah. We like the kids."

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