We spoke to atmospheric pop duo Meadowlark about the importance of BBC Introducing, the importance of music videos and climbing into the back of other bands’ vans…
You’ve just unveiled the music video for your new single Fly – what’s the song about?
Dan Broadley: The song is about the struggles of growing up, and how growing up can suffocate you. The video explored the darker side of that, and looks at what can happen if you choose to follow the wrong path while you’re growing up.
You’ve also just played Glastonbury – how was it?
Kate McGill: It was very surreal and very nerve-wracking, but also a lot of fun. We’d been building up to it so much, but it seemed like it was over as soon as we started it. We actually got to stay for the entire weekend, too, which was fantastic.
You played the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury – how important do you think it is for new and upcoming artists to get actively involved with things like social media and BBC Introducing?
Dan: It’s incredibly important. Seriously, if you’re in a new band and you haven’t uploaded your music to BBC Introducing yet, just do it. There’s no bad side, and there’s nothing you can lose from doing it – all you can gain is radio play. Every track is listened to by someone from Radio 1, and it’s one of the only ways for your music to get heard nowadays. There’s almost no other way for you to get played on radio if you’re a new band. Why wouldn’t you do it?
You’re playing a couple of headline shows in October – are you looking forward to them?
Kate: We are indeed! We’re trying to think of really special things to do, so it’ll be more than just watching a band play on the stage. We can’t say too much yet, but we’re going to make it a really different experience for everybody who’s there. It might never happen again, too, so make sure you come down and see it while you can!
Do you prefer playing festival sets or your own headline shows?
Dan: Festivals are cool, because you’re always playing to a crowd of new faces. You might have one or two people there who you recognise or who know the songs, but for the most part people just wander in because they hear a sound and want to know what’s going on. I think that there’s a certain element of not having the same amount of pressure when you play a festival, too. When someone comes to a headline show, you want to make sure that you give them something that’s a real show, and that it’s as good as it possibly can be.
Kate: No matter how good people think that it is, we’re always going to tell ourselves that it’s not good enough. You can’t have one without the other, though, and being under so much pressure for our headline shows means that we’re able to relax a little more when we play festivals.
What do you think of Barn On The Farm?
Dan: We love it! We’ve now played here for three years in a row, which is awesome. We’ve heard rumours that you’re not supposed to play here for three successive years, but that might just be hearsay… We just feel really privileged that the festival has recognised us and given us the opportunity to come back and play here. The festival has become something pretty colossal, too – whenever you say to someone that you’re playing Barn On The Farm, the first thing that they say is ‘oh, that’s where all the new bands play!’. Look at the headliners they’ve had, too – they’ve had guys like Ed Sheeran, Hozier and James Bay play here, so it just goes to show the extent to which the organisers have their finger on the pulse with regards to who’s going to blow up in the future.
When can we expect to hear your debut album?
Dan: We’re actually in the middle of writing it. We’ve written a bunch of songs already, and it’s going surprisingly well. We’re with a really good label, and they’ve just told us to take our time and make sure that it’s as good as it can be. They haven’t put pressure on us, and they haven’t given us a deadline – they’ve just been really supportive of us.
Kate: We’ve always said that if we’re going to do this then we’re going to do it on our terms, and this means that we can occasionally be a little bit of a handful for the people who are working with us. We’ve learnt the pitfalls of this industry from our personal experiences, so we want to make sure that we get it right this time.
Dan, you’ve had experience of working as a music video director – how important do you think it is for a song to have a strong video to accompany it?
Dan: If you ask me, it’s very important, but to the general public it probably doesn’t matter very much. The problem is that nowadays it’s become little more than a throwaway medium. That’s the problem with sites like YouTube – I mean, they’re amazing, because anybody can go and make a video, but it does mean that the overall quality is watered down. I stress about quality all the time, and Kate always has to remind me that it’s only something to accompany the songs! That’s all it is nowadays, a visual distraction. I watched this documentary about Michael Jackson’s videos, and they were the thing that sold the song. Thriller didn’t work without the video! The label were wondering why he had a random man talking, but when they watched the video they realised that it all made sense. Now, when people watch a music video, their attention span won’t last for three and a half minutes. There are just too many videos out there. That’s why I pressure myself to make the videos look as good as they can – I want them to look like they’ve been made by a huge artist. It’s not that I think we’re a big band – it’s more that I want people to watch it and get drawn into it without thinking that it’s just a throwaway medium for us.
Out of every song ever recorded, which do you wish you’d written?
Kate: For me, it’d have to be Bohemian Rhapsody.
Dan: I don’t know… I’d go for Earth Song by Michael Jackson, just because I like to think that he had a little fan set up in front of him in the studio, and that billowing white shirt, and that was the only way he could really nail that vocal take…
Out of all of your songs, which is your favourite?
Dan: I think that mine’s Eyes Wide. I mean, the only time I really listen to it nowadays is when we play it live, but whenever I do it’s like I’m hearing it as an audience member. It just surprises me so much that we actually wrote that song.
Kate: There are a couple that we haven’t released yet that I’m particularly proud of… Watch this space! The new songs are a lot more in vain of the last EP we released, so they’re a lot more electronic than some of the stuff we’ve done before.
Can you talk us through your songwriting process?
Kate: It’s evolved over time, but I think that we’ve now gotten to the point where we know what works best for us. Me and Dan will work on ideas at home and send them to each other via WhatsApp, and then if one of us likes an idea then we’ll work on it from there. The main melodies tend to come from there, so we’ve always got something to work with when we go into the studio. It gets pretty violent if we go into the studio with nothing…
Dan: It means that things tend to happen pretty quickly, too. The last time we wrote we did five songs in four days, and that was just because we went in there with an idea of what we were going to do. The song tends to be virtually written in about half an hour – from there it’s just a question of making sure that the production and lyrics are right.
Are lyrics important to you?
Kate: They are, which is why we stress so much about them!
Dan: With lyrics, we tend to just pick a subject and try to put it in a way that sounds quite poetic. This means that when people listen to the song they can still relate to it, even if they’re not quite sure of exactly what it’s about.
Kate: They’re ultimately about connecting with the listener. If they don’t do that, they’re not right.
Has anything strange ever happened to you guys while you’ve been on tour?
Kate: Oh, there have been a few things…
Dan: We’re not really much of a ‘rock and roll’ band! Having said that, the first time we played Barn On The Farm we got very drunk and tried to climb in to the back of another band’s van. They said they were going to France, and we decided that we wanted to go! Needless to say, they weren’t very happy…
Can you describe each other in three words?
Kate: Oh, God! Dan is a perfectionist, and he’s creative and passionate.
Dan: I would say that Kate is… Reckless, but in a good way! She’s definitely passionate, and strong. I say that because if I have a dark moment, she’s the first person to say ‘oh my God, shut up!’ We keep each other on the straight and narrow. In a band, it’s so easy to get swept up into the whole egotistical lifestyle. It is easy to do, especially when you’re a young band who are being told by their record label that they’re absolutely amazing. For us, we’re just thankful to be able to do this – if we play a show and one person’s there, we’re delighted. That person has left their house and come to our show, and for that we’re always insanely grateful.
Kate: We have so many late-night drives back from shows, and we always have such deep chats about the world and what we want from music.
Dan: We just want a career in music. We’re not doing this so we can buy mansions and drive Porsches, because that just doesn’t happen anymore. We just want to be able to write music, to play music, and to just know that we’re going to be able to pay the rent at the end of the month.