Will And The People, Interview

Will & The People have just released their new album in a limited format. At The Secret Garden Party they had just finished 1 of 3 gigs and set the crowd alight with infectious summer scented Ska and Reggae infused feel good tunes. I caught up with Will and his growing posse of people behind the Where The Wild Things Are stage.

CM; So you're playing 3 gigs on 3 different stages in 6 hours, that's pretty full on, how's it all going to work?
Will; Yeah, it's a bit hectic, especially at Secret Garden Party, when you turn up and you don't even know where the stages are and you have to ask people and find your way to where you're playing. It's a complete nightmare finding your way around this place man. I still don't know where the Artful Badger Stage is and we're playing there in about 3 hours.

CM; Is it the first time for you and your band at this venue?
Will; Yes, yes absolutely, I absolutely love it. I think I can say with honesty that this festival is the future of the World. This place, and the energy here are the future of the World. If people could understand that we can actually live our lives like this, swapping things and just having a bit fun.

CM; So what should they embrace and what should they drop?
Will; I would say drop the Police and the security because there genuinely is no bad love going on here, everyone's happy, everyone just wants to have a good time. Have some perimeters by all means, so things don't get out of hand. There's no need to have people walking around looking for trouble on the wrong side of things, you know, that's quite ironic that isn't it? But I don't really think they should change anything, I don't have any ideas for improving this place, just please God have us back next year.

CM; You're set was the fullest I've seen this location all day. It started off with quite a small crowd that built and built and built until you came off. I should imagine you will have a few people follow you around to the 3 stages, are you going to mix the set up?
Will; Well absolutely yeah, we cannot be playing the same songs again can we? this is part of the fun. I was so happy, so happy that people stayed and danced and got involved. I do think that our music is for places like this. So yeah, we're gonna throw it around, we might get a little bit more dancy, a bit more upbeat, everyone will be a bit more drunk won't they?

CM; A bit more laughing gas given out a bit later?
Will; Absolutely, hey maybe that's the reason everyone flocked to us, who knows?

CM; No I don't think so, it was infectious.
CM; Your album has just come out on limited release due to demand, when is the full launch going to be?
Will; Well the limited edition thing was just like, was from the people you know, it came from us. We had some time on our hands and just decided to start to record the best 13 songs we could ourselves. We we're so happy with it we thought we'd put it out ourselves. So we've done 2000 limited edition copies, and then maybe later this summer, possibly early next year if we're lazy, which we are. We are sometimes a bit lazy. These things take longer than you expect normally. Yeah we got a guy called Biity McLean who produced UB40, he's helping us out and mixing the album. So I'm going to listen to what he's done next to what we've done and see what I prefer, and see where we go from there.

CM; Is it more or less a self produced album? And how does that differ from your previous material?
Will; Well honestly I'd advise anyone to do the self production thing 'cos it's not particularly difficult, anyone can make a record these days. The artist knows how they want their music to be and unless they don't have a vision there's no point in finding a producer, if you have a vision just make it yourself. So yeah this last record we are using someone else as well, we're just exploring, you know?

An interjection from Kate (One of the People) The set was absolutely unbelievable, stylish, amazing, intercon.......no.
Will: Intercontinental?
Kate; Yeah we had an Iraqi on stage. You're in the band though. You (Meaning me) You're in the band.
You're in the band mate.

CM; How did the interactive thing all come about?
Will; It's like a collective of like minded people, just a general principle, thought processes going the same way really. As long as it's productive you can do it.

CM; Where did the core of the band meet? In Brighton?
Will; In Brighton, at school really, at school. We we're old friends from school and Kazrani the magician is an old friend from another life, and not that I, I don't really believe in that, I find it hard to believe in that, but I know I've genuinely met him before, but I only met him 3 weeks ago, so yeah. It's great man, just new people getting onboard any time they want.

CM; And where would you say your influences have come from?
Will; Well I'd say my influences come normally from my trousers. D'ya know what I mean, I use my trousers to direct my direction, follow the trousers, follow the patterns.

CM: Do your trousers have a musical direction?
Will; Not at all no, it's more of an artistic direction. The music is always there, it's just there, I find it and take it from everywhere else.

CM; The Ska and Reggae influence, where has that come from?
Will; Bob Marley, only Bob Marley really and a bit of Sublime as well. Who I like, a band called Sublime.

CM; In the near future you're looking for the full album release, but after that and the festivals what are Will & The People up to?
Will; Well I just wanna become as big as The Doors.

CM; That's pretty big.
Will; Yeah that's my only ambition in life. I wanna be Jim Morrison, but please not dead, not dead.

CM; You're live date schedule looks gruelling, do you get much time for contemplation, time to relax?
Will; When I spend a lot of time doing nothing, after that time is when I'm most tired, I need to sit and relax after doing nothing. If I spend too long doing nothing, then I need to have a long time chilling and relaxing. When I do lots of things it gives me more energy but when I do nothing that's when I need sit down and chill.

CM; Does this man here, Kasrani, does he help you with your song writing process?
Will; As I said he wrote most of my songs but in the last life yeah, I'm sure of that, especially 'In The Morning Sun'. Tell them about that Kaz. Kasrani bursts into song.....
Will; That's how it sounded in the after life but he had one day I'll get a bat, and I changed it to one day I'll get back, I put a K on it and that's it. One k and it's brought to the new life.

CM; Fantastic, enjoy the rest of your gigs and take care, thank you for your time.
Will; Thank you so much, enjoy.

Andrew Lockwood.