On Saturday, Colours Of One will be returning to the stage for a free-entry show at Hobos in Bridgend! Ahead of the show, we caught up with guitarist/vocalist Miff to find out more, as well as see what’s been happening in the Colours Of One camp since the last time we interviewed the band (in 2012!)
For our newer readers who may be unfamiliar with Colours Of One, can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about the band?
Hello! We’re a four-piece alt-rock band from deepest, darkest South Wales!
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from you – what’s been going on in the Colours Of One camp over the past few years?
Mainly a lot of writing and demoing! We’ve taken quite a bit of time off to prepare a full-length album, and I think we certainly underestimated the work involved. We’ve been bouncing ideas off each other in practices and over the Internet for a while now, and probably have around 40 tracks to choose from, so whilst we’ve been quiet outwardly, it’s been a really fruitful time for us behind the scenes.
You also recently debuted your new song Stay Awake – what’s the reaction been like for it so far?
It’s been very positive! It’s the first time we’ve debuted a song in that way really, normally we’ll debut songs in front of a live audience so we can sort of get the reaction in a very immediate way, so having it launched on TV and then watching it back at the same time as everyone else was a bit of a strange experience for us. It’s a different type of song than we’re usually known for doing, so I think it took our main audience by surprise a little.
How would you describe the writing and recording process for it?
It hasn’t been formally recorded as such yet, there’s a demo of it, but we’re still deciding where to record at the moment. With regards to the writing process, I wrote and recorded the guitar part and uploaded it to our band Dropbox account, and Mike wrote the lyrics and vocal melody to it on his end, then recorded it and sent it back.
That was a major change in the way we wrote a lot of the songs too, as Mike had moved away for a period of the writing, so that influenced us to become a bit more organised and get our act together with recording decent-sounding demos.
You’re going to be playing a show in Hobos on Saturday. After going almost two years without playing live – what prompted the decision to do it now?
It was a decision to shake the cobwebs off more than anything I think; we’ve been talking about doing it for a while, and so as we’re leading up to do the final recordings for the album, we thought it’d be fun to do the other side of things too!
What can fans expect from the show?
We’re trying to give a varied performance whilst keeping the energy up; we’ve got a lot of material to draw from now, so we’re experimenting with the flow to see where we can take people.
Will there be many new songs in the set or will it be more of a ‘classic’ show?
Yeah, there’ll be a load of new songs in there, though there will be a few oldies scattered throughout the set.
I last saw you play a headline set at the Bridgend Mashup in mid-2013. How will this show differ to that one?
It’ll be our first show as a four-piece, Mike’s taken over guitar duties now, so that’ll bring a different dynamic, and also I think the time off has allowed us to write our best bunch of songs yet, so I really hope people agree with that when they hear them!
And what else is in store for Colours Of One in 2016?
A new album, lots of live shows, and generally just more of our faces. Poor you!
