Busy Bees...
If you listen carefully there's a summery buzz floating across our airwaves at the moment – the sound of aptly named dance act, Cicada. Equipped with an ammo belt bursting at the seams with a string of successful singles; and an independently released début which sold 15 000 copies, we caught up with keyboard player Alex Payne to see how it all started and what they plan on adding to their already bulging suit of armour.
With influences as broad ranging as Kraftwerk and Prince the band combine electronica, synth, dirty bass, fuzzy guitars and funky beats to culminate in a mish-mash of euphoric and pumping indie/electro/house all finished off with sassy, melt in your mouth, vocals from singer, Heidrun Bjornsdottir. The recent acceptance of music merging polar opposite genres has given Cicada a few pies in which to dip their cheeky fingers. Payne explains "We decided to make an album for ourselves rather than constantly, slavishly following what we thought were the trends and I think that kinda helps with originality. It's a bit like, at least if no-one else likes it, we will!"
People liking their sound isn't something the band need to worry about right now though. Having decided to re-issue their album due to popular demand, they were also plastered across numerous festival line-ups throughout the summer.
It's the live element to their sound which really sets them apart from other electro acts, a revelation which came as a shock: "When you've sat in a studio making electronic music for quite some time, you don't really expect yourself to be playing festivals... But in a festival, I think, because we've got live instruments, it kinda lends itself". Apparently so, according to many an enthusiastic review.
They've never, knowingly, been harassed with the dreaded umbrella-term new rave, which seems to catch any band that mixes live instruments with electronica, in it's sweaty little paws. Alex finds the prospect of such an idea highly amusing and sniggers "I think you're more likely to hear new rave at a drum & bass night than you are at a Klaxons gig."
No chance of a support slot with the Klaxons then? Shame. We can look forward to a special event at Cargo though, "Hopefully that's gonnna be a great gig. We've got a couple of, dare I say it, household name DJs that are mates, who are gonna come down... some new tracks that we're doing, stuff we're working on for the new album... You do gigs in London and as you get bigger... you come back and you can provide more, you're better at playing live and it'll be a better".
It might be a good idea to get your butts down to Cargo to see if he's right then!
Words: Naomi Misquita-Rice
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