What's your favourite record? Who are your favourite band? Two simple questions that music fans ask each other regularly, but two questions that often leave artists spluttering. Not Turnpike Glow.
The London-based indie four-piece released their latest EP, the jaunty, charismatic Fünke Pop, on July 8. It's headlined by the infectious 'Her Flaming Lips', an ode to, you guessed it, Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips. Fortunately, the track doesn't sound like the pioneering US alt-pop band, but instead fuses lyrics and song titles together in an attempt to replicate the joy Turnpike Glow's members felt at their shows.
“Why are you a band? It's because you're a fan,” frontman Sandro Schiena said. “I don't think you should be afraid of loving other bands. If you listen to the track, it doesn't sound like the Flaming Lips. It's really us. We just had this idea of putting a song together using all of the song titles and a lot of references.
“I was referring to the sort of vibe you would get going to a gig during the Yoshimi, Soft Bulletin kind of era. During the songs you'd be singing along and with all those crazy, weird creatures up on stage, it would make you feel like hugging strangers. The music created a community feeling. The song has that upbeat, uplifiting vibe as well.”
The band have blossomed amid London's fertile indie scene, but their roots can be traced back to Rome, where Schiena and bassist Giuseppe La Mela met at university and began writing songs. Interest from UK promoters followed, along with a couple of Ryanair flights to the English captial to play some small shows, and soon the pair were faced with a tough decision.
“We realised that the only way, actually, was to move,” Schiena said. “So we just left everything behind, came over and started from scratch. Then we met Anthony [Hutchinson], our drummer, and later Tom [Griffiths, guitar] and the band really started to take shape. We had this combination of two Italians and two Englishmen, and what you hear is the end result.”
With a heavy influence from American indie, as well as Super Furry Animals and the Beta Band, Turnpike Glow certainly aren't fish out of water in the London scene, but they did have to battle – like countless other bands - against the massive choice on offer.
“When we first moved here it was a bit like paradise,” Schiena said. “Every night you can listen to so many bands. There's a flipside as well though, because if you do try and play a gig and try and get people along, they might be going to too many gigs. There's a bit of an over-saturation in terms of supply and demand, but that makes it so, so exciting.”
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