Candymouse | Interview | New Album, ‘The Light Just Bends’
Candymouse, a band formed by members with ties to the post-C86 scene, brings a fresh yet nostalgic sound with their debut album, ‘The Light Just Bends,’ out via Old Bad Habits.
All members were previously part of the iconic indie acts The Candy Darlings and Mousefolk, which laid the foundation for the music they are recording today. ‘The Light Just Bends’ channels the energy and influences of their predecessors while creating something true to the DIY spirit, filled with the melodic sensibilities that defined the indie scene of the late ’80s and early ’90s. This album is a collection of tracks that feels like a snapshot of that special era in the ’80s.
“Being in our 50s and still being angry about the injustices you see all around us”
What inspired the creation of Candymouse? How did it all come together?
Big Stu: The stars aligned, and our spirit guide drew us together—through a WhatsApp group Steve started.
Steve: It all happened because of a Mousefolk reunion gig back in 2019! They asked us Candy Darlings to support. The most fun part of that gig was a cover of the VU’s ‘What Goes On’ that we all played together at the end. And we wanted to do something new rather than just be a heritage act playing the old songs. Dom (Candy Darlings guitarist) insisted we should call ourselves Candymouse—so we do acknowledge we have a past!
So, initially, there were six of us in the band: me, Dom, and Chris from the Candy Darlings, and Phil and Big Stu from Mousefolk. Al came on board to play drums. The six-piece lineup was great, and some songs sounded amazing with two basses on them (both Phil and Chris are bass players).
Dom, then Chris, decided they didn’t want to do it anymore, so now there are four of us. Plus Nick (former Mousefolk guitarist), who lives in Tasmania but has always been part of Candymouse, contributing song ideas and encouragement from a distance. He plays on nearly half the tracks on the album.
Al: The Mousefolk reunion gig with the Candy Darlings was a lot of fun. I DJ-ed that night, playing loads of indie stuff from back in the day… gave me a chance to play all those songs that meant so much to me when I was a floppy-haired indie kid.
Then COVID came, with all the frustration of being stuck at home in our little boxes (thanks for the song, Rev Jonny Kinkaid!), and I just needed to do something active and creative when lockdown was over. The band was a great idea!
Coming from bands like Candy Darlings and Mousefolk, can you tell us more about your journey and what those previous projects meant to you?
Big Stu: At one time, Mousefolk meant everything to me—way too much, really. I found myself in quite a dark place when we split. The reunion held a bit too much gravity for me.
Steve: The Candy Darlings were much less committed, and we felt we’d pretty much achieved what we wanted by making the one single! There was a ride on the indie-dance bandwagon, but my heart really wasn’t in that, and we fizzled out.
We got back together in 2012 because we’re all still good friends and wanted to hang out, play the old songs, and I had started writing songs again.
Al: I’m the imposter here, I wasn’t in either Mousefolk or the Candy Darlings, but I was a fan… In fact, I’m pretty sure that Mousefolk were the first live band I ever saw in a pub when I was a teenager!
(Would have been either Mousefolk or their label-mates, The Driscolls—I was 18 years old and had just discovered cider, so my memory is hazy.)
How would you describe the concept behind Candymouse and your latest release, ‘The Light Just Bends’?
Big Stu: There’s a concept!? No one told me about a concept!
Steve: Of course, there’s a concept!! Something about being in our 50s and still being angry about the injustices you see all around us, which we address through the medium of occasionally tuneful indie pop songs! With the odd love song thrown in to lighten the mood. That’s basically what we tried to capture on the album!
I’m glad we included the Rev Jonny Kinkaid cover, Boxed Up. It’s a great song, and it feels like part of a small tradition of indie pop bands covering each other’s songs. We’ve released three different versions of it, so we’ve really milked it!
We also really wanted to make a beautiful thing and put almost as much effort into the design of the sleeve as we did into the writing and recording of the songs. It was also important to us to have an inner sleeve with lyrics and lots of info about who did what—because I always love to know that stuff!
Al: Concept?? Umm… I like hitting things with sticks that go bang or smash.
Could you walk us through the recording process for your latest project? What’s your approach to songwriting as a band?
Big Stu: Mostly, Steve and Phil write the songs. Sometimes they’re completed by them in demos, but usually, we evolve their visions together. If it sounds shit, then we all just quietly stop talking about it.
Steve: We recorded the first single at Stage 2 Studio in Bath, which was really good, and Josh, the engineer, got a really good sound out of us. But we realized we couldn’t afford to record the whole album there. So, for most of the other tracks, we recorded the guitars, bass, and synths at my house using GarageBand, and then we recorded the vocals and drums in the studio. Josh did a basic mix and got the tracks sounding good. Then, for about half the songs, we sent the tracks over to Nick in Australia, who remixed them and added extra instruments. It was brilliant to have Nick’s input, as he is an amazing musician, and great that we even ended up with one track on the album that featured all seven of us.
For the songs that originate from me, it usually starts with fumbling around with chord sequences and trying to find a hummable melody by singing nonsense over the top of the chords. Quite often, some words emerge from that, which trigger the rest of the lyrics. Just occasionally, it will start with a phrase that pops into my head—like the opening lines of ‘King of the Pricks.’ I’ll use GarageBand to get down the basic idea of the song to give the others an idea of how it goes. Phil’s demos are generally a bit more detailed than mine, and he usually has a much more definite idea of the arrangement he wants—since he is a much better musician than me!
And we appear to have finally succeeded in nagging Stu into writing songs for Candymouse, which is brilliant, as he wrote many great songs for Mousefolk. We’re still working on Al to get his finger out, but you know what drummers are like.
It’s always more interesting, I think, when bands have several songwriters bringing ideas in. The last song on the album, ‘Operation Oxbow,’ is a fantastic track and not something I’d ever have come up with.
Al: We need more cowbells. Cowbells and gongs.
Your debut release was ‘King of the Pricks,’ right? How did that shape the direction for Candymouse?
Big Stu: I think it’s the other way around. The way we think and are—’Pricks’ very much represents what we stand for. It’s Steve’s song, though. He’ll give you the actual answer.
Steve: What ‘Pricks’ did for us was that it was the first song where someone from outside the band said, “That’s really good,”—which was Andrew (Arthur) Jarrett of Raving Pop Blast, who put it out as a single and got us heard by people we might not otherwise have reached.
Following that, you released the EP ‘Last of the True Believers.’ What did that EP mean for you, and how did it evolve from the debut?
Big Stu: We are so proud… that song was declared the anthem of the Athens Underground Indie Pop Convention last year. I always wanted to be part of something anthemic.
Steve: I wanted to write something about us. One of the great things about doing Candymouse is the community of bands, labels, writers, and enthusiasts—none of whom are doing this as a career thing. Everyone does it because they love it. And that does mean something—it’s not pointless (despite the line in the song).
It was also fun to do the Mousefolk and Candy Darlings covers! We played them once in Athens, but we won’t do them live again.
Any plans for live shows in the near future? What can fans expect from your concerts?
Big Stu: We don’t do many gigs. Al’s arm is made mostly of tungsten, and we’re constantly struggling with rust. What can people expect? We’re pretty true to the recorded versions, but there’s a lot of us that gets added live. Steve wants to be a stand-up comedian one day, so between the songs, he takes the piss out of the rest of us. That’s why we hate him.
Steve: It is, though, slightly annoying that Phil gets the biggest reaction when he sings Leccy Car!
Al: Technically speaking, Big Stu isn’t 100% right there—my left elbow is made of titanium, not tungsten! In January 2023, I managed to smash it into small pieces while on holiday. It was put back together with metal plates and screws, which meant I was out of action for a year. We’re back out playing again now, but it is still really sore. It’ll get better, though. I hope!
Let’s talk about your roots. Where did you all grow up, and what was daily life like for you during your teenage years?
Big Stu: We all grew up in Clevedon, just southwest of Bristol. It was typically a time of latent violence in the 70s and 80s, with underlying racism and bigotry. In the 90s, the town became awash with MDMA, and things got better briefly. But we were all part of a gang…a joyous gang who hid out in our place, playing our music, enjoying our brother and sisterhood. It was a beautiful time because we rejected the hate and ugliness and embraced freedom and kindness. We still do.
Al: I liked growing up in Clevedon! A groovy little town, as the song goes. Couldn’t wait to get to the big city, though. For me, this was Sheffield, when I moved there in ’89 to start uni.
Were you involved in a particular music scene back then? Did you have any favorite hangout spots or places where you’d go to catch gigs?
Big Stu: The music scene was very much post-C86. In Clevedon, there’s a pub called The Bristol Hotel. We took it over and had indie discos, and later, there were bands there because of us… Brilliant Corners, John Otway, Moonflower, The Wurzels. In Bristol, it was The Tropic Club. What a place, what a time. We put on smaller bands at our own venue downstairs below a biker pub. We put on Mega City Four, Thrilled Skinny, The McTells, Field Mice, The Family Cat, Bob, Strawberry Story, This Poison! Remember Fun. Loads of others.
Al: Once I left Clevedon for Sheffield, I found my indie utopia: the Limit Club on Wednesday nights, the Leadmill at weekends, The Take Two for mid-week gigs… I helped out in the student union, putting gigs and club nights on. Was a great time to be alive!
If we stepped into your teenage bedroom, what kind of records, zines, posters, or memorabilia would we find?
Big Stu: Wildlife posters cut from magazines. Literally, they covered my walls.
Steve: I painted a huge warrior ant logo on my bedroom wall—copied from the back of the Dog Eat Dog single. Subsequently, my music taste was heavily influenced by Dom and Chris, who both had older brothers and were a bit more advanced than me in exploring stuff outside the Top 40. In particular, we all loved the Three Johns (still do).
Al: My big sister guided me the right way when I was a nipper—Bowie, Iggy, Lou Reed… I also loved James Brown and Motown… Buzzcocks and Blondie. Then John Peel came into my life, along with NME and Melody Maker compilations. I wanted to be in The Pixies by the time I was in my first band.
Was Candy Darlings / Mousefolk your first musical venture, or were there other projects before that?
Big Stu: Mousefolk was the reason we learned to play guitar. Before that, there was just the rest of the universe.
Steve: Initially, I was only in the Candy Darlings because I was Dom and Chris’ mate. Dom could actually play the guitar, and Chris could pluck the fattest string on the guitar (which made him the bass player). Our mate Jerry had a single snare drum (so he was the drummer). I had nothing and could play nothing, so I became the singer by default, even though I couldn’t really sing.
Al: At the time, I was playing bass guitar in a much less successful Clevedon indie band called The Bubble Surgeons (even though I was a drummer!).
How would you describe the alternative scene back in the day? Were there any standout gigs or underrated bands you had the chance to share a stage with?
Big Stu: Mousefolk were really lucky. We met so many beautiful people and supported great bands like Senseless Things, Mega City Four, Cud, Flatmates, Rosehips, Jesse Garon, Chesterfields, Groove Farm, and loads of others. We were supposed to support Wonderstuff, but they cancelled when they hit the charts. John got thrown out of the Tropic for taking down a poster for that gig that had been cancelled! But we played a lot with Candy Darlings and The Driscolls, and that meant the most. The standout gig was probably Gloucester Guildhall with Mega City Four, but also playing a huge free festival they used to have in Bristol. We played to thousands there. I was shitting myself.
What’s one of the craziest memories you recall from those early days in the scene?
Big Stu: I’m realizing increasingly that I don’t really remember too many details. It was all a bit blurry for mostly one reason. I remember playing in Munich, though, and the crowd all singing along. That blew my mind to have a room full of Germans singing along.
Looking back, what would you consider the highlight of your time in Candy Darlings and Mousefolk? Which songs or moments are you most proud of? And where was your most memorable gig?
Big Stu: It really touches me that people remember Mousefolk. People remember gigs better than I do. They talk about buying our records—Tom Morgan bought ‘Heads Full of Hope’ by mail order, which was pretty special. We created something that mattered to more than just ourselves. And that connection is the most important thing.
Steve: At the time, we were proud of making the single (and that it got reviewed in the NME, even though the reviewer hated it). Mostly, though, I just remember having a brilliant laugh with my two best mates.
Thanks for taking the time to chat. Any final words or thoughts you’d like to share?
Big Stu: Peace and love.
Steve: Thanks for talking to us and featuring us in It’s Psychedelic Baby. It’s really hard to get heard if you’re not a former Sarah Records artist or a heritage act, so we really appreciate your support. Because we think our album is fucking brilliant, and there are plenty of people out there who would love it, if they only knew of its existence or got a chance to hear some of it.
Klemen Breznikar
Candymouse Facebook
Old Bad Habits Label Facebook / Bandcamp
