Music

How would you describe your music to someone who’s never heard it?
We’re all into music that’s quite experimental, but we try and make pop music. So it’s upbeat with a leftfield slant.

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What leftfield influences do you draw on?

We’re really into Can, Neu! and Krautrock. Yuri [Caul, bass and vocals] is into Tortoise and Denny [Hilton, guitar] is into a lot of strange stuff. But we all like The Stones and The Kinks too.

‘Won’t You Come Around’ suggests a love of US college rock.

Definitely. Pavement, Yo La Tengo, stuff like that. While Britpop was going on, we were into grunge and slacker rock.

We heard a rumour that Damo Suzuki of Can is a fan?

I’m not sure where that came from. Denny played with Damo once when he was over touring Manchester. As for being a fan, I think that’s just Chinese whispers.

How did you all come together?

Me and Yuri went to school together. Then a few years ago I got him to move up to Manchester to start a band. It took us two years to find a drummer [Tim Warren] and then Denny joined about a year ago. That’s when it all started. It’s all pretty new.

Does Tim still have his hip hop band, Delicate Hammers?

He does. With his brother and a couple of others in Chorlton. There are a lot of bands going on in Manchester. It’s incredible.

You were called The Conversation before Polytechnic. What happened?

Another band claimed it. They claimed to be big and said they had a manager and everything, so they forced us to change our name.

Where are they now?

Exactly.

What’s the weirdest record in your collection?

Yuri’s got a record by Derek Bailey that’s pretty strange – kind of improvised jazz. We rely on Yuri to buy all the weird stuff.What is your greatest non-musical influence?Wes Anderson. We all love ‘Rushmore’ and ‘The Life Aquatic’. And the soundtracks to his films are amazing. Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo, another inspiration, puts them together.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve had so far?

Just to enjoy ourselves. People warn us that it’s a pretty strange industry to find yourselves in, so just have fun.

Polytechnic are the new…

Conversation.