Credit: Matthew Robert Oliver
First featured in 2017 on Little Indie's Roundtable with their debut single 'You Make Me Feel So Sick', London grunge-pop-with-attitude trio Pin Ups returned with 'Do You Hate Yourself Yet?' last September. Latest single 'Lunchtime' was released last Friday (February 22).
Who are you?
I’m Jesse Baker, I play drums/vocals for Pin Ups. The others are Joshua Gibbs on guitar/vocals, and Louis Baker on bass/vocals.
Tell us something about yourself and how you came to be where you are today.
Although most of what we do is based in London, currently we’re actually split between London and Norwich - me and my brother Louis live out in the coun’ry and Josh is from North London. Me and Josh’s unlikely meeting was totally by chance - about 3 years ago I happened to be on the phone to a producer who knew another producer who knew Josh and he was after a drummer for his project-at-the-time Pastel Colours. I headed over for an audition and I think after like 20 minutes or so I was asked to join. We both matched each others’ intensity playing-wise and found ourselves pushing each other almost immediately, both instrumentally and vocally. Nice when that happens. We got Louis on board once we decided to restart as Pin Ups and here we are today.
Give us an idea of your musical style and influences.
Our musical style is like a big mixing pot of genres from the last 60-odd years. Mainly post-punk, indie and psych but with hints of other styles from all over the place. ‘Lunchtime’ in particular took a lot of inspiration from the 90s; the second I heard the riff it had this light-hearted, sarcastic feel to it that I immediately related to the likes of Blur and Pulp, so we definitely channelled those. We then threw in this groove that felt like Wu-Tang Clan or something which makes sense as me and Louis are massively into hip-hop. So there’s influences coming from all different styles and eras.
Explain the production and writing process behind your songs.
In general we tend to write individually, make rough demos and then get together and shape the songs into what we would consider to be ‘Pin Ups’. What was great about ‘Lunchtime’ is that is was probably the first time we were all present in the inception of the song. Josh then took it, demoed it (at around 1pm, hence the name), sent it back to me - I played about with the arrangement, wrote the vocal parts and sent it back and it was pretty much done. Then production-wise Rory (Attwell, producer) and Josh really brought the track to life with the big synths you can hear on there.
Tell us a little about your new single.
‘Lunchtime’ basically presents a confused British viewpoint on America’s gun laws, mainly inspired by the time Donald Trump considered arming teachers as a way to prevent school shootings. As I said before, the riff had this real sarcastic feel to it so it just felt perfect to write about something that just seemed so fucking stupid to me. It was probably the most fun I’ve had writing lyrics to date, actually. Being a sarky bastard just comes naturally.
Can we catch up with you at any forthcoming live shows?
Yes, we have these coming up:
Sat 09/03 – The Shacklewell Arms, London - this is a free entry show
Fri 15/03 – Bermuda Bob’s Hi-fi, Norwich (w/ Wyldest)
Wed 03/04 – Epic Studios, Norwich
Fri 03/05 – Open, Norwich
How's the the year looking, plans-wise?
We’re heading back into the studio very soon and plan on having an EP ready for you in the coming months. We’ll also be filling the diary and plan on heading round the country to play lots and lots of shows. If all goes to plan we should be looking at Christmas number 1 come December. It’ll be phat.
Where can we hear more of your music?
You can find all of our current singles on all major stores/streaming platforms such as Spotify, as well as our vids over on YouTube
What social media platforms can we find you on?
Facebook // Twitter // Instagram
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