THE INTERZINE

How are you all?

OK. Enjoying the summer. I'm out in Texas at the moment-  on a road trip seeing minimalist sculpture in a desert town called Marfa. Its hundreds of miles from anywhere and there's loads of Donald Judd instalations and some Dan Flavin works, but no phone reception so communication with the band has been minimal. I am sure they are enjoying themselves wherever they are.

Who am I speaking with?

Rob Skipper, singer/ guitar player / fiddler.

You’re a band of incredible musicians with huge achievements. Was this luck or a planned venture?

Lady luck has definately had her way with this project as far as the formation goes. I knew Susannah (Austin, vocals) from school when she was a little girl and I used to hang out with her sister. Fast forward 7 years and we met again and her singing knocked me for six and I asked her to join this group I was starting.  Slinky also knocked me out. Our first meeting was on a paintball range (it was Bryn from my old band The Holloways and Josh Weller's birthday party) he shot me in the face at point blank. Guess that bad luck turned out to be good in the end.

Who are some of your early inspirations?

My mum played guitar while i was in the womb and introduced me to a wide variety of music. I used to try and teach myself old boogie woogie piano music like Albert Ammons and Fats Domino, as well as rock n roll like Chuck Berry, Beach Boys, Kinks and Hendrix (he's the reason i picked up a guitar, then chipped my teeth on it trying to copy him).

Who do you like at the minute?

Eagles of Death Metal. Credence Clearwater Revival. Violent Femmes. These fall into a category i call 'Road Trip Music'.
Gorrilaz new album is great, i got to see their Roundhouse show. Their visuals blew my mind. Most visuals these days look like vomit. Theirs have Bruce Willis being a badass chasing the Gorrilaz through the desert!
Performers I like watching are Babeshadow and Eliza Doolittle as well as stand-up act The Marvellous Dorians who've all been helping us with our monthly club night which we call THE HUNT

I think Rob and I had a discussion about band names very late on in the night… Why was Hares confirmed as the name?

It comes down to imagery and ideas. Hares are always cropping up in folk lore and mythology and always seem so emblematic of fickleness, wit and rebirth (not to mention rampant fucking). Seemed like a name that summed us up better than the previous name which was The Musical Differences.

Who directed your video?

A fine art filmmaker called Oscar Oldershaw.  Its his first go at a music promo and he did a cracking job. I saw his video 'Heavenly Mane' at an exhibition and was drawn to the colours and beauty... a kind of 40's South Pacific feel. I convinced him to have a go at directing and we ended up using a clip from the film as a background projection in the video.

I liked Piers’ Beggin song on the YouTube. That’s not a question, just a holla.

Look him up: Piers Sherwood-Roberts, there's much more where that came from. Thats a very late night drunken duet with the lovely Natalia Tena from Molotov Jukebox, who's also known as 'Tonks from Harry Potter films'!

When are you heading out on tour?

A.S.A.P!

Is Slinky still streaking? Or leaving canned goods outside people houses?

Does wandering around 93 Feet East wearing nothing but a jock strap and an accordion count as streaking? If so, yes.

How’s the album coming along?

We're currently writing songs and chosing a producer and record label that suits us. There'll be some further single/ep releases before the end of this year and an album early next year.

We’re thinking of getting an office pet, any creatures we should look out for?

An african lion.  I just bought a book about these 2 guys that bought one from Harrods in the 60's and kept it as the mascot for their clothes shop. They'd take it for walks down the kings road and play with it in the park. Eventually he grew too big (haha, no shit?) so he was too big for Chelsea and so they liberated him in South Africa.

What do you think of bald people?

Bald people should stand tall. Baldness is in my genes. It hasn't struck yet, though i am ready for the war to begin. My 'hat armoury' is loaded, the latest addition is a big black Stetson.

Anything you’d like to share with our readers and your fans?

Well i've just mixed up a huge pitcher of margarita, Texan style, and would love to share it with y'all.

Hello, so here we are. All real and stuff! Last night was our offical launch, we did a special screening of The Runaways and had a tiny little party. Ok so the party was quite a lot.com (you *may* notice a diminished number of posts today.)

I'm sure the saying is that a pictures can paint a thousand words, it might not be but like, whatevers, so instead of me waffling on, here's a video that the amazing Today Is Boring team did.

A massive giant slobbery kiss and huuuuge thanks to Illamasqua and Patron. If I hadn't drank 300 Patron XO Cafe Runaways (yes coffee tequila) I might be able to like, move today.