So where are you all from?
Shaun: I'm from a place called Worcester which is like in the Midlands. Steve lives in London, he's from Coventry. Henry lives in Nottingham. Michael lives in Wakefield and is from Wakefield.
Steve: We all went to University in Nottingham for a while and we were all there for like four years-ish. Henry's still there, but the rest of us moved away afterwards.

Is there much of a scene in Nottingham?
Shaun: There's a good music scene in Nottingham. A lot of bands play there, and the people that put on shows there have been putting on shows for a long time. They put on like small and big bands. It's a good place to live if you're into going to see bands and stuff.

"There's just a lot of average, wishy-washy music."

How did Lovvers get started?
Shaun: Me and Henry were wanting to play some music and we kind of assembled a band around some things we'd been working on. We were aware of Michael just by being in bands with Michael. We met Steve randomly and he played drums. We just started rehearsing and stuff. It was pretty organic.

I saw a press release recently for the new release. It had a lot of stuff on it about modern music being rubbish. Would you like to elaborate on that?
Shaun: It's referring to mainstream media. There's just a lot of average, wishy-washy music. I think that's a true statement.

You say the Germs are quite influential on you.
Shaun: Yeah. You know, we listen to lots of different types of bands, but that's a band that I think were one of the first bands doing that style of music and they made a good record. It's cool. I think it's an influence, but there's lots of different bands that we listen to. They're a good reference point for the music we're playing.

Would you say most of your influences are from the past?
Henry: Many of them. There's definitely bands from like the 90s who we like if that counts as the past. There's probably a few bands over the last five years who we really like as well, bands who make us want to carry on.

What modern bands are you really into right now?
Henry: In the UK, we like this band Shitty Limits. They're doing a bit of a British punk kind of thing. They're really good. And this band Demons from Portsmouth, who're like a bit heavier and slower, psychedelic kind of band. Really awesome. We play with them when we can. And then obviously bands like Jay Reatard, No Age, Times New Viking. Bands who we've played with like that. King Khan. He's really good. King Khan and BBQ Show. We all listen to that. We got the chance to play with them with Black Lips.

Was that the gig at Heaven?
Henry: Yeah. We actually opened that show. When we played there wasn't many people in because they'd messed up the times and it was so rigid. Like it was kind of badly organised because it was well organised if you know what I mean. If they'd have just let things kind of go it would've been alright. But I think in the end it added to the mystique of the Black Lips and the atmosphere, having the bouncers trying to throw everyone out and stuff.

Was it like a riot?
Shaun: There was just like two or three people who got on stage and about nine bouncers descended on the stage and then it was kind of like a bit of a stand-off between the crowd and the bouncers. It didn't really get out of hand, to be honest. I just think a few people got roughed up. They should've just been sensible about it. They turned the PA off at one stage and that was only going to incite something to happen. But yeah, I don't think anyone got hurt. It was just a bit of a shitty situation.
Steve: It just looked really dramatic more than anything else. It looked amazing and it was fun, but...
Henry: Easily Avoided.
Shaun: The best thing about the night was the King Khan and BBQ Show. Like they're an absolutely cracking band. They've only played like a handful of gigs in Europe.

"It's confrontational in the sense that it's loud, fast music, but it's supposed to be fun."

You've been getting quite a lot of press from Drowned in Sound. Has that had a big impact on your fanbase or your gigs?
Shaun: No.
Henry: There's been a few people that check us out through Drowned in Sound definitely, because we see them posting on there and everything, but what it is is the writers at Drowned in Sound are all quite big fans of ours and we've had loads of good reviews of records and live gigs. Then sometimes we'll play a gig and we'll go on there and there'll be loads of people saying, "I watched two songs from this band. Each member was shit. And then I left." And then like someone from Drowned in Sound coming on and sayin, "What're you on about?" That's it really. It's all good press for us. Some divvy saying you're shit helps you out more than anything else really I think. It helped to get our name out there.
Steve: They were the first ones to pick up on us really. They gave us our first bunch of good press. They have helped a bit, but not massively.
Henry: Everything that's come out, they've done a review of it, so you can't say anything bad about them.

The first time you played in Glasgow it was at the Captain's Rest. There was that guy who spat on you and later took his dick out during Household's set. Do you find your confrontational style of performing often antagonises the crowd?
Shaun: I think that was just a one off really. It's confrontational in the sense that it's loud, fast music, but it's supposed to be fun. We've never really got into any trouble unless the guy's got no brain. In that case he was just really trying it on. He came out worse. We didn't resort to any form of violence. We're not confrontational in the way that we'd go around hitting people. That's not the deal.

It was quite funny really. I did just want to punch the guy, but it was Michael's birthday and we were going to bring out a cake. And all I could think was like it would've just ruined bringing out a cake and singing Happy Birthday. You can't like floor someone and then be like, "Right, anyway..." So it worked out for the best. He was just a bit drunk I think.

You've got a fairly long tour of Europe coming up. Are there any plans to go out to America at all?
Shaun: I think it's something we really want to do, but it's just figuring it out. It's a long way to go. You can't drive there. It's not cheap to get there. I think once we have a record out there. I think March. We're aiming for March to try and do something there, but it's just...
Steve: We don't want to get ahead of ourselves.
Shaun: Yeah. We'll finish playing these gigs and then think about what we're going to do.

Where's the furthest away you've ever played, or the strangest place?
Henry: Madrid's the furthest place we've been. It's the only gig we've played on the continent. And Ireland. But those are the most exotic places we've ever played. Probably the strangest place..
Steve: Margate.
Shaun: Yeah, Margate.
Henry: We've played Margate about three times. Right on the South coast. It's like one of those dying seaside towns where it's quite pretty, but all the shops make no money.
Steve: The kids follow you down the street.
Shaun: We played Glastonbury. That was pretty funny.
Henry: There was about forty kids sitting outside while we played. Was it a free gig? Yeah, it was free. And there was a glass window separating us from the beer garden, where they were all sat smoking weed. We were just playing and Shaun was like waving out the window at them and stuff. About fifteen people came in to watch us. We were pretty good.

Are there any plans for any new releases?
Shaun: Yeah. I think next year we're going to do a full-length record and probably put out a 7" early next year just to keep the ball rolling. Maybe more, but we haven't really thought that far ahead. Definitely like a record next summer.

Do you write quite a lot?
Shaun: It's kind of staggered, really. At the start we had quite a lot of songs, but like because we all live in different cities we don't even spend much time practicing.
Henry: Usually one of three of us will come up with a basic idea on our own, just like playing the guitar at home. It's just a question of taking them to the next level by showing them to someone else. But any time you pick up the guitar you might think of a little tune to play.

What stuff have you put out so far?
Shaun: We've got four 7"s. One's a compilation 7", and three of our own, and then we also did a CD-R ourselves, and then this CD as well. So quite a few things have come out. We're just looking to keep doing that.

Who's the mini-album out on?
Shaun: Wichita Records.

Are they doing a good job?
Shaun: Yeah. It's only just come out so you know...
Henry: Obviously it's got a really big distribution and they've got some really big bands on the label. Officially it comes out on the 13th of October. They had an advanced thing where it got sent to some indie record stores. The 12" comes out on Monday though. That's when it all really hits.

Was the compilation 7" a split?
Shaun: Yeah, it's a four-way split. It was meant to come out this month, but I think it's been put back a month. It's got a band called the Death Set on there, and a band called Knyfe Hyts, and a band called Best Fwends. Every band does a song, although we do two.

Who's putting that out?
Shaun: It's a label from Brighton called One Inch Badge Records. It comes with a badge.

Are there any themes that come through in your lyrics?
Shaun: It's just about commenting on things that you experience. A lot of it's based around media and just how things are kind of wishy-washy and watered-down and no one's really got anything to say any more. Just random topics. Trying to keep it humourous and be thought-provoking. That's the general theme of my lyrics. Sometimes it's just like telling a funny story, but generally it's just like trying to put little ideas across, however small they might be.

What's your recording process?
Henry: On this record, we had the drums, bass and guitar playing together, but the guitar wasn't going to the tape it was just in the headphones as a guide track, and the drums and bass were going onto like a 24-track tape machine. Then we ran the drums and bass through onto the computer and we recorded with like four amps, loads of tracks of guitar. Just one riff, but loads of tracks so we could kind of play around with the mixing. Then we did some overdubs of guitar and put the vocals on at the end. Then we like fucked it around and sent some of the drums through an amp and recorded that to get a distorted drum sound, and we used an analogue delay, a Watkins Copycat delay, and like a spring reverb thing to try to give it a bit more of a 60s sound, like a warm, valve sound. All the reviews we've seen have been saying it sounds like it's recorded in the bath or something, but to me it just sounds like a bit of an old lo-fi punk record. It doesn't sound like it was recorded in the bath, it just doesn't sound like it was overproduced.

Are there any labels or websites or bands you'd like to recommend to end?
Shaun: I dunno. It's hard to say really.
Henry: Those British bands we mentioned earlier, Demons and Shitty Limits There's quite a few others that we like, but they're the ones we tend to mention in interviews because we think people should check them out, but they're both doing alright for themselves anyway.