An Interview with... Pleasure House

I recently sat down with James Burgess, drummer of indie rock group, Pleasure House to discuss inspirations, aspirations and their upcoming EP, Show Your Colours, released later next month on April 8th.

(l-r) Alex Heffernan – Vocals, guitar – Jon Moore – Bass Abbas Shah (The ‘Shah’ Man) – Guitar, James Burgess – Drums.

James in action at a recent gig

Where is or has been the band’s favourite place to perform together?

It’s the hometown. It’s Birms. We’ve had other good places like Manchester and Bournemouth but our favourite place is Birmingham with the home crowd.

What was the first song that you and the Pleasure House boys wrote together?

There’s two answers to this question. The first song we ever wrote as a band together was a song called Blow My Mind and it’s about sex. The first ever song that was a PH song was a song called Different Romantic and it was on our first ever, hidden EP.

If you and the guys could play anywhere, where would your ultimate venue be?

This is such a hard question. (After a long time thinking!) You know those trampoline parks? I’d like to play there because I really want to go to one and just have a bit of bouncy bouncy fun time afterwards. (After more time thinking!) I think a more serious answer would be in the middle of Tutankhamun’s Tomb just to be really different.

Who would the band’s dream collab be with? Dead or alive?

David Bowie as we are all big fans, especially our lead singer Alex. The fact that he died still affects me a little bit.

What are the band’s aspirations?

We don’t really aspire to fame or fortune or anything like that, we just want to carry on having a wicked time and we just want as many people to hear our music as possible. I, personally, want to inspire a younger generation who may not realise there is still a space for them to be creative.

How do you and the band balance music and other obligations?

I, personally have devoted my whole life to music. The other guys are all really busy too but we are all mates so we make time to hang out away from music related stuff too.

How would you describe the sound of Pleasure House?

We used to be dirty, dancey, indie pop. That’s changed now. We’re still dirty. We’re still dancey. We are just a bit more drunk and a bit rawer. We’ve had the toil of a year together which has been an incredible experience and that’s really influenced our sound. I like to call it ‘roadworn’. We partied hard, we got kicked out of clubs, slept in broken down vans, bolt up-right, slept in fields, on mates’ floors, recorded in some amazing studios, played some truly incredible shows. As a result we’re not just a pop band anymore. We have something to say and our latest EP Show Your Colours is the start of that message.

Who is or was the band’s biggest inspiration?

It’s different for each member. I’m influenced by old school blues, funk and jazz. I don’t want to make the same music as everyone else.

Where does your personal love for music come from?

It’s probably my family. My parents brought me up on music.

You decided to stay based around Birmingham, what do you love most about it?

My favourite thing is the scene and the creative people. All the musicians across all the genres in Birmingham know each other and all respect each other. However, I still think we need to put ourselves on the map a bit more which is what Pleasure House intend to do.

Be sure to follow Pleasure House on Facebook and Twitter, and Follow James here.

Photography courtesy of Charlie Pritchard