What part of England are you guys based?
Tom and Rob live out in the sticks in Wilshire, which is most famous for being the home of Stonehenge. Perfect given that Rural France are keen preservators of outdated and inaccessible rock.

Adam is still living the dream in South London.

Who is in Rural France?
The core of the band is Tom, Rob and Adam – then whoever else we can convince to play bass and drums. But our Damp Spirit producers, Jamie Lockhart and Lee Smith did an amazing job on the EP.

When you were kids, did you like the current top 40 or did you prefer your parent’s or sibling’s music?
Tom: I was more the mum and dad route. My dad got me a Beach Boys tape from a petrol station and I was off. He also played me a lot of prog-rock, but I managed to block that out. Weirdly, I actually got my big brother into some cooler bands. I introduced him to Nirvana and he promptly filled a 90-minute tape with “In Bloom” back-to-back.

Rob: I was really into my aunt’s record collection. She introduced me to Michael Jackson, The Beach Boys and Queen. Plus some really good but long forgotten 80’s pop stuff.

What are your influences? Favourite bands?
Tom: Well, obviously Tom Morgan and the Lemonheads are a major factor. Especially on the first record. And you can probably add Paul Westerberg, Guided by Voices, early Weezer and Pavement to that. Oh, and You Am I, especially the suburban sketches of Hourly, Daily. I’m a bit of an Aussie-phile.

Rob: The idea of four/five people making music in a garage will always be my thing. If it’s heartfelt and devoid of cynicism, then I’m in. With Rural France, my references are Tom Morgan, Buffalo Tom, The Minders, Smudge, Garageland and – the greatest band of all time – Dinosaur Jr.

Nic: Hourly Daily is great. An Australian classic. Tom is the You Am I number one ticket holder down here. Who are the Minders?

Tom: They’re a band that belonged to the Elephant 6 scene that blossomed in the 90s – people like Neutral Milk Hotel and Apples in Stereo. Rob was obsessed with it when we lived together in London – that idea of having Beach Boys-esque melodies and arrangements, but recorded rawer. It’s something we’re actually hoping to explore a bit on the next record.

First gig you ever went to?
Tom: It was a British Bon Jovi-lite band called The Little Angels. My dad took me. I was blown away by how sweary it was.

Adam: Dire Straits at Knebworth with my mum and dad.

Rob: Reading Festival 1996. I saw Butthole Surfers, Sparklehorse, Urusei Yatsura. Then I saw Placebo play their first album and Weezer play Pinkerton. My mate’s dad picked us up as The Prodigy played “Voodoo People”. Not a bad way to start.

First record you bought?
Tom: The first record I bought with my own money was The Simpson’s Sing The Blues.

Rob: The Simpson’s Sing The Blues (Don’t ‘Half a Cow’ man…sorry.)

Adam: “People Are Strange” CD single by Echo and the Bunnymen, from The Lost Boys soundtrack.

Tea bag or loose leaf?

Tom: Tea bag. Preferably Yorkshire brand.  And, after 2pm, decaff.

Rob: Call me a snob, but it’s either filter coffee or high-end herbal tea bags.

Did you spend your whole life working on your first record Two Drink Maximum and then found Damp Spirit came easy to you?
Tom: Pretty much. I’ve been writing songs for about 14 years but never did anything with them. When Rob and I moved to Wiltshire, we started to rehearse some of them, sporadically, over three years until we finally had an album’s worth and managed to get into the studio with Luke, the producer. Rob called Adam, quite last minute, to come and help out and thankfully he said yes.

Damp Spirit came together over a few months. Rob and I picked a few songs that sat together thematically, rehearsed them a few times, Adam wrote his parts playing with the demos, we met at the studio with Lee and Jamie, then knocked them out in two days.

Adam and Rob (and Chris on the first record) played in a band together back in London (The Tailors) so they lock into playing together again really quickly, so that helps.

Time to fess up. Did you ever steal lollies from the corner store?
Tom: I never stole anything as a kid, I had too big a guilt complex. These days, I’m more than happy to smuggle something out of IKEA in the baby’s pram, though.

Rob: Nope. But I did steal cassette sleeve from the local chain record store to adorn my dodgy copies of all the Nirvana albums.

“Hawaiian Torture”, off you first album, sounds like a sad drug song. What is that one about?
Tom: I tend to class songs as ‘story’ songs or ‘mood’ songs. “Hawaiian Torture” is the latter in that it’s bit more stream of conscious – so I’m not entirely sure what it’s about, but there’s something going on there. I remember the title came from misreading the name on a bottle of shower gel. I liked how the tension between the words, that kind of ‘kill them with kindness’ thing.

Was there really “Banana Vodka”?
Tom: Shamefully, there was. That song is pretty much a blow-by-blow account of a night out I’d much sooner forget about. Makes me wonder why I wrote a song about it?

I had a question about a Sainsbury bag but I forget what it was.
Tom: The lyric ‘Wet swimsuit in a Sainsbury’s bag’? (from “Banana Vodka” on the first album) Sainsbury’s is a UK supermarket. Growing up, after swimming, you’d usually chuck all your wet gear into one of their bags. Getting it out later it would be all cold, damp, limp and stink of chlorine. It’s a metaphor for the worst hangover of my life.

Nic: A Sydney band here called The S-Bends has the line ‘Got a couple of long necks in a Woolies cooler bag, gonna hit up the beach before I go back to work” so I assumed it was similar.

When I first heard Rural France, I thought you guys sounded like Tom Morgan from Smudge. Now I know the songs better, and since hearing Damp Spirit, I don’t think that so much. But “The Wrong Horse” and “StuckTogether” are pretty Smudgian. Thoughts?
Tom: Tom Morgan was easily the biggest influence on the first record. Rob and I referenced him frequently – we had the motto ‘what would Tom Morgan do?’. I’ve essentially spent 14 years trying to re-write ‘Impractical Joke’ and not getting close. Fact: “Wrong Horse” was meant to be an unofficial sister song to “Wrong Pony”.

Nic: I’m a fan of Tom’s songs too. Clever lyrics.

Tom: I think the newer stuff is perhaps a bit less derivative (of Tom, at least). We’ve gone a bit more garage rock in places – but that Morgan-spirit is hopefully still there.

 “Bad In Everyone”. Well done. What a great concept and one I’ve not heard before. Can’t wait to sing that at the next Office Christmas Party. What’s the inspiration for that?
Tom: That’s actually the oldest song we’ve released. I wrote it in London about 12 years ago, when I was going through one of my misanthropic phases. But I also saw the irony of me judging people when I was far from perfect. I sent it to Rob as soon as I wrote it and he’s been barracking for it ever since.

The demo was dangerously close to Green Day or something. Thankfully, Rob and Adam turned into something a bit cooler.

I get a sense of sad/negative lyrics/happy music. Is this intentional.
Tom: This is all back to Tom Morgan again. Short, melodic songs with lyrics that are both amusing and heartbreaking.

With the next record I’m hoping for it to be a bit more cheerful. At least on the surface.

Who did the artwork on the front of Damp Spirit?
Tom: That was a guy called Matthew Myer. Adam found it…not sure how. But if felt perfect for the kind of bad mood/negative spirit of the record.

Rob: The image is a Keukegen –  which is a Japanese ghost. They are kind of a minor spirit of bad luck, disease and pestilence. They bring sickness and bad health. Perfect for the toxic, guilt-filled songs Tom and I chose.

“Petty Man”. So true. If you have a partner, she knows it’s just “in character”, yeh? Same with “Wandering Eye”.
Tom: Damp Spirit as a whole is really a character record. All the songs were written from an exaggerated, toxic place. “Wandering Eye” takes this to the nth degree – it’s a grotesque cartoon (Adam’s words). I wrote it after watching an episode of Love Island.

But, yes, I do worry people will take them literally and think I’m a horrible misogynist. You guys might have had something similar with some of the Sneeze tunes, I imagine?

As for my wife, thankfully, she gets it. Though she often asks when I’m going to write a happy song.

Nic: Yes, we have a lot songs written from a woman’s point of view, or what we assume. Also some songs from clearly dodgy guys (“Tittle Bar”, “BU”). No one ever called us out on them, but that was a while ago, might be different now in the age of the hashtag.

Tom: I was thinking of “BU” specifically, actually. I always found that song really sad and funny. But yeah, there’s certainly a bigger platform for people to misunderstand songs on these days.

It’s hard to see you guys play live all the way from Sydney, what’s the scene like where you are? Do you play out much?
Tom: We don’t get much opportunity to play, but that’s something we’re looking to remedy in the near future. Especially when we start putting the next album together.

From their days putting on shows, playing in The Tailors and running their own label (Trash Aethetics…they did Bloc Party’s first single, don’t you know!) Rob and Adam still have strong links to the indie scene – especially places like The Brudenell in Leeds and The Social in London, run by Heavenly Records.

Jamie and Lee, who produced the EP at their studio in Wakefield, also play in some really cool bands (Mi Mye and Cruel World), so it was great to go up there and be a part of that scene for a little while. I feel like I missed out on it in my twenties, as I was a bit intimidated by it all and too scared to share my songs.

Do you get a drink rider?
No, but Adam brought a lovely selection of cheeses into the studio.

If you have families, do you find the family/work/like/band-music balance hard to do?
Tom: I’ve got two kids and am a freelance writer, while Rob has three and a proper grown-up job, so it’s hard to make time to play together and work stuff up. We tend to have bursts of activity. But I’m always chipping away at songs and sharing them with Rob for his thoughts at kids’ parties.

Adam’s married, but no kids…so, apart from working, I’m not really sure what he does with his time…I should have a look at his Instagram feed.

Lastly, where is the name from?
Rob: Rural France was an in-joke that got out of control. Adam and I used to put on shows in London at venues like the Windmill and the Social. This was around the time that there was the folk revival and we were putting on a bunch of shows with bands like Viking Moses and Golden Ghost. One evening after a few beers everyone came up with their own nu-folk name based on their initials. Adam was, I think, Ancient Kangaroo and I was Rural France. I recorded a few 4-track under the name and that was that. When Tom started writing songs and needed a name he stole mine. I later discovered that this petty revenge was payback for when I bought the same t-shirt as him…10 years earlier.