Huddersfield based indie-pop band LONG ISLAND aims to push the boundaries of indie-pop with their powerful production and heartfelt vocals. The mastermind of vocalist Rhiannon Stephenson, guitarist/vocalist Cameron Conner, bassist Paddy Spence-Lewis and drummer Jan van Beem, the band fell upon indie-pop as their common ground - with a love for all things catchy. The debut album 'infatuation's a nightmare' explores the ups and downs of love from the beginning to the end of an entire relationship. Being written and produced by Rhiannon and Cameron alongside their friend Bradley Weston (of the band TRASH), the band explores the sonics of indie-pop and its genre defying sounds that undeniably mark the sound of LONG ISLAND.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey LONG ISLAND, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
Hi, it’s nice to chat with you too! We all got into music at a very young age by playing a variety of different instruments, but we all came together at the University of Huddersfield where we were doing Music or Music Technology degrees.
How do you balance your time in the studio with other commitments such as a part-time job, family, admin?
That can be a difficult one! As of right now, we all live a couple of hours away from each other so finding time for rehearsals or studio time can be difficult. The good part is that we can write with each other over the internet and bring ideas to the table that each person can take away and work on separately before we bring them back together. We do love getting into the studio or rehearsal room together as much as possible though – it’s usually a matter of planning ahead!
Your latest release is 'infatuation's a nightmare'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
It was quite an unusual process for us as a whole. During Rhiannon and Cameron’s master’s degree, there was an entire module around creating a “group project” of which this album spawned alongside our friend Brad Weston (who helped produce and write the entire album too). It was a very stressful process with a short time frame that pretty much forced us to get ideas down and stick with them, even though we did end up with around 15 tracks that we narrowed down to the final track list. For those 10 weeks we were in the studio for a good 4 days each week just writing, recording and producing out the album until we had the solid idea. After submitting it, we realised how much we enjoyed the music and working together and spent the next months polishing up all of the tracks!
Where did you get the inspiration for this album?
We love drawing upon all the music we love – we all have very different styles of music we love but fell upon indie-pop as our common ground. You can often hear elements of electronic music, pop-punk, rock and jazz throughout our work that’s an accumulation of each person’s personal style. Apart from that, the album also has an overarching storyline that moves from the start of a relationship right through to the aftermath of a relationship falling apart, and details the joy, pain and anger that can come with it.
How long did you work on 'infatuation's a nightmare'? Was it an easy process for you?
It was around a year’s worth of work. The first track we wrote for the album was actually ‘staring at the ceiling’ which was written before the thought of being a band became an idea. We ended up having the entire album written and produced around April 2022 and spent the next part of the year practicing our parts so we could play live and polishing up the production. We think the process was a lot smoother than we initially expected having never worked together before, our writing styles and way of working just fits together!
How do you know when a work is finished?
I think you never really view a project as finished – you could keep working on a project forever and keep changing tiny little parts of it. Eventually, you must let go at the point that it’s at and realise that all these little changes you may make will probably never be heard or recognised by the random person listening to the music. It’s easier with multiple people though – you can ask everyone’s opinions and once you have a consensus, it’s complete.
Can you write what was your best performance in your career? How do you remember it?
We all agree our best performance was our album release show at Northern Quarter in Huddersfield the other day with our friends Alfie and the Avalon and Casinos supporting us. It was our first headline show and we played the entire album along with some new music. Everyone was dancing and singing along to the tracks, and we were all having so much fun up on the stage too – it just felt like the best time in the room.
How do you find yourself in the music business? When you started out in music, did you know it would be like this?
The music business is a very difficult field to be involved in – there’s often a lot of gatekeeping involved in booking gigs and promoting music. I think we’ve found it easier in that regard than we expected. We’ve heard from much more people than we expected and had our music listened to a lot more than we ever thought, which we can’t thank everyone for enough.
Who is your favourite musician?
As a group our favourite band is probably Fickle Friends. We spent a lot of time listening to them in the studio – they have such a clean production style, and their songs are incredibly catchy too.
What are your plans for the future?
We’ll be spending the next year hopefully doing a lot of shows, being up on stage and playing these songs is so much fun for us. Alongside this, we’re already writing new music so expect some more LONG ISLAND tunes this year!