Anxieteam

Mitch Gavell caught up with Jon and Jim, in advance of their show at the Hand & Heart on the afternoon of Sunday 15th January to hear what they’ve got planned for us, and to find out more about their brand new postcard book EP.

What’s been happening in the world of Anxieteam since LeftLion last caught up with you before your debut single launch at Nottingham Contemporary in August 2010?
Jon: We've been playing more gigs, writing more songs, eating many pretzels and going for long introspective walks in the park together.  Actually, since that gig I have moved to NYC.  It's like Nottingham but the taxis are called cabs and are yellow and there are less County fans.
Jim: We bought new equipment - a nice red synthesizer by the name of Micron Alesis.  We still haven't found out how to use it properly but even in using it un-properly it adds something to our music.

I see you’ve played shows in various European cities in 2011, as well as in New York.  What have been your favourite gigs?
Jon: Last year we played in Zurich which was one of my favourite gigs of the year.  I was really sick beforehand and thought I wasn't going to be able to make it (and by make it, I mean to see the next day).  But in the end, and after a lot of tea (a LOT of tea) I managed to crawl up on stage...with each song I felt my health returning.  It was as if the love and affection of the audience actually was feeding into my pores.  By the end of the gig I was a pool of sweat and slather, it was great.
Jim: My favourite gig was the one that we did for the Bushwick Dream video.  I think that was the most run-down bar in the whole of Brooklyn.  There was a pool billiard competition in the front room and they were quite annoyed from our music which only made us play it louder.  There was a "they will come and beat us up" tension in the room…

What can we expect at the Nottingham gig on 15th January?
Jon: Arguing, forgotten words, the wrong notes, knowing glances, wry smiles, dancing, masks, games, joyous hand shaking and a gold chain made out of cardboard.
Jim: And love.

Tell us about the postcard book EP…
Jon: The EP is called I THINK I MISS YOU.  It's a collection of songs about missing somebody, or cradling an unrequited longing.  The format of the EP is a series of postcards that Jim and I created.  Each postcard features a something missing a something else.  You're meant to send the postcards to your old friends and lovers, letting them know you miss them.  The songs can be downloaded via a magical code that Hello Thor have concocted.

Which is your favourite song on the EP, and why?
Jon: I like Pretzel Face best as it's the most recent song we've recorded.  It's about not even knowing what you're missing, but still having that lonely, absence of familiarity feeling lingering in the pit of your stomach.  A pretzel face is someone who has a salty, sourdough knot of a face.
Jim: I like My American Summer the best.  It's one of the first songs we ever did and the first one that has that nice melancholic mood, like something’s lost and you don't know it yet.

Are you looking forward to returning to Nottingham?
Jon: Yes, yes indeed I am.  Desi Downtown better watch out, I'm here to swim in a gallon of their Dal Makhani.  And of course it will be lovely to see some familiar old, sagging, aged faces.  And some smooth, soft, beautiful new ones.

Image from the new Anxieteam I Think I Miss You Postcard EP

As a some-time Nottingham resident, Jon, what do you most miss about our fair city?
Jon: I miss the city and the UK as a whole.  New York is great but sometimes you just want a bag of chips, not French fries, to be able to watch Match of The Day whilst sipping warm larger and be called a 'duck' by someone.  It's not too much to ask for, is it?  The people are the thing I miss the most I guess.  The guy in Sneinton market especially, he used to have a way with people, calling young and old, male and female the C word as they asked for a pound of taters...
Jim: And believe me...Jon talks a lot about Nottingham.

You’re both pretty prolific visual artists, have you been exhibiting recently?  I heard you had a joint exhibition in Zurich last year, how was that?  Have you started doing more visual art work together, as well as the music?
Jon: We started off working together on exhibitions before we started dabbling in music.  We have a show together in Munich that opens on the 13th of January.  I don't see a difference between working together on music or artwork with Jim - the same pains and joys are involved and the results are always unexpected.  It's really good collaborating together.
Jim: I enjoy doing videos together.  Walking around in your neighborhood in a cardboard spraycan costume - that's actually much more fun if you do it together with someone who also doesn't care what people will think.

Talking of videos, I love your Bushwick Dream video – tell us how that came about?
Jon: We love Bushwick, which is a run down old industrial part of Brooklyn that is now in resurgence with young artists and layabouts moving in.  It's in the throes of intense gentrification which is fun and sometimes a little overwhelming to observe.  As we've spent a lot of time there we thought we should honour the neighbourhood and write a song about it and its new residents.
Jim: There are two separate worlds in Bushwick which exist parallel, next to each other.  There are all the locals, who always have been there, and now all the hipsters are moving in because Williamsburg is too posh now.  They walk the same streets and take the same subway but i think they can't even see each other.

What were your favourite tunes of 2011?
Jon: Mine was the album by Rustie which i thought was excellent.
Jim: I  liked the new John Maus album.  My most listened to track was Synchronize by Discodeine, although I think that's from 2010, but I only discovered it in 2011.

What are your new year’s resolutions?
Jon: Panic less, work more, eat less and eat more.  I don't believe in resolutions, I believe in revolutions. (not really).
Jim: Panic more and work less, move to the country and stay happy for the rest of my life.

Anxieteam play at the Hand & Heart (Derby Road) at 4.30pm on Sunday 15th January, with support from local indie-pop wunderkinds We Show Up On Radar and Hello Thor DJs. Tickets are available from here.

The I Think I Miss You postcard book EP will be available at the gig, but is also available from Hello Thor and exclusively from the Music Exchange.

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