If there is ever a planetary invasion, Sandweaver could save us all. A Worthing band to cherish (well, it was never going to be The Ordinary Boys was it?), four colligate souls alive with THE BUZZ. Matt Sweet, on vocals and guitar, a choir in himself, constantly jamming and creating a thread for the band to weave. John Hickling, providing drums and percussion, a natural and compelling rhythm monster, one take – two takes – done. Johnny ‘JP’ Stubbs, lead guitar and all round technical guru, unleashed musical wisdom and trading a model’s jaw line. Tom Pople, with bass guitar, illustrious songwriter in his own right (the man behind the sublime ‘Mending’) and trigger of a groovesome plateau, unfortunately absent from this interview.

JG: How did Sandweaver come about? What’s the history?

John: Through a friend of a friend of a mate of a brother, I met Matt, who wanted help with a demo.

Matt: Yeah, I was playing open mic nights, and wanted to try my hand at a band. We met a guy called Jim, who loved Jimi Hendrix, we had one band practice, tried out some original stuff which just didn’t work. John knew Johnny through BIN (Brighton Institute of Music), Tom came on board and it grew from there.

JG: And you’ve been growing for a few years now, resulting in your debut album, ‘Invasion’.

Johnny: That and some demos along the way. But the album is a distillation of our best stuff, at that time.

Matt: Mike Baker (Seamonster producer) was a big influence on the album, helping us pull it together. We’ve effectively worked backwards, starting with an album, not having sent our demos out to a wider market, or to labels.

JG: Its certainly an accomplishment, you’ve wound up with a strong collection of songs. There’s plenty going on in the mix… what’s the writing process for the band, the group dynamic?

Matt: Quite often I’ll bring the basic structure along, verse chorus verse pre-chorus, etc. And in rehearsals we’ll pull things in, reshape it.

JG: There are definitely four individuals at work, each player distinct in their role. But not overpoweringly so…

Matt: It can get like that though, and we have to strip things back, take things out. But ultimately we seem to compliment each other. It’s definitely not a frontman project-

Johnny: We all have our own influences as well.

John: Nothing drastically different, though. Its not as though Johnny’s into classical, Matt’s into heavy metal and I like reggae.

JG: So what are your influences? What’s on the Sandweaver ipod?

Matt: Well, John likes Aerosmith. Johnny goes for something more technically challenging, like Muse. And I’m partial to female singers, PJ Harvey is really inspirational.

Johnny: When we started, we looked up to bands like Coldplay, with these really anthemic songs.

JG: Back to the album, was it intentionally conceptual? There’s a convergence of space imagery and visions guiding love and loss?

Johnny: We love concepts, themes, superheroes. That’s why we picked up instruments.

Matt: This was a created concept though. It was written over a long period, ‘Jupiter Girl’ was one of the earliest songs, then came ‘Invasion’, ‘Falling Stars’. We realised there was a theme and it was designed around that. I love graphic novels, so the artwork was all linked in. The fancy dress was great fun!

JG: You’ve supported some established names – Russell from Bloc Party, Shaun Ryder, Ida Maria. Any wise words?

Matt: Not explicitly, but seeing them perform gives an idea of the commitment, the passion they have. Ida Maria was playing to practically an empty room back then, but she flung herself around, tore things up. All for about five people.

John: She told us about how she writes, that she sees her music in colours.

JG: Any dream collaborations – musicians or producers?

Matt: Only PJ Harvey. Her use of language is incredible, a bit like Tom’s take on Dylan. She can take the mundane and make it fantastic, be singing about something inspirational and you realise its about a room or a cup. Like observational comedians, you know, spotting the everyday and turning it into something special. That’s what I want to do with music.

JG: PJ Harvey revamps herself every time she writes an album – learning a new instrument and making it the centrepiece. I guess you have JGope to regenerate your songs, to keep things fresh.

Johnny: Yeah, especially live. There’s still a load of effects and lines from the album we haven’t figured out how to create on stage yet. And if we play acoustic and strip things back, it can lose a lot….

Matt: Which is another area we want to work on. Tom has an acoustic bass, and John has got an (acoustic percussion box gizmo – lack of drumming knowledge Ed) which can give us a new range, a new sound.

JG: A new direction? The internet moves things quickly these days, any new songs?

John: Sometimes we can pull together a few new songs in a matter of weeks, and then there may be a dry spell. But whenever it comes, its natural. Nothing is forced out.

Matt: A lot of bands seem to cram whatever they come up with onto the next album, but we like to make sure it has the Sandweaver quality stamp. We have a lot of ideas, the other night we came up with the three totally different sounding jams. One was quite anthemic, in the vein of the album, another was really heavy, all override and distortion. The third? An ambient Portishead style piece.

Johnny: And the thing is to cut through all that and leave our sound on it.

John: It’s not like we set out to write a song in a particular style…

Matt: …although that would be something to try. This one can be pure rage!…

John: …although we did commit ourselves to come up with something new for our recent London gig. For fans that have seen us a few times and made the trek.

Johnny: We realise that it (‘Boxgap’ – new song Ed) came from playing with Ida Maria. Punk –

Matt: - and ska.

JG: For many bands, and those just sitting in their bedrooms dreaming about this stuff, the live arena is what its all about. Do you agree?

Johnny: Absolutely. That’s where a lot of the buzz comes from. There’s nothing better than when you’re playing live and everything comes together.

Matt: One of the best feelings was at our album launch, and we played a song that’s not even on the album, but everyone knows it – and everyone joined in at the chorus. That just makes it, hearing your words sung back to you.

JG: You do have a cult following locally. Ever thought about jumping in your car and travelling round the country?

Johnny: That would be good.

Matt: Investing in the gear to make every gig sound perfect…

John: If the sound fails, it doesn’t do us justice, and it’s not fair on the people who’ve come to see you.

Matt: Most of our fan base is collected by word of mouth. It’s important to us to perform consistently, and that includes the quality of sound, which at the moment is beyond our control.

Johnny: It gives you confidence as well, to hear what you’re playing, to have everything miked up as you want.

JG: So, new concepts, new sounds…

Johnny: It does feel like we are at the stage now, we’ve learnt a lot, where we have to sit down and figure out where to go.

Matt: We’ve reached a crossroad, definitely. It’s time to put together the next goal. We’ve realised our album, now it’s getting it out there.

As we part, Johnny is convinced they should get together and draw up a manifesto, plot the next move while there’s still a planet to invade. Matt manages to convince him to go the local open mic night instead, to play music and not talk about it (yet, anyway). And so our superheroes walk off into the night, but they will return…

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