The Little Ones: Small mercies

Next week, the London-based label Heavenly Recordings will be celebrating its 18th birthday in fine style: a weekend of gigs at the Southbank Centre featuring its greatest hits; Manic Street Preachers, Doves, Saint Etienne and The Magic Numbers.

The event demonstrates that the label maintains its own identity, despite a long-standing relationship with EMI, which was highlighted by the appearance lower down the bill of The Little Ones. The major label dropped the Los Angeles purveyors of sun-kissed guitar pop, with promo copies of their debut album already minted, but Heavenly roused themselves to take on Morning Tide without major backing.

Amid a low-key tour to promote the record, the five-piece have pitched up at a bar in the trendier part of London's East End. The group are just as sunny as the early promise of "Lovers Who Uncover" and "Oh, MJ!" suggests, although their treatment by EMI still rankles. "It was purely a numbers game and naturally the small guys have to go. You look at a piece of paper and draw lines through it," says guitarist Ian Moreno.

"We only need a bit of money to get us over here," singer/guitarist Ed Reyes joins in. "We hardly ever eat and just drink a bit. But then we never felt we were signed to a major label, because all our dealings were with Heavenly and still are. The culture of that label doesn't subscribe itself to excess – or any budget."

Keyboardist Lee LaDouceur, explains how they bounced back: "There were a dark couple of weeks when it was like being rejected; and if you think like that, it hurts. If the band isn't signed, it doesn't have any value, so you go back to basics, to where we were when we started the band and realised the positives."

At least they got the master recordings back from EMI, yet the process must have reinforced the feeling that The Little Ones are out on a limb. Their beachwear ditties fit none of today's pigeonholes. "I think it's great," Ed laughs. "That's not to say we don't get along with a lot of bands, but sometimes groups get stifled. Carving out your own path may not look cool, but you're doing something a little bit different and more fulfilling."

This is the boys' seventh UK tour, over a period that has seen them build a small, committed fanbase, one noticeable for its diversity, Lee explains. "A lot of people want to group their bands together so they feel safe when they go to see them. We see people react in a different way and let go of their inhibitions. Be the dork. That's what we do on stage."

"They [the fans] run the gamut of the really young and the really old," Ed adds. "We don't get the really hip kids, but we do get the ones breaking the mould."

Along the way, they have made a lot of friends. The Kaiser Chiefs had them as a support group in the US and they segued seamlessly into last year's NME new music tour alongside The Rumble Strips, Pull Tiger Tail and Blood Red Shoes. I mention how, by the time it reached London, the gig felt like one long party with bands guesting on each other's sets. "You should have seen Norwich a couple of nights later," Ed chuckles. "We took over the streets, man. We were all over that city," before he adds more seriously, "We're good people and if you treat people with respect, they'll help you out."

The boys have an endearing way of aiming to please. They thoughtfully muse over questions and debate how to pronounce Scandinavian place names as they reminisce about their first dates in Norway. Their music, however, comes from a desire to please themselves, especially Ed and Ian, who started out in an "emo-style" band that actually released an album before interest fizzled out. The pair then began playing in each other's apartments.

"It just started out as a thing we did on weekends. Never really expecting anyone to really care," Ed remembers. Ian chimes in: "The band didn't really start doing what it's doing until we all came together. Every time someone joined, we dropped everything we'd done to move together as a collective unit."

The former band was inspired Ed's brother Brian to take up the bass and get involved himself. Lee dates Ian's sister, while drummer David Esau is a recent addition.

With family and romantic connections uniting the band as much as stylistic ones, you can see why their music became so relentlessly positive. Ed admits to happily promoting the Californian good life. "When we began writing, the songs that were more light-hearted were the ones we gravitated towards. I think we're naturally happy people. Everyone gets down and angry, but because the music was primarily for ourselves, that filters through."

"We don't have much to get down about," the broad-grinned Brian assents, before Ian reminisces. "On the drive in to town Ed played ukulele for 40 minutes straight. We were all singing reggae songs. It's our underlying hobby to make each other laugh."

On their website, The Little Ones talk on about "the rule of feet", whereby a song must make the band move before they commit it to record. Lee recognises this might have got forgotten as they completed Morning Tide with more contemplative moments. "When we were creating the record, we didn't get to play much live, so it's going to be interesting to see what happens."

"We can slow things down and go to darker places now, so we might have to add some clauses," Ed adds with a smirk.

From the outset, The Little Ones found themselves drawn to classic Sixties sounds, whether Beach Boys harmonies or Motown soul, something the keyboardist believes they share with British bands. "We are fans of the pop song as an art form, which a lot of bands here seem to believe in. We love The Zombies, that's our Holy Grail. We try to do them justice." There is a grudging respect for the insidious melodies of chart fodder, as revealed on recent single "Ordinary Song", a hymn to earworms you might not admit to liking, Ed admits. "You hear it on the radio and even if you're not a fan you can't get it out of your head, whether it be Justin Timberlake or Britney Spears."

Mutual friends put the band in touch with Dave Newton, formerly guitarist with C86 mainstays The Mighty Lemon Drops and now owner of a studio in his own LA garage. He advised them their recordings were too good to use as a demo, so they put out The Sing Song EP that led to the Heavenly deal. He is a key influence on the band, Ian explains. "We were looking at studios and there'd be a lot of gear talk, but with Dave it was just, 'Ah, here it is' and that's it. So we started talking about other stuff."

"He's the sixth member of the band, for sure, and a catalyst for our ideas," Ed adds. "We give him a lot of praise, but he'll say it's all our work. He creates this fun environment where everyone has a good time and lots of barbecues."

The ensuing album, which started out as a guileless bedroom jam, has turned into a more serious, defiant proposition. Not that Moreno sees it as an effort. "It's not working harder, it's just having as much fun as we did the last night without compromising our playing. I guess that's working smarter."

Ed sums it up concisely: "The people who are going to dig it naturally will find it and that's enough for us."

'Morning Tide' is out now on Heavenly Recordings. The Little Ones will be touring the UK from 14 September.

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