New music to listen to this week: Trampolene

Now Hear This

(Press Image/Simon Sarin)

There's a chance you will already have heard of Welsh band Trampolene, named after the mispelled Julian Cope song, but here's something for anyone who hasn't.

Fronted by Jack Jones of Swansea, the band have relocated to London and are releasing a new pocket album collection made up of an EP and a poem by Jones.

They just had their first day airplay on Radio 1, for the track "It's Not Rock And Roll". Jones tells me he had no idea it was going to happen: he was picking his mum up from the coach station when it came on the radio (she didn't recognise his voice at first).

The band also recently released a video for "No One’s Got Love Like We Got", a spontaneous, touching jaunt with Jones and bassist/vocalist Wayne Thomas after their drummer Rob Steele left his passport in Wales.

As you'd expect for a man hailing from the ugly, lovely town, Jones has a kind of raw, unpolished talent that appears in a Liam Gallagher-esque sneer and swagger, backed by squealing guitar riffs.

Listen if you like: Oasis, Libertines, Kasabian, Red Hot Chili Peppers

Q&A with Jack Jones of Trampolene from a recording studio in London

Which artists are you listening to at the moment?

"Stormzy. But then the night before I was listening to Beethoven. That probably says a lot. [He wanders over to his car to take a look at the CDs inside] I’ve been listening to… The Jam singles… Of course I’ve got the Julian Cope greatest hits here… because we got our name from the Julian Cope song… I haven’t actually got the key to my car so I’m just standing outside looking at it… people probably think I’m going to rob it..."

How do your live sets work?

"When we first started I'd do a poem, and people would shout ‘when are you going to play the guitar?’ and so I’d do the song and someone would shout… ‘when are you going to do a poem?’ But they’re starting to get it now. It ebbs and flows."

Are you working on a full-length album?

"At the moment we’re just getting together pocket album four. I’m definitely ready for a full album whenever. We can keep satisfying our fans with more music regularly. It’s more fast, more interactive. So this is what we’re doing at the moment…

"Wayne the bass player also does paintings, and the pocket album originally was on a USB stick, and on it they’d have the videos, the music, poems I’d written, and paintings as well. And they’d plug those into their computers and have it all there."

What was your first gig and what's been your best gig so far?

"We opened for the Fire Breathing Penguins, a [very famous] local cover band in Swansea. I can’t remember if it went well or not. Our best gig so far was probably at Koko in London… the last one we did a four-night residency there, and the last night was so packed, and we could hear people singing along, even some of the poems. At one point I forgot the line of the poem, and before I could check the notes someone filled it in."

Trampolene play the Black Heart in Camden, London, on 3 November. Pocket Album Three is available on digital download