Los Campesinos! Grow Up On Romance

Welsh band, Los Campesinos!, is known for their cohesive sounds of glockenspiel, violin, melody horn, and more ultimately making them a legitimate indie band from overseas. Their album, Hold on Now, Youngster…, gained critical acclaim and finally boosted their songs in both the UK and US music charts.

Although well known, leading Los Campesinos! member, Gareth Campesinos! says that they have even more to give with their upcoming album, Romance Is Boring, which is slated for release on February 1 via Arts and Crafts. He tells Billboard (via Reuters) that when they first started out, he “was a bit of a jackass.”

Jackass in terms of just being a jerk? Not so much. It was much more in the attitude of what indie should be and exclusivity many fans of the genre always seem to be arguing over. He was one of these people:

“I was sort of willfully indie, insisting that I didn’t care about becoming well known. I always wanted to keep the bands that I loved secret. But now I want them to get the credit they deserve.”

He continued to express his feelings of outreach to Billboard by using a show where they opened for the Cribs in London at Brixton Academy which holds a 5,000 capacity. After playing a show for such a large audience, his feelings have changed over the years:

“The day after the Cribs show we played a headlining show to about 200 people in a club in Cardiff. They were both great shows, but you can’t play to 5,000 people and not want to do it again. Once you catch that bug it’s really hard to get rid of it.”

Even as listeners, music taste buds evolve for everyone, so it’s understandable for Gareth to change his mind on what exactly indie means. However, as we all know the world is not black and white but infiltrated by much gray areas. There can be much done to expand a band and their purpose in regards to music and fans without depleting integrity.

Romance Is Boring is expected to show us this through experiments in songwriting. They released their single, “The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future” earlier in the year and we brought you their video for “There Are Listed Buildings.” These songs as Billboard puts it – “reveal an expansive moodiness that feels closer to Arcade Fire than to the twee-pop acts Los Campesinos! typically has been compared to” – which will hopefully guide their new expansion and direction as a band.

Come February 1, it should be interesting to hear how the band has grown up through this album. Not only is indie still a very vague term, but there are still no limits to how large the pool for the indie music scene can be. Los Campesinos! shows promise and may very well likely figure out their own way to take over without selling out.

Are you excited for Los Campesinos!’ album, Romance Is Boring?