Interview: louellen

louellen (RIYL: The National, Elliott Smith, Interpol) are an indie rock band hailing from South-East England comprised of Christian Corless (Vocals, Guitars), Richard Picot (Guitars, Vocals), Harry Thomas (Bass) and Joss Pennington (Drums). louellen layers intricate guitar melodies with dark, driving vocals and drums to create a broody, yet beautiful sound. The band is currently busy recording their debut EP at The Dairy in Brixton, London.

We had a chance to talk to Christian and Richard, the founding members of the band.

Could you please state your names and what you do in the band?

Christian, I play guitar and sing.

I’m Richard, I also play guitar.

How did you guys meet and form the band? Did you know each other before forming?

Christian:  I’ve known Harry and Richard for years. I met Joss (Drums) a couple of years ago through Richard in Huddersfield, where he was going to university, but only really got to know him when he joined the band. It’s kind of a weird situation as far the formation of the band; Richard and I have been writing songs and playing around with ideas for a 2 years or so. At first, for lack of any other choice, we performed the songs using a laptop for the drum track etc. We wanted Joss to join the band for a while, so when he finally offered up his services we were more than happy to get him on board, that’s when the band was properly formed, I guess.

Richard: Christian and I met a few years back who also introduced me to Harry (Bass). At that point we were all kind of doing different things, I was doing a singer/songwriter thing and playing some local shows with that. I had some extra guitar parts I needed playing, so Christian helped me out with that occasionally. We always shared the same tastes and ideas in music and what I was doing wasn’t really cutting it for me. So we made a band and got friends to help out with drums but it never really came into it’s own. I went away to university where I met Joss, and that was it, we asked if he would be interested in joining the band and thankfully, he agreed. (more…)