LeeFest Presents: The Neverland takes over John Darlings Farm near Tunbridge Wells this weekend for three days of magical fun including mermaids, pirates, hot tubs and tiki bars. A bunch of Dork’s favourite bands are also heading over, including Fickle Friends, Shame, Catholic Action, Fish, Kagoule, Wild Beasts and Strong Asian Mothers, who’re looking forward to catching up with some of the other acts playing, and their pets.
Are you looking forward to LeeFest? Is it a festival you’ve played before?
Yes, we are indeed looking forward to this festival, we have NEVER played it and are excited to take in all its grandeur and all the sensual yet watershed appropriate experiences it has to offer us.
Is there anyone else on the line up you’re looking forward to seeing, or catching up with?
Yes, we’re really looking forward to catching up with Annie Mac and Oxide and Neutrino, but we haven’t actually met them so they might not let us near them.
We’d love to try and meet up with Kate Tempest’s dog again, he’s called Murphy, and he’s a beautiful, glorious wolf, and we love him.
It’s themed around Neverland, from Peter Pan. When you were younger, what did you think you’d be when you grew up? Were you always destined for band life?
Amer wanted to be either a Fireman or a Pizza Hut delivery man. Khushi wanted to actually be Gary Rhodes, and Josh wanted to be a master Sorcerer.
Apart from Josh, we all failed at those goals, but Josh is the best magician this side of David Blaine’s mole. I guess minimal-to-moderate rock star status was next on the list, so we’re doing alright
If you could hang out with any of the characters from Peter Pan, who would you choose and why?
Tiger-lily and the racially dubious Disney portrayal of her big chief father, they were bad ass. Flying’s good and all that but there was a secret love for Tiger-lily when we were young, and her Dad was always puffing that pipe. Although, that might be classed as cultural appropriation… Festivals are hard.
If you had your own fairy pal, what magical mischief would you get up to?
We and our magical fairies would learn the dark art of compression when mixing and we’d fly around east London stealing production secrets so our mixes could sound even more huge and ear-bleedingly good. We’d also just rob corner shops of their Haribo.
What do you think the main advantage of never growing up would be?
Never learning that when you were a child, you were a bit of dick and were in fact wrong a lot of the time. Also that you were most probably very uncool, even though you thought you were the bee’s knees.
If you could be one age for the rest of your life, what age would you pick and why?
28, far enough away from 30 to be young, far enough away from 21 to be a wide-eyed, naive twat and the most confident you’ll ever be about your ability to chat people up and not run away crying. You’d also properly get ‘good’ music and still be cool enough to listen to it.
What bands or musicians did you listen to while growing up?
Queen, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ali Farke Toure and too many more to name.
Amer has a dark history with Metal which he’s still trying to come to terms with.
Josh has recovered from a brief addiction to perv-jazz and Khushi couldn’t understand the concept of music till he was 14 so we’re a real mix bag of influences.
What else have you got coming up this year?
We’re gonna be dropping a sexy single in September and maybe a cheeky treat in between. Then we’re gonna play a big gig in London Town and then we’re going to the private island we bought from the money we earned from our first EP for Christmas… With Richard Branson.
LeeFest Presents: The Neverland takes place from 10th-12th August. Visit leefest.org for all the info.