Manchester has always been a hotbed of musical talent – now there is another band to add to the list.
Six-piece Mealtime are the band on everyone’s lips in 2020 thanks to the strength of singles Teef, Sublime and Denim.
Although their influences range from LCD Soundsystem to in your face Y2K pop, their sound is like nothing else right now.
Ultimately, Mealtime leave you hungry for more.
Their stock is rising. They’ve received airplay on BBC Radio 1 and 6 Music, have been championed by BBC Introducing and have been named on Indie bible DIY Magazine’s live 2020 showcase this month.
Daily Star Online took time out to catch up with Mealtime ahead of their show supporting Childcare at London’s Scala in December to find out what makes them one of this year’s hottest prospects.
Hi Mealtime. How did you get together and how long have you been a band?
Keaton: We’ve been together for just over a year now.
Georgia: It’s early days – we’re from Manchester.
Harry: Three of us are from the north east and some of us didn’t know each other. Then we moved to Manchester. We met through work, university and friends.
Georgia: Mainly uni. We worked on a few separate projects.
Harry: We’ve found our final form more recently.
You’ve had a few tracks out in the form of Sublime, Teef and Denim – what’s the reaction been like for them?
Georgia: It’s been great. We’ve had really good support from BBC Introducing since our first release in May. They’ve been really behind us the whole time. What they do for bands is amazing.
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How important is it for an outlet like that for bands?
Georgia: So important. They gave us our first platform even though it’s early days. To say we’ve been played on Radio 1 is really good. That’s purely through Introducing. My dad was impressed!
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Your releases so far have been varied in their sound – is this something you’re setting out to do? Who are you influenced by when writing songs?
Keaton: Having six people all contributing affects that. We all have different angles we fall into and put our own flavour into it.
Sam: We played Blue Dot festival and saw Hot Chip live. We absolutely love them. That is a common ground. LCD Soundsystem. Georgia loves noughties pop.
Georgia: Yeah, I love Y2K pop . In fashion it’s really come through, we all love hip-hop. It’s nostalgia for us.
Harry: In the 90s we love the visuals side of it. We like 00s indie pop as well, it’s varied.
Georgia: The fact there’s six of us creates a Mealtime flavour.
You’re a six-piece – how does that affect the writing process?
Keaton: It depends on song to song. We off with one or two of us having an initial idea. It gets shared among us and we’re like “oh we want to work on that”.
Harry: We work off the scraps from that.
Keaton: It starts off instrumental.
Georgia: Then it’ll get passed on to Harry or Keaton and they’ll work on it. Me and Sam will work on the vocals but it’s literally pass the parcel.
Sam: It’s a less traditional songwriting approach, more throwing s*** at a wall!
Where do you record your music?
Georgia: In Harry’s bedroom. He’s got quite a big room. We used to rehearse in Harry’s bedroom using a PA system and a drum kit, everything’s in there.
Keaton: All three of the singles so far have been in Harry’s room. We like that feel at the minute but we’re more than welcome to experiment with other sort of processes. At the moment we enjoy the convenience of doing anything we want.
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How does that translate live?
Georgia: It’s tough!
Keaton: It’s a nightmare!
Georgia: It’s really hard translating that sound. We’re all very fussy in the sense that we want it to sound like the record. We’ve had to take certain songs and make it into a live version – cut certain things out. It’s really difficult.
Harry: We all have our hands full when we’re on stage. We make do and manage better than some.
Keaton: Very recently we’ve only realised the simplicity of six of us playing on stage, rather than cramming so much into it.
Georgia: We’ve played some very cosy stages, tripping over wires.
What’s Manchester like as a place for a band? What’s the scene like?
Sam: It’s getting better – people are moving away from nostalgia and towards more exciting music.
Georgia: There are some good new venues like YES, which is amazing. It’s really exciting still. There are festivals like Neighbourhood too. There’s definitely new things. Working Men’s Club stand out as a band right now in terms of how they’ve blown up
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You’re at the Scala supporting Childcare, how will you find playing a prestigious venue like that?
Keaton: It’ll give us the space for a bit of a boogie!
Sam: We didn’t know the Lou Reed transformer cover was taken there. And the Iggy and the Stooges cover for Raw Power – it’s surreal being on that stage.
Georgia: We’re over the moon to be already playing the Scala – it’s a really good venue.
Have there been any stand out moments from your live shows so far?
Keaton: Playing the Blue Dot Festival was surreal.
Georgia: We weren’t expecting anyone to come and watch us.
Keaton: We were first on at 12 o’clock. As soon as the tent opened people crowded in. We were just happy people were willing to check us out.
Sam: I was worried people were coming in to shelter from the rain but by the end everyone was grooving.
Harry: We had really good feedback. We were called "synthy b*stards".
Keaton: That was probably the best compliment we’ve ever had to be honest!
Harry: When Kraftwork and New Order are playing on the same line up that’s a pretty big compliment.
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It seems to be a pretty exciting time for new bands right now, would you agree?
Keaton: In Manchester it’s the beginning of a shift towards more contemporary stuff. It took us all individually a while to realise that and do what we want to do. People aren’t scared to do what they want now. There’s loads more freedom.
The music video for Sublime pays homage to early 2000s music videos with you guys taking the role of shop workers before living the life in a limousine. Who came up with the idea?
Sam: Georgia came up with the concept. We were like, how can we make this the best possible? It’s full-on tongue-in-cheek and show our sense of humour. It’s really important for us. We don’t want to come across like we take ourselves too seriously. We’re a party group.
Georgia: We went to a corner shop called Zaf’s GoLocal and went in and asked if we could use your shop.
Sam: I want to give a shout out to Zaf from Zaf’s GoLocal in Ancoats. The absolute best corner shop ever. They sell Grey Goose in a slushy. It’s a Tango ice blast machine with shots of Grey Goose.
Georgia: They’re ahead of the game.
Will you be focusing on more fun music videos in the future?
Georgia: Definitely. I love the idea of exploring concepts. We are never going to do a music video of us just playing guitars in a room. It’s not what we do. There’s definitely more fun to come.
Keaton: In terms of writing we’re let loose anyway.
Georgia: As soon as we write a song I just imagine what we’re going to do for the video. Every time we write a song I’m constantly thinking of the video.
I love a well executed concept. We also want to bring visuals to our shows – it’s something we’re working on.
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You’ve been picked for DIY magazine’s 2020 class – how does that feel?
Georgia: It’s amazing. It’s a great line up as well.
Sam: It’s a great magazine, a great publication. We’re massive fans of it.
Keaton: We’re very proud to be playing alongside Working Men’s Club and Walt Disco. It’s nice to get a nod from a publication that we respect.
Did you think the success would happen so quickly?
Georgia: Not at all. I do think, and this sounds cliche, that we are offering something different and it goes along way.
Sam: We do this every day. We still work full time. Every hour in between work we are all doing this. Whoever isn’t on shift someone is doing Mealtime. We work in retail, bar work.
Keaton: This is like a second job at the minute which gives us a lot more joy. It’s something on the side to keep our minds ticking.
Georgia: It makes stacking shelves at Superdrug somewhat worth it.
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For our readers, how would you describe your sound?
Sam: Abrasive alternative electronic pop!
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