Interview: Ardyn

AMY GWINNETT HAS A QUICK CHAT WITH UP-AND-COMERS ARDYN AHEAD OF THEIR SHOW SUPPORTING WILD BEASTS AT THE ROUNDHOUSE.

How’s the tour going?

Rob: Very well, really great fun.
Katy: It’s our first proper tour, so to play properly with a big band like Wild Beasts, and to play such big venues, has been such a learning curve for us. Wild Beasts are really nice people, they’ve been really welcoming.

Are you a band that generally enjoys touring?

Rob: We’re still setting out on our first tour really.
Katy: We’ve done tours before in terms of small headline tours, and smaller support shows, but this is the first proper tour. Getting to play somewhere every night, see different crowds every night and getting different reactions to the songs has been really cool.

You’re brother and sister, how does that relationship influence the song writing process?

Rob: It makes it easier, I think. We know each other better than maybe a normal friend-band would.
Katy: If you want to say something, you don’t have to be afraid to be honest or say I don’t really like that, whereas with friends it’s a much more complicated issue of making sure you don’t offend anyone’s feelings, so it is much more simple. It doesn’t mean we don’t argue, we argue all the time! But it’s not so dramatic, we have very throwaway arguments.

Katy, you write the lyrics; Rob do you ever wonder who the songs are about?

Katy: Even if I did write about someone, he would just know anyway. We hang out with each other so much it would be hard for him to not know.
Rob: I would just know.

You’ve recently had an album out on National Anthem (CHVRCHES, Haim, The Orwells), what was it like working with them?

Rob: They were really cool, the label even got us a radio plug.
Katy: We’re actually releasing the album on a label called Method, but National Anthem were a great place to start, they were very supportive – and they released our EP which was nice of them!

What’s it like moving from writing the songs in your bedroom to having them properly produced? It must be an interesting jump.

Rob: It’s really exciting. It’s really cool hearing your songs in that way.
Katy: To go from writing a song on your guitar, then seeing it dynamically change through production is amazing. And then to sing it in front of a crowd that respond to it is always such a special thing. It never gets old, every time I play, I love it.

To someone that had never heard Ardyn before, why should they listen to you?

Katy: We’re trying to bring things back to an organic sound, we want to create something that’s authentic, to create something with integrity.
Rob: Simple good tunes basically.
Katy: We’re not trying to be anything else. Just a brother and sister from the Shire (the Cotswolds). We’re not trying to be something we’re not, we’re just trying to do things the way we want to.

Describe Ardyn in three words.

Katy: Dark alternative pop
Rob: Fun pop!
Katy: It’s so not fun pop!

Are you using fun pop as one word?

Katy: That’s not okay! Let’s scratch that out now, let’s stamp on that.
Rob: Cut.

So what’s next for Ardyn?

Katy: We’ve got 5 more dates on tour with Wild Beasts, then headline tour in November and we’re supporting Lapsley at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire on October 19th. We’re also working on getting an album together – we’ve got a busy time ahead!