An electro-pop band from Manchester, The Whip, who have been released by such notable labels such as Southern Fried and Kitsune, had a live performance at Club Unit in Daikanyama, Tokyo last year. At the live show, which was more like a club event, they had Gildas & Masaya from the Kitsune label as their supporting DJ act as well as other musicians to go on the stage with them to amuse the crowd.

Following their appearance at the Fuji Rock Festival in 2007, this is their second visit to Japan and we (ShiftMag?) interviewed the members of The Whip: Danny Saville (Keys), Fiona Daniel (Dr), Nathan Sudders (Ba) and Bruce Carter (Vo) about their new album coming out in March and what else is going on.

First of all, could you tell us how the band started?

Nathan: Bruce and Danny were in a band called Nylon Pylon, we kind of made more friends through that band, and we were all hanging around together in different bands. Then that band split up and then we carried on writing songs together.

Dan: In an English pub’s cellar.

Nathan: In an English pub’s cellar that was haunted of all things. Actually, Bruce and Danny carried on writing songs, and when they got enough songs and wanted to do gigs and do it live. That’s when they got me and Fiona.

Why did you keep writing songs even though the band split up?

Dan: It was what to do. We love making music and we work together really well making music. It was just when the other band stopped, there was no kind of stopping point for us just because everything was winding down- our business was to write songs.

Bruce: We just carried on until two of us, and the other band kind of died.

Dan: It just seemed to be the right thing to do. We knew fully well that we were going to have another go at it and do it again.

How many members were there in the band?

Dan: There were four people in Nylon Pylon, the other two went off and did there own thing, playing all sorts of music and got normal jobs and whatever they decided to do.

Was it the same music style back then?

Bruce: Quite similar. The Whip is much more straight to the point and kind of simple and straight forward. The other one was kind of… everyone had their own opinion, and there were too many of them.

Dan: You got four people with different ideas trying to go on an album at the same time, and there were also all these other people who worked in it.

Bruce: It didn’t sound as coherent.

Dan: There were a lot of differences in the band and in all the songs, but the underlining element of it was that we got all the keyboards and four bands playing dance style music, and we just continued that side of it.

So, as Fiona and Nathan joined the band, the music became more dancable?

Bruce: Not really, it was more the actual songwriting. The drumming was really complicated with the other band. We wanted a simpler beat and everything stripped back down.

Dan: We just wanted to simplify everything. There were too many ideas going on. Bruce and I had a very specific way that we knew was very easy to work.

Bruce: It’s funny, around that time people didn’t understand hearing guitars with keyboards. I don’t think audiences were ready for that. I don’t think they still are, but I think it’s going a lot better.