Serenading us with their sweet melodies, London-based quartet Life In Film have quietly gathered an army of fans thanks to a series of seriously slick live dates and one very inconspicuous ambassador.
Life In Film caught the attention of Christopher Bailey last year after he saw Sam, Ed, Dom and Micky playing an unplugged session on Youtube and enlisted the foursome to record a spot for his Burberry Acoustic series. This was followed by live performances at the opening of two Burberry stores and a campaign for the brand featuring Life In Film’s frontman Sam. Encompassing a wide range of influences, their sound carries inflections of Kings of Leon’s raw vocals, Johnny Marr’s infectious guitar hooks and Nick Cave’s melancholy poetry. Faultless to a tight T, their live shows are not to be missed. In an exclusive recording for i-D online, the band play ‘Suitcase’ and ‘The Idiot’ i-N session while band members Sam and Dom stop for a chat.
How did you get started?
Dominic: Samuel, Micky and I all attended University together studying music and film score. After graduating we moved to London and formed the band. Edward and Samuel are both from London originally and are old school friends. When we met up it felt right and the logical direction for us all to go in.
Where did the name Life In Film come from? Are you a bunch of cinephiles?
Samuel: I guess it’s a sort of concept to do with the way people perceive reality and what is and isn’t important to them. Also the idea of music being the soundtrack to the personal motion picture that is your life. It’s definitely got quite a melodramatic connotation in my head!
Dominic: I’d say, yes, we are a massive bunch of ‘Cinephiles.’ You will never meet us as a group without one of us skitting our way through movie scripts from memory (mostly American gangster films). For Samuel and I it’s Anger Managemen’ – much to the disappointment of the others!
Would you describe yourselves as a ‘London band’? Where, who and what influences your sound?
Samuel: I suppose you could say that having a broad range of influences is what sounding like a modern London band is. Any big city with a large range of different cultures exposes you to a lot of music and experiences you may not otherwise encounter and that definitely affects what you play. But we’re not a London band in the traditional sense… if you’re hoping for a bit of Chaz and Dave you may be disappointed!
What did you listen to growing up? Any guilty pleasures?
Dominic: I grew up listening to Michael Jackson and then moved onto Motown, Atlantic Soul, The Doors, Oasis, The Stone Roses, The Smiths, NWA, Biggie…I could go on and on, basically anything. There was even a Happy Hardcore phase.
Samuel: I listened to Bowie exclusively for about three years when I was a teenager. I think a while before I discovered him I did buy a copy of Scatman’s World…The follow up single to Scatman John’s number one hit Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop). It seems probable that his recording contract required him to include the word Scatman in the title of every track he released. A bit like Jason Derulo being required to answer the register through a vocoder at the start of every one of his tracks, perhaps the recording process is easier for him if it feels a bit like school.
Karaoke favourites?
Dominic: Queen Don’t Stop Me Now or Nick Cave’s Into My Arms depending on the mood/level of drunkenness.
Samuel: Me and Dom can usually get through anything by The Doors…the drunker you are the better it sounds.
Have you got any groupies yet?
Dominic: Haha! Thankfully, no we don’t (yet) it could be very dangerous. Oddly we do have a high percentage of teenage boy fans though…come on girls get with it!
Samuel: I don’t think any of them could put up with our shit jokes!
Life In Film play at Cargo on October 5th. Their debut single The Idiot will be released November 7th.
Text: Frankie Mathieson
Photography: Rebecca Thomas
Film: Makda Iyasu
