Sports Team: The 'Joke' That Got Way Out Of Hand
Sports Team are an antithesis of your usual English indie band. Not a parka or Adidas trainer in sight, this lot get their kicks from World Cup Cricket, sweater vests and the ennui of middle England. They formed whilst studying at Cambridge University and still play like they’re in the union; hurling brash in-your-face indie rock about the mundanity of British life at you from all angles, whilst their enigmatic frontman, Alex Rice, struts across stage like a 16th century nobleman. We caught up with them at Kendal Calling, where we spoke about the possibility of an album, the Cricket World Cup and getting stuck in tour vans…
You guys have had a busy few weeks. A lot of festival spots right?
Alex Rice: Yeah it's been great! We've just been to Truck before coming here. It's a great festival, it's like one of the only festivals in the UK where indie bands are king. The crowd were amazing and they were one of the early festivals to give us a break so we like playing there. So Young Magazine have a stage here too, so it feels like home!
Talking of So Young, we spotted you hanging out at their Tropical Garden stage at Citadel a few weeks back!
AR: Yeah me and Henry went down for a bit. It was mental. The World Cup (Cricket) was on in that little bar. People were crying. It was amazing.
So you guys have your own WhatsApp community. Tell us how that come about? There's not many frontmen sharing their personal mobile number with their fanbase.
Oli: It was a bit like the band - a joke that got way out of hand. We'd sorted giving Ricey's mobile number out, on lighters, at our gigs. Then all of a sudden we were getting loads of messages off these kids. The group started when we were touring with The Magic Gang and then it spiralled out of control.
Al: It's a great thing and a real community. There's often conversations about essays and what people are doing for their A-Levels. They all meet up at festivals. Yeah a lot of them were at Truck. They all camped together which is nice, they've become real close friends.
Do you have regulars?
Al: Yeah, absolutely. It's nice when you catch eyes for a second. A lot of them have been coming to shows since the beginning. There's a girl Willow, she used to come when we played to fifteen people, now there's over a thousand.
Talking of the meteoric rise you guys have been part of. How has it felt to achieve a lot of success, quickly?
AR: The bit that feels real is the live shows. We get some support in terms of radio play and streaming now, getting in all the right magazines and things. It all becomes real when you're there in front of a few thousand. I still get such a visceral reaction to it.
As you've mentioned in the past, you started the band as mates wanting to jam together. When did you realise that it was going somewhere?
AR: Pretty late last year actually, probably when we did Scala in London. We got a bit surprised it sold-out. We all still had jobs and were doing this in the evening, we were all living together before that and rehearsing until two in the morning, using every excuse in the book for going in late. We did a tour with Hinds as well and couldn't make up any more excuses, we had to take two months off for that so it forced our hand, now we do it everyday.
You've released lots of singles and an EP. When can we expect the album?
AR: I don't know, we're just not very good at recording. We've been trying to do some in between festival dates but it just takes us a really long time. Have you got the songs, is it just the process that's long? Yeah we've got all the material it just takes time. We're doing it with a guy called Bert Reid, he produces Courtney Barnett and he's over from Australia until October, so there's a deadline. He's perfect though.
Do you feel the pressure or does it happen naturally?
Al: Not really pressure. We've been recording for a while now and we've done EP's so were really eager to get the album out. But, inevitably talking about it is one thing, but, we've had three festivals and a tour recently so it's right well it's gonna take time.
Can you tell us about what influences you guys? Is there anything you've been listening to? We get a Parquet Courts vibe from you guys sometimes.
AR: Yeah, I'd say Parquet Courts is pretty right. We do listen to a lot of American bands and this comes through in our sound. It's all very energetic from start to finish. The lyrics remain english and we romanticise the mundane a lot but with that American energy. You know, getting out and thrashing on stage.
You also run your own label, 'Holm Front', was this always a dream of yours or something that originated organically?
AR: People always say its quite hard to set up a label, but, it's not really. All you have to do is pick a band, go to vinyl pressers, you give them half of your vinyls and send some of to Rough Trade. Thats all you do. But I think at the very least, its great to be around other bands a lot. We found Personal Trainer when we played in Holland with Pip Blom. It gets you out of the habit of visiting the same London venues all the time. You're outside of the bubble. It's the same for festivals, you could see Shame and Yak every night, if you wanted to.
Do you think the label is good for supporting each other as musicians?
AR: We like to think of ourselves as senior, signing these young bands, stealing all their music and making it about us. You have to put Sports Team released on everything, it's win win for us. But, in all seriousness, it is a great community of bands.
Lastly, has anything funny happened whilst you've been touring this summer?
AR: Henry's got loads.
Al: Yeah we'd lost him before a gig with Hinds, we thought he'd soiled himself and was locked away in a toilet. We had to soundcheck and then started to worry, we were like "where is he?". Everyone was ringing him and we were convinced something awful had happened. We were going to ring the Police, but someone went out to check he wasn't just napping in the van.
AR: We heard crying
Al: He'd been in there, in the dark, crying for two hours.
AR: The funny thing is that he did soil himself as well.
