Rock at your leisure, boys
The band will be riding high on the back of the release of their debut album, The Art Of Saying Nothing, which hits the shops on Monday. A demented mix of ska, hip hop, techno and rock, the album features a fast and furious set of very British ska tunes, echoing the likes of Madness and The Specials, but with a heavier, dancier, edgier vibe. Blistering brass, old skool scratching, and a flurry of rhyming rap couplets combine, seldom at a rate of less than 100 beats per minute, to create a sound that is as inventive as it is exciting.
It's little wonder, then, that despite their unconventional band format and lack of label status, Imperial Leisure are enjoying more and more radio play, and raising their profile accordingly. Already tracks including the hugely contagious The Great British Summertime, Man on the Street, and In A Letter have made it on to Radio One, with Colin Murray hailing the latter "a tune of epic proportions".
"Radio One has been very kind to us," says Denis, one of two MCs who front the band. "Now we're trying to get to Zane Lowe and Jo Whiley to play our new track The Landlord's Daughter, but the language is quite fruity in places!"
The single is coming out the same day as The Art of Saying Nothing, and the band have pressed up a load as giveaways to help promote the album, which should appear as a cover mount on Rocksound and Kerrang!
Imperial Leisure may not have the clout of a major record label to help promote them, but in recent months they have set up their own music company, of which each band member is a director. Denis explains:
"We have brought together a load of investors, mostly wealthy fans or friends who like our music and can see a future in it. So far we have raised enough cash to press all the records and go part way to funding our next tour.
"We can do just about everything in house and figure that we can make more money by selling fewer records than we would on a label. I know plenty of people who have been on major labels, and they've sold thousands of records, only to disappear in a year's time. Most labels now seem to operate a 'one in ten deal'. They'll sign ten bands with the idea of dropping nine…"
Never short on their own ideas for self-promotion, the band came to the attention of some of the unsuspecting British public via their street savvy 'gorilla' gigs, which involved all ten band members – that's your basic rock four piece, plus brass section, DJ, keyboard, MCs and vocalist – leaping out of their van for impromptu, hi octane live sessions. These have happened on Tottenham Court Road, Camden High Street and Brighton Beach, and, most notoriously, in festival car parks at kicking out time.
"We've been kicking up the jams for a couple of years, but not so many this summer because we played a load of festivals anyway, but also because the weather was so wet. We had a bad incident on Newquay beach when the tide came in and all our stuff got soaked, not an experience we wanted to repeat!"
In fact they've had less time for these spontaneous performances as demand for their legitimate presence at festivals has increased – this summer they conquered crowds at some of the majors like Glasto and Bestival, plus a plethora of others. Bona fide gigs are not in short supply, either. As well as their own headlining tour of the UK to promote the new album, they have been invited to support the mighty Less Than Jake on their nationwide jaunt in November. Says Denis:
"We're doing 15 dates with them, and I think 1,700 is the smallest capacity venue, so we should be playing to around 20,000 people all together, which is fantastic. We really couldn't ask for a better way of getting the tracks from our new album heard."
Check out their new tracks at www.myspace.com/imperialleisure
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