It’s been a big year for UK Progressive Rock band Touchstone. A couple of UK tours, extremely well-received, an equally highly rated new album, all capped with signing a deal with the much-respected rock label, SPV. Before the last date of their UK tour, Midlands Rocks Paul Quinton and David Waterfield sat down with Touchstone’s lead vocalist Kim Seviour, and keyboard player/vocalist Rob Cottingham to look back at the tour and a hugely significant year in the band’s history.


So, last night of the tour, how have things gone so far? I gather you’ve had some transport and technical difficulties.

KIM SEVIOUR:- Well the shows have gone down really well, we’ve just had a few challenges in between. We’ve had three tyres blow out in two days, two on the trailer and one on the van, and so this is the first chance we’ve had to do a proper sound check.

ROB COTTINGHAM:- And a guitar amp, which is brand new, has just blown. It’s very Spinal Tap. We got here and thought ‘This is great, finally a date with no calamities’ and then the pre-amp goes on the guitar.


One thing I thought when I saw the tour schedule, and I know that you’re limited by what dates are available, but it seemed a difficult itinerary. Starting in Poole, then London, then up to Newcastle and finally back to Bilston.

RC:- I think it was just down to availability. We wanted to do a little bit of North-South-East-West as much as we could. We’ve wanted to play further south, as we had a lot of people asking us particularly in respect of Poole, which is why we played Mr. Kyps. So it’s worked out OK, because we’re all from round North London, Milton Keynes, Hemel Hempstead way, and so it actually worked out logistically.


So, since we last spoke, just before Christmas 2010, the big news for Touchstone has obviously been the deal with SPV. How did that come about?

RC:- Well, they got in touch with us in November of last year, and we had quite a few extensive discussions and basically agreed the deal in May. They knew we had an album coming out, and it was very exciting. We as a band had to make a decision about moving from a cottage industry, so to speak, to a more professional environment, and we took the decision, made a leap of faith to go with SPV, they offered the deal, we negotiated terms, and we agreed the deal. From our perspective, the challenge we have had always is the management infrastructure and also getting the word out globally about us as a band, and it will be so much easier now because they have that infrastructure.

I read that you recorded the album, or much of it at least before the deal was signed. Is that right?

RC:- No, we signed before we recorded it. They didn’t even hear any material. (MR registered surprise at this point!). We did a deal on the next album, i.e. this one, and we’ve got an option on the next two. So it was a leap of faith on their part, so we both made a leap of faith and it’s great, they’re really happy with the album, and they came to see us at the Borderline and they loved the show.

So they haven’t tried to send an A and R guy in to ask ‘where’s the singles’ and all the lurid tales you hear about big labels??

RC:- From what I read about SPV before we agreed the deal, the bands at SPV are really happy with them, it’s like a big family, and I think Kim will agree that the label manager is brilliant. They’re really friendly and it’s just going really well.

Apart from the interviews and the advertising, how else will they push the band? Will they take a single off the album, shoot a video for you or anything like that?

RC:- They’ve got two tracks that we did as well as the album, which aren’t on the album, they can use in some way, so watch this space!

I want to phrase this question as tactfully as I can, but I’d like to know, you were at the same level as a number of other bands I can mention, do you feel any pressure through being singled out, being picked up by a big label?

RC:- No, next question! Joking aside, the thing is, we were really honoured to be approached by SPV, and we looked at other bands around us and thought ‘Why us?’ But at the end of the day, they know the industry far better than we do, and so, like I said, we just think it’s a leap of faith on their part. The difficult thing for us was just agreeing terms, because we’re not familiar with all that kind of stuff, it was new to us. But from our perspective, we were looking for something like this anyway. Not going out there, but talking with each other, looking for something like this to go to the next level and then it came to us. So from our perspective, the only pressure is that we just want the music to be fantastic, to get out there. All we’ve ever wanted is the recognition for our music, for what we do as a band and this is going to help us do that. How that manifests itself over time, we have no idea.

For me it’s interesting comparing you to these other bands, and you wonder what they saw to single you out. I think I know, but in your opinion, what did SPV see in Touchstone to set them apart?

KS:- I think with the other bands, it was going to be one of us, but I think it’s a case of wondering why it was us, we’re lucky enough to have this break, let’s just make the most of it.

RC:- They were looking for bands they wanted to try and break into the mainstream, that’s what they said to us, and so we felt very pleased that they picked on us. I think they were obviously looking at other bands, whether on the prog circuit or whatever, but they’re making investments in new bands. Good on ‘em!

I’ve spoken to a couple of people who’ve been on the same circuit as you have for the last couple of years, and they’ve been quite open about the fact they’d be very wary about signing with a label because they might lose that independence. Was that a consideration for you?

KS:- I think, in a way, we were aware that we wouldn’t own certain things, but we also knew that with what we were doing, we could only go so far on our own. With a label that will help us go further, it’s a case of give and take.

RC:- There is no control over what we do artistically, it’s totally down to us, we retain total control over what we do and that’s it. What you hear on the album is totally what we wanted to do on the album, they didn’t say ‘can you do a rocker here, a long track there.’ No way, it’s up to us what we do and they’re very much trusting us to come out with a decent product.

KS:- They’ve been very flexible with us, telling us ‘Just do what you do’, and it’s us just doing what we did that’s got us the deal in the first place, and that’s evidently working and they’re very happy with it.

RC:- I think one of the benefits is that it actually takes pressure of us, which sounds odd, but we’ve been running our own band for yonks and the time is now that we have that management infrastructure and we can focus more on the music. We want to record, write, play the gig, do the music and now we’ve got a band manager, a P.R. and that helps us focus and hopefully get even better music produced, so the label deal actually takes the pressure off.

So turning to the album itself, you’ve used pretty much the same team in the backroom as previously, with John Mitchell. Last time it worked really well, but did you ever consider changing things, just to freshen up?

KS:- We could, but I think before we did anything we looked at other options, then just thought that we’ve always had a good relationship with the Outhouse Studio, and we do get on well with the production team, John Mitchell did such a great job mixing for us, and also because this is such a big album for us, in some ways it’s nice to play it safe, to have someone that knows our music, knows where we’re at, when we are producing it, if we decide to take it somewhere different, he knows what we’re looking for, so it was a bit of a safety net for us. I don’t know if ‘safety net’ is the right term, but it was a comfort for us because it was quite a big album for us, so it gave us less to worry about.

So when you say you played it safe to keep you on familiar ground, did the same apply to the writing and recording? Did you do anything different?

RC:- I think there was more involvement from the whole band in the writing, which was great, as ever Adam and I write the bulk of the music and then bring it to the band, and then the band convert it into the band track so we’re kind of writing all together after that. We have the kernel of ideas, and then the band add that whole Touchstone flavour to it, which is great. Kim’s also done more writing of lyrics, which is great as well.

KS:- I think it’s very much that Rob and Adam wrote the framework of the song and the rest of us would build it up, now it seems to be much more of a trio.

Is it physically a division of responsibilities or that Kim comes in with a riff or an idea and you work on it together?

RC:- Kim will definitely come in with her own ideas. There’s actually a track that we’re going to put into the next album that Kim’s written. At the end of the day, if it’s a good idea, it doesn’t matter who brings it to the table. If we think people are going to love it, then we’ll use it.

KS:- I think this album is a little more diverse because of the way it’s written, because there are more influences, such as the commercial stuff that we’re into. There are more short, punchy tracks like that, but it’s still got the kind of songs that Cotters and Hodg have written and brought in, such as ‘When Shadows Fall’.

RC:- We managed a few bold moves, in my view, such as ‘Horizons’, which is quite a different track for us, a little bit East Coast jazz-like at the end and we thought ‘ why not? let’s just do it!’ and it worked and I think, in some areas, we have been more adventurous, and in others stuck to the kind of thing that we know and love.

I thought that, listening to the album, particularly the track ‘Good Boy Psycho’,and thought ‘Where did that come from?’ Not just lyrically, but musically. You seem to have taken the whole ethos of the band and moved several steps to the left.

RC:- Yeah, the mind of a psycho. That was Adam’s. I think on the album, there’s some tracks that are more accessible and some that are a little more crazy, so there’s a feeling that there’s more out there to appeal to more people and weird stuff that goes in a different direction.

The album does have a lot of different styles, including some shorter, punchier tracks. Is that as a result of the different writing styles coming together rather than writing as indiduals?

RC:- I tend to be a bit more of a completist, if that’s the right word. I tend to write in my studio at home, and say ‘right, there’s a song right there’, and I do the lot, so I can take it to the band and we can kill it, cure it, leave its ears, whatever, and it comes out as a Touchstone song. That’s one way of writing, which is very much my way. The other is that Adam comes up with riffs and ideas, and Kim comes up with lyrical ideas and themes to go with that and you’ve got all that going on together, and Adam and I also write together, and so it all works pretty well

KS:- The second half of ‘Good Boy Psycho’, the almost folky bit that goes a bit mental, that was improvised when we were writing and we ended up throwing those bite together and mashing them up and thought ‘this sounds really cool’.

RC:- And ‘Half Moon Meadow’, which I think personally is beautiful, I just love that song, that was very much Hodgy’s riff, and then we were experimenting with the dual vocals and it just seemed to take off. I remember one rehearsal, the first time we had a go at it, and it really happened for us, it was brilliant. It’s often very much like that, it’s not just ideas, it’s playing around.

One thing I noted, both listening to the album and you mentioned it in that Classic Rock interview, is that some material on the album has taken some of the same themes as on Wintercoast, and then on the next album, whenever that is, it might turn into something of a trilogy. Again, is that something that just happened or is something you planned?

KS:- I think, in a way, there have been running themes. Instead of just one story that covers an album, there are different stories, and one kind of inspires the others. Cotters seems to be obsessed with assassins, for example. We had ‘One Shot’ on the ‘Mad Hatters’ EP, ‘Shadow’ on ‘Discordant Dreams’, which has now turned into ‘When Shadows Fall’. We’ve got the little ‘Wintercoast’ motif on ‘Discordant Dreams’, which turned into a full song on the ‘Wintercoast’ album, which is then sequelled, if that’s a word, on ‘City Sleeps’. I don’t think we necessarily go out to say ‘right, this is a theme’, but certain strings and stories do keep inspiring us.

RC:- I think with the ‘Wintercoast’ theme, there is definitely a story going on. It’s like ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and then we’ve got ‘Return Of The Jedi coming next. I think that will be it, then, in terms of the ‘Wintercoast’ theme. ‘When Shadows Fall’, as well as being about assassins, is also about the emotions relating to what happened, because the assassin didn’t kill the father, but thinks he did!

So, as far as the tour’s gone, apart from the technical issues, how has the actual playing been? Has it been a good tour?

RC:- Oh yes, it’s been great. Poole was great, made lots of friends there, it’s a nice venue. The Borderline was sold out. It was absolutely rammed, which was brilliant.

The Borderline seems to be one of those places where attendances have held up. I know you’ve done a shorter tour than some bands, but you know what things are like, absolutely brutal in some places.

RC:- It is brutal, yeah, in fact I spoke to Jon Edwards from Panic Room a few weeks ago, because I went to see them at Milton Keynes, and attendances are down, people haven’t got the cash, it’s as simple as that. I think we had about 100 in Poole, which isn’t bad, but then the Borderline was rammed, which is about 250, and then in Newcastle about 70 or 80, we haven’t counted up. Of course we would have wanted more, but we were told that was probably double what other bands in our genre would have got, so in that way, it’s quite reasonable.

So after the tour, and with the album out, where do you go from here? What does the next 12 months look like?

KS:- Well this tour’s about promoting the album, obviously, then the label are sending us over to Europe next year and possible dates in America. There is a good marketing plan in place for us to go back. It’s very much about trying to get ourselves exposure in other places now, and playing over there, we’d love it.

RC:- We’ve got a gig in November, where we are playing with Arena and Haken, in Leamington, then as Kim says, potentially some European dates in March. We’re looking at audio-visual product as well. We had the High Voltage gig last year, so we’re working out what to do with that, having discussions with the label.

We spoke last year, so really I wanted to make this interview about the here and now, but as the BBC used to say, is there anything you want to say yourselves?

KS:- Just to everybody, thanks for your support, it means a lot.

RC:- It’s really as simple as the interest in us is because of our fans, about people who buy our product and have been talking about us, so therefore we can’t thank people enough for their support. And the other thing I would say is, yes, we have been signed by a label, but now it’s about whether people will embrace the product, if they love it, they buy it, that’s fantastic, and we hope that they do and that they love it.

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The new Touchstone album, ‘The City Sleeps’ is out now on SPV records, and they play The Assembly, Leamington, as Special Guests to Arena, on November 27th.


http://www.touchstonemusic.co.uk/