The Calling Card.
BY KELDA MANLEY.
‘Everyone wants to be Bono I’m sure’ smiles The Calling Card frontman Ben Squibbs. When reminded that quite a few people wouldn’t want to be Bono he laughs, ‘He’s a bit like marmite. You either love him or you hate him but as a frontman, for crowd participation I don’t think you can get any better. You can go on about his political views and he’s a bit preachy sometimes and stuff but really he’s the one to aim for.’
It seems a lofty ambition for the acoustic act from South Wales. Forming in September last year, Ben and Ceri Collins were signed shortly afterwards. After their quick rise the pair recently split, Ceri leaving to form a metal band in Birmingham. Not that things have changed for Ben. ‘It’s just me at the moment’ he explains ‘but we’re looking at getting a full live band together so when we do the summer tour.’
Ben is hoping the tour will be accompanied by his debut album. Currently being recorded he is confident that his sound will fit into a huge number of genres, ‘it is mainly acoustic but it’s not sad acoustic,’ he explains ‘[it’s] quite upbeat, quite poppy. We’ve played quite a lot of gigs with loads of different people. We’ve played with acoustic artists, we’ve played with full band, poppy bands, indie bands, pop-punk bands and it seems to all go down quite well. It’s just good poppy songs.’
Not that Ben is worried how his music is received. Fully aware of the dangers of the industry and the fickle nature of the listeners he know it’s a tricky business to become involved in, ‘I’ve just written a song at the moment which is a bash at [the music industry] at the moment’ muses Ben. ‘That if you don’t know a band who have only been around for two weeks then you’re not cool and there’s always going to be things like that. If you get successful you’re know as a sell out and if you’re underground you’re cool for a week until they find a new type of music. There is always going to be things like that but what other industry are you going to be in? I can’t think of anything better to be in to be honest.’
Coming from Wales Ben is also excited about the thriving Welsh scene. ‘I can’t think of any other scene that has consistently had so many good bands’ explains Ben. ‘I mean we’ve had people that have got big like the Prophets, Manics, Funeral For A Friend and bands like The Blackout, Kids in Glass Houses starting to get big now but there’s loads of other good bands around at the moment. I think it’s a really, really healthy scene.’
It can’t be said that Ben is unsure of the future for The Calling Card. Not only is he confident regarding their sound he is sure that his live show will win over any doubters. ‘[My live show is] brilliant’ laughs Ben. ‘ At the moment it’s just me and I play around with a couple of loop pedals and I really get the crowd to sing along because I think that’s what’s missing at the moment you know. I want everyone to be there to have a good time, have a good sing-a-long. That’s what it’s really all about isn’t it, music?’
He also knows exactly where he believes his aims will get him. ‘U2 that would be big enough .I don’t want to go much bigger’ he jokes. ‘That would unbelievable for someone to get that big again. But I don’t know if you could even get that big to be honest. As soon as [artists] have one album and you start writing the second everyone seems to have forgotten about you but I don’t know. If I could be at the height of say Ryan Adams, release an album every year, get on the road. If you sell enough records and do well enough on your tour to live then that’ll be fine for me. I’ve no complaints with that at all.’
Check out The Calling Card HERE.
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