Get To Know – Moderate Rebels

We Say…

While their name might suggest a certain penchant for the middle ground, Moderate Rebels’ sound is anything but. The London-based anti-music collective, whose numbers sometimes swell towards double figures, specialise in making music without ever actively trying to write songs. Under the band motto of, “less chords and words; simple and complicated; direct and vague”, they’ve crafted a second album, Shared Values, that is quite unlike any other record you’ll hear this year.

Shared Values was recorded in a small studio in South Bermondsey, London, where, “you can hear church choirs through the walls”, that the band admit they, “hope somehow seeps into the racket we make”, and what a racket it is. Moderate Rebels’ music is a world of repetition and feel more than any traditional song structures, as if they stumble across a mood and let it run wherever their minds take them. There’s the motorik, questioning groove of Faith & Science, the almost-glam stomp of I Love Today, and the anthemic Beyond Hidden Words, a song that’s somehow simultaneously broken and euphoric. Previous live shows have seen the band get so lost in a single track that they’ve played it for forty-five minutes straight, a chaotic and addictive experience, and one you won’t want to miss when they play our Blogtober showcase this Wednesday alongside Tugboat Captain and Rebecka Reinhard.

They Say…

FTR: For those who don’t know who are Moderate Rebels?

Bunch of us (Mo, Kate, Chris, Susan, Emma, Joe, Nick, Bob, Beth and more) who live in and around London who wanted to make a bit of a glorious noise and see what happens.

FTR: What can you remember about your first show?

Not a lot, we had one song (‘God Sent Us’) and hadn’t properly rehearsed, so we stretched it out to 30 mins and really enjoyed ourselves. If that hadn’t worked well, probably none of this would be happening.

FTR: Why do you make music? Why not another art form?

We like music a lot and we just want to make some that we like and genuinely think is good. We’re not into being super technical show offs, we just work with the level of ability that we have.

FTR: What can people expect from the Moderate Rebels live show?

We’re not always sure ourselves… we just put some songs in a list to attempt and see what happens.

FTR: What’s next for Moderate Rebels?

New album comes out end of Nov and we’ll be playing some gigs and then we’ll probably make another record quite quickly (ie. we’re a few songs into the next album just now)

They Listen To…