The Wave Pictures are a three piece London band who create witty, heartfelt and nostalgic pop songs. They have been making music since 1998. Their second album Instant Coffee Baby came out this year on Moshi Moshi.

Dazed Digital: You have just arrived from touring France. How was it like over there? And what is the reason you play there often?
Jonny Helm: It was lovely in the south of France. Paris was overcast, as it usually is…
Franic Rozycki: …. Hmmm?
JH: What!! It usually IS overcast in Paris! Don’t give me that look.
David Tattersall: It was lovely in Marseilles…
FR: We started playing there cos’ it’s near and we’ve got friends there.
DT: They’re nice to bands when you go – the promoters and the venues. They make you comfy when you arrive; they smile, shake your hand, make you a coffee; and then they cook you a meal and then they pay you! All things that promoters in England don’t do. Here they give you beer and bottled water… if you’re doing well, that is. Now that we’re on our second release on the label, yeah, we get drinks but… because they’re so many bands… promoters are really mean…
JH: [meaningful glance]
DT: Someone should say cos’ no one ever says!
FR: We’ve had it before that they would make us pay if no one came to the show…

DD: You have been working hard for a long time and playing live often but it has not been until now that you are getting some attention from the media. Why do you think this is happening now?
FR: The big change has happened because we were signed to a record label.
JH: And we’ve got PRs to help out with promo.
DT: Up until the last two years I lived up in Scotland and Franic and Jonny lived in Wales so we would just meet up occasionally to play shows, so even though we have been together for a long time it wasn’t until recently that we started playing loads of shows. We now play an average of two shows a week and that encourages word of mouth.

DD: Why did you choose "The Wave Pictures" for your name?
DT: When we were looking for a band name I read it in a book. Someone called Zoë Leonard had done a series of pictures of waves which she called The Wave Pictures and it just sounded cool. We like bands’ names like The Rolling Stones, The Violent Femmes, The Silver Jews …
JH: The something somethings…
DT: Yeah, the THE formula. We didn’t want a name like Ocean Colour Scene or Blur…

DD: You have a very distinctive voice and style... whereby you narrate while singing as if sharing a diary entry with the audience…
DT: The singers I really like that I try copy are Bob Dylan and Lou Reed but I don’t sound like them at all so the result is me trying to sound like them but being an English guy from Leicestershire.  I am more interested in songwriters and the things they say than singers that have a good voice. I am not that excited about the Ottis Redding or Mick Jagger type of singing.

DD: What is an ordinary day in The Wave Pictures tour life?
DT: When touring we wake up really early, all hungover and wishing you could sleep more and then travelling for several hours on the train, car, bus… London underground; you carry lots of things…
FR: The drums… you get all sweaty…
DT: And then you get somewhere and start drinking and feel a little better…
FR: And then you wait for the sound check and wait even more.
JH: And then drink…
FR: And then you do the soundcheck and hang around a few more hours…
DT: And then you play and then you load everything up again and go ALL the way back…

DD: What would you want a person to leave with after having watched you play?
DT: … I would like them to leave with a full bag of records and t-shirts they have bought from us. That would be really good!