North Atlantic Oscillation Q+A

Artrocker: Hello, North Atlantic Oscillation! Erm… What’s the story behind the name?

NAO: It's got 8 syllables. It's a decadal weather system. No other band is called it… as far as I know.

Artrocker: After all the years of hard work, your debut album is finally set for release. What can we expect?

NAO: Umm... 11 tracks of varying length, texture, theme and content.


Artrocker: You’ve been given some outstanding reviews, but they all struggle to describe your music. Can you give us some pointers?

NAO: What we want it to be is lush, dense, uplifting and strange. What people hear in it is up to them.

Artrocker: Your Callsigns EP contained an incredible cover of the 1959 Flamingos track, ‘I only have eyes for you’. How did this come about?

NAO: I first heard the song on George Lucas's film, American Graffiti, when I was a kid. It is instantly arresting, with its ominous, moody undercurrent lurking behind the superficial levity of the doo-wop sound. 

Terry Johnson's arrangement for the Flamingos is also musically fascinating (the song itself actually dates back to 1934). I completed our version over an otherwise boring weekend, largely as a way of getting the Flamingos' version out of my head - it was such an Ohrwurm it was driving me nuts. It worked.

Artrocker: Any more covers up your sleeves?

NAO: No plans at the moment. I'm not normally keen on covers, so the Flamingos one was probably a one-off. But who knows...

Artrocker: You’re currently on tour. What have been your highlights so far?

NAO: The album tour hasn't started yet, but our touring highlight so far has been supporting Porcupine Tree in Wolverhampton, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow. Amazing headliners, amazing fans, amazing gigs.

Artrocker: Tell us something about you that we don’t know already…

NAO: The trestle table on which Chris (our bass and synth player) places his keyboards and laptop is called Colin.