Faded Cadence interview

23rd March 2010

With the Emerging Talent Competition live finals taking place this weekend, we caught up with Matt Carter, singer for alt-popsters Faded Cadence, one of two bands who made it through to the finals via the People’s Choice vote. 

When did the band get together?
Well, we started in August 2008 with just Chris and I, but after recording a few home demos we realised that we needed something a little more in the band, so ended up adding Kaila on drums and backing vocals, and then Torz on violin in June 2009 to create a fuller sound.

For anyone who hasn’t heard you, how would you describe what you do?
Ah, we’ve always had trouble answering this question! I guess we aim for a sort of alternative acoustic feel with violin chucked in for good measure.

Have you been to Glastonbury before?
Although wanting to, none of us have actually been to the festival before.

What made you enter the ETC?
Well we were very interested in trying to play at any festival this year, so fired off a few emails and ended up being referred to this competition! We were checking the sign-up site pretty much every day to see when submissions opened.

Were you disappointed not to make the judges’ picks?
Not at all. It was a great honour for us just to be even chosen for the public vote, so we were happy
with that!

Presumably then, you were over-joyed to go through to the final in the People’s Choice vote?
Over-joyed is an understatement! However, it did mean two weeks of stress for us as we worked non-stop to get people to vote.

Are you looking forward to the finals?
Very much so, I think it’s pretty much all we’ve been concentrating on for the past week.

Do you think you’re in with a chance?
We think so, it would be nice to show that age is not an obstacle. We’ve been spending a lot of time making our set flow as well as we can, and generally, just getting all the songs we’ve chosen to play up to scratch.

Have you checked out any of the other bands?
Yes, we’ve taken time to listen to all of them! Each band is full of exceptional musicians, and it’s a massive privilege to be sharing the stage with them.

What else have you guys got planned for this year?
We want to get back in the studio at some point during the year, and we’re hoping to play quite a few gigs across the UK – including that free gig we promised to play as a thank you to everybody who voted!

For more info on this year’s 12 Emerging Talent Competition finalists, click here