Home Jams

As Time Off catches up with Sebastian Cohen, he's feeling relaxed about the achievements of Clubfeet's 2013 LP Heirs And Graces, admitting that the unexpected international success of their slow-burn debut Gold Gold in 2010 makes the five-piece take things as they come.

“We've enjoyed playing the songs live,” he begins. “I actually got a phone call from my mum the other day saying that she'd just seen our new track Cape Town on TV in South Africa which was really exciting. It's been great – it's getting a release in the UK and the US at the end of August and the beginning of December so it still hopefully has got some legs. We try to keep it as low pressure as possible – we don't like putting pressure on ourselves. We started doing music for the love of it and that's how we want to keep it. We're just really excited to start writing some new music, and whatever happens with this record will be a bonus.”

Following the hugely successful summer singles Heartbreak and Everything You Wanted, Clubfeet have released the sweaty, late-night jam Cape Town. Cohen describes why the city means so much to him.  

“After growing up in Kimberley we both moved to Cape Town, myself and [bassist] Yves [Roberts]” he says. “We both absolutely adore Cape Town; we love it so much – it's one of the most beautiful cities. So when we had the opportunity, we all went back for a holiday and took the other Clubfeet guys with us – that was about two years ago. We had a crazy, crazy Cape Town holiday; we stayed in this beachfront apartment. We were there for about three weeks to a month, and it was pretty hedonistic and crazy and lots of party time, but the flipside of that was that it can be quite a lonely and empty place when you're in that headspace, so I think the song Cape Town although it seems like a poppy, carefree tune, there's a bit of a melancholy about it. So I guess that's the paradox of Cape Town, because it is this beautiful place with amazing beaches but it's got this underbelly of apartheid.”

Cohen recalls his South African childhood and his introduction to music alongside with Roberts.

“I think our first musical memory, we must have been about thirteen or fourteen and Yves had just moved to Kimberley from Cape Town and his dad was a drummer,” he continues. “He invited me around and we unpacked his dad's drum kit and we had another friend with us and a little tape recorder and a guitar, and I think we spent a whole week holed up in a garage recording stuff. I think it involved recording [U2's] With Or Without You about twenty times because it was the only thing we could play!

“When we started it was purely bands [that we were into] – we almost looked down on electronic stuff, like, 'That's not music'. But even then, Depeche Mode was one of our favourite bands so the foundation for that, the love of electronica started even then… In my twenties I went through a solely electronica phase where I stopped listening to bands until Broken Social Scene [caught me again], and it reignited my wanton love for organic music. I think it played a big part the sound that we have now.”