We get critical with The Critical!

Today we managed to get hold of super financed band The Critical, best known for their snappy three minute wonders and being the first STP band to play at the Isle of Wight Festival! Read on as we talk potential new band members, an irrational fear that consists of Otters & Pine Martins and a possible McWimpy King collaboration!

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Piewatch - Who are The Critical?
Ollie Benn – Vox & Paranoia
Chris Couchie – Guitars  & Sci-fi nonsense
Pablo Girling – Bass  & General Mayhem
Gav O’Driscoll – Drums  & Biscuit Connoisseur

Piewatch -Its been a long time since we heard from you on STP! What have you been up to?
It has indeed!!  We’ve missed you too   We’ve been putting the finishing touches to the long awaited album whilst at the same time playing as many gigs as we can – we even managed to play at the opening of Crawley Library which was one of the quietest rock gigs in history lol! We are now frantically getting ready for the launch of the record – in fact we’ve just ‘leaked’ a couple of samples onto our myspace so people can see how far we’ve come since we won our STP showcase – www.myspace.com/thecriticalband

Piewatch -What has Guy Katsav brought to your music?
He has brought a vibrant and modern feel to the album. Guy is a perfectionist which is partly why it’s all taking a while, however, this is a good thing…it means the finished article will be even better than we had imagined, so kudos to the Katsav!  He’s also added an extra electronic/synth direction to our music which has given it a fresher, more modern dimension, so we’re very pleased that this album is both still rocking and also very ‘now’ so hopefully it will now appeal to a larger audience   As a result we are actually now looking for a keyboard/synth player to recreate some of these tracks live, so if anyone’s interested……..

Piewatch -Have you established your lead single? If so why have you chosen this single?
The trouble is, the song we’ve earmarked as a single changes each week as we do more to each of the songs.  I think we’re down to a core shortlist, so will be making a decision very soon.

Piewatch -What plans do you have to maximise digital sales
The good thing is that there are so many avenues to explore now for artists such as ourselves – but that is also the downside as we need to really target the right audience with this.  The key is getting The
Critical exposure in as many places as possible so we’re exploring advertising opportunities on the popular sites such as iTunes and Spotify, but also looking at where our audience download their music
from and working on how to get the best exposure here.  We’re also planning a free give away of a non-album track as part of promoting the album, and possibly some live stuff as well.  Our PR people are also
working on some other slightly left-of-field strategies which will get us attention, but of course for the right reasons!!

Piewatch -If you could sell the album to us in 5 words what would they be?
Upbeat songs with real-life messages

Piewatch -Your album is now very close to release, how do you feel its coming on and how does it compare to your tracks already on STP?
We’ve already touched on this above, but we’re all very happy with the nearly finished product. Being completely honest, there was a difficult period midway through where we kinda lost a bit of the focus and
direction of what we wanted.  We are essentially a rock band and that hasn’t changed, but sometimes it’s hard to let go and embrace a slightly different vibe and sound to how you think your band should sound.
It’s all part of the journey.  We’ve come through the other side and really do sound like a band that’s on top of its game now.   The tracks currently on STP do feature on the album but they have been given a
new lease of life so we hope you enjoy them even more!

Piewatch -You have played a lot of cool gigs this year! Which do you feel was the best and why?
We were privileged enough to play at the world famous Isle of Wight festival this year, but the best was probably at our home festival at RedFest – the crowd were amazing and there’s really nothing better as
a musician to be doing your thing on stage and feeding back off the energy in the crowd. That was really cool.

Piewatch -What would you say is your biggest achievement to date
To date, it would have to be the IoW.   Once we get the album out there and see it being sold, that will be a huge achievement.   Also still having all of the members of the band still speaking to each other and enjoying making music together!!
Piewatch -Whats the best gig you have played and where?
Definitely the Isle of Wight festival – it was just such a massive event and to have the chance to play in front of people who want to hear your music was amazing.  It probably helped that we played our best set
ever!! It was such a buzz and gave you that little taste of the world we all want to be a part of!

We also played at the inaugural Turning Point festival at the wonderful Camden Roundhouse which was also a great experience.

Piewatch -Whats next for The Critical?
The album is next really. It’s so close to being finally done and although it’s taken a while it will be all the better for it and we’ve learnt a lot along the way…it’s been emotional, we have shed tears and thrown many a tantrum!

Once we have a release date we will be locking ourselves in a small rehearsal space and getting ready to put together the show you’ve all been waiting for…think  Vegas, think cirque du soleil meets phantom of the opera.

No, but seriously, we aim to put on a show to match the album, so that’s the plan!!

Piewatch -If you could have any super power what would it be?
China  – we would harness it’s natural resources and become the biggest exporter of buttons and toggles!

Piewatch -Any irrational phobias?
We are fairly distrusting of Otters & Pine Martins  (which we believe is known as Lutraphobia?) due to a firm belief that they are planning to become the next world super power  in league with the Pigeon armies. Keep a careful eye on them!

Piewatch -Mcdonalds or Burger King?
McDonald’s Chips, Burger Kings meat! (Wimpy’s bacon though)

Piewatch -Any last words?

You people out there take care when playing twister, 76 people a year die from injuries sustained while playing this death riddled game, 25 of which are naked!!

Piewatch + The Critical = Love! Check them out at!