*All laughs*
All: Yes! No, no, no
Dan Radclyffe: That’s a new one, I’ve never heard of that. That’s amazing
I found it on Bands In Town, it shows where artists have gone on tour or where their upcoming concerts are.
GJ: Public restroom escape plan?
So is there a meaning behind the name?
Llywelyn ap Myrddin: It just means preparation.
TH: But actually, what it is further, a public restroom escape plan, I mean that’s such an important thing to have.
GJ: Either way it works.
DR: We all needed one of those at some point certainly.
So you just drove down from Orange County and Los Angeles, what are you all listening to on the road?
DR: We were listening to Frank Zappa
LM: We drove past this town, the Village of The Sun, that he wrote a song about.
DR: Oh did we?
LM: Yeah that’s why we were listening to it. It’s Palmdale, and it’s where they raise turkeys. So he wrote a song about it, and we played it as we passed through.
Photo by Kristine Dizon
Have you gained any new found inspiration while traveling and on tour this time around? Do you guys write while on the road?
TH : We haven’t. We had a couple of days in LA and you know we thought 'maybe we’ll get in the studio' and kind of try to do some stuff but we didn’t. We found some other things to do but I think it definitely — do we get inspiration from it? Yes. It feeds into the music and it feeds into the lyrics.
LM: Massively.
DR: This is the home of a lot of music that we take inspiration from like the whole west coast.
So when you do sit down and make music, what is the creative process like?
TH: Well, it starts with these guys.
GJ: In general, Dan, Llywelyn, and I, we start working on instrumentals — focusing on the groove and chords and we just try to get something that feels smooth and feels interesting and then when we have something that we think gets to that sweet spot, we play it to Tom, and if Tom’s into it, we write to it. Then eventually it goes back and forth until it sounds like PREP. And I’m really lucky because I’ve done a lot of writing in my life I guess whether it’s sitting at a piano or playing the guitar but I get to have these really atmospheric pieces of music that come straight out of the computer and already have this really strong flavor to them, and it’s something to get my head into straight away. I really like making music that way.
Since this is the last stop of your US tour, what goals do you have for the rest of the year in 2020?
LM: Lots of goals. So the main one is releasing our album with Bright Antenna Records, who we’ve just signed to recently — a San Francisco based label. We’ve just had this epic writing session just before Christmas and we’re gonna go back into the studio and keep on crafting all the songs.
Photo by Alejandra Cortes
Does that mean the band will return to the city?
All: Definitely.
TH: Yeah before the end of the year that’s the plan. We’re gonna be going to Asia for a bit and then come back to America in the fall not the autumn, but the fall.
DR: Oh is that what fall means? I thought it meant winter.
*All laughs*
TH: No fall means autumn. Don’t you say fall? Am I right?
Yeah, that’s correct. They’re the same.
TH: In Britain we say autumn. It's spring, summer, fall, and winter.
DR: Oh okay wow I didn’t even know that.
TH: Yeah so we’ll be back in the FALL.
Do you have a favorite song to perform or one that’s the most fun?
DR: On stage?
Yeah, live!
LM: The one that always captures me is called "Futures". It starts as this quiet introspective thing and then it gradually grows and then there’s this big sax solo about halfway through. And every time you can feel the crowd catching fire with that and it’s always fun to play.
DR: I would say just personally a song called "Don’t Look Back" because I think it sounds pretty good just in general but selfishly I’m trying to learn how to play lead guitar and I have to play guitar solo in the song so it’s always the most nerve-wracking moment of the set.
Photo by Kristine Dizon
LM: What’s yours, Guillaume?
GJ: "Rachel".
TH: I was gonna say that.
GJ: It’s the one we’ve done most kind of, pure sort of thing. There’s hardly anything apart from us playing and it just works. I think it’s where we sound as a team, as a band, where we sound the most IT. I really love playing that song.
DR: Playing live is still a work in progress. Although we have been doing it for a long time, the way the music comes together, only in the studio, it only really becomes a sound of a band like right at the end because the process of making the songs is just making a beat in the computer and so yeah. PREP only becomes a real proper band when we play a show.
And are there any pre-show rituals you all do?
TH: We have to huddle.
LM: I think it was because we had this idea that some men huddle and are like ‘AHH YEAH’ so we like to whisper in our huddle to get us together and relax.
TH: Yeah to have a very calming, tranquil moment.
GJ: It’s almost like ASMR like meditation.
LM: Guillaume’s just been finding out about ASMR. *more laughs*
And just to end things on a fun note, are you all familiar with any Bay Area slang?
DR: Slang?!
TH: No, talk us through we need some to use tonight.
Okay the first word is the most popular and widely used: Hella
LM: Like hella good?
Yeah!
All: Oh yeah yes
Photo by Alejandra Cortes
Are there any similar British slang terms?
DR: Does that come from the Bay Area? There’s that No Doubt song “Hella Good.” Are they from here?
TH: No, they’re from Orange County right?, but definitely Californian.
LM: What would be the London equivalent?
DR: Well.
TH: I’d say bare. They’re bare good.
DR: Right, bare means a lot.
Yeah for sure, they're definitely similar. One more word: slaps.
GJ: So can someone tell you, "Oh that slaps"?
DR: So like oh that bangs?
TH: Give it to us in a sentence.
Tonight PREP is gonna play some slaps. It's just some really good music that goes hard and feels good.
DR: So PREP is about the slaps.
Exactly!
PREP played a sold-out show that had the entire crowd in the groove and singing along to favorites like "Cold Fire" featuring Korean R&B singer Dean, soul-filled "Cheapest Flight", and their recent funk jam "Love Breaks Down." Keep an eye out for their debut album slated to drop towards the end of 2020.
Written by Kristine Dizon
Header image by Ryu Kasai
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