Introducing: Assistant

Assistant were originally active from 2002 until 2007. They remained friends and in 2020 started making music together again. Anne-Sophie, Jonathan, and Pete from the original quintet released the lush Stereolab meets Velvet Underground rhythmic reverie that’s the This World Could Be So Much Fun album, released this March.

This World Could Be So Much Fun by Assistant

First up, could you tell us a bit about Assistant?

[Jonathan] Assistant formed almost 20 years ago, when five of us got together to make music and hang out. In the intervening years we’ve become close pals, drifting out and in of each others’ lives as we’ve moved around, married, had kids, messed around with other projects and really missed each other. In the first lockdown, after many years apart, Jonathan and Pete began writing songs together again – by post – and released our first LP in 14 years – IN THE APRIL SUN. Anne-Sophie rejoined us for its follow up, This World Could Be So Much Fun, which we have just released. The band is still primarily a means of knitting together our lives, and the songs have become an act of empathy as we try to write sympathetically from a shared perspective – and have fun.

[Anne-Sophie] We all met in 2001 when Jonathan posted an ad on a Brighton forum looking for likeminded musicians to form a band, have fun and not take ourselves too seriously. At the time we were all freshly graduated and in low-paid Assistant type jobs, hence the name. The band has evolved a lot through the years, band members moving on, focusing on their own projects (Harbour, Moth Effect, Cockwomble). Essentially, Assistant has stayed alive thanks to Jonathan’s hypercreativity (in 2011 he even managed to solo-produce a song and a video every week of the year – all available on YouTube!).

What inspires the band to write music?

[Anne-Sophie] Friends, relationships, the passing of time, politics and the silliness of life.

[Jonathan] Friendship, nostalgia, a shared love of creativity, and a sense that you can access something more profound and interesting by collaborating rather than working alone.

Who or what would you say has had the most influence on your sound?

[Anne-Sophie] Jonathan would hate me if I said Belle & Sebastian (laughs).

[Jonathan] Probably the gaps between our tastes, techniques or approaches. We’re at very different levels musically, meaning that all our songs are a combination of craft and spontaneity. Musically, we’re all quite into indie rock of one kind or another; common touchpoints are Pulp, Pavement, Low, Blur, Sea Power and New Order. I don’t like Belle & Sebastian.

What has been your most enjoyable or memorable musical experience up to now?

[Anne-Sophie] We had a loud, short and punchy song called I want a cigarette back in the days – the only song I wrote lyrics for, actually. I enjoyed singing that a lot. It went: “I want a cigarette, I wanna smoke. Don’t wanna give up! I wanna, I wanna smoke!”.

[Jonathan] We played some really great and quite drunk gigs together in the mid-2000s and met some glorious people through playing music together. The best moments are always hearing someone contributing to a song for the first time and seeing how their perspective reshapes and develops the meaning.

You had a bit of a break as a band. Did you notice any changes in the industry when you go back together?

[Jonathan] We have never really had any interest in the record industry; but I do wish we had been a band in the era of smartphones and YouTube the first time around; there’s barely any footage of our first incarnation. Our friend Andrew tried to video our shows but every time he took a sip of his drink, he would put down the camcorder or start filming his shoes, so we told him to stop. His videos made me feel like I had vertigo.

[Anne-Sophie] Social media and the possibility to create, record and share music so much more easily. 20 years ago, creating loops and samples required so much mode fiddly equipment! My first keyboard weighted a ton and had all sorts of complicated MIDI plugins that we never figured out how to use. Now we can just record everything and work remotely with Garageband. I miss our MySpace page and our own buggy website though.

What was the last album or song you listened to?

[Jonathan] Jehovahkill by Julian Cope is on constant rotation at the moment. A lot of Julian Cope, Gong, The Fall.

[Anne-Sophie] I’m a massive fan of Sea Power, and they just released an amazing album that I’ve been listening to constantly in the past few weeks.

Was there a specific inspiration or incident behind Sugarcane?

[Anne-Sophie] Although I created the main music line and sing this song, I haven’t got a clue what it’s about. Jonathan wrote the lyrics! I also wonder what happened that time in Spain.

[Jonathan] Sugarcane started as a demo that Anne-So made on her iPad; constructed almost entirely out of samples. As it progressed, I wrote probably the only warm-weather lyric on the record. Lockdown escapism – thoughts of hot summers and thin sheets. It’s an anxious baggage-reclaim fever dream, basically.

What’s up next for Assistant in terms of music, gigs, videos…?

[Jonathan] We’ve got a few videos in the works – likely a single release of Shooting The Moon next month with a remix of I Wrote You A Letter on the flip. And we’re already writing new songs; one of them is about finding out there’s a stranger secretly living in your loft. Just getting on with his life. We’re hoping to do a vinyl release of the album, too. We’re very proud of it – I think it does a very good job of expressing the pure and sheer joy of loving your friends.

[Anne-Sophie] We’ve got a lovely video coming out for Shooting the Moon created by our talented friend Dan. I’m also planning to produce a video for Count up your Heart with lots of old footage from our silly Brighton days. And we’ve already got new songs to work on too! No respite for Assistant.

[Pete]. I just like making music.

If you’d like to know more about Assistant, and to discover more streaming options for This World Could Be So Much Fun,  be sure to head over to Twitter and Instagram to give them some social media love.