Words with Clor, Aaargh!!

For anyone uninitiated with the fantastically zany Clor, they’re a band near on impossible to pigeonhole. A glorious hybrid of bouffant haircuts, psychedelic riffs, electronic bleeps, bank clerk outfits, florescent pop leanings and down-right killer tunes – it’s safe to say they defy trends. Think an acid trip personified. Perhaps it’s their apparent eccentricity, their detachment from recent guitar band traits ostensibly needed to make it big time, that relatively few column inches have been dedicated to them. However, anyone fortunate enough to have witnessed the fivesome live, or has glimpsed the video to their single ‘Love and Pain’, is guaranteed to spout boundless superlatives afterwards. With a debut album out in July, it’s surely only a matter of time before Clor become hot news in the music world.

Immediately before the band’s final tour date supporting Tom Vek, Gigwise caught up with amiable frontman Barry Dobbin…

Naturally starting with Clor’s image, we question Barry on keyboardist Bob Earland’s tendencies to wear Kraftwerk-esque attire and his own insanely-curly hair. He admits: “Yeah, some people have said we look quite geeky, but I don’t know really… It’s not a big issue, we just wear our normal clothes. It’s something I don’t really give a lot of thought about.” Er, right.

Oddly, while their image plays an integral part to their onstage charm, their website is devoid of snaps of the lads – images that in our fickle society would surely be a fundamental selling point for the band? Rubbishing claims the band are trying to create an enigmatic aura, Dobbin says: “We did have some quite funny photos taken, but we all looked moody in them… the last thing we wanted was to be seen as a group of moody guys standing in front of a wall. I think the most important thing is that people make up their minds about us from listening to the music.” So, there’ll be no photos outside Salford boys club then.

Freely naming a variety of bands that sculpted Clor’s sound (Kraftwerk, Sparks, Brian Eno, and soul music, basically “anything that’s good”), when talking about the brilliant, madcap music that Clor concoct themselves, it’s an issue that Dobbin struggles to find words for. Writhing, he says: “I’ve honestly got no idea how to describe it. Thousands and thousands of people ask me this, but I really don’t know, it’s too demanding to explain” Clearly struggling, he eventually divulges: “I suppose it’s guitary, electronic music that you can dance to... let’s say ‘Clor music’.” Equally, Dobbin states their song lyrics are consciously ambiguous and hard to define: “I think it’s better to be open in your music; leave the songs open so that people can read into them how they want. People need to listen to it for just what it is.”

Incredibly, Dobbin reveals that creating their stunning music or even forming a band was not on the cards when the band met six years ago. Having moved down to London from his native Rochdale, eventually four and a half years ago Dobbin and lead guitarist Luke Smith recorded Clor’s first material, the aptly titled ‘Welcome Music Lovers’. He explains:  “We recorded our first EP and after the reaction for that decided to form a band. To begin with there wasn’t even an ambition to form a band!” Fortified by the reaction to the EP, they cemented their status as a band.