Behind the rotting teeth and the chain smoking, I Am Kloot have interesting and funny stories to tell. When I walked in to interview them, I was about to ask the greasy haired roadie putting up posters where the band was, until I realised he was actually the bassist. Sitting down with lead singer John Bramwell in his shabby broom cupboard of a dressing room didn’t much change my impression.

Bassist Peter chats about their tour: “it’s just me and John in a car with a few guitars talking mainly about history and getting drunk”. Driving across Britain in a battered Vauxhall Astra because you “wanted to get the fuck out of Manchester” is not exactly rock and roll, but there’s something refreshingly genuine about it in a way that Chris Martin in a packed stadium could never achieve.

By the time they come on stage, John has clearly sunk a few more beers since I left him. The bassist has to start waving at the sound man, because he hasn’t even noticed the band have gone on stage. He makes the crowd laugh, but when he picks up the guitar, John Bramwell becomes a different person. They play beautifully crafted songs like ‘Proof’, as the opening lines “Hey, could you stand another drink/I'm better when I don't think/ seems to get me through” seem whispered to every one of the 100 people there, before Bramwell swigs on his pint and lights another cigarette. Biting, witty cynicism is balanced with haunting vocals as he sings “Twisted on destiny, fate and three wishes/We fuck and we fight, someone else does the dishes” in ‘Twist’. John puts the guitar back again, looking wistfully down at his feet, before he downs his Guinness and the spell is broken. But I Am Kloot aren’t trying to bring the ‘gritty realism’ of English towns to life. Instead their expansive lyricism - “laziness really”- creates another little world. They namecheck The Smiths, The Jam, The Clash. Having seen them play, I suppose you could draw comparisons to Elbow and Badly Drawn Boy; combined with the wordplay of Morrissey. But perhaps they deserve to stand on their own, as the mesmerizing ‘Storm Warning’ asks “Is there a storm coming, or are we just another shower?”

I Am Kloot aren’t going to blow you away, but they might just make your spine tingle. “At the end of the day,” they say “our life is music.” Every band tells you that, but as they pack up their amps, and head back onto the road, it seems like it could be true.

Three Stars

Henry Donati