Having just released their critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, Exit Calm were set to play the Calling Out Stage at Kendal Calling, a site for raw talent just waiting to get noticed. Never Enough Notes was on hand in Cumbria to catch up with lead singer Nicky Smith and drummer Scott Pemberton before they put on a rousing performance in a packed tent.

What does it mean to be playing at Kendal Calling?

Nicky Smith: Sound. It’s in a beautiful little place, a really nice setting.

What do you think is the difference between an independent festival and a mainstream one?

Scott Pemberton: Is this an independent one? I didn’t realise that. It’s probably not as corporate then. If you look about there probably won’t be loads of adverts for Carling and Budweiser all over the place. And it’s probably a bit more chilled out.

There are a lot of up-and-coming bands at this festival – Do you think it has the potential to kick-start some careers?

NS: Yeah, I think every festival has that potential. It’s more up to the band and how good they are though really, isn’t it. If they get the opportunity to play a gig like this at a place like this then it’s the right setting for them to take off, yeah.

You’re from South Yorkshire, where there has been a rise in talent recently, which started with Arctic Monkeys and has been followed on by more bands, akin to the Manchester scene. Do you think that this puts extra pressure on you or that you get grouped together almost immediately?

NS: No, not at all. We completely stay away from all that now. We’re not really a Sheffield band, that’s why we don’t even class ourselves as South Yorkshire. We met in Sheffield but none of us are from there. We’re all just different bands so we stay away from that whole scene. When we started out, Arctic Monkeys were quite big and every single band you see now sounds like them anyway.

SP: I think that with the exception of Arctic Monkeys, I think it’s all those bands that sparked off them afterwards. You can’t compare it to the Manchester scene ‘cause everyone in Manchester still did their own thing. Then you’ve got Arctic Monkeys, whatever people think of them – I think they’re quite good to be honest with you, I’ve got time for them – but then after that, everybody else just tries to sound like Arctic Monkeys. Nobody’s prepared to do their own thing. And all these scenesters in Sheffield, I think that’s why they’ll never have a scene because they’re all just riding off the success of one of the good bands.

Who are your influences?

NS: Apart from the obvious in Manchester, like Doves, UNKLE… (pauses for a thought)

The Twang?

NS: No, we’ve played with them a couple of times but I wouldn’t say they’re an influence.

SP: We’re a bit different from everything, really. Things were a bit restricted and we were just kind of let loose. We just try to move people – sometimes it’s dark, sometimes it’s loud, sometimes there’s a groove about what we’re doing. And it’s not like we’re trying to cover all bases, like try do a funk and a reggae tune, but we just try to move people.

It sounds like the album has been made for a live setting, do you agree with this?

SP: Yeah, that’s good, a lot of people have said that.

NS: A couple of people have said you’ve got to play it really loud, which is quite a nice thing. Because there’s a lot of dynamic and subtleties in it, it’s not a noisy album but it has its louder bits, doesn’t it?

SP: We have a live attitude anyway, because we didn’t want to just be slapped together like concrete blocks so we went in with as much as we could, having heard it live. So you got little bits of spill on some things, because we knew we needed to get our live energy across.

What kind of stuff will you be doing to take your band to the next level? Is mainstream success something which interests you?

SP: I’d describe us as grafters to be honest with you, but I think the next important move has to be moving on and making a second album and improving on what we’ve just done. I don’t think you can worry about who’s going to hear it and if the press are going to pick it up because if you do it will just kill you. If you’re expecting too much and it doesn’t happen you just get disheartened so you’ve just got to carry on doing what you’re doing, and if you stick to your guns you’re doing what is right I think. It’s going to happen, you know.

What can new bands do to get noticed?

NS: Just be really good, I think. I think a lot of bands sometimes get confused with seeing all these people and their mates coming to see them and think they’re doing really well, and not really venturing out and testing themselves out, playing everywhere else. Just getting out, thinking of themselves as a national band rather than just locally, because it can delude a lot of people.

What kind of audience and followers are you starting to get?

NS: It’s been growing pretty steadily. I first noticed it about half a year ago when we started going to different places down south and you see people in your t-shirts. Now it’s pretty solid, and we’re getting fans all over.

SP: I think there becomes a point when it just becomes full of people and you get them coming up to us with our t-shirts on. And we’ve only earned it in one way, and that’s by getting out and playing. Doing that thing that a lot of bands aren’t prepared to do, where rather than playing at your hometown where you are heroes, getting 20 minutes down the road in front of three people where they walk out because there’s not enough people in. I’ve said it before, if you don’t respect your own band and your own music to finish your set list, you might as well f*** it off now ‘cause you’re going to get more knocks that that. And if bands are prepared to do that, then you’re halfway towards doing something.

There’s a bit of an intensity to your sound – where does that come from?

NS: Belief, maybe. A belief in what we do, I can’t really say more than that, just belief.

SP: It’s hard, when we all sit and write it we’re not flicking a switch, we just believe in what we do and that’s where it comes from, I think.

How does the creative process work?

NS: Different ways. There’s no songwriting, we don’t really do the whole jamming thing, it’s just really loose ideas and all doing our own thing and then arranging to meet up and share them.

SP: Sometimes you can get two people jamming and the others will ask what they’re playing but they don’t really know, one will just be following the other, and it just forges. We climb on each other’s shoulders to give each other a foot up, and at the end we get a song out of it.

What would represent success for you in five years’ time?

SP: Forward steps, constant forward steps, and we’ll see where we come to.

NS: Five years? I reckon we’ve got to have at least five albums out, at least. That would be great. I couldn’t care less what other people think of us, without trying to sound arrogant, but it can’t be our primary concern to worry about how people take our records, and just do as well as we can for ourselves.