Carpe Christmas Diem

As we enter “silly season”, that’s the message from Carpe drummer Rachel Parsons, who, with the rest of the band, is gearing up for the fourth annual Carpe Christmas Party at Lancaster’s Yorkshire House on December 23.

Arguably Lancaster’s best purveyors of funky, dubby good times, with Graham Wynn’s basslines, Jon Moore’s guitar rhythms and percussion from Rachel Parsons and David Walker – all pinned together by the rap and bluesy vocal attack of Ash Murphy and Richard French – Carpe certainly know how to start a party.

Giggingg solidly since the release of their debut album Risk It All in 2012, the band are now taking time out to record new material and an EP is due out early next year.

Like the album, it will be mastered and mixed by Matt Middleton, now based in Paris. I caught up with Carpe at their spiritual home – More Music in Morecambe – to find out more.

“It’s become a tradition”, Rachel said. “It will be our fourth Carpe Christmas Party and it’s going to be a good one”.

Jon said that as the band’s style has evolved, it’s become easier to create new material.

David said: “I’m looking forward to the second album, and it will sound a lot closer to how we do things live.

“There’s a lot more energy in the new stuff but there’s a few songs that have been in the set for a while and we’ll be recording those.”

Concepts and ideas for the music mainly come from Ash and Frenchy, before individual band members add their own edge, creating a genre defying sound all their own.

Ash said: “A riff or chorus will come from someone, and I’ll be given a topic and work with that. What makes us who we are is the mix.”

Support on the night comes from Templebys, The Karma Party, Hairpiece Suite, and Carmen and the Devil.