Death to Los Campesinos!
Written by Francesca Wahking
Photos by Francesca Wahking
Date: May 6, 2008
Death by unicorn, fuzzy kittens, and flowers. That’s probably the best way to describe the video for the first single off Los Campesinos! debut album Hold on Now, Youngster.

Los Campesinos! , a 7 piece band from Cardiff, Wales, formed in 2006 during university, then started opening for bands like Broken Social Scene, and eventually became the first UK band to be signed to the Canadian record label Arts & Crafts.

“They just gave us a load of money, haha. No they didn’t, that was a joke. We liked a lot of the bands on their roster and they were nice people and they said ‘Wanna do it?’ and we were like ‘Yah, that’s great.’ It’s great to be asked because it is quite tight knit there. It’s quite nice to be part of it,” says guitarist Neil Campesinos.

“When we started the band we weren’t trying to get signed or anything else it was just something to do in our spare time in university. Once we signed, it got a lit bit more difficult. We always said that we were going to finish university before we do anything…It kind of gave us space to develop as a band. It was difficult to concentrate especially in the last few weeks.”

For their album, Los Campesinos! worked with Dave Newfeld of Broken Social Scene. The album gave them a chance to create some new songs but also re-release old favourites.

“It’s just stuff we liked and we didn’t want to lose and we thought it was good. Like Death to Los Campesinos! the first track on the album was the first song we ever wrote,” says Neil Campesinos.

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