Stafford duo The Taskers prepare for fifth release

Pic: Maanik Chadda - Jack BC Tasker

Stoke of Genius:

Stafford brother and sister group The Taskers speak of their fifth album and their exciting new association.

The Taskers' fifth album in a year and a half, Rat Residence, is to be released in late October/early November on CD and vinyl thanks to a new association with Rubber Soul Records.

Sophie Bret and Jack BC Tasker are incredibly excited at signing and can't wait for their upcoming album release.

"Well the first three (albums) we did very much on a lo-fi basis and we burnt them and did all the artwork ourselves. The fourth one we were trying to get onto iTunes and we said 'right, this is the direction we want to go in with this one'. And we saw how that worked but we thought you would probably need to be Led Zeppelin or The Beatles for iTunes to really work," explained Jack, with a realistic outlook.

Performing at Rubber Soul Sessions, a weekly event at The Old Brown Jug in Newcastle-under-Lyme, was just the beginning of what is hopeful of becoming a blossoming and fruitful relationship.

"This is our first proper physical release," added Jack.

"Rob (of Rubber Soul Records) been really cool in supporting us. I think he understands about our attitude, so that's really good."

Pic: Maanik Chadda - Sophie Bret Tasker

Following their first release in May 2012; Not to be Played or Tested, they have somehow managed to successfully churn out Jamhead, Snuggles and most recently; No Shit-Just Shoes.

"I just write like crazy and Sophie's really good at editing down what I write. I'll write all the time and Sophie would come in and say 'well, there's ten songs, let's get one out of that', and that will happen every couple of days!" laughed Jack.

"I think it's the fact that there's two of us; brother and sister, and we just work really well together because of the speed at which we can work is very high. We also have a lot of friends who support us and help with the albums and help with producing so we couldn't do it without them."

Being a brother-sister band and living together can sometimes touch the nerves and both can need a break now and again.

"We quit the band most gigs!" exclaimed Jack.

"We fire each other. Then there's no one in the band and we realise that we can't play any gigs so we rejoin," Sophie said monotonously.

Sophie told us of their intriguing interest in one of life's forgotten loves: "We've just always loved dinosaurs. I grew up when Jack was already interested in them and Jurassic Park and stuff...and we're not trying to create some cool, hipster image with them, we just love dinosaurs."

"The people who did 'Catherine', our first music video, became really close friends and so we said to them: 'you understand us now, you understand our life and where we've come from'. So they said 'we'd like to do this documentary'.

"They filmed us over five or six months, following us around. And they put this piece together.

"You don't want to feel narcissistic and think 'people really want to see 20 minutes of just us', but also, people are interested in who plays music and we thought there was enough stuff in there to warrant making it."

Keep an eye out for the release of Rat Residence due later this year.