Ones To Watch in 2010: Dimbleby and Capper

Don’t be fooled by the ampersand, for Dimbleby & Capper are just one. 22-year-old Laura Bettinson – who miraculously remains unsigned – produces witty, refreshing and sultry dark electronic pop. She certainly has a lot in common with artists like Goldfrapp and The Knife, but adds a more playful reality to the electro-pop tunes. Tipped by Radio1’s Huw Stephens, she featured on the ‘BBC Introducing’ stage backed by an entourage of masked musicians at this years Glastonbury. Laura will no doubt be riding the crest of 2010’s torrent of Microkorg toting electro-pop artists. To hear Dimbleby & Capper is to understand why. One visit to her MySpace page will have you humming to yourself for weeks.

Dimbleby & Capper will be launching her new EP at The Social in London on the 12th January. Here’s what happened when we caught up with her…

Tell our readers a little about yourself, Laura.
I’ve been living in South East London for the past 3/4 years, but I originally hail from the Midlands, specifically a village called Dunchurch where I spent most of my childhood. I moved to London in late 2006 to study at Goldsmiths university and I’ve been here ever since.

How did you get started making music?
I started writing my own songs when I was around 16, and they very traditional piano and vocal based. On my move to London, I needed to find a way to condense my equipment into literally a suitcase, as London tubes and stage pianos were definitely not friends. So that’s when I started working with beats and loops and took on a whole new approach to writing. Using the loopstation enabled me to generate enough sound to write more dynamic, beat driven songs, and the combination of the electronic DIY samples and my traditional songwriting roots/voice made for an intriguing duo – Dimbleby & Capper.

What artists do you think helped mould your sound?
Everything and anything. When i was growing up i listened to a lot of Motown, Doo-wop, ’60s girl groups and bands right through to Smashing Pumpkins, The Crocketts, Weezer, Mates of State, Rilo Kiley, Ani Di Franco and Beck in my mid-teens – only in the last few years did I fall back to Bjork, Kate Bush, The Knife, Silver Apples, Little Dragon, Blondie, Camille. It’s all in there somewhere. Along the way I have no doubt that I’ve taken a part of every phase with me and smushed it into a song.

What inspired the name?
THE question of my career so far. HA. Dimbleby & Capper- at the risk of sounding like an absolute wanker – was not so much a name as a…concept? Eeek I said it. It was the joining of two things, the feeling of being pulled in two directions; the girl, the machine (loopstation) but then working together to make something stick. There’s a schizophrenic approach to the music – the lyrics will jump erratically from one place to another, some times with no connection. It’s this cut-up approach, the loops, the samples, lyrics – the idea that each have their own agenda and I’m only the voice/face pulling them together. That’s what Dimbleby & Capper is about. The name fell out of a hat.

What would you say so far has the pinnacle of your musical career?
Glastonbury 2009 was definitely a high point but I think I prefered our show at Latitude. Doing the BBC Maida Vale session for Huw Stephens at Radio 1 was another amazing experience and something I would love to do again some time.

We’re dying to know, where did you get that top you wore on stage at Glasto this year?
As a child of the Blue Peter generation, let’s just say it was something I’d made earlier. A conglomeration of gaffer tape and my body. It was a two fingers up to the amount of (usually male…sorry!) techies that have been genuinely taken a-back when I rock up to a gig, plug all my wires in and actually know how to use my equipment. I’ll take your techie tape young Sir and a-stick it to my hairless chest. Because. I. Can. The DIY nature of my music bleeds into my image – the gaffer tape was representin’ innit.

What do you have planned for 2010?
The debut EP is coming out in January and will be available as download and 7″ vinyl, which is very exciting for me as it’s completely home-cooked and something a little bit different to the songs people have heard before. I’m looking forward to playing a lot of exciting shows with the band and I’m also part of a ongoing project with some incredible musicians from LA – separate from D&C but just as important to me – which I hope will make some headway in 2010. Then I will need money to record the D&C album.