It’s fair to say the best cover versions tend to pay little or no regard to the originals. They should honour the lyrics, have some traceable link to the melody, but the cream of the crop tend to avoid rehashing for rehashing’s sake and never offer an easy leg-up for otherwise anonymous artists.

Brighton chamber-pop band The Miserable Rich, who celebrate the release of a covers EP this week with a show at Red Roaster Cafe with labelmate Denis Jones, seem to agree.

“An old advisor of ours said the thing about cover versions is you can’t be too respectful even if you think it’s a fantastic tune,”

says singer James de Malplaquet. “‘Go in there,’ he said. ‘Grab it by the neck. And wrestle it to the ground.’ “It would be really tempting to make it too nice and sweet because we’ve got a string section. But we try not to do that.

“There’s gristle in there as well.

It’s always fun playing with other people’s music – as long as you are actually being creative enough to change it.”

Alongside The Miserable Rich, the band are founding members of the Willkommen Collective, a group of Brighton-based bands who share various members, and all play in Shoreline, an eight-piece alt-folk outfit. Violinist Mike Siddell was in Hope Of The States, guitarist Jim Briffett was in Clearlake and James played in Ninja Tune's Bonobo. Clearly, they are an industrious bunch.

For this EP, which is intended to bridge the band’s debut Twelve Ways To Count and a new album due next year, the quintet have tackled Eurythmics, The Stranglers, The Pixies, Iggy Pop and David Bowie.

“We either thought there was something in the songs that hasn’t been done before or we chose them to be provocative,” James says.

“We are a pretty pink-friendly band and for a straight white male to be singing The Pixies Gigantic, it’s quite amusing.

“You really wouldn’t expect it to work because it’s scuzzy and guitar-driven but it does.

“We chose Golden Brown because we thought it would work really well with a string section and it’s already got that modern and old vibe with the harpsichord.

“The one I picked that I felt hadn’t been explored properly was Shades by Iggy Pop and David Bowie. Not many people know it and the production is steeped and hidden in reverb.

“I love the original idea of this tough guy, an Iggy Pop-type character, being brought to tears by someone giving him some sunglasses.

“We thought we’d do it in the 1950s do-wop style and it is probably the one we’re most happy with.”

The band’s roots are in electronica, indie and folk, and their first album is a collection of songs originally written by James, but turned on their head to chamber pop.

The hooks come from the violin and cello (as opposed to guitar) which take the lead, while James sings and Jim’s guitar keeps the rhythm (in the place of drums). Jazz double bass player, Rhys Lovell, is left to experiment with the melody.

“We’ve been playing for a while now and in lots of different countries. The writing team has spread out and our second album is really a rock album with a bit of British Psychedelia, and all done with strings.

“We came together thanks to the circumstances we were in at the time, but the challenge we’ve always set ourselves is to do modern songs with a string orchestra.”

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