Aliena: How are you doing tonight?
Tinie Tempah: I’m very well thank you, happy to be here. How are you?
Aliena: I’m very good thank you. Are you excited for tonight? It’s a sold out show.
Tinie: Yeah, very excited man. I was happy when Newcastle sold out, because it’s one of my favourite cities in the country and I always have a great time here, so it’s nice to finally bring my show up here and you know, bring the album to life with the live band and just hope everybody enjoys it tonight.
Aliena: Have you performed here before?
Tinie: I’ve performed here a few times actually, but mostly like in clubs and stuff like that, I was meant to be here with Mr. Hudson on his last tour, however the date got cancelled, so yeah you know this is the first time I’ve been here with a live band and so it should be fun.
Aliena: That’s pretty cool. I have to say I’m pretty excited to be here as well.
Tinie: I know I can tell, I can tell.
Aliena: [laughs nervously] And how do you feel about having a sold out venue and an album that’s been as successful as it has?
Tinie: Well, you know what, speaking about the sold out venue, I feel like Newcastle’s always been very supportive, you know, with everything I’ve done and all the times I’ve been here I just feel that you know, in terms of the album and the whole tour in general, I feel like it’s nice to know that the public’s reacted the way they have, you know to “Pass Out,” to “Frisky” and to “Written In the Stars.” I can just see every single release that goes by, I can see the demographic and the fan base growing and growing and growing and that’s what it’s all about for me. I just promise if they continue to keep growing, I’ll keep making great music and we can have an amazing relationship together.
Aliena: And I mean you’re still pretty young, so you’ve got a whole future ahead of you. Do you have any idea where it’s going?
Tinie: You know what, I’m in it for the long haul man. Ten, twenty years, you get what I mean? The first album, I’m thinking about how I’m going to sound when I make my tenth one, do you get what I mean, I just wanna keep on going, keep on expanding the name, the brand, you know, we’ve got so many different things going on in terms of fashion labels, and you know management and looking after other artists and nurturing the next artists. The next wave of artists are coming through, so yeah, we’ve got a lot of things to do.
Aliena: And in terms of the music, do you get inspiration from anybody? Or is it just written by yourself?
Tinie: I’m always inspired, not only by other artists, I mean some of my musical inspirations are like Kanye West, Damen Albarn, the Script, you know, I listen to loads of different music. There’s a new band from New York called the Sleigh Bells at the minute, that I’m really, really into. However, I’m inspired by loads of things. I’m inspired by London, you know that’s where I’m from, one of the most amazing cities in the world and you know, just the fact that you know, the divide between sort of rich and poor are so close together and if you are rich, you can see what it’s like to be poor and if you are poor you can see what it’s like to be rich. You know, I feel like London is one of the few places to have that and that’s why I’m so inspired. And I’m just inspired by all the amazing things I see everyday, as you can imagine, life is like a rollercoaster and I’m seeing so many different, crazy things and meeting so many different people and that’s just my inspiration.
Aliena: And now before the show, do you have a routine before you go on stage? Or does it change every time you perform?
Tinie: You know what, it changes every single time I perform. At the end of the day, seriously, I’m just a normal guy, a normal 21 year old. I’m just doing what I love and once we get into the dressing room, I make sure my whole band is in there, my DJ, everybody and we just have a good time. We just have a little piss about, have a little laugh and that and it’s always good fun and I make sure I get some lemon and honey in beforehand.
Aliena: That’s great! Thank you so much for your time.
Tinie: Anytime.
Interview by Aliena Haig
Monday 1 November 2010
Chiddy Bang interview
Following the directions I was given, I found myself behind Newcastle’s O2 Academy and getting into Chiddy Bang’s van, where Chiddy was enjoying a quick meal before the show. What was originally planned as an interview, turned into a casual conversation, complete with high fives and fist pumps. Noah Beresin was caught up backstage and was unable to take part, but the interview continued with the very approachable and laidback Chiddy.
Aliena: Is this your first time in Newcastle?
Chiddy: It’s my very first time. Ever.
Aliena: And what do you think of it so far?
Chiddy: I’m liking it, you know, thus far. The vibe is feeling right, there’s a lot of fans outside, a lot of lovers of music alike. It’s dope man, I can’t wait to perform.
Aliena: And the rest of the tour is around England or the rest of the UK?
Chiddy: The rest of the tour is around the whole UK, you know what I’m saying, playing at Manchester, you know what I’m saying, in Scotland, Edinburgh, Glasgow, got some London shows.
Aliena: How long is the whole tour?
Chiddy: The tour’s gonna be about for a month. We’re going to be doing this until November 2nd and then we’ve got a week off in London and we’re just going to be recording for a week and chilling.
Aliena: Alright, and what do you have planned to do after the tour? Go back to the states?
Chiddy: Yeah, go back to the states, you know what I mean, get in the studio, finish up our debut album, which is coming out 2011, you know what I mean, we’ve gotta do some work on that. Gotta make something happen.
Aliena: Do you see yourself heading off to Europe at anytime?
Chiddy: Definitely. We love Europe. We’re always coming back here. We just came back from Australia, you know what I mean and it was crazy out there, but yeah, Europe is very important. We did a couple shows. We did shows in Switzerland, we did shows in Oslo, we did shows in Germany, in Munich, you know what I’m saying. We did shows in Paris. So we’re getting around, we’re starting to get around and see more of Europe and it’s a wonderful thing.
Aliena: And how does it make you feel to see all these people come out and support you?
Chiddy: It makes me feel good. Definitely does, I mean there’s a fan base here and I guess that’s just the way it is. People rap with Chiddy Bang and it’s a wonderful thing. I’m just gonna do what I know how to do and continue to make music and you know, spit crazy raps.
Aliena: So then how did the whole rap thing come about? When did you realize that this was what you wanted to do?
Chiddy: I’ve been rapping since I was about 10 years old. So it was always something I was kind of interested in, but I think it was at the point when I came to college and I met Noah and we started making beats, that’s when I started like, you know, really, really pursuing it and we just decided we were just gonna do a project and just work with each other and see what comes up and it just started coming out dope.
Aliena: That’s cool, so do you get inspiration from certain people?
Chiddy: I’m inspired by like Kanye West, and you know, Jay-Z, just you know, like capturing America just doing their thing and that have been on top of their game for consecutive years. I always look up to them.
Aliena: Have you met them? Or rapped with them at some point?
Chiddy: I have not met Jay-Z or Kanye yet, but Kanye did put us on his blog to be fair, and uh, I’m very good friends with an American artist by the name of Big Sean. He’s Kanye West’s artist, Kanye West found him. You know, it’s only a matter of time before we do meet these people and get to rap with them.
Aliena: Well I hope you do.
Chiddy: Thank you
Aliena: And what about with Tinie Tempah? Is that just the one off or have you performed with him before?
Chiddy: We performed with him, actually the last time we performed, we performed with him at all the UK festivals and stuff, so we see him all the time. Before that though, the last time we performed with him was March 1st, which was the date that we got signed and that was actually the date, the day before “Pass Out” came out. We performed at his single release party. That’s when we were chatting up with him and that’s when I met him for the first time. He’s just a real, real cool dude and this is a tour where like everyday we’re playing with him. Unfortunately we’ve got a show tonight, so we gotta leave right after our set, so we won’t be able to chill with him, but tomorrow you know, we’re gonna be chilling after the show, go out, go party, you know.
Aliena: So are you leaving Newcastle right away?
Chiddy: Yeah, right away, gotta go to Middlesborough.
Aliena: Alright, well I wish you the best with the tour.
Chiddy: Thank you so much.
Aliena: And thank you for making the time for this.
Chiddy: AAAALLL DAAAYYY!!!
Interviewed by Aliena Haig
Aliena: Is this your first time in Newcastle?
Chiddy: It’s my very first time. Ever.
Aliena: And what do you think of it so far?
Chiddy: I’m liking it, you know, thus far. The vibe is feeling right, there’s a lot of fans outside, a lot of lovers of music alike. It’s dope man, I can’t wait to perform.
Aliena: And the rest of the tour is around England or the rest of the UK?
Chiddy: The rest of the tour is around the whole UK, you know what I’m saying, playing at Manchester, you know what I’m saying, in Scotland, Edinburgh, Glasgow, got some London shows.
Aliena: How long is the whole tour?
Chiddy: The tour’s gonna be about for a month. We’re going to be doing this until November 2nd and then we’ve got a week off in London and we’re just going to be recording for a week and chilling.
Aliena: Alright, and what do you have planned to do after the tour? Go back to the states?
Chiddy: Yeah, go back to the states, you know what I mean, get in the studio, finish up our debut album, which is coming out 2011, you know what I mean, we’ve gotta do some work on that. Gotta make something happen.
Aliena: Do you see yourself heading off to Europe at anytime?
Chiddy: Definitely. We love Europe. We’re always coming back here. We just came back from Australia, you know what I mean and it was crazy out there, but yeah, Europe is very important. We did a couple shows. We did shows in Switzerland, we did shows in Oslo, we did shows in Germany, in Munich, you know what I’m saying. We did shows in Paris. So we’re getting around, we’re starting to get around and see more of Europe and it’s a wonderful thing.
Aliena: And how does it make you feel to see all these people come out and support you?
Chiddy: It makes me feel good. Definitely does, I mean there’s a fan base here and I guess that’s just the way it is. People rap with Chiddy Bang and it’s a wonderful thing. I’m just gonna do what I know how to do and continue to make music and you know, spit crazy raps.
Aliena: So then how did the whole rap thing come about? When did you realize that this was what you wanted to do?
Chiddy: I’ve been rapping since I was about 10 years old. So it was always something I was kind of interested in, but I think it was at the point when I came to college and I met Noah and we started making beats, that’s when I started like, you know, really, really pursuing it and we just decided we were just gonna do a project and just work with each other and see what comes up and it just started coming out dope.
Aliena: That’s cool, so do you get inspiration from certain people?
Chiddy: I’m inspired by like Kanye West, and you know, Jay-Z, just you know, like capturing America just doing their thing and that have been on top of their game for consecutive years. I always look up to them.
Aliena: Have you met them? Or rapped with them at some point?
Chiddy: I have not met Jay-Z or Kanye yet, but Kanye did put us on his blog to be fair, and uh, I’m very good friends with an American artist by the name of Big Sean. He’s Kanye West’s artist, Kanye West found him. You know, it’s only a matter of time before we do meet these people and get to rap with them.
Aliena: Well I hope you do.
Chiddy: Thank you
Aliena: And what about with Tinie Tempah? Is that just the one off or have you performed with him before?
Chiddy: We performed with him, actually the last time we performed, we performed with him at all the UK festivals and stuff, so we see him all the time. Before that though, the last time we performed with him was March 1st, which was the date that we got signed and that was actually the date, the day before “Pass Out” came out. We performed at his single release party. That’s when we were chatting up with him and that’s when I met him for the first time. He’s just a real, real cool dude and this is a tour where like everyday we’re playing with him. Unfortunately we’ve got a show tonight, so we gotta leave right after our set, so we won’t be able to chill with him, but tomorrow you know, we’re gonna be chilling after the show, go out, go party, you know.
Aliena: So are you leaving Newcastle right away?
Chiddy: Yeah, right away, gotta go to Middlesborough.
Aliena: Alright, well I wish you the best with the tour.
Chiddy: Thank you so much.
Aliena: And thank you for making the time for this.
Chiddy: AAAALLL DAAAYYY!!!
Interviewed by Aliena Haig
Fenech-Soler interview
Joëlle: So, Ben and Ross, two brothers. How does that work for you being in a band together?
Ben: It’s good, we seem to get on ok…I think. If we have an argument it’s over and done within about 4 minutes. There are just certain words that can wind each other up, but I definitely think it helps.
Joëlle: How do the other members feel about it?
Ben: Fine. This is the first time as a band that we’ve really gone and done consecutive dates. The most we’ve probably done is 7 in a row and this is about 30 days. We’re all adjusting to being with each other 24/7, so everyone kind of has their own way of dealing with it but I don’t think that we really piss anyone off.
Joëlle: And which of you is the older one?
Ben: I am, 26.
Ross: I’m 22.
Joëlle: So you’re often categorised as electro-pop, how do you feel about that?
Ben: I’m not a massive fan of ‘electro pop’ as a phrase but I can’t really argue with it. It’s like we are electronic and we do essentially write pop music. We don’t really shy away from the whole pop thing – we do like pop records. From the writing point of view, we like writing melody and that’s the type of stuff we enjoy. So late 70’s early 80’s George Benson, The Whistlers, these kind of people who write songs that are timeless, that’s what we listen to and go ‘fuck that’s really good.’
Obviously there’s a core electronic edge to the stuff that we do so I don’t mind it, people can put us in that bracket.
Joëlle: Do you think that it gives a bit of ambiguity as to what you’re about?
Ben: I think that when you say ‘electro pop’ it falls in the bracket of people thinking ‘I’ve heard this before, it’s shit’ ‘you sound like this, you sound like…whoever.’ But I do think that we are a little bit different to what’s out there, so for that factor, I resent the fact that maybe ‘electro pop’ is a thing that has been banded round a lot in the past 2years. But it is, probably, correct.
Joëlle: Which band would you compare yourselves to or say that you had similar sounds?
Ben: Well obviously we’ve just released our album, and it’s kind of an odd feeling, working on something and then finally putting it out there and you’re putting yourself up there to be judged. We kind of get linked into a lot of bands that are around at the minute: Everything Everything or Friendly Fires. We love all those bands and I think that at the minute there just isn’t that many bands on daytime radio1 or in the pop world. I think that the chart stuff is full of kind of commercial producer music and I don’t think there’s that many bands that are originally bands that aren’t put together. Those kinds of bands (Everything Everything and Friendly Fires.) supposedly we get put together with but we like them so there’s no problem with being associated with bands who we think are good. We’re friends with a lot of them and they’re all nice guys so it works.
Joëlle: You’re on day nine of your tour at the moment and you’ve got quite a few more dates coming up all around the UK. What’s your favourite aspect of touring?
Ben: My favourite aspect is feeling like as a band we’re getting better as we go along and playing records off our album. As a band we actually worked quite hard, because we did the whole album at home on our laptop and we actually did that before we had signed a record deal. So getting in a rehearsal room and actually practicing is something that we didn’t really do that much. We wrote music and then went and played it in clubs etc but we never sat there and went ‘right, let’s create a show.’ We did that for about 2 and half weeks which were good to have the band playing the whole of the album. Going out and playing some of the songs on the record that are a little bit different soundscapes and more relaxed stuff is good fun. Also it’s the first time we’ve gone out with lights, so that’s a whole side to the music that we’ve never done before.
Joelle: …And do you find yourself improving every time?
Ben: Definitely. We started this tour is Inverness and it was a bit shaky playing all these new songs but actually as we’ve gone on in the last week, we have improved. I think you have to play to fuck up and realise that that’s not the right thing to do. You learn what is and isn’t right, what works and stuff. But I think that travelling around with your best mates in a band playing music is a privileged position and we’ve worked pretty damn hard to get where we are. So I think going out with your friends and playing music, getting to go to places like this (Other Rooms, Digital.) It’s the places we’ve never been before is fantastic. The whole experience is good fun.
Joëlle: Is touring your favourite part of being in a band?
Ben&Ross: It is really good fun. We love writing music but we haven’t really had a chance in the last 2 months because we’ve been getting ready for the album but we love writing music as well and that’s the reason we started it. But touring live is really the best part. I think when you do a load of one thing for a while you just crave ‘the grass is always greener’. I think by the end we’ll probably just want to sit in a studio and write music.
Joëlle: Is it you who mainly writes the music Ben?
Ben: We have a bit of a system with the 4 of us. We have two studio set ups, there’s one where Ross and I live and (maybe we’ll move out by the end of this tour – to make us feel successful.)
Joëlle: And how do your parents feel about you living at home?
Ben: Fine! I think my mum’s heard the album more than anyone else, but I think that at the end of this tour we have plans to move to London.
In terms of writing, we have 2 studios, 1 is set up at ours (Ben & Ross’) and we have another one at our drummers’ house. We live really close together in Northamptonshire. Me and Ben do most of the writing part of it at our house and then we go over there and do the production side. There’s 2 studios and the 2nd one is more complex.
Joëlle: You went on tour in the USA…
Ben: The main reason was to drum up some industry interest. It was around the same time when Ross and I had co written a single for Groove Armarda – Paper Romance on the Blacklight album. We were doing some dates in the UK and then went and did some of their American Tour which was obviously pretty incredible. Amazing. It was pretty compact, we did New York, Sanfransisco and the West coast. It was basically a 7 day tour – a cross section.
Actually we’re going back in a couple of weeks to do CMJ in New York which will be fun.
America is such a big place to go and tour and to actually invest time in it, you have to go and tour your arses off over there; so I think we’ll look into doing that next year maybe.
Joëlle: Do you prefer touring abroad eg. USA or do you feel more of a connection in the UK?
Ben: Maybe not America, I mean, America was good, but I think European stuff has been really good as well. Germany’s always been really good, it has a really core electronic scene. It’s massive in Berlin and even if we play when a club doesn’t know who we are, people really enjoy it. Whereas, when you’re playing in Shoreditch people are too cool to get into it. ….If anyone is reading this interview and they live in London, we love playing in London.
Joëlle: And as we mentioned earlier, you’re often mistaken as a French band
Ben: Yeah. I think we enjoy the mystery of ‘who is this?’. Actually our first single is on Alan braxe’s label, a label called vulture. I do think we stumbled into that being a thing that had happened rather than a given. It wasn’t like ‘ yeah what you do’ is: Think of a difficult name to pronounce, release some quite French music, release it on a French label and then pretend we’re French!
It did start the ‘Fennech’ in the right place, it was a very niche label. It wasn’t a big release, it just put it out there. I think that every single we’ve put out, we’ve not tried to force it in any way. The DJ’s of Radio1 have just helped us. They genuinely just like our music and think it’s important for a band to have space to develop properly rather than in a massive hype and with loads spent. Millions spent here and there, rather than going out and doing loads of gigs where it will hopefully spread.
Joëlle: Are you ever inclined to throw in a bit of French into your lyrics?
Ben and Ross: Well…If we could speak any French, we would like to do that. Our drummer’s good at French, he did French A-Level. I can still remember my French GCSE oral…
But when we do learn French, we’re going to do a whole song.
Joëlle: Finally, obviously Newcastle is renowned for its Geordie nightlife, are you going to venture out tonight after the gig?
Ross: Well I had a taster of some of the Geordie nightlife last night. I was sat just behind the decks of Digital last night. It was Annie Mac’s night last night so this place seems a lot cleaner and less rowdy than night. It was good. We were really excited because we had a day off yesterday in Newcastle, we just walked around and the weather’s been really good! …I think there’s an indie night on after the gig so I’m sure we’ll be having a few.
Joëlle: Thank you so much Ben and Ross, it’s been a pleasure to meet you and until next time!
Interview by Joëlle Lerner
Ben: It’s good, we seem to get on ok…I think. If we have an argument it’s over and done within about 4 minutes. There are just certain words that can wind each other up, but I definitely think it helps.
Joëlle: How do the other members feel about it?
Ben: Fine. This is the first time as a band that we’ve really gone and done consecutive dates. The most we’ve probably done is 7 in a row and this is about 30 days. We’re all adjusting to being with each other 24/7, so everyone kind of has their own way of dealing with it but I don’t think that we really piss anyone off.
Joëlle: And which of you is the older one?
Ben: I am, 26.
Ross: I’m 22.
Joëlle: So you’re often categorised as electro-pop, how do you feel about that?
Ben: I’m not a massive fan of ‘electro pop’ as a phrase but I can’t really argue with it. It’s like we are electronic and we do essentially write pop music. We don’t really shy away from the whole pop thing – we do like pop records. From the writing point of view, we like writing melody and that’s the type of stuff we enjoy. So late 70’s early 80’s George Benson, The Whistlers, these kind of people who write songs that are timeless, that’s what we listen to and go ‘fuck that’s really good.’
Obviously there’s a core electronic edge to the stuff that we do so I don’t mind it, people can put us in that bracket.
Joëlle: Do you think that it gives a bit of ambiguity as to what you’re about?
Ben: I think that when you say ‘electro pop’ it falls in the bracket of people thinking ‘I’ve heard this before, it’s shit’ ‘you sound like this, you sound like…whoever.’ But I do think that we are a little bit different to what’s out there, so for that factor, I resent the fact that maybe ‘electro pop’ is a thing that has been banded round a lot in the past 2years. But it is, probably, correct.
Joëlle: Which band would you compare yourselves to or say that you had similar sounds?
Ben: Well obviously we’ve just released our album, and it’s kind of an odd feeling, working on something and then finally putting it out there and you’re putting yourself up there to be judged. We kind of get linked into a lot of bands that are around at the minute: Everything Everything or Friendly Fires. We love all those bands and I think that at the minute there just isn’t that many bands on daytime radio1 or in the pop world. I think that the chart stuff is full of kind of commercial producer music and I don’t think there’s that many bands that are originally bands that aren’t put together. Those kinds of bands (Everything Everything and Friendly Fires.) supposedly we get put together with but we like them so there’s no problem with being associated with bands who we think are good. We’re friends with a lot of them and they’re all nice guys so it works.
Joëlle: You’re on day nine of your tour at the moment and you’ve got quite a few more dates coming up all around the UK. What’s your favourite aspect of touring?
Ben: My favourite aspect is feeling like as a band we’re getting better as we go along and playing records off our album. As a band we actually worked quite hard, because we did the whole album at home on our laptop and we actually did that before we had signed a record deal. So getting in a rehearsal room and actually practicing is something that we didn’t really do that much. We wrote music and then went and played it in clubs etc but we never sat there and went ‘right, let’s create a show.’ We did that for about 2 and half weeks which were good to have the band playing the whole of the album. Going out and playing some of the songs on the record that are a little bit different soundscapes and more relaxed stuff is good fun. Also it’s the first time we’ve gone out with lights, so that’s a whole side to the music that we’ve never done before.
Joelle: …And do you find yourself improving every time?
Ben: Definitely. We started this tour is Inverness and it was a bit shaky playing all these new songs but actually as we’ve gone on in the last week, we have improved. I think you have to play to fuck up and realise that that’s not the right thing to do. You learn what is and isn’t right, what works and stuff. But I think that travelling around with your best mates in a band playing music is a privileged position and we’ve worked pretty damn hard to get where we are. So I think going out with your friends and playing music, getting to go to places like this (Other Rooms, Digital.) It’s the places we’ve never been before is fantastic. The whole experience is good fun.
Joëlle: Is touring your favourite part of being in a band?
Ben&Ross: It is really good fun. We love writing music but we haven’t really had a chance in the last 2 months because we’ve been getting ready for the album but we love writing music as well and that’s the reason we started it. But touring live is really the best part. I think when you do a load of one thing for a while you just crave ‘the grass is always greener’. I think by the end we’ll probably just want to sit in a studio and write music.
Joëlle: Is it you who mainly writes the music Ben?
Ben: We have a bit of a system with the 4 of us. We have two studio set ups, there’s one where Ross and I live and (maybe we’ll move out by the end of this tour – to make us feel successful.)
Joëlle: And how do your parents feel about you living at home?
Ben: Fine! I think my mum’s heard the album more than anyone else, but I think that at the end of this tour we have plans to move to London.
In terms of writing, we have 2 studios, 1 is set up at ours (Ben & Ross’) and we have another one at our drummers’ house. We live really close together in Northamptonshire. Me and Ben do most of the writing part of it at our house and then we go over there and do the production side. There’s 2 studios and the 2nd one is more complex.
Joëlle: You went on tour in the USA…
Ben: The main reason was to drum up some industry interest. It was around the same time when Ross and I had co written a single for Groove Armarda – Paper Romance on the Blacklight album. We were doing some dates in the UK and then went and did some of their American Tour which was obviously pretty incredible. Amazing. It was pretty compact, we did New York, Sanfransisco and the West coast. It was basically a 7 day tour – a cross section.
Actually we’re going back in a couple of weeks to do CMJ in New York which will be fun.
America is such a big place to go and tour and to actually invest time in it, you have to go and tour your arses off over there; so I think we’ll look into doing that next year maybe.
Joëlle: Do you prefer touring abroad eg. USA or do you feel more of a connection in the UK?
Ben: Maybe not America, I mean, America was good, but I think European stuff has been really good as well. Germany’s always been really good, it has a really core electronic scene. It’s massive in Berlin and even if we play when a club doesn’t know who we are, people really enjoy it. Whereas, when you’re playing in Shoreditch people are too cool to get into it. ….If anyone is reading this interview and they live in London, we love playing in London.
Joëlle: And as we mentioned earlier, you’re often mistaken as a French band
Ben: Yeah. I think we enjoy the mystery of ‘who is this?’. Actually our first single is on Alan braxe’s label, a label called vulture. I do think we stumbled into that being a thing that had happened rather than a given. It wasn’t like ‘ yeah what you do’ is: Think of a difficult name to pronounce, release some quite French music, release it on a French label and then pretend we’re French!
It did start the ‘Fennech’ in the right place, it was a very niche label. It wasn’t a big release, it just put it out there. I think that every single we’ve put out, we’ve not tried to force it in any way. The DJ’s of Radio1 have just helped us. They genuinely just like our music and think it’s important for a band to have space to develop properly rather than in a massive hype and with loads spent. Millions spent here and there, rather than going out and doing loads of gigs where it will hopefully spread.
Joëlle: Are you ever inclined to throw in a bit of French into your lyrics?
Ben and Ross: Well…If we could speak any French, we would like to do that. Our drummer’s good at French, he did French A-Level. I can still remember my French GCSE oral…
But when we do learn French, we’re going to do a whole song.
Joëlle: Finally, obviously Newcastle is renowned for its Geordie nightlife, are you going to venture out tonight after the gig?
Ross: Well I had a taster of some of the Geordie nightlife last night. I was sat just behind the decks of Digital last night. It was Annie Mac’s night last night so this place seems a lot cleaner and less rowdy than night. It was good. We were really excited because we had a day off yesterday in Newcastle, we just walked around and the weather’s been really good! …I think there’s an indie night on after the gig so I’m sure we’ll be having a few.
Joëlle: Thank you so much Ben and Ross, it’s been a pleasure to meet you and until next time!
Interview by Joëlle Lerner
Sunday 31 January 2010
The Answer interviewed by Chris Render
As a big fan of The Answer, interviewing bassist Micky Waters was a daunting challenge. However, as I was introduced to the band I swiftly came to realise that The Answer are some of the most warm and friendly people you’re ever likely to meet, their on stage charisma extending, it would seem, to one to one conversation. I was even given a drink. Taken aback by the extent of the welcome I received, I sat down with Micky in a quiet production room for a quick chat.
Chris Render: [somewhat sheepishly] Hi.
Micky Waters: Hi Chris
CR: How did you start out, as a band?
MW: Well, it all started out with myself and Paul [Mahon, lead guitarist], when we were kids. He used to be a drummer in a band, at the start, and I was the bass player and singer, and we used to play round the local circuit in Belfast, round our local villages, and just anywhere that would have us. That was when we were like, 15 to 18 years of age, and then we wanted to put together a proper outfit, so we heard about this blues singer, this young fella called Cormac Neeson. He came along, came out for a practice, and I believe he sang Free, “Alright Now”, with us, and from then on we were like “ah, this is the right guy, finally we’ve got a proper singer in the band”, you know? So we got him, and we wanted to get the rhythm section right, so we got James Headly, who was at the time playing with... he’d done tours with Ash. He was like, the local guy on the circuit who played with every single band who you wanted to go and see and all the local bands. Once we got him on board, there was a fantastic chemistry between us all. Ever since then, it’s been a lot of fun.
CR: Then you had the first album, Rise, which was very successful...
MW: Yeah, Rise did really good.
CR: It was highly acclaimed by Classic Rock...
MW: Yeah, in 2005, which seems like a long time ago now, we got “best new album”, or “best new band”... band, that’s right, it was band. That came out before the album even, as well. But yeah, Rise did very well for us, and we toured it for a couple of years, and then we currently released our album Everyday Demons, which, for us, we put a lot of hard work into that. I think we captured that live feel of the band, which is what we’re really all about: a real live kind of thing. We love getting up on a stage and playing live.
CR: So other than this current tour, what have you been doing over the last couple of months?
MW: Last couple of months... been a lot of drinking and partying and all the rest of it, wrapping up with AC/DC on the world tour, the Black Ice tour [which The Answer supported].
CR: Yeah, you’ve toured with AC/DC, supported Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, pretty much everybody. Is there anybody else you’d like to play with?
MW: Nah, there’s no one else. We were asked this a while back, after the Rolling Stones thing, and we said the only band we still wanted to play with were AC/DC [chuckles]. I think we just want to be a headline act now, do our own thing, for a change. Get up there to play for an hour and a half, every night. It’s definitely much more fun for us.
CR: So what do The Answer have planned for the future?
MW: January, February, we’re going to work on our third album. We’ve got a lot of material together from being on the road for a long time, recording in tour busses and the like, so... we’ll get back and knock some songs into shape and hopefully, fingers crossed, get the album out by, hopefully, September next year. Fingers crossed that’s how it pans out, because we really can’t wait to, you know, keep playing.
CR: Brilliant. You’ve been described as “keeping the classic rock genre alive.” How do you respond to that?
MW: Well, that’s a huge compliment for us, because it’s probably our favourite style of music, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and AC/DC especially, you know? It’s definitely a huge compliment, but we see ourselves as having a bit more of a modern edge about it, especially the new album. We’ve definitely found our own sound, and hopefully we can just progress from there.
CR: Carrying on the tradition of Irish rock greats, you yourself are the, is it the only other person...
MW: [knowing instinctively what I’m talking about] Well, at the time, I was one of the first people to play Phil Lynott’s guitar [the famous black bass]. We played a fundraising gig to build the statue of Phil, in Grafton Street in Dublin. There’s a big, brass, life size statue of him, and as a favour his mother, Philemina, let me borrow his bass for the Keep Believing video, and I had it for the day, to play on it, and it was a fantastic experience. You know, coming from Ireland, Thin Lizzy are the ultimate Irish rock band to be your idols.
CR: So who is your favourite band, personally?
MW: My favourite band is probably The Who, actually.
CR: Who again, you’ve played with
MW: Yeah, that was a huge thing for me, you know, I’m a massive Who fan. Always have been.
CR: So what is your favourite Answer track then, to play, I mean?
MW: Definitely Under The Sky, because the audience know that one really well, and we’re always feeding off the audience’s energy, so when they’re having a good time we’re having a good time. I definitely love playing that one. And off the new album, I like Demon Eyes, because it’s just a fast paced, hard hitting, f***ing good track, you know?
CR: Well, that’s pretty much everything, thank you very much, Micky Waters, from The Answer.
Chris Render: [somewhat sheepishly] Hi.
Micky Waters: Hi Chris
CR: How did you start out, as a band?
MW: Well, it all started out with myself and Paul [Mahon, lead guitarist], when we were kids. He used to be a drummer in a band, at the start, and I was the bass player and singer, and we used to play round the local circuit in Belfast, round our local villages, and just anywhere that would have us. That was when we were like, 15 to 18 years of age, and then we wanted to put together a proper outfit, so we heard about this blues singer, this young fella called Cormac Neeson. He came along, came out for a practice, and I believe he sang Free, “Alright Now”, with us, and from then on we were like “ah, this is the right guy, finally we’ve got a proper singer in the band”, you know? So we got him, and we wanted to get the rhythm section right, so we got James Headly, who was at the time playing with... he’d done tours with Ash. He was like, the local guy on the circuit who played with every single band who you wanted to go and see and all the local bands. Once we got him on board, there was a fantastic chemistry between us all. Ever since then, it’s been a lot of fun.
CR: Then you had the first album, Rise, which was very successful...
MW: Yeah, Rise did really good.
CR: It was highly acclaimed by Classic Rock...
MW: Yeah, in 2005, which seems like a long time ago now, we got “best new album”, or “best new band”... band, that’s right, it was band. That came out before the album even, as well. But yeah, Rise did very well for us, and we toured it for a couple of years, and then we currently released our album Everyday Demons, which, for us, we put a lot of hard work into that. I think we captured that live feel of the band, which is what we’re really all about: a real live kind of thing. We love getting up on a stage and playing live.
CR: So other than this current tour, what have you been doing over the last couple of months?
MW: Last couple of months... been a lot of drinking and partying and all the rest of it, wrapping up with AC/DC on the world tour, the Black Ice tour [which The Answer supported].
CR: Yeah, you’ve toured with AC/DC, supported Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, pretty much everybody. Is there anybody else you’d like to play with?
MW: Nah, there’s no one else. We were asked this a while back, after the Rolling Stones thing, and we said the only band we still wanted to play with were AC/DC [chuckles]. I think we just want to be a headline act now, do our own thing, for a change. Get up there to play for an hour and a half, every night. It’s definitely much more fun for us.
CR: So what do The Answer have planned for the future?
MW: January, February, we’re going to work on our third album. We’ve got a lot of material together from being on the road for a long time, recording in tour busses and the like, so... we’ll get back and knock some songs into shape and hopefully, fingers crossed, get the album out by, hopefully, September next year. Fingers crossed that’s how it pans out, because we really can’t wait to, you know, keep playing.
CR: Brilliant. You’ve been described as “keeping the classic rock genre alive.” How do you respond to that?
MW: Well, that’s a huge compliment for us, because it’s probably our favourite style of music, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and AC/DC especially, you know? It’s definitely a huge compliment, but we see ourselves as having a bit more of a modern edge about it, especially the new album. We’ve definitely found our own sound, and hopefully we can just progress from there.
CR: Carrying on the tradition of Irish rock greats, you yourself are the, is it the only other person...
MW: [knowing instinctively what I’m talking about] Well, at the time, I was one of the first people to play Phil Lynott’s guitar [the famous black bass]. We played a fundraising gig to build the statue of Phil, in Grafton Street in Dublin. There’s a big, brass, life size statue of him, and as a favour his mother, Philemina, let me borrow his bass for the Keep Believing video, and I had it for the day, to play on it, and it was a fantastic experience. You know, coming from Ireland, Thin Lizzy are the ultimate Irish rock band to be your idols.
CR: So who is your favourite band, personally?
MW: My favourite band is probably The Who, actually.
CR: Who again, you’ve played with
MW: Yeah, that was a huge thing for me, you know, I’m a massive Who fan. Always have been.
CR: So what is your favourite Answer track then, to play, I mean?
MW: Definitely Under The Sky, because the audience know that one really well, and we’re always feeding off the audience’s energy, so when they’re having a good time we’re having a good time. I definitely love playing that one. And off the new album, I like Demon Eyes, because it’s just a fast paced, hard hitting, f***ing good track, you know?
CR: Well, that’s pretty much everything, thank you very much, Micky Waters, from The Answer.
Tuesday 10 November 2009
Luke Haines Interview @ The Cluny
6.11.09
Interviewed by Mark Corcoran-Lettice & Ben Lowes-Smith
Your new album, 21st Century Man/Achtung Mother, is a double album. How much of a conscious decision was it to make that the case?
Well, it’s not so much a double album as two albums – if you were to take the Achtung Mother tracks and mix them up with all the 21st Century Man tracks, it’s wouldn’t really work, it’d be fairly incoherent. I had all these incoherent tracks, which became Achtung Mother, you see.
Your last two albums seem to have warned against the fetishism of nostalgia, is that a concern of yours?
It’s not a cultural concern, but it is a personal one: maybe it’s something I keep going back to. I don’t really mind repeating myself, that’s part of it. You develop a voice and a style, and you don’t necessarily do completely different things all of the time! Not that I’m making an excuse for my records all sounding the same – I don’t care if they do or not – but that’s just what I do.
I couldn’t really agree with that…you had a more electronic period in the late 90s, was there a concerted effort to go back to a glam sound recently?
The glam sound…really, there’s only a little bit of that, the first time I really did that, was on Bootboys. I don’t think the early Auteurs records really had that, only briefly really early on when we were aligned with Suede with this ‘New Glam’ tag, but the records never really sounded like that to me. I only really did that consciously on something like ‘The Rubettes’, and then I maybe came back to it on Off My Rocker, where it’s a bit more developed and a bit more pronounced.
One thing that seems to tie together the last album and this one are these songs about these cult, misunderstood figures – ‘Peter Hamill’ and ‘Klaus Kinski’ on 21st Century Man, the Glitter Band on the last one [on the song ‘Bad Reputation’]. Is there something that keeps you interested in them?
Yeah…well, the Klaus Kinski song is probably much less about Klaus Kinski than it is about me, really. It starts off with Klaus Kinski, and then jumps off somewhere else, and it’s quite autobiographical, and the Peter Hamill song is more of a straightforward homage. I had a track that sounded very much like something from [Peter Hamill record] Nadir’s Big Chance, and the only way I could justify it was just to call it ‘Peter Hamill’, and be done with it, otherwise people who’ve heard that album would say, ‘Luke Haines is just ripping off Peter Hamill now’, so it seemed a good opportunity, since I’d inadvertently ripped him off, to make it into a tribute track.
On the cover of the new album, you’re pictured imitating [early 20th century dadaist poet] Hugo Ball – do you consider him a 21st Century Man?
Hugo Ball was obviously a 20th century man – that original photograph would have been taken in the 1910s – it wasn’t saying that I am Hugo Ball! That period though interests me, when people seemed to flaunt all conventions, which I think maybe doesn’t really happen now. It’s quite difficult to try and invent anything new, certainly via music, and there are couple of homage’s on the album to that period. The track ‘Russian Futurists Black Out The Sun’ is a homage to a futurist opera called ‘Victory Over The Sun’, which is about two cosmonauts who were going to wage war against the sun and create a new reality. To me, that’s having a go, writing an opera about waging war against the sun…I can’t better that, so I thought I’d just doff my cap to it.
On that note, I understand that you’re in the process of writing a musical at the moment…
No, I wrote one a couple of years ago. But you weren’t to know, it hasn’t been performed.
Oh, right!
It was for the National Theatre in London, I spent a year writing it – it was called ‘Property’, and it got a long way, but ultimately they didn’t want to put it on, they probably thought it was too crazy. I didn’t, I thought it was very entertaining…
I understand that ‘I’m A Rich Man’s Toy’ from the Now I’m A Cowboy record was sent to Kylie Minogue people’s, which I thought was funny…
Well, they didn’t think it was so funny! I used to do that occasionally, just pitch songs to people.
Are there any contemporary pop you’d want to do that for now?
No [laughs]. I’m not very interested in modern pop music in any way really. I’m out of the loop really – I’m a man in his forties, and invariably I’m not very interested. I’d have to take an interest in young groups, which really would be a bit weird at my age, finding out what all the twenty-year olds are up to. My attitude is, good luck to them all, and I’ll leave you alone.
That’s a shame, I had a dream once where Girls Aloud covered ‘Mogadishu’ from the Baader Meinhof album, which I’d quite like to hear…
That’d be good, yeah, but I think that’s probably going to remain in your dreams, I’m afraid.
The Baader Meinhof album itself came out in 1996: do you think it would be possible in today’s climate to release an album like that in 2009?
I would have done it. I would have done it now, if I had just had the idea, but I wouldn’t have had the idea now. It’s a younger man’s record really – my interests at the time were terrorism, and music I hadn’t really heard before, like Funkadelic and Lee Perry, so it was a kind of art project. It wasn’t an endorsement of anything, it was just, I have this set of lyrics, and in my head it goes with this funk music.
There’s been some talk of a fourth Black Box Recorder album, is there any news on that?
It’s not going to happen. We recorded a single, but I think we all feel uneasy, and I don’t really want to be a group, or hide behind a group name. I think you can still do rock’n’roll when you get to a certain age, but you have to acknowledge that you are that age. Nick Cave does it well, obviously, while Morrissey doesn’t do it well: a fifty-year-old man still singing about gay adolescence …I’d be interested in Morrissey if he did a fifty-year-old man record. That’s the way old songwriters used to work, you’d be singing it from the view of a sixty-year-old, not from the view of a twenty-year-old.
Your Britpop memoir ‘Bad Vibes’ came out this year, and I’ve heard that there might be a second volume…
Yeah, I’m in the process of that at the moment. Chronologically, it overlaps a little with ‘Bad Vibes’, because when I wrote that I wasn’t planning a second, so it goes over and into a bit more detail about the start of Black Box Recorder, and it goes on to about 2002-03.
A friend wanted us to ask, what is the song ‘Secret Yoga’ about?
Someone else asked me that the other day, actually. It’s about the Aum Shinriyko cult in Japan, who did the sarin attack in the subway, and the chant in it is a version of one of their chants. Basically, the Aum cult works on being at a higher level of Buddhism, which equates to a higher level of being where life is not sacred, so the chant in it is based on an Aum chant.
Another question we’ve been given is just four words: Winston Churchill’s State Funeral?
Hmm, yeah. Do you know what that refers to?
Is it some unmade record…?
Yeah, on the internet, it seems to have become this myth, even when people say it doesn’t exist on Wikipedia, someone always puts it back on, but it never existed. The title’s not come from me…I kind of admire whoever came up with it, because in a way I wouldn’t have minded doing a record called The State Funeral of Winston Churchill or something, but it’s nothing to do with me. It still lingers on slightly though.
Earlier this year, a fan-fiction called ‘Truth and Lies in Murder Park’ came out: have you read it?
I have received a copy, but I haven’t read it. The guy who wrote it [Tim Mitchell] interviewed me many years ago, at the time he was writing a biography of me, and I agreed to be interviewed for it, and he seemed like a good chap…and I thought nothing more of it. Then ‘Bad Vibes’ came out and started to get some press, and then this popped up! I think he wanted to do a kind of dual promotion on it, do some interviews for it, but I said I can’t do that, because it’s a separate thing. He sent me a copy out of courtesy, but I haven’t read it, and the reason I haven’t read it is because I don’t want to read a book about myself. Where am I supposed to read it, this thing that’s got my name on, it’s pretty preposterous…I’ve got a family, and my wife would just laugh at me sitting there, reading a book about myself. Preposterous.
You also featured quite heavily in a graphic novel about Britpop that came out a few years ago, ‘Phonogram’, can you tell us any more about that?
I don’t really understand graphic novels, it’s not my kind of thing. I saw where the guys who did it were going, and had a look through it, and quite liked their take on it – although I would say that I disagreed with it, as is probably clear from my book – but they seemed to have enough imagination in it, so I agreed to write an introduction to it.
With Oasis having split up and the Blur reunion on hold, does it seem odd to you how your contemporaries seem to have ground to a halt while you’re still making albums?
Well, the members of Blur are pretty successful in their own right, and Brett Anderson’s still making solo albums. A lot of the glut of that period has gone away, but I always expected it to. I just carried on making records, and whether anyone buys them or not, I couldn’t care, I’ll just get on with it.
We’ve been given a few slightly stranger questions to ask you…
That’s fine, fire away. Just don’t expect the answers to be entirely cogent!
There’s a man coming tonight who’ll probably be wearing a straw hat, standing outside your dressing room, and he’s propositioned a pint with you, if you fancy?
Absolutely not! [laughter]
We just thought it fair to give you warning! He also wants to know if you like Sunny Delight…
I’m not really familiar with Sunny Delight, to be honest.
Slightly more seriously then, I did notice on the new album, there seemed to be a praise for suburban life that’s perhaps not been there before, in ‘Love Letter To London’ and ‘Suburban Mourning’…
It is actually my most upbeat record I think…I think the first album, ‘New Wave’, was quite upbeat, but it’s not a record from a man who’s reached a certain age but who’s ruined his life. I do think ‘Suburban Mourning’ is the most upbeat thing I’ve ever written, and there is no twist to it, and that was very deliberate.
There are some critics who are interpreting this record as being a bit of an epitaph, is that the case?
I think maybe they think, he’s written a song like ‘21st Century Man’, he’s written a memoir, and now they’re just waiting for me to cark it or something! I don’t know.
You will keep making records then?
Well, yes. The thing is, I don’t have the means to put out records as regularly as I used to do, where I had a major record label and I could go in, say ‘I’m making a record now’, and they would go ‘Okay, here’s a truckload of cash, go and make that record’. The music industry’s changed, and it’s a bit harder for me to make records, to try and pull everything together. I always use professional recording studios, which cost money, rather than just doing it at home or something.
Interviewed by Mark Corcoran-Lettice & Ben Lowes-Smith
Your new album, 21st Century Man/Achtung Mother, is a double album. How much of a conscious decision was it to make that the case?
Well, it’s not so much a double album as two albums – if you were to take the Achtung Mother tracks and mix them up with all the 21st Century Man tracks, it’s wouldn’t really work, it’d be fairly incoherent. I had all these incoherent tracks, which became Achtung Mother, you see.
Your last two albums seem to have warned against the fetishism of nostalgia, is that a concern of yours?
It’s not a cultural concern, but it is a personal one: maybe it’s something I keep going back to. I don’t really mind repeating myself, that’s part of it. You develop a voice and a style, and you don’t necessarily do completely different things all of the time! Not that I’m making an excuse for my records all sounding the same – I don’t care if they do or not – but that’s just what I do.
I couldn’t really agree with that…you had a more electronic period in the late 90s, was there a concerted effort to go back to a glam sound recently?
The glam sound…really, there’s only a little bit of that, the first time I really did that, was on Bootboys. I don’t think the early Auteurs records really had that, only briefly really early on when we were aligned with Suede with this ‘New Glam’ tag, but the records never really sounded like that to me. I only really did that consciously on something like ‘The Rubettes’, and then I maybe came back to it on Off My Rocker, where it’s a bit more developed and a bit more pronounced.
One thing that seems to tie together the last album and this one are these songs about these cult, misunderstood figures – ‘Peter Hamill’ and ‘Klaus Kinski’ on 21st Century Man, the Glitter Band on the last one [on the song ‘Bad Reputation’]. Is there something that keeps you interested in them?
Yeah…well, the Klaus Kinski song is probably much less about Klaus Kinski than it is about me, really. It starts off with Klaus Kinski, and then jumps off somewhere else, and it’s quite autobiographical, and the Peter Hamill song is more of a straightforward homage. I had a track that sounded very much like something from [Peter Hamill record] Nadir’s Big Chance, and the only way I could justify it was just to call it ‘Peter Hamill’, and be done with it, otherwise people who’ve heard that album would say, ‘Luke Haines is just ripping off Peter Hamill now’, so it seemed a good opportunity, since I’d inadvertently ripped him off, to make it into a tribute track.
On the cover of the new album, you’re pictured imitating [early 20th century dadaist poet] Hugo Ball – do you consider him a 21st Century Man?
Hugo Ball was obviously a 20th century man – that original photograph would have been taken in the 1910s – it wasn’t saying that I am Hugo Ball! That period though interests me, when people seemed to flaunt all conventions, which I think maybe doesn’t really happen now. It’s quite difficult to try and invent anything new, certainly via music, and there are couple of homage’s on the album to that period. The track ‘Russian Futurists Black Out The Sun’ is a homage to a futurist opera called ‘Victory Over The Sun’, which is about two cosmonauts who were going to wage war against the sun and create a new reality. To me, that’s having a go, writing an opera about waging war against the sun…I can’t better that, so I thought I’d just doff my cap to it.
On that note, I understand that you’re in the process of writing a musical at the moment…
No, I wrote one a couple of years ago. But you weren’t to know, it hasn’t been performed.
Oh, right!
It was for the National Theatre in London, I spent a year writing it – it was called ‘Property’, and it got a long way, but ultimately they didn’t want to put it on, they probably thought it was too crazy. I didn’t, I thought it was very entertaining…
I understand that ‘I’m A Rich Man’s Toy’ from the Now I’m A Cowboy record was sent to Kylie Minogue people’s, which I thought was funny…
Well, they didn’t think it was so funny! I used to do that occasionally, just pitch songs to people.
Are there any contemporary pop you’d want to do that for now?
No [laughs]. I’m not very interested in modern pop music in any way really. I’m out of the loop really – I’m a man in his forties, and invariably I’m not very interested. I’d have to take an interest in young groups, which really would be a bit weird at my age, finding out what all the twenty-year olds are up to. My attitude is, good luck to them all, and I’ll leave you alone.
That’s a shame, I had a dream once where Girls Aloud covered ‘Mogadishu’ from the Baader Meinhof album, which I’d quite like to hear…
That’d be good, yeah, but I think that’s probably going to remain in your dreams, I’m afraid.
The Baader Meinhof album itself came out in 1996: do you think it would be possible in today’s climate to release an album like that in 2009?
I would have done it. I would have done it now, if I had just had the idea, but I wouldn’t have had the idea now. It’s a younger man’s record really – my interests at the time were terrorism, and music I hadn’t really heard before, like Funkadelic and Lee Perry, so it was a kind of art project. It wasn’t an endorsement of anything, it was just, I have this set of lyrics, and in my head it goes with this funk music.
There’s been some talk of a fourth Black Box Recorder album, is there any news on that?
It’s not going to happen. We recorded a single, but I think we all feel uneasy, and I don’t really want to be a group, or hide behind a group name. I think you can still do rock’n’roll when you get to a certain age, but you have to acknowledge that you are that age. Nick Cave does it well, obviously, while Morrissey doesn’t do it well: a fifty-year-old man still singing about gay adolescence …I’d be interested in Morrissey if he did a fifty-year-old man record. That’s the way old songwriters used to work, you’d be singing it from the view of a sixty-year-old, not from the view of a twenty-year-old.
Your Britpop memoir ‘Bad Vibes’ came out this year, and I’ve heard that there might be a second volume…
Yeah, I’m in the process of that at the moment. Chronologically, it overlaps a little with ‘Bad Vibes’, because when I wrote that I wasn’t planning a second, so it goes over and into a bit more detail about the start of Black Box Recorder, and it goes on to about 2002-03.
A friend wanted us to ask, what is the song ‘Secret Yoga’ about?
Someone else asked me that the other day, actually. It’s about the Aum Shinriyko cult in Japan, who did the sarin attack in the subway, and the chant in it is a version of one of their chants. Basically, the Aum cult works on being at a higher level of Buddhism, which equates to a higher level of being where life is not sacred, so the chant in it is based on an Aum chant.
Another question we’ve been given is just four words: Winston Churchill’s State Funeral?
Hmm, yeah. Do you know what that refers to?
Is it some unmade record…?
Yeah, on the internet, it seems to have become this myth, even when people say it doesn’t exist on Wikipedia, someone always puts it back on, but it never existed. The title’s not come from me…I kind of admire whoever came up with it, because in a way I wouldn’t have minded doing a record called The State Funeral of Winston Churchill or something, but it’s nothing to do with me. It still lingers on slightly though.
Earlier this year, a fan-fiction called ‘Truth and Lies in Murder Park’ came out: have you read it?
I have received a copy, but I haven’t read it. The guy who wrote it [Tim Mitchell] interviewed me many years ago, at the time he was writing a biography of me, and I agreed to be interviewed for it, and he seemed like a good chap…and I thought nothing more of it. Then ‘Bad Vibes’ came out and started to get some press, and then this popped up! I think he wanted to do a kind of dual promotion on it, do some interviews for it, but I said I can’t do that, because it’s a separate thing. He sent me a copy out of courtesy, but I haven’t read it, and the reason I haven’t read it is because I don’t want to read a book about myself. Where am I supposed to read it, this thing that’s got my name on, it’s pretty preposterous…I’ve got a family, and my wife would just laugh at me sitting there, reading a book about myself. Preposterous.
You also featured quite heavily in a graphic novel about Britpop that came out a few years ago, ‘Phonogram’, can you tell us any more about that?
I don’t really understand graphic novels, it’s not my kind of thing. I saw where the guys who did it were going, and had a look through it, and quite liked their take on it – although I would say that I disagreed with it, as is probably clear from my book – but they seemed to have enough imagination in it, so I agreed to write an introduction to it.
With Oasis having split up and the Blur reunion on hold, does it seem odd to you how your contemporaries seem to have ground to a halt while you’re still making albums?
Well, the members of Blur are pretty successful in their own right, and Brett Anderson’s still making solo albums. A lot of the glut of that period has gone away, but I always expected it to. I just carried on making records, and whether anyone buys them or not, I couldn’t care, I’ll just get on with it.
We’ve been given a few slightly stranger questions to ask you…
That’s fine, fire away. Just don’t expect the answers to be entirely cogent!
There’s a man coming tonight who’ll probably be wearing a straw hat, standing outside your dressing room, and he’s propositioned a pint with you, if you fancy?
Absolutely not! [laughter]
We just thought it fair to give you warning! He also wants to know if you like Sunny Delight…
I’m not really familiar with Sunny Delight, to be honest.
Slightly more seriously then, I did notice on the new album, there seemed to be a praise for suburban life that’s perhaps not been there before, in ‘Love Letter To London’ and ‘Suburban Mourning’…
It is actually my most upbeat record I think…I think the first album, ‘New Wave’, was quite upbeat, but it’s not a record from a man who’s reached a certain age but who’s ruined his life. I do think ‘Suburban Mourning’ is the most upbeat thing I’ve ever written, and there is no twist to it, and that was very deliberate.
There are some critics who are interpreting this record as being a bit of an epitaph, is that the case?
I think maybe they think, he’s written a song like ‘21st Century Man’, he’s written a memoir, and now they’re just waiting for me to cark it or something! I don’t know.
You will keep making records then?
Well, yes. The thing is, I don’t have the means to put out records as regularly as I used to do, where I had a major record label and I could go in, say ‘I’m making a record now’, and they would go ‘Okay, here’s a truckload of cash, go and make that record’. The music industry’s changed, and it’s a bit harder for me to make records, to try and pull everything together. I always use professional recording studios, which cost money, rather than just doing it at home or something.
Thursday 22 October 2009
The XX Interview
Interview with The XX at the Cluny
03.10.09
Louise Morris interviews Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim
Louise: How’s the tour been going so far?
Oliver: It’s been really good, it hasn’t been too much yet, but we’ve got another year left so...
L: A full year’s tour!
O: Uhuh yeah- I’ll get back to you in a year and let you know.
L: I saw you had some dates coming up in America- how are you feeling about that?
Romy: We spent ten days in New York this summer, it was really weird being over there, people would actually come to the gig- it was really exciting.
L: How have you found audience reactions differing across different cities on the tour?
O: Yeah, I think in places like Germany they’re really intense, they’re there to listen, whereas I think in London- keep it short keep it sweet, in Germany we play longer sets and people are willing to listen for an hour, which is strange, it’s amazing.
R: I think over there they expect you to play for longer but in London it’s just “get in and get off”.
L: I’ve spoken to other bands about London gigs, who aren’t from London, and they’ve always dreaded it and say it’s the scariest show, obviously for you, coming from London, it must feel quite different?
R: I think it’s an attention span, I don’t know!
L: So having seen people’s reactions to your music what kind of a reaction would you hope to provoke from an audience?
R: We’ve been supporting for so long now that we’ve kind of been used to the idea that people aren’t there to see us and they’ve talked through our sets, but now we’re headlining for the past few shows, especially yesterday, it’s been really silent, which has been really nice.
O: We were here last week with Florence [and the Machine] for two days, it was a really good show, really fun, the audience were great but a lot of people were there just to see Florence so it kind of didn’t really work to listen to us...
L: Her music is very different...
O: Yeah, but there were a lot of people listening, and then headlining now, we’re not used to it I suppose. We’re going to do another support for Friendly Fires, again they’re like quite high energy which is maybe not where we’re at, kind of tempo wise, but it should be really interesting.
L: You’ve created quite a minimal evocative sound; how do you work together to create this? Do the lyrics or the music come first?
R: The lyrics usually come first, we work quite separately, we usually share them via the internet over ichat and work from them and build up a song like that, then we meet together and play guitar and bass and sort of link it together to make a song and then get Aria and Jamie along to make a rehearsal and it becomes a song.
O: It’s quite interesting ‘cos what Romy’s written she sings and what I’ve written I sing, and they’re love songs but Romy is my oldest friend, I’ve known her since I was 3 years old so it’s not a kind of Sonny and Cher relationship, I’m not really good at singing the songs to her and her to me and it’s just a case of coming together and sharing what we have.
L: I was going to ask, your songs all seem very personal –how much do you draw on daily life and experiences of friends and how much is imaginary?
O: I dunno, a lot of the songs we wrote when we were about 16 and then some only 8 months ago so time changes. Seeing as they are mostly love songs, when I was 16 I hadn’t had so much experience in [laughs] love! So a lot of it was writing from observation and what was going on around me, friends’ relationships and how I saw them to be, and recently it’s been much more personal and kind of from what I’ve experienced and they’ve gone darker from that, which is probably a really bad thing, but yeah.
L: You’ve got a lot of dialogue within your songs and I wondered whether you’ve ever been inspired by plays or whether it’s just musical inspiration you’ve drawn on?
R: I’ve never thought of that actually, I can’t say directly, maybe subconsciously! We’re never really addressing each other in the songs because we do work separately and it’s more of a reaction to each other, [when we write] we don’t explain what we mean, I take from what Ollie says what I think it means, so it’s like a conversation that never meets because it’s not actually to each other
L: I’ve read that you guys have quite a range of influences, how do you think that’s helped you form a more original, distinctive sound?
O: I think all four of us appreciate all different kinds of music; we’re the ipod shuffle generation, so, not being so attached to genre, and treating music song by song. I think it’s a case of trying to find a middle ground between all four of our tastes, I don’t want to say compromise, but yeah compromise and fusing a bit of everything we love I suppose
L: If you could play a gig absolutely anywhere, with no limits what would you do and where?
O: I recently saw pictures of Vampire Weekend playing in the foyer of the Natural History museum, with that massive dinosaur, I think it would be amazing to play there; they had fairy lights up and everything. I just imagine there being amazing acoustics...and yeah, I love dinosaurs!...I used to love going there.
L: I wanted to ask how you felt about being so lauded by the musical press, Rough Trade named your album “album of the month” and you’ve been named the “next big thing”- how does that affect you? Do you feel pigeon-holed at all?
O: I dunno, since the albums come out we haven’t had too much time to stop
R: Yep!
O: So we haven’t take in all that’s happening, like I’m still overwhelmed that we were on Jools Holland 3 days ago, we met Shakira, let me say that back to myself: we met Shakira! So haven’t taken it all in, I think if we did it might freak us all out a bit more. And hype can be really scary ‘cos it seems that the British press seems to love building bands up just to knock them down and er also I know I can react badly to hype, when I feel like a band’s being forced on me I can not want to like them, if anything just to prove that I can think for myself, it’s terrible, I wish I wasn’t like that but I can be like that. But on the other hand, the stuff that’s happened has been so nice- I’m excited.
L: So on the back of that, what’s been the funniest thing you’ve heard or read about yourselves in the press?
R: There’s a Pitchfork review of us that says that all our songs are about sex, and that’s led to a lot of European interviewers asking about it, so we’ve had a like 50 year old guy telling us how our song reminded him of his first experience...and I think all the interviewers had based their interviews around that review, and it’s not something that’s talked about generally as a whole, so that was quite annoying
L: So how would you rather the word of your band spread- through the press or word of mouth?
O: I always try to find music for myself, I mean the press can be dodgy at times and can build up false expectations, so I always feel really proud of myself when I’ve found a band I really like by myself. I haven’t really thought about it, maybe walking into a record store and hearing it
L: Your band seems to have developed more organically than a lot of bands, in terms of your relationship with the music press and especially with help from Young Turks, how do you feel that’s given you an edge over other bands who’ve been more moulded?
R: We’ve been given a lot time, a lot of time to grow up in and in ourselves, I mean we were 18 when we started working with Young Turks (well I’ve just turned 18), we only had 5 songs and they gave us a rehearsal space, and they just said we’ll give you a place to rehearse and get you some gigs and that was it there was no money or anything, and they left us with those tools- and I think if it had been more serious at the time then we wouldn’t sound anything like we do now so I’m really grateful for the time and the patience they had for us. Also I think at that age I would’ve been terrified to deal with all of this stuff. I’m aware that other bands haven’t had that, they just want to put it out as soon as possible, so it’s been really great.
L: How important was it for you to produce your own album, rather than anyone else do it?
O: We’ve worked with some producers before, we’ve worked with some amazing producers we’ve had some great opportunities, we went into the projects not necessarily wanting to do anything for an album, we just wanted to try out stuff and learn from these people and because we went in there wanting to learn we weren’t asking them to change stuff, we didn’t say “how about we do this?” we just wanted to take on any ideas they had. So, naturally the recordings came out sounding a bit more like them than us. Which was great ‘cos if we hadn’t have worked with them then the album wouldn’t have sounded like it does. But, Jamie who did produce it, who’s in the band and knows how every sound should sound and it was an honest relationship because he has no problem saying to us, “sing that better” or “play that better”, or “how about changing this”. So although he very much did produce himself, he made it more like a group activity/project producing it.
L: I’ve noticed that you’ve done some really interesting cover versions, and if other bands were to cover you in the future, who would you like to do this and why?
O: We’ve always said, well someone suggested it in an interview once...Sugababes, but Keisha’s left now so...
R: I think Girls Aloud- that would be hilarious; I’d really enjoy that. Oh- Beyoncé
O: Ah, I’m a hardcore Beyoncé fan! I went to see her concert in May and if you’re not a Beyoncé fan, I suggest you go, it was such a good concert...there was one part in the performance, when she comes out into the middle of the crowd and starts dancing with a mask on, takes it off, and you realise it’s not her- the lights go out, but she’s flying above you and starts singing, it’s amazing!
L: So can we expect those types of stunts in your gigs in the future?!
O: I think that’s why I love it, ‘cos I realise that I’m never going to be able to do that in my career, which I’m cool with but it’s amazing to see.
L: And finally, do you have any advice for students who are getting bands together?
R: Don’t rush, take your time to make sure you’re ready and just keep writing, play lots of gigs...we’ve played lots of gigs and I’m still scared!
Woodpigeon Interview
Woodpigeon Interview
Field Day Festival, London, 01.08.09
Louise Morris interviews Mark Hamilton
Woodpigeon are an ensemble of friends and musicians based in Calgary, Canada, mixing traditional folk sounds with haunting harmonies, narrative lyrics and very long song titles! The group’s format changes frequently so you are bound to hear new renditions of old favourite songs making each show unique. I met the ever (unjustifiably) self-deprecating Mark Hamilton at Field Day Festival in London’s Victoria park. Cross legged on the grass, Mark talked about fleeing from German police, only wanting to perform with mediocre bands and sightseeing the ugliest building in Britain...
LM: What was your favourite festival experience?
MH: A festival in Canada. Well, who played?...Deerhoof played. Do you know Sandra Perry, from Toronto? Well he played which was kinda special ‘cos we’ve made records together, we saw Lightning Bolts who were also amazing, Sonic Youth, just all these bands I’ve wanted to see for a long time. Um, yeah and everybody was just really kind, there were no queues for anything. Kim Gordon ran up to me at a party ‘cos she thought she knew me and then when I said hi she just walked away. So that was my Kim Gordon experience!
LM: Who would you most like to share a stage with if you had a choice-alive or dead?
MH: Alive or dead!? Gosh...I dunno every time I play with bands I really like I get so depressed because I think they’re so much better! So I’d like to share the stage with really mediocre, average bands. [laughs] To make me look better!
LM: I heard you played with Andrew Bird a while ago...
MH: There’s a perfect example! Of making yourself feel bad. We did a show once with Grizzly Bear, in a church and as they started I was just like I don’t want to do this anymore! I mean they’re incredible; it’s amazing to see what is happening out there.
LM: So how do you feel about working as a sort of collaborative of various musicians as opposed to a set group? How do you enjoy working in that way in a freer manner?
MH: Umm, it’s certainly got challenges to it, but it makes the songs really interesting for me, ‘cos some of them I have to play like a hundred times in front of a hundred different people, each song, probably by this point, has at least fifteen, twenty different ways to play it, so that’s really exciting for me. And I’m always trying to find new friends.
LM: So, how do each of you contribute to the different harmonies, when you come up with the song do others influence the making of it or bring something new to it?
MH: Yeah. Yeah there’s lots of suggestion and there’s lots of...I don’t know how to write musical notation out, so there’s lots of humming and humming seems to be like, what’s that game when you sit in a circle and everybody whispers round to each other?
LM: Chinese whispers?
MH: Chinese whispers! It seems like that. Every time you whisper a harmony to someone they then do it their own way, so that’s always really cool for me too.
LM: You seem to have a lot of really beautiful but long song titles, and I was wondering- is Love in the Time of Hopscotch inspired by Love in the Time of Cholera?
MH: [laughing] Yeah I’ve never had cholera. I thought it was like...well ‘cos I grew up in a nice Canadian city and at our school had these hopscotch fields, on the pavement, so just thinking about that really, and I think I’d just finished the book so I was just thinking about how brutal it would be to have, huh Love in the Time of Cholera! My upbringing was much commoner.
LM: A lot of your songs seem to have a storytelling element to them- were you ever consciously inspired by particular authors?
MH: Well, I wanted to write books and things. And do you know Cassio Tone the musician? Well he’s this large fellow from Portland, who plays keyboards, and he sings these really great narrative songs and I met him in Scotland before I played music. We both had similar backgrounds, we both went to film school and learned to make films but it never really worked out, and went to Edinburgh. So um he realised he could tell stories better through songs, and then I gave it a shot, partly influenced by him. I dunno. For me this method of storytelling i think works a lot better.
LM: It’s more interesting or...?
MH: I think if you were to write a book, there’s always that risk of just going on and on, but if you write a song you’ve got to fit it into a framework of some kind. And I think you can say a lot with five words.
LM: I’ve also noticed that travel seems to be an integral part of many of your songs- do you feel that it’s an essential experience to have had to become a better songwriter?
MH: Maybe to be a better person too, I think. But I’m always struggling to figure out where I should live, where’s the best place...and I thought I’d found that place when I was living in Scotland...but then it didn’t quite work out in the way that I hoped it would, so. I’m still trying to figure out the best place for me. It takes a lot of time in my head.
LM: I guess being on tour gives you that opportunity, to see more and to think.
MH: Yeah, yeah. You get to see a city in seconds. We played Ipswich the other day which I’d read had the ugliest building in the UK, the bus station, so I asked this fellow at the show to drive me out there to see it and I took pictures with the ugliest building in Britain.
LM: I think there are some contenders around London for that title...
MH: Do you have a favourite ugly building?
LM: Uh, I guess...they knocked it down though. There was this one right in the middle of a roundabout near Waterloo, it was pretty distinctive, but they bulldozed it.
MH: This British architect came to my city, William Alsop, do you know his work?
LM: I think I’ve heard it before.
MH: Well part of what he wants to do is restructure cities and make them more usable for people and he’s done an English city, I can’t remember which one, he showed us all these diagrams and then someone asked him what he would do to Calgary and he said “bulldoze it all down and start over!”
LM: What?! I also wanted to ask what you thought about this sudden emergence of Canadian talent that we’ve noticed over here. In the last few years in England it seems many of the really great new bands are Canadian. What do you think sparked this rush?
MH: Umm, I don’t know, well I think with a Canadian city you’ve got that element of being really isolated and so you’ve got kind of a bubble that you work within. The closest cities to you are typically a six hour drive and you don’t undertake that really often. As to why a lot of good stuff is coming out of Canada at the moment, I can’t really answer that, maybe it’s just...I remember reading an interview once I think it was with Björk and she said that the reason Iceland is so interesting is because there’s nothing to do but stay inside and make music or art. To an extent I think that may be true for Canada. And you know, we’re kind of making up our own culture, because we don’t really have an overriding culture, it’s not an old country, our culture is a shadow of Britain as we’ve been a colony for so long.
LM: Communities of bands seem to differ hugely depending on the place, how do you think the musical scene in Canada differs from that in say, London or Scotland?
MH: I’d say in Canada as opposed to Scotland everyone seems to be really nice and patient with each other for the most part. I don’t really know what London is like to be honest, when I come over I go to a lot of shows and there’s always a lot of crossed arms. I think there’s so much to see and to take in, people are just waiting to be really, really impressed. London is always maybe one of the shows you dread! [laughs] “oh this better be good!”
LM: I think that’s why it’s nicer for us up in Newcastle, because bands that will play big venues in London seem to play smaller ones up North.
MH: Well Newcastle’s still one of my favourite shows
LM: The one at the End bar?
MH: No it was one before that. It’s a name that starts with a “C”...
LM: The Cumberland Arms?
MH: That’s right, I loved that. That’s where we met Beth [Jeans Houghton]. We’re playing the Cluny next. Is that nice?
LM: Yeah it’s really nice, it’s supposed to be one of the best pubs up North. I wanted to ask you about your next album, what was it like working with Ryan Morey, considering he made such a big impact worldwide with a Canadian band, Arcade Fire?
MH: Well, um we sent it to him and asked if he wanted to work on it and right away he said yes I really do, and he’s just so easy and simple to work with, I mean it sounds amazing. He really did a good job with it and he always sends little nice notes and things. He’s a wonderful guy, I mean I don’t totally understand the mastering process but I just I went to see the last record being mastered and I didn’t understand it but I just wanted to be able to trust somebody with it.
LM: And how has your sound developed from the last few records?
MH: Well the next one we’ve tried to make like really, really big, really grand. We put together an orchestra of our friends who play classical instruments and we made a choir of thirty bands that play in Calgary, so it’s pretty big. The thing that I like the most about it is that I can still play the songs on my own, they hold together both ways. That’s my big plan!
LM: So you want to play more solo shows?
MH: Yeah. I guess it’s like really epic and really small at the same time, its good and Mark suddenly catches sight of another band-there’s First Aid Kit, they were awesome!
LM: I heard that your next record is really influenced by your German heritage and travels around Germany, I travelled around there myself this summer and was wondering if you had any recommendations of things to see in Berlin?!
MH: Ah well there’s this cool old amusement park called Spree park, right by Treptowerpark, I actually have another band called Spree park, it’s kind of stupid dance-rock. And Spree park is this amusement park that closed down in 1989 and its sat derelict, there was a couple of times that I’ve been able to jump the fence and climb in and you just wander around all these old roller coasters falling down, this ferris wheel that’s slanted and all these old rotting rides, funhouses and things. I remember the next time I went, I took a friend who’s a photographer and within five minutes it was swarming with security, so we had to hide under like this rotting umbrella in minus 10 weather and it was raining and gross, and we were sat there for 3 hours and they would actually walk by our heads, that’s how close they got. Um so after 3 hours we were like let’s just forget it, so we jumped up and ran, and jumped the fence again!
LM: Did they chase you?
MH: They did a little bit! It’s worth seeing if you can make your way in.
LM: Well thank you for your time, its been really interesting to talk to you, i guess you’d better get ready!
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