Thanks so much to Jimmy Arfosea for the interview! Some weeks ago I was reviewing the OVVK Recordings Bandcamp as there were many releases available to stream by Les Autres. Then Jimmy got in touch and it was a superb opportunity to do an interview for the blog! Les Autres was one of the most important bands in the French indiepop scene of the 90s and released an album and a bunch of singles mostly on the label Cornflakes Zoo. It is then a good time to rediscover them, even more so as they do have a CD compilation with unreleased bits and bobs that is still available on Jigsaw Records.

++ Hi Jimmy! Thanks so much for getting in touch! How are you? You are not in Rennes anymore, right, but in Nantes, how come?

Hi Roque ! Pretty good thanks.
Oh actually i was the only member coming from Nantes. When i joined the band i was starting studies in Rennes. Rennes and Nantes are like twin cities only like 70 miles from each other.

++ I hear you are still making music these days with your band Ocean of Embers. Tell me a bit about this band? Have you released anything so far? Are there any similarities with Les Autres?

I started An Ocean Of Embers in september 2017 with Elsa Muller on vocals.
I lost myself in various projects during years from electronica to ambient post-rock but i wasn’t really satisfied with my productions apart of Extreme Shoegaze, the experimental project i made with my friends Pascal Riffaud and Camille Michel.
In 2012 i felt like coming back to shoegaze. I have a lot of demos that i’m now ready to finalyze.
There will be four digital singles before releasing an album. I self-released two of them on Ovvk Recordings and i’m looking for a real label to release the album on vinyl or CD.

The singles are available on Bandcamp : https://aooe.bandcamp.com/

And i’m currently working on a Moose cover to be released on The Blog That Celebrates Itself in August.

An Ocean Of Embers have probably similarities with Les Autres in the manner of building harmonic progressions. I have reflexes acquired during these years in the band.

++ Are you still in touch to this day with the rest of the band? What are you all up to?

Yes, specially with Olivier, the singer of the band. He released recently a very good indie rock album on Jigsaw Records with his new band Megrim.

https://jigsawrecords.bandcamp.com/album/pzl137-megrim-families

Morgan, the bassist, was in the excellent electronica/IDM band Mils in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. He also produced M83 who were fans of Les Autres in their teenage years. He has now an experimental electronic project named Bertùf, focusing on circuit bending recently.

David, the drummer, is a photographer now. I’m not sure if he’s still playing music.

++ I heard that Les Autres will be having exciting news very soon with a limited 7″ single coming out. Tell me about that! Which songs will appear on it? When was it recorded? When will it be available?

It’s out now ! It was released on Fissile, a label releasing only lathe cuts. Therefore it’s a very limited edition. The label is led by Stéphane from the band Acetate Zero, one of the best french bands in my opinion.
All tracks were the last ever recorded songs after our album in a period when we were including new influences in our music : slowcore, early post-rock, minimalism… The lead track sounds a lot like Slint’s Spiderland while the two other tracks sound a bit like Gastr Del Sol and Bark Psychosis. This last track is only available on the digital version of the single on Ovvk Recordings : https://ovvkrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/my-friend-henry

++ Let’s start from the beginning. Like what are your first musical memories? What was the first instrument did you get and how?

I can’t tell for the other members but the first vinyl i bought was Talk Talk’s It’s My Life in 1984 and the first indie vinyl i owned was McCarthy’s Keep An Open Mind Or Else. McCarthy is still one of my favorite band ever.
I bought a bass at the age of 17. I was working in a factory at that time and bought it as soon as i saved the money !

++ Had any of you been involved with other bands prior to Les Autres?

Actually the three other members met when they were only 16 or 17. They started to play under the moniker Stern. Their music was already very good in my opinion. Their style was Cold Wave but with a slight touch of Jangly Pop wich made their sound original and interesting. Some of their recordings are available on the band’s Bandcamp.

Meanwhile i was playing in a band in Nantes for which i wrote my first songs. After i moved to Rennes , three members of this band ended in a band called Crash who made an album and opened for House Of Love, BMX Bandits, The Frank & Walters…

++ Were all of you originally from Rennes?

All except me from Nantes.

++ How was Rennes back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

We were friends with the twee pop band Des Garçons Ordinaires and Guitare Boy who made a split flexi single with Stereolab. Also with In Sense, a band very Too Pure oriented musically who never released anything officially but whose members ended up with our bassist forming Mils.

Rennes was the city for indie pop in France in the early 90’s. A nice place to live with a lot of gigs in bars. The classical venue for indie gigs since the 70’s was Ubu and there was an indie record store, Rennes Musique, where local bands could sell their demos.

++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

The other members started when they were like 16-17 years old, a few years before i moved to Rennes for my studies. Two of them were in the same school if i remember well.

As soon as i was in Rennes, i pinned an ad at university. The drummer saw it and they called me. The funny thing is that they wanted to recruit a female singer playing guitar and i was a male bassist. But it worked so well between us that we decided that i would learn how to play guitar.
Five weeks after my first gig ever on guitar we were supposed to open for Blur at Ubu but hopefully for me it was cancelled a bit later 🙂

++ Why the name Les Autres?

Nobody remembers how it was really chosen but i think it was by opening a dictionnary randomly.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

During most of our career we had a rehearsal room where to play at least two nights per week.

Usually someone, most of the time Olivier the singer, would come with a basic chord grid and the song was built jamming around that base. That’s probably why our songs were known for having complex structures for a pop band.

++ And how did it happen that some songs were in French, some others in English? What came easiest to you?

On the studio demo the guys made before i joined the band (I’ve Lost Everything I Held) all the songs were in english. But Olivier was more cumfortable writing in french. After the first single we all agreed that english worked better on noisy pop. We all wrote lyrics for the band. In particular David, the drummer who was studying english. He would either write his own lyrics or translate Olivier’s ideas.

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

At the beginning of the band we were often compared to Pale Saints and The Boo Radleys. But our sound evolved dramatically a bit before our second single Hoppy, progressively being more influenced by american bands. And i would say that on the album the main influence was Codeine but also Idaho, Sonic Youth, Swell, Pavement, Gastr Del Sol, Shellac… Even Don Caballero !

++ Just out of curiosity, what would be your favourite all-time French indie bands?

I don’t know if you know that one : Carmine. They were fantastic.
Acetate Zero are great too and they’re still playing !

++ Your first release was a 7″ on Cornflakes Zoo (Zoo 1). Do tell me how did you end up signing to this label and how was your relationship with them?

In spring 1992, when our sound was evolving to shoegaze, one of our demos came to the ears of Martial Solis who was running the fanzine Onion’s Soup. He was living in Bordeaux and knew Stéphane Teynie, the owner of Cornflakes Zoo based in the same city.
Living in Rennes, we didn’t have a close relationship but things were working well between the label and the band.

++ This first 7″ was “Belle Est Ta Journée” that had two songs. It was recorded at Studio Son Colombier. Was it your first experience at a proper recording? And how did that go?

The other members already had an experience in studio before when they recorded I’ve Lost Everything I Held, a recording that i like a lot.

On the opposite i think that the sound on the first single was awful and the engineer did a very bad work. I have master copies on cassette and i’ll remaster this single soon as i’m in the process of remastering chronollogically everything we’ve done.

That bad experience in studio is the reason why we decided to record everything by ourselves after that. The second single which sounds far better was recorded in Olivier’s kitchen on a 4 track cassette recorder.
For the album we bought a 8 track tape recorder and recorded in the caves of a castle.

++ And do tell, who is in that picture of the sleeve?

Nice sleeve isn’t it ? I think she was the little sister or cousin of the designer. The sleeve is nice. We loved dit. Disappointed with the sound but at least the design was nice, in the like of Sarah Records.

The funny thing is that for the album cover, Morgan, the bassist, had a crush on that photography in an exhibition. Well, the photographer, a girl our age, actually photographed her little sister too.

++ Your second 7″ came out again on Cornflakes Zoo. Wondering how was your relationship with the other bands on this label? Did you happen to play with them often? Was there some sort of scene?

Yes there was a label festival two succesive years in Bordeaux and a in Paris shortly before the recording of the album. We played with most of the french bands of the label. Olympia and Des Garçons Ordinaires were from Rennes too.

++ Afterwards you released your album, “Le Retour À La Lune”, in 1994. How was the album received? Was it much different recording an album than the singles?

The album was pressed in 1994 and released in january 1995. It was well received by most of the press but the sellings were poor because the label ended in 1995 just after the release (it started again in 1998 with the release of Shrink by The Notwist).

Yes, you’re right it was very different. We wanted to have a total control on the sound so we recorded and mixed the album ourselves on that 8 track tape recorder. We knew that a lot of great albums, like the first Swell, were recorded on that kind of recorder.

We took our time to record the album, two months to record nine songs.
We wanted to experiment. That’s why there are tape samples on the album. And we wanted the album to sound coherent like a concept album, like a soundtrack.
Most of the engineering was made by Olivier and Morgan but all of us were involved and would give ideas on the sound, on how to set a guitar amplifier, how to equalize etc…

++ I keep seeing a trend with the art for your records, some evocative photography. Who took care of the art/design? Was it you or the label?

On the first single the label did the job. But on the second single and the album we decided everything about the artwork and Morgan did the design.
With the remasters i release on Ovvk Recordings i try to create designs that work with the artworks our records had in the 90’s.

++ There is a split 7″ with two other bands, Antiseptic Beauty and Mosaic Eyes on the Contrast label. I’m quite curious about this label as it was based in Belgium, which is not that common I’d say. Anything you could tell me about them? How did they contact you? Did you ever meet ?

The label was led by Thierry Nollet and Nicolas Cendrowicz. They were also involved in a european indie radios network. Thanks to them everything started for us because they recommanded the band to Martial Solis from the fanzine Onion’s Soup and who later played one of our first demos to Stéphane Teynie of Cornflakes Zoo.
This demo was our first shoegaze demo recorded in spring 1992 in an attic on the 4 track cassette recorder of Des Garçons Ordinaires. If i remember well ! This 5 tracks demo will be the next remaster i’ll release after the summer. Three of these tracks were re-recorded later for our first single and this split single on Contrast International.
Sadly we never met the guys of the label. We owe them a lot ! We were very happy to be on this split single. Mosaic Eyes and Antiseptic Beauty were excellent bands and so was the label.

++ Your last proper release came out two years ago on Jigsaw Records. It was called “Backwards” and it was a collection of bits and pieces from different releases and recordings. This is still available and it may be a good introduction for people to your music. How did this release came about many years after the band’s demise and why decide for this sort of compilation instead of perhaps one that included all your previous releases?

I contacted Chris of Jigsaw when i was looking for a label for my new shoegaze project wich wasn’t named An Ocean Of Embers yet.
Chris is not that much into shoegaze and i think that my project wasn’t ready at that time anyway and i didn’t even have a singer.
But when Chris heard that i’m an ex-member of Les Autres he told me that he remembered well the band and that he was interested in releasing unreleased material if there was some.
It was cool to see a CD release of the band 21 years after our last one. The only thing i regret is that the remasters i made weren’t as good as the ones i’m technically able to make now as i’ve studied sound engineering meanwhile. That’s why i remaster step by step all the band’s material on Ovvk Recordings.

++ What is Ovvk Recordings? I notice you have the intention to rescue old recordings of Les Autres and some other side projects? Where do these recordings come from?

Ovvk Recordings is a digital label i started in 2010 with a friend who makes music under the moniker Triton, a nice ambient electronica project. When we started we wanted to release music mainly from various electronic styles (IDM, Glitch, Drones…). But when i started the band Extreme Shoegaze and when my friend had to leave the label, i decided to focus on everything wich is related to noisy and experimental guitars.

Ovvk Archives is a sub-label where to release things that were related to Les Autres in the 90’s, side and solo projects and friends projects.
One of the next releases will be an excellent Guitare Boy demo.

++ One of this releasas is a CDR called “Ubu 1991”. I notice that you, Jimmy, don’t appear on the band credits. You weren’t in the band yet in 91? And how was that gig? how was that venue?

I joined the band in november 1991. I think that this gig was good for the band to increase their fame locally. The soundboard recording is excellent. Sadly we don’t have many live recordings like that.

++ Another one is “I’ve Lost Everything I Held” and “Garden” from 1991. I’m quite curious, why weren’t none of this Ovvk releases out back in the 90s? Or maybe they were in different formats? Maybe on cassettes?

Yes exactly. I’ve Lost Everything I Held was a demo tape, recorded in good conditions in studio. One of the best recordings of the band in my opinion. The demo tape was sold locally only and sent to venues and labels.

++ Then there is the “Stern EP” which dates from 1990 and that also you have released as a CDR. This might be the earliest recordings by the band? Or not? Are there earlier ones?

There might have been earlier recordings but i think that everything was lost…

++ Back in the 90s you were very involved in the tape compilation scene. You appeared on so many of them. How did that work out? How would one end up on these tapes? How was the process?

The first we were involved in was released by In The Limelight a local cassette label. It was ran by Thomas Leyrie who saw us on stage. We owe a lot to him too ! This label did a good job for the indie french bands in the early 90’s.

After our first single, labels would simply contact us to have us on tape compilations. There was this international network of tape labels owners, fanzines writers. All these people would write to each other. There was this « pen pal » spirit you know, thanks to fanzines mostly that would put people in contact, by leaving an adress or a phone number. It was before the internet. It was a nice period. Most of the time mails themselves were little pieces of art. Mail art.

++ And from the many tapes that you appeared which one would be your favourite?

My favorite tapes we were involved in would be Bedroom Palace on Lo-Fi Recordings and Shattered Fragments on Fluff because Hood were on them long before their success.

Whirl-Wheels on CD was great too. It was the first ever release on ShelfLife Records ! A must-have. We were happy to be on CD with Boyracer, Penelope Trip, They Go Boom !! Bands that we liked a lot.

++ There are a few that I would love to know more, probably you don’t remember them, but if you do, what do you know of the “In the Limelight” tape? Who were behind it? Or the “Garage-Flowers” one?

I told about In The Limelight. About Garage Flowers i don’t know much apart that the guy was german and Baby Talk was basically a fanzine if i remember well.

++ Then there’s a curious compilation called “Shopping in Rennes”. Is that an all Rennes bands compilation perhaps?

Haha exactly ! Emmanuel, drummer of Des Garçons Ordinaires made a remix of our song Outside My Ken on that one. Long after the end of the band.

++ Are there more unreleased songs by the band?

There are some unfinished songs, unreleased versions and one live soundboard recording from a Cornflakes Zoo festival. But almost everything that was recorded on demo or in studio was released in some form. Some were removed by me from the band’s Bandcamp because i now wish to release them in better quality, better remasters.
The remaining unreleased songs are unfinished demos or rehearsals. There are rehearsals of songs we were working on for a second album when our sound was evolving to Post Rock. I’ll release them someday.

++ There are so many songs by Les Autres, so wondering if you had to pick a top five of favourite songs by the band, what would it be and why?

Hmm , i’d pick songs from different periods then…

« Si Ridicule Maintenant », a song from our first shoegaze demo that i’ll release after the summer.
« Leave Me Alone » a shoegaze song wich was unreleased until the Backwards compilation.
I love the end of « Pourquoi La fin ? » on the second single, it sounds so tragic, very intense.
« Letterboxes Symmetry » wich is one of the highlights of the album in my opinion.
I love the album version of « Hoppy ». Love the idea that it’s a completly different version from the single. And a nice tribute to Codeine’s sound in someways.

++ Was there any interest from other labels? Maybe abroad?

Yes. From David of Liechtenstein Girl who was running the label Fluff where there were Aspidistra, Hood, Boyracer and his own band.
He took one track on his compilation Shattered Fragments and said he was interested in releasing an EP.
In the same period we had the opportunity to record in a 24 track studio at the University of Brest where a friend of us, Damien Bertrand, was studying sound engineering. He later produced the full lengh of Des Garçons Ordinaires and Clair, Newell…
The tracks we recorded there where probably the most shoegaze we ever made with the songs of Hoppy EP. They are on Backwards.
I’ll remaster all these tracks someday and put them together to make a coherent shoegaze album. The one that i think we should have released in 1993 on Fluff or elsewhere instead of releasing Hoppy and leaving the other songs unreleased.

++ What about gigs? Any anecdotes that you can share?

Yes. In february 1993 when we opened for The Wedding Present in Bordeaux.
Our van broke down on the highway outside Bordeaux and one hour before playing we were at fifty miles from the venue.
When we came on stage there were already hundreds of people in the audience and we had to set everything on stage in front of them. Five minutes later we were playing without having done a proper soundcheck.
But everything went well and David Gedge told us kind words on our music after the show.

++ I see a very cool live video of you playing at a venue called Le Flore in Rennes, 1994. Here you cover the Lavender Faction, that is amazing really. It is not that common to see bands covering obscure bands. Were you big fans? What other covers did you use to do? And what are your memories of that gig?

No particular memory of that gig as it was only a small one in a bar in Rennes. But sadly, it’s the only video existing on the band.
We loved The Lavender Faction. Their Ride EP was fantastic. A good exemple of Noise Pop at a time when people weren’t using the word shoegaze. From My Bloody Valentine to Lavender Faction, everything that had noisy guitars was Noise Pop or Noisy Pop, an evolution of post punk through Anorak Pop etc…
Among the obscure bands we loved The Becketts, The Charlottes, The Nightblooms and many others.
During our career we only made three covers : Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix, Who Loves The Sun by The Velvet Undergroud and Ride by The Lavender Faction.
Sadly we never made a proper recording of this cover. There’s only an unfinished demo with no vocals.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?

Yes. A very good gig actually. The same month, in march 1994, we played at Arapaho in Paris for the Cornflakes Zoo Festival. I remember that we were reaching a very, very good level on stage as you can guess on this video in the bar. That gig in Arapaho was just perfect and we were very sober on stage. By sober, i mean like most of shoegaze bands we wouldn’t posture at all. The music alone would do the job. And our sound was perfect. In this period, the last year of the band, a soundcheck would last 10 minutes. We only had to play two or three chords and the sound was perfect. We had very good settings. I remember seing Codeine doing a soundcheck like that. John Engle playing two chords, Stephen Immerwahr singing La Vie En Rose a capella and it was done.

++ When and why did Les Autres stop making music? And what happened immediately after?

The album was released in January 1995 and in April Stéphane of Cornflakes Zoo told us he was cancelling the label. We were discouraged.
Morgan was already playing with Mils and David wasn’t satisfied with the way we were taking musically. He wanted to play something simplier, just something pop. Only Olivier and I wanted to carry on but we were so discouraged after putting so much energy in producing an album that we liked…

++ And have you been involved in any other bands after the demise of Les Autres?

Morgan made several albums with Mils, a band we became friends with.
And let’s say that Olivier and I are back with Megrim and An Ocean Of Embers. I’m very happy that it happens now in a period when people show interest for what we’ve done in the 1990’s.
In the 2000’s i lost myself trying to play IDM without any device, only softwares. It was a waste of time really.
But in 2010, everything started again when i started Extreme Shoegaze with my friends Camille Michel and Pascal Riffaud. It’s an experimental guitar band. I’m proud of this project. We’ve done good stuff.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

Not really. There was this magazine Les Inrockuptibles leading the french musical press. They hated french bands singing in english. So most of french indie bands were condemned to remain underground in France.

++ What about from fanzines?

Fanzines were cool. The exact opposite. They were a great support for bands like our. And they wouldn’t lose their time writing about bands they don’t like. They were positive, all the time.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I have a passion for the golden age of cinema from the beginnings to the 70’s. I’m an absolute fan of Andreï Tarkovsky who is, i believe, one of the greatest artists of all times.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

Hard to say. We didn’t really have an highlight…

++ Never visited Rennes (though I did stop by the train station on the way to Mt. Saint Michel) but would love to go one day, maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks I should try?

Haha, you should go to Brocéliande between Rennes and Vannes. It’s the forest of Merlin The Wizard ! And eat some crèpes 😉

++ Thanks again Jimmy! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I only want to thank you too Roque ! Thanks for the invitation. And people, check out An Ocean Of Embers and Megrim ! And Les Autres re-releases of course 🙂

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Listen
Les Autres – Ce Moment​-​Là

Thanks so much to Yuichi Abe for the interview! I wrote a few weeks ago about Archaic Smile on the blog and thanks to some twitter Japanese friends I was pointed out to Yuichi. Happily Yuichi was up for answering my questions and finally I get to know more about his terrific band. Archaic Smile only released an album back in the day on the Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club and appeared on a few compilations. Then the band just went silent. For those in love with Japanese pop, definitely have a read and a listen!

++ Hi Yuichi! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still based in Japan?

Yes, I have been living in Japan.

++ Are you still making music these days?

No. I am very busy these days because I am a pediatrician and a neurologist. But I often play the guitar at home.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?

When I was in my early teens, I was interested in Yellow Magic Orchestra. They looked unconventional and cool and were very popular in Japan. And I also loved Culture Club, A-ha, and so on. In my late teens, I become aware of Punk Rock and new wave music such as New Order, the Smiths, JAMC, and Japanese Punk Bands. When I was twenty years old, The Flipper’s Guitar made their debut and looked very cool. So I became a lover of pop music released by independent labels such as Sarah records, Cherry Red, Rough Trade and so on.
The first instrument I played was a guitar I got from the garbage, and I taught myself guitar.

++ Were you involved in other bands before Archaic Smile? 

When I was a university student In 1991 in Yokohama, Japan, the first band I joined was called Je t’aime, this band played original songs in Japanese. Next in 1993, I played bass guitar in a band called “the South pole the third”. In this band, I met Osamu Sakai, he became a member of Archaic Smile later. In the fall of 1993 in Fukushima, Japan, Osamu and me got together with Archaic smile!!

++ When did the Archaic Smile start as a band? Were you based in Tokyo or which city? 

In 1993, Archaic Smile started as a band covering songs of “Bridge”, one of the popular bands in Japan. Archaic Smile consisted of Miyuki on vocals, two guitar players Osamu and Tada, keyboards by Kumi, drums by Toshi, and bass by me. We were classmates of a medical university in Fukushima, Japan. We soon played our songs. Soon after I was wring songs for Archaic Smile, and we began to play them. We made two original tapes (in 1995, 1996). After that, unfortunately, this first version of Archaic Smile disbanded in 1996.

I was at a loss as to what to do, but Osamu, Kumi and me restart Archaic Smile in 1996. During this time, we wrote some songs and made self-released tapes and CD-R. In addition, our song “And birds ARE singing” was packed in “Pop Japanese Style” (Flavour of Sound, 1998). During this time, we had an offer from Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club by Mike, and he kindly released CD, “In This Night…” and made a video clip of “ Square Love” which was included in a compilation video. In 1999, we had to be medical physicians, and the 2nd version of Archaic Smile came to an end.

In 1999, I moved in Tokyo and I began to play again solo. And in 2001, I started to play with Yoshie, a new member of Archaic Smile. We had played in Archaic smile from 2001 to 2003. In 2018, we remain on a break.

++ What bands do you liked? 

I like bands and labels: Aztec Camera, The Smiths, Joy Division, New Order, JAMC, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Bell and Sebastian, Softies, Friends, McCarthy, Stereolab, Tiger Trap, Sarah records’s bands especially BlueBoy, Heavenly, Another Sunny Day, CherryRed, Rough Trade Tallulah Gosh and more. Of course, The Flipper’s guitar too.

Now I like: Swimming tapes, Luby Sparks, Cornelius, Day Wave, Radio Dept. and more. Recently in Japan, many music festival were held in every summer, and I often go to see and enjoy many bands.

++ Why the name Archaic Smile? 

As said above, I was inspired by Miyuki’s smile which looked like Buddha’s smile, so the name “Archaic Smile”.

++ I noticed all of you wrote the songs. How was the creative process for you? 

I was inspired by my experience and my day-to-day life to write songs.

++ Where did you usually practice?

I did at home or studio in our university.

++ And who would you say were influences of the band?

As written above. In addition, some titles of our songs were derived from my favorite songs: “And birds ARE singing” was inspired from “And the birds aren’t singing” by Heavenly, and “The boy wounded in his side” was named after “the boy with thorn in his side by the Smiths.

++ What would be your top five Japanese indiepop bands all-time?

800 Cherries, Luby Sparks, Bridge, Luminous Orange, Daffodil 19, Three Berry Icecream

++ Do tell me too why did you prefer to sing in English and not in Japanese? Did you write any Japanese songs?

In the past, I had written some songs in Japanese. Of course I love Japanese, but always write a song in English because I wanted to play for listeners in the world.

++ Someone that surprised me was that you released your album in the USA and not in Japan. Was there no interest in Japan for your music? Or you liked the idea of releasing abroad perhaps?

I don’t know why is that. Perhaps this is because we played in Fukushima where it is a rural city in japan, we sang and played in English, so maybe that’s why an overseas label gave us this chance.

++ And how did you end up releasing with the Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club? How was your relationship with them?

A Japanese band “Aikagi” introduced us to the owner of BBPTC, Mike Landucci.

++ Before recording the album had you made any other recordings? Perhaps demo tapes?

As mentioned above, we made and released several tapes and CD-R.

++ Where was the album recorded and who produced it? Any anecdotes you can share from the recording session?

We were making, producing, and recording our songs by ourselves using “VS-880” by Roland.

++ Why the name of the album “In This Night, The Red Guitar Whispers”? What’s the story behind it?

I had and played a red guitar, Tennessee Rose, G6119 made by Gretchen.

++ One of my favourite songs in the album is “Makes Me Blind”. What inspired this song?

I have no idea because this song was written by Osamu.

++ And for you, what would be your favourite song by Archaic Smile and why?

I love all songs but especially like “And bird ARE singing???” I don’t decide one.

++ You contributed songs to various compilations, but one that surprised me is the one called “A Young Is…” as it was a Hong Kong label that released it. Hong Kong wasn’t and isn’t much of an indiepop country, do you remember who were behind it? And how did they find you?

One day, all of sudden, I had their offer. I think wherever we go there are people who love guitar pop musics.

++ How come there were no more releases by Archaic Smile?

There ware some old tapes and CD-R you don’t know.

++ Are there more unreleased songs by the band? 

Some songs remain unreleased.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What were the best gigs you remember?

Our last gig was held in 2003, in Tokyo.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? 

In a gig, Viva pop vol. 2, held in Fukushima in 1998, I made a mistake at the beginning of the song called “Behind Your Eyes”.

++ When and why did Archaic Smile stop making music? Did you continue making music after? I noticed you collaborated with Three Berry Icecream and also did solo gigs, right?

The last gig was held in 2003 and since I usually play guitar at home. As my other activities, I was a DJ in clubs and a DJ on Radio. I am often playing guitar but I have no time to make songs because I am a medical physician in a national hospital for children. Three Berry Icecream by Mayumi is a friend of mine. In addition, Tomomi from Red Go-Cart and Usuda from Dronjo kept by 4 were friends of mine.

++ And what about the other band members? Were they involved in other bands?

The last member, Yoshie makes musics for Anime. Everyone else of all members don’t play music because they are all medical doctors.

++ There was also a video recorded for the song “Square Love”. Where was it recorded? How was that experience? And will it be available in Youtube someday?

That video film was recorded in Jan 1999. It was just before the time when we took the national exam for medical doctors. Film directors listened our song before they made our video. I don’t have the soft in digital file.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

Around 1996 and 1998, An local FM radio and a local TV featured Archaic Smile. After that, I became a DJ on a local FM radio. The radio show was called “Fukushima neo-acoustic night”

++ What about from fanzines?

Some fanzines and music magazine featured Archaic Smile.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

My hobbies are: Playing guitar, Fishing, and playing with a robot dog, “Aibo”.

++ Looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

A song called “And birds ARE singing was included in a compilation CD, “Pop Japanese Style” in 1998.

++ Never visited Japan. So maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights in your town that I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try? 

I recommend places to visit in Japan such as Asakusa, Akihabara, and Marunouchi and Ginza around Tokyo station (Tokyo), Nikko (Tochigi, a little far away from Tokyo), Kamakura (Kanagawa, nearby Tokyo), and Kyoto (Kyoto). You can eat many various Japanese foods in Tukiji Jogai (near Ginza, Tokyo), and Asakusa. I think you will like Sushi, Tempura, Soba, Udon, Okonomiyaki, Ramen, Yakitori, Gyudon, Edamame, Tohu and more.

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Listen
Archaic Smile – It Makes Me Blind

Thanks a lot to Matt and Geoff for the interview! I wrote just a few weeks ago about the Dudley, UK, band The Mercenary Tree Freaks, who were around in the early 90s. They didn’t release any records but did appear on a few compilations and released a bunch of demo tapes. I liked their music and even found a website, but there was really not much information about them. So I asked them for an interview so they could tell the whole story about the band!

++ Hi Matt & Geoff! Thanks so much for getting in touch! How are you? Where are you based now? Still in Dudley?

Matt: I’m good thanks and now live about 2 miles from Dudley.

Geoff: I’m good too, I actually made it to Dudley!

Matt: I think the other two have much posher addresses; Martin is in Leamington Spa while Steve is  living it up in Surrey’s stockbroker belt.

++ I believe you all are still in touch. What are you up to? Are you still involved with music?

Matt: After MTF ended we all went our own way, all of us left the Midlands. It was 13 years before I met up with Geoff again. 21 years before Geoff and I met up with Martin and 26 years before we saw Steve again. Blokes are so rubbish at keeping in touch.

Geoff: After MTF I jumped straight into another band- a 3 piece post punk band called ‘Phantom Planet’ who then became ‘Push The planet’ and finally ‘Subway’ that lasted around 2 years and we had a similar setup to MTF whereas we would release demo cassettes and sell Tshirts. I then moved away and did nothing musically for over ten years. After returning to the Midlands I Joined a band called ‘The Knowing’ a 4 piece made up of a couple of work colleagues and the Bass player from Subway, this again though only lasted around 18 months. The last 12 months I have been working on an electronica/ sound track project called Agents of Evolution- we have been gigging locally and been involved with a couple of film festivals- we play live to a backdrop of horror/ sci-fi influenced visuals!

++ Let’s start from the beginning. Like what are your first musical memories? What was the first instrument did you get and how?

Matt: I loved The Wombles as kid and wanted a Gibson flying V just like Wellington Womble’s. Then I saw Thin Lizzy in 1979 and that was it, I wanted to be a rock guitarist. 12 months later I had a cheap Les Paul copy and could just about manage the riff to ‘Smoke on the Water’. I’ve been through about 15 guitars since, but never did get a Flying V, I now own a proper Gibson Les Paul!

Geoff: Drums- my parents pressurised us into learning a musical instrument- I think I just chose the one that would give them the most grief!

++ Had any of you been involved with other bands prior to the Mercenary Tree Freaks?

Matt: Loads, Argon & Sea Witch were both (shockingly awful) metal bands with school mates. The Imps of the Perverse (shockingly awful Bauhaus wanna bes). The Bobbles (just two of us with amped up acoustics belting out Beatles songs in Portugal). Incee Wincee Spider (post punk, not quite goth) was where I met Steve, from there Oddfellows 151 (REM wanna bes) morphed into MTF after a fall out with the guitarist.

Geoff: just a couple of school ‘garage’ band really, nothing serious- MTF were the first band I played with that gigged on a regular basis and actually recorded something!

++ Were all of you originally from Dudley?

Matt: Actually, not one of us came from Dudley, we were all quite close to it though, and rightly or wrongly, we chose to distance ourselves from the Stourbridge bands.

Geoff: We all lived in the leafy suburban outskirts.

++ How was Dudley back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores?

Geoff: Dudley and Stourbridge pretty much blended into one for me, the obvious bands I liked all hung around the area- Neds, PWEI and The Wonder stuff. It was such a vibrant time for music and most people we knew were in a band- you could go see up and coming bands most nights of the week and JBs seemed to have the best of them- you got to see bands like Blur, Jesus Jones, Ride, The levellers and The Stone Roses just as they were breaking- great times for live music.

Matt: I liked Fretblanket, they used to support us, then they overtook us and we supported them.

++ What about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands? I heard there was a popular one called JB’s?

Geoff: Think I just answered this one!

Matt: The Mitre in Stourbridge, The Source in Worsdley, The Hummingbird and Barrel Organ in Birmingham.

++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

Matt: Steve and I came from Oddfellows 151, with the Doc (drums). Martin answered an ad in local music shop. The Doc left after our first demo, we then had another drummer briefly before we just used a drum machine until Geoff came along a year later.

Geoff: I answered an advert for a drummer wanted in local magazine, spoke to Steve and arranged to go see MTF at Wolverhampton and go along for a rehearsal- Matt was a little frosty towards me at first as he wanted to keep the drum machine, until I told him we could keep both me and the drum machine- I then became a ‘stand up’ drummer/ drum machine programmer and our relationship blossomed!

++ Why the name Mercenary Tree Freaks?

Matt: Ugh, I never liked it, much preferred just MTF. The Doc (our original drummer) wanted to be called Lemon Tree Creek, Steve misheard it as Lemon Tree Freaks, we dropped the Lemon and ended up with Mercenary from a random word point in a copy of Macbeth!

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Matt: I used to put the bare bones of a song together, words and rough intro, verse, chorus then take it to our rehearsal room behind Donovan’s Music in Stourbridge, where everyone would add their own touches to it.

Geoff: I remember going around to Matt’s mum and dads house once a week to program the drum machine to any new songs we were working on (and play Sonic the hedgehog)

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

Matt: When we started we weren’t sure what we wanted to sound like. It was a bit confused. In fact our musical tastes were quite diverse, from Metallica to Duran Duran! Then we did have a brief The Wonder Stuff period. In fact, it was only when Geoff came along that we developed our own identity. Having heard ‘Michelin Man’ do you think we sound like anyone?

Geoff: As I said earlier this was such a great time for music- I worked in a record shop and so got to listen to loads of stuff- I’d count it all as influence!

++ The first time I heard your music was through the Elefant Records 7″ compilation “La Línea del Arco” from 1992. How did you end up contributing a song to this compilation, on a Spanish label?

Matt: Elefant contacted us, I think they had picked up on us from a fanzine interview.

++ And before this recording, had you put out anything at all? Perhaps demo tapes?

Matt: Yeah, we put out five demo tapes. Demo-One (no idea who we sounded like on this 3 song one; Disintergrating, Mascara and I really can’t remember the last song), Swooosh (four songs from our The Wonder Stuff period; Marshmellow Brain, Alfie Can’t Stop, Silly Stupid Eyes and Mr Twilight). Geoff joined after those first two and it gets better from there; 152 or Faster (three songs, sadly recorded at a poor studio; Bitter End, Shot Down Big Sky and Overdose[a song from Incee Wincee Spider days]). Then we started using the studio where The Wonder Stuff recorded their early b-sides. Ou est le canard? (3 songs; Colonel Clutz, Mania Maniac and Beautifully Absurd) and finally The Cogwinder (I think our four finest songs; Michelin Man, Bitter End, Cynicism and One for the Disco Kids).

++ The song that appeared on that 7″ was “Michelin Man”, wondering if you could tell me the story behind this song?

Matt: It was a self-deprecating look at growing old and fat. I think we had been over doing the fast food and beer while hanging around to sound check at gigs.

++ You were to appear on more compilations in the 90s. How was that tape comp scene? How did people find out about the new tapes? How did you find out that there was a new compilation you could contribute to?

Matt: It was strange, sometimes we’d be asked to contribute, other times I think they just lifted our songs from our demos without even letting us know.

++ And who is “Colonel Clutz”?

Matt: Not a real person, just sort of inspired by one of the friendly-fire incidents in the 1991 Gulf War. Whether he was based on British or an American colonel, you can make your own mind up.

++ And how come you set up a web, so many years after?

Matt: I think this is Steve’s handiwork? Did you know about it Geoff?

Geoff: No, not until you found it. They must be his favourite songs, ‘cos only ‘Michelin Man’ was on The Cogwinder of the four there.

++ Was there any interest from any labels? I would have thought Elefant would have been interasted?

Matt: Sony were interested and we also had a vague interest from Food (Blur’s label).

Geoff: Oh yeah, Food, do you remember when we crashed a management meeting at their offices, after a few in the pub? I think they went off us after that.

++ Did you consider self-releasing?

Matt: We’d self funded a 7” when in Incee Wincee Spider. That put us off ever going down that path again, we were much happier with the cost of producing demo tapes. Geoff used to sell them in his record shop. I think we made the top ten a couple of times?

Geoff: And we did put all our money into T-Shirts, I think we sold more t-shirts than tapes.

++ Are there any more unreleased recordings by the band?

Matt: No, everything we ever recorded appears on the five demo tapes. There were about four other songs that would have been recorded had we not split.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What were the best ones that you remember?

Matt: I lost count, I guess over the 3 years of MTF we probably played around 100 gigs. Before Geoff joined it has to be at Wolverhampton’s Wulfrun Hall in front of 700 people. JBs was always a good gig and I used to like playing at the Sir George Robey in London.

++ It is mentioned that you supported Blur once. How was that?

Geoff: We did an interview in a local paper where we mentioned we had been on Japanese TV with Blur and I think he took ‘artistic licence’ with it.

Matt: I think it was good job we never supported them, in the green room Alex James offered Geoff a very warm can of beer. We don’t think the liquid was beer.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?

Matt: Can you remember when Steve knocked himself out at the Hummingbird in Birmingham during the second song? He played the rest of the gig, but I’m not sure he was playing the same songs as us. Another bad one was when we left Geoff’s drum kit outside the venue, how we missed a drum kit while loading the van? I assume beer was involved.

Geoff: There was The Fire Station in Oxford, actually a good gig but only there was only the bar staff in there. And also, once at JBs we got a whole crate of Red Stripe as a rider, we probably shouldn’t have touched it until after the set.

++ When and why did the Mercenary Tree Freaks split? What happened immediately after?

Matt: Wrong place wrong time I think, we were peaking as indie-pop was on a downward curve and Brit Pop was rising. Label interest died down almost over-night and I took the opportunity to go to university.

Geoff: Plus we didn’t have a fiddle player.

++ Have you been involved in any other bands afterwards?

Matt: Not me, MTF was my musical peak. I tried out with a couple of bands but never found ‘the vibe’ with either of them.

Geoff: Yes as I said earlier- Subway, The Knowing, Agents of Evolution

++ Matt Rothwell has published two books, and he mentions that the story of the band is on the book “The Electric Guitar Daydream Quest”. I want to read this book for sure. Have you all read it? And for people reading this interview, where can they get it?

Matt: I think I told it like it was? Didn’t I? You can get it from Amazon either as a paperback or a download for Kindle.

Geoff: It was pretty much like how I remembered it, and a ripping good read.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

Matt: loads from local press and we had gigs reviewed in NME and Sounds. It is rumoured that the late John Peel had played us more than once, I’ve never been able to confirm that.

Geoff: A local journo really seemed to like us. He still works at the same paper.

++ You appeared on TV, on a Japanese music TV show called Bandbreakers? And what was the contest about? Did you win?

Matt: That wasn’t the first time! Our first TV appearance was on Sky 1, a talent show called Kieth Chegwins Star Search. I entered us without telling Steve or Martin. It all became clear to them at the auditions; we were lining up against juggling clowns, nine year old disco dancers and a man with a singing dog.

Geoff: On Bandbreakers we made the final five! I think we came second…, we didn’t win the keyboard or drink Alex James’ warm beer.

++ How was the experience of playing on TV? Any anecdotes you could share?

Geoff: Being able to mime to a backing track gave me the ability to down three bottles of Merrydown cider. I then managed to lose my contact lens’ during a very frantic drum mime while we were recording.

Matt: I had to sing live, so unusually for me I waited until we’d finished recording.

Geoff: Do you remember when we recording the backing tracks? It was the day Freddie Mercury died and in the studio’s green room was a grand piano. Bohemian Rhapsody was on a loop on MTV and Mart was playing the piano along ‘Les Dawson’ style.

Matt: Oh yeah, we were in stitches and a couple of other bands told us off for not showing respect.

++ What about from fanzines?

Matt: We were in a lot of fanzines, but I can’t remember the names of them. We usually found them in record stores and sent one of our demos off. Nine times out of ten we never knew if we’d been mentioned or not.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

Matt: Cycling and sitting in the garden, drinking beer whilst listening to MTF.

Geoff: Professional stay at home dad

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

Matt: The biggest highlight for me was having fun with three of my mates, enjoying what we were doing and actually getting a very brief five minutes of fame.

Geoff: Agreed, I don’t think any of us were bothered that we never ‘made it’ it was all about having a laugh and playing great music with a great bunch of lads!

++ Never visited Dudley, so maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks I should try?

Geoff: Dudley Zoo and Banks’s Bitter

Matt: Faggots and grey peas!

++ Thanks again! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Matt: It was a real shock that someone had shown interest in our band after all this time. So thanks for giving us yet another opportunity to reminisce.

Geoff: We were both very impressed with your keen investigative skills too!

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Listen
Mercenary Tree Freaks – Michelin Man

Thanks so much to Ian Freeman for the interview! In the past I had interviewed Ian about The Palisades, another classic Perth band, and now it was time to talk about The Mars Bastards! Don’t know if it will be the last interview as Ian has been involved in so many fantastic jangly bands, the latest being The Golden Rail who have released  an album this year. The Mars Bastards may not be much of a household name but the band released a bunch of tapes back in Australia and had quite a following. Sadly there were no proper releases at the time. Fast forward and today we have access to most of their songs thanks to them uploading “Observation City“, the album that was to be, on Bandcamp. And now everyone can rediscover this brilliant band from down under!

++ Hi Ian! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? You are still making music with The Golden Rail and have put a new album this year! It is great! For those who haven’t heard it yet what can people expect from it?

Hi Roque! It’s great to talk to you again. All good here just getting set for another great Melbourne winter. We had a lot of fun making the first album (Electric Trails From Nowhere). Quite a lot of different styles on there really, power pop, jangle, folk rock I guess, some baroque pop for good measure. We didn’t really know what we were going to get until we went into Aviary Studios and Fraser and Nick (producer/engineer) pulled a great sound out of us. Very happy with the final product.

++ And what is in store for the future for The Golden Rail? Are you working on a new release? Perhaps gigs?

We just released an interim single “Shouldn’t Get Hung Up About It/Fined For Wrestling” … very much in that C86 ball park. We have written the next album, a little more focused on what we want this time around, a little heavier in parts, which has been influenced by our live performances. We play as often as we can. Hoping to bring some strings in and additional musicians for the second album as well. Hopefully be finished by end of this year.

++ In the past we did an interview about The Palisades, that great band you were involved with. Now it is time to talk about the Mars Bastards. But first I kind of want to do a recap, how many bands have you been involved with? And which bands were they?

Wow! I sometimes lose count! The bands were Palisades, Mars Bastards, Header, Lazybirds, Village Idiots and now Jangle Band and The Golden Rail. There have been side projects as well along the way though like Los Palicassos Brothers which was me and Marty from Stolen Picassos.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?

My first music memories are of watching David Bowie on Top of the Pops when I was kid back in the UK. I was obsessed with music from that point forward. I had always been involved in choirs, school, church choirs etc. right up to my teens. The only instrument we had in our house was a kids xylophone! I didn’t get my first guitar until I was about 18 which I bought for about $50. A plywood copy of a Gibson 335. At home my mum listened to a lot of soul and R & B and my dad wasn’t very interested in music but he did drag home two Beatles albums (Rubber Soul/Revolver) and a Slade LP he picked up from somewhere. That was enough! Oh and there was an ABBA album and John Denver greatest hits. The first LP I paid for with my own money was All Mod Cons by the Jam.

++ When did the Mars Bastards start as a band? Was it immediately after the demise of The Rainyard?

It’s a long convoluted story really. I was in Sydney with the Palisades. I’d moved there in the late 80’s although Jeff had stayed in Perth. Our good friend Gil Bradley joined on guitar in his place and the Palisades gigged around Sydney for a year or so. The Rainyard had started in Perth during that time and Jeff joined them on guitar. I would get sent tapes to Sydney and really dug what they were doing so went back for a holiday to check them out. Had a great time and Perth was really jumping music wise whereas Sydney was starting to become a drag so we all moved back to Perth. Jeff and I started writing on the side and recorded a single released as the Mars Bastards. Liam from The Rainyard actually sings backing vocals and Gil did some guitar. We decided to play a show as the Mars Bastards with myself, Jeff, Gil, Mark Scarparolo on bass and Shaun Lohoar on drums. Mark later left and was replaced by Cliff Kent. Jeff quit The Rainyard to concentrate fulltime on The MB and Dave Chadwick replaced him in the Rainyard and now plays bass in The Golden Rail! We can also slide Header, Lazybirds, Ammonia, A Month of Sundays into this story of musical chairs.

++ Were all of you originally from Perth?

Yes we are all from the West Coast.

++ How was Perth then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Looking back it was really quite a scene. Heaps of great bands around that 1985 to 1995 time. I guess Mars Bastards was 1990 to 1993? So during that time, A Month of Sundays was one of my faves and of course the new version of the Rainyard with Davey C on guitar. Orange was Dom Marianis band at that time. Human Jukebox was Kim Salmons outfit. The Cherrytones, Jack and the Beanstalks, Fuzzswirl, Northern Lights, Mardi Picasso, so many… Some good record stores as well 78’s, Da Da’s, Mills Records. Pubs at the time; the Coronado, Shenton Park, Newport, The Grosvenor, Old Melbourne..too many too mention really.

++ Why the name The Mars Bastards?

Jeff came up with the name. I’m not sure why…I think it had something to do with Melbourne Bitter beer? They had MB on the cans back then so we used that as our guide or inspiration..there was definitely beer involved!

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Jeff and I would write usually together around the kitchen table or in the lounge. We would then take the tunes down to a rehearsal space in East Perth next to a VW repair shop (Herbies!) across from the East Perth Tavern, all knocked down now. We would spend a few hours jamming them out. Then off to the pub for a cheese and onion toasty. Then back to rehearsal. Then get shut down around 11pm by Herbie screaming “Wrrrrrapppp it upppp!!!! It worked for us.

++ And who would you say were influences of the band?

Around this time I was listening to a lot of XTC. Wedding Present. Always had some Pale Fountains playing. Wonderstuff was another big influence around this time. The Beatles, Byrds, Bowie always a constant. Jelly Fish. I would say all the Perth bands we were watching at the time was really inspiring as well. They encouraged you to write.

++ You were supposed to release an album in 1992 called “Observation City”. What happened? Why did it never come out?

Not sure what happened there to be honest. I think I was just burned out and decided to take a break. Then we never got back to it.

++ What’s the story behind the name of the album?

Observation City was the name of a hotel that was built on the beach in Perth. They knocked down an old icon of a hotel called the “Snake Pit’ that went back to the 50s that had so much history and heritage and replaced it with this monstrosity. Think Alan Bond may have been behind it, before he got sent to prison.

++ And where was it recorded? And how were those recording sessions?

I think at Planet Studios with James Hewgill. That time is all a little fuzzy for me.

++ The Bandcamp album has a bonus song, “It’s Been a While” which was recorded live. Where was it recorded live?

Yes that was recorded at the old Perth ABC studios for radio station JJJ Live at the Wireless. Played live to the whole of Australia! Well, to those who were listening!

++ Now the album is up on Bandcamp and I’ve had such a great time listening to it. But I wonder if there is any intention in releasing it in physical format at some point?

There’s a bunch of songs from various singles, eps, albums, that Jeff tied into the Rainyard Bandcamp page. We are thinking of revisiting the back catalogue and putting together a selected works type release.

++ Which label was supposed to have released it? Was there much interest for it at the time?

We had our own label Candlestick Records and released all our music on cassettes independently and we produced small runs that would all sell out. We would have released Observation City through that outlet. We have just revived the label for The Golden Rail single.

++ And why did you decide to shelf it?

We did well in Perth. We got to the same point as the Palisades where it was time to talk about taking the band to the next step – going to Melbourne or Sydney and touring the East coast. But everyone had pretty established jobs and other bands etc. We just decided to step back for a little while.

++ But there were two tapes released back in the early 90s, right? The first one being “This Windy City” / “That Was My First Mistake” tape released by Candlestick Records. This was your own label, no? How was running it? Did you make many tapes? How did you distribute them?

We released 6 tapes in all. Last Night I Dreamt I Killed My Best Friend (Ricky Dickson), Crazy, This Windy City, Six, Rollercoaster …and one other I can’t recall (plus the unreleased Observation City).
It was a pretty handmade affair. We water coloured the covers on some of the singles ourselves. Would press a few hundred and sell them at gigs or in the local record stores. We had total control over the whole production. We had a list of promos, friends we would post off copies to. It was a quick turn around and onto the next single, ep whatever. Fun times.

++ Afterwards you released “Roller Coaster” also on tape. That was in 1991. This tape has 6 songs and I’m for sure wondering how rare are these tapes. But also curious about the engineer credited on it, James Hewgill. How was working with him? IT seems he had worked with many classic Australian bands like Kryptonics or the Chevelles.

Yeah as mentioned earlier we only produced a few hundred of each tape so they are pretty rare now. I seem to have misplaced the elusive fifth cassette. James was lovely to work with. He played piano on one or two tracks. He worked with various bands with differing styles so had a lot of production ideas to bring to the table. I got on really well with him.

++ I really like the songs “Lollipop” and the super jangly “Dan Electro vs The Single Girl”. Was wondering if in a couple of sentences you could tell me the story behind them?

They are very Perth centric to my ears. Sum up the scene in a guitar/power/jangle pop way.
“Dano” was a contest we had going with Marty Picasso (Martin Gambie) to see who could write the shortest pop song. We had a couple others, Only Happy When I’m Right and Can’t See For Smiles that are sub 1 minute. He ended winning with a 15 second ditty. Very competitive was Marty.

++ And from all your songs, what would you say was your favourite and why?

“This Windy City”. Key changes. Ode to Perth.

++ I couldn’t find any information, but did the band appear on any compilations? I think there was just the one, “The Western Front”?

Yeah just that one to my knowledge. There could have been a Bedtime Beats You Brainless comp? Or was that the Rainyard???

++ Are there more unreleased songs by the band?

In a way they are all unreleased in a global sense. Only Observation City really. There are some demos I have on tape that will remain there.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

We played heaps of shows. Continually gigging. It was a very active time.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all?

Hmmm…there was a fight on stage one night so I guess it was bad for that guy! But no we generally played pretty well all things considered.

++ There are videos of you all playing “Lollipop” and “Crazy” at the Fremantle Metropolis! Wow! Do you know if there are more videos of live footage? And do you remember at all that gig?

I think that whole gig was filmed. We had played the night before and got home pretty late in the a.m. from memory. That was an all ages afternoon gig the next day. Shaun and myself where particularly struggling. Irony is that it was an alcohol awareness benefit or something. Respect Yourself children! Actually that was one of the bad ones!

++ When and why did The Mars Bastards stop making music?

We stopped end of 92 early 93 I think? Can’t remember why we stopped really. Just to have a break I guess. Then we all went off and did other things.

++ And afterwards came Header, is that right?

93 … I was writing a bit, had a jam with Brad Bolton (Rainyard guitarist ex Stolen Picassos) then Davey C turned up then Liam so it was basically the Rainyard with myself singing. Call the cops!!

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

Mars Bastards? We had always been lucky in getting attention.

++ What about from fanzines?

Not sure if we were picked up in many fanzines besides Party Fears which was an ace Perth publication.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

Writing, rehearsing, recording, playing, watching music takes up pretty much all my spare time. Travel when I can to France, Spain, Italy.. as an ex-chef I try to eat out a bit or cook at home.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

We won local music awards and made the cover of street press etc. which is always nice but the biggest highlight was the comradery. Just hanging out with the guys making music. Loved every second of it.

++ Never visited Perth, nor Australia. So maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

Go to South Perth foreshore, hire a catamaran , sail it out into the Swan river, get it stuck in the mud bank and make the hire dude come out in his tinny and tow you back in. Heaps of fun. Best food; a Chico roll with a cold frothy.

++ Thanks again Ian! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks for taking me down memory lane Roque. They were great times even if we didn’t realise it when they were happening. Cheers

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Listen
The Mars Bastards – Lollipop

Thanks so much to Ryan Marquez for the interview! Many of us know Ryan’s bands in the US like the super Apple Orchard who graced an early Cloudberry 3″ CD and nowadays the band Golden Teardrops who are releasing a new record. But before all that, back in the Philippines he was involved with a band called Sodajerk that was heavily influenced by Scottish Pop! They didn’t release much but they have put most of their recordings up on Bandcamp. And because of that I thought it was a great opportunity to learn more about Sodajerk and Ryan too!

++ Hi Ryan! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? We met many years ago thanks to your band The Apple Orchard. What happened to the band? Still going?

Hey Roque! Yes it seems so long ago! We met at the NYC Popfest 2010, was it? Hope you’re doing good. Apple Orchard is currently on hiatus. Dale and I haven’t really called it quits. We’re just not writing material for it.

++ I noticed that you have just released a new record with your new band Golden Teardrops, care telling me a bit about it?

I actually recorded a demo in 2005 with my then girlfriend (now wife) called “A Summer Escape”. I always wanted to do something like it, like a mix of 60s pop and indiepop. Then in around 2014, I wrote a couple of songs which we liked, and that’s when the idea of recording an album came about.

++ You’ve been in many bands but of course, I wanted to interview you about Sodajerk, hopefully in the future we can talk about the rest of the bands! But let’s talk about your 90s, early 2000s, band! You must have been very young when you started Sodajerk, right? Was it your first band or had you been involved in other bands before being in Sodajerk?

I was 19 years old when Sodajerk formed. It was my second band. My first band was Go Figure? (yes, with a question mark), which was only a few months prior to Sodajerk. Go Figure? was a Pavement-cover band when I joined, and I had a Pavement-phase during those years. I was the guitar player there for a while. I only lasted a few months (totalling less than 10 gigs). It didn’t work out because I live far from the rest of my bandmates, and that I had to come back to the States for a few months. They also wanted me to “rock out” because I just stood whenever I play the guitar. I do not remember if I got fired. They’re really good musicians though and I learned a lot from them, like drop D tuning and stuff.

++ And what about the rest of Sodajerk? Have they been involved in other bands? 

Ronald (bass) and John (guitar) were in a band called Noise Behavior. I saw their band once, and they covered songs by Seam, and Superchunk. Manny used to be in a Black Sabbath cover band!

++ Let’s start from the beginning. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?

My first music memory was my grandfather listening to this radio station that played 50’s music. He listened to it every afternoonand played the music really loud! He also played cassette tapes of Elvis and Nat King Cole. He had records too but his record player broke, so cassette tapes were big in the family then.

The first instrument I played was keyboards. I was probably 12 or 13. My brother and sister took piano lessons, but I didn’t. My brother taught me the basic piano chords like D, G, and A, and I wrote my first song on a small electric keyboard, but I never really liked playing it. My dad bought me my first guitar when I was 15 loved it! I studied “The Beatles Songbook” with the help of a chord chart and that’s how I learned to play the guitar.

When I was about 10 years old, my brother Dale, who’s 4 years older than me, introduced me to New Wave and all that, and I got into The Cure. I remember getting “The Head On The Door” on cassette. He used to buy these compilation tapes, andvinyl. I remember hearing The Pale Fountains and The Lotus Eaters on one compilation LP called “London Calling”, where they have 2 or 3 songs each. I think The Blue Nile was in there as well. I also bought cassette compilations whenever I have money, so I can discover more bands. So yeah growing up, I listened to whatever my brother was listening to: New Order, The Smiths, Echo And The Bunnymen, China Crisis, Aztec Camera. I remember at a young age, being obssessed to Aztec Camera’s “We Could Send Letters”. I still love that song up to now.

++ You were based in Valenzuela City in the Philippines. Were all of you originally from there?

Three of us were originally from Valenzuela City. Ronald (bass) grew up in Tarlac City then moved to Valenzuela after high school.

++ How was around Manila back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

I learned about the Manila Indie scene from Dale. He was in a band already (Sonnet LVIII), and they had been playing at a place called Club Dredd. This was probably early ’94. Sonnett LVIII was a very good live band, and was starting to make a name for themselves. I’ve seen plenty of local bands around that time, but I particularly liked Bad Days For Mary, Smashed Little Creatures, and Aspirin was pretty good too. The mid to late 90s spawned more good bands like Fingernail Cocktail, Uranus, Soft Pillow Kisses, Smile Plenty… Most of these bands have no recorded output. It’s just that it’s hard for an indie band to get signed those days, and studios cost a lot to record.

As for record stores, there was a place called Groove Nation, where you can order stuff. Later on it was Tower Records. There was another place, but I forgot the name, CD Warehouse or something, where you can place an order then pick it up after a couple of months!

Club Dredd was the best venue to see bands during those years. They had this horrible “ticket selling” process there where smaller bands had to sell a certain amount of tickets in order to play. We used to pay for those tickets ourselves just to play. Dumb, right? But we were young, and all that mattered was playing live. There’s another club called Mayric’s that became home to a lot of indie/indiepop bands. They scrapped that “ticket selling” thing over there, which was a relief!

++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

One afternoon, I had a visit from Ron Cajayon, the guitar player from Sonnet LVIII, who is a friend of my brother, and I knew him since I was little. He asked me to form a band with a couple of guys he knew, and that he’s willing to play the drums. I just left Go Figure?, and have been frequenting Sonnet LVIII rehearsals, and even did a guest guitarist spot on one of their shows. I wanted to start a band with a friend of mine but he moved out of town. Ron then set up a meeting at his place, where I met John and Ronald. This was the second time I met them actually, because I saw their band Noise Behavior previously, and we had a quick chat then, and I told them that I liked the Superchunk cover they did, and they recognized me from Go Figure? They were really cool and funny guys, and they like Teenage Fanclub, too, so we hit it off right away.

++ Why the name Sodajerk? 

Sodajerk was suggested by our bass player, Ronald. We were a couple of weeks away from our first gig, and we didn’t have a name yet. We had a discussion about band names, and I asked Ronald about this recently, and he said we considered names like Lube and Fuel, because our drummer’s house have these boxes of Lube and Fuel stacked somewhere inside the house. So we were looking around and Ronald had a mixtape with him with the song Sodajerk by Buffalo Tom. We all thought it was a good name, though none of us were huge Buffalo Tom fans.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Usually, one of us had a song written, but all of us contributed in arranging the songs during rehearsals. It just happened that I wrote more songs, but it was more of a collective effort.

We were more of a live band so we used to practice once a week, and more than that when we were starting out. In the beginning, we used to practice at Ron’s (our first drummer) house, as early as 9 in the morning. Then later when Manny joined as the drummer, we practiced at several rehearsal studios, for 2 hours a week, and sometimes more. At times, we would rehearse at Ronald’s brother’s apartment.

++ Did you ever sang or considered singing in Tagalog at all?

We never wrote a song in Tagalog. I don’t think we even discussed it. It’s because of the style of music we’re interested in. We like Scottish Pop! In the Philippines, most of the hits were in Tagalog, of course, so we might have had a hit if we had a Tagalog song!

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

We all had mutual fondness for Teenage Fanclub. Then later on, we discovered these bands who are somewhat connected to the Fannies, like BMX Bandits, Eugenius, Superstar, Speedboat, and The Pastels, and tried to incorporate a little bit of each to our own sound.

++ I only know of one release by Sodajerk, a tape on the Italian label Best Kept Secret titled “Pop On!”. Was this the only ever release by the band? Or have there been any other releases?

Aside from that tape, we released a split CDEP with Carnival Park titled “That Happy Glow” on Dorothy Records in early 2000.

++ Also this tape came out in 2004, was the band still going at the time? And how did you end up releasing with this Italian label, I suppose you never met the label people? 

This tape came out around the time I permanently moved to the States. So, Sodajerk was put on hold. I knew Alessandro of Best Kept Secret through Myspace. He included an Apple Orchard song in one of his compilation tapes prior to hearing Sodajerk. I’ve uploaded a few Sodajerk songs in Myspace, and he heard it and wanted to release an album. Since we did not have enough songs for an album, it became a compilation.

++ There’s a song called “Weekend Make-Up” on this tape that is said to be recorded live on the Fridge Radio session. What was that session about? What is Fridge Radio?

The Fridge was a radio show, mostly dedicated to indie/indiepop music. They also did guestings of indie bands, where the band members play their favorite songs during the show, along with a live performance. I think we played 4 songs there. It was a really cool short-lived radio show.

++ You did appear on a few compilations in the early 2000s. For example “Training Wheels” appeared on Factory Girl Records’ “Working Titles” comp. Who were behind this label? This comp has a terrific tracklist!

A guy named Mario Serrano was behind Factory Girl. There might be another person involved but I forgot who. Mario was also one of the hosts in The Fridge radio show, and was one of the producers of the indie compilation, “Mutual Admiration Society”.

++ Also “Things You Say” appeared on Dorothy Records’ “Dashboard Teddy Version 1.0”. I always think of Dorothy as the main Filipino label. I don’t know much about them, so perhaps you could tell me about them a bit? 

Dorothy Records was ran by a friend of mine, Mike Dy. It was a CDr label. He released the aforementioned Sodajerk/Carnival Park EP, and re-released Carnival Park’s “Her Kindercrush”, as well as Creamy Bicycle’s one and only album, before they switched their name to Spring Boutique (their singer is my wife). Later on, Dorothy co-released a Balloon Derby 7” with Apple Crumble in Japan. I may be missing a few releases, but yeah, it might be the main indie Filipino label!

++ And I have found out on Bandcamp that just a few days ago you uploaded a sort of Sodajerk retrospective called “My Sweet Dream”. I wonder if there is any intention of putting out in a physical format?

I have been talking to the rest of the guys in Sodajerk for a while now, and I realized that we do not have anything available online. There used to be songs on Myspace but I’m not sure if they’re still there. I just rediscovered Bandcamp, and I wanted to document the songs for ourselves. Unfortunately, there’d be no physical format for the release. I don’t think I have the energy in self-releasing things these days. It’s so hard!

++ And are these all the recordings ever made by Sodajerk o are there more unreleased songs by the band? 

We had a few more demos that were not included on the Bandcamp release, but unfortunately I lost the tapes!

++ Was there any interest from labels to put your music out?

In Manila, there was no interest at all! During that time, you can never get signed unless you have hit potential. I do not know of any indie labels at that time. Maybe just bands self-releasing their own. I don’t think we were playing just to get signed. My thought was, if we’re able to record something, we can put it out ourselves. As I mentioned previously, we did get to release something on Dorothy Records. Mike from Dorothy had always been a fan of Sodajerk. Aside from Dorothy, Best Kept Secret was the only other label that was semi-enthusiatic about the Sodajerk songs.

++ You made covers by BMX Bandits and Teenage Fanclub, what other bands would you have loved to cover? Or perhaps you did when playing live?

We’ve done a lot of Teenage Fanclub covers in the early years, but later on, we began excluding covers to focus on the originals. We did “Million Tears” by The Pastels, which was the most indiepop we could get. We always threw in “Cut Your Hair” by Pavement in our last days, because we all loved that song. I always wanted to cover The Pastels’ “Classic Line-up” and Teenage Fanclub’s “Radio”, but we never got to them.

++ I read you formed in 1995 but your first recordings seem to be from 1997. What happened in between?

We had a 3 song demo in early 1996, recorded on cassette at our former drummer’s house. I lost the tape though. Around this time, we were always looking to play live.

++ The song “Jackpot Queen” was recorded live. Live where?

That song was recorded live in Ronald’s brother’s apartment during a rehearsal. We used one karaoke mic!

++ For me it is hard to pick a song, but I usually ask a band to tell me the story behind one or two of their songs, usually the ones that are my favourites! So maybe I will ask if you can tell me the story behind “Honeysuckle” and “Heartcrusher”? What inspired them?

For “Honeysuckle”, I got the idea for the song when I saw an air freshener with a “Honeysuckle” scent near the supermarket counters where I was buying food. I already had a riff in mind. I was still young when I wrote this, so the lyrics were just play on words. Musically, it was a very different sound for us because of the chord progressions. We used to just write repetitive chord patterns. Our bassist, Ronald, told me once that it was the song that turned it around for us, music-wise.

For “Heartcrusher”, it was inspired by the song “That Kind Of Girl”, by a BMX Bandits-related band called Cheeky Monkey. It was a very jangly song for us. Around this time, we were trying to stay away from the distortion pedals. There’s a lot of love-related angst in that song.

++ And where do you usually record your songs? Who produced them?

For the Bandcamp songs, the 1997 demo was produced by our former drummer and recorded in a church where all the instruments were plugged directly to a soundboard. We recorded & self-produced “Honeysuckle”, “Deadstopper”, “Training Wheels”, “Heartcrusher” and “The Things You Say” in an old studio with a worn out Reel-to-Reel analogue recorder. The engineer was probably 70 years old. I was telling him to make the vocals sound like it was recorded in the 60s, but he was like, “I don’t know how to do that!”. We recorded the songs live with minimal overdubs, and ignored the mistakes to save money. Then we self-produced “My Sweet Dream” and “Weekend Makeup” in a digital studio. The engineer accidentally deleted some of my guitar parts at the end of “My Sweet Dream”. Some of the other songs in the Bandcamp release were solo 4-track tape to digital recordings.

++ On Youtube there is a video for the song “Weekend Make-Up“. Who made it? And how was the experience of making the video? 

I made this video using the clips of the TV guesting we had. I always liked that song by John.

++ Did you play many gigs in total? All over the Philippines?

I am not sure. It felt like it was close to 50, or even close to a hundred…I don’t know, really. Most of the gigs were in Manila. We only had a few out of town shows.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? 

Yes, there were. We had some line-up issues over the years. In one show, both John and Manny were unavailable. We had a different set up, we asked Ronald’s cousin to fill in with the drums, and we asked someone to play keyboards for us. He was not really a keyboard player, but he was good during practice. At the time of the show, he completely forgot all his lines, and everything came crashing down. There was another time when my leg got dipped in a puddle of really dark mud after the gig which kind of summed up my feelings about the show!

++ When and why did Sodajerk stop making music? 

It was 2002 when I moved to California for good. That was beginning of the end of the band. When I visited Manila in 2004, we got back to record a few songs. I think they were all married by then. So that, and me living in another country were the reasons why we stopped. We had a couple of reunion shows in 2005, and the last one in 2012.

++ After the demise of Sodajerk, what band did you start? Apple Orchard? Trying to put together a chronology! 

I was involved in a lot of bands while playing with Sodajerk. At different points, I played bass for Supergloo, Dorian Of Juniper Bells, and Carnival Park, and also played guitar for Mono Workshop, then there was this short-lived band called Wadaiko, where I was the singer, and a couple of one-gig bands. Apple Orchard was already a side project when Sodajerk was still around. After Sodajerk, I concentrated more on Apple Orchard.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

Very minimal. We did a couple of radio guesting at this show called “In The Raw” in a station called NU107, although it was only me and Ronald who showed up for both. The host liked us, and he played our songs, and even invited us to do a video shoot for the TV version of “In The Raw”. The only press writeup we had was a review of the Sodajerk/Carnival Park split EP…It was in the music section of a newspaper though, not a music magazine, and that doesn’t happen often to an indie band, so we were proud of that.

++ What about from fanzines?

There were a few fanzines back then. Scenester and Nine (or 9ine) I think. I am unsure if we were even featured in one of them. I was a contributor in a fanzine called “Taste Like Tea”, which was Mike Dy’s (of Dorothy Records) idea, and we made sure we mentioned our own bands! Haha!

++ You still enjoy indiepop, that’s clear, and still follow it. What are the last records you have enjoyed? 

Yes, I still enjoy Indiepop, although I am mostly unaware of the younger bands that are coming out. Some records that I have been playing recently are:
1. Overgrown Path By Chris Cohen
2. Adiós Señor Pussycat by Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band
3. Fragments & Curiosities by Armstrong
4. Love is Enough by Lia Pamina
5. Tracyanne & Danny by Tracyanne & Danny

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I just got interested in gardening. We have a small garden so I think I can manage.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

When our split CDEP was reviewed in the paper. I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t really a big deal but it was pretty cool.

++ Never visited Manila, would love to go to the Philippines some day. So maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

I am probably not the best tour guide there, but I recommend you visit Jollibee, and try the Filipino spaghetti! You should also try halo-halo, which is kind of like a dessert/drink with fruits, milk, flan, purple yam etc., over shaved ice. I hear there are some good record shops there now, and I see some postings of DJ nights occasionally.

++ And I must say I’ve liked most of the filipino indiepop bands I’ve heard. But maybe you can recommend me a few that I might have never heard before?

There are so many! Just on the top of my head: Archaster, Balloon Derby, Bubble Based Boy, Under Shooting Stars, Spring Boutique, The Gentle Isolation, Sunday Picnic Love Affair, Outerhope, The Wentletraps, Popular Days.

++ Thanks again Ryan! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks Roque! I had a lot of fun strolling back down memory lane!

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Listen
Sodajerk – Heartcrusher

Thanks so much to Nick Batterham for the interview! I got in touch with Nick on Twitter (thanks Wally!) after I had written about Blindside on the blog. The band was around in the early 90s in Melbourne, Australia, and released a string of singles and an album on the renowned Summershine Records. Aside when it comes to their releases, there was not much written about the band on the web. So I took the chance to ask Nick as many questions as I could! Hope you enjoy!

++ Hi Nick! Thanks so much for getting in touch! How are you? Where are you based now? Still in Melbourne? Are you still involved with music?

I’m still making music in Melbourne, including with my oldest friend Hamish from Blindside. We’re currently working on a new project together. I’ve also just released another solo album, seems to be a habit that I can’t get rid of.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. Like what are your first musical memories? What was the first instrument did you get and how? 

I come from a musical family so I grew up with a piano and an organ in the house. I studied cello from a very young age but gave it up at the start of high school. Around that time Hamish and I became school friends and I began to absorb his musical tastes. About age 15, I started learning guitar from his father Jim and by playing along to the records we were worshipping. My brother quit playing the flute when he got braces on his teeth. I pawned his flute and used the money to buy my first guitar from the pawn shop. I taught myself enough to justify getting a better guitar for my 16th birthday – a red Canora acoustic with a pickup. I soldered a cable to RCA plugs and ran it through our home stereo until it tore the speakers. Hamish and I tried busking playing covers of U2, The Cure and REM around Frankston. We didn’t make any money, but we didn’t get punched up either. Still a good definition of success.

++ Had any of you been involved with other bands prior to Blindside? When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process? Why the name Blindside?

Blindside was our first proper band – using two other friends from our school, drummer Nick and bass player Chris. I can’t remember where the name came from. We were a little bit goth at that time, so it was probably an attempt to sound dark and mysterious. We had previously called ourselves Mourning Cloud and taken photographs playing guitars in the cemetery! We rehearsed on weekend in Chris’s loungeroom or in Nick’s parents garage. Nick’s older brother Manu worked at Missing Link records and had a great record collection that we immersed ourselves in…. Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation, Dinosaur Jr – Bug, Husker Du – Candy Apple Grey. We’d listen to records then go to the garage and try our best to sound like the bands we loved. The common thread was noisy guitars. We were remarkably lucky to have our formative years when we did. The influencing forces were strong and our tastes were dynamic. We absorbed everything and started writing our own songs.

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

++ All of your releases came out on Summershine Records. How did you end up on that label and how was your relationship with them?

I don’t remember if Jason had seen us play or not. I gave him a cassette and I think he gave us some cash to mix it properly. None of us really knew what we were doing but our desire was strong and we thought we were the best thing ever.

++ Your releases came both on vinyl and CD. That was kind of unusual then, and today it seems very difficult to do that for an indie band. I suppose the band had quite a following and it wasn’t as complicated to sell these records back then? And which of the two formats would you say you prefer and why?

7 inch singles were the norm and CDs were kinda new. It felt like a life defining moment to get your music on a vinyl record the first time. CDs took over through the 90s. To me vinyl still has a feeling of permanence that making a CD doesn’t have. Getting vinyl back from pressing is just as thrilling today as it was the first time. Now I only play CDs in my car – because it is old enough to have a 10 stack CD player!

++ Your first release was the “Endless” single. Here the 7″ and the CD have different songs and tracklist. I also notice that you designed the art for your records. Were you a designer by trade? And how important were the aesthetics of your releases for you?

I don’t remember what songs were on the different releases. I was studying design at university and getting into doing my own black and white photography. I dropped out during second year because I knew all I wanted to do was play music. I was playing lots of gigs with Blindside and touring with The Earthmen. The sleeve pictures were my early photographic experiments and the design… I remember cutting out the text from a bromide machine! I still like doing the artwork on my records. Really, I see the sleeves and the recording and video clips all as the same activity, it’s an elaborate craft project to keep myself occupied.

++ You worked for many of the records with Simon Grounds as producer and engineer, how was that experience?

Simon Grounds was a live sound engineer that did our early shows. He offered to record us at his house, he was a bit older than us and seemed to know about recording. He was an eminent figure within the St Kilda music scene. We probably didn’t fully appreciate his achievements at that time. I remember he had tree branches inside the house and boiled coffee beans in a big pot. The studio was a cat playground. We were just thrilled to be capturing our sounds properly for the first time. Until then I had been recording everything on my 4 track cassette so the rapid expansion of knowledge was exhilarating. He certainly captured where we were at.

++ I love the song “Plague” from this first single, wondering if you could tell me the story behind it? What inspired it? 

Thanks! Funny I couldn’t remember what Plague sounded like so I googled it. I think the YouTube track called Plague (with a picture of Hamish on the 7 inch sleeve) is actually the song called To Be Found. It was a double A side, perhaps with the labels on the wrong sides. It’s an angsty teenage song about feeling like an outsider and trying to belong. All the tragic teenage stuff you can only sing when you’re hiding behind your floppy fringe. Very strange listening to it now after so long. I can hear how much I loved the Smiths and the guitar is all Dinosaur Jr. The rhythm and chord progressions are something I have repeated a lot over the years.

++ On the 2nd single, “Idle Eyes”, there is a photo of a girl called Christine on the art. Who was she? 

Christine was my girlfriend. I remember the photo was taken during a party in a hotel room after a hair show. Her sister Suzanne was a hairdresser and Christine had been a hair model in the show. Suzanne had won a prize. The room phone rang and she answered “Hello, winners!” I guess you had to be there, but it is forever stuck in my memory. It’s over 25 years ago but I still call my home wifi network “winners”.

++ Your 3rd single “Teenage Goth Suicide Cult” has a very interesting title. This time around I suppose you weren’t totally happy as the 7″ didn’t get proper artwork? But something that caught my attention was that you appear as Beebaa and Laalaa. Or Hamish Cowan as Biggest Muff. What is the story behind these names?

The title was from some tabloid magazine headline. The BeeBaa was my fuzz pedal and the Big Muff was Hamish’s fuzz pedal. And Laalaa was for me being the singer. I was smoking weed obviously.

++ After the singles you released an album called “Hopes Rise”. How different was to record it compared to the singles? Was it a better experience? And are the songs on the album that were on the single recorded again?

The recording sessions for the album followed closely after the single sessions. We were paying as we went so it was in dribs and drabs. I think we were just recording the songs as quickly as we wrote them. It has an acoustic version of To Be Found on it.

++ The band appeared on a few compilations. One that caught my attention was the “Youngblood 4” one that was a compilation supporting young new bands from Australia. How did you end up contributing to this RooArt compilation, and was there any other sort of support by them, perhaps a gig, other than appearing on the CD?

That was a year or two later. RooArt offered Blindside a recording contract for our second album. I turned it down because the money was less than what I already had debts for at Metropolis studios where we were recording overnight in down time.

++ Are there more unreleased songs by the band? 

There are about 15 songs recorded for that second album that never saw the light of day. At the time I thought they were all a mess. In reality, I was the mess. We were recording from 9pm until 9am every night. I got pleurisy from going too hard. At that time The Earthmen had just signed in the US were going over on tour, which seemed more exciting, so I put all my eggs in that basket and let Blindside fizzle. It really is a shame. Blindside were really happening and I lost perspective. The album didn’t get finished and all that exists are the desk mixes.

++ Was there any interest from other label?

We turned down a deal from Homestead Records too. Hamish still reminds me about that quite frequently. What might’ve been?

++ What about gigs? You even played big gigs, supporting Smashing Pumpkins, right? Any anecdotes that you can share?

I remember they had giant racks of weird guitar effects and were a bit too heavy metal for my taste. We supported the Breeders a few nights later.

++ Did you play many gigs in total? All over Australia perhaps?

Blindside played a lot but only ever in Melbourne I think. The Earthmen ended up playing all over in their later years

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?

We were pretty shambolic at the best of times. We equated noisy with good, so in that way the gigs were always good.

++ When and why did Blindside stop making music? And what happened immediately after?

See above. The Earthmen toured overseas, half disbanded, then signed to Warners and made a major label album all in the two years after Blindside ended. Hamish started Cordrazine in that time.

++ You’ve been in other bands, tell me if I’m missing any, like Cordrazine, The Earthmen or your solo project. How different would you say are your other music ventures to Blindside? 

All the bands are as different as the personnel involved. The Earthmen were a noisy band that got cleaner over the years. My own music has gradually become quieter. I still enjoy playing noisy guitar, just doesn’t happen very often. My voice has changed a lot over the years too. That whiney teenager is pretty hard to listen to. I can hear all the formative influences and trace how they’ve had a lasting impact on my writing and recording style.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

Blindside got local community radio play and street press, but no more than any other indie band at that time. Somehow Summershine managed to get us some amazing press in the UK. Indie guitar music especially was having a great period of broader mainstream appeal so there was plenty of limelight to go around.

++ What about from fanzines?

A bit, not much.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I work in film doing sound and music and I run a recording studio where I produce music for all sorts of things. Somehow I’ve managed to avoid what feels like a real job and have my hobby as my life. I still get to spend time turning knobs and trying to create satisfying tones of distortion.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

n 1993 we got single of the week in UK Spin magazine in the same week they reviewed new releases by our heroes The Cure and Dinosaur Jr, which at the time felt like we’d arrived. The real highlight in retrospect is being part of the great Summershine collection of bands, at a time of such vitality in local music. It set up my life path and some core friendships.

++ Never visited Melbourne, would love to go to Australia one day, but would love to go one day, maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks I should try?

I’m a bit of a homebody so probably not the best tour guide. I’d certainly avoid any foods served as being “traditional”. It’s a good town for coffee, but you don’t need to fly 18 hours for that.

++ And I must say I’m a big fan of guitar pop made in Australia, but would love to ask what are your top all-time bands from your country? And if you could recommend me a few obscure bands too?

The Sugargliders are my all time top pick. Used to love seeing Ripe and The Glory Box play live and the Dirty Three when they started.

++ Thanks again Nick! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks for taking an interest in such obscure things from so long ago! It was a special time in my life, remembered very fondly.

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Listen
Blindside – To Be Found

Thanks so much to Simó and Antoni! I know Simó for many years thanks to his current band Marlovers (and before Marlo) who I reviewed on my old blog Mira el Péndulo ages ago. But I wasn’t aware at that time, the mid 2000s, that he had been in other bands. Then I discovered The Aprons on a blog post by Adrià Papa Topo in 2009 on his blog Tweeranosaurus! A year later I was to find two more songs by them thanks to the Annika Records double-CD compilation “Your Wonderful Parade”. These songs, “Full of Love” and “A Beautiful End”, were gorgeous too! But what remained a mystery to me was why no one had paid attention to them, to such beautiful songs. Why no releases!!
So again I conducted the interview in Spanish, after a request of my Serbian friend Nikola who loves this band, so forgive me if there are mistakes on the translation (and you can read the Spanish version of the interview on this Word document). And I’m very happy with the outcome! I learned more about the band, and hopefully one day we all will be able to hear the rest of The Aprons recordings!

++ Hi! thanks so much for the interview! How are you? Where are you these days? Still in Mallorca?

Hi! Thanks so much Roque for remembering The Aprons. The band was formed by four people: two brothers (Antoni and Simó), who are very happy to answer the questions and remembering those days of the 90s, and a couple (Joan y Nuria). All of us continue in the island of Mallorca.

++ When was the last time you picked up your instruments? Are you still involved with music?

Antoni drummed, up to 20003, for Riviera (a post The Aprons band) and hasn’t played again. Joan (guitar and vocals) and Nuria (keyboards) abandoned the music scene in 2000 when The Aprons was no more.

Simó: I still pick up my guitar some days of the week. The band I play with is called “Marlovers”. We have just finished recording our last record. Without doubt we have written some great songs that we hope people like them. In any case it is always a pleasure to sit down and compose songs without any other pretense other than enjoying being seized by creativity, and sometimes, taste a pleasant pop melody.

++ Let’s start from the very beginning. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? And what sort of music was listened at home while growing up?

Simó: My first music memory is that I don’t have one. I can’t say those striking quotes that many musicians have of having 7 or 8 years old and they remember The Beatles in the Ed Sullivan show or the frenetic rhythm of the chords of the songs of Elvis in their home speakers.

My first instrument was the bass. I believe that I thought that it would be the easiest instrument to play and as my brother already played drums, well, we were the first rhythm section of the first band we had. It was your usual band of mates from college that try to play like their favourite bands. We called ourselves “Nuevas Criaturas”, a name we took from a poetry book by Jim Morrison. The vocalist was a fan of The Doors even though we didn’t get any close to sound like The Doors or a 60s band. I suppose we sounded more like a post-punk band, with a lot of distortion so the technical mistakes weren’t that obvious.

I learned to play bass, but to be honest I don’t know how to play it, thanks to Joan (guitar, vocals and lyricist).  Joan was the typical musician that you see in every band that has this innate ability to make music. He was an exceptional guitarist and who could write great songs. Everything that I know I learned because of him, so I’m very grateful to him.

At home we didn’t listen to any music in particular. My first encounter with the music world was during my teenage years bewildered by bands like The Cure, early U2, Joy Division…

++ Were you in bands prior before being in The Aprons? Red Poppy was the band that came before The Aprons, right?

After Nuevas Criaturas, which was a five-piece band, we formed a band called L’Encruïa that had a very dark sound influenced by the noisepop of The Jesus and Mary Chain or My Bloody Valentine. Later, and not counting anymore with the vocalist and lyricist of the latter band, we formed a new band called Redpoppy which was influenced by the sound of C86 and Sarah Records.

To be honest Redpoppy and The Aprons were the same band. Simple, with the name Redpoppy we couldn’t sign to any interesting indie label so we “strategically” thought about changing names and so try our luck with a new name. In any case our luck, in relation to our expectations, kept being elusive.

++ Simó, you now live in Inca, in Mallorca. Were you always based there? Or where were you based? How was the scene in the island back then? Were there any like-minded bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Any sort of scene?

The band was based in the town of Inca, a curious name for a place in the Mediterranean. All of the band members were originally from Inca. The music scene of the island was very active. There were many bands and many styles and sounds. Most of the interesting things were in Palma, the capital of the island.

The record store that was the center for the scene was called “Runaway”. The store was run by Peter Terrassa, and many musicians and fans used to stop by. There you could find the first singles on Elefant Records and singles by many obscure indiepop bands that Elefant used to distribute.  Later we would learn that these records were brought to the store by Joan Vich, who would end up forming the band The Frankeboties and many other projects and events within the scene. Also a venue called Sonotone popped up and at this place we enjoyed gigs by many indie bands from Spain and abroad that had never been in Mallorca like The Jayhawks, Luna, Gigolo Aunts, Los Planetas, Hefner…

However the indiepop style that we played with The Aprons was a rara avis in the island. Most of the bands played rock music, though of course there were some bands that made some pop with shoegaze influence like Honey Langstrumpf or there were many others that tried to sound like Pixies, Dinosaur Jr or Sonic Youth. The bands that were more successful in Mallorca were Sexy Sadie, The Frankeboties and The Cicely Satellites. I think The Cicelly Satellites actually supported us as their first gig. Afterwards they became very well known.

When the band split, around 1999 and the first years of the new millennium, indiepop started to have some recognition and visibility in Spain with bands like La Buena Vida or Los Fresones Rebeldes.

A scene with a coherent sound or some homogeneity didn’t really exist, and if it existed The Aprons weren’t part of it as our sound wasn’t in tune with Sonic Youth-like guitars or sounds that were closer to the Seattle sound. I don’t think there was a sense of belonging, most of the bands were on their own. Maybe, we thought innocently, that were were competing with each other.

++ How did The Aprons start as a band? Who were in the band?

As a natural progression we (Antoni and Simó) started to opt in favour of British indie bands from the 80s (Aztec Camera, The Smiths, The Bluebells, Orange Juice), C86 (The Pastels, BMX Bandits, Talulah Gosh, The Bodines), and the early nineties (Gene, The Beautiful South, TFC, The Pale Saints) and to discover indiepop bands that appeared afterwards in labels like Sarah Records, Setanta, Marsh-Marigold, Midnight Music, Creation…

We recruited a keyboardist (Nuria) iand in the summer of 1994 we started as Redpoppy. The lineup of the band was Joan Reynés (guitars, vocals), Antoni Reus (drums), Simó REus (bass) and Núria Mestre (keyboards, vocals).

++ Why the name The Aprons?

We chose The Aprons thanks to the song “Apron Strings” by Everything But the Girl.  EBTG was, in a way, a band that projected everything an indie band could wish for: top songs, elegance, smart lyrics, social conscience… and as that wasn’t enough, they had achieved success.

++ How was the creative process for the band? Where did you usually practice?

The creative process for our songs happened mostly through the strings (guitar and vocals) of Joan. We all contributed our bit too. Sometimes some songs were contributed by Simó and there was one time Núria contributed one song (“A Beautiful End”).

For practicing we didn’t have many problems. We used part of a country house that belonged to our paternal grandparents in the outskirts of the city so we didn’t bother anyone. At least, that’s what I like to think.

++ And what would you say were your influences?

The influences were varied thanks to every band members taste, but in a way or another we agreed on bands that not necessarily were part of the indiepop canon like: Teenage Fanclub, REM, Belle and Sebastian, Ivy, The Cardigans, Gene, Luna, The Church, Lemonheads, Texas, Matthew Sweet, Velvet Crush, The Smiths, Ride, Razorcuts, Style Council, Love, Pale Fountains, The La’s, Boo Radleys, Pulp…

++ During The Aprons time the majority of Spanish pop bands were singing in Spanish. Did you consider it? Why did you sing in English?

In truth, when Redpoppy started, at the beginning of the 90s, most of the bands of the Spanish independent scene were singing in English. The biggest success story was that of Dover. In a way, these bands wanted to distance themselves of the scene that had lyrics in Spanish and they were fixated with the bands and fashion from North America and the UK. The majority of them sang in English and copied, for better or worst, their idols. There were exceptions like Los Planetas, La Buena Vida or Le Mans… and many others, that had a bigger acknowledgement than those singing in English. Some years later, the opposite happened. Now most bands stopped singing in English and started to make their songs in Spanish. It is at this moment that the Spanish indie scene started to get a much wider recognition.

The Aprons continued singing in English. I couldn’t say why. Maybe it was just inertia. The band didn’t get much recognition, perhaps due to that we never thought about going with the trends of the time. Also, singing in Spanish would mean for us a considerable effort to adapt our music that we never really considered it.

++ I remember that Adrià from the band Papa Topo shared in his blog the song “Glowing Field” by The Aprons and it was gorgeous. Where does this song come from? And what’s its story?

I think that “Glowing Field” was one of the best songs the band recorded. It was recorded on the last recording session in 1999. At this time The Aprons started to show great skills to create good pop songs but it didn’t last much longer. I can imagine that a record packed with songs like this one and recorded in good conditions would have been the perfect ending for The Aprons.

That song was Joan’s. So I can’t really say what’s the story behind it.

++ Did The Aprons publish anything? Some demos, right? How many were they?

There were no releases by Redpoppy or The Aprons. No indie label trusted in our music. Nevertheless we released one Redpoppy song on a compilation of bands from Mallorca in support of the war victims of Bosnia that was put together by the owner of the record store Runaway. We contributed with our cover of “Cling Film” of The Sea Urchins. As an anecdote, one day, Peter from the Runaway store (the meeting place for those in the scene), commented us that he received a letter from the English Society of Authors demanding their royalties! Peter didn’t know we had made a cover. Very little people knew The Sea Urchins, at least in Mallorca.

++ And what is the tracklist for those demos? How many copies were made?

There were four demos:

1st demo “Swallow” from 1994  with 10 songs: “The Sun”, “Cloudy Sky”, “Swallow”, “Everything”, “Thinking About You”, “Only”, “Calamar”, “The Cold is Blue”, “Cling film” (Sea Urchins) and “Crazy people” (Luna). Released on cassette.

2nd demo “Songs from Liliput” from 1996 with 5 songs: “Hold You”, “Inside My Sorrow”, “Little Pretty Thing”, “Verona” and “Keep Smiling”. Released on cassette.

3rd demo “Autumn Time” from 1997 with 4 songs: “It Never Comes”, “High and Low”, “Full of Love” and “Beautiful End”. Released on CDR.

4th demo “Polaroid” from 1999 with 8 songs: “Why Can’t I Sleep Tonight”, “Hold Me”, “Light Up”, “Glowing Field”, “Sleep the Clock Around” (Belle and Sebastian), “Twenty Five”, “What For?” and “My Dreams”. Released on CDR.

++ And where were they recorded? Did someone produce them? Any anecdotes from the recording sessions?

The 1st demo was recorded at Sound & Art studios in Pollença. The 2nd demo at The Independent Republic of Sound that was ran by Toni Noguera of the Mallorca band Los Valendas. The 3rd demo was recorded at the Urban studios that belonged to Rafa Rigo. They were just recordings, we didn’t have enough money to get them produced.

The 4th demo was a technical feat for the time. During 1999 two friends, Pep Ramis and Joan Florit, recorded us with the help of only one computer at the same place that we practiced. Even though the sound quality gets affected by this, the quality of the songs and the good vibes that the band had while the recording sessions ended up in being one of the best recordings of the band.

We started to record the 2nd demo the day after we attended the 2nd Festival Internacional de Benicàssim (FIB), not even giving us time to rest after many days of unending concerts.

++ In your demos there were covers of  “Cling Film” by The Sea Urchins or “Sleep The Clock Around” by Belle & Sebastian. What other covers would you have loved doing? I imagine those two songs are among your all-time favourites?

I remember we played more covers when we played live. I think some by Teenage Fanclub, The Beatles and The La’s.

These are favourite songs indeed, and there many more too.

++ Two of your songs appeared on the Annika Records compilation “Your Wonderful Parade”: “Full of Love” and “A Beautiful End”. These might be the most known songs by The Aprons. I bother you again, what inspired these two songs?

I would say that there aren’t really any known songs by the band. There wasn’t a fanbase who could like one song more than another.

I couldn’t really say much about the creative process for those songs. I’m sorry.

++ And how did you end up included in that compilation? How did you know Gregorio from Annika?

At the start of May 2000 we (Toni and Simó) went to the 4th “Entrega Premios Polares” party (organized by the radio show Viaje a los Sueños Polares by Luis Calvo) to see play live Saint Etienne, Birdie, The High Llamas, La Buena Vida and La Casa Azul.

Simó: In between bands they played music. At some point a familiar song was playing. It took me a while to understand what was going on. That feeling that you know the song but you can figure out which song it is. Suddenly I tell myself, “but it us”. I couldn’t understand how among so many well known indie songs, “Full of Love” by The Aprons” was being played to a multitude of people that was attending the event. What was going on? Where was the candid camera?

Later we got close to the DJ that was playing the music. We tried to talk to him even though the music was so loud that we couldn’t understand each other. That DJ was Gregorio Soria.

After the failed release of the Redpoppy mini-CD with the Efervescente label we changed our name to The Aprons. We recorded the fourth demo and with the addition of our 3rd demo we made a new and last demo that we gave away to different labels. One of these demos ended up on Annika Records hands. Gregorio really liked that demo. And even though it was never possible to release The Aprons as an Annika record, Gregorio included The Aprons on his compilation “Your Wonderful Parade”. The songs he picked were recorded in studio.

++ Are there any more songs that remain unreleased? 

Doing a quick roundup, 5 songs have been published in compilations. The rest of the songs remain unreleased.

++ And there was never interest from labels to release your songs?

To be honest there were some interest. There was a time when a label showed up, one we didn’t have a clue about. It was called “Efervescente” and it was related to a band that we kind of knew that was called Inoxidables. They kind of approached us though there wasn’t much of a predisposition to work with them on our side because how things developed with them. We had agreed to release a mini-CD for Redpoppy (at that time we hadn’t changed names yet). So we went to record new songs the fastest we could. We recorded our 3rd demo and that demo plus a song from our previous demo were going to be our first release. The band were part of a compilation from this label with two of our songs “Hold You” and “Inside My Sorrow”. The label was new and didn’t have much experience.

One day we were asked to play a release party for that compilation in the label’s hometown, Salamanca. Un día nos llamaron para participar en el concierto de presentación de ese recopilatorio en la ciudad del sello, Salamanca. However, the record by Redpoppy, was not released yet. The band had recorded new songs, mastered them, designed the artwork, etc. We asked for some sort of travel expense money because we needed to fly from Palama to Salamanca. Their answer didn’t go well with us, so we decided not to go. In the end the label didn’t release our record.

There were some other contacts with labels but they didn’t prosper.

Looking at it with the perspective of years past, it surprises me that with the quality we distilled no indie label supported The Aprons. Today I’ve been playing some songs and I feel the songs haven’t aged, honestly. They could have been recorded in 1986 or 1996, or even in 2006 or 2016.

++ In that post I mentioned earlier by Adrià, he said that you were planning to release all your songs on a label you were working on, April Eyes Records. What happened to that idea?

The project of starting a new label named April Eyes Records, for the time being, is still waiting to be activated. Maybe later it can become a reality.

++ If you had to choose your favourite song by The Aprons, which one would it be and why?

Simó:  “Glowing Field” is a beautiful pop song, with a solvent verse and a good chorus with the right arrangements and the necessary instrumentation. There is nothing missing nor nothing that is left over. Also its duration is of 2:50 minutes.

Antoni: “Full of Love” is pretty and, in particular, it reflects the sound and style of Redpoppy/The Aprons. I also like a lot the song “High and Low”.

++ Tell me about gigs. Did you play many? Are there any in particular that you remember?

The band didn’t really show themselves much in public. I can’t say how many gigs we played. No more than a dozen. Once we played in Madrid, in the Maravillas venue, which was the indie venue par excellence. It was a gig related to a demo contest, a battle of the bands. At that time they were very trendy these contests aiming to discover new talents. We played alongside a band from Valencia called Polar, who were great to meet. They sounded a lot like Galaxie 500 or Luna.

In another occasion the band supported Los Fresones Rebeldes. That was a great experience to meet the band members of Los Fresones who in some way we knew them through our fanzine April Eyes.

++ Were there any bad gigs? Any anecdotes you could share?

There were good and bad gigs. For sure we learned that it was indispensable to bring a sound guy if you wanted to sound decently when playing live. The Aprons, most of the times, didn’t have one.

++ When did The Aprons stop making music? Did you continue making music on your own? There’s Marlovers, right? In which other bands have you been involved with?

When The Aprons split, as it usually happens, there was on one side the couple (Joan and Núria) and on the other side the brothers (Antoni and Simó). To be honest, the internal dynamics of a band is complicated and if there are romantic relationships between the members it is even more complicated. For me, when a band doesn’t have much appreciation or recognition and the relationship between the members is not solid and you don’t share the same concerns it is very hard for the band to keep going on.

Aside from the already mentioned, there was a band in between The Aprons and Marlovers that was called Riviera. In this band there was the rhythm section of The Aprons plus three other members that would later be part of Marlovers. This band did sing in Spanish. Its sound was very much alike to British pop. There were two demos, in one of them there was a cover of “Crushed” by The Popguns in Spanish.

++ Did you get much attention from the press or radio?

With the first demos we got airplay in Radio 3 in Julio Ruiz’s show “Disco Grande”, that at that time he was doing a sort of “Top 40” of new talents, “La Lista Grande de Maquetas”. That show had a lot of repercussion. All the Spanish indie bands before releasing any records had been played on that show.

We got a few reviews too on the music press. I remember that on the magazine “Spiral”, who aimed to create a scene and was directed by the Elefant Records people, we got a devastating review. So devastating that it was almost funny. I suppose that because they lauded and complimented in excess all the bands and records from the scene they had to compensate in some way.

Our last demo, “Polaroid” was reviewed on the Rockdelux magazine sometime around December 1999 or January 200o on an article about new up and coming bands and a year-end review of what was happening in the Spanish indiepop demo scene.

++ What about fanzines? You used to do one too, right?

We did get some mentions and probably even interviews on fanzines. I can’t remember clearly.

Toni and Simó did a fanzine called April Eyes. Everything was so different during those days. Because of interviews with bands like Heavenly (this time in person as they were playing at the first FIB festival thanks to the help of Joan Vich) or through mail with Keith Girdler of Blueboy, The Softies, Matt from Sarah Records (coinciding with the end of the label and eager to tell many anecdotes), Chitty and Carlos of Moving Pictures, it was all well worth it.

++ Today, aside from music, what other hobbies or activities do you have?

Simó: I love running on the mountains with my two Beagle dogs and my friends. Mallorca is a privileged place for this sport. I practice running on an amateur level though sometimes I do longer distances. Sometimes too I write some fiction though so far I haven’t finished anything that I feel is good enough to be published.

Antoni: Buff! My first and foremost hobbie is adding more records to the record collection I share with Simó. That’s my greatest passion. And activities? well, on weekends I got to see my son play football or go jogging (though many kilometers less than my brother Simó, who is like a wild goat around the mountains),  Mi principal hobbie es seguir ampliando la colección de vinilos, que compartimos con Simó, es mi gran pasión. Y actividades, pues los fines de semana ir a ver jugar a futbol a mi hijo, o salir a correr un poco (menos kilómetros que Simó, que es como una cabra silvestre por la montaña), or hiking around the Serra de Tramuntana….

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would be the biggest highlight for The Aprons?

I don’t know, maybe being the first band in Mallorca, maybe in Spain, that in 1994 did a cover version of a Sarah Records band.

++ How is Mallorca today? Has it changed much? And if one was to visit, as a tourist, what do you suggest checking out? What are the sights not to miss? Or maybe the traditional foods or drinks that one has to try?

Mallorca has changed a lot during the past years, probably more than what The Aprons band members have changed. I would recommend visiting the area of the Serra de Tramuntana to any visitor to the island. It is a hilly area where the most important mountains of the island  are located. There are many picturesque towns like Deià or Sóller. During the summer there are many tourists everywhere. Before if you visited areas that weren’t that known you wouldn’t encounter tourists, but today, with the internet, it is very possible for them to get to places that not even the locals know about.

The traditional cuisine is succulent and varied. I would recommend the “arròs brut” (a rice in broth with vegetables, meat and mushrooms),  “tumbet” (a vegetarian dish made of eggplant, potatoes and tomatoes), and ensaimada (made out of water, sugar, eggs and lard) accompanied by a good red Mallorquin wine.

++ Thanks again! Anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks a lot Roque, and thanks for such a great blog like this so we can continue sharing our passion for music.

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Listen
The Aprons – Glowing Field

Thanks so much to Lucía, Eva and Roberto for the interview! I wrote about Galáctica on the blog and the same day the band members got in touch with me! I was very lucky! I had loved their band back in the early 2000s and after so many years I got the chance to interview them. I must say that the interview was conducted in Spanish and you can find the original here. I have translated to English all the questions and answers, so forgive me if there are any mistakes! In any case, it is a good time for all of you to discover this superb band from León, Spain!

++ Hola Lucía! Thanks a lot for the interview? How are you? Are you still in León?

Lucía: Hi! Thanks for the interest to interview us, it has really surprised us. I live in Madrid, where I was born; unlike my bandmates, I’m the only one that is not originally from León. I went back to Madrid in 2002 for university studies and I stayed.

++ Are you all in touch? When was the last time you picked up your instruments? Are you still involved with music?

Lucía: We are mainly in touch Roberto, Evan and me. It has been easy as we have continued seeing each other in Madrid and that has given us the chance to continue making different music projects now and then. Galáctica had two comebacks, one in 2005 when both of them were still in León and in 2008 when the three of us were already working in Madrid. Later, in 2014, Roberto and me, alongside two friends, formed a group. Eva joined us later. This project now is on a break until we all have the time to get together again.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?

Lucía: In my case I come from a very musical family. My father studied in the conservatory, my brother is a professional musician and at home classical music was always played. I think my first musical memories are of  J.S. Bach and The Beatles, who are what really introduced me to popular music. My dad had a band at the end of the 60s where he played covers of The Beatles and other bands, so the music influences for me were big in me. I signed for music school when I was very young and learned to play guitar, following my family steps, but I left it when I was about 16 as I got bored with the academic system. At that time I already knew that what I wanted was to sing (I had studied a bit of singing, but too little) and it was in 1999 when I joined Galáctica with that purpose.

Roberto: I grew up during a time of great Spanish bands like Radio Futura, the golden age of the songs of Berlanga, Décima Víctima and Golpes Bajos. Actually “Colecciono moscas” is one of the first songs I remember, thus my surrealist/dadaist influences. Hahaha.

Eva: I studied in the Conservatory of León and played viola, but I stopped playing it when I was 19 years old, already playing it well but annoyed with the system and seeing very little options to have a professional music career in Spain unless I dedicated myself to teaching in a system that, in my opinion, is old-fashioned and outdated. The other instrument I learned to play, aside from the recorder for music classes in school and the typical Casio organ, was a Spanish guitar that I inherited from my mother when she was young; she used to go to guitar lessons as an after-school activity. I barely learned any chords but I loved it. At home my dad used to play a lot of Jeanette.

++ Were any of you in other bands before being in Galáctica?

Roberto: I had been in random pop and rock bands in León since I was 16 years old. But before being in Galáctica I had a band called Bételges that made some pretty decent indiepop.

Eva: My first band didn’t even had a name nor we played live. I must have been 17 years old at that time and had done everything to buy a Hammong organ with a Leslie amp. When I met Roberto I joined Bételges, and it was then when I got on stage for the first time.

Lucía: I was never in any other bands because when I joined Galáctica I was 15 years old, and at the most I had sang in some school plays. ]

++ How was León back then, at the start of the 2000s? Were there any other bands in town that you liked? What were the good record stores or venues where you usually hang out? Was there a scene?

Lucía: I was born in Madrid, and went to live in León in 1992 and always saw that city with foreign eyes, it was hard for me to adapt to it. But halfway around the 90s, and even though I was still a kid, I remember that there was a scene that was interesting in a national level, with many new bands having fun and doing things in a different way. What was the norm was that bands sang in English but things started to change towards bands redeeming Spanish language pop. I always thought that León was in a privileged spot regardless being a small city. It may be because of the existence of the Purple Weekend festival and bands like Los Flechazos or it being close to cities like Gijón that also had a great musical scene and with it had a lot of creative exchange. The truth is there was a music scene in León that a lot of people remember to this day. I got into it being very young and my bandmates in Galáctica showed me almost everything. Up to that moment I haven’t been out much, to concerts or clubs. It was a sudden, intense and incredible experience.

++ How does Galáctica start? How did you all meet? Was there a recruiting process?

Lucía: All of them knew each other from bands they had played in together. I was the only stranger, I met Eva because I used to go to classes with her little sister. I had 15 years and dreamed of singing in my own band. At the time I considered it more of a fantasy than a real possibility, but the opportunity arrived when Eva’s sister told me they were looking for a female vocalist for a new project. I remember I got very excited. She gave me the contact details, I went to sing with them to their practice room and they told me I had the job. It was all very easy. And even better we became friends and everything started rolling. I always thought that Galáctica was something magical, there were no up and downs, we were always very active and very excited.

++ Why the name Galáctica?

Roberto: Because of our obsession with the space and glitter. We’ve always preferred what’s “robot”.

Eva: We wanted an straight-up name, one word and possibly feminine.

++ How was the creative process for the band? Where did you usually practice?

Lucía: At the start of the 2000s everything was more rudimentary and analog, we didn’t have access to home-recording systems nor we could send each other song ideas by email or whatsapp, so when we needed to share something there was no other option that meet face to face and play our instruments. The contact between each others was necessary and that I remember with nostalgia. Roberto would bring melodies and later I started contributing lyrics, Eva contributed with keyboard arrangements…. I can say that we were very meticulous and hard-working, we practice a lot and we took it seriously. During the year 2000 we practiced at an old practice room that our drummer, Amado, had in a town called Cembranos, near León. Afterwards we moved to other shared practice rooms, that I remember had the dirtiest bathrooms in the whole León province.

Eva: Even though León is a city with a big interest for every music style, for decades there hasn’t been any institutional help of any kind to provide bands decent practice rooms, clean and with minimal security measures. This problem is still going today, sadly.

++ And what were your musical influences?

Lucía: Each of us brought their own. I was a fan of British music, I had grown up with The Beatles, David Bowie and The Smiths, and was in love with britpop bands like Blur, Suede, Elastica, Pulp or Echobelly. I didn’t know many Spanish bands at the time, that is something I thank my bandmates for introducing them to me.

Eva: British pop from the 90s made a mark on me, and because of that and the influence of mod and sixties influenced bands like Los Flechazos I started to get very much into 60s musics in all of their styles (soul, beat, garage…). To that I’ve been adding more and more influences, for example melodic electropop, mod revival, punk 77 and today the new psychedelia…

++ Were you always fans of science-fiction? The future? Perhaps there are writers, movies or series that influenced you?

Lucía: We all are from the Star Wars religion. Particularly, about science-fiction, I’m in love with the books by Ray Bradbury, though I can’t really say if they had any influence in Galáctica.

Roberto: Science-fiction has always been there, it is an escape for our imagination to “impossible” worlds that take you away from this gray reality that is our real world.

Eva: I love movies like “Logan’s Run” or “2001: A Space Odyssey”… and all of them where there are bad guys that are very band with enormous desks and swivel chairs with many henchmen all dressed the same at to his service, but I do need to say that today’s science fiction is not for me, I don’t like it at all, and even less all the exaggerated digital special effects though there can always be an exception.

++ How did you end up signing to Mushroom Pillow and how was your relationship with them?

Lucía: I believe it is time now to tell our biggest anecdote: the day Mushroom Pillow decided to come and check us out playing live, we did our worst gig in Galáctica’s lifetime. It is true that there were many catastrophic circumstances that were out of our control, but it was a disaster and we were very sure that they weren’t going to sign us ever. But luck was on our side, some days later we played for the first time in Madrid at the Siroco venue on 18 November 2000 and we were really magnificent. Then they signed us. Justice was made.

++ Your first record was a mini-album, “Lujo Estelar”, in 2001. Had you recorded anything before this album? Perhaps some demos? Or were these your first ever songs?

Lucía: We have to remark that for Galáctica everything happened very fast: we were recording our first demo after six months of practicing and signing to Mushroom Pillow after just a year. The first demo was recorded during the summer of 2000 at the home of Mario Cooper in León. It had five songs, two of them (“Chica invisible”, “Ya sales en RockdeLux”) were included in “Lujo Estelar”. The other ones were recorded later.

Eva: I remember fondly when our demo was played in the legendary “Viaje a los sueños polares”, at that time in a hyper commercial radio (when they still let some indie music to be played).

++ A song that is catches one’s attention is “Ya Sales en Rockdelux”. Did you ever appear on the music magazine Rockdelux?

Lucía: We did, of course we did! I don’t have a copy, but I believe they took the song well, with good humor. I still can’t believe it.

++ Afterwards you release a CD single for “Electrónica” for which you made a video. How was that experience? Where was it recorded? And why did you choose “Electrónica” as the promo single for the album?

Lucía: The single was recorded at Feedback studios in León during the spring of 2002, but the promo video wasn’t filmed until September of that year. It was our first video, we filmed it in two different scenarios (indoors and outdoors) with two different set of outfits and I remember it as being lots of fun. I think they chose that song because our bosses thought it had the chance to be a hit.

++ In this CD single you included a cover version of “Mi Verdad” by Luna. What made you choose this song? I also read you made covers when playing live of the likes of Los Flechazos, Le Mans, even The Ramones. What other covers would you have liked to do?

Lucía: This was a song by a band from Ponferrada that had some success in the 80s. We thought it was fun and exciting, very much in the style to what we doing with Galáctica.
On another hand, our covers history is kind of crazy. I remember doing covers of bands so different among themselves like Magnapop, Easybits, The Charlatans, Ramones (an Spanish version of “I wanna be sedated”), Los Flechazos (“Quiero regresar”), Le Mans (“Un rayo de sol”) and Dinarama (we did “Rey del Glam” for a Carlos Berlanga tribute for the Contempopranea festival in 2003).

++ The album “El Fotógrafo del Más Allá” was published in 2002 and had 12 songs. There are many favourite songs but my favourite might be “Mejor Berlín”. In a couple of sentences, what’s the story behind this song?

Roberto: When you live in a city like León where everything is small and everyone knows each other your only obsession is to escape and traveling is a good medicine for that illness.

++ For the album you also made a video, for the song “Superdisco”. Two questions, what inspired this song? And two, tell me a bit about the video, any anecdotes or how did you end up working with Juan Marigorta who actually directed both of your videos?

Lucía: If I remember it correctly, it was a song that we made with lots of snippets from other songs that we never ended up using. The lyrics are inspired by one of the contemporary issues that worries young people: becoming an adult.
About the recording for the video, I only remember the part that we were playing altogether and the embarrassment I had when walking around the León streets while Juan Marigorta was filming.

++ There is a later record called “RMX” which I’ve never seen, nor it appears on Discogs, that was released by Miss Lucifer Records. Which songs were included in it? And who made the remixes?

Roberto: A friend and me started a label for when we had these crazy ideas. I have always been interested in working with people who make other people dance and understand the instincts that are awaken by the most simple electronic rhythms. And Diego Cadierno was always someone I admired because of that. I like the vision he had with our music and where he takes it.

++ Something that caught my eye was the band’s artwork. Who took care of them?

Eva: The art for “Lujo Estelar” and “El fotógrafo del más allá” were done by Marc Argenter, a Catalan artist that was influenced by pop art and the iconography of the 60s and 70s. We were very happy with his work and even today I think it is wonderful. I drew the logo of the girl and also the design for “RMX”, which was more minimalist as it was a record of electronic remixes that inspired me that style but with retro influences.

++ I read that in 2010 and 2014 you got together to record new songs. What happened to these songs? Where they released? I think there was the will to release them on vinyl, right?

Lucía: In 2010 we recorded a demo in a simple manner with three songs that we hoped to release. Because of those modern things (work, paying invoices, moving) we left them in the fridge. About 2014, we got together again in a side-project called Strauss Kahn with our friends Roberto Paramio and César Sánchez. Me, a very attentive girl, have uploaded them to Bandcamp https://strausskahn.bandcamp.com/

++ Are there more unreleased recordings by Galáctica?

Lucía: There are. We are saving them for the time when we become a cult band.

++  If you had to choose your favourite Galáctica song, which would it be?

Lucía: I have a soft spot for “Anticanción de verano” because aside from loving it since the first day that Roberto played the chords in our practice room, it was my first time contributing lyrics (the second verse). I was 16 years old and it may not be brilliant, but I was very proud. I like it because it is a very simple song and talks about a difficult relationship, close to the wrong idea of what romantic love is, but far away from innocence and naiveté. Other songs that I really like are “Electrónica”, “Dinastía”, “Sin estrellas” and “Pasados encuentros”. Also “Picnic 2003”, which is a song we recorded for our first demo with some very cool Farfisa arrangements that we never played again and today I feel that was a shame.

Eva: I really like “Electrónica” as I identify myself with the lyrics, I’ve never felt totally from this world nor that I fit within the majority of human beings.

++ Tell me about gigs. Did you play many? Are there any in particular that you remember? Did you play all over Spain?

Lucía: A little while ago, talking to Roberto, I noticed that I don’t remember not even half of the gigs we played, it is as if they were deleted from my mind. I know I’ve been to many places because I’ve seen photos or I’ve been told, but about the gigs I only remember a few. I can say that the Contempopránea 2003 was very special. It was around the end of the night, it was packed, and it went phenomenal. Even though it sounds a bit sad, I already suspected that it was going to be my last gig, so I wanted to leave a good memory.

++ And how was the Radio 3 concerts? How was that experience?

Lucía: That’s another thing I can’t remember. I remember being very sleepy and had bags under my eyes because we were playing just immediately after playing in Valencia. I watched it when they aired it but I haven’t watched it again. I don’t like seeing myself on viceo.

++ Were there any bad gigs? Any anecdotes you can share?

Lucía: Curiously, after all this time the worst experiences are the ones you remember the most and you keep telling to your friends. We have a ranking of worst-gigs that changes with time. The band that says that they don’t have disaster-gigs lies shamelessly. I have memories of uncomfortable venues, extravagant sound engineers, scant crowds… as a particular anecdote I remember that at the Easy Pop Weekend of 2002 I sprained my ankle 15 minutes before getting on stage. I swear I was sober. I cried of pain but I played the gig, I danced as if nothing had happened and returned to Madrid as a cripple. The concert though went well.

++ Did you split or not? And did you continue making music on your own after Galáctica?

Lucía: I left Galáctica in the summer of 2003, after being mentally tired. I had started studying fine arts at the university of Madrid and I was overwhelmed. But we’ve always been in touch, making songs sporadically. I have been away from music, but that hasn’t stopped me from collaborating live with bands like Ellos, Mostaza Gálvez y Perapertú (for who I did backing vocals for their record “Miramar”, released this year, 2018). I also recorded two songs with some friends on a short-lived electroclash band called Margaret Astro, in 2003.

Eva: Approximately from 2011 to 2014/2015 I played keyboards in a garage-rock band called Idealipsticks, from Guadalajara. With them I recorded an LP (“Humanimal”, 2013) and played many venues and festivals like Sonorama, FIV… You can see me with them on the video for the song “Very very” if you are curious! In 2015 I went back to León and joined the band Silver Club Bikini with some old friends who I had already worked with when they had a band during the time of Galáctica, with whom we also played Germany even. The band was at the end of a period and we decided to put it to rest and start a new one called Shining Lights with whom we’ve recorded a vinyl EP released by Clifford Records. As a curiosity I want to tell you that it was recorded at the same studio as “El fotógrafo del más allá”, this time around with Juan Marigorta producing, the same person who made the videos for Galáctica: at that time he was just starting and today he is a superb professional. With Shining Lights I have encouraged to sing; I had already done backing vocals with Idealipsticks and thanks to that I’ve started to feel more comfortable and sure of myself. I also contribute with the 60s freakbeat band from Bilbao The Extended Plays.

++ Ustedes, por lo que veo, se han reunido varias veces después de haber estado en silencio. Cabe la posibilidad de que haya más Galáctica en el futuro?

Lucía: With Galáctica you never know. Maybe the least expected day we give you a surprise and we burn MTV down.

++ During these years, the end of the 90s and early 2000s, many of the bands were labeled as tontipop. I can imagine that you weren’t the exception. What do you think about that? Did it help or not? Did you like it?

Lucía:  This is something that is interesting and about which I’ve reflected on for the last few years. That trend, “tontipop”, had a big impact but it was a label that sincerely I didn’t like. On one hand it did redeem a vision of a happy and frivolous life, that didn’t take it seriously. After many years now I see it almost as a political position, against a dominant discourse. But the music press has always been macho, patriarchal, and I always received that criticism with disgust. I think it had to do with the band having two girls and that the vocals were female. The critics that used that label used it with a sarcastic tone, treating us as dummies, not doing any effort to listen to us paying proper attention. That would have made them notice that with Galáctica we didn’t really talk about childish topics. That is a thought that is always on my mind, but when you are only 18 years old, you don’t know or can’t express these thoughts with the same clarity as I can do it now.

++ Did you get much support from the press or radio?

Lucía: I think that Galáctica’s journey would have been impossible without radio programs like  “Viaje a los Sueños Polares”, which was run by Luis Calvo and Joako Ezpeleta. They were the first to play our demo in the year 2000 and who put us on the map. Eternally grateful to them.

++ What about fanzines?

Eva: Roberto and me made many volumes of a fanzine called Galaxine where we reviewed demos we liked or not, records and films, we also wrote reports about festivals or concerts… we had contributions too, for example someone talking about some specific synthetizer or a film movement… We used to do it on a computer and later we printed them on black and white photocopies with a color cardstock cover (each number of a different color). The fanzine world was very interesting and it let one to meet other people that self-released and were nonprofit too, as you know no one made themselves rich by making fanzines nor intended to. The mailbox always had a surprise when you got home, we used to receive lots of demos, other fanzines that we traded for ours… I remember all that with lots of love. We did some badges too designed by ourselves. Something particular about Galaxine was that we were very acid and sarcastic when it came to some traditions of the most ignorant and uncultured Spain; it was around the time when all the reality shows and singing contests appeared on TV; television was changing, from “nutritive” as Aviador Dro used to sing to a trash vomiting  device aiming directly to millions of brains. We would forecast among jokes and humor a big cultural downfall at a big scale which never really happened and not even in our worst nightmares we could imagine.

++ Today, aside from music, what other hobbies or activities do you enjoy having?

Lucía: I dedicate my time to painting and illustration. We can say that it is my hobby and also my job. As important pieces go, I have done the art for the record “Vida y milagros” by Mostaza Gálvez, I’ve worked on the illustrated songbook “Armas para volar” by Dorian and actually I’m working on another illustrated songbook by Anni B Sweet.

Eva: As an Art Historian it is no surprise that I love visiting monuments, museums, exhibitions… These days I work as an assistant in a Contemporary Art museum with activities of independent culture management (commission of exhibitions, event organizing, activities production as the Purple Weekend since 2005). When it comes to music, aside from playing and going to gigs or small festivals, I collect records especially from the 60s and I DJ whenever there’s a chance. Actually I DJ much more than what I play live. Also I love fairs and vintage flea markets and I collect lots of things like fashion magazines. Clothes and accessories from the 60s and 70s are my ruin. For many years of my life graphic design was very important but now I kind of have it forgotten on a side.

++  Looking back in time, what would be the biggest highlight for Galáctica?

Lucía: For me I suppose it was playing in big places like Madrid or Barcelona, in festivals like Contempopránea and support Ladytron in 2003. But what I remember the most was being with the band for four years, making songs and having a good time.

++ How is León today? Has it changed much? If one was to visit, as a tourist, what would you recommend checking out? Or what are the traditional foods or drinks one shouldn’t miss?

Lucía: It is better that my bandmates give the recommendations, as it is their hometown and will know much better what to say. I don’t go much to León though my father is still living there. I suppose I’m a bad daughter.

Eva: León has changed like all of the medium and small sized cities in Spain after the big crisis we had and we still have; the population is getting older and those younger than 45 years old have moved to bigger cities or other more prosperous countries. Still, the cultural movement that still exists is impressive, literature, visual arts and music wise… there is no week when there aren’t gigs, there are many venues that book them regularly. About important events, the Purple Weekend festival is going to be 30 years old this 2018, there are electronic and experimental music events like TESLA, or during the city’s festivals, for some years now, there is “Come y Calle”… bands like Cooper are still on first division, anyways, even though the situation and the population decline, there is much life here.
Tourism is an important vehicle for the city and the province because the historic and artistic patrimony of León is huge; here I could talk and talk and I would never finish. We invite you to come to see the most beautiful gothic cathedral of Spain with one of the best collections of stained glass in the world, the San Isidoro basilica with their paintings of the royal pantheon, who some say is the “Romanesque Sixtine Chapel”, visit the León Museum so you can get an idea of the importance and richness of the historical Kingdom of León, do the Roman route, stroll along the walls… and to counter all the old and medieval art, visit the MUSAC, the Contemporary Art Museum of Castilla and León: just its prize-winning architecture is impressive thanks to its vivid colors inspired by the stained glass of the cathedral.
Another aspect that is worth mentioning of the province of León is its varied gastronomy – actually this 2017 we are Gastronomic Capital – and here our wine selection stands out, for every taste and of great quality. It is very typical to go for tapas (or go for wines), especially around the area called Barrio Húmedo, but also around the Barrio Romántico, the Burgo (everything is close by). Tapas here consist of an appetizer that comes freely with any drinks you order. The most common ones are the potatoes, mushrooms, croquettes, cold cuts, black pudding…
My favorite bar is without doubt Planet Móngogo since many years ago, if you want to know why, come and you’ll know why!

++ Thanks Lucía! Anything else you’d like to add?

Lucía: That we are very handsome these days. Greetings and thanks!!

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Listen
Galáctica – Mejor Berlín

Thanks so much to Johan Gille for the interview! Got in touch with Johan thanks to the Watermelon interview. Thanks to that, he noticed I had written about his old band Théhuset on the blog. I was very happy to be able to ask all of these questions as that one release they put out was quite a mystery to me. Even better, to discover there are more songs by the band, and finally seeing photos of the band, has been quite a treat! Also so you know Johan has been in another classic band, Able, who are still going and who we’ll be doing an interview very soon too! Check them out! Hope you all enjoy reading the story of this obscure but fantastic Uppsala, Sweden, band!

++ Hi Johan! Thanks so much for getting in touch! How are you? Where are you at now? Still in Uppsala?

Hi Roque, and thanks to you! I’m in Uppsala, doing my duties at the university, bringing up kids, playing music, generally living.

++ You got in touch thanks to the connection with Erik from Watermelon Men, how lucky for me. But how did you two know each other? Did you ever make music together?

I moved to Uppsala to study, and I started studying Spanish. Erik was in the same course, and we became friends. He was a bit older and had been playing quite a while with Watermelon Men by then. He opened my eyes to a lot of things, and I’m very grateful for it. We played a few gigs as an acoustic duo, mostly covers as I remember it (singer/songwriter stuff, The Church, sixties pop…). I bumped into Erik the other day, it’s great that he’s making music again (with Distant Days).

++ Are you all from Théhuset still in touch to this day? What are you all up to?

Not that much, to be honest. It’s been a long time, and we all live in different parts of the country by now, but we get in touch every now and then.

++ You are still making music with Able right now right? Would be great to do an interview later about Able, but at this moment, what is coming up for the band?

Yeah, we are actually, and it feels great. Over the winter we’ve been recording songs for a new album, and we’ll continue with that until we’re satisfied with it. After that, we’ll see what happens. We played a show just the other week, and it felt fantastic. We’d love to play in New York. 🙂

++ Let’s start from the beginning. Like what are your first musical memories? What was the first instrument did you get and how? 

Oh, wow. I remember having a plastic toy guitar by the age of three. My parents played a lot, especially my father, who had been in bands since the 60’s, and was out playing every other weekend. So music was a natural part of life growing up. His father (my grandfather) had played in bands since the 30’s, and his parents in turn met when playing in some religious context back in the late 19th century. I started taking guitar lessons by the age of 8, and kept playing though I gradually moved away from playing music on sheets. I wanted to get closer to the magic of songs. I was intrigued by that. How do you write a song? A bit later, when I was 13 or so, I started studying Paul Simon’s songs, and then I wrote my first songs. Which were pretty horrible.

++ Had any of you been involved with other bands prior to Théhuset?

Some of us did actually play in a band in Borlänge (where I grew up, two hours north of Uppsala) before Théhuset. It was called Projekt Byrån, but we didn’t have a clear sense of direction, to put it diplomatically. When some of us started to figure out what kind of music we wanted to make, there was a flurry of activity for a while. There was one band called Barking Up The Wrong Pyramid, which eventually led to Théhuset being formed.

++ How was Uppsala back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Théhuset was actually formed in Borlänge, we relocated a bit later. Borlänge was a pretty good place to be in a band back then. Not that there were many (or any!) bands around that we felt similar to, but there were a few places to play, and a good crowd at most of them. The music scene there was generally more oriented towards heavier stuff. A lot of heavy metal. At the time, Sator (Codex) were making their first records, Blue For Two were also getting a lot of attention. We played softer pop songs, and in Swedish, with a flute. It’s no overstatement to say that we didn’t quite fit in. In that sense, it felt like a relief when we moved the band to Uppsala, which was far more open-minded musically. Being able to play at the student clubs (“nations”) was also a great way to get practice. That said, Borlänge had (and has) one of the best record shops in the country: Folk å rock, run by the great Ingemar Magnusson. I only realized after I left how special that was.

++ When and how did the band start? What was the recruiting process like?

The band formed around 1987-1988 in Borlänge, when Jonas Leksell, Gunnar Alm and I started having an idea on what we were supposed to be doing musically. I’m not entirely sure who joined when, but you could say that there were two versions of the band. The first line-up was Jonas on drums, Gunnar on bass and me on guitar and vocals. Soon after that, Anna Blomqvist joined on flute (which was a pretty radical instrument to have in a band in Borlänge at the time) and tambourine. In this first version, we were all close friends before forming the band. Jonas and I had been to school together, Gunnar was living with my sister, and I was going out with Anna. The second version of the band was when we were in Uppsala. Lotta Nyblad joined on guitar and vocals, Patric Thuresson on violin and guitar, and then Tomas Bergman replaced Gunnar on bass. After a while, Anna had to leave, and Anna Carlsson came onboard.

++ Why the name Théhuset?

I think we wanted a name that went along with the soft and slightly intellectual character of the music (as compared to the other bands around in Borlänge). We were also heavy tea drinkers, and some of us had been reading “The Teahouse of the August Moon”.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

I would write the songs, or sketches of songs, and have pretty specific ideas about the arrangements, which would be adapted by the band as they saw fit. At first we practiced in Jonas’ basement in Borlänge, but in Uppsala we eventually had a place around the corner from my flat where we rehearsed when we were the six of us. Lotta and I would play a lot at home too. Towards the end, it got more difficult. Tomas lived two hours away, Jonas in Stockholm. So we didn’t exactly rehearse twice a week by then.

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

Many! The Go-Betweens, the Church, Big Star, the Byrds, Prefab Sprout, the Sugarcubes, Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega, the Triffids, Sarah Records in general, the Cure… The list could go on and on. Any music with a heart and brains.

++ What would you say are your all-time favourite Swedish guitar pop bands? And why do you think there’s been always quality Swedish pop bands up to this day?

At the time we started Théhuset, there really wasn’t a whole lot. We’d listened to some Swedish new wave bands, like Reeperbahn, Camouflage and Tant Strul, but as far as we were concerned, the 80’s wasn’t a great period for Swedish guitar pop. But that might have been us living in our bubble. We hadn’t even heard Watermelon Men, for instance. Anyway, things changed in the 90’s, a lot! The first sign of things changing was, for me and I remember discussing this with Erik Illes at the time, “My Hometown” by the Wannadies in 1990. It’s hard to pick one band among so many great ones. You’d have to mention Eggstone, obviously, they were brilliant, but there were so many, from Bear Quartet to Stevepops to Cloudberry Jam by way of countless great people and bands. I honestly have no idea why there has been so many good Swedish pop bands. One reason people usually mention is the general music training that we’d get back then, which meant that when you formed a band, the people would have a basic schooling and generally know how to play. That helps, obviously, but I’m not sure if it explains it, really.

++ Your one record was released by Ambush Records. Who were they? And how did you end up in the label?

It was through Mattias Bolkeus Blom, a friend of mine who knew the people running the label. It was all pretty simple with them, hardly any discussions at all. But I don’t know much about that label.

++ There are three songs on the record, “Egen Värld”, “Världens Bästa Dag” and “Tänk På Något Annat”. If you don’t mind, in a sentence or two, tell me the story behind these songs?

“Egen värld” was to our own ears perhaps one of the few proper pop songs we had then. Many of the other ones were all a bit… quirky. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Ask Paddy McAloon. The lyrics are about a loved one you can’t communicate with anymore due to illness. And the flute solo was inspired by Bach! For some reason, this was the only song that for a long time had English lyrics, I had to write new ones for the recording. “Världens bästa dag” used to go over quite well when we played it at gigs. Might have been one of the few songs where we had a harmonica. The lyrics tell a rather twisted tale of a couple cheating on each other. Don’t know where I got the inspiration for that! “Tänk på något annat”: I distinctly remember sitting on the floor in the rehearsal room writing the lyrics to this one after reading far too many Borges and Cortázar novels for anyone’s mental health. The narrator is in anguish about not actually being him, but rather a dream made up by someone else, while the girls try to calm him down, telling him to think of something else (which quite easily could be taken as evidence that he was actually right all along). I can see now that we didn’t really write songs about the normal stuff…

++ How was the experience recording them at MBS Studios? 

It was our first time in a proper recording studio, and the engineer had some strange ideas. He didn’t want to use compressors, for instance, which everyone uses, and for obvious reasons. We had a really hard time getting radio to play the single. They liked it, but the volume on the record was a whole lot lower than on other recordings, so it was hard for them to fit it into the playlists. I don’t think the engineer was very used to recording pop music, to be honest. It wasn’t the best experience, but we learned a lot. And I like the fact that we played the backing tracks live, all of us at once.

++ Tell me about the art of the record, who is the girl from the photo?

There was this postcard that we had, I don’t know where it came from, but we used to have it on our posters. She became the Théhuset girl. So it made perfect sense to put her on the cover.

++ Are there any other releases by the band? What about compilation appearances?

There were no other official releases, but we recorded a couple of demos, and there’s a live recording as well. One of the demos was named “Demo of the month”, or something like that, in a Swedish music magazine.

++ What about unreleased songs? Are there any still? 

Well, there are those demos, about 11 songs altogether, and the live recording, but we didn’t record any other songs in a studio.

++ Was there any interest from other labels perhaps?

I don’t know how hard we tried to promote ourselves, but knowing ourselves I’d say probably not very much. There was some interest from labels, but I don’t know how serious it was. And not long after the single, the band was dissolved, leading eventually to Able forming in -93.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? Any in particular that you remember?

We played quite a lot, around Uppsala mostly, at student clubs primarily, but also quite a lot in our native town of Borlänge. The most memorable gig was probably playing to a big crowd at Dalarna University in Borlänge. That was a great gig. At one point, my father joined us on stage to play the accordion. And my mother was furious with me afterwards because we had played too loud. I tried telling her that we weren’t the ones to blame, but she’d have none of it.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?

I’m sure quite a few of them were sub-standard, especially in the beginning, when we were all pretty new to having gigs and dealing with everything around it. At our very first show in Uppsala, the engineer got the idea that the flute and my guitar competed in the same frequency range, whereby he promptly brought my guitar way down in the mix, leaving the band basically sounding like drums, bass and flute. I tried to compensate for that by playing harder on my guitar, which inevitably lead to me breaking a string on the first song… So that show was a bit of a disaster, especially since there were some record company people there checking us out. But apart from that we had a great time together, and in time we grew to be a pretty efficient live machine. As far as anecdotes go, every time we played in Borlänge it would take about one song or two before people started shouting on us to do songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival. We never did.

++ When and why did you split? Did you all continue making music afterwards?

It was towards the end of ’92 and mostly due to practical reasons. People living in different parts of the country. All of us kept playing afterwards. Jonas played with the Standards (they were pretty successful), Patric formed a ska band (Rude boys). Lotta and me started Able.

++ Was there ever a reunion gig or talks of a reunion gig?

Not that I remember. We’ve been living in different parts of the country, playing in new bands, eventually raising kids and having less and less time for it. But who knows what happens?

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

We were an underground band all along, but we received some attention. We did some interviews for radio and newspapers, the demo was picked and featured in a magazine. The 7″ didn’t sound like it should have to be played in the radio at the time, though.

++ What about from fanzines?

I don’t know if there were many Swedish fanzines around at the time that wrote about that kind of music. If there were, they didn’t find us. Ha ha.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

Well, there isn’t a lot of time for hobbies when you have children and a full-time job, so we’re happy to find time for the music. Other than that, I am a linguist by profession and that’s kind of a hobby as well. And I’m a pretty good golfer.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

It’s hard to pick one single thing. What I keep and value most from that time is how good friends we were, and all the good times we had together. I also remember recording one of the demos, with a hi-fi wiz in a concert hall in Uppsala. We recorded the whole thing live, no overdubs. The memories from that session are all envolved in pink fluffy clouds.

++ How is Uppsala today? I visited once and really liked it. But compared to the Théhuset days, has it changed much? If a reader of this interview was to visit one day, what would you say are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks I should try?

I love Uppsala, I have since the day I came here. It has a bit of everything without being a big city, and the university has its stamp on much of it (which is a good thing and a bad thing, but coming from Borlänge it has mostly been a good thing for me). The city’s grown since then, and now has a football team in the top division (IK Sirius, which we support wholeheartedly). The music scene is quite different, though. There aren’t many venues that offer live music, which is a real shame. Considering the size of Uppsala, and the music being made here, there should be a lot more. A tourist to the town should probably spend some time just walking around, stopping by the normal sights (the cathedral, the castle, the university, Gustavianum, the botanical gardens…), all of which are within easy walking distance. I think many would want to make the trip out to Gamla (‘Old’) Uppsala, to get a feel of the Viking age.

++ Thanks again Johan! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks to you, Roque! I’m quite impressed that you found Théhuset. Keep up the good work!

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Listen
Théhuset – Vid Din Fot (demo)

Thanks so much to Frank Werner for the interview! I wrote about one of the Fast Weltweit bands, Die Bienenjäger, on the blog and Frank was kind enough to get in touch and give me more details about the band. So, I took the opportunity and asked if he’d be up to tell the story of the superb later he ran with his friends back in the 80s, and he was! There is quite some information about it in German on the web but very little in English, so this might be a great way to introduce the label to many! For those that German is their first language the interview is now also available on the Fast Weitwelt website. Also to get a good idea of which bands and how they were connected Frank has shared a Fast Weltweit family tree that might prove useful to read the interview (and to collect the records too of course!). So sit back, and enjoy a trip to memory lane with the one and only Fast Weltweit from Bad Salzuflen.

++ Hi Frank! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! We got in touch thanks to my post about Die Bienenjäger here on the blog. You shared with me an interview with Jochen and could learn a bit more about the band. I’m curious of course if there are any more unreleased songs and perhaps any plans to re-release their songs?

Hi Roque, thank you! That’s a difficult question. Jochen does not want recordings from that time to be published. In the interview you translated, he talks about himself as a Girke-Begemann imitator on his way to himself. There were several demo recordings with Die Bienenjäger and Jochen considers them as a development phase in themselves. He also asked me several times “not to give anything to anyone”. I think we will have to wait a very long time for Die Bienenjäger publications…

++ I asked that as I’m aware some of your label’s bands have had some retrospective releases on Tapete Records lately. How did their interest come about and how is your relationship with them?

We owe this in any case to the interest and the untiring work of Carsten Friedrichs of the Tapete label. The first collaboration came about with the Tapete sampler “Falscher Ort, falsche Zeit” in 2015. Carsten was looking for pieces and bands that fit the theme with their history and effect. The two samplers featured Die Antwort, Jetzt! and the Time Twisters. The collaboration with the label is going very well; we, the musicians involved, are involved and informed in everything.

++ Speaking of Tapete, they do seem like a much bigger label compared to Fast Weltweit. But there must be some things in common, right? What do you think that is? And what other German labels do you have a soft spot for?

Tapete Records has just celebrated its 15th anniversary and has put out over 300 releases to date, including those of Robert Forster, The Monochrome Set, Fehlfarben and many more.
Gunther Buskies and Carsten Friedrichs from the label play in the band Die Liga der gewöhnlichen Gentlemen, which has a lot in common with the Time Twisters, e.g. humour, carefree attitudes and a very own joy about the lightness of being. In any case, what they have in common is the will to give the respective bands the artistic independence and to provide support in the right places.
Other important labels are fore example Staatsakt in Berlin, Trikont in Munich, but also small labels like Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten in Augsburg. 😉

++ You shared with me a couple of German-language interviews and they were great for me to get some background of the label. I still think that most English speakers need some of the basics of the label even if it is a bit repetitive. To start Fast Weltweit was formed by many people. That is kind of uncommon. Who were the people behind the label and how easy or complicated was to work altogether?

The label was founded in 1985 by Michael Girke, Achim Knorr, Andreas Henning, Frank Spilker and myself in the back room of a small Greek pub in Herford. It was a long night and there was a lot of discussion and table football in between.

“It was me who at some point had the idea of getting together with these people in a pub to discover what they have in common, perhaps to support each other and not to stand alone (with a raised and disguised voice) against a ‘big, bad world’. That certain shortcomings that everyone has, can be absorbed, compensated for and perhaps even converted into strength in a network. So first of all, to have an interest group.” (quote Michael Girke)

Beyond the discussion, we planned to organize a tour through northern Germany. The organisational logic of this project followed a simple idea: Since the individual bands already had their “bases” in different cities in northern Germany (Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, Bielefeld, Hamburg), it would not mean a considerable additional effort to find a suitable venue for the other groups instead of just for their own band.

A few days later, the idea of a starting point for the media world was born: a sampler, a record on which all groups are represented, would be a suitable advertising to radio stations, record companies, concert agencies, etc.; the media association of records, performances, advertising material could achieve at least a respectable success vis-à-vis these bodies with appropriate personal commitment.

The realization of the project took a corresponding amount of time. The performances had to be organised, the record pressing was commissioned, a record cover had to be designed in consultation with a designer and then printed – that is, a large number of activities had to be coordinated and realised that we were not yet familiar with before. The design of the cover alone led to countless discussions until a common consensus was finally reached.
It was a world without the Internet. Experts had to be contacted, a lot of telephone work had to be done, demos had to be sent out and conversations had to be held.

In spring 1986 the record was released and the first “Fast-Weltweit-BRD-Package-Tour” took place. The response of the press to this tour was surprisingly good. Fast Weltweit was mentioned in the most important city newspapers, the “scene pages” of the tour sites. Even the insider magazine “SPEX” dealt with the phenomenon in the category “Fast & transient” (Schnell & Vergänglich) and had room for quite positive record criticism. In the Berlin “taz”, a record review even spoke of the “almost worldwide movement”. The record and the tour were performed by the regional radio stations. Thanks to Michael Girke’s organisational talent, various radio interviews took place. The euphoria of the hour was great. The “home game” in Enger and the performance in Cologne were audience successes. The concert in Cologne’s “Salznuß” was sold out. The “Fast-Weltweits” attributed this interest above all to a mention in the WDR scene programme “Graffiti”. The DJ played two tracks from the LP in the afternoon before the concert and repeatedly expressed his astonishment at how such a thing would be possible: on the one hand the self-produced record, on the other hand a concert with five different bands in one evening.

Jochen Distelmeyer and Bernadette Hengst joined the label in 1987.
Jochen had read from us in “SPEX” and contacted Andreas Henning of the Time Twisters in Bielefeld. This was followed by a joint performance of the Time Twisters with Jochen’s first band, the White Palms, at the Bielefeld Youth Centre in Jöllenbeck. Bernadette had supported Michael Girke as a singer at the Jetzt! and Achim Knorr at the Der Fremde recordings and got to know the other musicians.

Several releases followed, e.g. Die Sterne singles, the Time Twisters single, the single of Der Fremde, two joint cassette samplers and many demo recordings.
We helped each other with recordings and performances, talked about our songs, played them and stormed the parties and discotheques in the area. Through the contact with our creatively work, so many friendships have been established that have lasted to this day, despite different places of residence, biographies and living conditions.

In October 1988, at the Berlin Independence Days (BID), an indie fair financed by Senate funds, we had a three-day “showcase” at Café Swing. The main acts of BID were to be seen in the “Metropol”, only a hundred meters away, e.g. Mudhoney. So the “Swing” was a strategically excellent place to be noticed by the professional audience. The response to the performances was good and a few promising dates with media representatives followed. Our main goal was to find sponsors for the label and a better distribution opportunity.

The Germany Way Of Making Pop Exciting

In the early 90s the relationships between the musicians diverged. Some of the bands had signed contracts with other labels with newly formed formations and something that was not granted us in the Fast Weltweit time, namely success (e.g. Die Sterne at L’Age D’Or and Sony Music, Blumfeld at ZickZack and Die Braut haut haut at the BMG). I mean with success not wealth, but artistically self-determined work, continuity and simply the possibility of being able to live from this activity.

Today’s interest in Fast Weltweit is certainly also due to the popularity of these bands.

(The original Textversion of the early history of Fast Weltweit is found here::
Frank Werner: Zur regionalen Szene der Alternativ-Labels. In: Dieter Baacke (Hrsg.): Handbuch Jugend und Musik. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1997)

++ How did you all know each other? And how did you decided to start this label? Most of you were in bands too, so I wonder, where did you all find the time to make all these things happen?

In 1982 I started recording demos with a Teac 4-track tape recorder in the practice rooms of bands. Through this work I got to know most of the musicians. Bernd Begemann should be mentioned here above all as a former influence. He had the first punk band in town (called Vatikan with Bernd Begemann, Frank Jacobs and Martin Stammeier) in 1979 and we met in the smoking area of our school centre. I recorded his band at the Christian youth centre with a tape recorder and borrowed equipment*. The priests thought it was a religious band because of its name, and so they were allowed to rehearse there. Bernd went to Hamburg very early in 1984, had contact to bigger labels with his band Die Antwort since 1985 and already signed a contract with RCA and accordingly airplay in 1986. Bernd helped us a lot with some productions and we could learn from his experiences with the “industry”.

https://soundcloud.com/fastweltweit/vatikan-was-geschieht-aus-den-leuten
*Bernd gets upset at the beginning of the recording about the “disturbing” church bells. The building was only 50 meters away..

++ But you weren’t part of any of the bands on the label, is that right? I only see that you were part of a band called Maramu, but that in the 90s? How come?

After Fast Weltweit I had the recording studio until 1998 and from 1990 I had a permanent job in a local computer company as a supporter. This work proved to be more and more time consuming.
I definitely wanted to continue with music and founded a new company with the musician Thomas Welzel* in 1992. Maramu was our joint project for the world music band Dissidenten. In 1996 we created a very teutonic techno mix from samples of the dissidents for an album (“Mixed Up Jungle”). They called the track the „Evolution Mix“. The contact to Marlon Klein from the group has been maintained and we are still good friends today.
Marlon comes from Herford and was the drum teacher of Volker Seewald, the first drummer of the Time Twisters, and his brother Pitty Klein was the guitar teachers of Jürgen Jahn and Andreas Henning.

*(not to be mistaken for Thomas Wenzel von den Bienenjägern and Die Sterne)

++ Would you say there were any other labels influence in Fast Weltweit?

Musically the influence is surely Creation, Postcard or Stiff Records – still Independent Labels. With reference to the release of singles and sound also Motown. With regard to radical independence, Schneeball. It was a definitely small German Krautrock label that sought its own economic way of production and distribution for the first time in Germany in the 1970s. This also closes the circle to the Dissidenten who used to be members of Embryo, Missus Beastly and the Real Ax Band; they were all snowball bands.
Schneeball later became Efa and Indigo. Indigo is today one of the most important independent German music distributors for independent labels. The headquarters are in Hamburg.
Today, indigo distribution is also used by Tapete Records and many others.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_(Vertrieb)

++ Discogs lists a sister label, Werner Klangforschung that released some cassette albums in the first half of the 80s. I suppose, because of your last name, that you ran it? What did you learn from this experience that helped establish Fast Weltweit? And care telling me a bit about the bands that were on this label?

After the split of Vatikan, The Toll was the first band in the early Fast Weltweit history. The group had energy and charm and a changing line-up (with Michael Girke, Jürgen Jahn and Rolf Birkfeld, later with Heike Hickmann on saxophone and Christian Methe on drums). They had keyboards and horns, used Super 8 movies on stage. That was very pleasing. Michael Girke left the band in 1982/83 and continued working with Bernd Begemann. There were ambitions for a common band and there were recordings. 1983 The Toll split up. Andreas Henning and Heike Hickmann formed the Milk-pops – pop folk with much Jonathan-Richman and Cherry-Red influence. Later followed the formation of the Time Twisters with Andreas Henning, Ralf Wendler, Volker Seewald and Jürgen Jahn.

Frank Spilker and Mirko Breder I met in 1983 through Veto recordings. In 1984 we recorded with the new band “the discount” (Frank Spilker, Mirko Breder, Christian Böhm) an audio cassette with the significant title “Linoleum im Hirn” (Linoleum in the Brain).

++ And what sort of infrastructure did the label had? Did you run it from your bedrooms perhaps?

It was more of a garage studio at the nearby forest with 43 square meters and a telephone. The equipment got better and better over time: 16-track Fostex, Seck mixer, Eqs, Reverbs etc. and a digital Sony PCM 601 for mastering. For the masters, analog 2-track copies were pulled on a Tascam 22-2.

The main advantage was our network and the “branches” in the northern German cities mentioned; communication took place via telephone, letter and mutual visits. We also had an internal newsletter, produced with Atari and dot-matrix printer. It was the time before the internet.

++ The label was based in the town of Bad Salzuflen. To be honest I’ve only heard the name of the town when the label is mentioned. Don’t know much about it. How was it back in the day? Did you get many concerts? Were there any good venues to check out bands? Were there any like-minded people aside the Fast Weitwelt gang? Were there any good record stores?

Oh, Bad Salzuflen is a spa town with a very old population and thermal baths. In some parts of the city one cannot get rid of the feeling of being an integral part of a perpetual therapy session (physical education). There is a large spa park, a lot of forest and good possibilities to go for a walk.
The first natural reflex as a young person is to quickly leave the city and its sometimes strange inhabitants behind. I am a little hospitalized with Stockholm Syndrome, live in a suburb and like to visit the nearby bigger city Bielefeld. Many friends of mine have left the city over the years.
Bielefeld is a university town with over 330,000 inhabitants and a few good clubs. That’s an alternative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Salzuflen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

Radio was very important for us, especially BFBS as an local English-language station of the British Army of the Rhine, with a much more relaxed program compared to the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, with its cruel hit & german „Schlager“ program.
Our region was occupied by the British Army. English soldiers, army cars and the white english school buses were part of the street scene in Bad Salzuflen and Herford. In Salzuflen there was even a small district where the British officers and their families lived.
I started listening to Nightflight by Alan Bangs and John Peel’s Music early. A large English garrison was stationed in Herford and concerts in the old „Scala“ in Herford were almost like a home play for many English bands.
And there were good clubs, e.g. the Forum in Enger, a privately organised music club with an excellent concert programme. This was a regular meeting place and extended living room for many.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar-Club

There was a good local record store in the 80s; unfortunately it had to close later.
The small “Rock Shop” in Schießhofstraße was a meeting place in the early 80s. When we finished the first The Toll cassette, the owner, Frank Lenschen decorated the whole shop window with it and we were really proud.
The record store owner was local hero and sometimes a little dictator.
They’ve heard increasingly gloomy industrial stuff from Manchester & London, Throbbing Gristle…
And if you had bought a nice pop record, there was a saying, “What do you want with that shit?”
Support your local record shop!

++ What’s the story behind the name of the label?

The name was invented by Michael Girke. Big-mouthed, but with a wink.
“Fast” means almost, not fast in the sense of speed.

++ What about the artwork for the label? Was the aesthetics of the label important for you all? Who came up with the label’s logo?

Again Michael, he insisted from the beginning that we needed a proper logo and organized the contact to young graphic artists in Bielefeld. Rena Tangens and padeluun designed it, as they did the cover of his first single.
My girlfriend Susanne Beimfohr designed the cover of the first Fast Weltweit LP. She studied graphics and design in Bielefeld. Through my work with her I learned a lot about typography and design. She also designed the cover of the first Die Sterne single. In return, Frank Spilker and Mirko Breder created a soundtrack for a slide animation about El Lissitzky, a Russian artist – “Von zwei Quadraten”. That was part of her thesis.

++ You also produced most of the records if not all. How did that work for you? Which studio did you use? and what would you say were the easiest and most complicated records to produce?

I was lucky enough to have been able to renovate and use an old garage near my house since 1984. I recorded the Milk-pops in my little apartment.
The easiest and most difficult recording at the same time was the first Time Twisters single at the beginning of 1989. We had to postpone the recording. It took several weeks until a spare part was available because the sales department of Fostex in Germany went bankrupt. I was able to purchase a spare part in Frankfurt from a former employee and have it installed there. We recorded the single in three days – soundcheck, recording and mix. The Twisters were very straightforward and had a new drummer, Matthias Reth, with beat and very good timing.

++ And was it easy to distribute your records? Did you manage to create interest abroad?

It was very difficult. We didn’t have any real distribution. Achim Knorr did mailorder from Cologne. We also sold at concerts. Record shops were often only willing to record the records under commission.

++ Also do tell me about the catalog numbers of the label, they seem quite odd to me, like they don’t follow a logic! But I’m sure there is one!

No, no logic. The names were more important, like Ikea. The red sampler, the blue sampler etc. These were the toner colors in Mirko Breder’s parents’ Xerox.

++ Another thing that surprises me, is that there is a website for the label. That is not common for a small 80s label, to have an online presence these days with so much memorabilia and more. Who runs it? Is it updated often? And who kept safe all of these photos and articles?

In 2008 there was a major exhibition in the Museum of Literature in Oelde about Die Sterne, Blumfeld, Bernd Begemann, Bernadette La Hengst, Erdmöbel and Fast Weltweit – “Stadt.Land.Pop. The Literature Commission for Westphalia was responsible for the event, in particular Moritz Baßler, Walter Gödden, Jochen Grywatsch and Christina Riesenweber.
We were all quite surprised at the interest in the topic – a lot of press and over 6,000 visitors. There was a very extensive volume accompanying the exhibition with a lot of journalistic and scientific research. “Stadt.Land.Pop.” was an interdisciplinary project and had support in teaching at the universities of Paderborn and Münster. There were also some concerts during the six months of the exhibition.

I had conversations and compiled a lot of material, digitized interviews, scanned covers, texts etc. for the book, restored the sound for the almost-worldwide promo video shown at the exhibition, etc. Michael Girke and I gave a video interview, which can be found on the DVD supplement to the exhibition catalogue. The others have written wonderful contributions to the book, given concerts and interviews. However, the main work was done by the staff of the Literature Commission and the participants of the „Museum für Westfälische Literatur“ in Oelde-Stromberg. We have deliberately not interfered in their work.
The wealth of material that came to light during my research prompted me personally to revamp the Fast Weltweit website. Dirk Bogdanski of the Nottbeck House of Culture has made many photos available and thus an impression of this exhibition is virtually preserved. The work on the blog developed a momentum of its own, also because I mix old references and new ones. The preparatory work for the four Tapete records also caused many pictures to reappear.

https://www.kulturgut-nottbeck.de/ausstellungen/ausstellungsarchiv/stadtlandpop-popmusik-zwischen-westfaelischer-provinz-und-hamburger-schule/

++ Well, let’s talk about the label’s releases! I believe the first release was Jetzt’s „Acht Stunden Sind Kein Tag“ 7“, right? I notice that this was a co-release with Hit-And-Run Records. Who were they?

Oh, that was Michael Girke. Pastell, a label from Dortmund, had promised him financing and distribution. We have included the single in our program. It was mixed and produced by Thomas Schwebel von Fehlfarben.

++ There are two „Fast Weltweit präsentiert“ compilations. The first on vinyl, and the second on tape. Of course, I have to ask, why the second on tape?

Cassettes were very popular, easier and cheaper to create and send. We used the tapes as a demo for concerts at the same time. Cassettes were also a statement for the still new DIY and independent culture.

++ Not all of the artists that are related to the label, got a proper release. Only a few did like Jetzt!, Die Sterne, Die Time Twisters or Der Fremde. Why was that?

For the first single of Bernadette La Hengst we had already finished the recordings and photos. Horst Luedtke, producer of “Monarchie und Alltag” of Fehlfarben, produced Bernadette in the Klangforschung for a week in 1989. He came in a Mercedes, wore cowboy boots and lived in the Maritim hotel. The recordings were very exciting and had a positive influence on me. A little later Bernadette met her comrades-in-arms at Die Braut… and the story took a different turn.

++ Speaking of bands released by the label, just as an introduction to the English-speaking fans, maybe in a line or two could you explain or tell who formed these bands, or which song would be a great entry point each of them?

The Time Twisters – Jürgen Jahn, Andreas Henning and Frank Jacobs. A good start would be the first single or – even better – the album “Guten Morgen Sommer” released by Tapete.
http://www.tapeterecords.de/artists/dietimetwisters/

Jetzt! – Michael Girke, solo and in different line-ups with band (Klaus Mertens, Mijk van Dijk, Oliver Mills etc.). Here, too, the publication of Tapete should be mentioned: JETZT! – Liebe in GROSSEN Städten (1984–1988)
http://www.tapeterecords.de/artists/jetzt/

Mijk van Dijk has published a wonderful report about his time at Jetzt! on his website. All in English language: http://microglobe.de/jetzt-liebe-in-grossen-stadten/

Die Sterne – Mirko Breder and Frank Spilker. (The other Die Sterne band was founded in Hamburg in the early 90s with a different line-up but with the same name.)
Especially the first single “Ein verregneter Sommer” is recommended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGD7VVcFuWE

Der Fremde – Achim Knorr, Andreas Reth and Andrea Kilian; later with Frank Spilker on bass and Thomthom Geigenschrey on violin. German grunge with a lot of Dinosaur Jr. influence. The recommendation: “Stunden dazwischen” – live with the support of Frank Spilker and Mirko Breder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8udCYt2bkbw

Bernadette La Hengst – here the cover version of Michael Girkes “Das Dorf am Ende der Welt”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kAk9c103t8 The woman is incredible, climate activist, musician, actor & theater.

Jochen Distelmeyer, Die Bienenjäger – “What will we find”.
At that time with Thomas Wenzel, Mikro Breder and Jochen Distelmeyer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4335RV7PgkM

++ And if you were to choose your top five releases on Fast Weltweit, which would they be and why?

I can’t decide. 😉

++ I must say that my favourite band on the label is Die Time Twisters, as they are perhaps the most jingle jangly band on it. I believe they could have been much bigger maybe if they sang in English. But at the same time I love that the bands in your label are true to themselves and were all singing in German. I do wonder what you think about that? Do you think this limited in any ways the bands and or the label?

We deliberately chose the German language. As a “native speaker” it is much easier to express yourself in it. A large part of the bands in Germany sang English at that time. People thought it was cooler, didn’t understand the strange lyrics and the funny accent of these bands. We also saw each other as a result of the early German punk and new wave bands, which were distinguished by the then new use of German lyrics. Even if music as a language is universal, the decision to use one language limits the target group. On the other hand, we wanted to be understood and it is more obvious to speak the same language.

++ Are there any other German bands from that period that you would have loved to release on the label?

There were contacts to other bands, but nothing came out of it.

++ And is there a complete discography of the label somewhere? Is the Discogs one complete?

Discogs is a good introduction and almost complete in relation to the official releases. Of course, the many demos are missing. The German Wikipedia entry also mentions some demo recordings.

++ When and why did you decide to stop the label? What did you do after? Did you continue being involved with music?

It was a creeping process. Due to my computer job I had less and less time at my disposal. At the same time there were changes in the bands. Michael Girke stopped making music and became a journalist for the “Bielefelder Stadtblatt”. Jochen also stopped making music for a year and later reinvented himself with Blumfeld. Bernadette founded her band Die Braut haut ins Auge. The drummer of Der Fremde, Andreas Reth, founded a new label for his band in 1990, Reth Tonträger, and we produced the album “Daneben” together with Achim Knorr.
Die Sterne were also newly founded in Hamburg.

https://www.discogs.com/de/Der-Fremde-Daneben/release/1988984

++ Probably the question most people are asking by now, do you still have any stock of the label’s records?

No, all out of stock.

++ Did the label get much support from the German press or radio?

The fanzine “Straight” of the Grether sisters supported us very much. There were some mentions (“Spex” and others) and articles in the local newspapers.
In the mid-90s the Münster fanzine “komm küssen” published a big article and a fat CD supplement to the magazine with Weltweit-Tracks with the help of the Hamburg label L’âge d’Or. This was a great honour for us, as the magazine about Christoph Koch, Linus Volkmann, Ivo Schweighart and Michael Brandes was one of the best German-language fanzines.

++ Looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest highlight of the label?

Live the performances at Café Swing in Berlin, musically the red and the blue cassette sampler.

++ I’m curious, as I also run a small label, did you lose much money with the label? Or maybe you were one of the lucky indiepop labels that could break even or make a little?

I wasn’t in debt 😉

++ Aside from music, what do you do these days? And what other hobbies do you have?

I live off my job as a computer supporter.
My hobbies: still listening to music and sometimes also producing. 😉

++ I think this has been a long interview Frank!! I could probably keep asking questions but let’s wrap it here. Just one more question, as I’ve never been to Bad Salzuflen, do you recommend visiting at all? Are there any sights or maybe traditional foods or drinks one should definitely try?

Maybe “Pickert” This is a pancake-like dish that used to be a “poor people meal”. It is a dough dish and is fried in a pan and served with butter, plum or plum jam, jam, compote, applesauce and others. It’s definitely very tasty. 😉

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickert

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Michael and Bernd met through a tip from The Toll drummer “Balou”. He said to Michael: “I know someone who is just as crazy as you are”.

Some of the band names have their own meanings. „Toll“ means “great, awesome and fantastic” in German. “Die Braut haut ins Auge“ is a “bride that bangs the eye”. All the band members had just been through a divorce. “Die Bienenjäger” are “bee hunters” and “Die Sterne” are “stars”. “Der Fremde” is a “stranger” and “Arthur Dent”, an early band of Frank Spilker has a quote to the fictional character of the comic science fiction series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Many thanks for your interest!
Best, Frank

PS: Many thanks to Roque for the interview. Thanks to Andreas Henning, Bernadette La Hengst, Michael Girke, Marlon Klein, Carsten Friedrichs and Sarah Wassermair for the reading and the comments and Volker Koring for the correction.
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