Thanks so much to Sumire for being up for this interview! Sumire runs the lovely Violet and Claire store that stocks and supports many indiepop labels. Also she is now part of an indiepop band Black Tulips, has released records under her own label, and she has been writing liner notes and books about indiepop. A true indiepop activist of these days!

++ Hi Sumire! How are you? Thanks for being up for this interview. It’s been a long time since I saw you, might have been Indietracks and NYC Popfest the last times. How do you remember your adventures attending international festivals? What was the best of it?

I’ve been to Indietracks 3 times and I really loved atmosphere of festival. But I prefer NYC Popfest ’cause I grew up in city and love to walk around Brooklyn with my good friends and see gigs. It’s not Brooklyn but I love Cake Shop is the best venue all the time. It was the best moment to see Veronica Falls in NYC Popfest 2010.

++ And how come there are no indiepop festivals in Japan? Do you think it will happen soon?

I’m always wishing to have indiepop fest in Japan! I think we have to have more Japanese indiepop bands here. When more young bands coming out it can be happen.

++ You run the Violet and Claire store were you sell a wide array of things. You carry clothes, books, magazines, music, and much more. Tell me a bit how the store started and who curates what’s been sold at the store?

After graduating university (I had studied English literature there) and work for my dad’s urban development company, but I thought it wasn’t challenging job.
At the same time, Toshiko from Apple Crumble Records ask me to have my shop (She wanted to close her shop),One year later, I quit my job and started my own shop. When I was working at record shop, there’s chance to visit London many times, It was the time of “Twee As Fuck”, I love London girls who have very good taste of music,books and clothes and I wanted to make Japanese Girls like that.

++ And where does the name of the store come from?

I’ve lived in LA when I was 6 to 10 years old, My dad had transfer abroad with my family so. I was obsessed by Young Adult Novel such as Weetzie Bat Books, These novel was written by Francesca Lia Block. “Violet And Claire” is one of her great work. I always ask by people about Violet come from my name Sumire (Japanese Violet) but it doesn’t relate at all.

++ You don’t also carry other people’s products but you also do your own, from brooches to tote bags and everything in between. Who takes care of the design and production of these?

Some of them by me but others by Eleonora Marton, She is wife of Neil Kidgell, Both are very great designer and work for Young And Lost Club’s design too.

++ Through your store you support indiepop, your favourite kind of music. Do you think then that indiepop can be successful at being sold in stores as physical records? Everyone is so pessimistic about this!

I think it’s YES, the situation of physical records sales getting better now. more girls buying records recently. I’m not sure for boys! boys are always buying records so.

++ Talking about indiepop, when did you get into it? And what are some of your favourite bands?

I was big fan of British Rock when I was small because my mom loves them. She loves Style Council all the time! When I was junior high school student, I love more psych 60’s garage,mod music more than indiepop but when I collect of vinyls 80’s music seemed more interesting for me. Obscure/DIY music isn’t under-control and sounds very free.

My favorite bands is so difficult to choose! Glo-Worm, New Colours, The Times, Orange Juice,Veronica Falls, The Pains, Blanche Hudson Weekend, Sea Lions, Belle and Sebastian, Dolly Mixture, Anthony Adverse, The Pastels, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd,The Divine Comedy, Pale Fountains,Dislocation Dance… much more!

++ You’ve released some records too. Tell me a bit about the ones you’ve put out and if you have any plans for the future.

I am talking with Nick to release Catwalk material as vinyls and CD album. Catwalk is one of my favorite band but it takes time to finish songs…so have to be patient for his response.

++ Nowadays you are also even in a band called Black Tulips. When are you putting out a record?! Who are the members in the band? And where can one listen to your music?

We finish recorded so now we are at pressing record, Nana (from Twinkle Twinkles), Ai and Riko (illustrator). Nana lives in Australia for a year now. There is 8 original song and we do Monochrome Set cover (because of my El taste!) not proper record songs not on-line but hope it’s soon! http://theblacktulips.tumblr.com/

++ Is this your first time playing in a band by the way?

I was in band when I was in junior high but I quit playing for long time, I was in Girls Pancakes and did few gigs with Sea Lions.

++ You seem to do so many things, a true indiepop activist. Another facet of yours is writing liner notes for Japanese edition of various indiepop records. How did this happen for the first time? And how do you like doing this? Do you consider yourself a good writer?

I really hope to be good writer, I cannot define by myself but I always love to read Japanese edition liner notes, and wish to be kinda journalist for music. Started working indie record store when I was 17years old, Owner of record store gave me chance to write, and I felt this is what I was waiting for. Now there are many male music writer but not many female. I love Chickfactor and wish to be like them!

++ And talking about writing, there’s been two books that you’ve contributed too the Indie Pop Lesson book and the 80s Guitar Pop Guide. For those who don’t know these two fantastic books can you explain a bit about them and where to get them? Also, any plans for more guitar pop books in the way?!

80’s Guitar Pop Guide was released when I was 16 years old and getting involved these music scene is my dream! It’s ultimate guide, featuring very obscure records from 80’s! Indie pop lesson, I hope more young girls to know great world of indie pop. There so many girl who has good sense of fashion but not music! Also It has been more than 10years from 80’s Guitar Pop Guide so I think we need to have kinda guide book for Guitarpop / Indiepop music.

Now I’m working on other book of music, it feats 18 female musician mainly from 80’s indiepop scene, Also I’m thinking to make 2nd of Indiepop Lesson in 2015! excited!

++ Let’s talk about Japan. It seems a good bunch of new indiepop bands have appeared in Japan in the past two years or so! Why do you think this has happened? And which would you recommend?

I think people get bored commercial rock music and have to move onto more independent music. There is small guitar pop scene in japan all the time, but I think they are too shy to spread their scene to others. I love Ykiki Beat / Jesus Weekend, they are young and very good taste (of music and fashion!)

++ And from the past what are your favourite Japanese indiepop bands?

I love TRANS ALPHABET and Satoru Ono’s 2nd Album He used be in Tenniscoats as guitarist. (http://satoruono.bandcamp.com/track/clown-song) and Citrus. I was not big Flipper’s Guitar fan.

++ Let’s talk about your city, Tokyo. Are you originally from there? And what are the best places to hang out for an indie kid in town? And if you want to go check some sights, what are the ones you’d recommend?

Now I move to Kyoto, but I go back to Tokyo, once/twice a month (It takes 2 and half hours by express train). I am originally from center of Tokyo,so very city girl I think! Shibuya is too messy to walk around but near by big Yoyogi-Park is nice to chill out. beside of park there is my most favorite coffee spot called “Little Nap Tokyo” also “EST” is my favorite Ping-Pong place! Kaoru from Comet Gain she loves to play Ping-Pong there too. Hi-Fi record store is not indiepop but it’s nice selection, in nighttime, I recommend to visit bar “Beat Cafe” I organized Veronica Falls DJ party and people there really love music.

++ Also what about Japanese food in Tokyo? What are your favourite restaurants?

That’s tough question, I love Sushi so Sushi-Stand is good to eat. I love to have dinner/lunch at cafe “Newport”, nice wine and foods also every Saturday night there is DJ and select tunes. Good food with good music sounds perfect.

++ And is there any Japanese beer you like?

I love beer but my favorite drink is Japanese whiskey “KAKU”. Kip from The Pains, he really love to drink “Chu-Hai” It’s nice but really easy to drunk…!

++ I guess you don’t have much time with everything you do, but I was wondering if aside the store, the band, the writing, and music, do you happen to have any other hobbies?

I love to run everyday. Listening to radio via iphone and think nothing just running. When I start working I’ll be very indoor person, so I need to move to refresh!

++ You once made a Cloudberry Cookie. That made me very happy! I still haven’t eaten it, can you believe? Can I ask you what’s your favourite Cloudberry release? And why?

I wish to make again! but it’s not safe to eat!!!!please DON’T eat! lol
The Parallelograms (I love song “Papageno” very cute melody!) and The Tartans (I love bands from “YAY” label and this is very crafty melody!)

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

Thank u for getting involved your blog! I’m big fan of this so very happy to be interviewed! I hope to see you soon in Japan or somewhere pretty soon!

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Listen
Satoru Ono – Ocean Song

Thanks so much to Olli and Ingo for this interview! A long time ago I wrote a small piece about this fantastic German band who released only one 12″ single back in the 80s. Soon afterwards they changed their name to Moscopeboys and continued promoting this record that included the absolutely great song “Machinery”. Strangely enough the song is a bit obscure, but it deserves to be more known! So Olli and Ingo were kind enough to reply a bunch of my questions and tell the story of Second View! Also don’t miss the unreleased song they’ve shared!

++ Wow! Hello Olli and Ingo, thanks so much for being up for this interview. I really love the songs by Second View. But tell me, are you still making any music? When was the last time you picked up an instrument?

To be honest, yesterday evening at our first meeting after a long time. We listened to some Second View demos in Ingo´s studio, played along the tunes, watched old band pictures and newspaper articles. Recently Ingo is more into electronic music production and Olli still plays the guitar in some bands, but it´s not so much the alternative thing.

++ How is Eschershausen and the Lower Saxony, the area you used to be based, these days? Has it changed much? Were there any other like-minded bands to Second View?

Basically it´s still like it used to be: a bit remote, a bit old fashioned and traditional but embedded in an incredibly nice piece of nature – very soothing! Still a place to come back an relax. We don´t really remember like-minded bands. Of course there were and still are local bands, but they are more into rock music.

++ Was Second View your first experience in a band?

Olli started in a kind of a school band together with Andreas, Martin and Martin’s brother in 1980. Ingo was a most wanted keyboard player because he owned a synthesizer, very rare at that time!

++ And how did the band start? How did you all knew each other?

The two of us met at school and decided to found Second View together with Andreas and Martin. Martin and Olli had been friends since early childhood and Andreas was a neighbour and the first New Wave-affected guy in town, really cool. In other words, it really was that typical „We are friends, we like New Wave music and we’re gonna found a band“.

++ What were you listening at that time? What were the influences of Second View?

On the one hand there were more the guitar-based bands such as The Smiths, Lloyd Cole, The Chameleons etc., on the other hand there were the electronic bands like Human League, OMD, Kraftwerk, DAF and the early Depeche Mode things. Andreas was more into New Order, Joy Division and Japan.

++ Where does the name Second View comes from?

Honestly we cannot recall exactly…, Ingo and Olli gave that name to the band… Ingo still remembers the message behind was that our music was always worth being regarded twice… funny enough that this „second view“ now happens after nearly 30 years.

++ You released only one 12″ and it’s brilliant. I was wondering if you could tell me the story behind these two songs?

We really appreciate your compliment! In terms of lyrics, one should better ask Andreas, but we think both texts are very close to his attitude towards life at that time. One should not forget, it was the No Future generation and he was the only smalltown punk). In addition, Andreas often felt isolated, led a kind of a withdrawn life and spent much time alone writing songs. Therefore, the gloomy atmosphere af the two lyrics reflects much of his life at that time. Talking about the music, the two of us developed and arranged the songs based on Andreas´ first ideas on tape.

++ The record was self-released on your own label View Records, right? I’m curious why did you go this way and also about the very strange numbers for your catalog number F 669.602?

We founded our own label and released the single by ourselves because there was no label within the next 200 miles who was interested in that kind of music. So we did all the work, which was tough but interesting. The catalogue number was set by EMI, where the records were manufactured. It´s just a prduction number and never appeared elsewhere.

++ Then you found a manager who asked you to change names. I wanna hear who was the manager and how did your relationship start?

Ingo went to university in Münster, where he got to know the Axels Seitz of the Fun Factory label. He liked the record but didn´t liked the name.

++ You changed the name to Moscopeboys. Where does this name comes from?

A dictionary. We were under time pressure and had to decide quickly. So Olli scrolled through an English dictionary, Ingo said stop and there it was: the word „moscope“. Having laughed about the other 20 words before, this was best match.

++ You were telling me a very curious story. The remaining copies of the Second View that you had in stock were then placed in Moscopeboys jackets. So it’s really the same record all in all. Who made this decision? And looking back was it good or a bad idea to change names? Did you lose any following?

Yes, that´s all true. Axel convinced us to make that step and make the whole thing more professional and possibly profitable. Looking back we regret that decision. If we ever publish any other material on youtube etc., we will definitely use the old name.

++ And was Fun Factory, the label that ‘released’ the Moscopeboys 12″, ran by you guys as well?

No, not at all. It was just a deal.

++ You used to drive for hours to find good record stores. So I wonder, what record is your most priced possession? And what kind of car did you drive back in those days?

Olli drove an old Renault R5 and Ingo had a Datsun Cherry. There was really good record store in Hanover where we bought our records. Another good opportunity was mail order from Britain. We are not quite sure about the records but we bought some incredibly expensive bootlegs of The Smiths.

++ Tell me about gigs. Did you play many concerts? Which were your favourites and why?

We played some 15 local shows before we recorded Machinery. After having the management we played around10 concerts in the west and the north of Germany. Ollis favourite concert was a show in Osnabrück because the sound was good, there were more than 1000 people and a fantastic atmosphere. Among the fans there was a very nice group of young people from England who met us after the show in the backstage area. Ingo agrees to my choice but would like to add that there was another big and exciting festival in Münster together with Element of Crime, a band that is still very successful here in Germany.

++ And how was the creative process for you guys? How did songs shape up? Also, was there any thoughts about making songs in German?

Actually we started in German and then changed into English. Usually the two of us came together and one of us brought a new idea. Then we worked on the new song, changed things, added things, so, the usual process until we were satisfied with the result. Then we gave it to Andreas for the lyrics, if he had not already been with us thinking about a text while we were working on the song.

++ During the lifetime of Second View there were some lineup changes. Who left and who came in, and why?

In 1987, Thorsten joined the band to play the second guitar and to do the back vocals during live shows.
Martin left the band in 1988 due to his career as a mechanic. For a short time Fred Lemke from Hamelin joined us and played the drums during the studio sessions for the longplayer. But we never performed together on stage.

++ Then in 1987, in Leverkusen while recording, the band split up. Why did this happen? And did the band left many unreleased songs that never got released?

We recorded in Leverkusen at the Bayer Studio. The company supported newcomers and let them record at their excellently equipped studio for a fair price. The problem was that we only had time to be there at the weekends. It was always difficult to find dates fitting for all people involved. At that time Olli and Ingo recognized that in this difficult situation Andreas was more interested in other things than in the band. After a few months in which we had been trying to save the project we decided to split up. We could replace the drummer but we did not have any clue to replace the singer and the writer of the lyrics.

++ After splitting, some years later, you started Ultramarin. How would you describe the music of this new project of yours and how different would you say it was from Second View/Moscopeboys?

Olli needed some two years to recover from all the frustration that the Second View thing brought with it. Then, in 1991, he asked Thorsten to perform some songs in a kind of a duet. A year later, after having written some new songs with German lyrics, Ingo joined Ultramarin. But Ultramarin has always been more a project than a band. We invited many musicians to do recording sessions with us and it took over five years before we could master and release the CD. Ultramarin only played two live shows with guest musicians. It differs from the Second View sound because the songs are in German, it is more a soothing, acoustic music with many instruments that are not typical of an alternative band (i.e. trumpet, cello, flute). And, it is a different singer.

++ You released one CD with Ultramarin but you say you don’t plan to release anything else with them. What’s the reasoning behind it?

It is just that we all live in different parts of the country and over the years it has become more difficult to meet and perform. We all have correct jobs, families and other pleasant things that keep you away from meeting.

++ So looking back, all these years making music, what would you say was your biggest highlight?

Indeed there are two: We still remember our car drive back from the studio in Detmold to our hometown listening to the first fully mastered tape of our record. It was a 60 minutes car drive and only the two songs were played again and again… great! The second highlight was Ingo’s phone call when he told me to switch on the radio and listen to Machinery.

++ And these days, aside from music, what other things do you guys enjoy doing? Any other hobbies?

It is still the music thing! Apart from that we enjoy spending time with our families.

++ I’ve visited Germany so many times but I’ve never been close to the area where you are based. I was wondering what’s the typical stuff there, what are the good beers, and the traditional dishes? And what about the sights? I’d love to visit some day!

If you ever come to South Lower Saxony you will recognize that apart from the beautiful landscape there are ancient and nice towns like Hamelin. In addition, there are some local breweries such as „Einbecker Bier“, which is well-known all over the country. Local food for example is deer.

++ Thanks so much for your answers! So great to have learned a bit more about your band. Anything else you’d like to add?

We are deeply thankful for all the interest you put into our music and the time you spend on this blog project.

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Listen
Second View – December Sky

Thanks so much to Javi for this fantastic interview! I know Javi for many years now, since he had the Lost and Found blog possibly around 2004! He was always rediscovering a bunch of obscure bands back then. Some years later up until these days I would always meet him at festivals, especially at Indietracks! A true indiepop fan! So it’s no surprise then that this year he has embarked in a project that I’m sure will bring him many surprises, that of a label. Few are as passionate about indiepop as him, and I’m sure you will agree after reading this interview. Also you’ll notice his great taste in music, as he is putting top-notch up and coming indiepop bands out on his label. So keep an eye on Pretty Olivia (follow them on Facebook too) as I think it’s going to have a great run in indiepop history!

++ Hi Javi! Please tell me how this new adventure started! When did you decide that it was time to put together a record label? What triggered it?

Hi Roque, it’s a pleasure to chat with you about our common passion.

There wasn’t an only reason, really, first of all I had just lost my job and for the first time in my life I had the opportunity of thinking about what I was going to do with my life. Also I needed to get involved in music in other way, returning part of what music has gave me.

As Paddy McAloon sings: “music is a princess, I’m just a nobody who’d gladly give his life for her majesty”

And last but not least, my wife’s support, without her Pretty Olivia Records wouldn’t exist.

++ Have the idea of having a record label being in your mind for a long time? Was it something you’ve always wanted to do?

I have to admit that: yes!!, this has been a dream for many years.

I always had the ambition to discover hidden treasures and show them to everyone. And pop music is full of treasures unknown to the public. We have to solve that injustice!

Many years ago I defined my life with this sentence: “Looking for The Go Betweens” (it’s still my profile in twitter hahaha). That sentence sums up my thoughts, nowadays everyone knows the Go-Betweens, but back in the day they were the most brilliant hidden treasure. I’m always looking for the Go Betweens, looking further from the obvious…

++ Where does the name of the label come from?

Olivia is my daughter; she is 3 years old now. This is like a legacy for her, not the label itself but the fact that you have to be involved in the things you love.

You have to take an active position to preserve everything you love. Society is forgetting this.

++ And what about the logo? Does it have a meaning?

Hahaha, yes, it’s like a joke. It’s inspired, of course, in the symbol of the masonry.

The masonry use this symbol but with the “G” of “God” (or “Gadu”, the universal architect). I use the “P” of “Pop”, like a logia or sect of Pop advocators or something like that, like putting “pop” in the middle of our life.

My friend Ana (the designer of the logo) always says (like a joke) that my way of thinking is quite close to masonry so we thought that it was a good idea to use it as the symbol of the label. I really like it.

++ So far you’ve put two records out. Let’s start by the first one: Loor a los Heroes. Who are they? How did you find them?

Loor a los Heroes are a fantastic young band from Wigan, UK.

They are amazing, they know how to jangle, they have that touch of British indiepop from the 80’s and they are also very strong songwriters. You can also hear some echoes of the northern soul in the rhythm section (logical, they are from Wigan). They have a lot of fantastic songs that deserve to be released someday.

Members are Flynn Murnan (singer, composer and rhytm guitars), Matthew Smith (Lead guitars), Joe Howard (Bass) and Chris McIntyre (drums).

I don’t remember how I discovered them, someone put a link to their soundcloud page and “White Village” was there. I cannot describe how much I love that song. It’s pure pop perfection. The kind of song that makes you begin with a record label.

++ And what about Vicente Prats?

Vicente is an incredibly talented guy from Valencia, Spain. He recorded the record at his home, playing every instrument back in 2008/2009. He has a great instinct for hooks and is a fantastic guitar player.

Everyone who loves bands like Teenage Fanclub, Big Star, Matthew Sweet or Cooper have to listen to this record, for me, in this style, is one of the best records ever made in Spanish language.

It’s quite close to sold out, and I cannot be happier with that.

He is going to play in the next International Pop Overthrow, in Liverpool, with his band (Startrip)!

++ Are there any other releases planned out?

Yes! I’m going to tell you something you will love (and every fan of the jangle side of indiepop too).

Our next record will be the definitive edition (in vinyl, of course) of the first songs by the Australian The Rainyard. For me it’s the jangliest record ever made. 15 hits only released in cassettes back in the 80s/90s (well, and one 7” in the incredible Summershine label), remastered for this occasion.

I think it’s a masterpiece, and can’t wait to release it!!

We are working hard in the artwork also, I hope to have everything ready soon.

I have more ideas in mind; Pretty Olivia is here to stay.

++ So far you’ve only released vinyl records, will that continue to be like that, or would you consider doing CDs as well?

You can never say never, but it’s not likely. Vinyl is by far my favorite format, and I know that this limits the public (it’s more expensive, more shipping costs, etc.), but I have to be loyal to the way I think about pop. I will die with my ideas, I’m too old for changing now.

++ This is probably still new to you, but so far what have been the most exciting things about running the label? and what about the most difficult ones?

The most exciting?

When you discover a great song and write to the author, the gratitude of the bands, the fans, seeing the bands gaining the reputation they deserve, each time someone thanks you for your work…

The most difficult ones?

Distribution, without a doubt. It’s frustrating not having access for distribution channels, contacts, etc. in different countries.

I’m also frustrated about shipping costs, they are killing the independent labels. It’s tragic.

++ Would you say there has been other labels that have influenced you music-wise or even aesthetically? If so, who?

There are a lot of them. I’m a big fan of the pre-Oasis Creation and all the big independent labels of the 80s: Factory, 4AD, Beggars Banquet, Rough Trade … at least until they tried to become multis. I also love Sarah, Postcard, Crepuscule, … all of them have been an inspiration in one way or another. Well, Flying Nun is of course a continuous inspiration.

Nowadays, I think Cloudberry holds the flame of a true independent spirit, you are very important for us Roque, this is a good place for saying it, my friend.

Let me also praise one new label from Spain, Tenorio Cotobade. I think they are quite similar to Pretty Olivia. They have released the 2 Ginnels albums (the new one is a masterpiece!!) and a fantastic Zebra Hunt single. Everyone should have a look at this label.

++ From bands in the past, if you could just dream, which bands would you have loved to sign to Pretty Olivia records? And any contemporary bands?

Well, you know my favorite all time band is The Go Betweens, but there are thousands I would love to have released: Prefab Sprout, Orange Juice, Pale Saints, any Flying Nun band,…

From now, the Felt Tips, Ginnels, High Hazels, Trick Mammoth, the Lottery Winners,… there are hundreds of bands I love and I would be happy to release their records.

++ Your releases are limited to 300 copies with download codes and have really cool artwork on the jackets. On top of that the music is ace. But, where can people buy the records?

Our webpage is: prettyolivia.bigcartel.com

We sell worldwide, of course.

In Spain the releases are available in some good physical shops, and you can find our records in Rough Trade London (not sure in Brooklyn, will check it).

Jigsaw also has our records (a good chance for saving costs, they have thousands of fantastic records).

++ Is there any pros in being based in Alicante, Spain? Are there any good bands or good venues where bands come and play?

I think the only “pro” of being based in Alicante is the weather. Well, it’s also a very well connected city because of the tourism. The Alicante airport is also one of the few that flies to East Midlands, and that’s great for Indietracks Festival hahaha.

There’s only one Alicante pop band that really deserves attention: Oh, Libia!

They made psychedelic pop with 60s influences, and with fantastic songs. Even Douglas T.Stewart likes them!

No one is interested in indiepop here, but fortunately there are some power pop concerts, and we have Naranja y Negro which is one of the best record stores in Spain.

++ And what about the Spanish scene? Seems there are less and less labels and bands compared to say 10 years ago. What do you think happened?

Well, that’s not an easy question to answer.

I think there are still loads of bands and labels but there’s a lot less interest in indiepop. It’s true that 10 years ago, when tontipop exploded on the scene (the equivalent of twee pop in Spain), naïve, innocent pop became very popular. This new scene joined bands from a few years earlier (Fresones Rebeldes, TCR, La Buena Vida, Le Mans, etc.) and for while pop was everywhere.

To be honest, I think it died off because there was just too much. We can’t compare the records put out by Los Fresones, La Buena Vida or Family with the more recent tontipop bands (I’m not going to give any names because I respect those who try).

I don’t know if people have turned to garage or noise as a reaction against all that and have forgotten about writing good songs, when a harder sound shouldn’t mean you can’t write good songs.

That’s kind of what I feel about the Spanish scene: there are lots of interesting stuff out there but not many really good songs.

Then there’s Elefant, that’s a different case. Elefant has played a decisive role in the evolution of indiepop in Spain. For years they’ve been leading the way for many people and, to be honest, now I’m not at all sure what the right direction is now.

Siesta has also got lost along the way too; it used to be an essential label and now it’s disappeared in combat.

But not everything’s negative, not by a long way, apart from Tenorio Cotobade who I mentioned to you earlier; there are Spanish labels that are fighting to release interesting projects.

I don’t want to leave anyone out but here’s a list: Discos de Kirlian (look out for the fantastic Puzzles y Dragones or Fred I son and Coach Station Reunion, among others), Discos de Paseo, Ayo Silver! (not very pop oriented but produces some of the most interesting records at the moment), Jabalina (fighting on the pop battle lines for many years), Catalan indie groups such as Univers, who are wonderful, Gramaciones Grabofónicas,… Lots of small labels with plenty of enthusiasm, something good is bound to come out of all that, definitely!

++ And talking about Alicante, just for the sake of it, what’s the best the town has to offer? What’s their traditional food?

As I said before the best thing in Alicante is the weather. Also the beaches and the food are great. It’s not a beautiful city (apart from the castle and the beaches), nothing relevant from the cultural side and is the hometown of the most corrupt and stupid politicians you can imagine (and Spain has a lot of them).

The food is really great. The Mediterranean Sea is generous with this land and the seafood is incredible. The most typical food is the rice, in thousands of varieties and combinations. You really have to taste it to know how great it can be.

++ Just out of curiosity, do you play any instruments? Have you ever had a band?

No! It’s a permanent frustration for me, but I haven’t any talent at all. My voice is not melodic also hahaha.

++ And what about your record collection? An estimate of the number of records? Most prized items in it?

Well, my record collection is quite big now, more or less 4.600 records (in any format). Sometimes I think I’m mad, but sometimes I think that I’m not mad because of my record collection haha.

I think that my most prized items are 12” from the golden age of indiepop (obscure bands from the 80s): Apple Boutique, Clamheads, Potting Sheds, Boy Hairdressers, Red Harvest,… that kind of bands. I’m not obsessed with it, I have records because I love them, not thinking in the prize or economic value of them.

++ Javi, back in the day you had a fantastic blog, that’s how I met you! I think I discovered so many obscure bands through you. Why did you stop? And have you ever thought of bringing it back?

I really don’t remember the reasons why I left the blog.

It’s a shame because it even was useful for bringing together members of bands that haven’t seen each other for years.

And of course it was great for knowing people like you.

I’m thinking about it, maybe a new blog as part of the label page, maybe a podcast…

++ I also know that you are one of the biggest Go-Betweens fans I know, so let me ask you, Grant McLennan or Robert Forster? And what about your favourite album? and favourite song?

Grant or Robert, Robert or Grant. That’s like “who you prefer, mum or dad?”

Both are my favourite all-time artists, my life would be completely different without their songs, they had made a big impact in my education, I really feel that.

Maybe I prefer the Grant songs in the Go-Betweens, but the solo career of Robert is stronger, specially “Danger in the past” and “The Evangelist” which are as great as The Go-Betweens albums.

My favourite albums? Not sure, but “Liberty Belle” and “16 lovers lane” are really special for me.

And songs? Really difficult question, I change it every day. OK, today: “That way”.

++ On top of that you are always at indiepop festivals, it’s always great to see you at Indietracks drinking beers, front row of the legendary bands! So far which has been the best Indietracks you’ve attended? And will you be coming back this year? What would you say is that thing that makes this festival special, like no other?

Indietracks is “my” festival: fantastic music, superb location, gentle people from every part of the world, record shopping, the best beers, hundreds of friends,…

I think the 2009 edition is unbeatable, I will never forget that festival. Teenage Fanclub in the rain, singing “Baby Lee” for the first time… I’m sure that Elefant Records hosting the main stage was very important for the quality of the festival.

And now the difficult question… No, I’m not going again this year. I’m a bit disappointed with the line-up. For people outside UK it’s really expensive to go there and if we don’t like most of the bands that play the decision is clear.

I will come back next years, but not this one. I will miss it, anyway.

++ Do tell, do you see yourself doing the label still for another five years? or ten? Do you think we’ll be overtaken by digital releases at some point?

Yes, at least that’s my intention. I don’t know If I will release 2 or 20 records a year, but Pretty Olivia is here to stay.

I’ve just read that the main vinyl factory in USA cannot afford the demand… Vinyl is back, and it’s complimentary to the digital releases, I think.

I have doubts about the CD, no one seems to want them anymore. They will return in 20 years hahahaha

++ Let’s start wrapping the interview Javi, but what about merch? Are there any plans for that?

I have no plans for merch in the short term, but I will love to make t-shirts.

++ And one last question, aside from listening, collecting and now releasing music, what other hobbies do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Well, I’m a family man now, and nothing is more joyful for me than sparing my time with my wife and daughter. I also play basketball and soccer every week. And well, I love everything related to food, go to new restaurants, cooking,…

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Listen
Loor a los Heroes – White Village

Thanks so much to John McElwee for the interview! Just a couple of weeks ago I wrote a small piece about the Subtonics on the blog and happily Paul Comaskey got me in touch with John, the driving force of the band as he called him. John has been kind enough to answer a bunch of my questions and in that way tell the story of this great band from the late 80s that released a classic 7″ with the songs “Take it Easy Florence” and “Nothing to Lose”. If you are not familiar with them, well, this is a good time to discover them!

++ Hi John! Thanks so much for the interview! How are you doing?

Very well thank you!

++ When was the last time you picked up your guitar?

A few days ago.

++ Are you still recording and performing?

Yes. I’ve never stopped performing, mostly with others in “The Sound of Spaghetti Junction” and “The Kings of Spain”, but also solo. I hadn’t recorded anything for 10 years until 3 weeks ago. I treated myself to 5 hours in a studio and recorded 10 songs. All live single takes with secondary parts added to a few.

++ I always wondered what sort of music were you listening at the time of the Subtonics, I guess a pretty eclectic mix?

Yes. My first love is Soul and Reggae. That’s what I heard/danced to at the local youth club when I was 12. Around the mid to late eighties I suppose it would’ve been The Smiths, Prefab Sprout, REM but I’d also started listening to Jazz. We used to play a few bars of Coltrane’s “Love supreme” and segue into Van Morrison’s “The Way Young Lovers Do” in our live set. The people who I own most music by and who I’ve listened to all my adult life are Sly & the Family Stone (I got the idea of using fiddle from his album “Small talk”) and Tom Waits – though I’m starting to build up a collection of Sun Ra at the moment.

++ How did you all meet and how did the Subtonics start as a band?

Paul Kelly I met by advertising for a bassist.

Melanie was singing in a play that I was in.

Paul Comaskey and I went to the same youth club and had lots of mutual friends but we didn’t become good friends until a few years later.

Aiden and I met aged 5. We went to school together. I lost contact when we changed schools at 11 but met him again through music years later. Aiden was a member of The Ian Campbell Folk Group and was a songwriter and performer in his own right. The Dubliners recorded one of his songs, “Dublin You’re Breaking My Heart”. I heard them play it last year at a festival in Moseley (where I live). They may not have known that Aiden had written the song within a few hundred metres of the gig. It was very poignant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBTX69uzLCk

Nick Smith – I can’t quite remember how we met but I think it was via Paul C. The last time I saw Nick was at ‘The Mean Fiddler” in London. He turned up in the dressing room at a Kings of Spain gig. I’ve just googled him: http://www.starnow.com/nicksmithsax

 ++ Have you been in bands previously?

Yes. I had a band called “The Truth Eggs” with Steve Sparks and Simon Colley (ex Duran Duran). We nearly got signed by virgin with our first demo. We only did a few gigs. Then Simon got signed to Virgin with another band and Steve moved to Austin Texas.

++ And where does the name of the band comes from?

The dictionary. We just looked for a musical term.

++ How was Erdington? Do you still live in the area? What were the places/venues you used to hang out the most?

Erdington was a very ordinary, mostly working class, suburb. It’s only claim to fame is that it had a club called “Mothers” but that was before my time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_(music_venue)

Now, it’s quite an economically and socially deprived area with high unemployment and associated problems. I still have friends there and go to one of my old haunts, “The New Inns” to meet up/watch football. I moved across the city to Moseley in 1990.

++ Were there any like-minded bands in town during that period that you liked and followed?

Like minded? No. When we started out we did a few gigs with ”The Nervous Kind”. They were very 60’s orientated. I loved their shows. Paul C was their drummer. We also did gigs with “Sons of Shane” from Stafford. Again, they were 60’s influenced. They were good fun live. Deryck from the band is still a friend and played keys on some Subtonics recordings. They made one 7”, “Fly”. I suggested we join forces and create one label but they declined.

++ Tell me about your gigs. Did you play many? What were some of your favourites and why?

We played a lot of gigs. I probably enjoyed them all. I tend to remember odd moments rather than whole shows. Such as the time we played the “Tower Ballroom”. It had a revolving stage. We got on the stage and waited while it slowly turned us around to the audience. We started the first song and within seconds Paul K broke a bass string. At the end of the song they set the stage turning and off we went so he could replace the string. Then they turned it on again to send us back to the audience. It was ridiculous.

We had 2 companies coming to see us at “Dingwalls”, London. After sound-check we had a few hours to kill. It was a Sunday and the local cafes were closed. We went to a pub to eat but they weren’t serving food. I hadn’t eaten all day. I had 3 pints of “real ale”. I didn’t realise how strong it was until I left the pub and hit the air. On stage, I was slurring when I spoke between songs. Andy Ross, from Food records, told Annie that when we played the first song he thought, “wow”, but that when I spoke it was clear that I was drunk. He said if I was drinking at that point in my career he wouldn’t touch us. He said if Annie could guarantee I didn’t have a drink problem he would see us again, sober. He didn’t. He signed Blur.

++ I read you were in Austin, Texas, and then you were deported. What’s this story about? Did you play and tour a lot in the US?

It’s mostly lies I’m afraid. I had been in Austin and a number of my friends had moved there. Paul C was in the process of moving to the US to join his brother but Paul was refused entrance at immigration and sent back. It took him a year to get things sorted out so he could move to the US and during that year he was a Subtonic. I did get to play shows in California with “The Kings of Spain” but as I couldn’t afford to take the band I hooked up with Paul C and Simon Colley and they became Kings of Spain for a short while.

++ And also is it true the story of Richard V. Frank that he funded the record? How did that happen? How did you meet him?

I met Dick aged 3. We also went to school together from 5 to 17. We’re still friends. Dick had helped “The Truth Eggs”, he got Virgin interested and he got “Rough Trade” to sell our first tape, he even designed our artwork. When Truth Eggs finished he came to see me for a chat and as he left he gave me an envelope with a cheque for £100 (a lot of money to me then) to make some more music. I was moved but as I didn’t have a band I didn’t feel I could use it. When Subtonics decided to release a single, we needed money for manufacturing. I asked Dick and he agreed to put about 33% up (I think?). Annie Healy put in about the same and I paid the rest. I’m forever grateful to Dick and Annie.

 ++ You, as far as I know, released one 7″, the one with “Take it Easy Florence”. Would you mind telling the story behind both songs on the single?

Florence is based on the idea of an obsessive character (Florence) whose love was unrequited. She tracks the other person down years later. Now she looks and seems different and succeeds in gaining the other persons love.

Nothing to lose – I can’t exactly remember, I know that the “troubles” in Northern Ireland and colonialism were in my thoughts. The key to the song was/is “The sun will shine tomorrow”, an empirical truth.

++ And are there any more recordings by the Subtonics?

Yes. We did a 6 track cassette release prior to the single. It got us some radio plays and record company interest. Paul C sent me a CD copy of it a few years ago but the quality is not very good. I could search my loft for a cassette if you’re interested? There are live recordings on cassette also – again, somewhere in the loft. I’ve not heard them for many years. I know there was one of Paul C’s last ever Subtonics gig and the drum riser collapsed during the set.

++ How come you didn’t record more records? Was there any interest from labels?

“Backs” distributed the single and Derek at Backs loved it. He wanted us to do more.

++ How do you remember the recording sessions for the single?

I think we did it in an evening. It cost £90. Aiden had never played that type of music. I’d given him a cassette of the song a week before but when I called to collect him he said he hadn’t listened to it. I think he worked his part out on the spot. He was always a bit disorganised in his life but once we got him to the studio he was totally focused. I don’t think Nick was happy with his part. I think we should have given him more time and encouragement. The rest of us had been playing the songs live, so we just knocked them out live, probably one take.

++ The record was released on Life of Man Records. Was that your own label? And how come the catalog was both 001 and 002?

Yes, my own label. Catalogue number? I didn’t know what I was doing.

++ And then what happened? When and why did you split?

We started to get some radio. Micky Bradley from “The Undertones” phoned me up to tell me how much he loved the record and that he was playing it on his radio show in Northern Ireland. I heard it a few times by chance which was nice. We got some good reviews also. We also got some bigger gigs. However, Paul C left for the US before we‘d received the copies of the record and we were using a session drummer for gigs. He was brilliant but he was charging us so much that he was taking every penny we earned. We’d been gigging for 3 years and had been able to cover our expenses and pay for any recordings. When Paul left it wasn’t the same.

++ After the band split, did you all continue making music?

Yes. I had a bit of break from gigging and wrote some new songs. Then I got Melanie to sing them. We became “The Sound of Spaghetti Junction”. We did loads of gigs as a duo and released one 10 song cassette (again, I may have a couple in the loft). We had lots of interest and were offered a deal by an off-shoot of Central TV. We turned it down on a lawyer’s advice. We had management and were making a little money. Then Melanie quit. She was attracting a lot of attention and getting a lot of offers to work with other people. Oddly, when we met up recently she told me she’s been going to open mic evenings and singing my songs.

I then started gigging solo and recoded a session for the BBC. I decided to record some songs with other musicians and found Richard Heath – drums, Mickey Harris – Bass (ex Lilac Time & Everything But The Girl) and Steve Shaw (aka Brennan) – violin (Ex Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Proclaimers and more). They loved the recording and wanted to gig. The Kings of Spain were born. We did a couple of BBC sessions and were regular headliners at the Mean Fiddler acoustic room. We were getting record company interest but nothing concrete. Then we had a party in my garden and we played a set and recorded it straight to DAT. It cost £10 to hire the machine. We got it pressed up on CD, the record companies ran a mile but the reviews were great, we got to do radio interviews and sessions and BBC TV came and filmed us in my garden. We released 2 more albums with changes in personel. A fourth was recorded but never released. Two of the mainstays of the last version of TKOS, Paul Keeves and Russell Poyner, now live in Germany so it’s become too difficult for them to continue. I have been to Germany a couple of times and played as TKOS with Russell. So now I’ve begun a new solo recording and who knows what will happen next?

Paul C and Nick you have links to.

Paul K is now a drummer in a covers band.

Aiden died tragically about 15 years ago but was active in music to the end.

++ Are you all still in touch?

With both Pauls and Melanie, yes. Haven’t seen Nick for about 15 years or more.

++ If you would have to pick the highlight of being in the Subtonics, what would you say that was?

I don’t know. All the memories are good; from travelling down to London and sleeping on floors to play scruffy half empty gigs to turning on the radio and thinking, that’s us!

++ And these days, aside from music, what takes most of your time? Do you have any other hobbies?

I have had a day Job for last 16 years. I teach people to speak English and I get to meet lots of interesting folks from all around the world.

++ I’ve never visited Birmingham or Erdington. Just out of curiosity, what’s the best it has to offer to a visitor?

Birmingham is a lot better now than it was during Subtonics’ days. It’s like a lot of cities, if you have a good guide who knows your tastes you’ll have a good time. It’s very multicultural. I think it has more parks and trees than any other European city and it has more canals than Venice!

++ Thanks so much John! Anything else you’d like to add?

Roque, I haven’t thought about this stuff for a long time. Once I started writing, the memories came flooding back and it’s been hard to stop! I hope you don’t mind all the detail. I’m sure you can edit it into something acceptable. Thanks for giving a reason to reminisce.

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Listen
Subtonics – Take it Easy Florence

Thanks so much to John O’Sullivan for the interview! Back in October I wrote a bit about Public Address on the blog and John was kind enough to get in touch. He was also up for answering some questions and sharing the story of his band! You’ll find the answers right below! Now sit back, grab a beer, and enjoy the read!

++ Hi John! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! Tell me are you still making music?

Hello Roque, you’re more than welcome, and thank you for asking me. Yes, I still write and play music, but only for my own pleasure nowadays, the fire in the belly to play live has left me. In fact, I’ve only played live on one occasion in the last twenty-five years when myself and Glenn (the bass player from Public Address) did a set of covers, including an old PA track, Goodbye From Her, at his wedding reception in Edinburgh in 2011. I still love the songwriting process, even without an outlet for it nowadays.

++ And still living in Worksop? What were the places you used to hang out? Has it changed much since they heyday of Public Address? Are there any sights worth checking out in town?

Yes, I still live in Worksop, although that will be changing soon. Back in the 80s there were quite a few venues were live music flourished in Worksop. The Frog & Nightgown and The Old Ship Inn are two that spring to mind. It was at The Old Ship that we stole our drummer, Derron, from his then current band (their name escapes me, sorry). We used to rehearse at a few places in town, a room above The Queens Head was used a few times, but our main room was at The Regal Cinema on Carlton Road, across from The Frog, which was our post-rehearsal watering hole of choice. Worksop has changed a lot these past thirty years and I rarely venture into town to socialise to be honest. I live on the doorstep of Sherwood Forest (Robin Hood and all that) with lots of fantastic countryside surrounding the town, so I enjoy going for walks in the area. Clumber Park is a large National Trust property on the edge of Worksop which is well worth a visit.

++ Where there any other good bands in the area that you liked?

There were some great bands in and around Worksop, but I can’t remember any of their names, sorry. How bad is that? Worksop is only a short drive from Sheffield which was producing lots of great bands in the early 80s, including Heaven 17 and The Human League. I have a vague memory of drinking (that’s why it’s vague) in The Frog with Phil Oakey on one occasion. But I may have dreamt it.

++ How did the band start? How did you all meet?

Me and Glenn knew each other all the way through our schooldays, and it was our love of The Beatles that got us into music and the idea of forming a band. We started writing songs when we were 13/14 years old – terrible songs! – but as we got older we got better. Well, I hope we did anyway. I still have cassettes of our early efforts, some of which I’ve put on MP3, which get an airing once in a blue moon. It was through Glenn that I met Stuart, our lead guitarist, as they both worked together. He had played in bands in Manchester in the late 70s/early 80s, supporting the likes of Joy Division and New Order, and was the driving force in getting the band to be more professional. Stuart and I eventually worked together as arrangers on the songs, and his lead guitar riffs were an essential part of our sound. Derron, as I mentioned earlier, was poached from another local band and was, together with Glenn on bass, part of a great rhythm team that kept us tight when we played live. Glenn was actually the lead singer and I was the bass player when the band first started, but we swapped over when I got told early on “You write the bloody songs, so you can bloody sing them.”, except the word bloody wasn’t actually used. I have an average voice and was never fully comfortable in the front-man-wiggles-his-bum role, but once I’d taken my glasses off – which made the audience a total blur – and got the first line of the opening song out I would relax into it. It still didn’t stop me screaming instead of singing occasionally (check out She Don’t Remember on ReverbNation!)

++ And was Public Address your first band adventure?

No, me and Glenn were in another band in 83/84 called Wine By The Glass. We played acoustic covers and we were less than average! It was the experience of that band breaking up that inspired some of the lyrics in James Dean.

++ Where does the name of the band come from?

I honestly can’t remember who came up with the name, but I do remember that we didn’t want to be ‘The” anything. It was probably Stuart, but I can’t say for certain.

++ Who and what would you say were the main influences of the band?

The Beatles were a massive influence for both me and Glenn. They still are for me. Their output was amazing, and their growth as songwriters and performers in such a short period of time was phenomenal. But my big influences at the time of the band were The Smiths and Prefab Sprout. The triumvirate of Morrissey/Marr and McAloon created amazing songs with incredible melodies and superb lyrics. I tried to – and still try to – write with that attitude, making the words and tunes work independently of each other, which I hope I sometimes achieved. Not always, I admit, but I gave it a good go. Derron was a massive New Order fan, but I can’t remember who influenced Stuart.

++ Tell me a bit about The Fabled Stable Records. Was it your own label? How did that work out?

It was our own label but it never really existed, hence the use of the word Fabled. I also really liked how the words ‘Fabled Stable Record Label’ sounded when said together so I pushed for that as the label name. It was just an exercise in me being a smart-arse to be honest, and the rest of the band let me get away with it. The publishing company ‘Remember This (Music)’ was also fictional. The crazy idea was that we’d eventually have numerous Remember This outlets. Just a bit of fun really.

++ You released one 7″ as far as I know, right? Both songs are top-notch! Can you tell me the story behind these songs?

Thank you for the compliment, Roque.

James Dean, as was the case with most of my songs, was about me or things that I’d seen/experienced. I rarely wrote third-party story songs, and James Dean was a definite first person song. I actually was 21 when I wrote it, and I really was still a child, as the lyric states. The line “leave the house to shouts of Dumb and Immature” related to the break-up of WBTG. We didn’t plan the sacking of the singer very well, so badly in fact that the day after the event we realised that all our gear was still at her house. I recall making a hasty exit, carry guitars and amps under my arms with mic stands flying around my head! Dumb and Immature were two of the milder expressions used that day. ‘The group of chords that raised a smile, I haven’t found one for quite a while.”, was self-deprecating and ironic as I had found one for the song itself.

Heart Ache was a group effort insofar as it began as a jam during a rehearsal session. Stuart and I then arranged the rough ideas into song form, and Glenn and Derron got busy with their rhythm parts. When it was taken into the studio it was a reserve song as we intended recording another track as the B side, and the lyrics were very much in a basic state. However, that intended B side song – which I now can’t remember at all – became a dog to record and we decided to go with Heart Ache. So while the others got on with their parts I quickly finished the lyrics. They’re not great to be honest, just words to go with the groove, but by the end of the session we were happy with what we’d produced. I actually wanted it as the A side but I was outvoted.

++ And how do you remember the recording session?

We used the same studio, Input in Sheffield, where we’d made the demos of Goodbye From Her and Can You Hear Me Now? back in April ’86. They’d been engineered and produced by Nick Wild and he did a brilliant job so we used him again for these sessions, although we decided to self produce. I do remember I had trouble singing the first few lines of James Dean in tune – no surprise there – and the finished item was a couple of takes expertly weaved together by Nick. We brought in Mick Ellison, who had previously been in the band for a short time, to play keyboards during the sessions, and he added such a lot to the tracks I was hoping he’d re-join, but he didn’t. I always enjoyed our time in the studio. I don’t remember much, if any, falling out, though I’m sure there must have been.

++ This record seems to be a bit obscure for some reason! Why do you think that? And how many copies were pressed if you remember?

We had 1,000 copies pressed and self distributed them around as many record stores as we could. We eventually sold about 750 or so. It’s obscure because it didn’t create enough of a buzz so subsequently became forgotten. I think it was a good song, we certainly gave it our all when recording it and when played live, although the live version was much shorter. We didn’t use the intro that’s still on the version available on YouTube – I cut that out when transferring it to ReverbNation – and we never used the last chorus live either, going straight to the last guitar break after singing ‘overtaking just like Jimmy Dean’.

++ As I was looking for more information I found that there were more recordings of the band uploaded to ReverbNation. So I wonder how come you didn’t release more records?

The single was funded by a local businessman who believed we had potential, as the cost was too prohibitive for us to fund ourselves at the time. Put simply, we never got to the point where we could record and release another single.

++ Counting them and the 7″, are there still more unreleased songs by Public Address?

Not that I am in possession of. The seven tracks that exist are taken from a cassette tape I made back in 1987 to give to my then girlfriend (she subsequently became my wife, and then my ex-wife!). They were copied from masters of our demos and live shows that were in the possession of one of our roadies. Sadly, he took his own life a short time afterwards and the master tapes were never recovered. So everything I have is up on ReverbNation, though there were lots of other songs recorded.

++ And from all of these songs, from your repertoire, what were your favourite ones and why?

My favourites were Goodbye From Her and Can You Hear Me Now? GFH was a very personal song (you see, it’s all about me!) and the lyric started off originally as a poem. I think it was the best song I ever wrote, and the melody is very simple, with only three chords used in the whole song. When we came to arrange it Stuart wrote some brilliant lead guitar riffs, and I think Glenn’s bass line and Derron’s subtle changes from rimshots to snare and back again really add light and shade to the track.

CYHMN contained my favourite chord sequences – I love great chord sequences – and I liked the fact that the intro was also the outro. I was never a fan of Derron’s double snare during the chorus (his nod to New Order) but I could never talk him out of it. If you take the first letter of each line of the lyric it spells out BEATLES JOHN and PAUL (my subtle tribute), and the first line ‘Back again with nothing new’ was my little dig at our critics who said everything sounded the same. It probably did though, to be fair.

++ What about gigs? Did you play live often? What was the worst gig and the best gig you’d say?

We played quite a lot over the two years we were together, though we didn’t travel any further afield than Sheffield, Derby or Nottingham. My favourite gig was the night we supported It Bites at the Porterhouse in Retford in March ‘87. They’d had a big hit in the UK called Calling All The Heroes, so we were lucky to get the support slot as a lot of the local bands were after it. Our single had just been released and we saw it as a showcase gig. The three live tracks available on ReverbNation are from that gig. There’s a bit at the end of She Don’t Remember where I can be heard in the background saying, “New ending”, as, for some unknown reason, we’d just extended the track by a few bars. That still makes me smile when I hear it. I just remember it as a great night with fantastic support from both our fans (we had a regular following by then) and those that were there specifically there for It Bites. The worst gig was at a venue in Nottingham, again my memory fails when it comes to its name – possibly for legal reasons – where we just didn’t connect with the locals at all. If anything, they were downright aggressive and we couldn’t wait to get out of there. I think we played everything at double speed and packed up in world record time. Probably broke the speed limit driving home too.

++ And looking back, what would you say was the highlight of Public Address?

Recording and releasing the single was the highlight for me. I really believed at the time that things would happen for us – the self-belief of youth and all that – but it wasn’t to be. I wouldn’t change a minute of the experience, both good and bad.

++ Then what happened? When and why did you split?

In the summer of 1987 we’d been together for two years, in and out of each other’s pockets, rehearsals, live shows, etc, and we needed a break. We decided to have the rest of the summer away from the band and get back together again in the autumn. When we eventually met up again Stuart said he wanted us to introduce covers and play more in what the Brits call ‘clubland’, i.e. more showbiz and less indie pop. I took this as criticism of my songs and my vision of the band so I threw my toys out of the pram and we split up, with Stuart and Glenn going off into clubland, and Derron and myself starting another band along with Mick Ellison. We never really got any further than some demos before it fizzled out in 1988. Having known Glenn all my life up to that point, we didn’t speak again for almost ten years (how silly is that?), but it’s been like old times again for the last 15 years or so (I was best man at his wedding in 2011), and he’s now the lead singer in a Mod/Ska covers band called The 5.15s who are brilliant live, and he’s a great front man. I do sometimes wish I was up there too, but on bass, in the background, backing vocals only, grooving with the drummer.

++ Since then have you been involved with other bands?

No, I pretty much gave it all up in 1988. I sold all my gear the following year when I got married, apart from one acoustic guitar. I now have a beautiful Epiphone John Lennon EJ-160E acoustic/electric that gets a play every day. I start writing more songs than I ever finish nowadays, but I can’t imagine not ever trying to write new melodies and lyrics.

++ And aside from music, what other hobbies do you enjoy doing?

Having reached my half century I need to stay fit and healthy, so I enjoy going for walks, especially around Clumber which is big enough to enjoy without seeing the same things each and every time. I enjoy going to gigs and the cinema when I can, and I’m lucky enough to be in a relationship with an incredible woman – hello Charlotte – so I get most pleasure from being involved with my new family, as well as my old family – hello Da, hello Sis -and seeing my friends. Oh, and drinking quality red wine, that’s right up there too!

++ One last question then, your favourite “James Dean” movie?

Giant. Dean is brilliant in the movie, and Elizabeth Taylor was, is and always will be a goddess.

++ Thanks a lot, anything else you’d like to add?

I just want to say that I’ve enjoyed the whole experience of initially finding your blog on Public Address, reading your very generous remarks on something created almost three decades ago, and then being given the opportunity to discuss the band further with you in this interview. So, thank you, Roque, for bringing back memories of good times from my past. I’m flattered that you’ve enjoyed something that we all worked so hard on back in the day, and if this leads to a few more people liking our music we’ve got you to thank for it. Best regards, John.

Thanks again to Andy and Neal for yet another interview. Some time ago I interviewed them about their most known band Hellfire Sermons. Today we go a bit further back in time to their adventure with Swim Naked. You can also find more about them on their Facebook page. Hope you enjoy reading this!

++ Hi again Andy and Neal! How are you doing!? Once again another interview, now about an earlier project, Swim Naked. Formed in 1982, right? Was this your first band with your longtime friend Neal Carr? And what kind of music were you into at this time?

Neal: We were discovering lots of music together at the time, the band was an extension of that. I was into the likes of Orange Juice, Joy Division, Gang Of Four, The Cure, Teardop and The Bunnymen when I first met Andy and Chent. We were all exploring the likes of The Velvet Underground, The Doors, Tamla Motown, Love, The Creation, The Action, Thirteenth Floor Elevators but also Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Ennio Moricone before and during the time of the band. Joy Division / Warsaw were also a big influence. We actually formed in 1981.
Punk had set this Year Zero thing, which I for one had bought into, and the music press didn’t really cover the past.. so for me, meeting Andy who had already started buying reissued singles by The Creation and Elevators, plus some Motown,, it opened a whole world to me. But we all kind of influenced each other with what we were reading and listening to. Chent was a year older than us and had read quite a bit more it seemed.

Andy: I was a punk when I lived in London into the Cure, Buzzcocks, Vibrators, UK Subs, Gang of Four etc. then the mod revival gave us the chance to listen to the Who (feedback!), Small Faces, soul music, then the US garage bands, the Doors and Velvet Underground. At that time me and Chent listened to ‘Sister Ray’ at least once a day. Chent had done a lot of English classic poetry – John Donne etc, so his lyrics had a literary side.

++ The band as really a trio with the inclusion of Chent Goss. How did you three knew each other?

Neal: We met at Uni. Andy walked up to me with my Cure badge and said “so you like the Cure” – haha. We later found we both know Chent independently. Chent wrote lyrics and one time, I think it was his idea, I put some music to one song. It seems crazy looking back that it took so long,,, I played guitar, Andy bass, and Chent wrote stuff… I don’t understand why no one suggested it.

Andy: Chent appealed to me as a rebel and well read thoughtful character. He had been at quite an eminent private school but had pushed against the conformity and pushiness you find in these places. He got ne onto good writers like Gogol and Kafka, and I got him onto punk music and 60s beat groups and primitive garage bands. He wrote lyrics with no band to play them, but they were good, I could tell.
As Neal says I was so pleased to meet someone else who liked The Cure. We used to listen to records together and talk about them endlessly. We still have one debate from those days – is one band better than another or is it all subjective. I feel that the Velvet Underground are superior to the spice Girls but Neal says that I can’t prove it lol. The argument continues. We have been very good friends and collaborators now for 32 years!

++ Was this your first band experience?

Neal: No, I’d been in a couple of bands at school. Fun, but I have no decent tapes. I certainly cringe at the lyrics I wrote back then.

Andy: it was my first band. I did have a bass and had done lessons, but Neal had hold the music together – but we learnt fast – and some of those limitations actually helped.

++ On Facebook it says that you had a label called Hidden Heartbeat. So, who were they? And how come there are no releases?

Neal: Luminous Crocodile was on Hidden Heartbeat

++ There is a song that counts with vocals by Clare Millington. Who was she? And why wasn’t she full-time on the band?

Neal: The three of us had been the core of the band, but we’d had a drummer (darn it, his name escapes me.. second name Wilson ?) Unfortunately he left Liverpool , but in our final year Clare and another guy (Chis..?) joined to sing and play keyboards respectively. We also borrowed Adam from Where’s The Beach to drum sometimes before Tom Gent (later of Decemberists) joined.
So it was simply that people came and went – and we had two very different singers at one point, which was hard to juggle.

Andy: I liked that about Swim Naked – the songs were very diverse, from violent jams based on the Velvets, to pop or folky things. ‘Logical Silence’ was brought to us by Chris Wilkinson from a Preston band called Horrorshow and its quite a typical student song about difficulty in expression, loneliness, I like our treatment of it. Neal’s guitar is based on the sound of The Misunderstood – bendy chords, the bass and keyboard are maybe like he Sound or Chameleons.

++ Did you play many gigs with Swim Naked? Do you remember any?

Neal: 2 I think… one at a Uni Hall.. and one at The Left Bank Bistro in Liverpool . This was the 6 piece band. We were all terribly nervous, so I don’t think much fun was had.

Andy: That was the two. We had an idea that over-rehearsing would “kill the magic” so it was a bit hot and miss, and didn’t help the nerves!

++ Where does the name Swim Naked come from?

Neal: I think it was Chent’s idea – but I can’t remember where it came from. I always think it was to symbolise freedom and risk in creativity.

Andy: It was about absolute freedom. Funny thin is lots of people like us on Facebook just because of the name – they have interests like ‘nudity’ and ‘hot chicks’

++ On the Facebook page there are some of your recordings. I’m loving “The King of Love and Sex”, “Girlfriend” and “Logical Silence”. Was wondering if you could tell me a little bit of the story behind each song?

Neal: I’d say all our best lyrics were from Chent (KoL&S and GF were him). Some of it was about using our current obsessions with the likes of Kafka or JG Ballard out there… some of it was more personal to Chent. I’m afraid I don’t remember much about these two. Girlfriend was lift from some lyrics Chent had already written,, I think KoL&S was a germ of an idea that crystalised as we wrote the music. I think it may have been a skit on the Doors.
Logical Silence was from a band called Horrorshow (?) that keyboardist Chris was in.. he brought that with him and we re-arranged it. He had a tape of a drum pattern that we all played along to.

Andy: The King of Li=ove and Sex was ironic piss take of macho boasting, its supposed to be over the top. We had a drummer at one time (Lou) who was going through a sex change and he left because the lyrics were offensive – but it was supposed to be funny!
I do like ‘Girlfriend’ – it is quite a good look at a relationship and pregnancy (“her body’s white and leaping, and you lie there shivering in the wind, with an empty mind”), the heavy feet of pregnancy, and Neal’s guitar part rocks, good melody.
Logical Silence was the best song we got from Chris, we completely re-arranged it, and it worked well. Claire’s singing is nice as not trained – its a little bit hesitant. There’s a lot more with her – I think ‘Won’t We’ is good for her voice.

++ There are two other songs, “The Storm” and “The Love Bog”, way less poppy, more experimental I’d say. So you had these two sort of sides in Swim Naked. Throughout your career you always had a more poppier side I’d say, so I’m quite surprised by these two songs. Care to tell me what were they about?

Neal: I think Chent had the biggest hand in the music and lyrics of The Love Bog, We set out to create something very extreme with the music – the weird effects are created by the dischords between the notes on the two vl-tones. It used to freak out our cats. I’m not sure what it is about, I originally thought it was linking love with a sort of stifling torpor, but listening again, it seems more optimistic than I thought.

Andy: The ‘Love Bog’ is off the scale, its based on a dream but sounds more like a night mare, .ore unusual lyrics – “You’re thinking of the smell of meat” and “Fireflies buzzing in the air, of oozing wine, there is no time, no warning sign”. And the discords did used to frighten my cat. The horrific discord comes in on the offbeat, its more like a fire alarm than a song. The Casio VL Tone gave the song its sound. A bit of that dischord effect can be heard in the intro to the Hellfire’s song Sarasine’
‘The Storm’ was written after Neal left to do a side project with Claire called The Lids’. The drummer was really angry at the time and we just poured out the song. I like its atmosphere.

++ From all the Swim Naked songs, which was your favourite and why?

Neal: I very much liked “Alone”, which is about walking alone in a city at night in fear… excellent lyrics from Chent and I think we nailed the music – sort of Joy Division-like. I originally sang it, but Clare did a much better job.
The songs I most associate with the band are Drive, The Venus Men and Dance of My Mother. They were all composed with the three of us plugging away over many months of change – it’s that evolution that I liked. The first two are kind of Velvets/Doors soundtracks to Crash by JG Ballard … the latter is kind of unclassifiable, based on a bass riff Andy had that I couldn’t fathom at first.
Nowadays I feel like The Doors and especially Jim Morrison are overrated.

Andy: I like ‘Dance of my Mother’ which is about a birth, and the closest I have ever heard to it is maybe Sonic Youth, but with better lyrics.
‘Girlfriend’ I love for the catcy repetition of the keyboard set against Neal’s chords.
And ‘Flashing Red and Orange’ is a kind of violent Cramps thing written about some disturbed events at Chent’s house

++ Did you ever rerecorded any Swim Naked songs for your later projects?

Neal: I “borrowed” some of the acoustic/strummy songs for my next band with Clare (The Lids). Otherwise, I think we have just lifted bits now and then,

Andy: The Lids was fantastic, a bit folky, nicely played with Clare singing, many indie fans would love it.

++ Are there any more recordings by the band?

Neal: Yes, as you probably get from the above, there is plenty more.

Andy: About 20 songs looking for a release,

++ Ever thought of putting together some sort of compilation of these songs? Perhaps adding the Jenny Lind and Decemberists songs? It would be a hit I think!

Neal: Andy is very keen.. I guess we never get the momentum between us.

Andy: We should do a compilation. I would have 2 or 3 Swim Naked songs, 2 from The Lids, 2 from Swim Naked after Neal left, 2 from the Decemberists, 2 from Jenny Lind, then 2 from Hellfire Sermos before Neal came in, and then some Hellfire stuff. We should do it

++ How was the recording sessions for Swim Naked? And how do you think these songs have aged?

Neal: A lot of what you hear are practice tapes, and they were great for us… though I do wonder why the neighbours put up with us!
In summer 1982 we recorded in a small studio in London , KoL&S is from that session. It came out quite well, but Drive and Venus Men sounded neutered even back then. We just didn’t have the nous then (or for many years) to get what we wanted from a studio. I think the instruments were recorded well enough, but we needed to be able to take charge of the end result and we couldn’t,
The practice tapes still sound quite exciting to me. I feel we have since learned more about how to arrange a song, get good and repeatable sounds, keep it interesting etc, but these songs are largely driven by enthusiasm and our interactions and experimentation – and it shows to me in a way that still makes me happy. In addition, the condenser mics that tape recorders had compress the sound in a way I’ve always liked.

Andy: It was all bad experiences in studios back then because no-one really bothered to help us get the sound right. The practice tapes are way better. But then, pre-internet, you couldn’t release your music unless a record company would do it, and so you needed a demo to play to them. But now we should release the good practice tapes – they have the sound and the dynamics.

++ Liverpool during those early 80s had a very exciting scene. How did you enjoy it and how do you think you fit in it?

Neal: At the time of Swim Naked, we didn’t really fit in. The scene was between the whole Teardops / Bunnymen thing that had just gone national and before the likes of Icicle Works and Pale Fountains.
The only band I remember mixing with was Where’s The Beach. It wasn’t until later with Decemberists / Jenny Lind that I felt we were part of a bigger scene… but even then, we would be playing with a lot of bands who clearly wanted to be the next Duran Duran – not our thing at all.

Andy: Then we just went to see the bands, and maybe saw them in the Everyman. When we practiced at Dock Road we were part of a scene with Half Man Half Biscuit, the Jactars, DaVincis, Jenny Lind, The Room, and that was good. Then in Hellfire Sermons we were part of a national scene via Kevin Pearce of The Claim, Jasmine Minks, Emily and briefly the very early Manic Street Preachers

++ And then when and why did you call it a day for Swim Naked?

Neal: I quit the band in 1983. I was a bit frustrated with Chent never doing the same thing twice in a row – which at other times I thought was a great advantage, but if you do something good and never do it again it’s a recipe for disaster with me. Clare seemed to provide an opportunity to do something more songwriterly which I also felt frustrated we could not do enough (though I think that was a daft idea of mine nowadays – I would never dream of presenting a written song to the band, it takes out all the fun).

Andy: I was sorry Neal left, but I think he had to because the load on him was so great – tuning, arranging, working out at what point the chorus would come. An Chent just couldn’t reproduce the musical or vocal parts so they were either great or terrible and you couldn’t control which. When it was good it was mind bending but then if you could never do it again, was it music?

++ What did you all do music-wise immediately after? Did you take a break?

Neal: I went on to The Lids with Clare. Although we did some good stuff, she was not really committed the way I was. We joined with three other guys in a band that never did get a name. I got more back to a poppier sound, but was also frustrated because there was less full-on collaboration. I split in the end because not enough writing or practicing was happening for me (no gigs ever played). I put up an advert and after a couple of false starts with others, formed Jenny Lind with Ken.

Andy: We found Colin Pennington and played him the demo of ‘Flashing Red and Orange’. He thought it was strange but had potential. So we formed The Decemberists and set about being a hard working Liverpool band, loads of gigs, postering the town, and actually built a local following, which we only realised when we played The Neptune Theatre in support of the Liverpool socialist council and a huge cheer went up when we started ‘The Gift Horse’. The two bands – Decemberists and Jenny Lind ran in parallel for a couple if years – I shared a flat with Neal at that time – and eventually the time was right and Neal came across to the Hellfire Sermons

++ What would you say was the best moment, the highlight, for Swim Naked?

Neal: Playing the Left Bank Bistro was a highlight, but the best memories are of writing songs at weekends in Andy and Chent’s house – evolving songs out of ideas

Andy: The best times were playing together, trying things,learning things, finding you could do anything, whatever you wanted in music, and learning to write expressive songs. The strength of Swim naked was that the songs were never written to be successful or even liked by other people – it was just us enjoying the moment.

++ We can wrap it here, short and sweet, but one last question, were these songs distributed in any way? Perhaps as demo tapes or something? Or have they only been for rediscovering since the digital era when you uploaded them to soundcloud?

Andy: Never distributed! A few are up on the internet – Soundcloud and Facebook. maybe we will relaease one more to go with this interview and go on your site?

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

Neal: Thanks for the opportunity to think about this again Roque

Andy: No that’s it, but keep doing what you’re doing Roque.

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Listen
Swim Naked – Logical Silence

Thanks so much to Madelaine and Sarah for this interview! Some years ago I wrote a post about Fibi Frap and through many different channels eventually got in touch with them. You can’t imagine how happy I was! I always loved this band, since the first time I heard them, and I’m not exaggerating when I say they were among my favourites of that time period. And then I was even happier when they were up for doing this interview! It’s great to know a bit more about Fibi Frap, to give some context to the music, to the songs, especially after such great answers both Madelaine and Sarah have given me! Anyhow, please enjoy and discover (or rediscover) the fantastic Fibi Frap!

++ Hi there! Thanks so much for being up for the interview! Whereabouts in Sweden are you now? And are you still making music?

Madelaine: I live in Umeå, it’s about half way between Stockholm and Kiruna (650 km home, 650 km to stockholm). I am doing a master in fine art but, yeah I just started a new band before Christmas, we’re called Thir and I hope something can pop up soon, on the net, to be listened to. it’s a rock pop grunge noise thing 🙂

Sarah: I still live in Göteborg, where I have lived for the past 12 years. I am still making music, I’ve recorded a bunch of songs together with various friends ever since Fibi Frap ceased to exist. I’ve gone by a few different names; Iluvsera, Saragasso etc. I still make pop music, but a bit more lo-fi I guess. The latest recordings were inspired by Blade Runner though, one of my all-time favourite movies, so a lot of synthesizers.

++ How did you two meet? Was it immediate friendship? And when did you decide it was time to make music together?

Madelaine: Nah, we met at school, we went i guess for five years just as classmates but then finally we realized we needed each other, we wanted badly to play in a band I guess and we had a common reference: smashing pumpkins. I was really competitive at the time and i did everything i could to collect more EPs and singles and releases from them than Sarah had. I don’t think Sarah really cared. Anyway she tried to introduce me to Neil Young at the time, but I was really in to Swedish indie and didn’t understand this old man cowboy thing. took about ten years i guess, but now i love him more then most music. we tried different constellations with guys, never really worked out so we just decided to do a duo. much better, immediate success 🙂

Sarah: I think we must have been about 10 or something when we met for the first time. We were in the same class at school but never really started hanging out until in the 8th grade or so. And then it wasn’t until we were 15 or 16 that we really became good friends and started making music together. Both of us were into music and wanted to be in a band but couldn’t quite figure out how this was done, so we decided to start a band together. Our first songs were about an old boyfriend of mine that had continued on to wooing a friend, so I wrote songs about what an asshole he was. Great inspiration for punk music.

++ What instruments do each of you play?

Madelaine: synth, guitar, bass, stuff, and now I play the drums.

Sarah: I play guitar, bass, some synthesizer and you know, things I find. I wish I could play the drums but nah, I’m really not good at it.

++ Was Fibi Frap your first music adventure?

Madelaine: Nah, it came out of trying different constellations with guys, always me and Sarah and a guy, usually flirts/boyfriends to play the drums or solo guitar, but they were always so difficult to work with. idiots really, hehe. best band name was ‘Cat Woman Aid’, my boyfriend at the time Ralf Rotmalm always comes up with awesome band names, still.

Sarah: Yeah, we played a lot of music but it wasn’t until we had fired all out male friends from our bands that Fibi Frap was formed. And I think we were tired of being in a band with people who didn’t really care. So we decided that we were going to be the only members.

++ Where does the name of the band come from? Does it come from an encyclopaedia volume as I thought it does?

Madelaine: Yup. My next project was gonna be coco dies, also a band in the same encyclopedia.

Sarah: And I also wrote a song called Coco dies, which didn’t become a Fibi song but it had potential! Maybe we should record it? It’s a good song!

++ You listed a long list of influences in your old mypace: manga, picknix, Boris Vian, Paul Auster, Maurice Blanchot, Magnetic Fields, Will Oldham, Morrissey, Computer Vikings, Oski, Lifli, Brendan Perry, Neil Young and the guys, The Cure, Alma Cogan, Nina Simone and looove. This list makes me happy, I can only say great taste. But can I ask then, what were your favourite mangas?

Madelaine: This list of influences that you refer to, we were probably having some beers and having fun. Don’t remember so much Manga, me an Tobias was at one point looking at Chobits. Otherwhise I mostly liked Anime, but I think I didn’t know about the difference at the time. I like Miyazaki, and some other stuff but I’m not a fanatic.

Sarah: I am not a manga fan, that was never my thing. And so we just wrote down our favourite authors, philosophers, bands, friends etc. I still love Neil Young, Nina Simone, the Cure and Alma Cogan. I grew tired of Paul Auster constantly repeating himself, forgot about Magnetic Fields and Will Oldham. Still like the Brendan Perry album though.

++ You were from the northern part of Sweden, how is it there? But afterwards you were in between Stockholm and Göteborg. Is it much different? And where there any like-minded bands in town that you liked?

Madelaine: Kiruna is far from everything. But it’s weird and beautiful and our home. 20 000 people. When we grew up there was a real dystopian feeling in town. The future didn’t look good at all, it was said the mine was gonna close down in a few years and the military base where a lot of people worked closed down, and there were no jobs. People left their flats, keys on the kitchen table. Houses were being closed down, turned of the heating, left to rot. So the feeling was that of: get the hell outta here as soon as you can. Now, 15 years later, they found more ore, and the area is the strongest growing economical area in Europe kinda Klondike. Gold rush kinda situation. There is nowhere to live, and lot’s of jobs! Now they have to move the whole city because it’s slowly falling down in the mine hole. So it’s the last few years to see our home town as it was…

Sarah: But I still liked growing up in Kiruna because it was such a small town. However, when I was about 15 years old I started growing restless. I wanted to do stuff, see the world and discover new things (and meet new people!). But the atmosphere with the sun shining 24/7 during the summer and the constant darkness during the winter sort of form my music, and I still think that that sadness can be traced back to growing up in Kiruna. There were, however, no like-minded bands in Kiruna. At the beginning we were frowned upon, since there were no girls playing music in a band back then. But we decided to continue on and then we were accepted, I think. But not everyone liked Fibi Frap, some people thought it was just silly music for silly people. Being in a band meant that there was a bass player, a guitar player and a drummer of course. Otherwise it was just weird. And so we were weird. And we didn’t care.

Madelaine: Stockholm and Gothenburg is real towns. Lots of people, and stress, and stuff going on in every corner. We did not hang out with other bands. We didn’t really identify with them and didn’t really listen to that kind of music. I don’t know why we were invited to play all those gigs in those gangs. Maybe it was the synthesiser we used and the fact that we were two cute girls from the north making strange music. We listened more to rock and stuff I think.

Sarah: Yeah, we were always outsiders I think. Everyone was really nice to us and we got to play with a lot of band with great people, but it was never the kind of music we listened to. We grew up listening to Smashing Pumpkins and Neil Young and Van Morrison (I like older men apparently), or rock. It just wasn’t our kind of music, although I can see why other appreciated these bands.

++ And what were the places you loved to hang out in town?

Madelaine: In Kiruna? We sat at the café most of the days after school I think. Safari it’s called. The first café to serve sandwiches, rest of the world style, the founder was from Tunis. I guess we spent a lot of time studying too. I studied science and Sarah studied Humanistic studies.

Sarah: I don’t know if it was the first café to serve sandwiches, but it was a café that was famous for its sandwiches since they were huge. I didn’t study as much as I should have, although I still managed to have good grades. I preferred sitting at the café drinking tea or coffee and smoking way too much. There was always someone there who you knew, otherwise you’d just bring a book.

++ Did you play many gigs? Which would you say were your favourites and why?

Madelaine: A few actually. one of my favourites were at LAVA, in Stockholm, because it was the first time we had a female sound technician, she actually listened to us and did not pat us on our heads, like all guys always did when we were a duo of two really young (cute) girls. and she was impressed on how quick we were at setting up. other gig was at monsters of indie at Debaser, Slussen, in Stockholm. it was just so cool to get to play there. and at the festival Popaganda, in Stockholm too. but actually i have such fucking stage fright, so all gigs were really horrible for me actually. i was always shivering like a leaf and pale as a ghost and Sarah always tried really hard not to look at me at stage because then she became nervous too.

Sarah: We played at Lava twice, the first time was amazing, the second time was not. One of my favourite gigs was the second to last one, at Underjorden, in Göteborg. It was just around the corner from my apartment and a lot of people and a lot of friends showed up, plus we connected with the audience and yeah, I really felt present during that gig. In my mind that was our farewell gig, since the last gig was one of the worst ones we’ve played. It was at Join our Club in Göteborg and we hadn’t seen each other for some time and during the whole show, a drunk girl was standing right by the scene, telling (screaming) the person she was talking to on the phone that she was listening to the worst band ever. I really didn’t want to play and I think Madelaine felt the same way.

++ I want to ask about the Starke Adolf gig. How was that? I have this very idealized view of that club!

Madelaine: We tried to talk about this gig and no one of us remember anything. But we remember a friendly and nice feeling.

Sarah: Yeah, I hardly remember anything. I remember that a lot of friends were there and that it was really fun playing. People really seemed to appreciate us. But apart from that I don’t remember much. It was the only time I went to Starke Adolf.

++ And what about playing a festival such as Popganda?! That must have been quite big?

Madelaine: I was part of the group who arranged the festival and the rest of the group really liked fibi frap and wanted us to play, I have never been so nervous my whole life, I don’t remember anything.

Sarah: I really liked playing at Popaganda. I was so nervous before we entered the stage but after a song or two it felt better and it was really fun. But it was strange as well since we were used to playing on smaller stages.

++ At that time there were many fantastic indiepop bands throughout all Sweden. It was like a explosion of very underground but very creative bands. Did you feel there was some sort of scene, or you always felt like outsiders?

Madelaine: I dunno, Kiruna is so far from everything, and there people either played Metallica – music or in cover bands. oh, but that’s not true. there were many bands experimenting, sometimes towards the verge of performance art, and having fun, but almost always guys. I guess that’s where the outsider feeling came from. Most of them were quite a bit older too, I never dared to talk to them because I thought they were so smart and cool. little did I know. I know some of them now as we have grown up, and they are all rather humble and not too cool for school at all. The rest of the indie or twee scene I was not very familiar too before we came to play in the south of Sweden. And by then we had already our own sound. There was a scene I guess, but in the south everything was so intimidating, everyone had such cool clothes and sun glasses, and i guess i just got really nervous. But we came to know a band called Laakso and or Pello Revolvers and that made it all a bit less scary. They were a bunch of really nice guys. (still no girls though). But then I got to know of bands like first floor power and honey is cool, and finally there were some women to have as role models.

Sarah: Well, I don’t think there were so many bands that were experimental, there was this one band that was some kind of performance thing but it wasn’t that serious. I don’t think I thought anyone was cool in Kiruna. I always thought I was way cooler than anyone (the mind of a teenager), so I didn’t really care for impressing people or found things intimidating (and if I did I would never have admitted it). Laakso and Pello were friends of ours so they weren’t scary at all. Still, there was apparently a twee scene in Sweden where some people thought we belonged (we didn’t, though). In Göteborg I listened to the bands I liked, but it wasn’t pop music. However, they were really creative. So I think we bonded with creative people but not people belong to a certain kind of scene.

++ Were you involved during those years then in anything other than making music? Like, fanzines? radio? gig organizing?

Madelaine: I worked for four years with the popaganda festival, it was cool, got a really nice insight in the music world, and the dirt:
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money 
trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and 
pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. 
There’s also a negative side.” (hunter s thompson)
and I also totally lost the wall between me and other artists, the magic was lost in a way, in a good way, and if I see a gig or meet an artist I can talk to that person freely no matter how much I love that persons work.

Sarah: I wasn’t really involved in other things during those years, I was a part of Union, a community where a lot of musicians and other creative people were involved; selling records, setting up a Union festival in Göteborg and so on. But that didn’t last that long, and then I just focused on the music.

++ Your first EP was released in 2002. What do you remember from the recordings session? Where did they happen?

Madelaine: They were really fun. took place at Tobias Asplunds flat, he had recording devices and he was a real friend. I don’t remember much other that it was completely without pressure.

Sarah: The sessions were wonderful. I remember them quite clearly. We recorded the songs at Tobias’s apartment in Kiruna, spending long days and nights at his place writing, playing, laughing…. I really did appreciate those days since it was so much fun and it was just about the three of us hanging out and being creative. And I think that comes through in the EP, you can hear us laughing in the background, cracking up due to our incapability of clapping our hands at the same time. We were both 20 years old, not knowing where our lives would take us and where we would end up. This was in March I think and we knew that after the summer we would leave Kiruna and move to Linköping and Stockholm. So those recordings meant, and means, a lot to me and I still enjoy listening to those songs.

++ After this first EP you appeared at P3Pop radio. How did that happen and how was that experience with Hanna Fahl?

Madelaine: Hanna Fahl was so warm and friendly, such a genuine music lover. It was fun!

Sarah: She was great, she was really enthusiastic and kind. I listened to the recording the other day and apparently the studio technician was the one who decided that “Longing” was going to be called…. “Longing”.

++ You also contributed some songs to the Alltid Hela Tiden label in Sweden, Robots and Electronic Brains in UK, as well as Popgun in the US. Did you contribute to any other compilations?

Madelaine: Oh, I don’t recognize half of those 🙂 I remember ‘My secret garden’ it was a label and Martin released some compilations.

Sarah: Nope, I think that’s it!

++ “How Fast is Your Heart Beating”, your second EP, was released by My Secret Garden Recordings. I interviewed Martin who ran the label not so long ago, and I feel he had a great ethos for running the label. How was your experience with him? And how did you ended up releasing this EP with him?

Madelaine: I don’t remember how we came to work with him. but he was really trust worthy and nice to us. also a real music lover.

Sarah: Well, I guess he contacted us since he wanted to release some of our songs, and we did, and he was a great guy.

++ What about the “Remember Being Born” release? I’ve never seen it. What was included in it?

Sarah: Well, those songs were never released, that’s why you’ve never seen it. We recorded the songs in Göteborg, just the two of us, and just “released” them at myspace. We thought about making an actual record but we never found the time. One of my favourite songs, “White beast”, is one of the “Remember Being Born” songs.

++ Are there any unreleased songs by Fibi Frap still?

Madelaine: I think there might be some, maybe Sarah knows more. there was a song called parking lot, wonder where that went!?

Sarah: Yeah, “Parking lot”! It was Madelaine’s song that we recorded in Stockholm with Johan, I think it was the same session when we recorded “Where’d you learn to kiss that way”. It’s a fun song about an ex-boyfriend of Madelaine’s. We also recorded one of my songs, which didn’t have a name, that was really catchy.

++ And among all of your songs which would you say are your favourite? And why?

Madelaine: Hollywood or Catherine. Sarah was so good at writing and it always get’s boring with your own stuff after a while. we wrote half of the material each.

Sarah: I like “Longing”. A lot. I like the way it was produced, leading up to a crescendo. And “To Make You Happy”, which is an oldie but a favourite. I always liked the way we wrote songs. I would come to Madelaine with a sketch for a song and say that it was missing something. She would come up with this great harmony and it would just be the missing piece I had been searching for. And the other way around. We completed each other’s skills in song writing, and we’d just get each other and know where the other person was going with her song.

++ When and why did you decide to call it a day?

Madelaine: I don’t know, did we really? I guess. I moved to Umeå because of love, it was too far. I am still here but love is no more. I guess I’ll be moving south again in a year or two. Malmö or Stockholm or even Gothenburg. If close to Sarah I’d say we’d probably play together again. I love her and our voices go well together.

Sarah: I’d say it started before Madelaine move to Umeå, I think the distance created problems for us since it was difficult and expensive (we were both students back then) to travel back and forth and it was also difficult to find the time. We would only meet when we were playing somewhere and that just wasn’t fun anymore. I hope Madelaine comes to Göteborg so we can play together again, I really miss that and I miss her.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you enjoy doing?

Madelaine: I don’t have hobbies. I work. I work with Art and Music. I also work at a pub/club called Scharinska here in Umeå, it’s a great place. On my spare time, I travel and watch series and drink beer. I also love to go to my brothers cabin in Abisko, it’s in a national park called Sarek and I just sit there, and look in to the fire or walk in the mountains.

Sarah: I was going to say exactly the same thing: I don’t have hobbies, I work. But that sounds so depressing. I’m a high school teacher, which takes up a lot of my time but it’s also very rewarding. There’s a wrestling club in Göteborg called Gbg Wrestling and so I’ve become a wrestling fan. Other than that: writing music, go to clubs to watch bands play, drink beer and watch TV-series. I bought a nice camera a couple of years ago and really enjoy taking pictures. My father was a photographer and I’d like to think that I’ve inherited that part of him.

++ I’m going to be in three weeks or so in both Göteborg and Stockholm visiting. Can I ask for some tips? Maybe your favourite bars, or restaurants? If there’s any areas or sights that you like too?

Madelaine: I didn’t live in Stockholm for a long time now (8 years), but I go to Magasin 3, and Bonniers Konsthall to look at art or to the moderna museet. and I go to copacobana to have a snack. I want to eat at lao wai at some point because everyone talks about it. there was a great restaurant at the etnografiska museet a couple of years ago, but I don’t know if it is still there. I always went to debaser slussen but I have heard rumors about it moving now to Strand. Strand always have good gigs, saw buil to spill there in the autumn.

Sarah: In Stockholm I would go to Fotografiska (museum of photography) which is great, and maybe eat lunch at the nearby vegetarian restaurant Hermans.I would go to the pub Akkurat to drink beer and maybe even go to Boulebar and play some boule. The nicest area is still Söder, but anywhere near the water is great. And I would go to Grand Hotel to eat expensive but oh so delicious brunch. In Göteborg I would go to Haket Bar, The Rover, Tre små rum to drink beer. Haket is wonderful since the staff is really friendly (and they have the best sushi in town), Tre små rum is small but very cosy, and The Rover is easy going. Though, I suggest that you only go to Tre små rum if you’re really into beer since no Carlsberg is allowed (they actually have a sign that says so) and if you try to order it the bartender will give you the stink eye. I would try to stay near the water; buy some coffee and just look at the ducks and at people. There’s a great coffee bar called Bar Centro behind Nordiska Kompaniet (department store) and a restaurant called Dubbel Dubbel, where you can find great dumplings, that I would recommend. If you’re interested in gigs I would check out Skjul Fyra Sex or Koloni. Although these places could be hard to find and requires a bus ride.

++ One last question, will there be any chance in the future for a reunion gig?

Madelaine: I dunno, I could do it, I don’t now about Sarah.

Sarah: I wouldn’t say no, if we felt like it and felt that our music was still relevant and if we’d have fun playing together, then sure! And, of course, if anyone would be interested to come to that reunion gig (except our mothers and boyfriends).

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

Sarah: Nope!

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Listen
Fibi Frap – Sadeyes

Thanks so much to Klaus Cornfield for the great interview! Throw that Beat in the Garbagecan! is one of my favourite bands ever, so it was quite thrilling to receive these answers! On top of it all this year the band is reuniting for a one off gig in Berlin and I’m so planning to go. I already have a concert ticket! Just missing the plane ticket! But yeah, it’s so exciting! There is more information about the event here if you are wondering. And you can buy the tickets here! Throw that Beat had a wonderful career, with many albums, EPs and singles, all of them packed with hit-songs, and many indiepop classics in my book. If you haven’t heard about them yet, well, maybe it’s time for you to discover them, and if you are a fan like me, I hope you learn a thing or two, or just enjoy the interview! Happiness!

++ Hi Klaus! Thanks so much for being up for an interview. First of all I have to say that I’m so very happy that you are reuniting for this one gig in September. Why did you decide to come back? And will there be more concerts or this is just a one-off?

I was about to become 50 years old and decided to ask Oli, Lotsi, Iwie, Alex and Ray to play once more, just for the fun of it. They jumped on the train all together quite happily – and it grew fast from the idea to play “a bunch” of songs to a whole 90 Minute Rock show. But we decided also to keep it cool. One big evening! No further promises or expectations.

++ I have never seen you live before, so for me this is going to be a great first time, so looking forward to it. Many German friends have told me that your gigs were so much fun back in the day. What can I expect in this gig? Is it going to be the full lineup of the band? Are there any unreleased songs that you’ll play? How many songs will you play? Bringing any special merch? Any little gossip will do!

Of course we printed a new poster and we will sell a few leftover XXXL shirts that were stored in my parents cellar for quiet a long time. Some rare records from another ancient box will be also waiting for our meanwhile loaded and grey haired fan people at our merch stand, along with our iconic merchandise girl Soosoo Sunbeam. We are very happy to announce that Lotsi will be back for this concert, which for me is the very exciting element in this whole enterprise. The fun will be there i suppose, the awkward announcements, Iwie’s silly hat, me stepping on guitar cables and falling over…I don`t think anything can change that in us…

++ So going back in time, and I know most of your German fans will know all these answers, but I think the English-speaking won’t, I want to ask about the early days in Nuremberg. How was it? Was Throw That Beat your first band experience? And if there were any bands in town that you liked at the time?

No, there was not one band in town that we liked when we got started. There were 3! The shiny Gnomes, the Truffauts and the Gostenhof Giants. Along with some other fine talent like the Kern brothers or Albi Illegal and his psychedelic hardrock group the Illegal State of Mind. And we had the Zabo Linde, a club in the south part of Nuremberg which introduced us to great small indie bands in the eighties, like the Feelies, the Go-Betweens, the Milkshakes, the Wedding present, the Television Personalities and many more. We were all the musical children of one man. Michael Demmler, who owned a small alternative record store and gave me my first very good record. My first buy was the Television Personalities live bootleg “live at Forum Enger” and “Jonathan sings” from Jonathan Richman. That was a new world.

++ And talking about cities, now you live in Berlin, and the gig will be happening in Berlin. When did you move? And whereabouts in Germany would you say you have the biggest fanbase?

I moved to Berlin 10 years ago. I don’t want to say it is the perfect place to be automatically, but for me it was. It’s a little bit like Piccadilly Circus in London. Everyone comes here once in a while. Some old friends who I know from all over Germany moved to Berlin as well. Since we used to play so many shows all over the land, we have a good chance to find many of our audience in the biggest and dirtiest city that’s available. Berlin. Anyway, no matter where we would do the concert, there will be a lot of people that have to travel for it. I only worry a little bit about the CO2 that will be released only for this one concert….ayayay…what a shame…

++ You took the name of the band from a B-52s song, but the whole band had great stage names, I always wondered where those names came from. For example, the Cornfield part. What’s the story behind that?

Lotsi Lapislazuli and Iwie Candy XO7 and their sister Soosoo Sunbeam. They invented fake names for themselves that were so funny that i got jealous and begged them to make one up for me. So they stuck their heads together for a minute and came up with “Kalle Cornfield”. Which i liked, except that i kept the Klaus from my real name. Oli changed to Polli, when we watched too much Monty Python sketches with dead birds. Pollunder means Pullover in German- Oli’s favorite winter clothing, So that resulted in Polli Pollunder. Lord Ray was always Lord Ray, don’t even know where that came from. When we looked out for a band name in 1986, we liked the words “beat” and “garbage” very much, and we decided to use the longest band name of all the bands on the planet.

++ Also by the end of Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan’s run as a band you shortened the name of the band to just Throw That Beat. Why was that?

After a few years the joke was used up and the records became CD’s and there was no way to print such a long name on those crappy tiny plastic things. We also thought that shortening the name would sound fresh and could help the audience to see us in a new light. Did it help? No.

++ You played so many gigs back in the day. What would you say were the best and why?

Brixton University, CBG`S, Open air in Barcelona, Heidelberg, Kotbus, Roskilde Green Stage, Tokio, somewhere in Shibuya on the 8th floor, Transfer in Erlangen, all those and many other concerts were just perfect moments for us i think. It really doesn’t matter so much how big the crowd was, but on those occasions I remember that it was packed and hot and I even remember that I collapsed once in Cologne, because I wore a fake fur hat on stage.

++ And how was the visit of The Fat Tulips to play with you in Germany? Any anecdotes you could share?

They loved to play the blues in the backstage room.They were just so adorable, and they let us stay at their homes when we toured in England.

++ Do tell me how did the first contact happen with them and Heaven Records? How did this friendship start?

That is so long ago, I can’t recall how and why we met them. I guess that someone wrote letters and then picked up the phone. Maybe a fax here and there…those were undigital times…yes…fax…can you believe it?

++ My first encounter with your records was here in the US, through Spinart. How did you end up signing with them? And why only two of your albums came out with them?

Spin Art did very good work. They discovered us a little bit too late to start releasing our records from A to Z, so they decided to make their own compilation. That went up to number 49 in the College Radio Charts, so don’t say we did not make it big in the USA. We saw the effort behind it and for a week we even experienced some kind of hype, especially when we played at the CBGB’s. The room was crowded only when we were on stage, I swear! It was almost frightening…maybe they were crowding up to beat us up…but no. They loved it as if the other bands were Poison and we were The Cure.

++ Most of your records came out on Electrola though. Who were they? And how was your relationship with them?

Robert Wolf and Monika Markowitz wanted to try something new and with us they did. After we got guaranteed in the contract that we would play the music the way we wanted to, we were very surprised, but we liked it!

++ You have so many fantastic songs, but can I pick two and you can tell me the story behind them? What about “A Choclatbar for Breakfast” and “Little Red Go-Cart”

When i was a kid I woke up early in the morning on the week ends and sneaked into the living room where my parents were hiding the chocolate bars. The song seems to use this picture to tell us something about a lost feeling that the author wishes to come back again. I wish I knew what I was really thinking…still. Little red go-cart was Lotsi’s idea while she heard me playing D A G A very fast on my old red Astro guitar. I adore the line “submarines just run ashore, people cry and go to war”.

++ And if you were to pick your two favourite songs from your repertoire, which would they be? And why?

“I dedicate my life to you” is my all time favorite. Its impossible to tell the second one, I think I love them all the same, but the one I call “my song” is the mentioned. First I was singing it to someone else, till I recognized is really about me – which made me cry a little bit, because suddenly it became so sad and still sounds happy.

++ You recorded also a bunch of videos. How was that experience? Who came up with the ideas for them? What was more fun, recording at the studio or filming videos?

For the videos we threw all our ideas together and Iwie would take care of the rest. Hiring a camera and sound man and editing. She still is working in that field and saved our tiny butts from looking stupid with her editing work. A kiss for Iwie! Recording music was a 10 to 20:00 job mostly. Later we recorded in huge studios, where Suzie Quatro recorded some hits and was reported to have thrown a cake on the ceiling. The cleaning woman told us this story from the seventies when she saw how well we behaved – except for the last day. I remember getting very drunk at least once when we finished the record and listened to the pre-mixes. Sooo drunk, I climbed on a lamp…and on a few other things I can’t remember properly. Recording new songs was one of my favorite parts of being in a band. Along with most of the concerts.

++ Something I also love about your records is the artwork, the photos you used, the imagery. Who was in charge of that?

We were lucky to have some talented friends who helped us with the photos, Billy & Hells for example, who I hung out with when we started. We even got Jürgen Teller for a shooting, because he knew Iwie from school. As a cartoonist I supplied a few comic strips, but the beautiful artworks of the albums and singles are made by Lotsi. You can’t beat Lotsi’s stuff.

++ About your songs, they are quite unique, so I always have wondered where did you get inspiration and who had influenced you to pen such songs? Also if you ever considered doing German songs for Throw That Beat?

We wrote one German song! “007 Sehen”. Iwie sings it. Kind of a test balloon. We loved it and were about to do at least one or two more. But we took so much inspiration (that’s how you call it) from English and American music, comics, films and TV shows, (not to mention Mr Kurt Vonnegut) that it felt very natural to us to use English. Gladly English lyrics by German bands were awfully dull in the eighties. And the rest of the world did not so much better with a few exceptions. All these boring clichés that were used made me sick, so we were proud do it a little bit funnier than the rest. We spit on the radio broadcasting and pressed things like “fuck” and other beep words on vinyl…just because we liked it better that way. The trick was to stay open for any subject to sing about. It may be a very small object that makes big sense. Once when we waited for Iwie to show up for our rehearsal and she did not show up, we wrote a song about waiting for Iwie. As simple as that. It ends with a long keyboard solo by Iwie, because she might have been late, but finally she came. It`s still one of my favorites. It seems to say so much more than it really does. The minor chords gives it such a sad and beautiful meaning. But there are a few crappy lyrics as well by me from the very first beginnings. I had to learn the hard way myself.

++ So when and why did you all decided to call it a day? What did you do all after?

That was after our last tour in 1997 I think. There was not much despair or anything. The end faded in very gently when when we drove over a dark autobahn from Switzerland to Nürnberg listening to “My name is Jonas” from Weezer. The workers are going home…that was my feeling.

++ Something I’ve always wondered is if there are still any unreleased songs by Throw That Beat? And if there are plans for any sort of reissues or new releases in the future?

There is a very charming and trashy fanclub tape that waits to get digitalized, and a few very rare covers and B-sides. We will make it available on our homepage soon.

++ And looking back to those days, what would you say was the biggest highlight of the band?

Our very own red Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan! Viewmaster with 3D Bandportraits that EMI made as a promotion gadget for the Cool Album.

++ I’ve been to Berlin before, but as you are a local now maybe you can give me some tips! What are your favourite areas to go for a walk? favourite German dish that I should try? And what about beer?!

Beerlin! If you like Beer, you will find enough variations – If you ask me, try Egernseer. Its hardcore. And eat currywurst, if you can find one. They died out almost in the last 10 years. They are even more hardcore. The best food will be Turkish food in Kreuzberg. Miammiau

++ Ah! and before I forget, favourite chocolate bar?

Ritter Sport Alpenmilch

++ And one last question, how many guitars do you own?

3 Guitars. A small acoustic nylon string from the thirties made out of maple wood and a red 1964 Astro (Instrumentenbau Stromer halfacoustic) and a 1974 Gibson Halfacoustic.

++ Thanks again so much Klaus, anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you for your patience! Feel free to correct my words in spelling and commas and dots and stuff. make me sound like i know what i`m doing please:-)

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Listen
Throw that Beat in the Garbagecan! – A Choclatbar for Breakfast

Thanks so much to Martin Sernestrand for the interview! 2014 marks 10 years since My Secret Garden Recordings started as a label in Goteborg, Sweden. For us nostalgic people seeing the new Facebook page that Martin put together has brought many smiles and memories. You should all make yourselves fans! The label was a true DIY project, small runs of 25 to 50 CD-Rs for every release. All done with passion. Among the releases we remember bands like Evergreen Days, Everyday Sensations, Penny Century or my favourites Fibi Frap. It didn’t live long, but the legacy, at least for me, is really rich. Time for you to discover (or rediscover) this great label from the last golden age of Swedish indiepop!

++ Hi Martin! How are you? First thing first. It’s been already 10 years since My Secret Garden Recordings started. Looking back in time, how do you feel your releases have aged?

Hi! I’m fine, just a little bit cold. But it is getting better day by day. Yes, it is unbelievable. 10 years! Time just seems to fly away. I was actually listening through all the releases the other day. Overall I think they still hold up to the same standard as before. In my opinion they have aged well and are still relevant.

++ Where did the name of My Secret Garden Recordings come from?

It is a Depeche mode song. Taken from the album “A Broken frame”.

++ Was this your first label project? What about music, do you play any instrument, have you been in bands?

Yes, it was my fist label. I had ideas of starting a label before but this was the first time a sat my plans in to reality. I myself don’t play any instrument. But I have been in some bands when I was young. I played bass in a band when I was around 14 years old but when they realized I couldn’t play they made me the singer. But I couldn’t sing either so I got the sack. Lol! Some years ago I did some unlistenable electronic music under the alias J.Fryer (ie John Fryer).

++ What pushed you to start the label? And did you ever consider it doing it with more people, or was it always a one-man project since the start?

It all started with my fanzine No Disco in the early 00’s. Through that I got a lot of contact with bands and one day the idea of starting a label and releasing the music I liked came to me. It’s sort of grew on me. I didn’t thought about it too much. It just came naturally. I have always been a loner so to speak. Not that I don’t have any friends but I like doing things alone and I’m more comfortable doing projects like this alone. Maybe I’m a little bit of a control freak. I don’t know.

++ Most (if not all?) your releases were releases on CDR. Why the format? Did you burn them yourself, one by one?

It’s a perfect format. It’s cheap, fast and you can do almost everything yourself. I did everything together with the artists/bands. Layout, track list and even song titles. It was very diy.

++ Do you remember the sort of “infrastructure” of the label? Was it all bedroom based?

I guess you can call it bedroom based yes. As I said before. I tried to do everything myself but with some help from the artists/bands. The goal was to keep it as cheap and simple as possible. But the end product still should be something that people wanted to have, pay for or steal from me.

++ And who took care of the artwork for the label?

I did almost all the artwork. Sometimes the artists/bands had an idea but it was always I who did (copy and paste) the final product.

++ Are there any labels that you’d say influenced you in starting your own or influenced you in how to shape it?

Yes, of course. There were (and still is) a lot of labels (and people) that I adored back then. None mentioned, none forgotten. The whole diy ethics was very important to me. I wanted to have a close contact with both the artists/bands and the ones who bought the records and listened to the music. A lot of people wrote me letters and e-mails and the whole diy community was very nice and friendly.

++ Where you always based in Gothenburg? I was curious if you ever attended the famous Starke Adolf club and if you could share experiences of those halcyon days?!

I was born in a small town just outside Gothenburg. When I was 12 years old me and my family moved to Borås (about 70 kilometers from Gothenburg). Then in 2003 I moved back to Gothenburg and I still live here now. Of course I attended Starke Adolf. Many times! It was a blast. I look back very nostalgic about those years now. All those people, labels, fanzines and bands. It was fantastic!

++ Have you ever thought about you or anyone else releasing any of the stuff from your catalog? How would you feel about that?

Not at the time. Back then I was very stubborn. A lot of people wanted me to re-release stuff that was sold out but I decided not to do that. For me it was very important. All the stuff was released in 25 or 50 copies. I wanted it to be something…I don’t know…but I wanted it to feel special to have one of those releases. To hold them in your hands. But I know a lot of people, beyond my control, uploaded songs and made it digitally available. Which I always thought was cool.

++ How much of an impact would you say My Secret Garden Recordings had in the Swedish scene? At that time there were many small labels, wondering if at all you feel part of a scene then?

I’m the wrong person to say so or even speak about my own label in that way. But yes, there were a lot of small independent labels in Sweden back then. And still are. It was not only Swedish people I had contact with. I spoked with people all around the world. The diy community was (and is) very big and because of the internet you can very easily stay in contact with people from all different countries. 

++ Are you still in touch with the artists you released back in the day? What are they doing now?

I’m still in contact with some of them via Facebook and other social medias. But less and less over the years. Too bad.

++ There’s really not a full discography online for the label. Would you mind writing it down for me?

I have just posted it on the official My Secret Garden Recordings FB page (https://www.facebook.com/notes/my-secret-garden-recordings/discography/496466800464379?stream_ref=10). I can post here also if you want. Or?

++ Something about the label is how personal it was, there are these sort of pre-raphaelite and art nouveau influences in it. That’s something that caught my attention. How important and how planned was this aesthetic for your label?

Yes, you are very attentive. It was a style (and still are) that I liked a lot. And I think that a lot of the releases, especially the Evergreen days releases, was very well planned. I wanted the music and the lay out to go hand in hand so you can see and feel what it all was about. Me and Emelie Berg (ie Evergreen days) seemed to have the same thought about almost everything (regarding the artistic appearance) without actually talking too much about it.

++ And abroad, outside of Sweden, how was the support for My Secret Garden Recordings?

Really overwhelming actually. I got a lot of feedback and good response from all over the world. Good reviews and a lot of people writing about the label and the artists/bands. Especially in Asia, North America and some parts of South America.

++ How did it work for you to put out a release, from finding a band, releasing their records, organizing gigs, or promoting them? What was the best part of it all?

Most of the time I contacted an artist/band (sometimes the other way around) that I liked and asked if they wanted to release something on My Secret Garden Recordings. If they said yes they sent some songs to me. And then I decided what songs I wanted to release. Either they got an idea for the sleeve art or I made a proposal. After everything was done I pressed the actual release and sold it via my webpage. I never organized any gigs but I got some help promoting my releases via blogs and fanzines all over the world. Also sold some stuff via different online stores like Fraction discs (http://www.fractiondiscs.se) and so on.

++ I think the most regarded releases of yours are the ones by Evergreen Days. How beautiful are the songs. She was also your first release. How did Evergreen Days ended up in My Secret Garden Recordings?

I meet Emelie Berg (ie Evergreen days) through mutual friends and I had since before knew and listen to her other project called The Set Designers. After buying the seven inch single released with The Set Designers Emelie Berg sent me some new songs on cd-r. After hearing these songs I immediately asked if I could release these songs. And so My Secret Garden Recordings had started. 

++ Is there any Swedish band right now that you feel would have fit perfectly in your label? And what about back in the day when you were running the label?

A lot. But if I should mention a few I would say Action Biker, Paddington Distortion Combo, Compute, The Honeydrips and Strawberry fair.

++ I remember you collaborated with some other people like Robots And Electronic Brains. How did these come up?

I can’t remember exactly but I think Jimmy at Robots And Electronic Brains contacted me after hearing about the label. He had reviewed some of the releases and even some issues of my fanzine No disco. He asked me if I wanted to be included on the compilation and I said yes.

++ You were supposed to release one final compilation album if my mind is not playing tricks on me. I think I have good memory. What happened to that compilation and where the songs to be included are still unreleased?

Yes, you are correct. Back in the days I was supposed to release one last compilation called “This Was My Secret Garden”. It was supposed to be released late 2005 or early 2006 I think. But I got tired and lost the motivation to release it so it was never actually released. There are still some unreleased songs yes.

++ When and why did you decide to call it a day? Do you miss running the label?

Late 2005 or early 2006 I think. As I said before I got tired and lost the motivation. Sometimes I miss running the label. Sometimes not. I actually thinking of releasing some stuff for the 10 year celebration later this year.

++ And these days to what do you dedicate your time? Any other hobbies?

I work as a teacher. It takes a lot of my time. I still listen to a lot of music and still buy a lot of records. One of my hobbies is to collect different stuff (Depeche mode records, retro video games, comic books and Star Wars action figures).

++ And do you still follow the indiepop scene these days?

Sorry but no, not that much. Not like 10 or 15 years ago.

++ Looking back in time, is there anything else you’d have liked to do with the label that you didn’t have the chance to? And what would you say was the proudest moment of the label?

I would have loved to have released more stuff. But at the same time I decided to quit because I got tired and lost the motivation so I guess I can’t blame myself too much. It wouldn’t have been right to release stuff I didn’t liked or wanted to release. The proudest moment of the label?! Hmm, holding the first releases in my hands, hearing the songs on the radio, reading about the artists/bands in a fanzine or on a blog, getting hand written letters from people all around the world and so on and so on…

++ As a music person, that was involved in many ways, I want to ask you what’s your take about music in this age? Do you think physical records can survive a little longer?

Oh, I don’t know. But I hope so. I love to buy and listen to music on physical records. Any format is great. I just heard a program (on the Swedish radio P2) about cassettes and that people is starting to buy and listening to music more and more on cassettes. So who knows? But at the same time free digital music maybe would end a lot of unnecessary consumption that in the end isn’t good for the planet.

++ And one last question, what do you think is the most rewarding part of running a label? And if you’d recommend anyone to do something like it?

In my mind it is time well spent. You should know that it takes a lot of time. But it is fun and rewarding. Be sure to release music that you love and don’t care about what other people think or say about it. Unless it is good words, words that will make you feel good!

Peace out!

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Listen
Evergreen Days – Tonight

Thanks so much to Graham Wakefield for this interview! The Primary Colours only released one 7″ in 1987, but what a great piece of guitar pop it is! Classic indiepop! These days the members of Primary Colours still go on making music under the name of Wily. You can become a fan on Facebook here. Now enjoy the story behind the music!

++ Hi there! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! So these days you are called Wily and in the late 80s you were The Primary Colours. When did you change names? And what would you say are the main differences between the two bands if any?

We had been playing and recording as The Primary Colours for about 8 years and had given it our best shot to make it professionally. We had received some interest and recognition through the single (Don’t Tell Me) and other demo recordings but had not had the break we were looking for. The live music scene was changing with many venues closing or putting on only tribute bands or Karaoke. We were becoming more disillusioned with the whole music scene and we were at a crossroads. We still wanted to play and record and so we decided to reinvent ourselves again but no longer ‘chase the dream’.

We started to write songs with different influences (including REM, Radiohead, Oasis etc)  but also add more 1960s covers to the set. We became Wily in March 1996…… the same personnel but with a different set and outlook.

++ How did this long lasting friendship start? When and how did you all meet?

Founding members Atheesan Arudsothy and Andy Jackson were at school together and started jamming when they were 13 years old. Graham Wakefield was at the same school but a couple of years below them. He started playing in a band with Atheesan in c1977. Simon Gillmore was playing the drums for a mutual friend’s band and we all at some point played in bands together, although nothing long term. When Atheesan, Andy and Graham decided to put a band together in 1980, they auditioned drummers without success. When they asked Simon to sit in on a rehearsal, the band ‘clicked’ and The Agent Orange was born.

++ I read that your first band was The Agent Orange. What kind of sound did that band have? And are there any recordings from that period?

In 1980 when The Agent Orange formed we were in the post-punk/NewWave era so our music was very influenced by this. The sound was dominated by two thrashing guitars and a driving rhythm. Everything was fast! There are some poor quality recordings from rehearsals around somewhere but we did make one proper demo in 1982 – by which time our sound was evolving and becoming more accomplished. The two demos were ‘You Are’ and ‘Immaterial Matter of Fact’, two of our strongest songs at the time.

++ After that you were involved in a band called The Neutral Zone that were described as The Buzzcocks Chainsaw Romantics. Would you say that this moniker was accurate? And how was the experience with this band?

The Neutral Zone was purely a name change because there was another band on the London circuit called The Agent Orange. The line-up and songs remained the same. One of the cover songs we played at the time was ‘Ever Fallen in Love’ by the Buzzcocks and with the effects pedals that Atheesan was using, the guitar sounded a bit like a grinding saw. This was at the time of the rise of the New Romantics(Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet etc). One promoter at a venue we played coined the term ‘Buzzcocks Chainsaw Romantics’ in an effort to describe our sound. We quite liked it and adopted it.

++ Soon after The Smiths were influencing you and you became a jangly pop act and you rechristened yourselves as The Mock Turtles. Shame was that almost at the same time another band with the same name was being successful in the charts. How did you take that? And just out of curiosity, how did you like the music of the other Mock Turtles?

When Atheesan left the band in early 1985, the sound completely changed (he had all the effects gizmos). We decide to carry on for a while as The Neutral Zone but soon realised that we had to change. The Smiths were a major influence on our writing and so we evolved again. It was when we teamed up with a local singer (Suzanne Murphy) that we decided a name change was appropriate and she christened us The Mock Turtles. We gigged under that name for about 18 months before we became aware of another Indie band with the same name in Manchester. They were having minor success and so we decided it was right to change our name to avoid any confusion. They released a number of singles before having their biggest hit in 1991 with ‘Can You Dig It?’ We liked them.

++ In 1987 finally you took the name The Primary Colours, a name that you would use for the next eight or so years. Who chose the name and what’s the story behind it?

Choosing a name for a band can be really difficult. You need to conjure up an image with a name that fits your music. We wanted something that said ‘Indie’, was light and ‘colourful’. The Primary Colours was the idea of drummer Simon Gillmore and fitted perfectly. There was no real story behind it.

++ For recording your first and only single, the great “Don’t Tell Me” you had to raise 1,000 pounds! How did you mange to do that?

We saved money from gigs and had to dip into our own personal savings. This was a gradual process. We first paid for the recording, then sorted the art work. Later we had enough money to press the single. It took us a few months to complete the project (it’s so much easier and cheaper today!).

++ And how was the experience of recording at Abbey Road Studios. Was it how you expected it to be?

The recording was made at another studio but it was the post-production and single pressing that was done at Abbey Road. We spent a day there and were very conscious of the heritage of the studios. Everyone we met was friendly and we were shown the studio where The Beatles recorded most of their material. We also walked across the famous Zebra Crossing! It was a great day out

++ Do tell me about gigs. Did you play many in this period? And which were your favourite ones?

During the late 1980s and early 1990s we were playing the London circuit. Looking back now it seems we were playing all the time but diaries show that there were 2-3 weeks between each gig (which was OK as we all had day jobs to keep). Our favourite venues were The Tramshed (a local venue) and The Cricketers. Both were regular venues where we were top billing and played with some really good bands.

++ About the single, care telling me a bit about each of the songs in it? What’s the story behind them?

‘Don’t Tell Me’ has two themes. One is the obvious break-up of a relationship (which is what most people get). However, it is also about (Graham’s) frustration with previous lost opportunities by youth culture down the decades i.e. the Hippies and the Punks. They started with great promise and desire to change the world but failed miserably: “Now the party’s over, you can walk away and leave me standing here to face another day”. Our songs often had a political subtext and ‘Happy All the Time’ was one of those – an anti-Thatcher song set to a jangly pop tune. People thought it was a love song but we were really being ironic.

++ From what I’ve read there were other recordings by the band like “Visions of Yesterday” or “When the People Come”. Why didn’t you get the chance to release more records?

Back in the 1980s and 1990s it was very expensive in real terms to make decent recordings and this was a major factor in not recording as much as we would have liked. As for putting out a single, without a sponsor, this was just too costly. Therefore, we used recordings purely as demos to get live work. We recorded about 30 demos in all.

++ And how many more unreleased songs of The Primary Colours are still waiting to see the light of day?

There are probably about 15-20 recordings that have never been heard other than by friends and followers who bought them (on tape) or by people at the gigs at the time.

++ From all your songs, which would you say make you the proudest and why?

That is a very hard question to answer because each is special at the time of recording. We made some really good demos (at least we think so) of which we are very proud when we listen back. Extracts of a couple of these are available on our website. However, our most recent work ‘Judy’s Smile’ is something we feel very proud of. ‘Mixed Messages’ is one track that we all like. It can be heard on YouTube.

++ I’m quite curious about the incident with Guy Chadwick from the House of Love. You used to call him Mr Potato Head, is that so?

We supported the House of Love in c1988. At the sound check the promoter and bass player approached us and asked if the band could use our bass amp as theirs had blown. We agreed. Guy Chadwick was playing pool and drinking close by. He didn’t hear this conversation. The promoter then asked us if there was any gear we needed to borrow. Chadwick heard this and without looking up said ’we don’t lend our gear to anyone’. We replied, ‘that works both ways’ and left the bar. The promoter and bass player came after us and pleaded with us to borrow the bass amp and apologised for Chadwick’s behaviour. We agreed to let them borrow the amp but said in so uncertain terms what we thought of Chadwick!  Close up he looked like Mr Potatoe Head and so that is what we discourteously dubbed him. He didn’t speak to us all night and got very drunk before playing. They were well below their par that night and we got a much better reception from the audience.

++ You joined the South East London Music Collective in 1990. What were the pros and cons (if any) of joining? With them you released two songs, “Chasing the Rainbow” and “The Lion’s Share”,  on a compilation CD. I’ve never heard these two songs sadly, so if possible, tell me the story behind them two?

There were no cons. It was getting increasingly difficult to get gigs in London as many venues were closing or charging bands to play. The Collective sought out venues and promoted gigs. It was a bands ‘self-help’ organisation. The Collective put on some great gigs, recorded a number of them and produced ‘live’ CDs. They also promoted member bands by putting together a couple of compilation albums to which we were asked to contribute tracks. ‘Chasing the Rainbow’ was about the realisation that our youth (and our dreams) were slipping away (Graham was on the eve of being 30 when he wrote it). ‘The Lion’s Share’ was, for us, an uncharacteristic song about a fractured relationship.

++ In 1995 you decided it was time to stop The Primary Colours and become Wily. What made you take this decision?

I think we cover this in the first question above. It was time to reinvent ourselves again. We wanted to keep playing but couldn’t carry on as we were.

++ Tell me about 2014. Are you planning any gigs this year? And any other future plans for Wily?

As Wily we play regularly. Our live set now consists of 1960s rock covers by The Who, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Velvet Undergound, The Stooges, Humble Pie etc. This music is timeless and appeals to a wide age group. People at our gigs range from their 20s to 60s.

In 2013 we completed and produced an album called ‘Judy’s Smile’. This was purely for our own pleasure and creative need and for people who still follow us. It has been received well by those who have heard it. We plan to release tracks from the album on line during this year. We also want to start work on another album and are thinking about themes and songs.

++ For you, what would you say has been the biggest highlight in all these years involved in music?

There has not been a single highlight really. We love playing music and each of our phases have brought different experiences. Abbey Road stands out, so too do some of the recordings we have made. Getting played on the radio and winning a ‘Battle of the Bands’ listener’s poll 3 weeks running on BBC Radio London was special. Headlining some of the bigger venues was also an experience.

We are enjoying playing now more than ever. We are playing for our own enjoyment and not trying to impress anyone and so there is no pressure. When we record, we are free from any pressure to fit into any genre and so this too brings a freedom to experiment and express ourselves. As musicians we have continued to develop and we are always learning new things.

++ Thanks again for this interview, anything else you’d like to add?

If anyone wants to find out more about our 30+ year history, they can go to www.wilytheband.co.uk and/or follow us on Facebook. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to tell our story!

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Listen
The Primary Colours – Don’t Tell Me