Thanks so much to Mark Narkowicz for the interview! The Fish John West Reject were a fantastic band in Australia during the 80s! They started first in Tasmania and then moved to Melbourne to make a splash releasing a couple of albums and many singles. Before reading the interview I will point you all to visit their Facebook page where you can order by messaging the band the reissued “SWIM” album. Also you better become a fan of them there! Now that you’ve done that, sit back, read and enjoy!

++ Hi Mark! Thanks so much for being up for this interview. I guess the first question is pretty obvious, where does the name of the band come from? I’ve always been curious!

You’re welcome Roque. Very pleased to be on board. When we started, we were members of a Pentecostal church in Launceston, and our performances were very much (what was called) an ‘outreach’. We were trying to play a part in converting people to Christianity. So, when we were rehearsing as a 2-piece one afternoon in Mark Adams’ flat we were desperate to find a name because we had a gig coming up very soon, and we didn’t want to be called “Mark Adams and Mark Narkowicz”. Mark’s girlfriend Lisa was hanging out with us and she suggested the name “The Fish John West Reject” when a John West ad came on the telly. We were gobsmacked.

++ You have just reissued the “Swim” album. It was released in 1989 as LP and cassette and it’s not even listed on Discogs. Why the decision to reissue this particular album? o What’s Discogs?

Well, the SWIM album was truly an independent release and definitely what we were about in 1988. We had a collection of songs we wanted to release and we didn’t know where it fitted into what was happening in Australian music in 1988. ‘Acoustic Pop Thrashabilly was our guiding principle. We knew no one would put it out and we knew people would love it because we had a whole lot of people attending our gigs. When we recorded the album we were about to reach a peak and were definitely on a roll… it was a significant time in music. Recordings were being released on (1) vinyl (2) vinyl and cassette (3) vinyl, cassette and this new thing called CD – very exclusive to bands on major labels. So – we released our album on vinyl and cassette. We also made the good decision to purchase the multi-track tapes on which the album was recorded. A lot of moolah at the time for an indie band. So, it had never been released digitally…and the opportunity arose when an old friend (Marshall Cullen) suggested a digital re-issue.

++ There’s a pretty extensive biography on your Facebook page, so I’ll try to fill in the gaps with my questions. Before being in FJWR you were in a band called The Deaf Lepers. Who were they? Did you record or release anything with this band?

The Lepers were my first ever band. A cover band who wrote the occasional original number. We were testing the waters…we played in Hobart and were hooking into the voodoo psychobilly thing…doing covers by The Cramps, The Scientists, Hoodoo Gurus, Buddy Holly. All the brainchild of Tom Loncar, an old school chum who went on to do great things in the Sydney Garage scene with the Intercontinental Playboys – look them up! We made a few desk recordings which were put out on cassette. Our set included the first song I ever wrote, ‘Swampman’ which I play to my students now (I’m a Primary School Music Teacher). I left The Lepers because I moved from Hobart to Launceston to study. The Lepers were also part of an underground thing in Hobart…I remember it being exciting but scary. Goths and punks – y’know? But also Tom would say to me “Come and see this Andy Warhol movie called Flesh for Frankenstein” and he would introduce me to early 1950’s garage music. This was a huge influence on the Fish…

++ Then you met the other Mark, Mark Adams. How was that encounter? And did the band happened immediately after?

At this stage I had moved to Launceston – the second largest city in Tasmania. With Mark (aka ‘Warky’) I remember setting eyes upon him at a church I started to attend. I’d just been converted to Christianity in a Pentecostal sense. Mark was part of the same church – he was a youth worker and very mysterious. He had corkscrew hair like Marc Bolan and had a beautiful Maton acoustic guitar. When I heard him play harmonica I was captivated. I had never heard live harmonica before and Warky played it like he was speaking. Wark was older than me by a few years, so he was more mature in relationships and outlooks on life. He was very comfortable with relating to younger people and had a fearless approach to life. We hooked up on a number of levels including environmental / political issues which were significant in Tasmania at the time. Musically Wark had a background in the folk / troubadour tradition and I had been influenced by New Wave, Punk, Ska, Psychobilly. Through him, I was introduced to the music of Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Sonny & Brownie and vice versa.

++ The band started in Tasmania and then moved to Melbourne. I know of many bands that crossed the strait as you. Definitely Melbourne had the bigger scene, but was there anything good at all about playing in Hobart?

Hobart is the capital city of Tasmania, so you always aspire to playing in the capital. Hobart had more venues to play in and definitely had a more eclectic, open-minded audience. Hobart had a vibrant university scene and this certainly helped us build our audience. It was much easier to get a gig in Hobart. We followed the lead of The Odolites and Wild Pumpkins at Midnight in deciding to move to Melbourne. It was an ‘all or nothing’ approach. We gave ourselves a time-frame and thought ‘let’s have a crack – see how it goes’.

++ This might be a strange question, but in your Facebook biography you mention the church and it’s connection helping you. It’s not that common to hear an indie band involved with the church. How was that relationship?

That is how we started. Tim (our first drummer) and Andrew (our bass player) were connected to us through Christian circles. Graham (our drummer) joined us through the same connections. Christian folk music was a huge part of what we were about. We wanted to play songs with a gospel message but we had an intense dislike for modern Christian music. We actively sought out folk / acoustic songs to play with a gospel / humanitarian message, so we were drawn to American folk music by Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, The Weavers, Pete Seeger. Later on we were introduced to Violent Femmes and T-Bone Burnett…didn’t look back after that. The relationship with the church was difficult. We were advised to listen to music that was the Christian ‘equivalent’ to the bands we knew and loved. We had people in our ears all the time advising us to play this or that. We naturally separated ourselves from the church and did our own thing, because we never wanted to be part of the Christian’ Music scene. After the band broke up, I returned to Launceston to complete my studies. The very afternoon I returned, I was accosted in the Launceston Mall by a young girl who proceeded to tell me I’d made a wrong move and was going to hell, along with my buddies. Wrote a song about that later on!

++ You describe yourselves as Acoustic-Pop-Thrashabilly. Care to tell me more about this description? Who were the main influences for you guys?

‘APT’ was a term Andrew came up with and it was pretty honest and accurate because there was simply no other music like ours at the time. We took a blend of American folk, Australian folk, psychobilly, Blues, rockabilly, post-punk English pop and played it all in a busking style with acoustic instruments. Many of our songs were covers of old traditional songs but we also wrote a number of songs in this style. I guess the main influences were: Woody Guthrie, The Incredible String Band, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Violent Femmes, The Housemartins, The Cramps, Jonathan Richman and Orange Juice

++ Tell me about the recruiting process for the rest of the band? How did the original lineup of the FJWR happened?

In a nutshell…Tim joined on drums in the early days to make a 3-piece. Andrew joined on acoustic bass and introduced us to The Femmes and The Housemartins. After a break, we moved to Melbourne and Graham (The Odolites) joined us on drums. That became the classic line-up. Wark left and was replace by Martin. Andrew left to be replaced by Michael – hence the shift to power pop. Graham left to be replaced by Stan. I’m thinking “They all hate me” and then we split up. Of course, that is not the case…Wark, Andrew and Graham all love me and I love them.

++ You played a bunch of gigs, but I wonder, for you, what were the best and why? Best crowd? best venue? best supporting band?

So many gigs Roque…so many venues etc. But I guess the best for me all occurred on one night in Perth (Western Australia). We’d travelled for 2 or 3 days to get to Perth, the played at this joint called The Stoned Crow. Supporting us were ‘Something’s Come A Gutsa’, a 3-piece featuring the original AC/DC bass player, an electric guitarist playing killer licks and an outrageous singer who played a snare drum strapped around his neck. They played all original songs and were a bit like Talking Heads and Timbuk 3. The crowd was perfect – there were beautiful young women, lots of dancing, mulled wine…a beautiful welcome to The West. We returned many times to Perth and it was our favourite spot to tour. We reached #1 in Perth!

++ In 1986 you record “Canned”. This was released as a tape only. Any plans to reissue this one? As I’m not familiar with it, how was your experience recording it, and which songs were included?

Wonderful recording experience! Certainly my and Wark’s first experience. It was done in Boat Harbour on the NW coast of Tasmania, in a country cottage over a weekend…overlooking the pastures and the sea. My family goes there for holidays every year. All recorded on Tascam cassette 4-track. It was a full album of material, with mostly original songs and covers which included Dustbowl Refugee (Woody Guthrie) Muleskinner Blues (Jimmy Rogers) and Resting in Your Love (Iva Twydell, once a member of After The Fire) Definitely no plans to re-issue this one. There is a major cringe factor, but if anyone would like to release one of these songs on a comp, we would be happy to oblige because one or two songs actually scrub up OK. With this tape we made around 100 copies and did a re-press!

++ I read that during a festival in Canberra you met an Andrew that fed you with mixtapes songs by Aztec Camera, Orange Juice and more. Who is this mysterious character with great taste? 

This man of mystery is our bass player, Andrew Viney who is also familiar to you through his work with Tender Engines. He put us on a diet of Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, Housemartins, Violent Femmes, Jazz Butcher and Bluebells. Very sexy.

++ In 88 you record another tape, “Shy But Wild”. How was the process of making these cassettes? Where you copying them one by one? What about the artwork? And how many copies were you doing at that time?

The Fish were well and truly a full-time kick-ass concern at this time. We recorded a bunch of songs live during a stint in Adelaide at the Fringe Festival. We played 21 shows in 28 days and became pretty tight. We recorded Shy But Wild at the New Century Hotel on a Tascam 4-track. We put a few songs on Side B recorded as demos for the SWIM album.

++ Next year, in 1989, you release the Swim album. 5,000 copies are sold. For today’s standards for an indie band, that’s quite big! Who released this album? I assume you got good distribution, right? And how auspicious were the reviews? Were you happy with the end result?

The SWIM album was released on Vinyl and Cassette. It was a purely independent release. We funded it and the distributor was Musicland. Andrew Lethborg (The Odolites) worked for Musicland and he did a great job in getting our album into shops. We also sold a lot of albums at gigs. But the indie stores really did get our album out to the public. When the band split up, there were some pop connections in Japan (via Sweden) who picked up the SWIM album – kind of kept the fire burning. Kei Nakamura and Lars Wenker. BIG UP to those guys. I remember the reviews of SWIM being positive, fair, but not glowing. We were very pleased with the result because we did the whole thing in 3 days and it captured what we were about. We made the decision to spend money on a good studio and a good engineer. But it also meant we were exposed warts and all with our songs, our playing and our naivety. We also made the good decision to purchase the multi-track recording tapes – the wonderful thing about being independent. So, having the opportunity to remix after so many years has meant the album has been improved.

++ Same year the “Left” 7″ is released with it’s hand-drawn artwork. Who made the cover art?

Mark Adams did the cover art for Left / Childless Mother. We then organised an evening where friends of the band came around to Wark’s ‘cave’ to colour in the artwork with crayons and water colours. So, every single was individually coloured in…that happened as well with the re-pressing.

++ After this release you end up signing to a bigger label in Australia. Shock. How did that happen? Was it just a phone call or what?

Well, by this stage the band had changed line-up. Wark had left the band and went on to form Hurdy Gurdy / Slurper. Martin Witheford joined on guitar and Michael (brother of Martin) joined soon after when Andrew left the band. Shock was making a big impact in Australia with their links to Creation, Beggars Banquet, 4AD. They were in a good position to sign local artists and were willing to take a punt. They were champions of promoting new Australian music and we were lucky enough to be on their radar. Shock allowed us to release our 2nd album on 3 formats – CD, Vinyl and cassette…not to mention doing a 12” vinyl release. Doesn’t happen for an indie band these days! It wasn’t just a phone call – there was a mutual respect. Shock knew us in a local sense because there was a nice little bit of fuss about The Fish locally, and Shock was very much about supporting and nurturing local artists. We came to a nice arrangement – punky and very respectful.

++ With them as far as I know you released 2 7″s and the Fin album. How do you remember this period? Would you say that your sound has changed a lot from the first recordings? I read many fans weren’t pleased of a sudden chance to power pop

The change in line-up certainly meant a change in our fan base – but it brought new fans in, and we still managed to get amazing exposure through doing some really big support shows. Our album FIN was well-reviewed by the Australian and English music press. Now, the sound of the album is quite dated, but the songs are still really cool. The period was exciting and new, but also sad because Warky, Andrew and eventually Graham had left. The line-up completely changed. With the second line-up, we were very focused on melody and current sounds. Primal Scream, The Wonderstuff, Pop Will Eat Itself, Ride, Jesus & Mary Chain, Jesus Jones, The Pixies were all big influences

++ And all in all, with such a vast discography, what would you say were your favourite songs that you penned? And why?

Thankyou for asking this question about my songwriting. My favourite songs overall would have to come from the songwriting period with The Dunaways…who are also TFJWR as we speak. From the FISH period, as a young songwriter, I would say The Orchard – a 12/8 timing with diminished chords which managed to get us on to the telly. I liked this because it was heart-felt and written in a moment of desperation. Very quickly penned …then She’s In France which was a very Nikki Sudden (Jacobites) inspired thing. Nikki was a revelation because of his distinctive voice and his minimalistic approach. Terrible News on the FIN album was enjoyable because it was truly a songwriting collaboration with Michael Witheford in a Power Pop style. Lights Out Over Launceston was special because it mentioned our town. It also summed up our fast, pop, acoustic style. The lyric has a slight cringe factor but it is also a watershed moment for me where the lyric had a bit of ambiguity.

++ While on the Fish, you were also making music with the band The Outstanding Amount. Tell me a bit more about this project? What happened to it?

TOA happened with Michael Witheford (bass) and Rod Fulton (drums). It was an ‘hiatus’ thing where Michael was taking a break, and the (early) Fish were taking a break, Michael was a huge influence on me as a young feller because he had his own bands that I would go & see. He introduced me to countless songs, bands and styles. We formed a 3-piece that focused on very simple songs to please a student / alternative audience in a conservative Tasmanian town. It was a way to keep playing, experimenting and work with new collaborators, We played songs by The Femmes, the Beatles, The Cramps, The Box Tops, The Kinks…lots of “THE” bands. We also worked on revolutionising the gig…charging no particular amount on the door – rather, a donation depending on circumstances…”The Outstanding Amount” – I LOVE you have asked a question about this group!

++ But these days, looking back at the late 80s, how do you think your songs have aged? And what would you say were the biggest highlights for the band?

Well, I think the SWIM songs have aged pretty well, after having been through the re-mixing process. The songs were naïve then and they still are now. The remixing has allowed the acoustic charm to come through. Bottom line is, they are very listenable. The songs from the FIN album are fantastic – tuneful and well performed. However they suffer because of the dodgy production and we will never be able to fix that. Bummer…they are unlistenable!

Some of the biggest highlights for us were playing the opening support for some of our heroes – Violent Femmes and The Chills for example. We also opened for UB40 in stadiums – that was mind-blowing (but they were never our heroes – we got kicked off the tour!) Other highlights included the favourable press we received, good reviews in the English Press (Melody Maker & Sounds) launching JJJ radio in Hobart, reaching #1 in Perth (album and single at the same time) and the generous drinks rider at The Shenton Park Hotel in Perth. There are so many others.

Not to mention appearing on Countdown!!!

++ And so, when and why did you decided to split? And what happened after to the members of the band?

We decided to split because we had our lives to go on with. We decided to split in 1991. Interest from major labels had dried up and we always wanted to sign with a major. Plus, we had been through too many line-up changes…we were confused, our fans were confused and we had lives to go on with. Plus we were in debt and we’d had enough.

++ Then in 2007 you decided to make a comeback and play some gigs. What spurred this decision? And how was having all the guys back on stage?

Around that time we all found ourselves in the same city (Melbourne) again. We still liked writing songs, we were still friends and we liked playing together. We called ourselves The Dunaways and we did some lo-fi alt-country things. We became involved with a lovely local independent record label (Croxton Records) who were all about songs and tunes. Being back on stage was great and we felt a bit more grown up…but no pressure to succeed or impress. It was a far more organic venture. We all got along well too. Weirdly, there is a Christian band called The Dunaways in USA. So we get many mis-directed messages from people saying how much we have blessed their lives. With songs like ‘Country Drink Song”? No blessings there – only curses.

++ I feel I’ve asked too many questions! But there’s so much to cover, but two more, I promise! So you made a promo video for “Left”, how did you enjoy recording? and if you were to choose a song that didn’t get the video treatment, which one would that be?

You haven’t asked enough questions Roque!!! The vid for LEFT was awesome because it was our first clip, plus it was done on proper film – B&W super 8. Very grainy and in the editing was properly spliced with a splicing machine…it also captures Melbourne in the mid 1980’s – the cars, the streetscapes, the fashion. This video was literally’ lost’ for many years because in the days before digital trickery things were very different…we relied on some guy to perform the ‘film meets the music’ editing job, and he didn’t come through. Years later we were able to easily match the film to the music through digital means. The little girl (Bree) in the video clip was one of my students at a local primary school in 1988. She recently saw the video on Youtube for the first time and got in touch with us. She’s now 33 years old! If there’s a song that would benefit from video treatment? Geez mate…probably ‘Sick Inside’ from the FIN album…a well-produced Jesus and Mary Chain-esque ballad. We would have loved the big hair treatment, the eyeliner, the posing…Martin would have loved showing off his Gretsch White Falcon and the girls would have swooned over mysterious Graham with his leathers and locks and Michael’s pout.

++ And the last question is how was the experience of appearing on national TV on Countdown Revolution?? Was it how you expected it to be?

It really was superb and tinged with controversy! On this particular day the two presenters were taking industrial action against the ABC – they asked us to boycott our spot on National TV – we had a quick pow–wow and decided against it. We loved the effort that was put into our performance…the set that had been constructed, the video footage that had been shot. It was all very exciting indeed. The band was in an interesting stage then. Mark had left, Martin had joined, we’d just supported UB40 on a national tour and were about to support Violent Femmes. Andrew had left the band but he appeared in the video miming the harmonica and looking fantastic…a show of support from him. It was unforgettable Roque, and a moment to treasure. Thankyou for reminding us!

++ Thanks a lot Mark! Anything else you’d like to ask?

Well, there is a rock trivia quiz show in Australia called ‘Rock Wiz’…does your name ‘Roque Ruiz’ have any connection?

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Listen
The Fish John West Reject – Left

Thanks so much to Anna Burley for this fantastic interview! I tried in the past to interview The Killjoys but now at last I get to know a bit more about this fab Australian band! I’ve been a fan for a long time now, listening to their debut album Ruby so many times! But of course, they released many more records, made many videos, moved to the UK for a while and even won what would be the Australian Grammies! So if you haven’t heard about them before, it’s time you do!

++ Hi Anna! I read that The Killjoys were born after the break up of a band called Wild Science. I’ve never heard about it, what did it sound like? did you release anything under this name?

Wild Science was really a bunch a kids just wanting to play music . We rehearsed more than played live and loved every minute. It was driven by a very talented songwriter called Buzz Hiscock. He wrote great melodic indie rock We never recorded properly but there were many practice tapes!

++ Why did you decide to break up that band and start The Killjoys? Who were the original members of the band? What was different between the two bands?

Buzz eventually decided that a four piece rock band was what he wanted so Craig (who played trumpet and guitar) and I were asked to leave so they could become Violet Town. And we immediately formed the Killjoys finally able to write and play our own songs. The original members were Craig, me on guitars and voice, Jeremy Smith on bass, Will Larsen on drums and Caroline Scwherkolt on vibes. We were very keen on having a unique sound and wanted unusual instrumentation. I was and still am a huge Go-Betweens fan so they were an influence. Violet Town was very indie punk sounding. I also decided to be quiet when all the bands around us were very loud.

++ How was the Melbourne indiepop scene when you started the band? Did you enjoy any of the bands back then? Maybe you were involved in other bands too?

There was and still is a very healthy music/band scene in Melbourne. There lots of bands and many friendships, shared houses and people swapping bands , even a strong connection with bands from Sydney who would share couches and gigs. The Honeys, Frente, Glide, Somerfields, Falling Joys, Plums, Clouds, and many others. I joined Deadstar as a rhythm guitarist for a year, and also joined Grant McLennan for his Horsebreaker Star world tour .

++ You started your own label for releasing your records, right? Why was it called Audrey Records? How easy or hard was to run an indie label in Australia?

I admit I loved having a label I enjoy all the creative parts, posters, cd covers, t-shirts design etc etc, and yes it was for our own releases which was easy to run. Later when I gave it a go releasing other bands I found it quite difficult, mainly trying to meet other artists expectations. It was very hard work and took too much time away from music. So it is just for our use again now. We teamed up with the legendary Popboomerang label for our most recent release. He is the master of indie labels.

++ I hate to admit that the only release I have and I have listened is the great Ruby album (and the Fall Around Me 7″). But, let me say this is a fantastic album and not surprised it won a prize for being the best independent album of the year! How did this happen? Who gave this prize and what was required for you to win? Was there some kind of ceremony?

The Aria Awards are Australia’s Grammies! We were very surprised and lucky to win with our first album. The awards were held in Sydney and I couldn’t afford to go. Craig and Caroline went to accept the award which she accidentally dropped in Sydney harbour from a boat party! There it remains despite paying several divers to try and find it. We’ve been nominated a few times since but no more wins… Yet… 🙂

++ The album included many, many instruments, from vibraphones to trumpets, from cellos to violins. How long did it take to record it? How easy was it for The Killjoys to make music?

We are lucky in being able to play quite a few instruments between us, and for having such a varied group of musician friends who love to come and play. We recorded Ruby at Sing Sing Studios which we saved for by playing gigs. I really can’t remember how long it took but being expensive probably no more than a week or two. We have always had a studio since then so making music is only restricted by time.

++ Why did you name the band The Killjoys?

Our original bassist Jeremy used to call me a killjoy for putting sad lyrics to joyous tunes and it just stuck..

++ I’ve been just watching the videos for “Michael Told Me” and “Beauty and Danger“. They are fantastic. Did you record more videos? If you were to choose one more Killjoys song to make it a video, which one will you choose?

There are a few videos, I post them on youtube/thekilljoysaustralia. We haven’t made a proper one in years mostly due to the cost. I love them but I always end up spend the money on making CDs etc I would have loved to make one for our last cd maybe for hey look at me now or pearl. I always have ideas haha.

++ You have quite a big discography, for a newbie like me, where should I start? Which is the record you are most proud of?

That’s too hard 🙂 They all have a story and like most musicians I m in love with the newest song/cd. We had a retrospective cd for a while but now you can buy any track on http://thekilljoys.bandcamp.com to make your own. As I get better at website stuff I hope to put more samples on our website for new people to hear.

++ For a while the band relocated in England. What differences did you find between the UK and Australia? Was it easy to get reviews or to build a fanbase there? I guess it was like starting again from zero?

The big difference living in Europe (we lived in England Ireland and Holland at different times over 5-6 years) was more availability of gigs. Larger populations and music seen as a career and not a hobby meant that when we got past the first few shows we worked a lot. We were pretty poor but it was a rather charmed time. We made a couple of records in England. Half the band eventually became homesick , I wanted to stay as we were getting big festival gigs by then.. But we came home.

++ When you came back to Australia you set up your own studio. What made you take that decision? Which bands have passed through there?

We wanted the ability to make records whenever we wanted without being beholden to record company budgets etc. Craig has made it very successful, recording many other bands and the occasional film, you can see a list at audreystudios.com.

++ If I had to visit Australia, what would you recommend visiting or doing in Melbourne?

Well if you like music and eating you d have a ball. There is still lots of great music played all over town and the town is a food Mecca , lots of different cultural influences . You could ride a tram around on a Sunday going from gig to gig like we sometimes do, have a meal in between . Most people visit Australia for the beaches outback and animals. We have all that not far from Melbourne too but I hear from visitors that Melbourne is great shopping, eating, and music

++ What do The Killjoys do today? You are still going, right? Any new release in the near future?

Yes we still play off and on, both as a band and as a trio. Most band members are scattered in other bands so it’s a juggling act. We put out a cd late 2011/2012 and we’ve started recording intermittently again so yes probably another record end of this year or early next. I had a country girl trio for a while just for fun and I played with Mick Thomas’s sure thing for a few tours , so we are always doing something in music.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

If anyone wants to keep up with the band I write a short blog every month that you can subscribe to or just read on our website. Killjoys.com.au. Or Facebook facebook.com/thekilljoysaustralia.

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Listen
The Killjoys – Michael Told Me

Thanks so much to Olaf, Gunnar, Siggi and Matthias for this great interview! The Groovy Cellar are an institution of German indiepop with many releases under their belt in classic labels like Marsh Marigold and Firestation. Actually they have just released their third album since starting as a band in 1991 on our friends Uwe and Olaf’s label Firestation. The new album is GREAT, I totally recommend it, and it’s called “Affordable Art for All”. You have to get it. In this interview we talk about the past, the future and the present of the band! Hope you enjoy it!

++ Hey! Thanks so much for being up for this interview. Just around the corner you have a new release. Your latest album! Tell me a bit about it. Would you say it’s any different to previous releases? And what are your favourite songs on it?

Olaf: Yes it is different in the way that it is more diversified.
And it has cover versions on it, something we haven’t done on earlier Groovy Cellar releases.

Siggi: Production wise it´s different to previous releases. I think it sounds a bit fuller and we even have a real brass section on a couple of songs.

++ Have you been playing much live lately? Are there any plans to tour or something else to promote the album?

Gunnar: We like playing a lot. Please invite us to Spain. We know you have a healthy Mod/Sixties/Indie scene there. I hear the Rubinoos where there a few years back and loved it.

Matthias: Cooper is great. Let’s go to Spain then.

++ The name of the album is “Affordable Art for All”. I like the sound of it. But I’m sure there’s a deeper meaning behind the title. I guess you are all for democratizing art, not just being a commodity for the filthy rich? And what’s the connection with indiepop, if any?

Olaf: A few years ago the British pop artist Sir Peter Blake issued his „I love London“ prints on recycled metal plates under the moniker „Affordable Art for All“. That was the idea behind it. The drawing on our LP is by an old friend of ours, the late Harald Fischer. It is called „Harold and Mod“, and if you want so, you can hang the record cover as a picture on your bedroom wall. Affordable art for only 14 Euros! And of course the title of the record echoes Dan Treacy’s 1980’s Whaam! compilation „All for art and art for all“ which made it even more intriguing for me.

++ The album is only released in vinyl, is that true? Of course you have put out a couple of 7″s before, and also CDs so I ask, is vinyl your favorite format? and why?

Olaf: Somehow the CD only format didn’t seem appropriate for me any more, as vinyl has seen quite a revival in the last years. But hopefully there will be a CD release of the record in 2014.

Gunnar: The combination of a nice big vinyl record with great (affordable) artwork and a download code is ideal. You can take something beautiful home with you and have something to carry around wherever you go. With a CD you can‘t do neither.

++ On this album you collaborate again with the Firestation label. How did you meet for the first time? And how has your experience being with them?

Olaf: We got to know each other around the time they were releasing their “19 Goldene Hits” compilation (pre Firestation). I remember playing on a festival together with Westway. Uwe, Olaf, Annikki and Jan have always been loyal to our music, so what else can I say than “thank you for your support through all those years”.

Matthias: Top guys, top label.

++ I have a couple of curious questions, is Mr. Magic from “Ask Mr. Magic” based in a real person? And what about “Emily Jones”? Also, “My Bavarian Town”, is that about any particular city?

Olaf: I used to be a Northern Soul DJ for many years. Almost everybody on the DJ scene of the 90’s used a pseudonym way back then. I decided on „The Magic Shoemaker“, the title of an LP by 1960’s psych band Fire, and because my family name is Schumacher. When I met my wife more than 10 years ago, she and some of her friends initially used to call me “Mr. Magic“. “Emily Jones“ is also a real person, but I won’t tell you who, as she didn’t want her real name to be used for understandable reasons. On the other hand I always wanted to write a song about a fictitious girl named “Emily“, as there are so many good examples in the history of pop music: “See Emily Play“ (Pink Floyd), “When Emily Cries“ (TV Personalities), “Emily Small“ (Picadilly Line), “A Rose for Emily“ (Zombies), “Emily Kane” (Art Brut) and so on. And then she should have an ordinary family name. Bob Dylan, Manfred Mann or the Bee Gees all sang about “Mr. Jones”, so I found it amusing to have a certain “Mrs. Jones” in a song, although I can’t quite remember if this unique idea was by me or stolen.

The Bavarian town is called Amberg, where I used to live with my parents a long time ago. I revisited it in 2008 for the first time after more than 30 years.

++ The band was founded in 1991 according to your Facebook page. How did you all meet?

Olaf: I met Siggi and my soon-to-become girl friend Claudia on May 3rd, 1987 at a Television Personalities gig in Berlin’s venue “Loft”. After the demise of my band Most Wanted Men we founded The Groovy Cellar. Following some change of personnel we recruited Matthias, who played bass in The Beat Godivas, loved the same bands as we did, and wore a Mod parka.

Matthias: There was that sampler I used to listen to back in the 80s, “Beat all the Tambourines”. Included a couple of songs by the Most Wanted Men. I really liked that early stuff, still do. “Hippie Girl”, “January” are real stunners. So I was quite thrilled to join the Groovy Cellar a couple of years later. I then persuaded that bloke I knew from the Artpress to join the band as a drummer, but that’s a different story …

++ You all have been involved with many other bands, care telling me in which bands you’ve all been during the years?

Gunnar: Matthias and me go way back to the 80s when we both were in The Artpress, a guitar power pop outfit which sadly only released one single in 1990. Ever since I have been trying to get away from him, but somehow it can‘t be done.

Matthias: Absolutely, Gunnar, the one who plays the sloppy drums, he sticks to me like glue. Sometimes it’s like that movie “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, the scene when George confronts Martha with a gun. I even call him Martha sometimes.

++ Your sound of course is very 60s influenced. What would you say are your favourite records from that decade?

Olaf & Siggi: It’s too many to mention. Our record shelves are full of 1960’s records, so where to start?

Gunnar: My Girl by The Tempations, Walking in The Rain by The Ronettes, The Beatles • Rubber Soul, The Bee Gees • 1st, everything by Goffin/King and Mann/Weill

Matthias: Bobby Timmons Trio – Moanin’ , Lee Moses – Bad Girl, Willie Tee – Walkin’ Up A One Way Street, Little Richard – I Don’t Know What You’ve Got But It’s Got Me, Tommy Navarro – I Cried My Life Away, Timi Yuro – What’s A Matter Baby …

++ Though you also seem to have a liking for 80s and 90s indiepop. You’ve played with many of the indiepop bands of this period. What have been your favourite bands to share gigs with? And why?

Olaf: The TV Personalities were one of our main influences of the 1980’s. So of course we were very proud to have the opportunities to support them. It’s the same with the Cleaners from Venus. Claudia and I were invited on stage to sing the Hollies’ hit “Bus Stop” together with Martin Newell and Dave Gregory (of XTC fame) on guitar! By coincidence both groups had this cover version (and only this one) on their set list.

++ Tell me a bit about Berlin. What are the best places to play or hang out and have a beer? Any other good Berlin bands at the moment?

Siggi: One of our fave venues is the “Schokoladen”, where we also had our record release party. Good sound and decent beer prices.

Gunnar: for Bands: check out The Pikes or the Rythm & Beat Organisation who is doing regular shows always with different songs and singers and sixties related mottos

++ Would you say the scene in your city has changed much from the 90s to these days? When was a better time for bands in Berlin?

Gunnar: We hear the the late 80s‚ with Indie/Guitar Pop being largely popular in West Berlin. Nowadays the scene is very relaxed and we even get some new blood from young hipsters who seem to come out of nowhere.

++ The Groovy Cellar was a neo-60’s club of the early 1980’s in London. Did you ever get the chance to go there?

Olaf & Siggi: Unfortunately not.

++ Years ago you also released some records with Marsh-Marigold, one of the best indiepop labels ever, lots of quality stuff. How did you end up signing with them?

Olaf: I actually can’t remember how we got to know each other (sorry, Oliver). Signing is not the correct word, though. We talk about independent labels, man!

++ But the first 7″ was on Twang! right? I don’t know much about that label. Who were they?

Olaf: One of the first independent labels from Berlin that had a go at beat and psychedelic music. Without Twang’s Mike Korbik probably half of the 60’s orientated bands in the 1980’s and 1990’s wouldn’t have released a record at all. His importance for the Berlin music scene can’t be underestimated. He was our Alan McGee!

Gunnar: Mike is still doing a regular online-fanzine „Guitars Galore“ which you can find here: http://www.twang-tone.de. He also still does mail orders of almost all Twang!-Releases.

++ Talking about labels, was there ever any interest by any majors?

Gunnar: Nope

++ And do tell me, from all your releases, what’s your favourite song to play live?

Gunnar: For me right now: „Where have all the good Guys gone“ from the new album

Matthias: “Emily Jones”

++ So far, after many years as The Groovy Cellar, what would you say has been the highlight of the band?

Gunnar: This band is a permanent highlight … but seriously: there are many great moments when you know each other as long as we do.

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

Matthias: Scooters

++ And so, one last question, in the future, what can we expect from The Groovy Cellar?

Olaf & Siggi: Playing the Madison Square Garden with Bono and Sting.

Matthias: Blimey!

Gunnar: not with Sting, no way. Did I mention we‘d love to play Spain?

Matthias: One of the rare occasions I agree with Gunnar.

++ Thanks again for the interview. Where can one buy your new record? Anything else you’d like to add?

Please find us and our older records here
groovycellar.com
www.facebook.com/thegroovycellar
and order the new album directly at
www.firestation-records.de

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Listen
The Groovy Cellar – Emily Jones

Thanks so much to Håkan Eriksson for the interview! Rain Refrain was a Stockholm band from the mid/late 80s that played some sweet jangly pop! Their songs are just classic pop and one wonders why they weren’t more known! These days both Håkan and Per Tolgraven (also from Rain Refrain) play in a band worth checking out, The Tangerines, with whom they are putting out their third album out pretty soon! Here in the interview we talk about both bands and also about the Swedish scene of those days. Enjoy!

++ Hi Håkan! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! These days you play in The Tangerines, isn’t that right? And you are about to release a new album. Care to tell me a bit about it? I hear there’s going to be a Rain Refrain cover in it?

Hi Roque! Yeah, that’s right. The new Tangerines’ album – our third – will be out early 2014. We’ve just recieved the master, and we’re really happy with the result. We do cover of Rain Refrain’s “Girls’ Girls’ World” true to the original demo from 1986!

++ And yeah! Where can one buy it?

To start with, we will release it through CD Baby.

++ Rain Refrain was your band in the late 80s, and then it was only in 1996 that you started The Tangerines. In that time between both bands, were you involved in any other musical projects?

Not really, I played with some cover bands. When Per (also in Rain Refrain) and I teamed up again, it was just like starting over!

++ And what would you say are the main differences between Rain Refrain and The Tangerines if any?

None to be honest. The Tangerines are more or less the same thing – power pop, guitars, harmonies, catchy songs – only that we had a few years break! Oh, one obvious difference is that Rain Refrain were a band playing live while The Tangerines are a duo concentrating on recording.

++ With The Tangerines you have already released two albums as well. If you were to suggest were to start discovering the band, what songs should one listen? Which are your favorites and why?

I suggest “Leave Him Behind” and “Look like Angels” from the first album. The former has an ambitious arrangement, the latter is short song driven by 12-string jangle. From our second album: “Rock’n’roll Girl” and “Diamonds in the Dew”. “RnR G” was a happy recording with a spacy middle eight that we like; the more up-tempo “Diamonds in the Dew” is another Rain Refrain cover, and the flip side of “Girls’ Girls’ World”. You can find them all on Spotify!

++ Let’s rewind then, back to the 80s. Who were Rain Refrain, what instruments did each of you play, and how did the band start? How did you all get to know each other?

Rain Refrain were a classic four piece: two guitars, bass and drums, Per and Håkan on vocals. I played in a band called Helikoptern whose singer had just left the band and Per, who was a fan of the band, took his place. Helikoptern broke up shortly after and Per and I were left with a rehearsal studio, a growing friendship and a few good songs. Another band shared the same studio and we sort of took over their rhythm section Per (the 2nd) and Johan on drums. We have fond memories of recording during summer nights on a Tascam 244 in a gym hall with a fantastic reverb. It all resulted in a 6 track demo which we sent to the four biggest record companies. WEA Sweden went nuts over the demo and signed us without ever seeing us live.

++ Had you been in bands previously? Or was this your first experience in a pop band?

As I mentioned I was in the band Helikoptern. We were signed to EMI Sweden and made a single, with lyrics in Swedish. Per – the second half of The Tangerines – was also in smaller bands before joining Helikoptern.

++ Back in those late 80s, were there any other Swedish acts that you liked at the time?

Just a few. Come to think of it, in those days we listened more to the big hits of the time: The Bangles, Bryan Adams, Belinda Carlisle… We were all influenced much more by earlier bands like Dwight Twilley, Phil Seymour, The Records, Cheap Trick, The Bangles, Nick Lowe, Rockpile, Kirsty MacCall, Ian Gomm, Marshall Crenshaw, ELO… “There She Goes” by the La’s. And of course it all started with… The Beatles.

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

It was just a play with words, or sounds. We always liked the word “rain”, a Beatles song of course (and a Status Quo one). Refrain as in “chorus”, and the rhyme sounded just right.

++ How was Stockholm back then? Was there some sort of scene? Were there many venues to play? What were the cool areas to hang? What were the best record stores?

Stockholm, late 80s… We were so busy rehearsing, used to hang out in the district of Söder. This was long before it changed to be a hipster paradise. Those days there were quite a few venues. I think we played them all.

++ As far as I know you only released a 7″, the fantastic “Girls’ Girls’ World”. So I have to ask, were there any more recordings by Rain Refrain that remain unreleased?

We made one more 7″ for WEA, a double A-side called “Hey Hey Michelle” / “Bad Luck”. It was recorded in 1987, released in Spring 1988 and got a decent amount of airplay.

++ And if it’s not much to ask, can you tell me the story behind the two songs on the 7″?

The songs came quickly those days. Per says the guitar riff on “Girls’ Girls’ World” just came to him on a bus or something. It took some time to complete the rhymes (it always does). The re-start at the end was an idea of our producer. The B-side “Diamonds in the Dew” came to Per in the middle of a stalled rehearsal. As you may notice none of them has a traditional chorus.

++ This record was released by a big label, WEA. A lot of indie bands struggle with big labels, though I’m not saying that was your case. But I wonder how was your experience with them?

It was a struggle. There were a lot of meetings with a lot of people. Everyting took a lot of time. The scene here at the time was totally dominated by male solo artists singing in Swedish. And here we came, a guitar band with pop songs in English. We’re not sure they knew what to do with us.

++ What do you remember from those recording sessions? Any anecdotes that you could share?

When WEA asked us to record, we asked who would be the producer. “No-one”, they said, “just do it like you did the demos”. So we found ourselves in this huge famous studio… young and nervous, and we failed miserably. It took a year until we got a new chance, and then we cut the first single – with the producer Niklas Strömstedt – and it all run smoothly. This time we used the EMI studio in Stockholm, inspired by the Abbey Road studios, where bands like Roxette recorded. A good memory, and – by 80s standards – a good recording. As for anecdotes… “Summer of 69” was a huge hit by the time. We loved the sound of the snare drum and wanted to have the same sound for the intro of “Girls’ Girls’ World”. Eventually the engineer just sampled it – and used it on the on the whole recording.

++ Gigs, tell me about gigs. Did you play many? Which were your favourites and why?

We played so many gigs. Big places, small places. After a while I think we became a really good live band. To replicate our records, we took in another guy, and for a while we were four singers doing harmonies (or trying to…) Highlights were a special live recording for Swedish radio, a showcase gig or WEA at the prestigious Ritz, and a large festival just south of Stockholm. After a while we became almost too well-rehearsed; looking at videos from the time we play the songs so fast.

++ So what happened to the Rain Refrain? When and why did you split?

We had an album and national tour in the planning, then our A&R man left the company, and it all stalled. We continued playing gigs but after a while Per left the band, though he continued writing songs, which eventually turned up on the Tangerines’ albums.

++ And are you all still in touch? What are you all up to these days aside from music? Do you enjoy any other hobbies aside from playing in the band?

Yes, we split amicably and see each other quite often. The other RR members are in their own bands today. The only guy we don’t meet is one of our bassists who went back to his native island Gotland setting up his own band. (Rain Refrain had an issue with bassists; they were our equivalent to Spinal Tap’s drummers.)

++ Looking back, what would you say was the biggest highlight of Rain Refrain?

Waking up hearing our single on national radio was a great moment. Playing a week-long engagement at the music pub Engelen in Gamla Stan (the old town) in the middle of summer was another.

++ One last question, Sweden seems to be the country that aside from the US and the UK, produces more pop bands, guitar pop bands, why do you think that is? Do you have any theory about that?

Interesting question. I think Swedish people have a sense of melody, and a fairly strong tradition of folk music. Also the kids get the chance to play an instrument from early years. And we are fast in adopting trends from Britain and the US, for instance we quickly got (locally) successful guitar bands here in the 60s. Maybe that’s part of an explanation.

++ Thanks a lot Håkan! Anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you, Roque! It was a pleasure walking down memory lane with you. We’ll keep in touch!

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Listen
Rain Refrain – Girls Girls World

Thanks so much to Eusebio Barata for the interview! And So To Bed was a fantastic jangly band from London in the late 80s that only released one 7″ EP and then disappeared into obscurity, which means their one and sole record is highly sought-after! Super obscure, nothing written about them online, and not even much information about them on their record sleeve, I wrote about them some time ago. Happily Eusebio got in touch and told me the story behind this great band that deserve to be better known!

++ Hi Eusebio! Great that you got in touch and thanks for the interview! So is it a safe guess you are Portuguese and your parents were big fans of the great football player Eusebio? 🙂

Thanks for taking an interest Roque, you and we maybe the only ones who read this.

My family is Portuguese but I was born and grew up in North West London and the names just a family name but it has the advantage of being memorable.

++ But we are here to talk about music though, about your band And So To Bed, who were around the mid 80s? Was this your first band experience?

First and only band experience, it was a bit of beautiful post pubescent accident. We formed with the intention of playing one gig in late ’85 and for a long while I’m not sure I thought that would happen. Our first official gig was at the Fiddler on the 7th April 1986 in front of 300 people and we only had 8 songs so when we got called out for an encore we had to repeat two.

++ How did it start? Who were the members, what did each one of you play and id you know the each other for a long time? How did you meet?

We formed the band from amongst friends originally, a few years after we’d finished school and later we found the drummer living about 300 yards from my house. I think growing up in the UK around that time a lot of us lived through that incredible post punk period with the Clash, the Buzzcocks & the Jam etc when forming a band became demystified. You listened to John Peel and thought “that band’s great and I can do that”. My great inspiration though was the Smiths, many of my friend and I saw every London gig they played and queued at Rough Trade in Portobello to buy the singles the day they came out, it was religious.

I played guitar and wrote songs, the bassist was Martin Lenihan, the singer was Leo Foley and the other guitarist was Sean Mulvenna. We found Paul Deacon the drummer because we walked by his house most evenings and the guy we’d originally asked to be the drummer couldn’t keep time (it took him buying a drum kit to find this out unfortunately). There was also a non playing member of the band called Vince Conway who wrote a lot of the original lyrics (Spit it out was his).

> ++ How was growing up in Harlesden? Has it changed much since those days? What’s there to do and see there?

Harlesden always had a bit of a reputation for being a rough working class neighbourhood but for us it was just home. It was a neighbourhood with a big Irish and Afro-Caribbean population so I guess music was always part of the backdrop. Most of my friends were Irish then because of the whole Catholic school thing and we spent a lot of time in some fairly basic pubs but at the start of the 80s a guy called Vince Power opened the Mean Fiddler. Now the Fiddler had originally been opened as a pure Country music club which was popular with the Irish community but it was clearly never going to sustain a venue in London at that time. Eventually they started playing a lot of indie music & folk punk like the Pogues, Men They Could Hang & Helen & The Horns and Vince ended up taking over the London live music scene and I think he managed a couple of the festivals too.

Harlesden has become more and more run down in the years since and its population more and more ecletic with more Africans, Poles and Brazilians than you can shake a stick at. It was announced the other day that it’ll be part of multi-billion pound regeneration which will probably lead to it become gentrified which is a shame but being poor is no fun so hopefully it’ll do some good too. I wouldn’t add it to your tourist itinerary for a decade or so, as the Fiddler closed in about 2005 and the rest of it just fairly grim, like the Bowery when I was there 30 years ago.

++ You were telling me that you played a lot at the Mean Fiddler and the Bull and Gate. What other venues did you play? And how come you played so much at those venues?

The Fiddler was our local club so we could alway get 150+ people in there so we played it a lot and we supported bands like Easterhouse (Morrissey was at that gig ) and headline occasionally. The B&G Timebox was about 3-4 miles away and it was the 2nd or third venue we played and Jon B always liked a band who could bring a decent crowd (he was fairly avante-garde but he liked to eat like anyone else), we also played the George Robey 2-3 times, the Clarendon which was a big club in Hammersmith (now departed), we played a range of smaller venues including The Enterprise which had great bands playing there. We played with bands like the Beloved, Close Lobsters, The Chesterfields and the Farm.

++ So Jon Beast, the guy behind the Bull and Gate, he also put out your one and only record. Are you still in touch? And how come you ended up releasing your record with him?

It was hard not to like and be a little impressed by Jon Beast, he was doing things that only 20 years earlier would have been impossible for a guy like him to do e.g. putting out records running his own music venue etc. He had a small office in SOHO which was down the corridor from Harvey Goldsmith and he seemed to know everyone playing in London at that point including a fair few band who went on to be quite successful. I felt the most sorry for him when I left the band as I knew it would have an impact on the marketability of the single and that he’d sunk a decent amount of his cash into it (if only he knew that they sold for $180 on ebay now he might have kept some). I haven’t spoken to him since and I have a feeling he’s no longer lives in London but if I saw him today I’d buy him a pint.

++ From what I’ve heard a lot of the C86/jangly guitar pop bands played in the Bull and Gate. Did you feel akin to these bands? Were there any that you liked? And did you ever feel part of a scene?

In London (and I’m sure its true now too) there were 100s of bands playing small clubs trying to make it but it didn’t feel like a scene in my view, other than everyone thought they could make music. There were so many competing styles and you’d have gigs which would start with a skiffle band and end with goth band on the same night. I think when you’re 20ish you’re fairly competitive you feel fairly tribal, those other bands were just competition and we saw a billion bands in London about that time (the B&G would sometimes have 6 bands on the same evening). Of course we were in a band because we loved music so we did have some other bands that we liked such as 1000s Violins who we saw lots & hung out with occasionally and we met the guys from The Mighty Lemon Drops who we liked and we saw the Pogues loads because of the Fiddler and the Irish connection.

++ Oh yes, what about the name of the band? Where did the name come from?

The NME interview would have read that the name was inspired by Pepys and subtext of raw sexuality, the reality was the name started because of a badge or pin as you guys call them. I’d been out with my cousin and had seen the name of a bed store and had said “that’d be a cool name for a band”, a year before the band was formed and my cousin ordered some badges with the name on then as a joke. It became my working title for a band but I always meant to change it and then came the song and before you knew it it at stuck. So much about the band was accidental and in retrospect I like that about us, we wanted to be great but we had no real idea what we were doing…I believe if we’d just stuck at it another year or two we’d have had some real success but yes the pin came first.

++ Back to your record. It included four songs, “And So To Bed”, “Just Desserts”, “Plaindom” and “Spit it Out”. If possible care to tell me a bit about each of the songs? The story behind them perhaps?

Ok the lyrics of “And so to bed (she said)” were written by Vincent and so I can’t say that I understood what was in his mind when he wrote them but a lot of our stuff was about being ineffectually in love, disappoint by life and the general melancholia of it all, ASTBSS was definitely in that vain. Much of this was influenced by Morrissey asexual lyrics and our unhealthy pre-occupation with English Literature. The original versions of the song was a little slower and skipped along more and was definitely inspired by “This Charming Man”, but when we came to record it the adrenalin got to us.

I wrote “Just Desserts” and it was about a bad review we had had, childish I know. We played B & G in Sept ’86 and got our first review in Sounds from a guy called Andy Hurt (his name is a lyric in the song) and frankly it was very snide and we paid it far too much attention but at least it spawned a pretty good song. By the time we wrote it we were trying to be a bit more edgy with the guitars, more Josef K than jangly.

Plaindom was originally going to be the single by itself (classic musician thing, you always love the last thing you wrote most) and once we recorded it we just weren’t happy with it and rather than re-recording it we decided to make it an ep. I wrote the lyrics of “plaindom” and its about not feeling content with ordinary which was also a theme, it was slightly disdainful of people who just weren’t cool enough to do something creative and it irritates me a little because it reminds me of the arrogance of my own youth.

“Spit it out “was another Vince/Eusebio combination and perhaps my favourite of the four recordings (not songs). Its about the moment in a relationship when someone wants to leave but just won’t say it, a vague notion that love is dead and yet you’re still going through the motions. Its a very simple song with fabulous lyrics and it was recorded quite well so I always enjoy it.

++ And yeah, what was the creative process for the band?

I think calling it a creative process over dignifies it but generally I’d have two or three melodies at a time floating around with the chord structure. I got bundles of Vince’s lyrics/poems or perhaps some I’d be working on and I work on them in my dad’s garage. Eventually I’d take the song/arrangement to rehearsal and Martin & Paul (the two real musicians in the band) would put together their own rhythm arrangements over the top which often changed the song dramatically. Leo would often have heard the song 30 times before he’d sing on it and again he’d often play with the originally melody, inflections or even sometimes the lyrics. Every now and again we’d sit down and rewrite bits of songs (maybe the middle eight or inter) after we’d been playing them for months and I very much thought that helped songs, like breaking in new shoes.

++ You were telling me that you left the band just as the record was being released. Why was that? Do you think that hurt a lot the future of the band?  And then And So To Bed continued for another year after you quit. Do you know what happened after? Why did they split?

I left the band in about March/April ’87 and I think I did it to provoke the rest of the band to up their game, be a bit more professional. We’d been together for about 15-16 months and I felt we’d not really moved on enough and Leo and my relationship had got a bit fraught. I tried for a while to put together another band but never found people I wanted to work with and deep down I want them to beg me to come back. They instead decided to develop their own set of songs and they stopped playing and worked on a new set that never really happened. I heard a few things they wrote which were quite good but they never had the quantity to get back on stage. I don’t think they broke up more just started doing other stuff and then life gets in the way.

Meanwhile the single came out in February 1987 and the band stops playing just when we should have been out there playing every other week and irritating anyone who’d play the songs on the radio, in a club etc. It killed the record and I need to take the lion share of the blame for that.

++ Aside from the record, were there any more recordings by the band?

We had a 6 track demo that we did initially, some of it on a tascam 4 track in that garage again but most of those ended up being distributed to booking agents, publishers etc and I don’t have one either. That had a much better version of “And so to bed (she said)” on it aswell as “spit it out” but also songs called “cruel bastard”,”dying breed” & “around my neck”.

++ From all your repertoire, what would you say was your favourite song to play live and why?

We had about 16 songs by the time I left and I loved them all but we did a song called “guilt” which was a bit like “Therese” by The Bodines (only better), that was my favourite. It had a fantastic rhythm arrangement, sexy lyrics about catholic guilt and it was going to be our second single…we never recorded it in a studio which is criminal but I had a video of us playing it for a while until it got lost in a house move.

 ++ And what happened to you after you quit the band? Did you play in any other bands?

After I left the band, I had a life but not all at once. The last 20 years I’ve been working in social housing building low cost homes, helping people find work and regenerating neighbourhoods and I have to say I sure I’ve done more good doing that than being in a band. I have a wife and daughter and we still live in North West London.

++ What about other hobbies? What else do you enjoy doing other than music?

I love sports especially football but music is still a passion and I’ve started going to see live music again especially latin singers like Mariza and Buika.

++ And one last question. What about the cover photo of the EP, who are the two guys?

Sorry I have no idea, we use to just buy postcards or clip pictures from magazines and that was the one we used, they’re totally anonymous.

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

Just thanks for giving me a lovely jaunt down memory lane to when I was in a garage band with my friends.

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Listen
And So To Bed – And So To Bed

Thanks so much to Pascal for the interview! Some time ago I wrote about The Fear Performance in the blog, a fantastic 80s band from France, that released only one 7″ that I believe more people should know about. Now it seems The Fear Performance is back, playing some shows in their home country this 2014! That’s great news. Pascal tells here a bit about that and more! Oh! and check their Facebook page!

++ Hello Pascal! Thanks so much for being up for the interview! How are you doing these days? I hear you have a band now called Strange Pepper? Care to tell me a bit about it?

Hi Roque, I’m very fine, new projects, music, guitars building … and a reunion tour

You know, I start a new guitar brand in France www.desert-dust-guitars.com

I have a new band called Strange Pepper, it’s more a duet than a real band, we play with different musicians, different projects … but for the moment I’m very busy with the guitars …

Fear Performance was a real band, Strange Pepper is more a personal project, me behind a name.

I think that I can’t remember how we met, we were friends when we were 20 and we started to play in a first band called “Sabotage” with Thierry Thomas and Laurent Piquot and then  4 years later The Fear Performance was born with Thierry Thomas on bass and Dominique Bélier on Rhythm Machine, one year later Laurent Piquot join us on guitar and then my 2 brothers Michel and Gilles Carreau on bass and drums, Thierry wanted to play with Bruges La Morte and Dominique played keyboards instead of Rhythm Machine.

The first band was Sabotage, I think that both names (sabotage and Fear Performance) were relating to John cale’s albums Sabotage Live and Fear (is the man’s best friend)

Yes we started in Caen, our town. Caen is between Rouen, at these time a British Pub Rock scene with bands like Little Bob Story or Les Dogs and Rennes with a more “intellectual” scene with bands like Marquis de Sade or Marc Seberg … We were more Rennes than Rouen.

My favourite band in Caen and the area was Bruges La Morte.

Marc Seberg was an incredible French band during the 80’s

Orchestre Rouge, Passion Fodder and of course Kat Onoma were my favourite bands.

And of course Alain Bashung

It was a strange story, Funambule was not my personal choice for the single, I wanted “Nightwalker” and “Indifférent” for the B side. So I decided to sign for only one single. We recorded it in one day including the mix. MSR was a strange label … I think they were just money makers. End of the story.

Funambule is about life, when you try to do things, you take risks and other people are looking at you, maybe waiting for you to fall, just like the funambulist … But the funambulist is a great looking woman in a cat suit (laugh)

We are all car lovers in the band, all the design and photographs were done by Philippe Jaffré a very talentuous designer and photographer, he took many photographs of French bands in the 80’s

We were at the end of the 80’s and it was very difficult to find recording companies in France, no money for self-production, no time …

My favourite song was and is “Nightwalker”, it sounds very “80’s” and I really love this song, my second best is “Yesterday’s Papers” because it’s my personal vision of NYC (something like a painting of Lou Reed’s first album cover … but in blue)

We used to have our personal projects, Laurent and Michel with “Les Alter Ego”, me with different bands in Rouen, Valence. Gilles stopped playing drums for ten years I think.

I began to write in English, lately I started to write in French but you know, it was really hard for me because of Verlaine, Rimbaud and Baudelaire. My first inspiration was Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground

We played, I think 100 gigs and my greatest souvenir is playing with Alan Vega from Suicide on the stage during our performance … a very peculiar moment for me, great moment !!!

In 1992, we were just 3, Laurent and Dominique have left the band and I was living 200 km from Caen, it was very complicated for the rehearsals and gigs.

Playing with Suicide, and the after show of course with Alan Vega and Martin Rev

I think that the guys at the local TV liked us, it was very useful but the press was very very far from rock music

My favourite movie is “Les tontons flingueurs” and anything with Jean-Pierre Bacri .

I live in south west of France now … so my favourite dishes are, magret de canard, confit de canard and of course Foie Gras !!!  (Sorry for that, laugh)

YES !!! Very important , The Fear Performance will do a few show in 2014 with Laurent Piquot, Giles Carreau, Michel Carreau, and myself.

Thank you very much Roque

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Listen
The Fear Performance – Funambule

Thanks a thousand to the Scott Stevens for this amazing interview! I know Scott for some years now thanks to the Summer Cats (his last band) who worked with Cloudberry on a couple of singles, but years before he was in a fantastic band called The Earthmen, true legends of the Melbourne indie scene of the 90s. Shame on me that it didn’t occur to me to ask him for this interview before, but sooner later than never, right? Two important things, one is that next year there will be The Earthmen compilation on Popboomerang (with many unreleased songs!) and also the MP3 that Scott has kindly shared, a cover of The Sugargliders’ “YR Jacket”. So if you missed them the first time around, please discover this great band that left us a bunch of singles (mostly on Summershine)  and an LP (on Warner even!).  Sit down, enjoy!

++ Hi Scott! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! I believe this is the second interview we did. Some years ago I interviewed you for my Cloudberry fanzine, but about the Summer Cats. I’m curious then, in between the Earthmen and Summer Cats, were you involved with any other bands? What was going on in your music-life during that period?

There was actually nothing (creatively that is). Music has always been an obsession for me but I guess I wasn’t sure what to focus on musically post The Earthmen & wasn’t sure of my worth in terms of contributing. When I started doing Summer Cats I had made a conscious decision (along with printmaking) to begin expressing again…just took me longer than I thought.

++ I don’t know if I can say I’m equally familiar with the story of The Earthmen and Summer Cats, though I believe that I’ve listened to all released songs by both bands. So maybe. But I would love to know according to you, how different were both bands, and not just sound-wise, the whole dynamic of both of them.

That’s a surprisingly hard question to answer! The Earthmen were around for about eight years and had quite specific phases musically where as Summer Cats were a far shorter musical journey.  I certainly wanted Summer Cats to be a much more egalitarian & consensus driven project where as The Earthmen were more driven by Nick, during a period Aaron, and me.

It’s also fair to say Summer Cats were a tad more ramshackle the whole time and with a specific aesthetic manifesto (the crash pop thing) and a specific set of goals of things we wanted to achieve.

The Earthmen started in just as ramshackle a fashion but influenced in equal measure by shoegaze bands and loud & noisy US bands, then later drifting through phases that were influencing us personally and we ended up being quite musically tight.

A big set of things that separates the bands was that The Earthmen were a bunch of early twenty year olds who played a lot and perhaps wanted everything where as Summer Cats played less and despite our pop fizz were not driven by that early twenties manic energy and only desired certain things.  Funny how it leads to the same result though.

++ Let’s go back in time then. Was The Earthmen your first band? Or had you been involved with other bands before?

Yes, yes they were and nope I never had! I was just the typical 7” buying obsessed music fan.

++ And how did you end up being a vocalist? Do you play any instruments?

When we started the band Aaron played guitar and I figured I could possibly do the singing.

I don’t play any instruments but was one of the songwriters in most of the tracks and had some very talented & patient friends I got to write with.

I sometimes hear whole songs in my head…figure everyone does! I did consider way back learning but decided to concentrate on my voice as I love the process of contributing.  Maybe not sensible I guess retrospectively

++ When and how did The Earthmen start? How was the recruiting process?

We started as an idea at a gig at a hotel called The Tote. It was at a particularly rock show and I was energised to start a band in opposition to the prevailing rock-est Melbourne scene which didn’t represent the music I wanted to hear (as a reason I guess it seems kinda silly as we were hardly a pop revolutionaries).  I’ve often thought that we do things in life sometimes after affirming things we don’t like whether it’s food, politics or music.

It just seemed like a thing that could be done, you know start a band without any discernible talent or identified musical skill: ha! A lot of the bands I’d been influenced by were from that indie/fanzine culture of ‘get out and do it’ and that was quite empowering.

I don’t know whether recruiting would be the right word as I was 19-20 and had no idea how these things work…we asked Glenn one of my best friends to play drums & kinda went from there.

We were surprisingly clueless & guileless on how all this music thing worked both in terms of making it and how the machinery works. Our first manager Mary I’d known from arguing about Died Pretty at Uni & we asked her if she’d want to manage us…I think you can see how this was all working…

Down the track we did more of the ‘put up a flyer’ with our influences kinda thing, a process that is can be fraught & a bit demeaning for all involved I think but sometimes does pay dividends.

++ And who came up with the name? What’s the story behind it?

Yeah that was me. It was from a trashy 60’s pulp novel chapter title of a book I cannot remember. I’ve always loved the classic sixties type band names and was at the time quite into Spacemen 3 so we hoped it echoed that kind of vibe and I’m guessing it didn’t annoy any of us!

++ What would you say were the influences of The Earthmen? Which bands were you loving at that time? Any Australian bands?

Around inception a lot of the early Slumberland, Sarah, Bus Stop & Creation releases were huge for me especially the singles.  Somehow the 7” always seemed to be so romantic, obsessional and affordable! Especially as you may not have known much about the band like say The Nightblooms with Crystal Eyes and out of the blue they’d appear with this singular moment. I’d also grown up listening to all those Rough Trade & Factory records and obsessing over the NME Independent charts which channelled my taste to a degree.

My Bloody Valentine, The Pastels, Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth, Ride, Dinosaur Jr, Moose, Velvet Crush, The Velvet Underground and the Boo Radleys (especially that first mini LP) were on high rotation but I’m probably forgetting heaps.

The overriding aesthetic was melody with some noise early on and to be really loud. I wanted a band that was emphasising pop melodies but would do so with dissonant edges, whether that was ever achieved I’m not sure but we were definitely loud live for a couple of years.  Isn’t Anything, Bug & Psychocandy really got into my head and Aaron was really into a lot of the US noisy bands as well and it was him that introduced me to Yo La Tengo for which I’m forever grateful.

Later on things changed and bands like The Byrds, Left Banke, Uncle Tupelo & Crosby Stills etc as influences became more focused and listening back the different phases are more evident. It’s funny as things move quite fast and band members changed over time so from start to finish there’s a different sound and the song writing is more textural at the end.

Locally when we started there was some really interesting stuff, Summershine Records had started and bands like Ripe, Afterglow, Autohaze, Jupiter, Sugargliders, Cannanes, Cats Miaow were out & about. You’d try and set up like minded shows (as you do) and it did seem like if you weren’t doing a show you’d be seeing somebody doing something. Australia is, despite it’s geographic size, quite small and there are big distances between the capital cities but luckily Melbourne has always had vibrant public radio stations that supported and spoke about younger bands and still do.

++ Talking about Australian bands, you did a cover of the Go-Betweens’ “The House Jack Kerouac Built”. Why did you choose this song? And how important do you think are the Go-Betweens in general for the Australian indie scene?

We got asked to contribute a song for the comp and that song has always been one of my favourite tracks, luckily it hadn’t been chosen by anyone else. As a song it’s so wry, sexy and desperate.

Oh, they were and are so important. When they initially split back in the 80’s they were loved but it’s hard in Australia if you’re not a rocking, blokey band and in those days alternative bands were a world apart.

They were a literate, funny, obtuse and beautiful band which proved to me that these were expressions that could be valued in music by Australian artists. I grew up in the outer suburbs where those types of affirmations were hard to come by and pre internet a suburb could feel like an island. I often think for me that’s also a big part of their influence (well, apart from those amazing songs…).

++ Tell me about gigs. Did you play many? Which were the best? Any anecdotes you could share?

My goodness: so many shows! The first and last still mean a lot to me though we were playing virtually every week & later were doing longer national tours so it does all tend to merge & smudge. I do get a little reticent with anecdotes as sometimes they only seem funny to people in the bands but…

Playing with Teenage Fanclub, the Sugargliders last show and INXS stand out for very different reasons (ace, tender & ridiculous in that order).  I do remember the drummer of the Fanclub didn’t seem impressed when I asked him about the Soup Dragons: stoney faced…and I wasn’t being cheeky as I was hoping for a chat about Hang Ten…

Also our shows in the US that Mike from Slumberland helped to arrange with Velocity Girl and just frankly playing in the US and the UK; it seemed so crazy that we were able to make them happen as this little indie band. One of the fellas who started Rough Trade was organising our shows in the UK gave me a white label Smiths Panic 12” which to this day strikes me as a bit of a ‘wow’ moment…

++ I’ve seen on Youtube a TV appearance. I’m not sure if the program is called Recovery, but this is the link. How was that experience? How did you end up there? And did you ever appear on TV again?

Really novel and funny being on TV. We did Recovery about three times and a fair few daytime shows.  I felt like we were outsiders intruding on another’s world but gosh it was fun as an experience.  The best bit may have been Jonathan Richman being on at the same time & I ended up getting a 7” signed: one of musical heroes close up!

++ On that same TV appearance, there’s an interview when you said that you would never release the recordings prior to the “Loved Walked” album. So I ask again, will you let people listen to them someday soon?

Sounds like something we’d say… Turns out we might! The Earthmen have a compilation slated to come out in the first half of 2014 in Australia on Popboomerang Records. We figured around the same time we’d plonk a bunch of different stuff on a bandcamp for anyone interested.  Listening back to them I can hear why we didn’t release it as an LP but the recording was memorable as it was in this ace art deco house studio owned by Tim Finn from Split Enz with a pianola that played Split Enz songs.  I have a soft spot for those songs for sure despite their failings.

++ You also made a video for one of your most well known singles, “Figure 8”. You had a totally different haircut then! Who recorded it? Where was it recorded at? And what was the idea behind it?

Ah, that was the splendid Dave Harris’s doing and released on the Munch video from Season Records! Certainly wasn’t a set video by any means was from a live performance at The Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy.  Dave used to record a bunch of amazing overseas bands that he & his girlfriend saw (Heavenly, The Pastels etc) and would sometimes record local acts like us & The Sugargliders.

He’d turn up after having been overseas and would have these amazing video collections.  I’m pretty sure there was a fantastic Field Mice gig too from memory. It was all quite romantic at the time seeing his videos from overseas.

My hair is distinctly early 90’s: very funny indeed & how bad does it look! It’s like it momentarily escaped from my Stephen Pastel haircut that I was usually sporting…

++ Most of your records were released by Summershine Records. How did you sign to them and how was your relationship with them?

Jason from Summershine used to own, in my opinion, the best record store in Melbourne called Exposure Records.  I used to travel the 3 hour round trip to buy records from him.  His store was just the best! That’s where I picked up the first and all the early Slumberland stuff, Sarah, Creation and Bus Stop records among others.  You’d turn up & there would be a Pooh Sticks t-shirt on the wall, the latest Sarah 7”, Springfields 7” and say The Rainyard tape: good times indeed! And his was the store that had in the Lazy era MBV. Really influential.

He also used to have the best radio program on 3RRR so you’d hear a song, call him during the song asking if he had it in and then you’d travel to get it! I worked in a record store in high school and was able to order stuff like Talulah Gosh, Pastels & The Chesterfields etc but his store was another world…I’ve never seen anything since like it.

At one point in one of my hang around and ask him to play the new 7”s I said to him I’d started a band and later we won some free recordings through a JJJ contest.  I then asked him if he’d like to hear them, he did, he heard them (I do remember he was surprised they didn’t completely suck…) and the next thing we knew was our first 7” coming out on my favourite Australian label: so exciting!  Jason was great as he was a lovely person, keen, tenacious and had connected to people and labels overseas.

His label is so overlooked as he released a truckload of amazing bands: I still am bemused we were on the label. Kind of boggling! Nick also had his other band Blindside release some ace stuff also! He was also the one that helped us get overseas and overseas releases, so he was a huge influence and advocate.

++ Your last release, “Love Walks In”, had the support of EastWest. How did that work?

That was kooky being on Warner. We got signed after we’d recorded an LP’s worth of material that acted as demos to them.  I think the majors at the time were looking for British influenced pop bands (it being 1995 and all) and on many levels we were but perhaps not the same bands they were thinking… Retrospectively I guess we were not the right type of thing for such a big label locally as a pop band that’s not particularly mainstream is eventually not really going to gel with the whole thing of making money and boy did we not make them any money!

We did get to make the big studio pop LP we wanted to make at that point and being heavily influenced by those symphonic sixties bands it was a bit of a dream and I feel quite fortunate we were able to think up some stuff and get to do it. It was recorded in the same studio as Sixteen Lovers Lane (though we didn’t set up candles on the roof like they did!) which I thought was neat.  The machinery and scale of the 1990’s major label was pretty crazy having come from an indie background I must say.

They were certainly supportive and lots of things almost happened (being almost signed by Seymour Stein the biggest almost) but by the lead up to the aborted second LP perhaps the way a major works vs our contrary personalities was more evident.

++ There are so many Earthmen releases, so it might be hard to go one by one. But if you were to pick one record you put out that was your favourite musically what would it be?

It’s either between ‘The Fall and Rise…’ EP or the LP but I’ll go for the LP as I think by that point the songwriting was more formed.

++ And what about your favourite song by The Earthmen?

Nick, Matt & I recently had been listening to all the old stuff for the first time, in some instances since say 1998, and there were some unreleased demos, which I had completely forgotten, for the second LP and it’s a song from that called Blue Sky.  I can remember where I was when I wrote the lyrics and vocal melody it’s a light lilting hum for me.

++ And one last one about releases, who was in charge of the artwork? Which of the cover sleeves you made is your favourite and why?

Mostly me and Nick. I’m unfortunately responsible for the not so good LP sleeve…sigh…

My favourite was Nick’s sleeve for ‘Whoever’s Been…’ as it’s this neat line of pantone # and colours with the title replacing one of the #. I found it really evocative when he did it, I guess it’s the same reason I ended up liking that Magnetic Fields song so much too as for most of the time during the band I was studying fine art and colour and music seemed to make sense.

Next to that would have been the ‘Hug Me Tighter ‘ sleeve which I did this circular painting for. Think we should have stayed with colours!

++ Question, what’s the 59 from “Cool Chick #59”?

There wasn’t one! More a loose idea of how we number and categorise women as men.

++ And who’s the Stacy from “Stacy’s Cupboard”?

There was no Stacy! Glenn named the song as it didn’t have a title…not a great story but true. And I don’t know what a cupboard has to do with it at all…

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

We were getting ready to record the second LP with Victor Van Vugt and Nick advised us he didn’t want to do it anymore. I’m sure having to put up with me has something to do with it but I think (though really you’d have to ask him) it perhaps was a bit of the major label experience (as they slow everything down to this odd organised grind) and his desire to do his own thing. I didn’t think to continue on but it was a bit of a shock at the time even though doing a band full time was something I always thought was not possible into old age.

++ Did you leave many unreleased songs?

Goodness yes. We’ve been listening back to the old stuff for the comp and I had forgotten how many songs we wrote, how we demoed everything (often multiple times across years) and how many demos there were. And each of the four phases of the band sounded quite different which has been a funny memory lane. It’s like looking through photos of night’s out you forgot happened…and then collectively have to remember and with sometimes no one remembering.

++ And after the split, what did the rest of The Earthmen do? Are you still all in touch?

Most everyone I can think of has on one level or other done some music.  For example Nick just released an LP earlier in 2013 on Popboomerang and Matt is always playing either his own stuff or playing with somebody ace (Steinbecks & Lovetones), Robert Cooper went on with Pencil Tin back in the day etc.

A lot of us are in touch (especially the last ‘version’ of the band) and on good terms which I think after so many years have passed is kinda neat.

++ Will there ever be some sort of reunion gig perhaps? Have you thought about it at least?

We hadn’t ever broached it until earlier this year when Scotty from Popboomerang Records at the Sugargliders record launch put the idea out there. If it hadn’t been for his prompting it would have never come up and he’s quite a passionate advocate for Australian bands. So hopefully yes!

The idea is for one show and a comp, the track listing is, I think, done so now it’s about all the other stuff. I figure it’s a lovely chance to catch up both physically and musically with a bunch of people I think a great deal of. All pretty low key as it’s hardly like we were a big or mid sized band but if you know anyone who wants to release it OS with Scotty let us know!

++ And let’s start wrapping it here, tells us a bit more about yourself, like aside from music, what else do you do? any other hobbies?

Well I don’t know if my pass times of music listening, video games and occasionally remembering my love of art are that interesting! I also seem to spend a lot of time on my bike looking for a beer I haven’t drunk before…it’s a complicated life…

++ Thanks a lot Scott, sorry for so many questions, and believe me there are many more I  have, anything that you’d like to add?

Pop down to Melbourne if the show happens & I’ll hopefully see you for NYC popfest!

Thanks so much to Matthew for this interview! Back in October I wrote a small piece about the band and soon after I was in touch with Matthew Cheney about his once solo project that became a full-fledged band when he moved to Bristol. They have released three albums and one single, played a bunch of gigs, and these days are involved in many other different bands. Here he tells the whole story!

++ Hi Matthew! Thanks for being up for this interview! How is Bristol these days? What are the most exciting new bands in town?

Hi Roque! Yes, no worries… yeah Bristol is a pretty great place to live I reckon. There’s not that many cities in the UK that I’d like to live in, Bristol is certainly better than most.

I’m not sure that I’m too in touch with new Bristol bands… I mean I am actually on the lookout for new stuff, for gigs which I’m (occasionally) putting on, I kind of wonder if its as much of a thing that people in their twenties want to do, or maybe its me who is not in tune with what’s new. There’s probably quite a bit of really good electronic stuff going on… I saw Livity Sound’s first gig, which I really liked, as a live thing at least, I haven’t heard their records … they are a sort of supergroup of Bristol electronic folks, nice layered rhythmic stuff. Probably a lot of that stuff revolves around Idle Hands (record shop and label) and other labels, I don’t know any of those guys personally… Olanza are great… there’s quite a few interesting guitarry post-hardcore influenced bands around at the moment. Trust Fund, Baby Grey (now Whitebelt), Motes, Margot, Nervy Betters, Two White Cranes are all worth checking out (although probably not all findable online as yet)

++ You play with a band called EXPENSIVE now. Care to tell me a bit about them and how different are EXPENSIVE from the Arctic Circle?

Yeah EXPENSIVE is pretty different I guess. Well it’s a different bunch of people and the music we’re aiming to make is probably quite different from Arctic Circle. I think with both projects there’s a good balance of people having a bit of autonomy in creating the music and us collaborating on stuff. EXPENSIVE band practices are certainly pretty different where we might all be working on different things separately, or sending emails etc. There’s a little bit of programming involved and we don’t particularly spend a lot of time rehearsing. Maybe we should rehearse more. We’re still adjusting what gear to use (not that we have mounds of fancy stuff) for playing live so that we can hopefully be quite dynamic and physical in how we play.

I think in both bands maybe the most exciting/ satisfying bit in terms of music making for me is starting with quite a basic chord progression or maybe a basic melody and sending it off to others in the band, and it quite rapidly becoming a finished song. In Arctic Circle the lyric writing was mostly split between me and Nina and in EXPENSIVE it’s mostly Grace, with me doing the occasional song… I think its working well…I don’t often feel inclined to write words actually, I would probably make more music if I did… Also EXPENSIVE came together at the start because Grace was keen to do a version of ‘Secrets in the Moss’ which was an old Arctic Circle song which had been floating around her shared house on a cd I think.

[Usually there’s no ‘the’ in Arctic Circle by the way! Partly to avoid confusion with a musical collective thing that goes on in London]

++ And have you been involved in any other bands other than Expensive and Arctic Circle?

Yeah, well at the moment I’m also playing in a thing called Acres, which features some of the old Arctic Circle players. I play 12-string guitar and there’s a lot of harmony singing. We are finishing a first album which will hopefully be available in some form in the next couple of months. I hope we will do a lot more in 2014. It’s been a bit slow moving, partly due to visa complications for our saxophonist/ singer Kano who is from Japan. So we’ve actually been playing together for two years now, but really it’s only been for a few weeks at a time, we’ve only played three gigs during that period. I think it’s also quite a different band from Arctic Circle, there’s perhaps a more unified sound for the whole set, using the same instrumentation for all the songs.

I’m also occasionally playing solo as the Amber Nectar – I’d call it a live ambient techno project. In some ways similar to what Heatsick does, in terms of how it is played (all live, no sequencing etc) although I tend to have almost nothing at all pre-prepared and just come up with all the tunes spontaneous as I play. It can be a challenge…I feel like it’d be a better thing if I did it really regularly, it’d be less confusing! Ideally I’d like to play a lot of club gigs or house parties, but I might clear the floor! The Amber Nectar stuff (previously playing as Colonist) kind of precipitated EXPENSIVE, because that band came together after I supported John Maus at the Croft in Bristol, and me, Grace and Pete decided it’d be good for us all to collaborate after that show.

I’d like to make a record or two as Lands End, which was kind of an occasional side project which I have played as with various people over the last five years. I have maybe two albums worth of unrecorded songs from the late 90s. Its probably a bit more bedroomy and introverted than other stuff, I’m not really sure what I think about it.

Going way back, I played in The Daisy Chain (which became Industrial Life Jigsaw) with my older brother and his friends back when I was 13, another band in an indie rock kinda vein with school friends for a few years where we rehearsed and played quite a lot, it was quite a massive part of teenage years actually, and those guys I think are all still doing quite a bit of music (Johnny and Duncan as Dogs, James in Johnny Marr and the Healers… pretty different kinds of stuff). From the last couple of years of school onwards, electronic music seemed to be more relevant, I think generally in those times (1990s) trying not to repeat or reference the past was generally more of a thing for more people making music… I had an ambient/ electro thing called Dawn Treader. I couldn’t get much to work during Uni in Edinburgh, although I did play in an indie rock kind of thing, Euroshoppa whilst on exchange year in Groningen, Netherlands, which turned out to be a really great musicy city to live in, It still hosts Norderslag festival every year, has a brilliant long running venue, Vera, and some great record shops… more so than Edinburgh in my experience anyway… I think that’s about it, theres probably been some other short term things as well.

++ Where does the name the Arctic Circle come from?

Ah, there’s not a whole lot of story behind it, I didn’t want a name that was too quirky… I quite like band names that are fairly meaningless. I was gazing down at miles and miles of arctic wilderness from a plane on the way to Canada and thought it might be a good name. I am quite interested in far northern places and spent a bit of time in northern Canada – the Yukon, as well as Iceland and Sweden. Well I wouldn’t want to romanticising those cultures or claiming to have some particular insight or anything like that though, which is easily done… so yeah the name is meant to be a kind of blank canvas really…

++ Originally the Arctic Circle was a solo project, am I right? And only when moving to Bristol it became a full-fledged band? I’m curious about those early years when you were on your own and recorded two albums. I haven’t listened to them yet, so I wonder what did you sound like? And what was your setup then?

Yeah I started using that name from when I was about 19 I think, I just couldn’t seem to get a band together during Uni in Edinburgh. I got quite involved in student radio and that was a reasonably good way of meeting people who were really into music… I think I had unreasonably high expectations of moving there, it being a much bigger city than where I grew up (Cambridge). The first incarnation of the band was in Spring 1996, under the name of Arctic/ Baltic… we tried to make all the material through improvising, we weren’t really aiming for ‘songs’ as such. Dan Mutch played bass, he had just moved to Edinburgh, I remember he was listening to Tortoise a lot, amongst other things, which I got to really like. We were about to play our first show at Edinburgh’s Transporter Room night, but then I went off to Holland for a year. Dan in the meantime started Khaya, who were the first band in Edinburgh that I liked a lot and were good to go and watch.

Not much happened musically for a couple of years and I went to make pizzas on a ski resort and learnt to snowboard. I came back to Edinburgh and put adverts up and we formed quite a large band with quite a few people passing through it. I found the players through adverts I put up around town, the core of the band I suppose was Vanya McDonnell and Jeremy Rschede, a Canadian couple who’d moved over and Andy Hazel from Tasmania, who’d also just arrived, and had been collaborating with Ben Frost in School of Emotional Engineering. We played together quite a bit, couple of times a week for the best part of a year, there’s a load of practice recordings from this time, but we never got round to playing a show or really finishing any songs. The closest we got to playing was an outdoor rave near Perth (Scotland) where we were due to play at 6am but we got there and decided that our set didn’t suit the euphoric vibes and didn’t bother unpacking the car.

Then I got busy setting up and running this cafe/ arts venue called Forest Cafe, kind of out of frustration with the conversatism of Edinburgh and the lack of accessible venues for starting out and experimenting etc. That was quite a big distraction for a couple of years. Then I kind of gradually restarted the band, mostly collaborating with Dirk Markham for a while… I think we got better and made the kinds of sounds we were looking for, still mostly trying to write stuff together in the bedroom, we played various shows around Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow during this period (2001-2003) and would’ve played our largest show, with Andrew Weatherall in the glasshouses of Glasgow’s People’s Palace but I’d already booked a ticket to go and live in Canada for another six months. I came back in the summer and was mostly busy being a desert chef before moving to Glasgow and doing a course there. Dirk moved to Berlin and got involved with Monica Records and his own music making there, amongst other things.

Well this is a really longwinded way of getting to the two albums I made in 2003/4. Well the first one was really a compilation of various bedroomy mostly electronic instrumental recordings I’d been making for a while. I’m not sure I really pulled off the sounds I wanted to make with the fairly limited gear I had at this point, but there you go. By this point it felt like I should put something out, or that maybe I was failing to finish anything. I was invited to make a live alternative soundtrack to the film ‘Microcosmos’ at a community festival in Newcastle, so that was a good project to focus on. At the same time I was playing more song-based stuff with various friends sporadically. With the 2004 album I just set myself the task of making an album by the end of June, also just to try and get something finished. I guess its a mix of texturey ambient kind of stuff and bedroomy pop kind of songs. Monorail Records were very helpful and I managed to sell a reasonable number of these cds which were only a pound…

++ Then of course you moved to Bristol and you met your band, how was that recruiting process?

Yeah, so I moved to Bristol for various reasons, I felt like trying living somewhere in the south. I’d met Francois Marry as we played together on a bill at Glasgow’s Winchester Club, and came down to Bristol where Francois was a very warm and generous host and introduced me to lots of musical people. I played a show on my own in the first couple of weeks having decided to move down, supporting Fog at the Cube Cinema. The process of putting the band together was strangely surprisingly easy at this point. I’d already been invited to play at Green Man festival in 2005, having run a Forest Cafe stall the previous year selling burritos and our self-released CDs.. and myself and my pal Danseizure were invited to play the next year.

So, if I remember right, within a few weeks of moving to Bristol I’d assembled a band with my housemate Nicole Artingsall, Nina Wyllie and Andrew Hogan who I’d met at/ through the Cube Cinema, Rosalind Leyden and Rose Clark who I’d met through Francois, George MacKenzie who I’d seen drumming in Headfall, Francois’ friend Victor Crespi sometimes as well. People seemed to be up for getting into Green Man for free, and that was basically our first gig, we did a sort of warm up thing a few days before in Bristol. I also fairly much straight away also played some bits and pieces in Francois’ band The Atlas Mountains, which was very enjoyable… and exciting to play alongside Matt and Kate from Movietone, which was my favourite Bristol band who I’d been aware of for a few years and kind of instrumental in attracting me to Bristol.

Mostly due to people’s various circumstances the lineup shifted gradually with Francois concentrating on his own projects, Liam Kirby (now of Boxcar Aldous Huxley) joining on guitar, Rose going off to art school and Hog (Andrew Hogan) joining on drums. Nicole moved away and my new housemate Kasper joined on keyboards. Hog moved to Berlin just after we recorded our album, Tom Kirton played drums for a good couple of years, which covered most of our gigs probably, Rose rejoined on drums later on. Harry joined on trumpet, Robin on keyboard/ bass later on, Rhiannon on cello. After a while we tended to play gigs with whoever was free and people didn’t really have set roles as such.

++ And musically, what would you say were bands that influenced your sound?

I did have quite a strong idea of the band at the start that it would be quite a lot about textures of sound, Sea and Cake, Stereolab and Broadcast were quite big references amongst other things. Lots of post-rock kind of bands, although I wanted to be more upbeat and rhythmic than some of the post-rock stuff. My bloody valentine, Pastels especially the later stuff, Byrds, To Rococo Rot, Mum, Aphex Twin, Syd Barrett, The Clientele, Aislers Set, I think were all big influences.

Then whilst living in Glasgow, I’d started going to National Pop League a lot and listening to more indiepop stuff and maybe thinking a bit differently as this also being good music to dance to. I wrote a bunch of songs whilst in Canada in 2003 which hadn’t got recorded. Northern Soul also, Belle and Sebastian and Camera Obscura especially for the craftsmanship which seemed to stand apart from other stuff of that era.

++ What was your first gig? And did you gig a lot? What would you say was your best performance?

Hmm can’t remember I don’t think… it was probably at Forest Cafe… there was one with Mrs Pilgrimm where we played Forest Cafe and then the old 13th Note in Glasgow (before it got taken over) the next night…. I could send you the poster actually…

Gigs were quite sporadic, I would’ve liked to have done a lot more gigs. With seven of us it was difficult to find dates we could all make, and also hard to break even. Some of us went to the USA and Canada for a few weeks and played some house shows there. I would have liked to have toured more and I think we might have generally got on a bit more of a roll with it all if we had, it seemed to be hard to find promoters as well. The Cube in January 2006 was a good show I think, that one you can watch on vimeo, and we met Adriana Alba of the Semi-finalists there, who went on to make a very nice video for Meanwhile Gardens for us. We played again at Green Man festival in 2007 which might have been our best gig, I have a video of it which I’ve been meaning to upload.

++ Bristol is a city associated with indiepop thanks to Sarah Records and Subway Records. Does it feel ever like an indiepop city? Did you ever feel like an indiepop band? Part of a scene? And why do you think so many good indiepop bands are from the Bristol area?

Ah good question, yeah I think very few people in Bristol are aware of that scene these days. Maybe some slightly older people, who knew those bands in the 80s/ early 90s. I guess people from outside really associate it with the city as well because of the record covers. We were talking about doing an exhibition based around Sarah Records at Cafe Kino where I sometimes work. I think that’d be a good project. I guess around 2007 Big Pink Cake started putting on club nights and gigs, which were great and yeah I suppose made it feel a bit more like an indiepop place, even though those events weren’t always super busy.

In terms of feeling part of a scene, I liked the various Planet Records bands (Movietone, Crescent, FSA etc) and it felt like there was more bands vaguely in that kind of ballpark… and lots of droney bands as well for a while.

Yeah its fair to say we didn’t think of ourselves as an indiepop band, but it’d be a stupid thing to worry about, and we totally appreciated the encouragement and enthusiasm from people like Matthew and Heather from Big Pink Cake, Ian from HDIF in London and others from that scene. Maybe more a case of us collectively listening to a lot of different kinds of stuff, and personally I’ve probably always listened more to some of the 60s bands that really influenced a lot of 80s indiepop like Byrds, Zombies, Love etc.

For a while I was involved with putting a night on called The Milky Way – a parallel universe of pop, which ran at Forest Cafe and then at various points in Bristol, we’ve had some really good nights, I always like getting the slide projectors and mirrorballs out too. But its been tricky to sustain in terms of people wanting to come and venues prepared to host it. I kind of wonder if these days there’s fewer people who are interested in going out to dance to an eclectic kind of set outside of the electronic club scene. The Hillgrove is a great ale pub which has a kind of muso ish vibe about it sometimes, with some good djs playing there sporadically too… our friend Chris Wright does a night called I Can’t Help Myself which is always great. For sure it’d be great to have some new indiepop night going on in Bristol though…

++ With the Arctic Circle you wrote a song called “Mother’s Ruin”. That’s a pub in Bristol, right? I remember visiting it when I was in town. Was this your favourite venue to play live? What other places in Bristol do you like?

Yeah, well I wrote the tune and words and Nina picked the title, I’m not sure if Mother’s Ruin had opened by that point actually. Yeah I like that pub and we’ve played there… the owner Marc now also runs another pub/ venue Stag and Hounds, also good although I haven’t been there in a while. I really liked The Croft (now closed, they run The Exchange, next door to Stag and Hounds), always really powerful sound system, certainly the best sound for electronic kind of stuff. Cafe Kino and Cube Cinema, both of which I have been involved with and have a great ethos, and stand apart from a lot of venues which often have a more corporate, big alcohol business vibe about them. Bristol County Sports is a working-mans club kind of set up and we often use it for putting on gigs. Qu Junktions and Pull the Strings are consistently great promoters too. Roll for the Soul is a new community-bike vegetarian cafe, where there are occasional gigs too, really like that place, I think of it as a bit Portlandia, in a good way. Yeah at the moment Bristol feels pretty good for venues.

++ But you are originally from Edinburgh, right? And Scotland is also a place with a huge indiepop tradition. Do you ever miss Scotland? And what differences do you find from the scene there with the one in Bristol?

No, Cambridge! I ocasionally miss Cambridge and it was a bit unusual as a place to grow up I think in various ways… but then again I would probably be very bored if I was there now. Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd is something that’s stayed with me, and a thing that people I grew up with and parents talked about, it being a fairly small place. I don’t miss Edinburgh actually, there are of course lots of good things about that city and I met a lot of inspiring and amazing people there but somehow never really got on with it as a place or felt like staying there, just wasnt for me.

I was aware of more musical things happening in Glasgow during that time, and often went through for gigs before moving to Glasgow. So yeah sometimes I miss Glasgow, maybe I’ll live there again, perhaps. It’s not a great city for cycling though! I sometimes think I’d rather live somewhere with maybe more like 2 million people, Bristol can sometimes feel limited.

Hmm not sure I can put a finger on how Glasgow and Bristol are different music scene wise, although they are certainly different. I think of Glasgow now having this great kind of infrastructure for music… but as I think Stephen Pastel and others have talked about, it wasn’t always that way…with places like Mono/ Monorail/ Stereo etc its the result of dedicated people over a lot of years. I think Glasgow probably has a powerful draw, and a lot of people move there because of those bands coming from there. I have the impression that the indiepop world in Glasgow is now also influenced by Swedish people and American people and probably other places as well, who are drawn into the city, which is great. I’d like to meet more Americans and Swedes here! The art school and its reputation is probably pretty instrumental to that as well. Ha!, Yeah I miss it now!

++ The only release I’ve been able to track down was the 7″ single on Stitch Stitch Records. This one includes three of my favourite songs! But the opener song is a cracker, care to tell me the story behind “Prancing Pearl”?

Ah yeah, there’s only the two songs on it right? Mothers Ruin and Prancing Pearl. I did also put them together as a sort of promo ep which I think we sent out to some people or possibly sold a few at gigs. That was those two songs and then I remixed Shipping Forecast and Loofah Mitt, which we would have liked to have released as a single too, I think I improved on the mix which went on our album in 2006. I think you can hear/ download all those on the bandcamp.

I’m not sure I can tell you too much about Prancing Pearl, it’s Nina’s words, but I liked how coincidentally both songs referenced driving/road safety/ accidents. We wanted the single to be something very danceable on both sides, certainly we were thinking about minimalist disco/ nowavey kinds of things as a starting point for it, and Electrelane was also something we all liked and perhaps were thinking about with the kind of sounds we wanted. At this point the double percussion with Rozi playing more percussion alongside Tom on drums featured on a lot of songs and I think is quite a key element for that song. I think we mostly wrote that song all together. I had quite a detailed idea for a video, referencing the road movie ‘Radio On’, revisiting its various Bristol and West Country sites, but we never got round to that….

I spent a really long time mixing Mothers Ruin and adding more and more layers of stuff, it possibly worked better as a live thing and I think the recording of Prancing Pearl came off a bit punchier.

++ And yeah, how did you end up signing to Stitch Stitch Records?

Well we didn’t sign to them as such! Stitch Stitch had been set up by Aaron of I Know I have no collar (great band, if you can find them), with Francois and then Steve Brett (now of Nervy Betters) picked up the helm… so yes great to have his support and we were excited to work together on releasing the single,.

++ There is also a 2006 album, right? What are the songs on it? And to those that have never heard it, what can one expect from it?

Ach I don’t know that I’m great describing how any of it sounds, or is meant to sound… I think we had a good clear idea at that point although we were on a bit of a learning curve. I wanted to make a record fairly quickly once we had played Green Man in 2005 and apart from obviously needing to earn a living, I was quite focussed on the band at this point.

Actually there was a bit of debate whether we should release the whole lot, as I think there’s bits which we didn’t really pull off. Thats a tricky call, and I think these days I know a few more people who play in bands and have experience of recording so its easier to get other people’s opinions. Its probably a bit of a west country cliche about everything being a bit slow… at least of the people I know making music in Bristol, years can go by with projects abandoned or albums rerecorded from scratch. Its certainly good to have standards though… I probably feel especially now with easy access to so much on the internet that I’d only want to put out stuff that I’m really happy with…

But I’m really glad we recorded at that point. I think perhaps with all bands its a case of getting snapshots of the best moments if you can, there’s not too much you can plan…

++ You also made two videos. How was that experience? Much different than recording songs?

Yeah, I think playing live and recording were quite different things, and we tried to approach them differently. I suppose videos were more like recording. Meanwhile Gardens was made by our friend Adriana [maybe you know her, she lives in New York?!] who came in with a very detailed plan and clear vision for the video. It was a different interpretation of the song, which I thought of as quite downbeat – we were very happy for someone to come in with their vision and expertise and were really pleased with the results.

True to the Trail I had a fairly basic idea which fitted with the lyrics, there was several weeks of snow that year, which is unusual in Bristol, so I took a ‘snow day’ off work and we shot the song four or five times with a mini DV cam strapped to the back of a bike. I think of it as referencing Massive Attack ‘Unfinished Sympathy’, Verve ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ and Coldplay ‘Yellow’, concept wise. Our friend George Purves edited it all together and produced it.

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

Well yeah we haven’t really split, we’ve just stopped doing stuff around early 2011. ‘Indefinite hiatus’ seems to be the term these days! There wasn’t really a particular reason for stopping… we were struggling to get together regularly and there had been so many changes in lineups. I remember once interviewing the Raincoats for student radio and Gina Birch saying something like ‘Being in the band was like living in a squat with constant threat of eviction… it could fall apart at any moment’, which I find pretty consistent with all the bands I’ve been involved with. It felt like it made sense to do different projects rather than keep doing stuff as Arctic Circle.

We had an album’s worth of stuff recorded but weren’t happy with all of it, and it didnt seem to hang together. Perhaps because we were hungry for pursuing all sorts of different directions musically. I think with Acres now, I maybe appreciate having a unified sort of a sound. We then made a whole another album which is kind of very nearly finished, it might be good to put that stuff out there, I’m not sure. Rose had rejoined on drums but then moved back to London, Nina got busy with job stuff, on tour as an actor and then working as a teacher, Rozi was focusing on her own stuff (Rozi Plain), so on a practical level it was tricky to continue.

Well for various reasons I felt a bit downbeat about it as a project. Maybe we’d lost momentum… I think also there was a point where especially in London, which isnt too far away, there were very few promoters able to cover our travel costs, so it seemed to become more difficult to play out of town. Yeah, so a few factors really…

++ And are you all still in touch? Any chance for a reunion gig someday? And what are the rest of the band doing?

Yeah I’m in touch with pretty much all the ex-Arctic Circlers, I think there’s about 20 of them! I wouldn’t rule out us playing again but then again its really not on the cards. Um not sure I can summarise what everyone is doing but I’ll try… Liam – building guitars, and playing in Boxcar Aldhous Huxley, Francois – living in Brussels and making music, Rozi – living on a boat in London and playing as Rozi Plain and in This is The Kit, Nina – teaching and having a baby, Kasper – living in Sweden, early years teaching, Hog – teaching and film projecting in Oxford, George – playing in Acres/ Motes/ Headfall and solo as Attacked by Wolves, Harry – playing in Acres and Macero, Robin – film soundtrack composer in London, Rose – cycle mechanic in London, Victor – living in France, playing in Ladybird… from the earlier days, Andy – playing in Paradise Motel in Melbourne, music writing, alternative medicine, Dirk is making music (as Dirk Markham) as well as working at Native Instruments in Berlin, Vanya and Jeremy in Victoria BC doing community work/ drug policy research respectively and raising a family, Jeremy also playing in Star Sickness…

++ So aside from music, what other hobbies do you enjoy doing? What do you dedicate most of your time?

I’d like to spend more time cooking and think a lot about opening another cafe/ venue, maybe in the north of England. Maybe. I’d like to be doing more outdoorsy stuff soon. At the moment I am actually really busy with EXPENSIVE and Acres as well as various job work. It’d be nice to work a bit less next year and crack on with more musical stuff really… yeah that’s my main thing! I like being sociable and going out and about in Bristol. I really liked being on tour with EXPENSIVE recently too. This feels like dating suddenly!

++ Let’s wrap it here. Thanks so much Matthew, anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks Roque, I hope I haven’t rambled too much!

Thanks so much to Shaun Blezard for this fantastic interview! The Peach Thieves were around in the late 80s and only released one flexi with two songs “Out of Nowhere” and “Morecambe Bay”. A very rare record, that probably many of you haven’t heard, which I’m still trying to track down, but definitely worth your attention! It’s proper indiepop, with the right influences, with the right jangle. Now discover the wonders of The Peach Thieves!

++ Hi Shaun! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! I see you are still involved in music? Not indiepop though, right? Tell me what are you up to these days?

I work with electronics these days – part ambient (darkish) and improvisation and free jazz – kind of experimental I guess – I play solo as Clutter (working with field recordings and part sound art), Hugs Bison (iPad duo), Kipple (6 piece free jazz and electronics) + other one off things as they come along. You can see the kind of things I do at my website shaunblezard.net

++ Let’s go back in time. Were you involved with any other bands before The Peach Thieves? If so, care telling me a bit about them?

The Peach Thieves was my first band – I’d been very into music before then but never played an instrument till I joined the band.

++ And so when do The Peach Thieves start as a band? Who were the members? What did you each play? and how did you all know each other?

The Peach Thieves started in 1986 – Members Phillip Messenger: guitar, vocals – Johnny Picthall: guitar, vocals – Shaun Blezard: bass & Chris (can’t remember his second name): drums

Me & Phil went to school together so had known each other for years, Johnny we met in the training school at the shipyard we were all apprentices at in Barrow and Chris was a friend of a friend – he didn’t stay long as he was a serious rock type and we were a little cutsey and silly for him – he left and Neil Kemp joined on drums

++ When was the first time you picked up a bass? Do you still own your first one? What’s your favourite bass that you own?

I bought a cheap bass after joining the band it was an Italian copy of a rickenbacker (the guitar shape not the bass) not sure where it ended up, I then had a Peavey which was OK, then a 70’s white Rickenbacker which was lovely (I had to sell it to pay a tax bill though 🙁 still miss it) got given a Westone which is still my main bass – looks horrible but sounds and plays lovely, the only other bass I have is an acoustic

++ Where does the name the Peach Thieves come from?

It’s from a film The Peach Thief a 1960’s Bulgarian film, that I’ve still never seen – I think we were wanting to sound a bit arty – it’s on youtube if you want to see it http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dPBalNuBxfE

++ And I do need to ask this kind of silly question, but are peaches your favourite fruit? Did you all like them?

Not a massive peach fan – I love bananas, satsumas and Royal Gala apples the most – not sure about the others – there was no crazy peach parties that I remember

++ Who would you say were bands that influenced your sound as The Peach Thieves?

Orange Juice, The Pastels, Weather Prophets, Jonathan Richman, The Chesterfields, Primal Scream – we would have died happy to put out a 7″ on either Subway, 53rd & 3rd or Creation

++ Tell me about where were you based? What were the other cool bands in town? And the best places to go to gigs or play gigs?!

We were and I still am based in Cumbria – a beautiful part of the UK – we’re just outside the Lake District so lots of mountains and lakes but Barrow where we played most is a tough working class town – the bands we got on with were Red Hour and Masai Buckeroo the only other ‘indie’ bands around Red Hour were kind of like the Wedding Present/Television and Masai Buckeroo wanted to be Butthole Surfers – we played our very first gig on the same night in 86 in fact – Best venue by far was The Labour Club – sadly not there anymore but a great left wing bar with an upstairs concert hall – spent many happy hours in there.

++ Talking about gigs did you play many? Which were your favourite gigs as The Peach Thieves and why?

That first one in a village called Leece at a place that our friend Johnny G rented – it was an old farm house and we played in the driveway with lots of other bands on during the night – Johnny’s parties were legendary and lasted a couple of days…also Johnny G’s birthday in 1987 where we played in his living room for him and a dozen friends – the best we ever went down. The other one that sticks in the memory was in Lancaster where people took us seriously, which they often didn’t in Barrow and we signed autographs – that was great

++ You only released the one flexi with two songs, “Out of The Nowhere” and “Morecombe Bay”. Any chance you could tell me the story behind these two songs?

Out of The Nowhere was just a dumb song with Phil trying to be cool name checking the Man From UNCLE etc – Morecambe Bay is based on a jazz excercise and is based in the local area of Morcambe Bay – We tried to do songs with a local flavour – still like this song a lot, lovely melodies. You would have to find Phil to ask him about any deeper meanings.

++ What do you remember from the recording session of the flexi?

Not too much, it was at Low Fold, about the only local studio run by a ‘rock’ type – thus the overly processed production – we wanted it to be rougher sounding but didn’t know enough about things to change it – the recordings are OK though 🙂 I wasn’t at all good at this time and all my parts were written for me by Phil or Johnny so it was slow going……

++ Were you also behind the label that put it out? Uncle Records? How was that experience of promoting, selling, distributing your own record?

It was our own label as no label were interested and there weren’t many we would have signed to in our youthful principled way – promotion was mainly through fanzines so we sold quite a few that way and at gigs – we were far too innocent to understand real promotion, you just talked to other bands, swapped records, sold stuff at gigs – a real nice scene

++ And why did you decide to do it as a flexi and say not a 7″? And how come you didn’t get to release more records?

We did a flexi as everyone was doing them at the time, I think we liked the throw away quality of them, we were planning to do a 7″ next but Phil decided he wasn’t cut out to be in a band and so we split up – Myself and Neil went on to form a 7 piece psychedelic country band called The Clementines (https://archive.org/details/inhanksgarage), Johnny was in a band called Cloudtown for a bit and Phil popped up in a post rock band in Manchester for a while in the 90s

++ Do you happen to have more recorded material? Are there more Peach Thieves songs hiding in tapes in someone’s cupboard maybe?

I have some rehearsals and a couple of gig recordings on cassette – no studio stuff though. I have transferred a little of the tapes to CD but I think they will have to stay in the volt for now 🙂 I must go back and have a listen, we were getting pretty good towards the end

++ The curious part of the flexi is that it is dedicated to Vic Goddard. Were you good friends?

No we heard he was retired from the music industry and was a postman after his stuff like Holiday Hymn went down badly which we all loved so we dedicated it to him for that reason.

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

Phil decided he wasn’t wanting to be a musician so he left, and as he was the main songwriter it finished the band – He wasn’t interested in the travelling about and rehearsal etc – this was mid 1986. A short while later The Clementines formed on the picket line of the shipyard we worked in – Me, Neil and a few others thought it would be fun to put a country band together to raise funds for the strike, this is why we ended up a 7 piece – we played the usual fast Johnny Cash covers and 60’s byrds type stuff – we ended up being together for nearly 5 years

++ After The Peach Thieves, were you guys still involved with music? And do you still happen to listen to indiepop?

Phil left the band and moved to Manchester and lives there with wife and kids – not seen him in ages and I don’t think he plays music anymore. Chris went off and last thing I heard was brewing his own beer, Johnny played a little in town and still plays but not in public, Neil played in some great bands but sold his kit and got married I think, I played in The Clementines, then a Neil Young inspired band called The Behans then drifted into dance music – this ended up as Clutter, not really dance but have been involved in electronics for 15 years or so, but have started playing bass again here and there in Krautrock types things, also I’m learning to play the banjo old timey style. I still listen to some indie pop – Wedding Present, McCarthy, Wolfhounds and Orange Juice among lots of other stuff

++ Looking back, what would you say was the best part of being in The Peach Thieves?

Being a really shy boy, nearly sick when we played with my back to the audience to actually enjoying it and starting to feel like a musician, which has never left me – I still love playing live, not nervous anymore but it still excites me and I enjoy the travelling when I can. The feeling of really playing well together, when it clicks is like nothing else, much more important to me than fame.

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

Music is still a huge part of my life but I also do film, animation, photography, graphic design and production management – I’ve been freelance for 14 years doing all this as an artist but also in the community – working with school kids, older people doing all kinds of exciting art and music. I love this side of things as much as the being paid to create – I’m just about to start a big animation and digital art project in 6 primary schools in Barrow which will be brilliant!! I am also Learning Officer at a working 18th Century water mill – I work there 2.5 days a week finding interesting ways to share the mills history and heritage – so far this has included a one off radio station with teenagers, animations and getting to know the area.

++ Let’s wrap it now! Thanks a lot Shaun! Anything else you’d like to add?

Just how nice it’s been answering your questions – after so long I can only guess it’s like being from an old garage band and knowing people still enjoy your little thing you created 🙂 Been real fun

Thanks so much to Chris Blunkell for the interview! It waas through The Leamington Spa series with their song “Sebastian” that I discovered The Black Cillas. I loved that song. Fast forward, Chris and me get in touch through Facebook as I had DJed one of his songs in London and  I had to ask if he would be up for an interview and tell the story of the great Black Cillas! Classic indiepop at it’s finest!

++ Hi Chris! Thanks so much for being up to be interviewed for the blog! How are you doing? Is there any Black Cillas’ news by any chance?

Hi Roque! I’m fine thanks, and hope you are too. Black Cillas are getting together next month in London, as we do pretty much every Autumn. We’re going to look at the Sarah Lucas exhibition at the Whitechapel gallery and then go for a curry in Brick Lane. We’ll probably have a few beers as well.

++ I want to talk about a lot of things, but let’s start from the beginning! Were you involved in any other bands prior to the Black Cillas?

++ So when and how did the Black Cillas start as a band? How was the recruitment process?

Ben and I moved on to do other things in other locations, but in the early 80s circumstances allowed us to do more music together, which was what we wanted. The group went through various incarnations as we wrote and played, and we settled on both the name and the line up in I think 1985. Ben and I had been at school with guitarist Nick Appleton, and Ben also recruited drummer Andrew Maltman, although I can’t really remember how. Andrew has published some of his diaries from that period on www.blackcillas.co.uk, so that may help. We were also surrounded by good people: Jim Warren who has worked with Radiohead since ever recorded us and often did live sound, as did Angus Cameron, and Matt Ambown, Maxine Kempster and Isabelle Crean were a huge part of the whole thing.

++ And even though is obvious I think, what’s the story behind the name of the band?

We were conscious of the need for something that worked with what we were trying to do, and (to me anyway) Black Cillas seemed nicely contemporary and tongue in cheek – I think it was Nick’s idea. It’s also worth bearing in mind that the under-employed in our circle spent for more time than was healthy watching a TV programme by the name of Blind Date hosted by Cilla Black that, at that time, seemed hell bent on further lowering the tone of public discourse.

++ Some days ago on the Cherry Red Youtube channel they had uploaded two live videos of you. What do you remember from that gig? And are there any other videos by the Black Cillas waiting to see the light of day?

I remember feeling nervous – it was a big crowd and a really good line up, and we’d never done recording for TV. I remember attempting a wink to camera that I deeply regret to this day.

++ So yeah, tell me about gigs. Did you play many? Which were your favourite gigs and why?

I think we played somewhere between 50 and 100 gigs – many in London, but elsewhere too. Playing The Marquee as support to heavy metal band Waysted was quite an experience – their fans had every reason to hate us, but actually were really lovely. Somebody shouted “60s disco!” after one song – it was probably meant as an insult, but we liked the idea.  My evening was rendered complete when Philty Animal Taylor – Motorhead’s drummer – called me a wanker.

++ What about your favourite venues to hang out or play? Were there any that you felt at “home”?

The Bull & Gate in Kentish Town – we played a lot there, and spent a fair amount of time watching other bands too. It was run by Jon Beast, who still takes his clothes off for the benefit of Carter USM fans. Mick Mercer, ex-Melody Maker, has produced some great stuff on the B&G – his photo collections are stunning, and available to buy.

++ In those late 80s there was an explosion of guitar pop bands in the UK. What do you think triggered that? And did it ever felt like there was a scene? Which other bands from that period did you like?

In London I think Jon Beast and the Bull & Gate were pivotal. You were never going to make a fortune there, but if you had something he would put you on, and it was a magnet for journalists willing to stray from the usual. It was very much its own scene.  Of course, there was lots going on musically at that time, and we’d had a period in which synthesised sounds and big production had come to the fore. I think the guitar thing was a bit of a backlash against that, but also people wanting to write ‘small’. Half Man Half Biscuit took this idea to absurd lengths, of course, with their lyrical focus on football, for example. Ben was very into New Order, Andrew Kraftwerk and Nick Echo and Bunnymen. We all adored The Smiths. I got very into early REM and the Go-Betweens. Of the bands that we played with, I really enjoyed a group called ‘The Doctor’s Children’ who used a Hammond organ and sang sweet harmonies.

++ You only released one single, already a classic for indiepop fans, “Sebastian”. Care telling me the story behind the song?

In those days songs would come to me quite quickly, which now seems extraordinary. Sebastian was one of those – inspired by somebody I thought rather self-regarding at that time, and with an ambiguous twist lobbed in for good measure. As tended to be the case, I just blocked the song out on guitar, and then it would start to walk (or not) in the rehearsal studio. I still think that one of the most exciting things you can do as a musician in a band is to play a new song together, properly, for the first time – with intro, proper ending, and all. With regard to songwriting more generally at that time, I think I wrote good lines or couplets more often than I wrote good songs. You need to know more, to have done more, and to have read more than I had at that time. Looking back, I can see that I was maybe working towards a songwriting voice – later I concentrated on character and situation driven songs, and the rather novelistic idea of the ‘unreliable narrator’.

++ What do you remember from the recording sessions of the single? Any anecdotes you could share?

We recorded at the Jumbo 16 track studio in west London over a weekend, with Jim Warren producing. Again, Andrew’s diaries will tell you more than I can recall, although I do remember nicking a guitar lick from Safe European Home by The Clash whilst we were in the process. It was all quite exciting – this was proper with high end gear, whilst we had been used to recording on a Portastudio in squats. We made the sleeves ourselves – designed by Nick and Neil Cowan, screenprinted, and cut by hand. We then handled all of the mastering and pressing, which was done on the Isle of Sheppey. The NME reviewed it twice – the first time it was panned, and the second time they liked it. Such is life…

++ There are a bunch of other Black Cillas recordings. So I have to ask, why didnt you get to release more records? And if ever you thought of putting together some sort of retrospective album?

++ Was there any interest from big labels by the way?

Go Discs were interested for a while, and we used to get record people come to see us from time to time. However, news of that used to make me feel very anxious and I used to drink too much before we went on stage.

++ I read on your page that you’d wished that you were a better vocalist. Why do you say that?

Listening to old live recordings I hear a really tight and powerful band let done by some rather approximate vocals. Ben, Nick and Andrew deserved better that I sometimes gave them. I got better in the recording context, however, and I’d like to think that I have got older and more experienced I’ve dealt with whatever needed dealing with it. Some of it is really simple stuff about knowing your range, writing in appropriate keys and writing words and phrases that are possible to sing: it’s about writing as well as singing, and possibly drinking less.

++ So then what happened to you guys? When and why did you call it a day?

++ And looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest moment, the highlight, of the band?

For me, the highlight was possibly being told by the Only Ones old road manager that we reminded him of Perrett and co. I’ve always loved the Only Ones. However, I think that ‘new song’ thrill is the enduring thing.

++ These days, you are still recording music. Tell me a bit about these new songs you are making.

At the moment I’m tied up with another project, and so music has been on hold for a while. I’ve been pretty active over the last 10 years, however, largely through my group Waspjuice. Songs don’t come to me so fast these days – in fact its all a bit torturous. I like what I’ve produced however – there’s some on Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/chris-blunkell), and I’ll put some more up. I’ve got more material in the pipeline, and I’ve added a few bits of kit to my rather odd little home studio so that I can hit the ground running when I come out of hibernation.

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

I’ve just had an exhibition of my paintings, which has been immensely gratifying.

++ Let’s wrap it here, thanks again Chris! Anything else you’d like to add?