Thanks so much to Tony Jenkins for the interview! Check their myspace here.

++ On the liner notes of The Leamington Spa Volume 6 it says that the band was formed in the end of the nineties. That I find a bit strange as usually on this series most of the bands were from late eighties or early nineties. Don’t get me wrong, I love the song on the compilation, and Im glad I was introduced to your band, but I do find it odd. How did this happen?

Tom, Mick and I all worked together and the band really started as a ‘theoretical’ thing to get us through the long, boring night shifts! Tom played keyboards and had an 8-track home studio and he would bring in instrumentals for us to hear. I sung and played a bit of guitar and eventually the band became a ‘reality’. It was at that time that Mick dropped out, he did one rehearsal but I don’t think he really had the time to commit so Tom and I continued meeting sporadically and trying to tie our two ‘talents’ together.

I had sung in the Aurbisons in the ’80’s (with Dave Driscoll) but unfortunately I wasn’t involved in their recordings. Myself and David put out some compilation tapes and I also set up Everlasting Records with Nick Clarke of Rhythm Mail Order. We put out a single by A Riot of Colour and an album by Emily and it was through this connection that I got involved with Uwe and the ‘Leamington Spa’ compilation.

++ Between you and Tom there was an interesting creative process, you being an indie kid, with all that it implies, and him more of a perfectionist of sound. How do you remember those days, arguments over some beers maybe? or laughs after figuring out some chords for a new song?

I have nothing but happy memories of recording with Tom, loads of laughs and we never argued. There was a crossover area, I liked the stuff he loved and he liked the stuff I loved. That picture on the MySpace page of us seated on the sofa laughing sums up those days, it was really spontaneous. The process was that we would record the songs within a couple of hours and then Tom would spend time programming the drums (which was boring, long and laborious for him) and then we would start again, building from the drums. We could never better the version of ‘All My Dreams’, that one on MySpace is the version we recorded two hours after I first played it to Tom! He could really play the keys but his main skill was picking sounds out, adding just the right amount of effect and getting the best sounds out of a fairly limited ‘bedroom’ set up.

++ Your only release was the song “Start Again” in a compilation organized by Junction and the local council. What was this compilation called? And who were Junction? and which local council is this?

The Junction is a venue in Cambridge, run by Cambridgeshire City Council and they funded a series of compilation CD’s, called ‘Wild Skies’. They paid for us to record a version of ‘Start Again’ at a local studio but the version was nowhere near as well produced as Tom’s effort and they didn’t mix out some horrendous backing vocals that the producer had promised we would have time to go back and sort out. It was the only time we recorded anywhere other than at Tom’s and it was a disaster!

++ You recorded many many songs, as it shows on Myspace! But why didn’t they get released? Maybe they were released as demo cassettes?

The seven songs on MySpace are our total output. We did put four together as ‘This Part of Town’ CD EP: Everything I Need/Don’t Stand So Close to Me/Without You/This Part of Town and this got us our only review. The guy said we sounded like The Men They Couldn’t Hang, so I guess he only played ‘Don’t Stand So Close to Me’. That track was just me with a fuzzy guitar and a very basic rhythm track, it was supposed to sound like ‘Only Losers Take the Bus’, by Fatima Mansions or ‘Well Well Well’ by the Woodentops! I also put Easy Way and Start Again together as a CD single, but that was only for my own benefit and I made a home made black and white sleeve, we didn’t sell them in any way comercially or send them to anyone with that intention

++ You were influenced by a quite large array of bands, from Felt to The Chills, from Cocteau Twins to Dead Can Dance, but how would you describe the sound of the music you were making as Plume?

We would consider anything and have a go. I had some great songs that we never actually got round to trying, which had a reggae influence and a couple of songs that would maybe have sounded like Tindersticks. The key was to try and push our modest talents (more modest in my case than Tom’s) and get more out. Tom would push me vocally to try and get the best sound and test my limited guitar skills to the limit! On most tracks there are five or more guitars, then Tom would mix them in a way to suit the track.

++ It seems it was quite difficult for you to record in the studio, problems with sound engineer, years to complete a song, etc. Why was that? Do you think if things would have gone smoother, Plume would be a better known name today

The studio problem was a one off, not the guy’s fault as he was up against a tight schedule recording about sixty bands for three or four CD’s. The biggest problem we faced was Tom’s health. Tom’s a depressive and faces a daily battle with his demons and when he was affected it was impossible to do anything, I just had to wait for him to get better and we would do a little bit more. We’re not talking about hours and days, sometimes I’d have no contact for nearly a year and then we’d have to pick up the pieces and start over. I would have loved things to have gone smoother, don’t think we’d be any better known but it would be great to have a choice of maybe 15-20 songs to post on MySpace! Very frustrating but, in all honesty, it’s more upsetting to know that Tom is struggling to get through day to day because he really is an incredibly good guy!

++ You only played one gig, the one for the release party for the Junction compilation, how did that go?

We really shouldn’t have done it but Martin (who provided the gorgeous sax on ‘Start Again’) said, “go for it”. In about two weeks we rehearsed with Martin and another friend called Simon on bass – it was great to play as a band and they were both great musicians! The gig went OK, decent crowd and a good reception. We were under-rehearsed and unprepared but we got away with it!

++ I do need to ask about the LUSH and FANTASTIC song that is “Everything I Need”. I really, really, like this song. Was the lyrics based in a real story? Who is this dedicated to and did the story get a happy ending?

It’s great that you’ve picked up on this song, I was really surprised that Uwe picked it for the compilation. This and ‘Without You’ were our first two efforts and recorded before I even had a decent guitar and the effects box that made a lot of difference later! Sorry, there’s no real story behind it I’m afraid, it was an old tune that Tom had and the words were ones I had written as part of a song many years before, around about the Aurbisons time actually. I guess there’s always something personal about the words, all my songs would be dedicated to my wife Ann-Marie, obviously we’ve had our disagreements and arguments, but we’ve been together for over twenty years now so I guess that’s your happy ending!

++ But perhaps that’s not your favourite song you wrote? What is it then and why?

I have four favourites. I think ‘All My Dreams’ is our best song…’Easy Way’ our best recording…’Start Again’ my best vocal…’This Part of Town’ my best guitar. ‘All My Dreams’ is about a guy drowning and, by the end, kind of accepting it and “drifting to sleep” and I think the words paint the picture. ‘Easy Way’ benefits from Simon’s ‘real’ bass sound, it gives the song a real drive and I would loved to have done some more recordings like this. I remember Tom putting the keyboard on the end of ‘This Part of Town’ and going “WOW!” It was the first time I realised we could make decent songs that I would buy if someone else made them! The “Hey” at the start was inspired by the yelp at the start of Primal Scream’s ‘Imperial’ and the guitar on the fade out was from ‘Pink Frost by the Chills!!!

++ Why did the band call it a day? What are you two doing nowadays? Are you still in touch with Mick?

We all left the job we were doing at virtually the same time and Mick is now a train driver! We are still in touch through Facebook. I hear from Tom occasionally, recently he bought a lot of new recording equipment and we arranged to meet, but then he got down again and I haven’t heard from him for a few months. I’m now singing with POP ART. Chris Free (ex Users, A Craze) writes the songs and I am just the singer. Chris has written some cracking tunes and we have played a few gigs as an acoustic duo. We have been in the studio recently, augumented by bass, drums and keyboards and are hoping to release a CD soon!

++ Anything you’d like to add?

Just that when you asked, ‘Why did the band call it a day?”, we haven’t really. Whenever I speak to Tom I make sure he knows that, regardless of whatever else I am doing, I will always have time to get together with him and bash out some tunes. We’re getting older now, so that’s getting less likely, but you never know…

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Listen
Plume – Everything I Need

Thanks a lot to Douglas Armour for the interview!

++ How did Juniper start? Who were the members and where did you all meet each other? And what was the main reason to start the band?

Juniper was Jenni Taylor (songwriter, vocals/guitar), Scott Degraw (bass/vocals) and Douglas Armour (drums/vocals). In the late 1995, I was quitting a job at a coffeeshop in Washington DC to go live in Bulgaria for a couple of months. Jenni, who had just moved to DC from Richmond, VA was my replacement. We talked and got along well and jammed a couple of times and made plans to jam more when I got back to DC. I think that we made a flyer saying we were looking for a bass player… not sure what the influences were listed as but probably something along the lines of the Smiths and Joy Division. Scott, who was a good friend of mine (I was roommates with his brother Brian, who is in the band Gang Gang Dance) and lived in the same neighborhood that I did (Mt. Pleasant) saw the flyer, but I don’t remember if he actually called Jenni or if I just asked him if he wanted to play bass with us. He was a guitar player at that point.

++ How was the scene of DC during those years? Was the halo of Pam Berry’s music still present? Where you influenced by any of it? Why did you decide to leave the city and relocate to San Francisco?

I definitely think that DC was a magical place, even at that time. Maybe, in a way, it was over by that point, but I think there was still an element of “us” vs. “them” around. “Us” being the punks or pop kids or music nerds or artists or whatever, and “them” being the normal folks or the yuppies or squares or whatever. Like, you didn’t buy clothes second-hand unless you were a hipster or poor. ☺

There were actually so many different scenes in DC. I was not really into the pop scene at all. Jenni and her boyfriend at the time, Mike Hammel (the Ropers, the Mondo Crescendo) were in that scene. I liked Unrest and used to work at Teenbeat every once in awhile when Mark Robinson was still in Arlington, VA packaging records for shipment. He used to pay me in records and I’d take the Teenbeat merch to record stores and sell them and buy the stuff I was into… I remember a lot of David Bowie, T-Rex, Lou Reed and free jazz being purchased (and in some cases, stolen). Of the DC area “factions” I was definitely more into the Dischord scene than the Teenbeat or Simple Machines stuff… bands like the Nation of Ulysses (later Cupid Car Club), Circus Lupus and Fugazi. But, it was a great place to be back then. Scott and his brother and a couple of friends and I ran a space for a while called Artslab that would put on shows and events and there was a punk space called the Beehive Collective that I spent many a night at. I saw Cap’n Jazz (from suburban Chicago) there. There’s definitely a heavy Cap’n Jazz vibe in the drumming on Juniper.

I always wanted to move to California and I think that Jenni and Mike were into it and Scott was willing to give it a shot. I wanted to move to Los Angeles but Scott definitely did not and Jenni and Mike felt a connection to the Bay Area (Mike’s old band the Ropers were on Slumberland which was based in the east bay). So, I was outvoted and we moved to SF.

++ That year, 1996, you released two 7″s right. The debut one was “You Don’t Hide so Well” on A Turntable Friend in Germany. How did you end up releasing so far away? Care to tell us a bit about more of the single?

I have no idea about that. That was definitely Jenni and Mike’s connections. If I remember correctly, A Turntable Friend was run by a guy named Olaf or Uli or something, and he was kind of in and out of mental institutions… or he had had like a major breakdown at some point.

++ The second came out on The Orange Peel label, who I honestly don’t know any other releases from, and it was called “Making Gerard Smile”. Who run this label and how did you release with them? And… who was Gerard? Is this a real story?

I don’t remember that either. I do remember that the two 7’s were designed by a friend of Mike’s (who I believe also designed one of the Ropers’ albums), and they were “matching”… the two 7’s were matching, not the 7’s and the Ropers’ album. I’m not exactly sure about Gerard, but it might be Gerard Cosloy, who was a college radio DJ, did a zine called Conflict, Homestead Records and Matador Records.

EDIT: Actually, Gerard refers to Gerard Depardieu in “Going Places”, a film from 1974. We actually had the words “Going Places – 1974″ on one of the run-off grooves on one of our 7″s.

++ Also there was a video for the A side of this single, what was the idea behind it and what do you remember from recording it?

Scott was working as an editor at a production company in DC and we shot it in our practice space and behind the house that Jenni and Mike lived at and edited it ourselves at Scott’s work on a big Avid editor. There’s no denying that this video was made in the mid 90’s. My friend Nathan Maddox (who was our unofficial roadie and traveling companion) is at the beginning of the video (releasing the balloon), and again at the end (filming). He died in 2002… he was struck by lightning in NYC. I miss him.

++ Third and last came the Fantastic Records single, the wonderful “Think and Die Thinking” with “Summer on My Mind” as a B side. Aside from the fantastic song the sleeve is really pretty. Whose idea was it to have a real flower pasted on the back cover and a little kind of portrait on the front cover?

I’m sure that the design for this was Jenni’s idea. (The Mondo Crescendo had an even more tedious 7” design for the “California Sun” single…) Yeah, gluing down all the picture-corner-holder thingys and taping down the wildflowers. Tedious.

++ Also on this single it says that “Think and Die Thinking” was titled by Tatty Bellrope, what’s the story behind this?

Tatty Bellrope is Dan Gallagher. He is an enigma.

++ What was the highlight of Juniper’s life? What were the best moments of being with the band?

We did a tour on our move from DC to SF that was pretty amazing. Nathan and I took LSD when we were in the French Quarter in New Orleans on Halloween and that was a very “Easy Rider” kind of night. Playing shows and getting to meet and hang with cool people in great bands like Boyracer and Henry’s Dress were highlights.

++ Why did the band call it a day? What are you all doing nowadays?

After we had moved to SF, Scott decided that it wasn’t working out for him and he moved back to DC. That’s when Jenni and I started the Mondo Crescendo.

I live in Los Angeles and still make music. I released an album last year on a label in Brooklyn called the Social Registry. Scott lives in DC and directs and produces television shows for channels like the Discovery Channel. I’m not exactly sure about Jenni but I think that she lives in Philadelphia.

++ Anything else you’d like to add or say to the popkids out there?

Keep calm and carry on.

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Listen
Juniper – Think and Die Thinking