I haven t posted anything for ages so to make up for that here is an interview that a friend of mine (Simon F, see below) and I recorded whilst we were following TCS on the November tour. Sorry it s taken so long but we had to transcribe it all (and translate from Scottish into English!!!!)
The gigs were brilliant but unfortunately a few were not well attended. However in Glasgow they have quite a following and it was packed and the crowd loved them. Someone passed out next to me - not sure whether it was the heat or they were just overcome by the songs!
Hope the interview stirs up some lively conversation or at least let us know what you think of it. Merry Christmas and a verry Happy New Year to everyone (especially Joe DiMaria for the video and Paul Leddy for the 5HJ CD and hello to Jim Nisbet - Happy Hogmanay or however it s spelt!)
Nina
I got into TCS almost by accident. I bought Cake in a record shop sale for £2.00 cos I like the band name and the cover of the album! Never heard any of it before. Fell in love with Thrupenny Tears ( it s time for sin and Catholic guilt ) and never looked back. Since then I ve gone to see them every now and then and have even met some of you - Sarah G, Jim Nisbet and Calum.
This last year has been a mixture of expectation (waiting for AHP), frustration (the non-arrival of AHP) and finally....... well the A-Z tour which I guess is why I m writing this. Having read messages about favourite songs, writing to Go Discs and how everyone feels about TCS, I guess I wanted to get involved somehow. So, armed with a friend s tape recorder I did an interview with TCS. We hope you find it interesting..
Simon F.
Present:
S. Why has the new album AHP, taken so long to come out?
J. The record company..
D/P. No it s not
J. We toured a lot after the first one, for about 6 or 7 months. Then we
recorded 4 or 5 songs....
D. After the last album we went to America and then to Japan. After that we
started to record in Shabby Road. Did that for a while - just us and an
engineer. We finished recording last March and we mixed some stuff with Hugh
Jones (has produced Echo & the Bunnymen ). Then we came back and recorded some
more and mixed some more ourselves.
S. Are you happy that it has taken this long? Was it down to you or
commercial constraints?
J. Aye, partly down to us and commercial constraints as well. We wanted to
sell more than the last album.
S. Why is the album called AHP?
J. Uhh, a friend of ours... it used to be one of his phrases and it s a kind
of tribute to him because he s no longer with us. He used to say A full
pocket is a happy pocket . He used to say that, when he got his wages and go
and buy drink..fags. He was great, a real nice guy. Just somebody we came
across through being in a band.
S. What happened to the plans to bring out an EP Five Hungry Joes ?
J. It s going to be a film called 5 Hungry Joes . We ve got 5 songs called 5
Hungry Joes and we ve been making wee films for them.
P. No, it s a movie!
(Laughter)
J. They re kind of story songs
P. Some of them will be on the next album (referring to the songs) and some of
them B-Sides.
S. What about the film?
P. That will be for general release!
S. Where was the filming done?
J. We ve still got stuff to do on it... filmed some stuff around Shabby Road,
just wherever we are at the time. We ve used a Super 8 to do it. Old movies.
It looks really good in black and white - all grainy. There s a place up in
Glasgow where you can go and edit. It s really cheap.
S. Doesn t the line Five hungry Joes appear in Pop Place ?
J. Aye. It s about us - 5 hungry Joes. 3 points on our licence, 5 hungry
mouths to feed, 4 quid between us ..
S. So it s the story of a pop band trying to make good?
J. A Scottish band trying to make good. Us 5 fuckers. Davey will tell you,
he knows everything. Davey will tell you the real answer. No, that is the
real answer.
S. Who wrote that song? (Pop Place)
D. Me, Frank and John got drunk one night and sort of wrote down really daft
things and some serious lines as well and mixed them up. A bit like the way we
wrote Hayfever .
S. Does that song sum up how you feel about the band then?
J. Aye, yeah it s quite optimistic, but there s a twist in it.
P. Do we not all die in it?
J. Yeah, it s a near death experience song.
S. How did the alphabet tour come about and will we see the conclusion of it,
as the tour ends in Kilmarnock?
D. It was a daft idea because you have to try and follow it through.
J. It s a bit of a headache for the agent who s booking the gigs. I think we
will follow it through but I think it will be next year before we do the rest
of it because we can t get the gigs. It s good for us just now. Because we ve
not got a record coming out we d have normally found it really hard to get
gigs, but because there s this idea it s good for us to get back into playing.
S. How have you felt about some of the less than full venues? Does it bother
you?
J. No, we ve kinda started from below scratch again. People have got an
impression of us and we ve got to kind of do our thing again. So we kind of
know that we re gonna be playing to no one in some places. It s nice just to
play, you know. It s good.
S. So why no dates in England?
P. It s just so as we could do a wee tour and kind of lead into doing gigs
again and bringing out records. It s just a wee tour of Scotland and a couple
dates in Ireland.
D. It costs less money.
J. Aye, The frugal tour
S. You know you ve got lots of fans in America and Japan. Are there any plans
to travel further afield next year?
J. Europe. We ve never been to Europe. There s talk of us going over there
but it s just talk just now.
S. Are there any places in Europe where the records sell better?
J. Germany and France.
D. North Europe
J. Spain as well.
S. How do you see the third album in relation to Cake and ISE?
D. ISE was a lot darker than Cake. The second album was much more produced
and this one isn t.
J. The second album our heads were in a funny place.
S. What do you mean by that?
P. It s a really depressing album
J. There s a lot of death on it.
S. Why was that?
J. You never really know when you do these things. You just sort of listen
back and say what s going on there?
S. Are you happy with it looking back on it?
J. Oh yeah, I love it aye, it s a great album. It s classic.
D. Some of the lyrics were about sex and a wee bit of violence and things like
that, which isnae usually associated with us of course.
J. I like that album. I think it s great. Stands the test of time.
P. Much better than Cake. Cake seems virginal to me. Ding, ding, ding,
ding, tee, tee
(He mimics the way it sounds).
J. I ve Seen Everything is a bit perverse
S. Some of the people on the list, particularly in the States, say that they
much prefer Cake.
J. The radio s got a lot to do with it in America. First 2 singles off the
first album got a lot of radio play over there so I think that s how most
people heard us. And the first time you hear a band, if you like it, that s
usually what you ve got a soft spot for. Maybe the reason that they prefer the
first one to the second one is that it s a bit more immediate.
S. Is the new album a step back to those more immediate songs?
P. It s not a step BACK. It s a step forward. It s mainly a mix between the
two that we ve done... and something else.
J. It s not as insular as the second one.
S. Do you have any favourite songs or any that you are really proud of having
written?
J. Aye, loads of em aye. One At A Time I really like.
S. That s interesting you should say that.
P. It IS interesting you should say that. Strange
S. - because that s the most unlike TCS song I think there is.
J. I like it though. I like that and I like I m The One Who Fainted
P. I m The One Who Fainted !? Jesus Christ!
J. I love that song. It s great. I like it because it s things we dont
normally do. A bit off the wall. You know I love other ones, but those two
are a bit different and I like being different. They are wee black sheep songs.
S. Any off the forthcoming album?
P. The Outside , the instrumental one and The Main Attraction ... and
January s Little Joke .
D. One of my favourite songs is My Mistake .
P. Ohhh!
J. Aye, it s good.
D. Err, it s one that we keep forgetting to do live somehow. Maybe it s too
much hard work.
J. Aye, it s quite hard to play live.
S. One you never play live is Who s He
P. I hate that.
J. Sounds like the fuckin Housemartins .
S. You don t like that?
J. Naa. It s too shallow, shit, kinda crap. I mean I can see why folk like
it. When I listen back to it I think oh that s alright and then I think
about it and think oh no .
S. Going back to One At A Time - I was going to mention that it is different
to your style.
J. Aye. It s just a lane we ve yet to further explore.
P. Aye, that s right.
S. I remember you finished with it at Gloucester and it was really effective.
J. Aye, it s good as a last song.
(Simon then attempts to ask a question about Safecracker )
J. No, no questions about Safecracker! (jokingly)
S. It seems it s becoming a favourite. What inspired the song?
P. Gay sex! (jokingly) Ask John he knows.
J. Uhh. Crime and getting caught. That appeals to me. I don t mean just
getting caught, but when people do get caught, that s quite sad. I dunno, it s
about doing something underhand and the consequences of that. (John says he
wrote a big chunk of it).
S. Another song - started off as Remember Phil and is now Twisted and Bent
- who s Phil?
P. A guy I used to go to school with and I met him in a disco one night and I
said I ve written a song about you . He s a good guy. It s nothing to do
with him really.
D. He s just in one of the early verses. There s kinda two people involved.
J. It s kinda evolved away from how it started. That s why the title changed.
S. Is it going to be the first single?
J. Aye, possibly, I don t know.
D. It s a morally conscious song I think. We re no good at that. It all goes
on about relationships or something in the verse and then ends up going on
about how the world is shite. But there you go.
J. We re a deep band you know.. (laughter)
S. Not so deep is the Lulu song To Sir With Love you ve been covering live.
How did that come about?
J. We just learnt some covers for a gig in Kilmarnock. We were doing an
acoustic gig and we weren t charging any money at the door so we thought we d
do some cover versions. We just learnt to play that and it turned out really
well. The actual original of the song s pretty crap. It s a nice melody, but
the arrangement was always quite up and it shouldn t be an up song. It s
kinda done our own way. That s nice.
S. Have you heard anyone else s version?
J. Aye, Al Green done a version. It s alright. It sounds like an Al Green
song.
S. Someone on the net said REM did a version.
D. Aye they probably did do it at some time but they probably did it the same.
(Paul then sings To Sir With Love imitating Michael Stipe - laughter)
S. Is it going to be a single?
J. Aye it probably will be at some stage. But maybe not the first one.
Something we ve always done you know - recorded covers. It s just that this is
the first time we ve decided it s better than just a B-side. Usually we just
put them out as B-sides.
S. There s a song called I ll Get Them In , which Frank has described as
being about Rod Stewart.
P. It s about me.
J. It s about Paul and Rod Stewart.
P. It s just one of those drinking songs. I ve written this song about what I
ve done in the last 3 years and it s all totally fuckin fact and it s self
explanatory.
J. It s good imagery. I like it.
P. It s just fuckin goin to the pub and getting pissed.
J. It s a good time song.
S. Where does Rod Stewart come into it?
J. We used to listen to his records.
P. They were on in the pub.
D. There s a wee backing vocal which is just lifted directly off Tonight s
the Night .
J. In Scotland Rod Stewart is good music to drink to kind of thing, you know
very good attitude. I mean obviously he s a bit kind of cartoon these days,
but when he was in his prime he was a great Scotsman even though he s English.
He was born in Manchester. It s good Saturday night music. It s a drinking
song.
S. You ve recently done a Mekons cover
J. Aye, Ghosts of American Astronauts
S. Are you a big fan of the Mekons or just that particular song?
J. Not really - I like a couple of their early singles. The first two
singles were really good.
D. That was before they turned into a kind of country band or something.
J. That s one of those songs that was a single about 4-5 years ago and it got
played a few times but it seemed to pass everyone by. Every now and again you
get songs like that. They get forgotten about, so it s nice to play.
S. Another cover you sometimes finish with is Something Stupid
J. Yeah, it s just a daft encore.
S. Do you still do Spanish Stroll ?
P. Oh, I d forgotten about that. Amazing.
J. Naa. That s easy that one.
D. Just a C chord, you can t really go wrong.
S. How do you feel about people on the list writing to the record company
about the delay with the new album?
J. It s nice that people show an interest. It takes a bit of time for us to
make records and it s nice to know that people give a shit.
P. Aye
J. We love you!
S. There has been some debate about whether a copy of the new album should be
circulated on the list. How do you feel about that?
J. I ve heard about that aye.
P. The folk that are wanting that, that are on the list, will buy it when it
comes out anyway.
D. The only thing about it will probably be shitty quality.
P. It s a second generation DAT the guys got.
J. People get to hear our songs. That s great. Whatever way they hear them,
unless it s like at a funeral or something.
(Laughter)
S. Have you written any material that isn t going to be on the album - B-sides
for example?
J. Aye, quite a few aye. A few we re gonna play live.
P. A load.
D. There s about 30 songs we ve done between the last album and this one.
J. ..and there s some more on the way. It s a constant evolving sort of thing.
S. So are you saying there s actually material for a fourth album?
J. Aye, hopefully by the end of next year we can get something else out. Two
albums a year!
S. Two albums a year band. You re turning into The Fall !
J. Aye at least we ll be able to pay the rent.
S. There s also been talk of bringing out an album of B-sides with the next
album. Is that likely to happen?
J. There s been talk but I think it will happen, aye. It will be a limited
edition with the album, when it comes out. It s just talk just now, but the
record company seemed to be into it a while ago. So, hopefully they will be
into it again. Just in like chronological order, just the B-sides up til the
B-sides of I ve Seen Everything , which I really like. Ask Davy is good.
S. Why s it called Ask Davy ?
P. We wrote the lyrics.....and Simon (Go Discs) kept phoning up saying What
s it called. What s the B-side called ?
D. .....and we could ne think of a title, so when he rang up someone said Ask
Davy !
S. Is that true?
J. Aye, pathetic isn t it!
S. How do you feel about Bootleg tapes, recording of gigs and so on?
J. I don t mind it. Just wish people would send us a copy. Think it s great.
S. Do you have a particular way of writing new material?
P. Usually we have to sit in a quiet room, late at night with a bottle of wine.
D. Usually somebody s got a tune. Usually just starts with a tune.
J. Mostly the music comes first. Very rarely you get somebody who s got some
words. Very rarely. Everybody s usually got a backlog of words that they keep
to themselves and then we sort of get a tune. Unless someone s got the music
and the words.
S. A feature of the songs is the clever lyrics. Is that anyone s particular
forte?
J. There s not so much of that any more, but everyone s got their own
particular slant or style. Like Paul s quite..... psychedelic.
P. Ooh, I like that John, thank you very much.
J. Aye. Davey s are quite.....
P. - psychedelic?
J. No, no. It depends. His older stuff s different to his new stuff. He
used to be quite a romantic in the language he used.
D. There s only room for one romantic in one band and John s it.
J. Am I the romantic?
D/P. Aye
J. Davey used to be a few years ago.
D. I ve become more cynical - bitter and twisted.
S. Is each song a joint effort?
D. For the last album, a few times me, Frank and John sat about and just kinda
made things up in the one night. Worked a Miracle was like that. One at a
Time was like that and Hayfever . Aye it s good, you have a wee slant - like
somebody starts a few lines and it just basically paints a wee picture.
J. - and then you get a sound to it and ask the others what do you think,
where would you go from there and somebody else would come up with some stuff
and you ll go oh fuckin hell, I never thought of that. They kind of write
themselves. Things appeal to you and then you realise what they re about kind
of thing and then it starts to flow from that. Especially if other people kind
of get a handle on what it s about as well. Usually the songs just evolve.
S. At the end of this tour you are going to be supporting The Beautiful South
at the Glasgow SECC.
J. Just for one night only!
S. ......it must be the biggest place you ve played. How do you feel about
that?
D. We used to be shy and nervous and not really prepared to go and do things
like that.
J. If people asked us and they were a shite band we d go oh fuck that - we
re not supporting anybody crap. Aye our attitude s changed now. If somebody
wants to give us a chance to play then we ll go and play.
S. Having said what you ve just said - what do you think of The Beautiful
South s music?
J. I can take it or leave it really. I like the guy (Paul Heaton), I think he
s alright, but the music s pretty crap. It s pretty middle of the road, too
much the same. You could almost substitute the backing tracks of the songs.
They sound pretty similar. But I can see why folk like them.
D. They re quite funny though. They give this idea they don t give a shit and
they get pissed all the time and take drugs and have a good time.
J. They don t have adventures musically.
P. They re just totally bland.
S. Do you think playing a place that size will raise the profile of the group?
J. Aye it will be good in the sense that there ll be a lot of people there.
We tend not to think along those lines. I mean if you start thinking like
that, it kinda fucks you up.
D. Well it s in Glasgow, so we ve got a wee following of folk in Glasgow
anyway.
J. It s just a gig.
P. Something to do on a Tuesday evening.
J. It s nice to be asked. There s a couple of folk in The Beautiful South who
re fans of ours. It s no just the record company getting us on the gig you
know - it s the band actually asked us.
S. Go Discs have become quite successful lately. What do you think of the
label and the other bands on it?
J. It s a good label. Their attitude s good. They keep their roster quite
small and the bands that they sign are usually bands that will have a career
rather than one hit.
P. Apart from Gabrielle.
J. ....but that s dance music and that s kinda like that.
S. Drugstore are also on Go Discs. Do you know much about them?
D. Aye, met em a few times. They re alright. Nice people but I don t really
know much about them.
S. You ve got your own studio at Shabby Road in Kilmarnock. How did that come
about?
J. Just when we got our first advance we d been rehearsing at this studio and
the guy was selling it and he sold it to us cos we wanted to have a kind of
base. It s kinda good and bad. Sometimes we get really fucked off with it,
sometimes we really love it. We get really fucked off because it eats up all
our money and we don t have much money to live life with.
S. Does it cost a lot of money to maintain it?
P. We don t maintain it.
J. It could do with a bit of money to get it up to scratch. Aye it costs a
few bob.
S. Does anyone else record there?
J. There has been in the past, but not for a while because we need to upgrade
it a bit. It s a bit shabby just now!. There s been a few bands in. Some
of the band live there now (Paul, Steven and Frank), so it s a bit hard to get
people in to record because you have to wake up everybody and get them out of
their beds so that the band can come in.
S. Does having your own studio mean you can record what you want when you like?
J. Aye, it s good for that. You can kind of fuck around with sounds and
stuff. We don t do it as much as we should.
D. Aye
J. It s good if you ve got an idea and you wanna just go in and bash it down.
See how it sounds.
S. Is that the reason you take longer to record stuff?
J. No the opposite of that would be.....
D. ......shite records!
J. --yeah just shite records. We re learning. We just wanna keep learning
about it, keep doin it. It s just great to have that there, rather than every
time you wanta go into a studio you have to phone up somebody to book it.
P. ....and make sure you ve finished by Thursday, you know.
J. and then if they don t wanta pay for it cos they ve not heard the demos,
then you re like, well fuck....You know it s a whole funny world all that, so
we re glad we kinda passed that by. We can do our own demos without having to
ask Go Discs for money to go and do them.
S. The last year or so has seen the emergence of BritPop. Bands like Blur and
Oasis. What do you think of the current music scene in England?
J. I quite like it. I like the idea that bands are making the front page of
newspapers and bands are getting in the news. Bands are like part of the
culture again, rather than faceless bands. It s good. Pop music s become more
interesting.
S. Are there any particular bands that you are listening to at the moment?
J. Pulp , I really like Pulp . I like him, I think there s a bit of venom
about Jarvis (Cocker). He - kinda means it.
S. Are you still fans of The Fall ?
J. Aye last album was a bit crap but just the general attitude of The Fall
more than the music.
S. Anyone else?
P. PJ Harvey. She s fuckin amazing
J. Aye last album was brilliant.
(Paul breaks into a PJ Harvey song)
J. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds are a brilliant band.
N. You mentioned Jarvis Cocker, saying he really seems to mean what he sings.
When you (speaking to John) and Frank sing, you really look as though you mean
it - how can you come across like that when you ve performed the songs so many
times?
(John laughs)
D. We re doin it live.
J. Live s a different thing because the songs come alive and people react to
them, you know.
S. Are there songs you get sick of playing?
J. Naa, we just drop them.
S. Songs like Drunken Chorus which you almost refuse to play now..?
J. Ah, we do it every now and again.
P. We canne remember it. Too much bother to learn and then you go...oh fuck
it.
J. We d rather do stuff that we re doin now, cos of the way we write it s
always about the time that it happened. To go back 6 years and try and put
yourself in the mind of how you were 6 years ago. Sometimes it works,
sometimes you re kind of ambivalent - maybe you can but sometimes you think I
don t remember what that s about. I don t connect with that any more. There
are certain songs off everything we ve done that we still do. You canne really
force yourself to play something just cos people want to hear it cos it would
look crap. You d just be going blah, blah . Don t wanne turn into one of
those bands.
At this point the TCS entourage head off to Elgin for the next gig. Thanks to TCS for putting up with us and giving us their time.
Back to my TCS page