When Calum (who was a member of the list before he couldn't cope with the amount of traffic) asked me if I would like to make an interview he did with the band recently available to the list I of course said yes. I didn't realise how much work would be involved! I hope people find this interesting. Just before anybody misinterprets any of the comments, everyone should note that the whole thing was good natured and it sounded as if Calum and the boys were having a good time. You should also remember that the interview was conducted in a pub (difficult to hear what was being said some of the time!) and some of the participants may have been suffering from an excess of alcohol! I hope nobody tries to read anything too deep in the responses - my impression was that it was like a friendly chat in the pub. I've added some comments and they appear in []. Finally I should apologise to Calum - and to the Trash Cans - if in my transcription of the interview I have misrepresented anything anyone said.
Jim
Arriving only a mere four hours late (due to the "well signposted" Scottish road system) my brother (Simon) and I were pleasantly surprised to find that the band (at least John, Paul and Davey) had left us a note on the door of Shabby Road Studios. Following this up, we proceeded across the road to a pub where we were even more surprised to find the band still waiting for us! After a few 'sound checks' we were ready to get recording the interview. Overall I think that the group almost enjoyed doing the interview as it was a lot more honest and revealing than the normal press coverage. I also tried to miss out all the ,'So why are you called the TCS?' type questions that they've been asked 10000 times before. The following transcript of the interview (hopefully completed by Jim [Eventually!] is a slightly shortened version cutting all the waffling and bits made unintelligible by the background noise in the pub ...
C: What are you all doing at the moment?
J: Drinking.
S: What beer do you enjoy drinking then?
J: 70 shilling.
S: Is that Tennents or McEwans? - Alloa is always a good pint.
C: Er, I meant musically OK?
J: Writing.
P: Writing, fannying about. We've got a couple of gigs.
C: So you're actually getting some new stuff together at the moment?
P: Yes.
C: Is this B-side material?
P: No, we've done all that.
C: OK, the new single - when is it out?
J: It's out on the 5th of August.
C: That's How Can I Apply? Have you written any new B-sides for it?
P: Yes - absolutely fantastic ones. There is Worm With A Head [as
featured on the internet pages] - done by the band and better. A
cover version and a song called Save Me which is fucking magic. Did
they ditch the double A-side?
J: Maybe not. The single was going to be a double A-side with Save
Me. There's also a cover of a Scott Walker song called Little Things
Keep Us Together.
P: It's a racket! (He starts to sing it ...) Oh, it's magic!
C: Right, let's talk about Spooktime for a while - when are the final
release dates?
J: The film is being shown in the GFT [Glasgow Film Theatre] from the
3rd of August onwards as a support film to Blood Simple.
P: No, that's only done in England I think. It's only getting shown in arty places
just now - it was going to go out with Twelve Monkeys but that was a
'15' and our film is an 'X'.
S: So what's that for?
P: Swearing and drugs.
C: I thought it was going out with Fargo?
J: It's not really going out nationally because it costs too much
money. In Glasgow it's being shown at the GFT from the 2nd of August
onwards. We're playing the first night. Our film is on and then the
main film is on and at half past ten we're playing in the bar at the
GFT, just acoustic for about half an hour. And it's on in various
places just now.
C: How did you find making it?
J: The making of it was quite good; we just sort of sat around and
watched what actors do, what directors do, what cameramen do. It was
a bit of an education. It was good fun - very long days.
C: It was three days wasn't it?
J: We weren't a big part of it so we were watching the actors going
through their thing and how they change how they do it.
C: You got videos out of that, yeah? You got Twisted and Bent. And
How Can I Apply?
J: No, we've done a separate video for How Can I Apply. It was
filmed at the Maida Vale BBC studios in London, playing live. There
will probably be another few singles off the album, probably stuff
from the Spooktime film.
C: So you'll be releasing To Sir With Love, you reckon?
J: Maybe. Aye, it's still a possible choice for a single. It all
depends.
C: How did you find the recent tour?
J: Good and bad.
P: Aye. Some absolutely brilliant moments and some of the bottomest
you could ever be.
C: That goes straight into the next question: what were the best and
worst parts of the tour?
P: Nights off. No, that's not true.
J: No, there were some great nights. Great night in Paris.
P: But you don't know because you're in, say Nice, that it's going to
be a good night. Nothing like that. There's just some nights after
the gig and it doesn't matter who's there. And then some nights
there's fucking hundreds of folk there and they're all into it and you
do a shite gig. And you just feel like shit. You can't help it but
that's what it is like. Constantly. It's the same as any other tour.
C: But you got good support in France from what I gathered when I
spoke to Frank.
J: It was the first time we'd ever played in Europe. We supported
Lloyd Cole in Paris and there was a lot of folk there to see us. It
was quite surprising just to go to a foreign country for the first
time and when we played our stuff they were dead enthusiastic. It was
great.
P: Oui!
J: Oui! [I think this was an attempt at humour!]
C: Are you looking forward to more? You've been to Japan before,
after the first album?
J: Second album.
C: The first time back there since then?
J: Aye.
P: We know what to expect this time. I was a bit shocked.
C: Why?
J: It's like going to a different planet. The culture's different.
P: It totally is. Everything's different.
C: Did you find that you were mobbed there?
P: There was kind of ... you know, it was not mobbed.
J: The gigs were very, er, enthusiastic.
C: Did you get the opinion that the Japanese are over the top when it
comes to gigs?
P: They are a bit.
J: They are also very polite.
P: Incredibly polite.
J: You play a song and you hit the last chord of the song and they
won't clap until it's really faded out. And you think: "Oh that one
didn't go down too very well" and then they were very enthusiastic.
We played Tokyo a few nights.
P: The only people that shouted things were Americans!
C: What tour did you enjoy the most out of the ones you've done
recently?
J: Lloyd Cole.
C: Was that because you got the best response?
J: The best response and the best treated.
C: How did you enjoy the Ian McNabb one because it was strange -
complete extremes of music?
P: The first night we supported him and we heard him doing the
soundcheck and it was blaring and we were going: "Man, this is
rubbish. Listen to this pish". We never stayed for any of the gigs.
And then there was one night - I can't remember where - the hotel was
close so we went to the bar and we watched him and I thought he was
absolutely magic. Great soundtrack to getting pished and he was on
for ages. And then Glen Tillbrook came up and they were doing the
Magic Bus. By that time I was just wrecked! It was hilarious.
C: I missed most of it at the Venue but I didn't really care because
it was so indulgent. It was ten minute songs with guitar solos.
P: Aye but see the thing is, it's live at a gig. It's not really for
listening to and getting in to. It's just meant to be the soundtrack
to something and it's like a night out.
C: Yeah, I suppose that's fair enough.
J: He's a good time rock and roller.
P: That's what it is, aye. If you're in that kind of mood.
C: But what were the support slots like on the rest of that tour? At
Edinburgh to begin with it seemed like most people were there to see
you. A lot of people left after you played.
J: Glasgow was the same. Most nights weren't like that. He had a bit
of a following. We had a smattering of fans.
P: He's pretty big though.
J: And there was a lot of people there that were just going to see
what it was like. We went down well - everywhere we played. You
could tell most people hadn't heard of us, or didn't know anything
about us. It was nice to go down well in those circumstances.
P: The full entire two months with Ian MacNabb and Lloyd Cole had the
general thing of us going on and doing not bad for the first couple of
songs and folk gradually going: "Hey, this is good". Which is
brilliant. Folk that don't know anything about us - all they can do
is hear us and see us. And they get into us. It just fucking goes to
show you - the more folk that hear us, the more folk are going to get
into us.
C: I agree with you there. You need some way to get everybody to hear
the music.
P: That's it.
C: I have a hard enough time to get my friends into you. It's like
I've got about five of my friends into you and I've got a lot of
friends who I know would like you but they're all so much up their own
arses when it comes to listening to music but they wouldn't listen to
you because it's not been recommended by one of their friends who
listens to the same music.
P: People who know the name. If somebody's never heard of you,
they're more open to saying: "Oh, a new name. Hey, great music". But
if somebody's heard the name and heard it in 1990 it's the way I think
of the Paris Angels. I've never heard them - it's just a name. But
if they were doing a tour or brought out a single and everybody said
it was brilliant I would go: "Is it fuck, they've been around for
ages. Who fucking gives a shite". You know.
C: Easily done, I suppose.
J: It's the way music is publicised in this country. The thing that
is seen as best is the new stuff. It's good that people are looking
for something new but it's bad that they neglect something that is
old.
P: They're not. They think they are looking for something new. It's
all shite.
C: Back on to the interview of Jim will have a hard time typing this
out. [True :-)] How do you go about writing your stuff? Who? This
is a difficult question.
J: Depends who you are talking to.
C: I thought you wrote everything together, or do you write everything
separately and stick it together?
P: It's a farce!
J: We write separately and it gets worked out.
C: So you all basically come up with ideas and they're stuck together?
J: It unfolds, it all depends... If you asked me that question and
then you asked him [Paul] that question you'd get two different
answers.
P: See and I think John's wrong.
J: I don't care who's wrong or right. There's no wrong or right about
it.
P: Aye, but if you were to answer I'd say.. No..
J: Aye, you do it differently.
C: Following on from that, is there anybody in the band who's got
particular strengths or weaknesses?
P: Everybody in the band has particular strengths or weaknesses.
Everybody in the world probably!
C: No, I mean do you think he's good at writing lyrics, let's leave
him to do that.
P: Nobody ever leaves anybody alone!
C: So you don't pick on anybody to...
J: There is people who are good at certain things. People who are
good at other things and people who are bad at things. Do you want
names?
C: Go on, spill the dirt! What are you good at John?
J: I don't know, that's not for me to say.
C: Paul, what's John good at?
P: John's good at writing Safecracker.
C: Good song!
J: I'm good at that, aye!
C: What's Davey good at?
P: Davey's good at...
J: Davey's good at being Davey!
P: Aye!
C: Sitting there not saying anything.
P: No, Davey's good at writing words. Davey's ... surreal as fuck.
D: Give him the answer to the question he's asking.
[Something unintelligible]
C: John, how do you go about writing new stuff?
J: How do I right new stuff?
C: And don't say with a pen and paper!
J: There are two ways to write. And I like both of them. One way
is... First of all, writing is an ongoing thing - it's always in the
back of your mind or it's in the front of your mind or the middle of
your mind. It's always there. Some nights you'll be frustrated
because there's nothing there. The urge is there to write but there's
nothing there to write about. There's no inspiration. And sometimes
that will go on for a while and then I'll just force myself to work.
I'll write something that I can listen back to musically, always
musically, and sometimes lyrically. Mostly musically. And other
times you just wake up one day and you know that it's coming. You
know that it's today. And when that happens - which is kind of rare
and sometimes it's not that rare - you know it's going to be good.
That's the songs that end up the best songs. And there are songs that
I'll work on but it's like a chore not a pleasure. But there is a
certain kind of pleasure in knowing that you're working, keeping
yourself busy doing things. And those are the songs that will end up
like the ones that only a few people will really like and most people
will go "Hmmm". Like, em, Stainless Stephen.
C: That's a good song. I like that song.
J: I love that song, aye. But I know that that's as far as it goes.
I got a lot of pleasure out of writing those things but I know that
they're not inspirational. They're semi-inspirational, they're not
top of the range inspirational. They don't come from somewhere else.
They come from me putting my head down and thinking about it. Whereas
with other songs you don't put your head down and they come. Like
Safecracker, they just arrive one day.
C: ??
J: There's a few - Earlies. I don't know. It's just constant
thinking about writing - peaks and troughs, sometimes it's good and
sometimes it's bad. That's how I write.
C: Would you say that on the whole everyone puts in the same amount of
effort? I know this is not a good question to ask because everyone
will disagree.
P: No-one is going to mind about not being given credit where credit
isn't due. And if they do then they're a fool.
C: Would you give John credit for his part in the making of ???
P: Absolutely! There's only a certain amount of people that are
involved.
C: How does Francis fit in with this? Does he come up with lots of
stuff?
P: He's pretty involved.
C: How do you get on as a band on the whole?
P: We've got on better.
C: Are you going through a tough patch at the moment then?
P: It's the same as anything. You hang about with your mates for
fucking... - not even your mates, guys that you just ...
C: Well would you describe each other as your mates or people you work
with...?
P: Definitely, aye, definitely mates. We've known each other for a
lot of years. And it's the same as anything, sometimes you just can't
be fucked. Sometimes every time somebody does something you're like:
"Fucking hate you"
J: Band morale overall is affected by where it's going to. And over
the past few years we've had a lot of bad news rather than good news.
And like anyone in any walk of life it cheers you up when you get good
news. In the past few years we've just gone through a lot of bad
news. The good thing that has cheered us up over the past few years
is the reaction of the people that actually buy our records. The
people that write to us or phone us or speak to us at gigs. Keeps you
going, you know. It doesn't pay the bills or put the grub on the
table but it keeps you having the same determination, attitudes and
standards. But the effect on us personally over the last few years
has been a bit of a nightmare.
C: You said in the Scotsman that you don't care about the media any
more and you don't give a toss what they say.
J: No, that's very, very, very, very distorted.
D: That was me that said that. And I did say that. I don't give a
flying fuck about what they say because it's all really, really
annoying and I find if I do get bothered by it, then I do get bothered
by it. And I don't want to.
J: The impression that gives off the black and white page to someone
reading the Scotsman is a whole degree of unambition on our part.
C: I feel exactly the same when I read a bad review like the one in
Vox. It just pisses me off so much. It won't be to the same level
because it's not my work.
P: I don't give a shit what any music press says. But it really
matters. Get a good review then other people, people that don't know
anything about us are going to think: "Hey, wait a minute I like this
magazine, I like this band". It does matter.
J: It's like what you were saying before. People tend to like our
music because it's been recommended to them.
P: It does matter because I'm in a band. Right so it does matter. I
don't give a shite what fucking music papers say. It's only one guy's
opinion, as long as the guy's telling the truth, then that's fucking
it. It's just that people who write for music magazines, I find, miss
the point totally about every kind of music, about everything.
They're too bothered about petty fucking nothings. Why not listen to
it and go: "That's good", today. I might not like it tomorrow. But
who gives a fuck why it matters in the grand scheme of things. It's
just music. If it's good, it's good. If it's bad, it's bad. Who
gives a fuck. As long as the guy is telling the truth.
J: I don't like the impression you got from that Scotsman interview.
If we came across as a bunch of guys who were quite happy being
obscure and quite happy being skint then that is totally the wrong
impression.
C: It was saying that you were very frugal and you didn't really mind
not having any money.
J: We're very frugal because we've been forced to be and we really
hate having no money.
C: It said that if you had more money all you would do is buy big
guitars.
J: No, no, no. What I was saying to that guy was he was asking me how
any sort of success would change you. I was saying that what success
would do would allow us to plough money into what we do. We could go
and do gigs, we could get great light shows worked out for the gigs.
We could have brilliant sound, getting much better guitars, getting
much better amplifiers.
P: We could tell people who think they know something to shut the fuck
up!
J: Success gives you power to have control over what you do. If
you're not successful then the way your music is publicised is out of
your hands. What I was trying to say to him was what we would do if
we were successful. He was trying to say that if we were successful
we would just be pissheads or fucking arseholes, you know.
C: Are you happiest on the road or in the studio?
P: Yes.
J: Yes.
P: On the road, obviously.
J: It depends how the studio goes. That's what makes the road good.
P: You know some days you wake up and you feel great and some days you
wake up and you feel like shit. Doesn't matter what the fuck you're
doing or what happens. On the road or in the studio - one and the
same. Peaks and troughs, and days off.
C: When you are writing a song do you all agree the direction it is
heading in or ...
P: No, nobody says anything. There's a song and it is kind of general
"Oh, bad move" And then you get what everybody is into. Nobody
talks, nobody says fuck all.
D: That's a fucking terrible answer!
P: That's what it looks like to me. Everybody complains after the
fact, after it's all done. Once five people are in that room together...
D: No we don't, no we don't!
P: Shut up. Shut the fuck up! Once five people are in that room
together it's like this big black cloud happening and nobody really
knows how to express what they are thinking. And what they might be
thinking is that this song is pish, this is a pish song. They might
be thinking that but they're going to say the hi hat is not right. Or
they won't even say that, it will just be fuck it, I'll go along with
it. But then two weeks later it will be "Fuck, we could have done
that a lot better". But at the time the main objective is to get it
done and to get out of there as fast as fucking possible. And that's
the truth.
C: Do you agree with that John?
J: No.
C: What's your opinion?
J: How to work out songs? Well it's not my opinion, it's what I see.
P: What are you doing answering this - we don't work out songs.
D: Paul, if we didn't work out songs we would never have had an album.
We would never even been able to record a B-side.
C: OK, I think we've had enough of this.
P: John will write a song and we'll do it the way John planned it.
Never used to be like that but that's the way it is. And I'll write a
song and we'll do it the way I planned it. Never used to be like that
but that's the way it is.
D: I don't think John plans songs. I don't think you do either. And
I don't think Frank does either. Nobody plans anything. Look with
this band nothing really gets planned.
P: Listen, you've got to understand that this [whole songwriting
thing] isn't a big deal.
C: Let's go to a slightly pointless question. How long does it take
you to write an average album track?
J: There's no time limit on anything. I don't know. Every song has
its own time limit.
D: 3 minutes 54 seconds, on average.
C: Good answer.
P: 3 years 54 weeks.
D: That's 4 years 2 weeks!
C: How do you feel about the delays with the new album.
P: Go! Discs have treated us really well, amazingly well. We wouldn't
be here if it wasn't for Go! Discs. And there is one thing about the
album - the Five Hungry Joes thing. After we did that, that changed
what was on the album. When was that, that was just before Christmas.
The only thing is that they've had ages to work out how to market it
or whatever, what are going to be the singles etc, etc. But the album
hasn't been finished for a year, it's been finished for nearly a year.
C: Do you not feel it's losing momentum by releasing singles and
having an album release date that slips?
J: Go! Discs attitude to our music is to try and publicise our music
by surrounding our music by what is going on just now. The Irvine
Welsh/Scottish thing was big for a while so they tried to get us on
that bandwagon by making a movie with his name involved blah, blah,
blah. And they try and publicise in any way possible and it's a
really hard task because no one is interested in us in Britain.
National music press, national radio in any way. And our whole
attitude to this is, and always has been, it should be the music we
should be judged on first and foremost. It should always be the
music.
P: Go! Discs are after the same thing as what we are. They want us to
sell lots and lots of records - for a different reason - but it's the
same thing.
C: This is a question from America. Why are you printing lyrics now?
J: The first album we were shy of printing the lyrics because we
didn't think they were very good. The second album there was a bit of
internal turmoil, some of us wanted to, some of us didn't. The third
album the people who wanted to became more forceful and won the
argument. That's it, really.
C: That's a good short answer. Just what we need. Do you spend most
of the time when you're not touring in the recording studio?
J: Yes.
C: Is this recording new stuff or playing around?
J: Playing around.
C: Is this a 9 to 5 thing or is it whenever you like?
J: If it's 9 to 5 then it's 9 at night to 5 in the morning.
P: It's 9 at night to 5 the next night.
J: It doesn't stop. It's what we do. We live and breathe it.
P: Same as anybody. Anybody who is involved...
D: What are we supposed to do?
C: You get the average rock and roll image of people who record an
album -
J: The impression most bands try to project is that it is the easiest
thing in the world. It's a breeze. And it's the hardest thing to do,
to make it seem a breeze. It is your life. And it's the whole point
and basis of your life. Once you've discovered it, it's what you do.
It's what you can do and it's what you should do. There's nothing
else.
P: And as well it's not fucking exclusive to people who write songs.
Everybody who lives their life has fucking big confusions and doesn't
know about anything. Do you? Do you fucking know what you're doing.
Nobody fucking knows.
J: There is that. But then again most people that do other things do
have that routine where they can clock off at 5 o'clock and they will
get their wages at the end of the week.
C: Do you have a full-time sound engineer in your studio or do you do
it all yourselves?
J: It depends. We get people in. Sometimes we do it ourselves, most
times when we're doing the official real recording we'll get an
engineer in.
C: When you're not using the studio is it used by other people at all?
J: Used to be, but not now.
C: So why have you got all these things in the window about demo tapes?
P: Because we haven't taken them down yet and they look pretty cool.
C: Do you ever get any calls about that.
J: We do get calls, aye, but we can't give them time.
P: There was a guy when we went up to the studio to see if there was
any messages left by you because you were so fucking late! And he
was saying thank you for all the work we've put his way because he
owns a studio in Irvine. And anytime somebody phones up to do a demo
it's "No, phone up this number and he'll fucking do it!"
C: Would you use your studio again for other people if you were
desperate for money?
P: Me, Frank and Stephen live there. So it's very hard.
C: Question number 7, we're about halfway there.
To part 2 of the interview.
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