Jun
Thanks so much to Justin Phillips for the interview! I wrote about In Heaven earlier this year. I was surprised by the quality of the songs I heard. I struggled finding more information about the band. Happily Justin got in touch and was keen to answer my question and share links to his current music. This made me very happy! Enjoy the interview!
++ Hi Justin! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?
Hey Roque, thank you for your interest! I’m doing great thanks, I’m in my 50’s now so there are signs of wear and tear but as we always say in the UK, ‘can’t complain!’.
Yes, I’m still involved with music insomuch as I write and record music as a hobby. There have been years where I haven’t picked up an instrument, but at the moment I’m spending a lot of time recording. I’ve been building a more complete home studio over the last couple of years and I’m really happy with the stuff I’m making. I have an album’s worth of material that I am slowly finishing off, although starting new things sometimes gets in the way of finishing things when there is no imperative to ‘release’ it.
++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?
My first music memories were my Dad’s records…. I was 5 or 6 when Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon came out, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, CSN, this was the music I was raised on. I became fascinated by guitars from a very early age, the one music shop in my hometown had a Stratocaster in the window and I always wanted to go stare at it. My first instrument was a guitar I bought from a friend at school. I couldn’t play it, couldn’t tune it and it sounded awful. I was hooked!! I just taught myself to play, picking up how to play a few chords and just started to experiment making different shapes on the fretboard. About that time I started to listen to Sonic Youth and so as a result I think I developed an unconventional view of how a guitar should sound. I listened to Jesus and Mary Chain, The Cure, Big Black, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody Valentine, Joy Division, A.R. Kane, Loop etc.
++ Had you been in other bands before In Heaven? What about the other band members? Are there any songs recorded by these bands?
In my first year of college myself and a couple of friends had a band for a while but nothing serious. The original line-up of In heaven (we were called Burning In Heaven originally and changed it to In Heaven after about 6 months) was Me on guitar and vocals, My brother Jamie Phillips on guitar, Rich Coppack on bass and Andy Calvert on drums. Rich and Andy were much more accomplished musicians than Jamie and I and had played in a few local bands that I have no hope of remembering the names of.
++ Where were you from originally?
Jamie and I grew up in Devizes, Wiltshire, not far from Stonehenge. It’s a medium sized ‘market town’ on the SW corner of the Wessex Downs, Southern England.
++ How was Devizes at the time of In Heaven? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?
Devizes is NOT a hip place. It is quite an affluent community of predominantly middle class people. I certainly felt more of an outsider there than Cardiff, which is where Jamie and I were mostly living during the In Heaven timeframe. I was at college in Cardiff when (Burning) In Heaven was born in Spring 1989 and Jamie moved there also for college after that. Rich and Andy were also from Wiltshire so we met up to practice there. We did play a gig in Devizes one time too and that was the only gig I can remember going to in Devizes. Jamie worked at the only record shop in the town ‘PR Sounds’ for a while but I don’t remember buying any notable releases from there. Devizes is a beautiful looking town set in wonderful countryside but doesn’t offer much more than that.
++ Were there any other good bands in your area?
No, but you were very kind to say ‘other’ there!
++ How was the band put together? How was the recruiting process?
I had met Rich and Andy a couple of years before the band formed and somehow they got to hear the demos I was making through a mutual friend and wanted to get involved. They learned a few of the songs and when we all met up for our first practice we were just able to launch straight into the songs and play them. It was one of the top 10 moments in my life. Rich and Andy were so good that it just sounded great straightaway.
++ Was there any lineup changes?
Andy left the band in the summer of 1990. We didn’t know any drummers so we bought a Boss DR550 drum machine, but we were never as good live after that. Rob Wilde joined on bass and Rich played guitar for a while before he left and Roland Edwards joined on guitar after that.
++ What instruments did each of you play in the band?
The final line-up around the time of Aquanova was me on vocals and guitar, Jamie on guitar, Roland on guitar and Rob on bass. DR550 for the drums.
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
When Andy and Rich were in the band we wrote a few songs together during practices but after they had left I wrote everything. At the time of Aquanova we all lived in a shared house in Cardiff so IF we were practicing we did it in the kitchen. (easy with no drummer!) We only really practiced if we had a gig coming up. As Rob, Jamie and Roland were all at college during the day, I would spend my time writing and recording. Our tape machine was an Amstrad Studio 100, not exactly a high quality recorder. Everything was always done on a shoestring, we never had any money.
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
When I was writing my first songs, I wanted to send them to the Melody Maker (a long defunct UK weekly music paper) and get them reviewed in the ‘home recording’ section. Around this time Melody Maker did a review of Spaceman 3’s ‘Playing With Fire’ and their headline for this piece was ‘BURNING IN HEAVEN’. I thought it looked good on the page and used that as a name when I sent the tape off. When we became a band no-one seemed to have any better ideas so we stuck with it. Then after a while we thought it sounded a bit ‘gothy’ so we dropped the burning bit and became ‘In Heaven’. I think people assume we name the band after the David Lynch song (covered by Pixies) but that was not the case.
++ I discovered your music through the “Teeny Poppers” tape compilation that Anorak Records from Limoges, France, released in 1992. Do you remember how did your music ended there?
We sent tapes to anyone who was keen to receive them. In the face of overwhelming apathy towards the band from record companies and the music press, it was really fantastic that the network of Fanzines existed. Those tapes being sent to those fanzines is the only reason In Heaven are remembered at all. There did seem to be a fair bit of interest in us from Europe, we did get a radio play in the Netherlands once as well.
++ Most of your music was also released abroad and on the German label Meller Welle Produkte you released the “Aquanova” single. How did this relationship start? Did you ever meet the people behind this label?
Jorg from Meller Welle contacted us after hearing one of the songs on a compilation or something. He was keen to release something of ours and we did a deal. By that time we had pretty much decided to stop the band as we were sick and tired of being poor and we thought a vinyl 7in would be a nice momento.
++ Then there was a compilation tape called “Deliberately Lo-Fi” released by Kyle Productions in the UK. I’ve never heard of Kyle Productions before. Do you remember anything at all about them or this compilation?
It’s Kylie Productions. https://
++ And yeah, how come there were no more releases of yours in the UK? Was there interest of any labels? Maybe big labels?
The original line-up did have a bit of interest from a label called Cheree (home of the Telescopes) but they stopped returning our calls after we played our one and only London gig for their showcase. Everyone else either sent the tape back saying they had not listened to it or simply ignored us. I still have the rejection letters from 4AD somewhere.
++ Speaking of “Aquanova” there was a release of the same name before the single. It was a tape album that you self-released in 1993. How many copies of this tape were made? Did it sell out? How did you distribute them?
Aquanova was really a demo, home recorded and took over a year to complete. A lot of the tapes sent out were before it was finished so different versions exist. We would send different songs everytime we sent out tapes. If you compare all the different versions of the songs people have ripped/uploaded over the years you can tell that some have different vocals etc. There is even a version of the song Aquanova without any vocals (and called Solar Eyes). I guess we sent out over 10 – 20 tapes to fanzines, radio stations etc. At least 2 of those tapes found their way onto the internet eventually.
++ And I do wonder, the songs on the 7″ and the ones on compilations, did they all come from the tape album? Or were they different versions?
The versions on the EP are the final versions.
++ On the 7″ there is a photo of a cat named Bob on the back cover. Was it your cat?
Yes, Bob was my parent’s cat when I was finishing school/going to college/after college. She was a beautiful cat, I’m glad in retrospect that I chose to put her on the cover when I designed it, it keeps her memory alive.
++ I believe you produced and engineered all of your songs, is that right? Why did you take that approach? Also where did you record them?
Yes. They were all recorded onto the Amstrad Studio 100 that I called My Disco (after the Big Black song). Most were recorded in my bedroom. The song Aquanova was recorded over a 2 week period in summer 1993 at my parents house in Devizes when I was house sitting and looking after Bob for them as they were on holiday. I have really happy memories of long hot summer days writing and recording that song by myself. We took that approach because proper studios were so expensive and we had no money.
++ And how come there were no more releases by the band? Was anything planned?
As I touched on before, by the time Aquanova had been ignored by the music ‘biz’ we had had enough of being poor. We were not going to be musicians so we had to get jobs. Also the year recording Aquanova was pretty intense for me, I really LIVED that sound. I had feedback ringing in my ears constantly and I think I ‘overdosed’ on fuzz. I carried on recording for a few years after but I got more into electronic music. I was never able to combine working for a living and being in a band. It was one or the other for me.
++ And are there more songs recorded by the band? Unreleased ones?
Yes there are lots. There were 4 demo tapes before Aquanova, but in personal collections only, nothing online.
++ My favourite song of yours is “It’ll Keep Awhile”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?
‘It’ll keep awhile’ is an older song, dating back to early 1990. We did a few different versions of it. It is one of my favourites too, I really like the structure because it doesn’t repeat sections much and was always fun to play live. It was inspired by Sonic Youth and their song structures and the lyrics always make me think of that time, living in the city, in my bedsit. It’s basically about putting off what must be done, to enjoy yourself in the present.
++ If you were to choose your favorite In Heaven song, which one would that be and why?
Aquanova because of the happy memories recording it or Kodak, which just captured my mood so perfectly when I wrote it.
++ What about gigs? Did you play many?
Altogether more than 10, less than 20. I loved playing live when Rich and Andy were in the band but it was never the same with the drum machine.
++ And what were the best gigs that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?
We once played a gig in a place called Ton Pentre in the South Wales Valleys, organized by Darren Jones from White Lemonade Fanzine, https://www.whitelemonade.
++ And were there any bad ones?
Just dull ones that I don’t remember.
++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?
The only time I remember being mentioned on tv was the moment I found out Andy had left the band. It was actually announced on local tv. That was a very strange moment!! No interest from the radio in this country.
++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?
Local press only. But usually positive, I have to say. We were the South Wales Echo’s ‘Band to watch’ in 1992!!
++ What about fanzines?
Fanzines were the only thing that made the whole thing worthwhile. Real music fans, doing it for the love of music. I thank all of them from the bottom of my heart.
++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
For me, the first time the original line-up played together, our first gig and the moment the copies of the Aquanova EP arrived were the highlights.
++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?
In no particular order:- Gardening, playstation, fishing, football, moaning about the state of the world and continuing to exist in general.
++ I’ve never been to Devizes or Wiltshire so I’d love to ask a local. What do you suggest checking out in your town, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?
If you ever find yourself in Wiltshire visit Stonehenge. Avoid Devizes and visit Bath, which is a city founded by the Romans (Aquae Sulis). Devizes is famous for the Wadworths Brewery, but I don’t drink alcohol so I cannot necessarily recommend it!
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
Thank you so much for showing an interest in In Heaven. If anyone would like to hear re-mastered versions of the songs on Aquanova or anything else I have recorded since, I am starting to make them available here:- https://vasco-da-gamer.
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