03
Jul

I wrote about the great Australian band The -Ists who released just one record back in the 80s a long time ago. Happily I got in touch with Jack Robins and he answered a bunch of my questions. There might be some day a 2nd part for this interview as not all questions were answered, but I wanted to share this and make them public as it is proper indiepop history!

++ Hi Jack! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

Yes, I’m still involved with music. I do acoustic stuff in the alt-country/country folk area as a solo artist under the name Jack Robins (Jack is a nickname I’ve had since I was about 13) and also have an indie rock/pop band called The Idea of Light. With the former, I have an album out called Notes by Jack Robins and the Pretty Problems, available on all major streaming services and with the latter I’ve recorded four tracks but am preparing some more.

++ 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 from the radio in the early to mid 1960s (I am quite old!). My first instrument was guitar and I’ve stuck to it, hoping to improve. I wanted to sing, play guitar and write songs from fairly early on and that’s what I’ve been doing since, interspersed with dull things like making a living. I was a fan of the Beatles, Stones, Bee Gees, Who, Small Faces and some folk and blues from the likes of Buffy St Marie from the early days. After that, it was Hendrix, Cream, Traffic etc, but then punk came along and blew it all apart. I loved the Clash, the Jam, the Pistols but mostly Elvis Costello, of whom I remain an enormous fan.

++ Had you been in other bands before The -Ists? I read you were in The Units, right? Tell me a bit about your other bands, any releases?

Before the -ists, I had been in The Jaggels but my first serious band was The Units (not the ones from the US of course), who had one single, Baby, You Flirt b/w Grill Room. The -ists was put together in 1987 on a 10 month visit back to Adelaide from London, where I had moved in 1983 to try to further my musical career there (with a notable lack of success). I got drummer Craig ‘Max’ Rodda into the the -ists from the Screaming Believers and also Rees Hughes, the Believers’ first bass player and an ex-bandmate from The Jaggels. We played for some months as a three-piece and recorded ’Rose’ during that time. Some tracks were subsequently played on John Peel’s iconic BBC Radio One show the next year, after I got back to London.

++ What about the other band members? Are there any songs recorded?

You can hear Craig on loads of records from Adelaide, including of course all the Believers’ stuff and also the first Exploding White Mice album, Brute Force and Ignorance. Craig plays for my current band The Idea of Light.

++ Where were you from originally?

I’m originally from Adelaide – born and raised here – while Rees was original from Blackpool in the UK, where his dad was a professional sax player and had a variety show on Tyne Tees Television at one stage before emigrating, and Craig grew up in Broken Hill, NSW.

++ How was Adelaide at the time of The -Ists? 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?

When the -ists were playing around Adelaide, the main bands I can remember were the Screaming Believers, the Spikes, the Dagoes and the Mad Turks from Istanbul; there were obviously loads of others but I can’t bring them to mind at the minute.

++ How was the band put together? How was the recruiting process?

The band was put together simply through knowing the guys and saying ‘hey, do you want to help me play my songs?’ There were no lineup changes; we didn’t last long enough for that!

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name? It’s a very curious name to say the least…

The name came from a friend of mine’s observation that there were so many ‘isms’ about, which meant of course that there were loads of ‘ists’ about to practice those ‘isms’. It was to leave the first bit open for people to fill for themselves. Being so esoteric, it naturally led to a pile of misunderstandings.

++ You released in 1987 the “Rose” mini-album. It came out on Greasy Pop Records. I don’t know much about the label, I know it was local, but I was wondering if you could tell me a little more about them?

Greasy Pop was set up by Doug Thomas, who was in the Dagoes. I don’t know what the process was but he had released records by other groups and some compilations under the name of ‘An Oasis in a Sea of Noise). Doug sent me some records when I went back to London and I passed them on to John Peel, who played some tracks from some of them that I know of.

++ And so, how did you end up working with them. How did you catch their attention? Was it through a demo tape?

As far as catching their attention, Adelaide was (and is) such a small scene that we had to come across each other at some stage and he offered to release the LP if we covered the recording costs, which we did.

++ There are etchings on the runout grooves of the record saying “The Ists Light Shines” on the A side and “Inwards Every Time” on the B side. What’s the story behind these phrases?

The runout etchings I have no idea about. I guess someone did them in the pressing process. I had no idea they were there.

++ Also do tell about the artwork, the flower which is not a rose on the cover. Who made it?

The artwork was initially to be done by my nephew. He did a wonderful, realistic drawing of a rose, which wasn’t what I wanted at all, so with my left hand, I drew a really crappy one and did the lettering as well. I wanted that childish, naive, approximate look.

++ Are there unreleased songs by The -Ists?

There are loads of unreleased songs by the -ists, some of which I now do in The Idea of Light and others that will probably never see the light of day; but hopefully will!

++ Why were there no more releases by the band? Was there any interest from labels?

I took the record to some record companies when I got back to London and apart from one A&R guy at Polydor, didn’t really get much interest. I sent one to Tony Visconti and went to see what he thought and pick it up if he didn’t like it but the prick had binned it. Arrogant arsehole.

++ I read that there is a documentary called “Rock in a Hard Place”. On my previous blog pot i was asking if the documentary was worth tracking down? If the bands featured are mostly rock or there are other styles? And how many minutes we get of The -Ists? If you were prominently featured? Tell me a bit about this documentary!

There is the documentary A Rock in a Hard Place but the -ists aren’t on it. Like I said, we only existed for a few months in 1987 and there was certainly no footage of us.

++ Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?

As for what I’ve been doing since, it’s a long story, but it involves continuously writing songs, playing in London acoustic clubs and working as a secretary for various record companies and John Reid Enterprises, at the time Elton John’s management company (also Barry Humphries’ management, so I’m in a bit of mourning mode at the moment).

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I’ve also been doing some acting, most recently as Prospero in a production of the Tempest, went to university and got myself a PhD, and written a children’s book.

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Listen
The -Ists – There is a Light That Shines

27
Apr

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Thanks so much to Fabrice for the interview! I wrote about River, a superb indiepop project from Nantes, France, time ago on the blog. A few months ago he got in touch and shared with me some new music. It was nice to hear from Fabrice and listen to a bunch of new recordings he had made, especially some very nice covers of Sarah Records classic songs. It was a great opportunity of course for me to find out more and pointed him that I had written about River and I was very interested in doing an interview. Happily Fabrice said yes and here it is the complete interview. Great answers, with lots of details, I have enjoyed this one very much! Hope you do too!

++ Hi Fabrice! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

Hi Roque ! I’m fine, happy with my family, my children are growing, my work as history and geography teacher make me busy but I’m ok and music is always for me my only method to fight against the deep pessimism which is always  inside me. So I continue to write songs to believe and live happily until death.

++ You just recorded a bunch of Sarah covers. I was wondering how important was this legendary label for you?

I will always have a deep, fundamental, and very personal relationship with Sarah records. It’s linked with a very particular and intimate moment of my life.I was getting divorced, my soul was on fire and I was flooding the ground of my solitary walks with my salty tears and, at the same time, I discovered this new universe. I remember very well, I was in a Nantes record store called Tacoma and I was listening to stuff like Depeche Mode, Dead can dance or Front 242, I heard “when morning comes to town” field mice… I suddenly stopped in the middle of the store,went to see a friend who worked there and asked him “but what’s that sound???” . It was a revelation. I bought the field mice album, then everything that came out of the label…. 🙂

It was at this precise moment that I met Pierre Antoine Delpino, the boss of the Plastic pancake label and that alone, or with him and other friends, I sailed between France and England, discovering the performances of Heavenly and Field Mice. I subscribed to Sarah’s newsletters and met Keith. Blueboy’s Keith Girdler. He became a friend and was the first to listen to River’s early trials. It was him who encouraged me to make my music. I owe him everything.

I saw Brighter, Heavenly, Blueboy (obviously). Keith sent me photos of their concerts, I have concerts of them on old cassettes that he sent me… It was in this difficult period a ray of sunshine. Somehow the music of Sarah Records saved me from depression.

I attended the last concert of the label after the Sarah 100 in Bristol with Pierre Antoine, his boyfriend and a great girl called Anne Claire and with whom we did a few songs and a little way together 🙂

It seemed useful to me today to pay tribute to these people whom I met and who saved me. So with my friend Jocelyn who helps me in the production of these songs, I tried to put my heart…

++ So I take River is still very active! What can people expect in the near future from you?

I would love to see these songs considered good enough by a label to release them. It would be a dream to see my tribute materialize in this way. Unfortunately, today I don’t really have any real networks to help people discover these songs. So, I took advantage of our exchange to make a call 🙂

Otherwise, I will continue River indeed. FOREVER !!! I have a lot of new songs to play but, again, I don’t know who to send them to. It’s very frustrating and sad for me. I don’t know anymore, at 53 y.o, if there are still pop labels that would listen to what I do… 🙂

++ 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?

I think my earliest musical memory dates back to the late 70s.It’s the discovery of Leonard Cohen with my father. I was 11 or 12 years old and the magnetic beauty of the melodies, the (apparent) simplicity of the arrangements marked me a lot. Then it’s 1984 and the purchase of my first 7″ inch…

I was very excited to hold in my hands the sound of these four guys from Basildon that I had discovered through a clip on TV. Depeche Mode came into my life never to leave again. At home, we listened to a lot of “weird” bands which became references for me and which I still listen to. Dead can dance, Clan of Xymox, Laibach, Kraftwerk but also EBM (Electronic body Music) bands like Front 242 or Skinny puppy…And then there was the parents’ music, The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, the doors , the Velvet…classical music within particular the baroque music of Purcell or Handel…I really grew up in a very… heterogeneous and baroque musical universe… 🙂

My first “instrument” was the discovery of my voice. It was a bit magical. My brother taught me some guitar chords, I bought myself a keyboard in 1992. River was born 🙂

++ Had you been in other bands before River?

I played in two groups before embarking on the River project. My very first group was called “Alan’s book”. It was a rock/cold combo that allowed me to do my first concerts but above all to meet great people who are still friends today when I got kicked out of the band :)) I was too ” bourgeois”, I didn’t drink alcohol and I refused to consume illegal stuff…:)) And then I joined a noisy pop/Shoegaze/dream pop group called “Nos étés Trop Courts” (“Our Too Short Summers”). I discovered My bloody Valentine, Ride, Pale saints, Swervedriver and even if the experience was short, we did some nice concerts…very…noisy :))

If in the first group I tried to sing like Dave Gahan, the singer of Depeche Mode, the second showed me that I could go higher in harmonies. It prepared River in a way.

Like I said before, I got kicked out of the first band and they continued without me…but never released anything after that…just like the second band…We were just kids playing in the back of a garage and who thought they could reach heights… It was fun.

++ Where were you from originally?

I am from Nantes on the Atlantic coast of France. It is a city that I love deeply. She is undoubtedly a source of inspiration for me. I’m very close to the sea (about 45 minutes), my parents also live on the coast and every time I finish songs, I like to walk on the beach, headphones screwed on my ears. It is a city with an industrial past which has a strong cultural activity. Come when you want, I will welcome you with pleasure!

++ How was Nantes during the heyday of River? 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?

I’ve never really followed bands from Nantes, even though the musical activity there is quite intense.

There are artists however that I like like the little rabbits, Dominique A or Philippe Katerine. When I was young, there were great music stores (Tacoma, Fuzz…). It’s like concert halls… there were, until the turn of the 2000s, mythical places. There was “l’Olympic” which was THE Nantes concert hall where I was able to see Pulp, Blur, Suede, The divine comedy, Radiohead, Lush…And then there was a nightclub called “Le Floride” and which had the particularity of playing only “alternative” music, from cold to metal, from indie to twee. This is where I first met Keith from Blueboy. He was playing with Harvey Williams and the orchids in this tiny space…I sang “Self portrait” with them on stage there…it was amazing!

Today everything is standardized, soulless. There’s a great concert hall called the “Stereolux”, Le Floride still exists but only goes gothic or metal. I don’t go there anymore…and besides, I’m too old… :))

++ Was it always a solo project? Did you ever had other people being part of the band?

It’s very complicated. River is a “one man band” who dreams of working with others 🙂

I wish someone would write to me one day and say: “I would like to be part of River!!!!” your universe inspires me!!! I’m a singer, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, cellist and I want to create with you!!!” but I’ve never had this type of meeting :))

Even with the distance I could share River… But hey, that never happened. For some tracks on the Shelflife album, musicians intervened but that’s it. It wasn’t until Moon & River that I composed with someone…and it was great…I loved it…at the same time, being alone gives me the freedom to do what I want, when I want and I confess that the egos of band musicians annoy me a lot so, with River, I am both the megalomaniac singer, the tortured guitarist, the funny keyboardist… that’s fine with me… :)) or not..

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

When you are alone in a musical project, you need a space that looks like you and that inspires your musical project. So I set up a room at home which is my lair, my cave…

Apart from the instruments I own, I installed “my universe” there. My children’s toys, my collection of lamps from the 70s, my records, my CDs, my collection of old Apple computers :)). It’s a very “private” place, always super tidy (I’m a bit of a cleanliness and tidying fanatic), very often plunged into darkness…with indirect lights… I compose like a vampire. ..Actually River is a bit gothic :))

Since the beginning of River, the creative process has always been the same. It’s even scary 🙂 But I think there are a lot of myths and mythomania about the “creation process”…we all do the same, but sometimes you have to invent a mythology of creation…which I will say is not particularly innovative 🙂

Throughout the year, and as inspiration and life events arise, I write texts that I put away in a black pocket. Then when I decide to create something, I always start with a guitar/voice or piano/voice version. Then the contours of the atmosphere take shape and I start recording…I spend an infinite amount of time on sound today, something I didn’t do when the adventure started (you could hear it:) ). It must be said that the technical means are no longer the same. I often look at the 4 tracks on which I recorded the first songs. But at the time, there was a DIY cult, so we did what we could, with what we had. Today, I work on Imac and the sound coming out of my monitoring speakers is just sublime..

The last step is the voice. I have to be alone at home, which is rare. Especially since I can only sing with one (or two, or three…) glasses of a heavily peated whiskey 🙂 and I only sing at night…As you can imagine, the situation of “voice recording” is quite rare when you work and you have a family. This is the reason why I always leave for 10 days in July with friends who go on vacation at that time and for whom I “watch” the house 🙂 So there, I relocate my studio and I record all my voices, redo the arrangements…I’m in the middle of the countryside, in the middle of nowhere, and I go to bed…very late…

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

This is again a tribute to my friend Keith and his Blueboy band. They had just released this title that I love on Sarah records and I liked the idea of this river which can at the same time be a charming place where you have a good time with your friends, it can be very romantic but it t is also the place of torment, of overflowing, of a form of violence that engulfs everything.  River’s music is often interpreted as nice pop songs but if you pay attention to the composition or the strongly erotic content of the lyrics you can be surprised. There is always sex and a form of violence in the lyrics or in the musical creation. At least the tension.

++ You have quite an important discography, releasing many records. But I have never heard or seen the “Happiness & Smiles” CD. Can you tell me more about this release? Was it an album? A single? Who put it out? What year was it released?

Yes…too many titles and too many releases…right and left…I often regret it. Many titles are not very good and especially poorly produced. I just wanted to release my first self-produced songs…:) So I contacted a friend who had a recording studio at his house to make me a CD. Stéphane and I spent three months recording “Happiness & Smiles” and I think there are only two in the world… :))) I own one and Keith Girdler had one. We finished it in the summer of 96 I believe.Anyway, I was very proud. And the songs are good. Well I think 🙂

++ In 1998 you release “The Hairdresser” 7″ on the French label Plastic Pancake. How did you end up working with this label? How was your relationship with them?

The consecration for me. I cried so much when I received the disc. Someone trusted me. Pierre Antoine Delpino, the label boss contacted me and we became real friends. He was someone of exceptional sensitivity. He lived in Montauban in the South of France and for the first time I met people who listened to the music I discovered. He created a label which, for me, is a reference of the time. He had a real taste for beautiful things and his pop aesthetic corresponded completely to my universe. We spent many evenings together, we went to England together, we did a road trip to attend the SARAH 100 concert in Bristol and we met the whole twee pop community there. I owe a lot to “Pitou” (Pierre Antoine). I lost sight of him today and would love to find him again.

++ On the song “Happy Summer Nights” there are female vocals by someone called Sophie. Who is she? Was she in another band?

When I separated from my ex-wife, I went through a troubled period where I had a lot of experiences of different kinds. I walked the streets for a long time at night. I think I’ve become a little schizophrenic. I met many people, and one evening, I stopped in a bar to listen to a duo of musicians. Jean Charles (who would become my partner in “Moon & River” :)) and Sophie, his wife, sang pretty folk songs with two voices. We had drinks and I proposed to Sophie to do the 2nd voice on HSN…Alcohol helping, her husband agreeing…we recorded the next day…even though we weren’t did not know the day before :)). They continued to play together. They started a rock band that had some success called “Candle”…then they broke up, both in town and on stage. I never saw Sophie again.

++ Lighthouse Cassettes, a US label, released a tape called “Venus”with 8 songs in 1998 too. I have never heard of this label before if I’m honest. Who were behind it? Where were they located? How did they find about you, being so far in France?

That was what was amazing with the period of the late 90s. Overnight I received letters from different parts of the world, from people I didn’t know at all. :)) It seemed magic. People were writing to me. People were talking to me about “Plastic pancake”, people were telling me that people had heard songs from River….I’ve never met 99% of the people who have released songs from River :)) ).

There was at that time a form of effervescence in the creation “twee / Indie” which was incredible. We said we were in agreement and a few weeks we received about twenty hand-made audio cassettes…and that was it :)))

++ Another US label would also start collaborating soon enough, in 1999 Shelflife Records releases “Poseidon’s Girlfriend” 7″. I am again curious how did you end up working with Ed? And also did you ever get to travel to the US and meet?

I was talking earlier about “Plastic Pancake” but meeting Ed Mazzuco from Shelflife is probably the most surprising and incredible. When I had about thirty songs available, I “flooded” the Indie pop market :))

I had discovered the label with bands like “The Arrogants” and I was crazy about this label, its aesthetic… And one day I received this incredible mark of confidence. I knew that this label was very “elitist” and devoid of any real openness to styles other than Indie pop. However, it did not seem to me that my music could correspond to their expectations but it was like a dream. “What if one day I released an album on Shelflife???” The 7″ inch that I released on Shelflife was important because first it was on Shelflife and then because it was the moment when I wrote the first song on the one who still shares my life today and who is the mother of my two boys. Why “Poseidon’s Girlfriend”? …simply because I have a wife who swims five times a week and who is a mermaid who has to deal with water and ocean which is extraordinary. She was and is Poseidon’s girlfriend. Just after that, Ed sent me a list of 20 songs he wanted to release!!! shock ! It took me two weeks to recover…and the story doesn’t end there…He offered me to come and promote in the United States! So I went to the west coast, I played in Sacramento with the Arrogants…I sang one of their songs, they covered HSN with me… I played in a house facing the pacific and people were singing my songs !!! 🙂 me a little French! I landed in Los Angeles where customs held all my instruments, my suitcase…I had to buy new clothes, and I found my instrument two days before the first concert :)) ) It was an incredible experience for me! Unfortunately the story did not end very well. At the release of the album, all the titles of the album were upside down! none of the titles correspond to the original order…. I was furious! but that’s the story! Do not refer to the titles indicated on the cover. Disappointing for such a label! Nothing has been done to rectify this mistake! I’ve sent many songs to Ed since then but I believe this album will only be a “one-shot” and I regret it. It’s a pity that some labels haven’t evolved for thirty years. The music and the composition evolves. Indie pop remains in a form of sectarianism that I deplore, but I owe him a lot and would always be grateful to him. The cover is very nice too. No additional comments….

++ Plastic Pancake also released a 7″ of yours in 1999 that had a song called “Spiderman” on it. I guess you are a big fan of comic books? Is Spiderman your fave or is it another one?

That’s a fun question! I love Spiderman for his naivety, his stupidity and his “kitsch” side. It was really my state of mind at the time. I found myself a bit ridiculous sometimes with my “high-pitched” voice and my keyboard programming… Now that I’m getting older and I’m still interested in Marvel heroes, I admit that the darker side of Batman interests me much more. When is a Batman song? :)))

++ You also worked with the Italian label Best Kept Secret on a cassette album called “Once Upon a Time”. One thing I start to notice is that some of your albums include a lot of songs normally. Most bands like to keep it to 10, 12 songs max, but you had no problem to have 20+ songs. What was the thinking behind that?

This is an essential question. As I told you before, it’s very complicated. There was a time when a lot of people were interested in what I was doing and seemed very interested in what I was doing. And in fact, I don’t want to hide it, I was very proud of it.

It was very egocentric, almost egotistical. People asked me what I was doing if I had unreleased songs, if I agreed to release them… and it’s true that I was composing a lot at the time. So I was so complexed by my lack of talent (objectively) that knowing that my songs could be released somewhere touched me very sincerely. Was I aware that not all the tracks were very good, not very well produced? I just knew that I wanted to write songs, that I liked their style and that they all meant something strong to me…So I accepted…probably too much…One last thing…I’m so afraid of death and what I’ll leave after all this that I tell myself that my children will have a “consequent” trace of what their father may have done during his life. Sorry for this somewhat “psychological” outpouring. Maybe one day people I don’t know yet and who will be my descendants will listen to the tapes of Best Kept Secret or Blackbean & Placenta :))) It’s a very small trace that I want to leave for them.

++ In 2000 you release yet another album and yet another label, Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club. “…Is the Postman” includes some interesting song titles like “Brasilia”, “Juliette” or “River’s Song”. Curious what’s the story behind them?

You are asking me a question that I will only answer very partially. These three songs are arguably the most personal songs I’ve ever written “back then”. I wanted to write about three women who had marked my existence and I wrote lyrics that mean nothing, except for me..:)) The background is serious but I wanted to have the “kitsch” side offered by my short stories musical experimentations…I like this album with its badly produced side but it was the first time that for a majority of songs I tried the more “electropop” side of River”…and listening to it again always makes me to dance… :))

++ That same year your work with yet another label, Safari, on the “Strawberry Lipstick” 7″. This time it is a French label, closer to home. I have one record by this label, but I have no idea about who was behind or anything at all about them. Care telling me a little bit about them?

Matt & Noémie Hansen are great friends. Even though we don’t see each other anymore (they live in California), we keep an affectionate and essential contact for me. I think they released two references on “Safari”. Like “Plastic Pancake”, aesthetics are essential for them and I am aware of the gift they gave me by offering me to release this piece of electropop, which I still play today in concert :)).

They were both at the beginning of the 2000s the “encyclopedias” of Indie pop ” in Paris… They were people who knew all the groups, who welcomed them into their homes, who presented them to us… I met ‘They Go Boom‘, La Buena Vida’, ‘Le Mans’, ‘Watoo Watoo‘, ‘Caramel’, ‘Gypsophile’ thanks to them…

They are great people!

++ 2002 sees two more releases, the “Street of Desire” 7″ on Plastic Pancake and the self-titled album on Shelflife. One thing I start to wonder is how did the recording process work for you? Did you record everything by yourself? Did you work with a producer?

A very short answer: I always produced everything by myself on my 4 tracks 🙂 you can hear it sometimes… For the Shelflife album, the tracks were sent to the “head” producer of the label who cleaned everything up and offered some arrangements… I didn’t have much money at the time, hence my sincere surprise at such a “success”:))) (Irony)

++ Also wondering about the language of your songs. Correct me if I’m wrong, but most of your songs are in English though there are some that are in French. How did that work for you? When was a song written in English and when in French? Was it a conscious decision?

English imposes itself on me immediately. The fluidity of your language, the beauty of certain words and certain pronunciations and the “hype” side of the Frenchy who sings in English… everything is there! :))) More seriously my shyness and the fact that I can hide from my French listeners the brutality or the perversion of certain lyrics did me a good service…:)) now I don’t forbid myself to write in my language native…I do it today more and more but, at the time it was too difficult for me…Don’t forget that at the time RIVER wanted to conquer the world :)))

++ “Music for Top Models” was your last release as far as I know. This was a 2003 album on the German label Meller Welle Produkte. At this point you had worked with French, American, Italian, and Japanese labels. Was there any other contribution to another label from another country that I’m missing? Why do you think your music got to be so international? You put out so many songs, many records, that I wonder what do you think is missing for the band? And did you get any interest from other labels that for a reason or another didn’t happen?

I think at the time there was a real Indie pop community. It doesn’t really exist today. It must be so difficult to find the time to contact bands, to find out and, as I said before, a lot of labels don’t take a lot of “risks” anymore. We’ve all aged :)) and I think that people who take care of a label also have their family and professional life to manage…and it’s not an easy task.I would have loved to work with the Spanish labels that were so active (Siesta is probably my favorite label with Sarah). It didn’t happen but I think my music was too “DIY” and not produced enough, “clean”. It was popular in the first sense of the word but not “professional” enough. And the fact of being only a little guy all alone in his corner, without a group and without big means of production, it was not easy.

++ I think I can guess what the answer might be, but are there more unreleased songs by River?

Last summer, I put away my hard drive and I did the count: I wrote 559 songs from 1994 to today :)). I still have a lot of songs that will probably never be released. It’s a shame because if some are not really good, others really upset me and above all are much better produced. I gradually invested in professional equipment, I practiced English professionally and artistically, I worked a lot on my voice and composition. Now, I am open to all proposals and I would have to find people interested in listening to the selections that I could send. This is the big problem! :)) Help!

++ My favourite song of yours is “Happy Summer Nights”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

It’s also one of my favorites. It’s probably the first song I wrote for River. I was alone in a café in Nantes. My life was taking a boost. After a long dark period, I had just met my new partner and I tried to bring together both what I observed in this bar and the first love emotions I experienced with Anika, my Berliner who was to become the wife of my life. She was a German assistant in my high school and she had gone back to Germany…I was very sad…and then she came back and we’ve been together for 27 years…:))

++ If you were to choose your favorite River song, which one would that be and why?

This is a really, really difficult question. Compared to the time you are talking about in this interview, I would say “the hairdresser” because it was the one who made people dance during concerts… “the top model” because it’s really a hit that my French audience was singing at the top of their lungs or “Happy summer nights” because I consider it my twee song “par excellence” and it’s the first song I sang to Keith “Blueboy”… These three songs represent well my pop universes of the time… at the same time when I think of the song “Writing” and its funny clip… I tell myself that I sometimes have strokes of genius :))) in fact, you see I can’t answer you 🙂

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? And what were the best gigs in general that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share? And were there any bad ones?

Again, I have to distinguish the River period circa 1990/2000 and the current period. At the time, there were really incredible concerts, in Paris, Bordeaux, Rennes with my friends from Watoo Watoo, Gypsophile, Superflu. ..It was very pop, very “flower dresses”, striped t-shirts and bowl cuts :))) it was such a great universe…There was something very fresh, very naive…we were not afraid to dance, to laugh… Good for me it was still difficult to play in concert because all alone, I had to “juggle” so much between my keyboard, my drum machine, my guitars… It was quite stressful… My best memory of that time was a concert which was organized by my students in a huge room… and I found myself in front of the 1200 students of my high school… They were singing, dancing….it was incredible…And then there was Madoka, the president of the Japanese fan club of River who was there, Paul and Keith from Blueboy…….

Today I continue the concerts but i’m not alone. With Moon & River, we did wonderful concerts. In art museums, in private lofts, and many also in private homes who opened their gardens to us…It was very “flower power”…I regret that since we stopped with Moon. .. Horrible concerts? yes only one with Moon & River where we played at a market between a fishmonger and a butcher (the smell was terrible) and where we were scheduled from 1pm to 2pm….It was quite far from home and we didn’t have a single spectator :))) At the time I’m talking to you, I’m more on the composition of new songs and we have the project with Jocelyn to try to set up a real group…and come on! I’ll give you a scoop: it could be called “The Melancholic Men”…

++ There’s a moment when we don’t hear more from River. Probably around the early 2000s. What happened during that time until now?

I never stopped playing music but my two boys were born, my daughter was growing up and I wanted to spend time with my family.I got very involved in my job as a teacher…Life :)) And then there was “Moon & River” and these two albums that I find really magnificent. And that can be found on music platforms :))

Was there any interest from the radio? TV? What about the press? Did they give you any attention? What about fanzines?

Yes, I was lucky again! Through Madoka Fukushima in Japan and her fanzine “Quien” I was able to get a little visibility…And when the Moon & River albums came out, we were able to take part in many local radio shows which helped us always be well received… We did little acoustic sets… I really like the stress of the radio…

Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I’m 53 you know now so the family takes a lot of time…I’m a dad stressed by his children’s studies, like many :)) and we love going to the restaurant with my wife 🙂

Otherwise, I admit spending a lot of time on my job which is a vocation, an absolute passion. Music of course, at least one full day a week, I play tennis regularly and above all I have a blast playing badminton. I’m starting to have an interesting level. Otherwise, I’m part of a whiskey tasting club, my favorite drink :))

++ Had never been in Nantes soI’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?

Nantes is a magnificent city, rich in history and which has managed, a bit like Liverpool or Manchester, to keep its industrial heritage but by rehabilitating it. The fact that we are close to the sea means that we are turned towards the ocean and therefore we eat a lot of fish :)) which we accompany with fine quality white wines. We are also a region of vineyards, in particular with a wine called “Muscadet”. I launch here a very serious invitation: anyone who would come to France in my region would always be welcome at my place…

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

As I said, I am open to all proposals to discover my compositions. I dream of continuing the River adventure…I don’t know if there is a list of indie labels somewhere or if this interview will arouse some curiosity…in any case thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me the opportunity to look back on this adventure…

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Listen
River – Happy Summer Nights

29
Mar

Thanks so much to Dez Foley for the interview! I wrote about the great Dublin band Wilder a while ago on the blog. The band had released two 7″ singles and recorded a Fanning Session during their time. For some reason there’s very little info about them on the blog, so when Dez got in touch I asked if he was to share the story of the band, and happily said yes! Learn a little bit more about this great sounding Irish band!

++ Hi Dez! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

Hi Roque! I haven’t done much in the last few years, but I am currently working on some new songs for an Acton Bell release, an EP, which will be available on Bandcamp.com as soon as it’s ready.

++ 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?

First music memories are the records that were played at home. My older brothers and sisters were all record buyers, so we had a good selection of LP’s; things like Beatles, Abba, Bowie, Leonard Cohen, James Taylor.

I asked my parents for a drum kit when I was about 11 but this was a no-go, so they bought me a guitar instead. Initially, I had some lessons, but found it was better to work at learning to play on my own. I’m still not very good!

++ Had you been in other bands before Wilder?

I was in one band before Wilder, that was called The Big Weekend, around 1986/87. We played some gigs around Dublin. I don’t think we ever recorded or made any demo tapes, but my memory is very hazy, it’s a long time ago.

++ What about the other band members? Are there any recordings?

Not that I know of.

++ Where were you from originally?

I’m from Dublin.

++ How was Dublin at the time of Wilder? 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?

There was a lot happening in Dublin in the late 80’s/early 90’s. We gigged regularly and there were lots of venues around the city.

There was a band called Scale The Heights that we liked and played with a few times; but there were so many around.

Yes there were lots of good record shops, some of which are still around, but under different names; but most have gone now.

++ How was the band put together? How was the recruiting process?

Wilder were already a band before I joined and they had had a singer before me.

I was introduced to the band members by my then girlfriend; I went along to audition and carried on from there.

++ What instruments did each of you play in the band?

In Wilder I was lead singer.
Richard McDermott played guitar
Frank McGrath played drums and Bill Crawford played bass.
Later we had Stephen Owens join on keyboards.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

We practiced regularly, a few times a week. At first songs came out of “jam” sessions with the band, but later myself and Richard (Richie) wrote together, or I’d write separately,

Then we would bring the basic idea to Bill and Frank and they’d add their parts.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

They had the name already, so I don’t know the origin.

++ Your first release I think was “Babel Road” 7″ on Oedipus Records in 1990. I have never heard of this label before. Can you tell me a bit about them? Or perhaps it was yourselves self-releasing?

Oedipus was our own label just for the Babel Road single. Prior to that we had recorded demo tapes, but I think we felt we might get more attention if we had a physical record.

++ On this record you worked with Pat Dunne at Sun Studios. How was that experience?

Yes we had done our first demo with Pat at Sun in 1989 and he was a great engineer; a really nice guy who we got on well with.

Babel Road was produced by Paul Byrne and Martin Clancy who had had some success in the Irish band, In Tua Nua. It was a great experience working with them.

I played again with Paul in more recent years in The Drays; a band fronted by singer/songwriter Stephen Ryan (Stars of Heaven, The Revenants).

++ This 7″ has a cool sleeve made by Siobhan Hyde. Did you art direct or how did that sleeve come about? How did you know Siobhan?

The sleeve was all Siobhan’s design; I’m not aware of the band having any input with that, but I may be wrong.

Siobhan was studying Art at the time and was the girlfriend of Richie, our guitarist.

She also designed T-Shirts for us and she designed our demo tape covers which we would sell at gigs.

++ Prior to releasing this 7″, had you made demo tapes? Or was the 7″ the first time you were recording at a studio?

No we had done some recording before the 7”.
Our first demo was done in 1989.

++ Speaking of demo tapes, do you remember how many you made and what songs were on them? I know there was a 1988 one with the song “Get Happy”.

We did quite a few over the years and I don’t remember them all. I probably only have copies of one, possibly two, myself.

The first demo we did with Pat Donne had a good song called Harvest House, which featured Cello. I always regretted that we didn’t re-record that song or make more use of it, but that’s the way things go.

++ You released one 7″ on the Danceline label with the songs “Can You Shake” and “Dark Heaven” in 1991. Was wondering how you end up working with them? How was the relationship with the label?

I can’t remember how that came about, but Danceline was a big enough label in Ireland at that time; they had a good profile.

They were very nice people and very easy to work with and they liked the band.

I’m sure we must have approached them, but I can’t remember the details any longer.

++ Aside from these two releases you appeared on the compilation “Fresh Evidence – New Exhibits from Ireland”. Is this your full discography or am I missing anything?

I think that’s the full discography for Wilder.

++ Was there any interest from other labels at the time? Maybe a big label?

We never had any label interest. We did a showcase for Mother Records (label funded by U2) once, but nothing came of that.

We were approached by Gerry Cott (ex Boomtown Rats) who was interested in managing us. He came to see us play in Dublin and we travelled to meet him in the UK.

He did offer us a contact but as it would have involved us moving to the UK, we decided not to accept.

Who knows what would have happened if we’d gone to the UK???

++ I discovered your music on the Fanning Sessions blog. So I was wondering if you got a chance to do a Fanning Session? And how important was Dave Fanning for the band and Ireland music fans in general.

Yes we did record a session for Dave Fanning’s radio show, which the Fanning Sessions Blog found a few tracks from.

I’ve no memory now of that recording session!

Dave Fanning was like Ireland’s John Peel; he was very influential and was a real champion of new bands and new music from all over Ireland.

++ My favourite song of yours is “Babel Road”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

It was a new song at the time; lyrically it’s just a kind of “stream of consciousness” song, in that it’s not really about anything.

Paul Byrne and Martin Clancy were a big help in working on the arrangement of that song, so that we had well defined parts and hooks and a big chorus.

Paul also added great backing vocals.

++ If you were to choose your favorite Wilder song, which one would that be and why?

I think my favourite would be Dark Heaven, from our second 7”, which I always thought was a very strong song.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

We played a lot of gigs! And we were lucky to get to play outside Dublin also. We played in Cork, Galway and Sligo and outside Ireland, we played in London and did a weekend of gigs in the Isle of Man.

++ And what were the best gigs in general that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

The Isle of Man weekend was a favourite for me; we had a great time. We played over two nights in a really cool venue, which was run by an Irish couple. We had to play two sets a night, one early, one late, which we’d never done before, so it was a great experience.

Plus we got to hang out in Douglas for a couple of days; it was a really nice time.

++ And were there any bad ones?

I remember the Sligo gig wasn’t a good experience, but luckily there weren’t many bad ones.

++ When and why did Wilder stop making music?

The band stopped around 1992/93. I don’t recall a specific reason except that perhaps we were running out of steam and all were a bit fed up.

++ I read that the band ended up changing their name to Bliss and recorded a demo. Was Bliss essentially the same as Wilder or were there some differences?

That’s correct; I think the name change was just to try to inject some new enthusiasm into the band; it was the same line up. We recorded a demo as Bliss with John Scott in The Factory in Dublin, but no releases came out of it and we never played live as Bliss.

++ Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?

Yes I went on to join The Sewing Room in 1994, then Crumb in 2003 and then formed Acton Bell in 2014. Around 2014/15 I joined The Drays for a time and recorded and played gigs with them as a back-up singer.

++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?

Wilder did quite a lot of TV at the time; we were lucky to get some live TV appearances on national shows. We made promo videos for Babel Road and Can You Shake which featured on some TV shows also.

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

We did get some press, not a huge amount but some good reviews overall.

++ What about fanzines?

None that I’m aware of.

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

I don’t know if we had any specific highlights as such. We enjoyed being able to make records/videos and play a lot of gigs, which we always enjoyed.

We put a lot of time and effort into the band over the years.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I’m also a big film fan and had a film blog for a while; focuspullr on WordPress, which is still accessible.

I’m also a big reader.

++ Had been in Dublin for a few days but 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?

I guess I would suggest some usual touristy things in the city like the Guinness Tour, Trinity College and the Book of Kells; there are lots of excellent galleries to check out.

Also a trip to the harbour town of Howth is a must for any fans of seafood. It also has great walks with amazing views over Dublin Bay.

And local pubs like The Cobblestone, The Long Hall and Grogan’s are all worth checking out for great pints of Guinness and music!

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Nothing except to say thanks Roque; it’s been a bit of a memory jog looking back, but good fun also!!

Take care.

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Listen
Wilder – Babel Road

19
Jan

Thanks so much to Marcos Dinsdale for the interview!! I wrote about the obscure late 80s, early 90s band Full Cry on the blog some time ago. I had no clue about this band, I knew some of their releases and few other details. Happily Marcos got in touch and was up for answering all my questions! Hope you all enjoy this great conversation and discover thee music of Full Cry!

++ Hi Marcos! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

Yes. I’ve been recording an album with ‘Barrel Fever for the last 8 years ! – songs –  Elmer Thud – &  Fifteen Pounds  . We spent 20 yrs talking about doing it, and the past 8 yrs on and off, more off than on to be honest, actually doing it. We have 9 out of 10 songs finished and recorded, we also wrote 5 new songs this summer. There’s some absolutely cracking songs, but we have a strange on / off working relationship, we’ve had breaks of 2 years at a time before re-grouping. It’s far from conventional way of making music, but the results are really good.

++ 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?

I got a bass when I was 15. Was a huge fan of the Jam, their music was what really motivated me to learn and want to play, I took some basic lessons with a guitar teacher for a few months about basic bass theory, 18 months later was playing in a covers band playing a lot of Jam songs playing in pubs from the age of 16-ish.

++ Had you been in other bands before Full Cry? What about the other band members Are there any recordings?

As mentioned earlier, I joined a Mod type band in 1987 when I was 16 called the Persuaders. We did a lot of covers with a few of our own songs. We weren’t great but you have to start somewhere, I got some valuable – sometimes tough, gigging experience from it, we certainly played in a few wrong places. The band ended a couple of years later when 2 of us came to blows after a gig.

++ Where were you from originally?

Jason, Pik , Marcos, Howard – we were all from born, raised and lived in East Hull. Andrew Doyle (2nd Guitarist 1991 / 92) originally from Reading and had been living in Hull for many years.

++ How was Hull at the time of Full Cry? 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?

I think it was a very good local scene that really just seemed to blossom over the next several years, seeing more and more local venues putting bands on other than just the Adelphi. ‘Where ?’ magazine – purely based around the local music scene arrived around 1991, local band compilation tapes, battle of the bands competition were all yearly things. There were some good secondhand record stores – Offbeat, Normans place, East Coast Music, – which I worked at for 5 years – I wrote a lot of the music from ‘Howards End’ in the back of the shop on a guitar that was in there.

++ During those late 80s there were many great indiepop bands from the UK. Would you recommend some obscure bands I might have missed?

On the Hull Scene there were lots of really good bands, too many to mention – favourites of mine – Giantkind particularly whom we gigged with a lot, had great songs, Secret of Life – a very unique sounding band, I enjoyed a lot. Indigo Trashcan were one of Hulls biggest local bands, and were a great live band. Milkfloat (aka Death by Milkfloat) were a very good 3 piece band with their own sound, they were around a number of years and had a few records out, all worth having a look for.

++ How was the band put together? How was the recruiting process?

Jason & Pik were best pals during senior school years. I met both Jason and Pik on a 2 yr graphic design course, we were all straight out of school. Howard had been an old school acquaintance of Jason’s. Howard had been playing guitar for a number of years, Jason had been learning drums for a couple of years. By 1989 I was looking for a new band, Jason was keen and told me Pik was interested in having a go at singing, it seemed to come together pretty effortlessly, had a first rehearsal doing some covers and it went well enough, and I remember the original material started happening very quickly.

++ What instruments did each of you play in the band?

Pik – Vocals, Howard – Guitar, Marcos – Bass, Jason – Drums. We thought we needed 2 guitarists for a while, and auditioned quite a few people for the 2nd guitar role. We ended up getting stuck for a few rehearsals with a Clapton type blues rock player who seemed to think he was part of the band, each week it got harder to try and tell him he wasn’t. We eventually found Andrew who was really into our songs, he was a good fit on all levels and joined to play lead guitar. It worked really well on some songs but on others we couldn’t get it working quite right with the 2 guitars.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

We’d rehearse once a week, at one point it was about 3 times a fortnight – dependent on funds – we were mostly all unemployed. We’d all be working on song ideas at home during the week and bring any to rehearsal , Pik always had his notepad with him so would always be writing lyrics on the go. We would spend a lot of time jamming at the rehearsal, whenever Pik heard something he liked, he would reach for his notepad and start singing lyrics he had written. There’s always a magic in these moments when everyone’s creative input collides and creates something completely new.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

We had a guy – Adrian, who used to come hang around at rehearsals – take photos, help with equipment, stop and start the tape recorder etc. He was really quiet, but also a real character who lived his life by his own rules, very into watching and photographing local bands. Full Cry was his suggestion from a list of names, we all liked it and none of us had thought of anything better, it was a pretty strong name.

++ You didn’t put out any proper releases, just demo tapes. Why was that? Was there any interest from labels at any point?

Yeah, again due to funds, like most bands at the time, it was just cassette based releases with handmade photocopied covers, lol. Very few local bands made vinyl or CD’s. We weren’t making any great efforts to get record company interest, I would send the occasional tapes out, but again all this cost money we didn’t have. I did get Andy Ross (head of Food Records) call me at home on 2 separate occasions after sending a tape to them, he liked the songs and our sound, and wanted to be kept up to date on anything else we recorded. As a lot of these record label people were at the time, they wanted to come see you play as long as it was London, which was never going to happen. He’d not long since signed some band called Blur at this point.

++ And did you ever consider self-releasing?

No, anything beyond cassette release just wasn’t financially viable to 3 unemployed lads from Hull.

++ The first song I know from you is “Seashell Michelle”. This song appeared on a tape called “Tales from the Riverbank”. Do you remember anything about this compilation tape? How did you end up there?

I got to know the guy – Chris Warkup through the local music scene and playing some gigs with his then band at the time, he became quite a bit of a gig organiser on the local scene and used to put these local compilation tapes together every couple of years, we missed out being on the first one but I think were on each one after that.

++ Your songs ended also on a few more compilation tapes like “Nice 1” and “Now That’s What We Call Hull”. Were these tapes compiled by the same people? And what about the bands in all of these compilation tapes? Were you familiar, or friends, with them? Was there a tight-knit scene?

Yes, Chris Warkup was behind all these compilations, they seemed to get more popular with each release. They were a really good idea, it got bands familiar with each other’s music, got them talking to and supporting each other. We had people coming to see us because they liked our songs(s) from these tapes and we also sold quite a few of our own tapes on the back of appearing on these compilations, as I imagine many other local bands did. They were very healthy for the local scene and proceeds went to charity from them.

++ In 1992 you released a self-titled tape with 5 songs, “High with You”, “Melted”, “Seashell Michelle”, “None the Wiser” and “Brutal Children”. Was this your first demo tape? Do you remember how many copies you made? And were your demo tapes mainly for promotion purposes or you also used to sell them at gigs?

Yeah, I’m amazed you know the detail of this !. This was our first ‘release’ , I’m pretty sure that our first release ‘Full Cry’ was run off on a double tape deck on TDK C46 cassettes, as and when required, so not that many of these were really ever put out there. It was all quite a poppy, jangly guitar bunch of tunes, recorded in various studios – hence the varying sound across the songs. A couple of those songs had been previously recorded a couple of times before we got something we were happy with. As with all our Cassette releases there was always a couple of songs from each that never made it onto the finished tape, and were not released, as we weren’t 100% happy with either the song or the mix. This first release was us finding our feet, we were young and new to recording studios. This was our only release were we had 2 guitarists in the band (Andy Doyle & Howard Smith). All our tapes released after this were professionally duplicated, cut to size and with printed labels at a local studio. We moved on from playing these songs live fairly quickly, only ‘Brutal Children’ from that cassette survived in the set list over the years, it was such a great song to end a gig with and popular with the audiences. We were always being told by people how they loved ‘Seashell Michelle’ and ‘High with You’ – as they’d discovered us on the local compilation tapes, and they were often very  disappointed we didn’t play them anymore live after a while. ‘Seashell’ particularly always felt like a difficult song to play live for some reason. We recorded that one twice, the second one is an extended much more polished version than the one from the ‘Tales from the Riverbank’ tape. ‘High with you’ we recorded 3 times !, the first one was our first time in a studio so was extremely basic and never released, come to think of it, I don’t think the 2nd version was either

++ In 1993 you released another tape with 5 original songs, “My Angel Died a Radio Death”. Then in 1995 you had “Confidence with Asthma” and in 1995 “Howard’s End”. Have I mentioned all the tapes you put out or am I missing any?

‘My Angel Died a Radio Death’ – We were back to being a 1 guitarist band – Andy had left, maybe with the exception of Brutal Children and a couple of other songs where the 2nd guitar really gave it some extra edge, we just never totally got full potential of having the 2 guitars in the band. Howard was starting to use distortion and really starting to take on the lead guitar role more, we were starting to write rockier songs at this point whilst still remaining tuneful. Also starting to utilise studio ideas more.

‘Confidence with Asthma’ – was a real kitchen sink collection of songs. Definitely our most interesting, creative and slightly off the wall period. It was all over the place stylistically ie : – an Acoustic track with a Mandolin (Razorwire) , a 9 and half minute spaced out rock tune (Headhum) , a 2 minute comedy-esque Jazz type number (Jealous), to name some of the songs. A lot of songs were ‘winged’ in the studio from half formed ideas, the playing is sloppy at times – we never played to click track, but I think it has a charm for it, there;s a lot of humour in this batch of songs and certainly dare I say, a ‘Confidence’ to what we were doing now.

‘Howards End’ 1995 – Howard (Guitar) had come to the ‘End’ with Full Cry, he wasn’t feeling it anymore and left amicably, it seemed like such an obvious choice to call the tape !. Pik, Jason and myself continued rehearsing, I was playing guitar for the time being and we wrote some new songs pretty quickly and effortlessly. We recorded them with just the 3 of us. We had some help from Stu (Rich Rags / Sugarkill) on Guitar duties for ‘Plastic Girl’.

++ You have some fun song titles and I was wondering where that humour came from? Also speaking of songs, I take you were fans of Star Wars as you wrote “Born in Time for Star Wars”?

Ha, yes were a right set of star wars nerds, I will actually take credit for that title. I think it was something I said and Pik liked it. All other titles, and all lyrics were always Pik’s. There was a lot of humour in many his lyrics and song titles, they could be quite serious and heavy – Brutal Children , Doubt, with some real depth to them and then equally also humorous and sarcastic too – Plastic Girl, Hand, Jealous.

++ And also other than the 3 compilations I mentioned, are there any other compilations you were featured on?

Yeah, we appeared on possibly the first CD based Hull band compilation – ‘Hull Visual’ I think it was called, we had ‘Plastic Girl’ on there. This was the very beginnings of Rewritable CD’s, circa 1996.

++ Oh! And where did you usually record your songs? Did you work with a producer or did the band produce the songs?

Early on we recorded at a studio outside of Hull, in Gilberdyke. From ‘My Angel Died a Radio Death’ 1992 onwards we always recorded at local Hull community studio – The Warren, were would do most of our recording with different engineers over the next 5 years, often with very mixed results – the final mixes weren’t always quite up to what we wanted. On a few occasions we went and re-recorded songs again because we just weren’t happy with what we’d got, on some occasions some recordings were never included on our tapes because we just weren’t happy with them. After a while we ended up eventually sussing out the good studio engineers at the Warren and always tried to get them to do our sessions.

++ My favourite song of yours is “High with You”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

Oh you’d have to ask Pik about that, all the lyrics were all his, and very open to interpretation, He could always explain them all, often quite deep, and often not what you thought they were about. ‘High with You’ was possibly the 2nd or 3rd song we ever wrote as a band. We recorded that song 3 times, each one an improvement on the last. The only version we put out was the one you will know.

++ If you were to choose your favorite Full Cry song, which one would that be and why?

Very tough question to choose a favourite from 8 years of songs. I particularly love the last few songs we recorded in 1998 (M07S Stream MO7S (SLOW) – Full Cry by Marcos Dinsdale | Listen online for free on SoundCloud  , Street Stories Stream Street Stories – Full Cry by Marcos Dinsdale | Listen online for free on SoundCloud  , Bluesmoke) which most people won’t have heard, as we never properly released them in any way, I think we were still evolving even after 8 years and it was good to end on a strong note, although we didn’t know it was the end at the time.

From the earlier stuff – ‘Headhum’  Full Cry – Headhum – YouTube – 9.5 minutes of epic sounding laid back floaty bass and guitar. We went in the studio with 4 minutes of song and jammed the final 5 minutes there. We were not very good at knowing how to finish songs, and had to make up endings on a few occasions in the studio, but not ever to this extreme. If we’d even tried to re-record this song, we would never have captured it better than we did here, it was totally different every time we played it live too, the second half of the song just became on onstage jam.  ‘ All be the same’, ‘Doubt’, from the early days – great songs and always good songs to play live.

Overall I’m probably most particularly proud of ‘Plastic Girl’ (29) Full Cry – Plastic Girl (promo) – YouTube – it’s a pretty timeless tune, the recording and mix came out spot on. Pik’s lyrics are more relevant now than ever. It’s got melody, hooks, structure, a great vocal and killer guitar riffs played by Stu from local Glam Punk giants ‘Rich Rags. We were without a guitar player in the band (Howard had left) , I’d been playing bass and guitars on our new songs we were recording but couldn’t quite get what I had in my head for ‘Plastic Girl’, it was a power pop / punk tune and the guitar really needed to deliver, it occurred to me Stu would be the ideal guy for the job, he got to grips with the song after us playing it through once for him at a rehearsal and he knocked it out the park like the total pro he is. It was extremely satisfying for a song we’d been wrestling with on and off for nearly 2 years.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

Gigs were occasional, could be a couple a month, but then a couple of months without one. There were a few years during the mid-90s when the Hull scene was extremely healthy and there were several places putting on local bands most nights – Adelphi, Blue Lamp, the Room being the main ones, as well as a handful of pubs that put bands on often, you could be watching Travis playing to 50 people one week, Catatonia the next week, the Cranberries supporting some local band without any inkling how huge some of these would go on to be within a year or two. By the very late 90s it was pretty much again back to being the Adelphi as the only place to play.

++ And what were the best gigs in general that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

I remember our last gig pretty well. We didn’t know it was our last gig at the time. It was boiling hot July, or possibly August Saturday night at the Adelphi. I remember I was on antibiotics for Tonsillitis, obviously I shouldn’t have been drinking alcohol at all, but gigs to me were always about having fun, so too many beers, as often were drank before going onstage. It was our first and last gig with our New (Howard replacement) Guitarist – Steve No.1. It was just a really good, fun gig – very sweaty looking at photos of it, Pik ended up on the floor at some point. We even bizarrely finished the set of a jam of Rebel MC ‘Street Tuff’ !. It was a great way to finish our live career.

++ And were there any bad ones?

If you look up ‘Bad Gig’ on Google, I’m pretty sure ‘Full Cry at the Stage Door – Scarborough’  would come up top of that search. Well, it ought to if it doesn’t.  It was a trip to the Seaside on a coach with friends, fans, and our pals – local band – Ultra Violet Circus. We’d done this type of jaunt previously a couple of times – hired a coach, sold our own tickets for it making it a day out at the seaside and playing the gig on the night. On this occasion, weed, and far too much beer was involved in the performance. The venue was upstairs and like a greenhouse. Both guitars were totally out of tune for the whole gig, we were all at least a bit wasted or very wasted. There was a recording of it, there’s a song where I forget how to play it halfway thru and stop playing for some of it, the onstage sound was terrible, couldn’t hear anything we needed to, it was just a sweaty, out of tune, out of time horrendous mess. To top it all, the local music magazine editor from ‘Where’ magazine was there specifically to review it, I had to do some serious begging that he didn’t print a review of it.

++ There’s of course a legendary venue in Hull, The Adelphi. I was wondering how important it was for you as a music fan and for the band?

The Adelphi is one of the few most legendary and important venues in the UK, you can’t understate the importance of it. Starting in the early 80s, there’s not many venues, still going that can claim to have had the likes of Radiohead, Pulp, The La’s, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Oasis, Green Day to name a handful of bands grace their stage, many of those names would play on a regular basis over the years before making it big.

++ When and why did Full Cry stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?

No dramatic ending, just life quietly taking over I suppose. By 1998, we were getting older and finally starting to be more responsible I guess – Full time Jobs / University courses / Uni degrees and we were just not getting together very often. Though we’d got another new guitarist, another Steve, to replace the previous Steve!. He was from across the river, so again co-ordinating rehearsals with him wasn’t always very easy. He was much younger and very keen and played some great guitar on our last few recordings (M07S, Street Stories and Bluesmoke) (29) Full Cry – Street Stories – YouTube

++ Has there been any Full Cry reunions?

No. Well, sort of a half reunion, for just one song in the USA !. Andrew (2nd guitarist) has lived in South Carolina USA since the mid-90s. We reconnected about 15 years ago and I went out to see him a couple of times, we put a covers band together on one occasion, rehearsed twice and played a gig in a dive bar in Charleston USA in 2009. In the middle of the set of covers we played Full Cry’s – ‘Plastic Girl’ –  Andrew really liked the song and wanted to do it, even though he had long left the band by the time we had written that. The yanks are a very lively and enthusiastic crowd, it was definitely one of the most fun gig’s I’ve played, it was a very crazy night in many ways, the bits that I can remember. Other than that occasion, no, never discussed any kind of reunion. Would be fun though definitely. Weird thing is I can still remember how to play the bass parts to nearly all of the songs, from 25 – 30 years ago , but yet honestly can’t remember how to play a lot of the songs I’ve written and recorded in the last few years !.

++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?

No, back then local Radio didn’t really do any kind of local bands feature and certainly wouldn’t play anything from a cassette. Unlike today where it is extremely easy to get played, play live on air and get onto local radio with your music.

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

We had local gig reviews several times and some reviews of our cassettes. We just weren’t that motivated to go out of our way to get ‘featured’ in stuff. There was a bit of an ‘in crowd’ and ‘favourites’ circle to much of the local scene, we knew we were outsiders from it and were ok with that. We formed an alliance with a couple of other bands who were similarly on the outside – Giantkind, Ultra Violet Circus, and would gig with these bands often. We were content within ourselves, weren’t trying to please anyone and certainly not competing with anyone trying to be “Hull’s next big thing” like so many bands were.

++ What about fanzines?

There was a local Hull magazine – ‘Where?’ magazine that ran for a few years. Like a few things during those times , It sort of came along at the right time and lasted for the right amount of time, I’m pretty sure most people who were in band bought it and supported it, Tim Joseph did a great job pretty much singlehandedly putting it together every couple of months.

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

For me personally, simply just lasting as long as it did – 8 years of writing some great songs, always evolving musically and the friendships that came with it are the highlights for me.

++ Never been to Hull, would love to visit some day. So I’d love to ask you what would 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?

The old town in Hull is great for very old pubs and general history – Transport and streetlife museums, William Wilberforce’ home are all located there. The old town is used regularly now for Victorian based TV and movie shoots nowadays – Enola Holmes, Victoria etc, due to it’s relatively still original and unmodernised period buildings. Hitchcocks restaurant in the old town must be tried – (you need to book) is unlike anything anywhere, and has been going since the early 90s, maybe even late 80s. There’s a nice (modern-ish) Marina nearby , with Humber street – which in recent years has become a major arts area and has a large music festival each summer there. You have to have a ‘Patty’ from a fish and chip shop, fairly unique to Hull. Fifteen minutes’ walk just out the town centre to the DeGrey st for an Adelphi visit – explore Newland avenue just off DeGrey st – which has established itself as one of the main areas for eating and drinking in Hull in recent years.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks for discovering Full Cry and showing a detailed knowledge and genuine interest in our obscure 90s music. It’s mind boggling how stuff we put out on cassettes nearly 25 – 30 years ago has gotten into your hands and has also found it’s way onto the internet. It’s been a lot of fun revisiting the music, the memories and the times doing this, thank you.

Photos shared by Marcos:

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Listen
Full Cry – High with You

11
Jan

Thanks so much to Michael Tiley-Evill for the interview! The Sun Set Strip was an 80s band that didn’t release any records but recorded many songs in demo form. For many it will be interesting to know that this was a pre-Action Painting! band as it featured Andy before he was in the well-known Sarah band. It is a bit of an obscure band, so I asked Michael, some time ago, to do this interview and learn more about this project!

++ Hi MIchael! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Still making music?

Yes, sorry for such a long time to reply but I’ve never been a fan of being interviewed, so always try and get others to do it!

I don’t ever want to seem rude so this time i’m going for it.

Yes since SunSet Strip with Andy (Action Painting!, Socialist Leisure Party), Matt (The Music Liberation Front Sweden, Milton Underground Resistance, Pigeon Head, Copernicus Rice), Ben, Dave, Adrian (The Music Liberation Front Sweden, Eastney Droners), Ali (Paul Groovy and the Pop Art Experience), Andy, Stu (Gunk).

I have been in Babalu, TheUltraWideBand, The Sleeping Flies and The Music Liberation Front Sweden.
Also had labels Electronic Watusi Boogaloo that we done with Kindercore and now I run Shambotic and work with Old Bad Habits

++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?

John Peel on an old radio tape player when sailing late at night with my family.
New Order, Joy Division, The Fall, OMD, The Cramps, Gong, The B52’s.

I also loved record shops and album art sucked me in.

My first instrument was a guitar which I taught myself watching TV.

++ Had you been in other bands before Sun Set Strip? If so, how did all of these bands sound? Are there any recordings?

I was in the 14th Day of May with Gavin which turned into SSS whilst at school.

++ Where were you from originally?A town called Fareham with a creek right in the middle of the south coast of England

++ How was your town at the time of Sun Set Strip? 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?

It’s alway been a cultural dead zone but actually had a few fantastic record stores and staff whilst growing up in the early 80s. For example Tony who worked at HMV who now manages Thee Lonely Hearts who are releasing stuff on my Shambotic Label.

None of us were really in to drinking, maybe the odd smoke. So Andy, Matt, Ben, Adrain, Dave and later (Richard from Jane Pow) and I used to hang just play records and talk endlessly about music. This was pre Sarah and very early in Creation times. Post Punk, Paisley Underground and  Psychobilly was quite popular at the but none of us really fitted in which is probably what attracted us all to each other.
Music moved much faster then than it does now!

Later on the scene really kicked off with the J&MC, Bodines, Mighty Lemon Drops, June Brides, early Primal Scream and the Jingle Jangle version of My Bloody Valentine. Also the great stable of early creation bands Jasmine Minks, Loft, Revolving Paint Dream, Meat Whiplash, Biff Bang Pow and my favs Slaughter Joe.

++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

The band started at school and as will all future endeavors your in the band/community/collaboration if your there!
I still feel some of the most important people in bands aren’t actually playing anything and quite often don’t get credited but without them the magic wouldn’t have happened.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

I never really think of things as creative or a process. They are just moments in time which thankfully we can save due to modern technologies.
It a experience that transcends human life. When something comes together, whether it be bashing in time or adding the correct herbs to a pot, when you look at your fellow collaborators and feel that magic it truly is some magical.

We practiced everywhere from bus stops to bedrooms.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name? 

I’m not sure tbh Byrds, Love, Doors I think Andy may have came up with it, pretty sure it wasn’t me even though some say it was.

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

To be honest our influences go all over place as we are complete music geeks. I think the only things that didn’t influence SunSet Strip would be 70’s Prog and mainstream pop in the early/mid 80’s

++ I am only aware of 4 songs that are now available online as the “Dirty Patches Bubblegum Stars” demo. Was this the original name of this demo? Was it released as a demo tape back in the day?

Yes we re-released this under The Music Liberation Front Sweden moniker when we released we were all back in a band again.

It was supposed to be a flexi that would come with a Bite Back compilation (which has become iconic in the Portsmouth area) but being all 15/16 and they wanted us to pay half, paper rounds just didn’t pay that much sadly so never happened.

++ These songs were recorded in 1986, for many year 0 for indiepop. The start of the C86 sound. What do you think about it? Did you feel part of a scene then?

No we didn’t feel part of it at all but then Andy and Lee went on to become Action Painting who recorded on Sarah it made us realise we were possibly a quiet part.

++ Where were these songs recorded? Did you have previous experience at recording studios?

We recorded them in what is now a legendary Portsmouth studio called Crystal Rooms, we had earlier experience recording with a Hells Angels band Fester and the Vomits but that’s a whole other story!

++ Was there any interest by any labels to put your music out?

We didn’t really care about releasing it at the time! Hanging and making a noise with our best friends is all we cared about

++ And how come there was no releases by the band? Could have self-released maybe?

We were just too young TBH, we all went on yo actually release but for all of us it’s always been more about the connection than releasing anything.

++ Aside from these four songs that are now available digitally are there still unreleased songs by the band? Were there other demos?

Yes several 🙂

++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “Just for a While”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

Pretty sure that was Bens song, Dave may have wrote the words! Dunno we didn’t care about that back then and really I still don’t now. All my projects are uncredited and all split equally.

++ If you were to choose your favorite Sun Set Strip song, which one would that be and why?

Probably The Party’s Over as I remember that one the most and Matt and I have recorded a new version sampling the old 🙂

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? 

We only played a couple of gig but they are in the Portsmouth archives of history as one caused a riot and the other blew our young minds.

++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

Running from a shit load of people fighting it was exciting!

I would say for all of us or best memories and gigs would come later.

For me one of my greatest moments was being on stage as The Music Liberation Front Sweden with Steve Duffield (Beta Band, King Biscuit Time), Joe Foster (Slaughter Joe), Damo Suzuki (Can) and The Demons.

++ And were there any bad ones?

Never

++ When and why did Sun Set Strip stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?

We didn’t ever break up.
Andy became Action Painting!
I moved to Sweden
Matt moved to Bristol
Ben Moved to France

We are all still part of The Music Liberation Front

++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards?

Yes

++ Has there been any Sun Set Strip reunion? You were telling me there were plans to re-record the songs and gig, right?

Yes 🙂

++ Was there any interest from radio?

We didn’t care

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

Yes at the time we got loads of negative press which made us not care and become completely un press un promotion interested

++ What about from fanzines?

We made our own and have actually just made a new one with the Greek Label Old Bad Habits https://oldbadhabitslabel.bandcamp.com/album/lower-than-underground-vol-1-compilation-with-1st-issue-of-lower-than-underground-fanzine with Shambotic which all members of Sunset Strip release on now

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

Friendships

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

We love crafting, screen printing, running a record label, caring for others.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Do what you want to do and don’t listen to anything negative. You don’t need to make money or be famous to be successful and for filled. Make Art and bad Art doesn’t exist!!!

We love Cloudberry so much! A badge of honour to have any involvement with you xxx

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Listen
Sun Set Strip – Just for a While

24
Oct

Thanks so much to Robert and Jeff for the interview! The Catburgers is one of my favourite discoveries this year. Terrific pop songs and a story that’s super interesting with connections to the TVPs, Dreamworld Records, and the Edinburgh 80s scene. And there’s even more exciting news, the band is releasing the “Dreamworld Sessions” 7″ soon! It will include 3 of their songs!  And there is also an accompanying cassette, “The Rocking Horse Demos“, with more songs too! So yeah, keep reading the interview and you will find out how to pre-order a copy. Now sit back and enjoy!

Thanks for inviting us both to be interviewed. Before answering your direct questions I should clear up some of the questions you have on your web page.

The Onion Cellar was club started by Stu Cant, Lind Irvine and myself Jeff Duffy. It much later morphed into Speed3 with a change of venue. There is a Facebook of the OC here https://www.facebook.com/onioncellar

Stu Cant wasnt in The Catburgers but he was in The Mysterons. The Mysterons were a band I created with Stu Cant on bass and Robert Jones on drums. And later Lenny Helsing (Green Telescope / Thanes) on keys. The Mysterons did play Queen Margaret Union with The Fizzbombs and We Free Kings.

Jeff And The Hasbeens is a name new to me but I can well understand it being synonymous with The Mysterons. It must have been the name used behind our backs !!

++ Hi Jeff and Robert! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

Robert:I play mandolin these days. I have only played live a handful of times since the early nineties. I occasionally write songs on my acoustic guitar.

Jeff: I am taking somewhat a backseat from music at the moment due to ill-health but I have a third LP with my band JS International ready to record. I also played second guitar in Edinburghs Shock And Awe for 7 years until recently.

https://www.facebook.com/JSInternationalSuperStars/

https://thejeffsnipergroup.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063558757857

++ 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?

Robert:I remember my mum and dad listening to The New Seekers and Frank Sinatra when I was very young. The first song I remember being aware of  when it came out was Mouldy Old Dough by Lieutenant Pigeon. My first instrument was the drum kit. I started thinking about being a drummer long before I got a drum kit – I had a pair of drumsticks and figured out drumming patterns on my knees. I was obsessed with Stephen Morris from Joy Division and Pete de Freitas from Echo and the Bunnymen. I finally got a drum kit when I was 16.

Jeff:My first instrument was guitar. I paid a friend 50c to show 7 chords and I picked it up from there. I was brought up on a wholesome diet of punk rock. I still consider myself a punk. I played drums whenever I was allowed by the drummer. This was my drum grounding for The Catburgers

++ Had you been in other bands before The Catburgers? What about the rest of the band members? Are there any recordings?

Robert:As soon as I got the drum kit I began making music with school friends. This was around 1981. We spent our time figuring out how to cover Joy Division songs. We got hold of a portastudio and so there are some recordings. The band was called Rejection Level. We never played live, and stopped when most of us went to uni. When I got to uni I spent a year separated from my drums. I got them shipped up in second year, and joined a band of schoolfriends from St Andrews. We were called A Walk Through H (named after an early Peter Greenaway film – pretentious or what!). Stuart, the Catburgers bassist, played bass in that band. He and I went to see the TV Personalities at a gig in Edinburgh in Autumn 1985 at Moray House, and we were both totally blown away. We came out of the gig and basically said to each other immediately “we need to quit the band we are in and start making music like that!” I was a drummer, but I figured out some guitar chords, plucked up the courage to start singing and started writing songs.

Jeff: I was in a band called Neoteric Noyade prior to The Catburgers. No known recording thankfully. The then bass player Mark Shade now roadies guitar with The Proclaimers. The then singer Stu Munro now drums for JS International after a gap of 30 odd years.

++ Where were you from originally?

Robert: Harpenden in Hertfordshire, England

Jeff: Clermiston, Edinburgh also known as the Jungle

++ How was Edinburgh at the time of The Catburgers? 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?

Robert: Jeff will have a very different take on this to me. Stuart and I loved the TVPs and took them as our inspiration. We didn’t know anyone in the music scene initially. We got a rehearsal room in the legendary/infamous Niddry St rehearsal rooms. It was only once we met Jeff (and Stuart Cant) that we began to get to know other people in the scene. The rehearsal rooms were a series of damp, dingy cellars. I literally had mould growing on my Vox amp. Every Edinburgh band I knew rehearsed there, and the pub The Green Tree was 50 yards down the road, so we all used to drink there.

Jeff:While running The Onion Cellar there were too many bands to choose from in likeability. The Shop Assistants were Edinburghs darlings while Avalanche Records was a must store.

++ During those late 80s there were many great indiepop bands from Scotland. You were part of the great scene in your town that included Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes and The Fizzbombs. But would you recommend some obscure bands I might have missed?

Robert:The Thanes, of course. Beeville Hive Five. The Vultures. The Stayrcase

Jeff: For indie -pop jingle jangle why not check out The Holidaymakers.

++ How was the band put together? How was the recruiting process?

Robert: I already said about how Stuart and I started. We then got a guy called Andy Benton on drums. I have no memory of where he came from. I think Stuart must have known him. He was not a drummer, but he was keen and we didn’t have anyone else to ask. We played live with him, and recorded a demo, but he had an “unusual” style. When he went for a drum break Stuart and I had to kind of pause and wait to see when the drum break would end and the next bar would start.

++ I read that Angus McPake from Jesse Garon and The Fizzbombs played drums for the band at some point. But you were the drummer, right? What happened? Maybe you were on holidays at the time?

Robert:I think Angus played for us briefly after Andy left and before Jeff joined us.  We knew Jeff through the Onion Cellar and we were delighted when he offered to join.

Jeff:From what I remember Angus stood in for two gigs while I was getting up to speed.

++ What instruments did each of you play in the band?

Robert: I played guitar and sang, Jeff on drums and Stuart on Bass. We later recruited Keith Burns on lead guitar.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Robert:I already said about Niddry St rooms. I would usually write guitar parts and lyrics then take them to the band (although Stuart wrote some lyrics in the early days). If Jeff and Stuart approved, we’d finish the songs together.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

Robert: A drunken night in The Pleasance Bar. It seems hard to believe but we had a lot of ideas and we really thought this was the best. Must have been very drunk!

++ On Soundcloud Robert Jones uploaded a bunch of songs by The Catburgers. Where do these songs come from? Demo tapes? 

Robert:Yes demos, Dreamworld recordings and an album worth of tracks we recorded ourselves.

++ How many demo tapes did you release? Did you use to sell them? Or were they mostly for promotion purposes? To send to radio, promoters, and so on?

Robert: For promo. We never sold any.

++ Three songs, “The Acid Tree”, “Holiday House” and “Driving for the Brick” were produced by Jowe Head in London. How was your experience working with him? Were you fans of his music already?

Robert: Jowe is a legend. He was so kind to us when we went down to London. He put us up in his squat, and came to the studio with us. We used to call him Uncle Jowe. I was a big fan of some of the Swell Maps songs, like Cake Shop Girl, and loved the TVPs and the Househunters.

Jeff:Jowe Head is my Dad.

++ The recording session was paid for by Dan Treacy from the TVPs. I was wondering how this connection with Dan happened? Did you go all the way to London just to record the songs?

Robert:Well I think Dan was supposed to pay for the recordings! I doubt that he actually did. Jeff and Stuart knew Dan, having put the TVPs on at the Onion Cellar. We sent a demo to Dan (before Jeff was in the band) and he mentioned to Stuart and Jeff that he had got it and liked it a lot.

Jeff:We went to London to play a couple of gigs and record these songs. Dan paid for these recordings because no-one else did.

++ I believe these recordings were in the hope of releasing a record, no? Why didn’t it happen? Was it going to be released on Dan’s label?

Robert:They were recorded for release on Dreamworld, but Dan was losing it by this stage, and the label never released anything else.

++ Was there interest from other labels to put out your music? Maybe big labels?

Robert:We sent loads of tapes out, but got no interest. We were approached to record a track for a Simon and Garfunkel tribute album. We worked up a version of “Here’s to you Mrs Robinson” but nothing ever came of the album. Then The Lemonheads had the same idea as us a bit later!

++ On your Facebook I’ve seen an image of a Catburgers record, a 7″ perhaps. With a catalog label FELT 003. I am terribly curious about this. As far as I know you didn’t release any records. What is this about?

Robert: Felt Records is the record label my son has set up. He is a DJ and electronic/ambient music producer living in Copenhagen. For reasons I struggle to understand he has decided to release the three tracks on his label. It’s coming out on 4 November.

Jeff:I believe there is now a release date of 11 November.
https://soundcloud.com/f_e_l_t/the-catburgers-dreamworld-sessions?fbclid=IwAR07t1zfpDP1kX79ANNfusw5JZkvm1v6pTgqI_x4x2xa9SqBpWE3dbmRZrI

++ And there’s a tape that is coming out as well, can you tell me a bit more about it?

Robert: Yes the tape is a copy of the first demo we recorded back in 1986. None of us have a copy of it, but it turns out the music journalist Simon Reynolds kept the one he was sent by Dan, and we got s low quality digital copy from that. We’re only doing a tape release because the quality is not the best, although it does sound good! We may do a full release if we ever get hold of a decent copy of the recording.Yes the tape is a copy of the first demo we recorded back in 1986. None of us have a copy of it, but it turns out the music journalist Simon Reynolds kept the one he was sent by Dan, and we got s low quality digital copy from that. We’re only doing a tape release because the quality is not the best, although it does sound good! We may do a full release if we ever get hold of a decent copy of the recording.

++ Are there more recordings than the ones that are on Soundcloud?

Robert: No that was it. Maybe some live recordings.

++ My favourite song of yours is “Children’s TV”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

Robert: I love that you like this song! It does make me smile when I hear it. It was a nostalgic song about how we used to watch these classic TV shows when we were young, whereas kids in the late 80s were playing computer games instead.  It was a song I wrote early on, and we had stopped playing it very often by the time we came to record the “album”. But Keith, the new guitarist, loved the song so much that he convinced us to include it. We had a lot of fun recording that track I remember. Lots of laughter, and playing around putting the wee glockenspiel on it.

++ If you were to choose your favorite The Catburgers song, which one would that be and why?

Robert: I can’t pick one. Jeff might be able to. Maybe some of the slower more dreamy songs like “Holiday House” and the early one “Cat Coos”.

Jeff:Too many to mention but “Darkness Before The Dawn” is a favourite.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

Robert:Yes we played lots of gigs, from Aberdeen to London.

++ I read about two venues you played at, The Queen Margaret and The Onion Cellar. What do you remember about these places? Did you have a favourite place for playing?

Robert: I don’t remember playing Queen Margaret. The Onion Cellar was amazing. It was just the place to be. I can vividly recall the excitement of going down the stairs into the venue. I was so excited when we got to play there.

Jeff:See above re QMU. The Onion Cellar was the place to be.

++ And what were the best gigs in general that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

Robert:Supporting the TVPs was always great, mainly because it meant that Dan was out there, and I idolised him! If Jeff remembers some gigs that may jog my memory!

++ A gig that comes to mind is the one supporting the TVPs at The 100 Club in London on Aug. 27, 1987. A few days ago my friend Dave Driscoll uploaded the complete gig to Youtube! So cool! Was listening to this a surprise for you? What do you remember from that day?

Robert:I don’t know if you noticed, but Dan is not singing! He didn’t turn up for the gig, so Jowe sang and Jeff played guitar! I think there were about a dozen people in the audience. It sounds like we went down quite well.

Jeff:There was more than 12 Robert, I recall it was well attended.

++ And were there any bad ones?

Robert:There was a gig in Galashiels that was both very bad and very good. Jeff was very sleepy for some reason, and only seemed to be able to drum and half speed. The gig was in a huge sports hall and the audience were tucked away by a bar far away from us. We played the whole gig feeling mortified at our poor performance, but when we finished and walked over to the audience they were super enthusiastic about us. We maybe should have learned a lesson and slowed down all the time!

Jeff:Im still sleepy. Stay away from drugs now kids.

++ When and why did The Catburgers stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards? The Mysterons I believe?

Robert:Stuart (now professor of Chemistry) left the band when his academic career became more demanding. He was a unique and brilliant bassist and I didn’t want to keep the Catburgers going without him. Jeff and I were joined by Mal Kergan (ex of Rote Kapelle) on bass, and we became Howl. Howl ended when I became a teacher and no longer had time to rehearse.

++ Has there been any The Catburgers reunions?

Robert:No

++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?

Robert:Peter Easton played us on Radio Scotland

Jeff: I remember being played on Belgian Radio.

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

Robert:Nope!

++ What about fanzines?

Robert:I think there were some reviews of gigs.

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

Robert: Hard to say. Going down to London recording for Dreamworld was amazing I guess. Going down well live was always a buzz. I also just loved rehearsing and writing new songs.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

Robert:Whittling.

++ Do you follow football? What’s your team? Hibernian?

Robert:Nope. And your 50/50 guess was wrong for Jeff!

++ Visited Edinburgh once and for such a short time that I want to return. So I’d love to ask you what would 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?

Robert:I don’t live in Edinburgh any more, so all the things I would recommend to check out probably got demolished a decade ago!

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Robert:I’d just like to thank you for asking the questions. I have enjoyed this trip down memory lane.

Jeff: Thanks Again Roque

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30
Aug

Thanks so much to Masato Saito for another interview! Some time ago we talked about Pervenche who has made a comeback with the release of “Quiet Small Happiness”. The interesting part is that this CD comes with a bonus CD with lots of material from his previous band Peatmos! I had written about Peatmos in the past, but I needed to know more details about this cool project!

++ Hi Masato! Thanks so much for being up for another interview! How are you? Are there big plans for 2022?

We just released Pervenche’s album “Quiet Small Happiness” on August 8, 2022 (World Cat Day) in analog and CD on the Japanese label KiliKiliVilla. The bonus track on the CD includes material from the Peatmos archives.

https://store.kilikilivilla.com/v2/product/detail/KKV-138
https://store.kilikilivilla.com/v2/product/detail/KKV-138VL
https://open.spotify.com/album/43AkSUKTMIBMidkT9QS0Ub
https://music.apple.com/jp/album/quite-small-happiness/1636493953?l=en&ls=1&app=music

Pervenche will be playing several gigs during the year.

++ Last time we talked about your current band Pervenche. But previously you had been in other bands like Peatmos and Kactus. Let’s talk today about Peatmos. You are telling me that there will be a re-release of Peatmos. Can you give me more details about this new release?

The “quiet small happiness” release on KiliKiliVilla includes 10 archival Peatmos tracks as a bonus disc.
Three tracks from the Sonorama Records 7″, Earl Grey Tea, Many Suns, To My Little Friends, and an unreleased version of “Mad Cow Disease”.
Four songs from the Clover Records cassette Mess, Picnic, D’yer Wanna Dance With Kids? and Out of The Room.
Blue Painting from the Cream Corn Records compilation Splash Dive. And a previously unreleased version of “Play The Wind”. All remastered.

++ Before Peatmos you were in Kactus. So I was wondering how Peatmos started? Was it immediately after the demise of Kactus?

It started as a lo-fi acoustic unit with Sugino Kotaro of Kactus, and we started playing casually and playfully alongside Kactus.

++ How did the recruiting process for Peatmos work out? Were the other band members in other bands as well?

We wanted to include a female vocalist, so we invited two of Kotaro’s friends from college.
Later, after we started writing songs in earnest, we changed the vocalist to Manami. She had a great voice!!!

++ Where would you usually practice?

My room. I rented a rehearsal studio only before gigs.

++ How was your town at the time of Peatmos? Was it a better time, with more bands and music places than when you were in Pervenche?

I had a lot of friends to work with at Clover Records, including Smiley, Red Go Kart, Recycled Pop, Lucy Van Pelt, and Hour Music. There were many rehearsal studios in the station along the Chuo Line where I lived.
Garage punk bands, lo-fi experimental music bands, indie pop bands, etc. practiced there.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

We looked for words related to plants. A word that has no special meaning. A simple image. We gathered words from the dictionary.
I liked peat moss because it has a lovely Japanese pronunciation.

++ Who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

Stuart Moxham (YMG, The Gist), The Beat Happening, etc. I liked the Lois album produced by Stuart Moxham.

++ Would you say there are influences by Japanese bands too? What are your favourite Japanese indiepop bands by the way?

When I was younger, I liked Japanese techno-pop bands, Plastics, Yapoos, etc.
I especially like Salon Music. their first single “hunting on Paris” is my all-time favorite song.
I admired their sound and songs, so I might be influenced by them.

++ Your first release, I believe, was the “Mess” cassette that came out on your own Clover Records. This seems like a rare release these days. Did you make many of these tapes? Why did you choose this format?

Actually, we released a cassette tape called “rich time for you” before “mess”. This was recorded with the original members when the band was formed.
It was still a fun distraction at the time.
It was released in April 1995. The four songs on this cassette are not on this CD.
The cassette “Mess” was released in October 1996. Everything was dubbed by myself.
Of course, the cassette tapes were commercially available. The sleeves were also made using a copy machine at a convenience store.
Unfortunately, there is no record of how many I made. The charm of cassette tapes is that you can make as many as you need when you need them. It doesn’t cost any money.
The selling price can also be low.

++ The artwork of the “Mess” tape has a lot of words on it like “Sun”, “Picnic”, “Light”, “Feed”, etc. What is the meaning of it?

Manami designed them. The words are sampled from song lyrics and arranged.
I like the artwork made of transparent tracing paper.

++ The same year of the tape release, 1996, Sonorama Records from the US released the “Earl Grey Tea” 7″. Tell me how Peatmos was discovered by Dan from Sonorama Records?

I was introduced to Dan by Kactus member Rich Stevens.
I was surprised that he would release a 7-inch.

++ Who is in the 7″ sleeve photo? Is that you?

No, it is not.
The photographer, Kuwabata, happened to take a picture of a sleeping child on the train.
I liked the way he expressed this with a Japanese subject while giving it an American or British indie feel.

++ The songs for this record were recorded all at home. Was wondering if you prefer working at a home studio or at a professional studio?

I have never recorded in a professional studio, as is the case with Pervenche.
I think my work is better suited for recording in a private environment.

++ Other than these two releases you appeared on many compilations. The ones I am curious about are for example the “Cream Cone Compilation Vol. 0”. I had never heard of the Cream Cone Records label. Who were they and how did you end up including a song on their CD?

I was invited by the label owner, Mr. Endo. Sorry, I don’t remember much.

++ And the other compilation I wonder about is the one that came with the Indies Magazine Vol. 47. Did you get much press from music magazines?

Not so much.
But writers who liked it called us.

++ Are there unreleased songs by the band?

Yes, there are; we still have some demos that didn’t make it onto Disc 2 of the CD that was released in August.

++ And do tell me, how come there were no more releases by the band?

I don’t know the reason… I think it was due to a change of members.

++ And was there interest from any other labels?

We did not contact any other labels.
I think we were hardly known in the indie scene at the time.

++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “D’yer Wanna Dance with the Kids”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

The lyrics are thoughts that Manami had while working as a home helper while studying in England.
It is a thought I had with a boy in that house.
The song is a tribute to the Motown sound.

++ If you were to choose your favorite Peatmos song, which one would that be and why?

As far as Peatmos goes, it is “D’yer Wanna Dance with the Kids.”
This song has a vibe that Pervenche just can’t do.
It’s a bit comical and sad at the same time. Also, I like the guitar and the drums.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

About 10 times…

++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

The Shibuya gig that Dan came to see me was nerve-wracking but fun…

++ And were there any bad ones?

There was a night at a late night DJ event when there was no one in the audience.

++ When and why did Peatmosstop making music? Which band came after Maples? Pervenche?

Peatmos came to an end when Manami left the band.
Perhaps the time commitment was too much for Manami.
Then Masako joined and we became Pervenche.

++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards?

Kotaro and Julia continued with Kactus for the next few years.
Manami is no longer doing music.

++ Has there been any Peatmos reunions?

There was not.

++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?

Not at all. The public didn’t know we existed.

++ What about fanzines?

Fanzines, everyone in the indie scene supported us.
A very small intimate scene. That was enough for us.
And the support from our American fans! It was great.

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

After all, it was the 7-inch release from Sonorama.
I had no idea that an overseas label would release a 7″! It was amazing.
The highlight for me was the completion of the last recording, “Play The Wind”.
It was the first time I felt I had succeeded in the challenge of expressing the passage of time with only two chords.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I grow plants. I grow South American cacti and African plants.

++ Last time I asked you about some tourist recommendations. I want to ask today about Japanese culture. Are you a fan of anime or manga? Do you have any favourites

Anime and manga have been around me since I was a child. But I never became an ardent fan.
Of course, there are some works that I like, but there are many with themes and atmospheres that do not interest me much.
If I had to pick one favorite anime work, it would be Hayao Miyazaki’s animated TV series “Conan: Future Boy.”

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

When you asked me this question, I was surprised that I have no memory of the past.
I’m sorry I don’t have anything interesting to say.
Friends I haven’t seen since then and friends I still see today. They are all great friends.
It was fun to listen back to the old songs with the Peatmos sound source remastering.
I still love those songs. The performances and recordings could only be made at that time. With feelings that cannot be reproduced.
If I have a chance, I hope to release the remastered sound sources of Kactus.
And I would like to keep challenging to create new works.
Thanks for all your precious time!

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Listen
Peatmos – D’yer Wanna Dance With Kids?

21
Jun

Thanks so much to Johnny Dutton for the interview! I had written about A Month of Sundays time ago and was hoping to learn more details about the band. I had tried interviewing Neil Preston but I guess live got in the way and never got a chance to hear his insights. Happily Johnny, who was early on on A Month of Sundays, was able to share some interesting stories about the band! Also he has shared a photo of the band playing in 1998 and a press clipping from 1989! Enjoy!

++ Were you or any of the members involved in other bands before being in A Month of Sundays?

Terry, Neil and myself all went to St Mark’s College together. At the age of 14 we decided to put together a band when we realised we all played an instrument. In fact looking at a interview with a magazine in 1989, Terry says “Neil and I were jamming one day when John rode past and heard us. It was just me on drums and Neil on guitar. John rolled up and he came in and started playing scales.  I thought, wow man, scales, this is where rock ‘n’ roll begins and ends.”

We then recruited another friend from school, Neil Magro and he played synthesizer. We started playing school dances and parties as Mirror Images (we thought that was a fitting name because of Neil and Terry being twins). Somewhere between 1985 and 1987 Mark (who also went to St Mark’s but was a year older than us) joined the band and on Wed 2nd March 1988 we played our first pub gig at the Fitzgerald Hotel.

So yeah, to answer your question, none of us had been in other bands before AMOS.

++ Were you all originally from Perth?

Neil, Terry and Mark were living in Morley and I was living in Dianella (neighbouring suburbs east of Perth City) and we’d all head to the back shed at Neil and Terry’s place nearly every Sunday to jam.

++ How was your city at the time? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

DaDa Records and 78s were the best. We even did a live performance at DaDas once in their basement.

The Old Melbourne put on a lot of good days and really tired to help out the local bands. The Shenton park Hotel and the Seaview Tavern were also really great places to play as well as check out other up and coming bands.

++ Were there any lineup changes?

After I left the band they brought in Caleb Merry and after Caleb they brought in Grant Fersat. I believe (and I could be wrong so you might want to check with the boys) that after Grant they decided to perform as a three piece. To be honest, they have always had a big sound so they really didn’t need an extra guitarist.

++ What’s the story behind the name A Month of Sundays?

This is a quote from Neil taken from an interview in 1989 “We actually went up to the state library and took out a book on colloquialisms, and after picking a few terms, decided on that one”.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

In the shed behind Neil and Terry’s parents’ place. After many years of doing that we started hiring a studio in East Perth. In fact it was right near the Claisebrook Station where the cover of Bell Book and Candle was taken (if my memory serves me correctly).

++ You were around in the late 80s and early 90s and I feel there were lots of great Australian guitar pop bands at the time. Did you feel part of a scene at all? What were your favourite Aussie bands then?

The Stems

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

It started with The Smiths, The Church, REM, Big Star, Matthew Sweet and other jangly pop bands then moved onto more heavier guitar bands like The Replacements.

++ Your first release as far as I know was “Bell, Book and Candle” a 6-track tape. I suppose this was a self-release, but I wonder because of the format if this was a proper release or more of a demo?

From memory it was a “proper” release. I think that format was all a bunch of young kids could afford at the time. Any money we made from gigs went into a kitty for recording or gig related expenses. I never saw a cent from this band, but that’s the way we wanted to do it.

++ “Faithfully Patient” 7″ was next. This one was released by Amos. Who were they? Who was behind this label and how did you end up signing with them?

AMOS = A Month Of Sundays. So, self released basically.

++ I really love the A side, “Faithfully Patient”, and was wondering if you could tell me the story behind this song? What inspired it?

Neil will have to answer this. He wrote the song. In fact I think he wrote all the songs and brought them to us to mould into the AMOS sound.

++ “Seesaw Child” was your next record and on this one Dom Mariani guest appeared! How cool! Were you friends? Or how did this collaboration come to be?

Dom was a friend of the band. I think Neil and Dom got to talking and arranged for Dom to co-produce.

++ “Idiot Star” came out in 1994 and something that always caught my attention from this release is the art, the photos on it.  Who is the kid in the photos?

I believe that’s an old photo of Neil. (But I could be wrong) I know the single cover for Faithfully Patient is Neil’s legs.

++ You also appeared on a few compilations. For example on the classic “Out of the Woodwork” that featured many of the best Australian bands at the time. Do you remember how you end up there?

I can only remember the studio session. Not sure how we came to do it or who asked us to get involved.

++ If you were to choose your favourite A Month of Sundays’ song, which one would that be and why?

Any of the ones I recorded with the band. ha ha  I really enjoyed all the songs Neil wrote during my time in the band. He’s one very talented songwriter.

++ Was there ever interest by other music labels? Perhaps big ones?

Not that I know of. We were hoping the momentum would keep going after our Eastern States tour but it all kind of seemed to slow down a bit and that’s when I started contemplating leaving the band.

++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

One of my personal favourites was supporting Spy vs Spy at Curtain Uni on 9th Sept 1988. I was a big fan of that band at the time so they were rock Gods to me.

++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands?

Once I left AMOS I started up a band called Cartoon Horrors for a few years and then got into Rockabilly in a big way. I form a Rockabilly outfit called Johnny Law & The Pistol Packin’ Daddies and released 4 full length albums and 1 single. We’ve played in places like Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Seattle, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, France etc. As of Dec last year the band has been performing for 20 years.

A few years ago I also started up another band called Atomic Stagecoach where we take 1980s songs and tweak them to sound like they may have been written and recorded in the 1950s. It’s a really fun band.

++ Has there ever been a reunion? Or talks of playing again together?

Not with me there hasn’t.  I turn up to their shows when I can. Sometimes Neil even gives me a shout out from the stage. ha ha

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

E-press magazine loved the band. I have all the articles ever written about the band while I was with them.

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

For me it was working with legends like Dom Mariani, Errol Tout and Greg Dear.

Winning a West Coast Rock award for Most Popular WA Cassette.

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Listen

A Month of Sundays – Faithfully Patient

09
Jun

Thanks so much to the Gula Gången gang for the interview. Gula Gången is a superb Stockholm band that formed a few years ago, who released one album and is about to put out their second one. As I really enjoy their music I thought to learn more about them! Check their Soundcloud if you haven’t so, you’ll be surprised by their songs!

++ Hi there! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? I hear there is a new album coming up?

Yes we’re good. John is back from Berlin with a crystal meth addiction, but he’s loving every second of it. And yes that’s right, the album is out on Spotify 10th of June, please listen to it so John can keep up with his brand new lifestyle.

++ Tell me more about the album? Will it be released in physical format or will it be only available digitally?

This album is more eclectic than our previous albums. All the uncertainties in the world and all the changes, made it impossible to keep our mind focused on a theme or sound. We are also a diverse group with many different influences so it feels natural to just go with the flow and try new things.

It will be released on spotify but we are also planning to release one copy (yes, ONE copy) of the LP on Vinyl for a special event. We are not really sure when yet, but we will keep you posted when we do.

++ There’s a cool photo on the artwork for the album. Looks like a big family photo. What is the story behind it?

We are like a big family. Shiva is the street smart savvy mom, John is a sexy mom with a drug addiction, Leo is the bad mom with a bad taste in men, Adam is the talking dog and Simon is the awkward step dad who time to time knocks on your door while you are playing “The Sims 2” and asks if you can play together. A traditional family with great values and traditions in a spooky cursed house (right next to the lake).

++ There’s one song on the album, “Sommaren 21”, that made me wonder how you spent the last few summers, with the pandemic. We would get news that Sweden was doing things different Covid than the rest of the world. How did the pandemic affect you and how did it affect this album.

The weird part was that everything was allowed except for Rock’n’roll. We didn’t have any lockdowns so we could rehearse and hang out as usual. But almost all our shows got canceled due to restrictions. We were worried at first about everything that was happening but it felt good doing music together. It helped us, being able to focus on something creative and take a break from reality for a while.

++ There’s a video for this song too. It’s a super cool one. Where was it recorded? And who came up with this fun idea?

Thank you! It’s filmed in a gazeebo and a park named “Vita bergsparken”. We usually celebrate our birthdays and summer holidays with friends there. Fun fact! Carl Anton (famous swedish singer) used to have a tv-show theire. The music video was made by Andre Cordova Rudstedt, Elias Ljungberg and Erik Lokind. They were studying film so we asked if they could make something with us, they came up with the concept. All we did was show up and they told us what to do, a great luxury. Also, the music video is a fruit fetisch propagande video. Made to advocate the fruititarian lifestyle.

++ 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?

Leo: my first records was mainly hip-hop: Eminem, Fattaru, Gorillaz etc. But when I was around 10-11 I fell in love with early Swedish punkrock, hanging round in the parks skating and listening to bands like Ebba Grön, Grisen Skriker, KSMB. At that time I started playing everything I could get my hands on but primarily trying to play all of their songs on guitar.

John: The first music I remember hearing was Cantaloop by Us3. My first CD was Rockafellars skank- Fat boy slim. The first album I bought with my own money was Fresh by Teddybears STHLM.

Shiva: When I was 15-16 I started to listen to 80’s pop music (Depech Mode, Duran Duran and A-ha). I loved 80s music and movies, the bright and horrible clothes, the big hairs and synthetic sounds.

++ Had you been in other bands before Gula G´ången? What about the other band members? If so, how did all of these bands sound? Are there any recordings?

Yes, here is a list of all the bands we have played in.

On Spotify:
Psykofant
Makeout Point
Paint sniffing survivors
Stockholmskretsen
Turbotutte
AK47

Not on Spotify:
Husband
Kennedy
Bacchus
Johnny Swish and the Bitcoin boys
PC-Cat
Hommeage
The scars
Vii är fett två
Personlig utveckling

++ Where were you from originally?

We are all born and raised in Stockholm, except Shiva who is born in Uppsala. Simon also spent some of his childhood in Varberg, a small coastal town. This might explain his love of the ocean.

++ How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process? What instrument did each of you play in the band?

Leo was just about to graduate at Chalmers University, his parents had pressured him to become a lawyer all his life. But when he stood there with the student hat in hand, he threw it on the floor and exclaimed: “No, I do not want this! I’m going to be a musician! ”

Leo quickly packed his bag and moved to Stockholm, a city where he did not know anyone. During a wild evening at Marie Leveau, he met John, who also liked music. They came in contact with Simon Hjort who demanded that they do dubstep, otherwise they might as well play guitar pop. Said and done.

They recruited cabaret singer Shiva Kazemi and provided a rehearsal room. Outisde of the rehersal room, they heard the janitor drum a beat on his broomstick and rassle with his keys. They noticed he had a perfect sense of beat, that man was Adam who becamse the bands drummer.

Gula Gången was born. And it was beautiful.

++ How is Stockholm these days? Are there any bands that you like? Any good record stores? What about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Good bands in stockholm that we like: Urban Dentist, Viagra Boys, Mama Sonic, Cinadriel, Madminton, Nya karolinska, Albano Spa, Lucifers Sunshine, Hnny, John Död.

Best bars: Loch Ness in Mariatorget, Piloten in Skarpnäck, Mickel Räv i Hökarängen and Patricia (party boat) in south stockholm. Nomad  and Patricia is good place to discover new upcomming bands.

++ Something that is always impressive is the amount of quality bands that Sweden produces. Do you have a theory for why that is? I’ve heard all sorts, even the water that you drink!

John’s says that he heard Sweden is the only culture in the world that dances to melodies instead of beats. Its deeply rooted in our culture. Which explains the most popular club song which is ‘Shoreline’ by Broder Daniel, which is impossible to dance to. Leo pointed out that even when Swedes made famous death metal we made “melodic death metal”.

++ How is the creative process for you? Where do you usually practice?

We rehearse in Skarpnäck, Mostly we all just add on eachothers tunes or someone has an idea and then we create the song together off that idea. For example, “discovampyr” was based on Shiva’s idea to make a disco song about vampires. No band in the world really knows how a song is written, it kinda just happens in different ways.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

Gula Gången was a tunnel in South Stockholm famous for being creepy and disgusting. But it was quite funny because it didn’t look so creepy because the walls were covered with this tacky bright yellow tile. John and Simon actually met there for the first time when they were 18 which is funny because Sid Vicious real name was John Simon and John has a cat named Sid after Sid Vicious.

++ You released in 2020 the album “Spela Allt Från Ditt Hjärta”. It quickly became a favourite. I always wished that I had a CD or a vinyl version of it. Why didn’t that happen?

We are too poor

++ Has there been any interest from labels in releasing your music?

Not that we know of. But you never know what’s cooking in the halls of glory.

++ On this album you collaborated with Olle Strandberg. How was that?

John: Olle is known as the swedish Robert De Niro, a professional through and through. Always gives his best, always does his homework and never lets a production down. He’s always joking and playing around being hilarious but the second you step into the studio it’s strictly business. Listen to his new debut solo EP 2 poplåtar & månladningen and his old band New Feelings. It’ll make you feel young again.

Simon: I would also say that he is somewhat of a party animal as soon as the work in the studio is done, but mostly he is an animal on stage.

++ Where was the album recorded? Who produced it? Was it you? Was it your first experience at a recording studio?

We did it all by ourselves, but Simon can probably tell you the most about it. We did it in our rehearsal room in Skarpnäck, which is pretty small but it does the trick.

++ I like the simplicity of the art for this record. And the second album artwork is nice too. Is any of you a graphic designer perhaps?

John: Everyone in Sweden is a graphic designer in some capacity. The difference is some make money of it while other make records.

++ I notice your albums are on the short-side. Just 9 songs on both. Why is that?

We have a short attention span and like to release our music as quickly as possible, ideally close to summer because we make “summer fun music”, but we also feel like albums are cooler. So short albums are the way to go for us! We have only been active for 3 years and released two albums, imagine our discography in 10 years!

++ And I have to ask, why did you choose to write and sing in Swedish? I ask as many Swedish bands prefer singing in English.

John: We like to do a lot of local references in our songs. For me the songs come alive that way, like a miniature Sweden that exists in our songs, filled with people and places we know, love and hate. Perhaps one day we’ll do an album with translations of our songs to learn people about Sweden, called it Sweden for beginners.

++ My favourite song of yours is “Vi Är Det Nya Normala”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

John: After the first chord round you can hear a beer can being opened (2 seconds in). We did that live in one take.

Simon: John also kept drinking the beer and we kept on recording, you can’t hear it but it’s there.

++ And from the new album “Ensam” is also a top track. What can you tell me about this track which is also your last single?

John: Last summer we reread The Lord of the Rings so all the songs we wrote back then all had that theme. The old Swedish translation of the book is really beautiful so we wrote a lot of songs about Bucklebury Ferry  and the Green Dragon. We find the Shire very inspiring as a way of life. Ensam is a play on words. Ensam = Alone, En = One, Sam = Samwise Gamgee. It’s about the relationship between Sam and Frodo and Sam’s struggle to help Frodo through these dark times. Really it’s about the friendship dynamics, when you wan’t to help a friends who either you can’t help or are resisting your stretched out arm. It’s also a bit about asymmetric friendships, that horrible feeling that your relationship means more to you than it does for the other part. Being alone in a relaptionship, therefore the title Ensam (alone). And it’s also about that even the smallest of us can make the greatest difference. Which is what The Lord of the Rings is about. – J

Musically for me it’s based around the guitar riff in the chorus. I take inspiration from difference guitarists on difference songs where I try to write a write like they would. Sommaren 21 is based on a riff I wrote years ago with a friend when we tried to play like Graham Coxon of Blur. With Kommunikation from the last album I wanted to play like Conny Nimmersjö and Johnny Essing from the swedish band bob hund, which is much more melodic rather than chord based. With Ensam I tried to write a riff like Bernard Sumner played in Joy Division. When we wrote our first song Likfärd (never released) we translated our favourite Ian Curtis lines into to swedish.

Simon: The bass riff that starts and drives through the song is based on a Cat Stevens-inspired acoustic piece I’ve written. I showed it to the band and Leo played the bass-notes and instead of Cat Stevens it sounded very post-punk/joy division. I’ve also made a full version of the acoustic piece with lyrics inspired by The Hobbit instead of Lord of the Rings, hopefully it will be on our next album. The Swedish translation of Tolkien’s works is quite hard to read but contains lots of beautiful poetry.

++ If you were to choose your favorite Gula Gången song, which one would that be and why?

John: Mine is Till Besvär , which is the most fun to play. I was really proud of us when we wrote it, the first song I used a capo to and I love the complex chord structure, and it has a great tempo when we play it live. Perhaps in hindsight the studio version we released is not very representative of how I imagine the song, it’s a lot harder with distorted guitar than we usually play it. From the new album it’s the second track which I forgotten the name of, although I had nothing to do with that recording. I was in Berlin working on my crystal meth addiction when they wrote that so I first heard it in the finished form and I thought it was the most beautiful song ‘we’ve’ written. Sommaren 21 is also really fun to play and has great tempo to it. Usually the favourites are the ones that are fun and easy to play with a good tempo, that you can rely on when playing live. If a gigs doing badly the complex songs are a hassle, when you have to get the sound perfect. Its difficult to recreate the sound from rehearsal to live, I never understand how band does it. But then again I never really tried.

My favorite is dum dum dum, of all songs I’ve ever contributed to this is the one i’m the most proud of. When I first time I heard it recorded I knew that we had something great going on with this band. The song just kinda happened by itself, with Shiva behind the genius behind the foundation of it. It’s really simple with only 2-3 chords through the entire song which makes it easy to find new elements to play it. When people ask me to show them a song from my band, this is the song I show them first.

The song John forgot the name of is called “Skymningssagor” and it has quite a weird story behind it. I was looking for a recording of “ensam” and I found a project on my computer called “emo” and it was the guitar and synthesizers from that song. I had no memory of ever recording this but I loved what I heard and then Leo added electric guitars and Shiva some ambient singing to it. And it was beautiful!

Simon: I have some sort of memory of trying to make something in the style of “summer ends” by the band “American Football” and I think this was it…

John: Dum dum dum is the right answer. Just a perfect piece of popmusic. It’s like Simon says, I started playing C and F and then Shiva just started singing the chorus which really is the whole song. I stopped playing but Simon told me to keep going because something special is going on here. It’s important to give each other compliments when you play in the band, if you like something someone is doing you should tell them that. When we recorded it wasn’t supposed to be a duet but for some reason we came to that conclusion. We love Olle we’re all good friends and he lived closeby so we called him and 20 minutes later he arrived on his bike, happy go lucky. Me and Leo went out on a beer run during recording of Olles part and when we came back he’d come up with the “oh wama” part we sing in the 3rd verse which backs the harmonica solo. The spice that Olle gave the song was really the sriracha on the cake.

++ What about gigs? Have you played many?

John: A few. Not that many that we might hoped for. We debuted in the summer of 2019 and recorded our first album during that fall, come spring when the record was about to come out and we were looking forwards to festival gigs the pandemic happen which halted our progress. The gigs we have played have all been great really.

++ And what were the best gigs so far? Any anecdotes you can share?

John: Last year we played a gig in Malmö in the south of Sweden. It was our first gig as a quintet since Adam joined which gave us all a great boost. We had a great train ride down and had ate great food but got way too drunk, at least I did. I don’t really remember much of the gig other than that I spend more time on the floor with the audience than on stage, but the audience were great. It was the first time the clubs were open for a long time so everyone was exuberant and it got really messy and loud. As I said I don’t remember much but afterwards I was told that I played a solo version of Obladi Oblada which I really hope isn’t true because I don’t know how it’s played. I was the first one home that night.

++ And were there any bad ones?

John: For every like four good gigs you always get a bad one, which can vary in badness. Some are horrible, some are just not that good. You can’t really avoid doing a bad one every now and then unfortunately, you used have to learn from it and move onwards. Usually it has to do with being too tired or having too much to drink. Ironically some of the best ones are also due to having too much to drink so you can’t really read too much into it. It’s good if the audience also had too much to drink then you’re in symbios. If not you’re in trouble.

++ Has there been any interest from the radio? TV?

We have played two times on P3 (one of Swedens biggest radio stations) when they had a show called “Pop and Indie” which played lots of smaller acts. It was such a good show but they stopped making it earlier this year? What the fudge?

A German podcast called “Eleven Pop Songs” has also featured our music, which is really nice cause we always love it when our music manages to get through to people in other countries. Like now!

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

No, but we don’t give them any attention so it’s OK.

++ What about fanzines?

Not that I know of, but isn’t that the point of fanzines that you don’t know about it? Simon, Shiva and Leo have a fanzine about skeleton factories or something but I don’t think they’ve written about us.

I’ve put a Gula Gången-cameo in one of my comic book fanzines- Simon

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

We wrote a new song the other day. It was my first rehearsal back from Berlin and it was great being back playing rock and/or roll again. Simon started playing a bassline and sang a song about us as a band on a bus and I joined in playing the simple chords, then Leo added a great melody on his guitar and Adam added a great beat on the drums. Shiva played something beautiful on her synth and in the matter of seconds we all knew we had a great new song which we’re looking forwards to working on. The best songs are the simplest to write. Sometimes you work on a song for years and you never really work it out, other times you just play something and sing something and you have your biggest hit. Those times when you try something for the first time and you can all know that it’s special and you can feel each others energy, those times are the biggest highlight. Also last year we played in Örebro we had an open bar and tried every cocktail they had was a highlight. Cocktails are really expensive in Sweden due to high alcohol taxes so if you get the chance to get loaded for free you cherish it.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

Crystal meth and Pokémon cards.

++ I always like to ask my UK friends, what football team do you support? I thought why not ask my Swedish friends now! Are you Hammarby fans? AIK? Djurgårdens? And if you go to the matches often?

John: Hammarby, all of us. That’s a dealbreaker, sooner or later bands break up if they don’t support the same club. Some of us have season tickets, others attend sporadically, but we all share the love.

++ Been more than a few times to Stockholm and I love it. But I’d like to ask a local about what you would 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?

“Bottleshop” is a must, it’s a brewery and beer store and we released a “Gula Gången”-beer with last year. When it comes to food, “Günthers” is worth checking out, it’s a sausage stand (“korvmoj” in Swedish) that’s often compared to the soup nazi in Seinfeld.

“Fuang Yuan Shi Wu” makes the best affordable Chinese food and “China!” makes the best pricey Chinese food.

Most of these places are very close to Medborgarplatsen and Skanstull in Stockholm, those places are filled with hidden and not so hidden gems.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

John: Disco sucks and Free Palestine.

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Listen
Gula Gången – Vi Är Det Nya Normala

26
May

Thanks so much to Nicola and Robert for the interview! The interview dates from 2020, for some reason or other, only now I am able to publish it. The Applicants is such a fantastic band. You probably know them. If not, you are missing out. Perfect pop. Upbeat and fun. They released one 7″ single and appeared on many compilations. So happy to finally publish this and hoping we can chat soon about their sister band, The Dufflecoats soon!!

++ Hi Nicola and Robert! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Still making music?

Nicola: Hi Roque, thanks for contacting us. I’m fine thanks, just about coping with the current lockdown in the UK and keeping healthy. I am still part of a band in Coventry, though I don’t live there anymore. Me and the rest of Celestial get together whenever I go back to Coventry to visit family, and play the odd gig.

Robert: Yes, still playing.

The Zephyrs are going to release an album this year on Acuarela records in Spain. It will be the bands 6th album. It has taken us a few years to make it and we are already writing music for the next album. As there was a ten year gap between Fool Of Regrets and this one, I am hoping it will not take ten years to release the next record.

++ We got in touch thanks to the post I wrote about The Dufflecoats, but we want to go in order. Your first band was The Applicants, another band I am a fan of. So I hope we go in order, and next time we do a Dufflecoats interview. But, was The Applicants really your first band? There was no other before that?

Nicola: Yes, the Applicants was the first band I was in. It started with me and 4 other girls in sixth form at Bishop Ullathorne school in Coventry, we were 17 at the time.

Robert: 

The Applicants and Difflecoats were the same band but one had Georgina in.

The Applicants existed before Richard and I came along, We were already in a band together, called the Quants and we met Marion and Nicola at the same time at the first indie night that Coventry put on in the middle of 1988 (I think).  We had a band, they had a band and we asked if we could join their band, as by then the girl group line up had moved on from their time at school. I already had a fully working band space at my parents house, with drums and guitar equipment permanently set up. I started building that room when I was 14 or so, so that the band I was in at school had somewhere to play. When I got to 18 and we started the Quants we had somewhere to rehearse. We would go in there as the Applicants and play and write songs. It was the same room where in a few years Adorable would start playing also. I think around the five to ten bands I was in probably over the years wrote songs and learned how to play in that room. The eagle eyed will see it featured in the Sam Knee ‘A scene in between’ book, if you look hard enough.

++ So let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?

Nicola: I first learnt to play guitar having lessons at school at the age of about 8. I carried on having lessons for about 4 years, learnt to read music and did grade 1 and 2 classical guitar, but to be honest, I wasn’t keen on the music I was playing and just didn’t like practising, so gave up when I was 12. When the Applicants got together 5 years later, I hadn’t picked up a guitar in all that time, I’d forgotten how to read music, but could remember basic chords, so that was a start! As a young teenager I was into typical pop music, Wham and Duran Duran etc, but as I got older I discovered the Housemartins and The Smiths, and really got into the Wedding Present as I went into sixth form. Best friend Marion introduced me to all the Sarah bands as she bought all the singles as they came out.

Robert: So let’s go back in time…

I started with drums at 12 and guitar at 13. My brother had a guitar and I had a drum kit. They were set up in the room at home and over the years I was able to obtain more and more equipment. The best thing was we could play at gig volume and my Mum and Dad didn’t mind.

I used to listen to whatever was around but I remember hearing the Smiths and then the Cocteau Twins and the Jesus and Mary Chain, after that I stopped listening to the Clash quite so much and I went from being a punk to being an indie kid. Always liked punk rock though. And I will always like punk rock.

++ Where were you from originally?

Nicola: Born and raised in Coventry, lived there till I was 18 and then went to Leeds University.

Robert: Coventry.

++ How was Coventry at the time of The Applicants? 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?

Nicola: Ska was big in Coventry in the late 70’s, early 80’s with The Specials and The Selector hailing from the city. Then there was King in the mid-80’s. And of course The Primitives, a big influence! Me and Marion met Robert and Richard (Coventry Poly students who would later join The Applicants) at an indie disco at the Hope and Anchor, they were in another local band called The Quants. For record stores, Spinadisc was great. The best gig venues at that time were The Dog and Trumpet, The Colin Campbell, The Hope and Anchor, The Golden Cross, The General Wolfe and the Tic Toc.

Robert: There was a lot going on, Spinadisc was the record shop. We didn’t really play a lot in Coventry though but we did make ourselves part of the scene.

The idea of an ‘indie night’ was a new thing, or at least there wasn’t an indie night really established when we joined the Applicants. There were places to go, such as the Dog and Trumpet but it was mainly goth and you might get one track you liked to dance to. A local dj called Cap started a night and we went to the event and bought our records with us, so we could dance to the Pastels all night, if we wanted to! The ‘scene’ expanded from there and we moved to a place called Silvers and after a few months we had a larger crowd and if you get a larger crowd (of like-minded people) you get more bands coming out of it. There was the Wonder Stuff and James crowd and the Nitzer Ebb crowd but there was also the Dinosaur Jr Sonic Youth Pastels Shop Assistants Smiths Beat Happening crowd and that was us. This is 1989 sort of time, up around 1992.

++ When and how did the band start? I read that it was thanks to some Fall fans mocking you? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

Nicola: Just a bunch of friends in sixth form at school, all into similar indie music, wanting to form a band. At that time, most people of our age at school were into U2 and Simple Minds. I remember having my 18th birthday party at the Hope and Anchor with an indie disco, when I gave invites out at school, I had people coming up to me asking what “indie” meant, it was a pretty new genre at the time. So the original band members were me on guitar, Marion on vocals, Debbie on bass, Sarah on drums and Claire on keys. Debbie had never picked one up before we started the band, and Sarah had never sat behind a drum kit before, so we really started pretty much as beginners. Claire however, had done her grade 8 piano so this was a good start!

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Nicola: We practised in the music room at school, after school finished, with the help of the music teacher who lent us all his kit. Marion wrote a few songs and lyrics and we also did a few covers, of The Shop Assistants and The Flatmates.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name? 

Nicola: It’s after a Sylvia Plath poem, “The Applicant”

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

Nicola: Most definitely the twee/Scottish/Sarah/indie bands of the mid to late 80’s…Shop Assistants, The Motorcycle Boy, Pastels, Talulah Gosh, The Flatmates, Jesus and Marychain etc etc

Robert: The Shop Assistants

++ You only put out one 7″, the “Say Goodbye EP”, in 1990. It came out on Glut Records. Who was behind this label and how did you end up working with them?

Nicola: It was Shaun who was behind Glut Records and put our single out, I really don’t know how he came to hear of us, but some of our songs were included on various compilation tapes around that time, the legendary “Corrupt Postman” tape, also “Everlasting Happiness” and “Happy or Sad”, all featuring various Sarah bands and Slowdive etc, so maybe he got to first hear us on one of these tapes?

Robert: By then, there was the fanzine scene and I was in touch, as was Marion and Nicola, by writing letters, with various people around at the time. Shaun Glut and I had a shared love for Thrilled Skinny so we sort of bonded on that. He wanted to release records and we wanted to make one for him, so we did. Shaun Glut asked us and we said yes.

++ Was there interest of any other labels in The Applicants?

Nicola: We were included on a Windmill Records 4-song flexi, with 3 other bands: The Fat Tulips, The Haywains and Paintbox. Not sure of any other interest. To be honest, being in a band for me was all about the enjoyment of making music with my friends, it wasn’t about making it big; I love that we were included on this single and flexi and compilation tapes. There was also a lovely blue flexi  featuring 4 bands called This Morning Light (released in 1992 on Sunday Records) and the Sound of Leamington Spa Volume 6 CD which featured one of our songs which wasn’t released till 2009 by a German label.

Robert: Why would we have needed record company interest? Not the point of it.

On a personal level, I went through that experience with another band, namely Adorable (who were picked up by Creation records). The Applicants was a totally different thing.

++ The two songs on the record were recorded at Sable Rose Studios in Coventry. How was that experience? How long did it take? Was it your first time at a proper record studio?

Nicola: Yes, I seem to remember we recorded most of our songs at Sable Rose. It was a small local studio run by Andy. Although I think we did record a few at Robert’s house as he had a 4-track. We were pretty rough and ready, everything recorded in a few takes.

Robert: The record wasn’t really ‘produced’, it was recorded. Andy had a room in his flat and you would go in and play. He was really friendly and helpful and it didn’t matter that he was into heavy metal and was an accomplished bass player in a band that used to do shred 1000 miles an hour guitar solos in their songs. He was great fun and really supportive and taught us how to relax and have fun as we play and he’d get it down onto 8 track tape. He had a half inch tape Fostex tape machine. He didn’t care that we were indie and he let us do our own thing. He never said that we were bad or inexperienced or that we made mistakes. He just recorded us. A lot of it was one take and that’s what it sounds like. We’d leave mistakes in, if they happened. We went there a few times and I went there with other bands too, including the Williams. Andy was great. He had an electronic drum kit because live drums were too loud for his neighbours!

++ Who produced the record? And were there any other songs recorded during that session?

Nicola: Andy Faulkner at Sable Rose did the recording and mixing. I can’t remember what songs we recorded at each session, we had quite a few sessions with him over several years

++ Tell me about the art of the 7″. Who made it?

Nicola: Do you know, I really don’t know! Marion and Robert sorted the cover out, as I was away at Uni during that time, the insert photo was taken during a weekend when I was back in Coventry. The photo of the 5 of us was taken by Mark and Laura, two Welsh students who were studying at Coventry Polytechnic who became friends, they went on to form The Rosaries (with Robert as drummer) who had a single out on the Sarah label

Robert: I think that was me. And a photocopier

++ There is a photo of the band that came on an insert of the 7″. I really like the look of the band! Very cool looking! Was there any indiepop heroes that you all looked after for their style or not? And where was this photo taken?

Nicola: Thanks, glad you like it! I think it was taken at Robert’s house. Standard indie fashion of the time…bob hair cuts, long fringes, leather jackets, stripy tshirts, 60’s style herringbone, band tshirts (Danny in the middle is wearing a Loop tshirt). Bobby Gillespie and the Reid brothers were definitely an influence

Robert: We were a bunch of cool indie kids who liked indie. We are still all very cool

++ Aside from the 7″ you did appear on a few compilations. You appeared for example on the legendary “Corrupt Postman” tape with the song “Crush”.  And also on Windmill Records on the flexi “Four Bands Four Songs”. How did you know the people behind Windmill Records? And did you ever play with any of the bands from the flexi (Fat Tulips, Haywains or Paintbox)?

Nicola: Yes, we were on quite a few compilation flexi’s and cassettes. I found another one on Discogs recently that I didn’t know about, “Hacia La Luz”, a cassette from Spain made in 1990. Windmill Records was Neil and Chris from Cheadle Hulme, I don’t know how we connected but probably via fanzines. The last gig The Applicants ever played was at the Narrowboat in Nottingham in December 1993. It was us, The Fat Tulips and The Haywains. Though I’m told The Fat Tulips didn’t play in the end as Sheggi had injured her arm, so they were replaced by Confetti instead.

Robert: I think we did a gig with the Fat Tulips. We had a distortion pedal (and they didn’t) so we kicked ass (and they didn’t).

They had their sound and we had ours but I certainly remember us being a lot louder than the other bands that night. The distortion pedal was an 80’s Big Muff. Nic used it. I played drums. Marion played guitar as well and Rich played bass. We were loud and our songs were fast.

++ You also ended up on some tape compilations in Germany, like “Everlasting Happiness” or “Nachtsonne – The Noise and The Melodies”. How did you end up on them? I suppose it was all through snail mail or did you ever meet the people behind them?

Nicola: I didn’t know about the “Nachtsonne” one, I wonder what song is on that? Again, no idea how we ended up on them…probably connecting via fanzines and writing to each other, snail mail was the way back then. I’m sure Marion told me once that we’d been played on German radio, maybe with help from these tapes?

Robert: Fanzine people writing to us

++ The one tape I am totally clueless about is “Happy or Sad Wearing Your Anorak” released by Cloud Production. Do you remember anything about this one?

Nicola: This tape, along with us, has The Wedding Present, Applemoths, St Christopher, Fat Tulips, Mousefolk and Boy Racer amongst other on it, and was put together by Martin from Keighley in the UK in November 1990, and came with a free lollipop!

++ Why were there no more releases by the band?

Nicola: I don’t think so, but like I said before, it was just a group of friends enjoying making music together and playing the odd gig, the releases and fanzine interviews were a bonus, but we never set out to make it big

++ What about demo tapes? Are there more recordings by the band? Unreleased tracks?

Nicola: I have lots of cassettes in my cupboard of Applicants rehearsals with songs that we never released, but I think that everything that was recorded properly in the studio is on a record or tape release.

Robert: Nope. I’ve found a bunch of 4 track tapes and live recordings but it’s not about releasing stuff

++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “Say Goodbye”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

Robert: Marion would have to answer that, she wrote that song I think. Marion and Robert were the song writers and lyricists

++ If you were to choose your favorite The Applicants song, which one would that be and why?

Nicola: Probably “You said to me”, fast and furious!

Robert: All of them equally

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? 

Nicola: I have photographic evidence of 6 gigs, I think that was it. Slightly different line-up for each.

  • Bishop Ullathorne School 6th Form block, March 1988; Marion (vocals), Nicola (guitar), Debbie (bass), Claire (keyboard), Sarah (drums)
  • Hope & Anchor, Coventry, July 1988); Marion (vocals), Nicola (guitar), Robert (guitar), Rich (drums), no bass! We supported Those Guilty Minutes and Mr Smith & The Lovesquad
  • Bentleys, Scunthorpe, September 1989; Marion (vocals), Nicola (guitar), Robert (guitar), Paul (bass), Danny (drums); we were supported by The Williams, who a few months later were supporting Primal Scream on tour
  • Robert’s house, July 1991; Marion (vocals), Nicola (guitar), Rich (guitar), Paul (bass), Robert (drums); this was a gig for Marion’s 21st birthday, we had a big party and lots of other Coventry bands played too (Robert was a member of most of them, he’s an amazing musician and can play guitar, bass, drums and has a great voice too)
    • The Adelphi, Hull, August 1991; Marion (vocals), Nicola (guitar), Rich (guitar and tambourine), Paul (bass), Robert (guitar and drums); we supported Rugby band, The Losers at this gig
  • The Narrowboat, Nottingham, December 1993; Marion (vocals and guitar), Nicola (guitar), Rich (bass), Robert (drums); Robert was also in Adorable at this point and had a break in this touring and recording schedule

Robert: 7 I think, or maybe 6.

++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

Nicola: The one for Marion’s birthday at Robert’s house was a good one, relaxed amongst friends and no stage. Me, Marion, Robert and Rich also played with The Dufflecoats that night, I think our one and only gig!

Robert: The gigs were good because of the time and events around them. Or bad for the same reason

++ And were there any bad ones?

Nicola: I remember being so incredibly nervous at our first gig when we played at school. The one in Scunthorpe I remember being really loud, I’d bought a distortion pedal by this point and Robert had a whole effects board…lots of squealing guitars and feedback, and Danny playing two drums standing up (a la Bobby Gillespie), definite JAMC vibe, I think we managed to clear the pub 😉

Robert: Playing wise, no but yes because of what was going on

++ When and why did The Applicants stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?

Nicola: I moved away from Coventry in 1994 for a new job, and Robert was in Adorable so things just sort of finished. There was The Dufflecoats (an Applicants spin-off band), and me and Rich were in Celestial from 1992 onwards.

++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards?

Nicola: See above. Robert went on to play guitar in Adorable, and now he’s in The Zephyr’s

++ Has there been any The Applicants reunion?

Nicola: No. We should do one. Getting us all in the same town at the same time could be problematic, we’re spread all over the UK now.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio?

Nicola: As mentioned above, I’m sure we were played on German radio once, and possibly Spanish radio? Nothing in the UK as far as I know

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

Nicola: We got a write up in Sounds in April 1991, a review of our Glut single.

++ What about from fanzines?

Nicola: Yes, a few fanzine interviews, including Waaaaaah! Issue 3, Pop Eats Apathy, and Everlasting Happiness.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

Nicola: For me, it was going into Jumbo Records in Leeds and asking for a copy of our single, which was on a display behind the counter. Marion and Robert had already sent me some copies in the post but to be able to go into a record shop and buy it was super cool

Robert: Being together

++ I am aware of a great Instagram account you have packed with memorabilia of the indiepop halcyon days! How do you enjoy doing it?

Nicola: It’s fun, reminiscing about the good old days! I did take a lot of photos back then (way before phone cameras came along), and I’m glad I did, to have all those memories now. It’s also been nice to connect with other people who I didn’t know at the time but were at the same gigs back then, sharing our memories

++ Aside from that and music, what other hobbies do you have?

Nicola: I have 2 children now so my life revolves around them. We live in the Lake District which is great for hill walking and cycling, and we do a lot of mountain biking. I still play guitar occasionally when I get together with my Celestial band mates on visits back to Coventry

Robert: No time for anything apart from music and family

++ Never been to Coventry so I’ll take the opportunity to ask a local for any recommendations you’d have? Like sights one shouldn’t miss? Food and drinks one should try?

Nicola: Coventry has a great history and lots of amazing medieval architecture, though the city centre was bombed during the 2nd World War (the “blitz”) which destroyed a lot of important buildings, including the old cathedral. There is now a modern cathedral built next to the ruins of the old one. A walk up the spire of the old cathedral gives a panoramic view across the city. The Specials did a gig in the old Cathedral ruins a few years ago, I’d loved to have been there. Next year would be a great time to visit Coventry as it’s the 2021 UK City of Culture, so there will be lots of arts and music events on throughout the year celebrating all that the city has to offer.

Coventry has changed a lot since I left over 26 years ago, the two universities (Warwick and Coventry, which used to be Coventry Polytechnic) in the city have expanded massively so the requirement for student accommodation has increased, so there are now lots of high-rise student blocks in the centre which dwarf some of the old landmarks, like the three famous spires of Coventry. But there’s still some real gems to be found if you look close enough, for example if you follow the old city walls trail, parts of which still exist (it was built in the 14th century and was 4m high and 3m thick!) along with some of the old city gates.

FarGo (in Far Gosford Street) is Coventry’s Creative Quarter, a repurposed industrial space that has many independent businesses, including bookshops, vintage clothing stores, all sorts of food outlets, and a fab independent record store run by my brother-in-law, Alun, called “Just Dropped In”, a must for all vinyl enthusiasts.

For food, try a good old chip batch. If you ask for one of these outside Coventry you will be met with a blank stare! A bread roll is known as a “batch” in Coventry, and nowhere else. And by “chips”, I mean as in French Fries (for non-UK readers). So, a big batch with some greasy chips with plenty of salt and vinegar and some tomato ketchup – perfect post-gig snack (and so unhealthy)!

Robert: Go visit and see for yourself

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Nicola: Firstly, thank you Roque for contacting us and being interested in the Applicants, it’s been good remembering an important period in my life and the fun we had as a band.

Secondly, I’d like to say a massive thank you to all the fanzine writers of that time, who interviewed us or wrote reviews, and those who put out our records,  and included us on their flexis and compilation tapes. In a time before Soundcloud, YouTube and Bandcamp, these people made our songs available around the UK and further afield. I still have all the fanzines, they were a real labour of indie love, made in the days before computers, on a typewriter and then no doubt photocopied down at the local newsagent, and sold for no financial gain. We could read gig reviews and interviews of our favourite indie bands that at the time weren’t covered by the music press (NME and Melody Maker). Much appreciation from us all.

Robert: The Applicants was friends being friends and as we all liked the same music and we could all play and wanted a bit of creative outlet and it was how we lived our lives at the time. I still listen to the music that we made and I still think that it sounds good. It was never about selling records, it was about us being together. It was a great time to be doing this stuff, no internet, no Bandcamp so you had to write letters and make tapes. You had to communicate very enthusiastically and wait for a reply to appear in the post. I remember going to London to get the Applicants records with Shaun, just beaming with delight that he was a record label and we were a band with a 7” single.

I would also like to add that there is a Baby Lemonade interview elsewhere on this blog. You can forget the Oasis and all that, the best bands ever to exist were Baby Lemonade and the Charlottes.

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Listen
The Applicants – Say Goodbye