Back again to Miami. No more London Popfest. It’s time to reactivate the blog! And what better way to do it with France’s first indiepop band: Les Freluquets! Thanks again to Philippe for such a fantastic interview. Listen more songs and be friends with him at their myspace.

++ Thanks so much Philippe for being up for this interview! How are you doing? Where in the world are you now? In the US or in France?

You’re welcome, I’m fine thank you. I live in the small town of Lexington, Virginia in the USA (the Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are buried there). I moved there almost three years ago with my little family.
++ So let’s talk about the great Les Freluquets! I was wondering how did you all meet? And how did you all decided that it was time to start a band?

We met in the south of France, in a nice town called Perpignan where we all lived then and where I was born. I started playing in a (punk) band as a drummer when I was sixteen and I never really stopped since then. Around 1986, after two or three years in a band called Furythme I was looking for people who would be willing to play some indie pop with me. I had spent some time in Bristol (UK), buying records, meeting the people who were about to start Sarah Records, attending gigs (Mighty Mighty, The Chesterfields, The Razorcuts, Talulah Gosh), and I decided that’s what I wanted to do. So I gathered some people, Jean-Michel, Luc, Rodolphe, and Cécile that I knew through mutual friends or work and it worked. I fed them with tapes of the bands I like and we practiced a lot. We brought something new and fresh, we had a lot of enthusiasm and energy.

++ But then there were at least three different formations of the band, what had happened? Why so many changes?

What happened is that frustration, temper, moods, egos, ambition or lack of ambition, lack of commitment all together is not a good cocktail. The first line-up split when Rodolphe Vassails (the drummer) moved to Paris and we couldn’t find a decent replacement. So I grew frustrated and moved to Paris too because he asked me to and I also thought we did everything we could in the South. Rodolphe found a new bass player Patrice Rul , and a new singer Stoyan C. (who sadly died a few years ago), and the new Freluquets were born. Denis (on lead guitar) joined us after some rehearsals and six months later we had a record deal (with Rosebud) and our first album got a lot of attention.
Then we sacked Stoyan who was a “piece of work” as they say here. He saw himself as an artist and I see myself as an artisan, and that created some problems. He was an anarchist too and that didn’t help either… But those problems could, should have been dealt with if we’d had a manager.
So we hired Lionel Beuque, a really nice guy, great frontman, but he didn’t stay long because he wanted to start his own band (Welcome To Julian) and that’s what he did. I became the singer then. We recorded our second album and everything fell apart. Rodolphe lost interest in the band, Denis had to join the army for a year so Patrice and I had to start all over again. The guys who played in The Chaplinn’s joined us but that didn’t really work either. That’s why we formed Qu4tre in 1992.

++ Were you involved in any bands before Les Freluquets?

My first band was Vision Flash when I was sixteen. We were a high school band and that was a lot of fun for two years. Then I wanted to become a frontman and write some songs so I borrowed my brother’s guitar and Furythme was born.

++ What about the name Les Freluquets? Why did you choose it for the band?

It means “The Whippersnappers” and we were desperately looking for a name at the time (”Hello John Steed” and “Therese X” were some other choices) but couldn’t find or agree on anything. Then a colleague who I had fun with at work called me a “young whippersnapper” and that was it! That was the name I was looking for. It fitted perfectly. When we moved to Paris the name didn’t fit anymore and we should have changed it but because of the good press we got after our first single I took the wrong decision to keep it. I made some bad decisions in that band but nobody really helped or said anything…

++ What do you remember from the Lenoir session? Any anecdotes you could share? Which songs you played?

We did two sessions actually. One when he was working at Europe 1 (one of those songs, “La Détente”, ended on the Heol tape later) and the other one for France Inter. Both are nice memories now even though we had some problems then. Rodolphe broke his wrist playing rugby just a few days before so I was really pissed of and we had to hire a session drummer for the Europe 1 gig. Then when Bernard Lenoir (who really liked us) returned to France Inter we recorded five or six songs that I can’t really remember (except one: “Si”, which was much better than the LP version). One of these songs featured on the “Contresens” compilation. Stoyan was so nervous he had to be in another room. It took forever to get the songs right! It was really important for the band to be there and we kind of blew it I guess because it never got aired. But we’ve been invited to his show to talk about our records several times.

++ How important was Bernard Lenoir for the indiepop scene in France?

He was and still is the French John Peel, but in a more conventional way. I mean you don’t hear a lot of French indie bands on his show. He used to be a press attaché for a record label when he was younger and it shows… But thanks to the British or American records he plays on his show he influenced a lot of people. I used to be a Wings fan and when I heard The Jam “All Mod Cons” on his show it changed my life. I’m sure I’m not the only one who had the same kind of experience.

++ So when and why did Les Freluquets moved to Toulouse? How different were things there for the band compared to Perpignan?

We didn’t move to Toulouse but played there so often it felt like home. In 1987 we were there once a month or something. Our most important gigs were played there, we recorded our first single there and we played our last concert (supporting Julian Cope) there. And we had family there too (Cécile lives there a successful illustrator). We had a different following in Toulouse, they were not our friends like in Perpignan. Their response was different. Perpignan wanted us to “rock” more whereas Toulouse accepted us as a pop band. There are a lot of students in Toulouse and that’s one of the reasons why I think we were taken more seriously there. Some musicians in our hometown hated or despised us because we were “poor” musicians. There was a lot of jealousy too. When they were our age they didn’t go anywhere as band members and we did, even if it wasn’t that far. We were new (and naive): Inspired by the punk movement (we don’t care about musicianship) but hoping to be popular, fun to watch and to hear too and those guys just didn’t and couldn’t get it.

++ There is a famous tape where you appeared, the Heol tape. How did you end up on this compilation? Do you know anything else about this tape? What about all these new French indiepop bands that were appearing at that time, which were your favourites?

Yes it’s the “Heol” tape #1. Anne Moyon was a fan and we used to write to each other very often. She started several fanzines (”Bobby’s Hips” for instance) and can be called “the godmother of the French indie pop”. We were more famous than most of the French bands on that tape at the time but we were glad to be part of it. Always my obsession to be a part of some movement. She chose the song “La Détente” and I don’t remember why I’m afraid.
I didn’t have any favourite because I didn’t know a lot of bands like us then. I’ve never been a fan of low-fi pop and most of the bands on that tape were low-fi. To be really honest I thought we were better than all of them! (Katerine excepted because he was different and really talented). We had different backgrounds too. I saw ourselves as a working-class or lower middle-class band among bourgeois bands so there was a distance between us. We played with Des Garçons Ordinaires (on the “Heol” tape #2) in Brittany and they were really nice guys.
We were friends with Les Objets and Gamine only and we looked up on the later, as “little brothers” do I guess, because they were on a major label and were really good.

++ Do you feel there was some sort of Golden Era of French Pop back then?

I’m not sure about that but there were a lot of fanzines though, people who wanted to hear more French indie pop bands back then. Now there are blogs but not as many. I wish I could have known more like-minded musicians that’s for sure. Bands were kind of competitive (Chelsea, The Little Rabbits for instance) so our relations were not great. We were willing to help anybody because I wanted us to be a part of some movement but it didn’t work that way. The ones we helped forgot about it or just didn’t care, I don’t know. I guess I expected too much and/or people didn’t have the same expectations.

++ I’m looking for a full discography of Les Freluquets, maybe you can help me with that? Do you know any place that may still carry the records?

Everything is there:

http://www.priceminister.com/s/freluquets
http://www.priceminister.com/offer/buy/76888211/Contresens.html
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Rosebud-Born-To-Be-A-Star-The-Great-Collection-V1/release/1508242

The only record missing is the flexi “La Débauche” you could get with the excellent fanzine “In The Rain” from Rennes some weeks before our first album was released. We never really demoed any songs but we did release every track we had from our recording sessions so there’s nothing hidden anywhere.

++ Which songs that you penned while being on Les Freluquets are you most proud of and why?

I guess that today the one I’m the most proud of must be “Envers Et Contre Tout” off our second album “Discorama”, because I didn’t use such chords before (don’t ask me what they are, I still don’t know, I’m only a self-taught guitar player) and it was so easy to write that I was really amazed. I didn’t have to think about them, they just came along as I wrote the music. Then “La Débauche” because it’s the first one I wrote for the Parisian Freluquets and it was played on Lenoir’s radio show and I remember how happy I was that night, dancing in my bedroom to the sound of our band. I like “Love Story” too but the Perpignan version that we played live only once was closer to what I had in mind (McCarthy’s “Frans Hals”). And I have to add our very first single “De Nos Jours” because it started all. We had a good time recording it, and we didn’t have that with the other line-ups. Actually the ones that I’m fond of are the songs that were recorded as demos or only played live in 1987-88. Too bad I never found a way to release them… I didn’t write “Les Portes” but it was one of our best songs, and as I played the feedback part on Denis’ Gibson 335 the people sitting in the studio clapped, so I was proud (surprised at first).

++ Something that surprises me is that influence list on your myspace page. Oh! how I wish at least half of those bands influenced some of today’s bands! Some of them are quite obscure, like The Passmore Sisters or the Gol Gappas. Was this music easily accessible in France back then? Does it have anything to do with why why there are not many pop bands popping up now in France?

Music is always accessible if you really want to. In those days the NME was like a bible for us (it was a weekly struggle to get it from the only newsagent who sold it) and Les Inrockuptibles was doing a good job introducing some of the best bands of the 80’s. I was lucky to have two older brothers too: One who could order records, the other one recording Bernard Lenoir’s radio show every night. Thanks to them we had all the post-punk records one had to have, then I went to London when I was seventeen, I bought a lot of records there, I saw The Jam at the Rainbow Theatre, and kept on going there every year or so the following twenty years, bringing back home hundreds of cool singles and albums. But it’s in 1986 that things got serious for me because I found my way then. Bristol was a cool town to be to discover all those indie bands (Revolver was a great record shop). And for the first time I was able to listen to John Peel on the radio.
So it wasn’t easy but it was possible to have access to that music. Internet brought a different thing and that’s ok but I think that going to a record shop is a better way to hear music. I still have some chills when I go to a record shop, when I see the covers, when I hear the music coming from the speakers. I still want to hold the record, read the credits, look at the photos. I miss that with Internet.
It’s when I looked at the pictures on the back cover of The Chords “So far Away” that I decided that I wanted to play in a band too. It’s when I looked at the inside cover of The Skids “Scared To Dance” that I decided to get an earring. It’s when I looked at the inside cover of The Jam “Sound Affects” (the best record of all times) that I decided that my guitar would be the same jetglo Rickenbacker 330. To us the covers were almost as important as the music. One of my brothers is a graphic designer because of that. The ten inch used to be my favourite format.
The major problem in France with music is that most interesting bands are formed by students and when they graduate they just give up to do something else, work above all. In the 80’s the now-deceased mandatory one-year military service was doing a lot of damages to bands too. One other reason is that French don’t have the same commitment to music as their British or American counterparts. And for a long time we were late compare to countries like England or Scotland for instance. When I was influenced by The Passmore Sisters, the early Hurrah!, The Close Lobsters, etc. the other French bands were into The Cure (”Pornography” era) most of the time or U2. Nowadays it’s Radiohead, in the 70’s it was Pink Floyd. To me the same old hippy crap. It seems that French musicians are afraid of melodies, of sounding pop. They have to sound moody or depressed to be taken seriously… As a guy taking Citalopram on a daily basis I don’t really need that. Give Hopkirk and Lee any day of the week instead!

++ So why and when did Les Freluquets call it a day?

As I said earlier we grew tired of people leaving the band, and Rosebud sacked us because our second album didn’t sell. Patrice and I wanted to play something different, a little “harder”; we were listening a lot to “Seamonsters” by then…
So we called it a day in 1992, one of our busiest years paradoxically.

++ You kept on making music after, care to tell me a bit about that?

Qu4tre started when Les Freluquets passed away. But once again we had some line-up problems. Our lead guitarist Thierry Bossot left after our first gig because we didn’t like the clothes he wanted to wear on stage. He was angry then… gone. Funnily enough he is one of my best friends nowadays. So we asked a journalist who was a fan, Pierre Golfier, to join us. We didn’t have a record label anymore but we had a publishing deal with BMG and we used their money to start our label Hype! and to record an album with Damian O’Neill of The Undertones and That Petrol Emotion producing. That was a great experience! He’s such a nice guy and a wonderful guitar player. We learned a lot from him.
We got a lot of good reviews but because of a poor distribution deal we didn’t sell enough to make another one. But we got on very well this time and we had four years of fun and good memories. Sadly Pierre passed away in 1999, he was only 33. I played lead guitar for a year or so with Malcolm Eden (McCarthy) in Herzfeld but he stopped playing music for good to try and become a writer (in the meantime we supported Stereolab at The Powerhaus in London and that was great!).
When he and our drummer Pierre-Jean Grappin left the band in 1996, Qu4tre stopped and the ever faithful Patrice and I called back Stoyan to start Mars. We only lasted a year because Stoyan had a really bad accident that changed his life, then I lost my mother and I was so depressed I didn’t feel like playing in a band anymore. The drummer of that band was Pascal Delbano who will join me in Aujourd’hui Madame five years later.
In 1998 I heard some loops that Rodolphe was recording at home and when I told him how good they were we finally decided to form Bassmati (a tribute to Bassomatic and to the fact that Rodolphe lives on rice). We had a good run, great reviews, good singles, great remixes for French and foreign acts but once again he lost interest after a while and I realized I wanted to play in a “real” band again and write some songs. The feeling was back.
Pierre-Jean agreed to join me in this new band I was trying to create and Internet gave us François Jascarzek on bass. A friend of PJ, Ludovic Leleu, joined on keyboard and guitar. We had fun for a while then I guess I’m cursed because once again, in March 2003, after our first gig half of the band left. We had different views on what kind of music we wanted to play and PJ’s alcoholism was a big problem. Truth to be told the other guy was a jerk too and I was relieved when they left.
But I didn’t want to give up so I called the only other drummer I knew, Pascal. It took us a year (!) to find a lead guitarist, Fabrice Vidal, but finally I had a good group of nice guys, and no more ego issues! I think this is the tightest band I ever played with (Furythme mark II, back in 1984 excepted). We realized a dream when we played in London in 2005 and had a great time at the HDIF night. Our last gig was supporting Spearmint in Paris in May 2006. Then I moved to the US in August and they didn’t followed me… So now I’m on my own and I have to play everything by myself (in the studio) and it’s strange but fun. I played live by myself for the first time in my life last week and people seemed to like it.

++ French cuisine is well, so famous around the world! Same as literature and cinema! So I’m wondering what’s your favourite French dish, book and movie?

French cuisine on a regular basis is the thing I miss the most in the US! My favourite dish is the quenelles au gratin (dumplings au gratin), or the beignets d’artichaut (artichoke fritters), two dishes that my late grandmother used to do very well. I’m very fond of French pâtisserie too (ah! the barquettes au marron / chesnut trays?). My favourite book is “Les Contes de la bécasse” by Guy de Maupassant because as Wikipedia says his stories are characterized by their economy of style and efficient, effortless dénouement, a bit like my lyrics actually. And he was from the same part of Normandy as my mother (my wife says I tend to be chauvinistic). But my favourite authors are all British: Colin McInnes, Alan Sillitoe, Roddy Doyle, Nick Hornby and Tony Parsons. They move me more than any French writer. Another example is how John Fante “The Road to Los Angeles” made me write “La Débauche”. I can only think of Albert Camus “L’Etranger” as a French book whose style inspired me.
My favourite movie is “Un Singe En Hiver” a 1962 movie with J.P. Belmondo and Jean Gabin. The dialogues are just great. It’s so French! But once again my favourite movie ever is “The Loneliness of the long distance runner”, an English movie from 1962 too (maybe I’m not so chauvinistic after all)…

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ssl6_un-singe-en-hiver-le-cabaret_shortfilms
http://filmsdefrance.com/FDF_Un_singe_en_hiver_rev.html

++ And one last question, how do you see France chances for the South African world cup?

I won’t be original in saying that we should have sacked Domenech years ago. He never won anything as a coach (one French championship as a player) and was appointed! That was a big mistake in the first place. The way France play is so boring, there’s no style anymore and that’s sad because we have some of the best players on this planet. Except we don’t have a defense anymore. I didn’t expect them to reach the final in 2006 (Zidane was on fire! So on fire that he burned himself) so we’ll see what happens. But I’m not optimistic that’s for sure. Everybody says France’s group is an easy one but I don’t agree at all. Look at what happened in 2002! And I have to say our jersey is so ugly (once more) that we don’t deserve to win.

++ Thanks again Philippe! Anything else you’d like to add?

Just one thing: Buy my new record! Here: http://susyrecords.sugarpop.org/

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Listen
Les Freluquets – La Débauche

Thanks to Uwe from Firestation Records for this interview. It’s no secret that Uwe is one of my good friends in indiepop so I’m very happy to interview him as he is a true indiepop encyclopaedia. I hope you all enjoy this interview, know a bit more about the premier German indiepop label and keep supporting it.

++ Hallo Uwe! How are you doing? You just released the new Der Englische Garten CD! I still haven’t listened to it, but arguing from the singles, this is a fantastic album! Tell me a bit about it?

Hiya Roque! I’m feeling well these days. Yeah, the debut album by Der Englische Garten was just released in germany a couple of days ago. We’re very happy about it, it took some time to get it out finally. It contain ten new tracks plus an re-worked version of “Junge Leute“ which was originaly released as 7“ single back in 2008. we’re just finished to promote the album in germany and looking now forward to receive some good reviews in the mags and airplay on the radioshows. Der Englische Garten hailed from Munich and contain members of such legendary bands as Die Merricks or C.L.A.R.K.. The band’s debut 7“ “Eine Neue Welt“ sold out within weeks back in 2007. It was the fastest selling 7“ single on Firestation ever! I fell in love with them from the start when i first heard the still unreleased track “Große Pläne“. To me they are sooo special, they brings back memories on such great bands as The Style Council, Bazooka Cain or Jim Jiminee. Feel free to check out tracks as “Heizdecke Am Strand“ or “Irgendwo Anders Hin“ and you will get a clue what i’m talking about.

++ Also there is a re-release of The Desert Wolves’ “Pontification”. This makes everyone so happy, because the Desert Wolves is one of the best bands ever! I’m wondering which is our favourite Desert Wolves songs and why?

Thanks for the great words on it, Roque! The Desert Wolves are in my heart since they released their first 12“ single. I have great memories on the day when i bought “Love Scattered Lives“ from a long gone record shop in berlin around 1988. i bought “Speak To Me Rochelle“ just a day after. I remember some people saying that Orange Juice was the perfect link between Velvet Underground and Tamla Motown, to me The Desert Wolves were always the greatest mix between Orange Juice and Motown, they had sooo much soul! I love this style!! In honest i have no idea what became my favourite track by them. Without a doubt “Mexico“ became dead important to me, it’s part of my life. It’s a song most of my friends can agree on, apart from it was a floorshaker on nearly every Ship Shape Club party in the early days.
It brings a tear to my eye every time I’m listening to “Desolation Sunday Morning“ and believe me, i don’t say such thing that often!

++ It’s very hard to interview you Uwe, you are like an indiepop institution, not only in Germany but in the whole world! But a story that is yet untold, is that one of Nollendorfplatz in 1998, when Firestation Records was founded. How did it all come together that Sunday afternoon?

The idea to found a label firstly came to my mind when Annikki and me hang around drunk at some kind of nonsens-party back in 1996. from the start we had no idea what do to, but the idea was born. Not much happend over the next two years. In summer 1998 we decided to start business. We asked our longtime friend Jan if he would like to join. He was keen on it from the start. It should have been a sunday in august 1998 when we met in a cafe around the Nollendorfplatz to make things fixed. The first thing we had in mind was to create the now quiet famous “The Sound Of Leamington Spa“ serie. It took us more than a year to release the first part of it finally. To be honest, the first release on Firestation was mostly made of the hands of Bungalow Records which passed us over a demotape by Bazooka Cain. I was kicked the first time i heard their songs, so i phoned up the band to find out if they would be interested to release something on an then absolute unknown label. Gladly they agreed, the rest is history, i think! It could have never been a better start for Firestation. Once the record was out we received orders from shops in Japan, so we could keep on releasing records without spending money on our own.

++ Was it easy to choose the name Firestation Towers for the label? Did anyone argue against it?

The name Firestation Tower Records was Jan’s idea! The three of us decided to write down the name everyone of us would have in mind for the label. I can’t remember what Annikki had on her sheet, but my idea was to name the label “Sunkissed“, stolen from one of my favourite songs by Friends Again. From the start it was a fixed idea in my mind to name the label after a song i was in love with. We let the lottery ticket decide about it. it was Tim from Mr. Dead And Mrs. Free who finally decided about the label’s name, me and Jan asked him to care for lottery.
Nowadays i would have written “A Matter Of Opinion“ on my sheet!

++ Since when did you start listening to indiepop? What was that first band that hooked you up? What came first for you, British indiepop or German indiepop?

I should have started back in 1985. not so sure which band kept the ball rolling but it should have been The Smiths or Aztec Camera. While at school there were two groups of people. The first was in love with bands as The Blow Monkeys, Housemartins, The Style Council, Everyting But The Girl or the bands i mentioned above. The Second part was listening to german or american mainstream. hip hop wasn’t that popolar back then. If so,there would have been another group of people. I started to became a visitor at concerts in november 1986 when i saw the Housemartins playing live at the Loft. This night still means a lot to me, I even lost my shoes, would you believe? Next up i went to gigs from bands such as the Bodines, The Chesterfields or The Brilliant Corners. Still a schoolboy i spent my free time at record shops most of the time. Soon after i went to england for the first time. It was some kind of Language holiday. i remember that i never went to the school, instead i’ve hang round in the recordshops of Hastings. It was greatest fun and i remember that one of the records i bought over there back then was “Do It On Thursday“ by Jim Jiminee. Back to your question, i should have say honest, that german indiepop didn’t meant anything to me back then, simply because i don’t know about it. Not so sure, but i think that i saw She Splinters Mortar support The One Thousands Violins around the same time, but what really kicked me soon after were the first albums from bands as The New Colours or Die Antwort.i couldn’t believe that there were even german bands around which plays the soundtrack of my life. Soon after i found out about bands as The Sheets, Die Bienenjäger or Die Fünf Freunde. Back then labels as Blam-A-Bit, Frischluft or Marsh Marigold were very important to me. Sure thing that Firestation wouldn’t had found without them! the most biggest influence for me were labels as Marina Records or Bungalow. Every release on Marina Records meant a lot to me and Bungalow Records were so fucking cool back then. The label’s style deeply impressed me.

++ A project that is still in brainstorming is that of a compilation of German indiepop of the late 80s and early 90s. Do you think that will happen? How do you remember that scene? What were it’s strengths and why do you think it’s not that well known in indiepop world? Any favourite bands from back then that deserve our attention?

To release some kind of german “The Sound Of Leamington Spa“ was born in the early days of the label. It was Peter Hahndorf who came up with this idea.
But to say honest, all i have in mind for it yet is a wantlist of bands which could be part of it. I created such list some years ago. It contains most acts from the Fast Weltweit label, obscure bands as The Pariahs, Indian Summer, Jelous Chaps or Kiss Me Twice. I would love to include also some bands from the neo-mod scene as Start!, Die Profis or The Saturday Boys. I believe that there are some labels around in germany which could be interested to release the Fast Weltweit-label back catalogue, so i don’t see that much chances to include any of the label’s bands.
For sure there would be also a place for indiepop acts which were around the late 90’s as Brideshead or Bazooka Cain.
If i can speak about a German indiepopscene than i would say that their highest became in the early 90’s when labels as Marsh Marigold or Blam A Bit organized great concerts and bands as The Sheets, Painting By Numbers or Die Fünf Freunde were on the road.
When labels as Apricot or Firestation started business in the late 90’s there wasn’t such a big scene anymore. For sure there were still people who took care for such labels but for me there wasn’t any consultation between the people any longer.
I remember that we once organized some kind of sightseeing tour with around 50 as part of an indiepop weekender. I don’t think that such thing would be possible these days.

++ Why do you think, compared to those days, that at this moment there are almost none indiepop bands in Germany? Why is this? Does it have to do with the pop labels? Apricot Records seems silent, Marsh-Marigold as well, and what about Marina Records? Seems you are the only one alive!

Oh, that’s hard to say. For sure there should be good indiepop bands around in Germany these days, but i don’t have any clue about them. Although it may sound silly, i even wouldn’t care that much about them. I don’t understand most of the current indiepop anymore, it can’t give me any thrill anymore. I love to listen to new band’s but most of the today’s music which i can find on blogs or in the magazines didn’t mean anything to me. Bring me the German answer to Skint & Demoralised an i will sign them from the start!

++ Nowadays you write the Firestation blog where you have shared fantastic stories about long lost bands and background information about you and the label. But a decade ago you were still doing fanzines. What differences do you see between these formats? Any advantages or disadvantages when comparing them?

Me and Olaf released our first fanzine in 1991. it was greatest fun. back then to see that people even spend money on it. We first pressed 250 copies of Smuf 1. it came with an flexi-disc by Sarah-Records band Brighter and was sold out in a hurry.
I wouldn’t sign most of the things i wrote back then but it’s still a nice document for me to find out how i felt those days.
Between 1993 – 2002 i published some issues of my own fanzine which was called Happy To Be Sad, named after an still unreleased song by The Servants. Can’t remember how many copies I’ve done.
On first view, I can’t see many differences between blogs and fanzines. Everything which was wrote will stay forever. I would love to post much more regularly on the Firestation blog these days, but there is sooo much to care about beside it, so there is no time left to write on it that often. I didn’t spend much time to watch blogs these days. Maybe i should, but i don’t care. It makes me tired to see some of them, the blogs owner include unreleased bands by their so called “favourite bands“ even without asking the bands about permission. This thing really pissed me on. Sometimes i think think that they don’t care about the music, all they are looking for is attention for something they don’t have any rights on. How silly!
There are people around who asked me to re-release this and that. When the record is out they don’t want to spend even an euro on it. I became so tired on those people, they want to get everything’s for free, we don’t need them!

++ Your most known releases are probably the Leamington Spa compilation series. So how did these shape up? And what part do each of the three labels behind it play? Any news about the next volume?

Peter Hahndorf (Claredon Records) and Sven Neuhaus (Bilberry Records) are both longtime friends of mine. It was Peter who came up with the idea to name the serie “The Sound Of Leamington Spa“, Sven gives me the most input on music beside my friend Olaf Grossigk. I will never forget that night when we first talked about spa 1. We’ve been through the bar’s of Bremen and end up in an really nice club around the Steintor. I had an big hangover from the night before when i saw the Jazz Butcher playing live in Hamburg. We were on our best and talked the whole night about the project. Before i found myself on the floor in the
next day’s early hours we decided about the line up for the first issue.

++ I’m going to put you on the spot now… you have to tell me who are the best or your favourite in German pop history in these subjects:

– Band: The New Colours
– Song: Annahmeschluß (Bazooka Cain)
– Label: Marina Records
– Fanzine: Happy To Be Sad / Hochverdichtet
– Gig: Die Fünf Freunde
– Dancer: Niels Fischer
– DJ: Ship Shape Club
– Mailorder: Mind The Gap
– Fan: Olaf Grossigk
– City: Berlin (what else should i say)

++ Tell us a bit of the upcoming releases on Firestation Records!

If things will be keen on us, Sound Of Leamington Spa 7 will be ready before the summer. This release is on delay since ages and i feel very sad for all the bands which are part of it.
These days I keep an eye to release as much 80’s stuff as possible. We hope to have an retrospective ready by Cherry Orchard in the near future and still looking forward to release the Jeremiahs back catalogue. Hopefully there will be a chance for it, so finger crossed. What’s on the plan since ten years is the retrospective by North Of Cornwallis, which are still one of my favourite bands ever! Maybe there will be finally a chance for it finally in 2010! so finger crossed for it!!
there will be another Firestation festival in Berlin took it’s place on 31 th of July this year. We will name it Popfest Berlin. There are people around in town which are not so keen on it, but once again, i don’t care about them. They asked me to ask them for permission in advance to organise such thing, would you believe? Not longer sure about those people.

++ What about the Firestation Singles Club, is there plans to continue with it?

Yeah, there were some plans the last year to continue the Singles Club. Catalogue number FST Singles Club 005 was hold for the debut single by The Soulboy Collective, the greatest German band since ages! Things took too long on it for various reasons, so we decided to stop business on the Singles Club. Instead we released the Soulboy Collective 7“ single at the end of the last year in cooperation with Fastcut Records in Japan, with the band’s debut album too follow soon.

++ Berlin is still a small city when it comes to an indiepop crowd, but things seem to be changing during the last years with people like Pop Kombinat! or Pop Assistants bringing indiepop to the city. How do you see this renaissance of the Berlin indiepop scene?

To be honest, i’m not so sure about this renaissance these days. Without a doubt Pop Assistants are doing a great job and i feel happy for them that they can organize some cool gigs these days. Andi and me meet up for a dj-set at my favourite football-bar the Schwalbe once the month. But i can’t seen any scene! Maybe i’m wrong and there is a big indiepop-crowd aroud these days in Berlin? I can only speak for me and my friends. I’m not living in the past and i feel good to know that there are people around which keeping care of indiepop these days but to be honest again i don’t want to be part of any scene anymore. Never been to Pop Kombinat, so i can’t tell anything about them.

++ I also know you are an avid collector, so would you recommend your favourite record stores in Berlin or do you prefer to keep them for yourself? I would understand!

Great question! Yeah, record shopping became one of the most important part in my life since the early 90’s when i became a record dealer. There are still a lot of shops in berlin which care for second hand vinyl. I love to visit those places with friends, although i should better care for shopping on my own. My favourite shops in town are Cover Music, Comeback, Rocksteady Records and The Record Store in Brunnenstrasse. I can also recommend Mr. Dead and Mrs. Free for new stuff. This shop was very very important for me in the early days and i still visit them on regular basis. If you have some free time you should firstly visit Cover Music. It will take you hours to go through the whole vinyl selection, but all my friends from abroad found some great stuff. I bought that Siddeleys 12“ for three euro just a couple of weeks ago from it. Maybe the best place for record shopping is the Mauerpark market which takes it’s place every Sunday. We’re selling records on our own on it twice the month. I stay away from it in the colder days, but there is still business on that market in the winter days. I can recommend this place for every collector!
If anyone out there needs further recommendations please feel free to contact me.

++ And what about gigs? I know nowadays you don’t go to that many, but tell me which ones have been the best you’ve attended!

I gave up on it since they banned smoking in some clubs two years ago. I’ve been to gigs twice the week at least back in the past but to be honest i don’t care about it that much these days, i rather like to hang out with my mates for some drinks instead. On one hand I’m feel sad to became tired on it but to be honest there are not much band’s around these days which i would love to catch up live. There are some gigs which are on my top-list, maybe it was the greatest for me to see Roddy Frame live in the mid 90’s. the Brilliant Corners gig at the KOB in the late 80’s was also fucking great. Not to forget the Housemartins in 1987 and Morrissey seeing singing “William It Was Really Nothing“ back in the winter days of 2006! i have also great memories on a Teenage Fanclub / Groove Little Numbers gig at ULU London which took it’s place in 1991. Groovy Little Numbers played with full Brasssection! What a great night!

Thanks a lot for your great question, Roque! I’m looking forward to see you again later this year!

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Listen
Der Englische Garten – Heizdecke am Strand

Thanks so much to Martin King for the interview! For those who are living under a rock The Desert Wolves have just released (or should I say re-released?) their Pontification album with 4 extra songs! All of them brilliant! You can find it at the Firestation Records HQ. Also you can find the glorious Desert Wolves on myspace here.

++ How are you doing? How has 2010 been so far?

Been sorting out some minor corrections and a book proposal for my PHD-which is on The Beatles.

++ You just released, or should I say, re-released, the Pontification album with four extra tracks on the Firestation label. Would you care telling me a bit about each of these four songs? Why weren’t they released before?

“Skin Deep” was one of the final demos we did along with the Gunmetal Jaguar.i never really liked it that much so left it off the album-i have warmed to it a bit! La Petite Rochelle was released on the Rochelle 12″. “She Wore My Sweater” was recorded in the same session as “Mexico” -8 track genius- but i never really liked the way it turned out. “Passion in the Afternoon” has a sort of U2 rumble on it as an alternative but we liked the other version better .

++ Are these all the unreleased Desert Wolves songs, or are there still some more laying around somewhere on dusty tapes?

There are no more tracks but there was a Desert Wolves mark 1 which Nick and Dave Platten were in and there are some demos -they were a bit more punky-did boredom as an encore-that sort of thing- Dave would be able to tell you more and about the origins of the name.

++ What was the main reason that made you decide it was time to re-release the masterpiece that Pontification is?

The re-release idea really came from nagging by Uwe at Firestation!

++ So let’s go back in time… how did The Desert Wolves start? How did you get to know each other

I joined in late 86 as a mutual friend told me they were looking for a new singer -we did our first gig at the international supporting the stone roses in jan 87.

++ How did you end up signing to Ugly Man records? How was your relationship with Guy Lovelady? Any anecdotes you could share?

The Ugly Man connection was already made when I joined. Guy Lovelady was a great amateur enthusiast in the spirit of the times, always at gigs and often came down to the studio.

++ Where any of you involved with other bands before being part of the Desert Wolves?

I was in a band called bee vamp in the early 80s-some tracks just released on a Manchester musician’s collective cd on Hyped to Death label-also 2 indie 12″ and a peel session in 81-with Jim Parris who went on to form Carmel. I then formed the Harbour Bar -on one of Leamington Spa collections-a short lived easy listening band years ahead of its time!! A few gigs and one demo.

++ I have some questions about your songs, first of all, was Rochelle a real person, or was her a character you invented for the song “Speak to Me, Rochelle”?

Rochelle was a real person but i just liked the name. The main inspiration for most of the lyrics was a fairly new relationship with the woman i am now married to. “Besotted” and “November” in particular.

++ Also, I’ve always meant to ask you, have you ever been to Mexico? You seem to be a big Mexican food fan for sure, tacos and burritos

Never been to Mexico. The song was inspired by a Mexican restaurant on Oxford road in Manchester in 80s: “Amigos”.

++ What about “Passion in the Afternoon”? Does it have to do anything with Rohmer’s movie by the same name?

“Passion in the Afternoon” is about autumn afternoons in my flat! There is a scene in room at the top with Laurence Harvey and Simone Signouret that has a similar feel but I only discovered that afterwards.

++ Is it me, or it seems you have an interest in cars, especially vintage ones. Am I right? I mean, from the Vermont Sugar House artwork for the 7″, the album, and even the new Desert Wolves album artwork. Also you did write a song called The Gunmetal Jaguar!

I had a 62 sunbeam rapier in the mid 80s which was used on the artwork for “Love Scattered Lives” and in the video-hence its revival in nes artwork-i now have a 77 Daimler of the sort that is on the Vermont Sugar House cover-the 60s obsession was mainly me-stems from childhood and never went away-Iam a big collector.

++ What about the video for “Love Scattered Lives”? How did that came about? What are your memories from recording it?

The video was shot on a budget of £20 by someone called Liam Khan who went on to work with the Pet Shop Boys and New Order-for a larger fee i suspect-it was a great day out on the Yorkshire coast.

++ I think you are such a great lyricist, so I have to ask, where does the inspiration comes from? And how easy was to make music with the whole band? What was the creative process?

As with the Vermont Sugar House tunes started mainly with Dave-some Nick-and then I would add lyrics when we were happy with the tune. The recording of “November” is a first take and the first time i had sung the lyrics. I recently read that Bryan Ferry did that with “Love is the Drug”. I like that sort of thing.

++ How do you remember the Manchester scene from back then? Any bands you enjoyed? How did you feel about the whole Madchester thing?

In retrospect I feel very lucky to have been around the Manchester scene-from the factory in the late 70s where i saw band like the B52s/Pere Ubu/Buzzcocks/the original Human League-through the collective and The Hacienda-Madchester was a lot of un clubbing wise but i am more an 82-87 Hacienda person. Loved The Smiths and New Order but not as much as Orange Juice. And I have a deep nostalgia for a time when most people I knew were in a band.

++ When and why did you decide to call it a day?

Musical differences i think-some dispute because i couldn’t sing like Scott Walker- the fact that no one but Scott Walker can etc etc. The Wolves split at a foolish time, just before the Roses thing and everyone getting signed. Hated the Inspiral Carpets and the Mondays vastly overrated and the fact that the Roses were considered plod rock between 86 and 89 and had a national front following has been erased from pop history.

++What happened in that gap between The Desert Wolves and Vermont Sugar House?

Dave and i just kept writing in the gap which eventually resulted in the Vermont Sugar House stuff.

++ Are you still in touch with all members of the band? What are you all doing nowadays

Dave and I now work in academia, Nick at the EU in Brussels-saw them at Xmas. Richard went on to be a successful tour manager, he did the Spice Girls first world tour. Craig was thought to be dead based on assumptions about his lifestyle but he has posted something on youtube (re: the video).

++ We should do a Vermont Sugar House interview some time Martin! But are there any future releases coming? Should I expect some more great songs from you in the near future?

Not sure if there will be more Vermont Sugar House stuff-have a couple of nice songs kicking around and have bought a very nice 1966 Burns Baldwin so who knows.

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Listen
The Desert Wolves – Speak to Me, Rochelle

The Palisades from Perth, Australia! Such a fantastic band that only recorded around 11 songs. All of them top-notch! I was lucky to grab once their retrospective on Egg Records, and now even more lucky to have been in touch with Ian Freeman from the band. He was kind enough to answer all my questions!

++ Thanks so much Ian for being up for the interview! Most of us are going through a cold winter but down in Australia you are having a great summer! How have you being enjoying it so far?

The summer break has been great. Lots of days at the beach trying to perfect my surfing technique. I got a 9′2″ mal that gets a work out when ever possible.

++ You’ve been involved in many bands like Mars Bastards or Header, but I’m going to stick to Palisades questions on this interview. But I do wonder if this was your first band? I’ve heard about some band Peppermint Drops and another one Homecoming… but I’m not sure.

Well, I it was all a little fast paced at the beginning. I got offered the job as singer with the Homecoming by Gil Bradley and Mandy Haines who were friends of mine. That same weekend I was out at a gig and saw Jeff Baker who was playing with the Peppermints and asked how it was going and he told me they needed a new singer. So I jumped at it as they were actually playing gigs and a bit more organised. In the end I only played one crazy show with the Peppermint Drops in a place called Boyup Brook which is sorta like “deliverence” country. We supported The Stems.

++ The Palisades were formed around you and Jeff Baker, right? How did you both meet? And then how did you decide to start a band?

I was a friend of Jeff’s sister Sue. We are both a little younger than J.B. so when he would go out, we would sneak into his room and play all his groovey records. I got to know him through that and going to see gigs. When the Peppermint Drops folded we just decided we would continue on together as we were both into the same scene and liked similar music etc.

++ How did this creative partnership work? What was the creative process behind it?

In the beginning Jeff had a large kitchen with a huge round table. We would catch up at his place two or three times a week and just throw ideas at each other across the table. He was studying English literature at uni and would lay out sheets of poems and I would cut out lines from each of them and paste them together. I think we just put half finished ideas down onto a cassette player for later reference. Maybe one out of every 5 songs would make it to a rehearsal. Out of the rehearsal maybe one out of two songs would make it to the gig. Out of the set list of say 20 songs we only recorded a few, maybe 10.

++ How did the other members came to be in the band? How was the recruiting process?

Well I was trying to play guitar at the time and another of our friends Gary was playing bass but neither of us were getting very far. Jeff had some friends from his contacts with The Stems. Velo Zupanovich who played bass with Dom in the Gostarts and Guido Berini who played guitar with Velo in a band called The Rayguns. He recruited them then we found a drummer Richard Nash. Gary was asked to leave and I was asked to stop playing guitar and concentrate on singing!

++ Why the name The Palisades?

Jeff came up with it. He was into the shapes of words back then, and probably still is. He liked the way the P and the d offset each other, the repetition of the s’s and the way the a and l almost make a d. After he put so much thought into it how was any of us going to object.

++ The Perth scene in the 80s seems so vibrant! How do you explain that explosion of guitar pop bands in the city? As you were around, I have to ask, was there a band in Perth that was great but no one has heard about? I mean, we’ve all heard of Summer Suns, Stolen Picassos, Charlotte’s Web, etc etc… but maybe you remember some other?

Perth is one of the most isolated citys in the world. The music scene has always been pretty vibrant, basically because you have to make your own fun. If you didn’t you would go nuts through lack of things to do. So you start a band, or mange a band, or open a club, or start a shop selling cool records and t-shirts because literally nobody else was doing it. Why guitars? Acappella doesn’t cut it and synths were so expensive I guess. Bands were popping up and blowing out so fast. My fave band of that time were Traitors Gate who my friend Andre Scannel sang for. He was very into Velvet Underground, Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen and they sounded like a mix of all that. I only have one blurred photo of them live. I don’t think they ever recorded. Kim Williams band The Holy Rollers were good too. Rabbits Wedding were another.

++ A friend of mine once made me a copy of the Out of the Woodwork tape, but neither him or me have any information on it. Do you know anything about it? I know there were two of your songs there, but I have no clue who released it or when…

Every year or so someone in Perth puts a compilation out of who ever is playing the scene at that time. It’s usually called something like “Edge of the World” or “Way Out West” or “Look At Us We’re Trying Really Hard”. The motives behind them were always a bit suss and a bit sad. We did it for promotional reasons as did all the bands. I cant remember what we put on there or who else was involved.

++ You appeared on a compilation and a flexi, both released by a radio station. Was this something common back in the day? Radios supported independent bands?How did you end up on these releases?

Radio 6NR was a uni run station. Jeff was going to uni and managed to get us a slot on there every Tuesday night 9 to midnight. We got to spin all our latest records and have a bit of a laugh. It was great fun. Unless you liked listening to the usual FM playlists there was no radio station playing the stuff we liked. You couldn’t hear Elvis Costello, R.E.M., Lets Active, The Smiths any where except 6NR and 6UVSFM another uni station which later turned into 3RTR. And all these radio programs were being run by our friends and other band members. This is where I first heard Big Star, Television, Gram Parsons so many great bands…it was an education every night. Then a mag came out and a flexi disc on the cover. We were really lucky to do one. I think the Kryptonics did one. The mag would have news on local bands and gigs coming up.

++ How did you end up signing to Easter Records? How was your relationship with Neil Kim? Any anecdotes you could share?

Kim ran a shop called White Ryder Records?. I had been going in there since I was about 16. I would go in days in a row and just look at the records I wanted to buy as I had no money. You could stand there for hours and listen to Kim and his pals spin great tunes. So we all knew Kim for ages. Kim had put out my mate Ian Underwoods bands ep (The Kryptonics) and Jeff had done Summer Suns releases with him. He was very relaxed about the whole thing.

++ What do you remember from recording this mini-LP? And how many copies were there made? I can’t yet find a copy for myself!

We recorded the lp in two sessions. Recording was very expensive back then so we played our arses of and saved a few thousand dollars and we went into the best studio in Perth called Planet with John Vilani who is sadly no longer with us. We did side one in there on the day Liverpool played Everton in an F.A. cup final. Having grown up in Liverpool this was a huge deal for me and I had to keep running out to check the score then back in to do vocal takes. Agony! The second side we recorded in Shelter Studios with Andy Priest?…Kim was on board by now. I remember Kim got the records pressed and they had a printed lyric sheet insert that had to be put in each one. We sat at his place and did everyone by hand. 1000 copies? this was the day Kim introduced me to Pet Sounds. Shit, the hairs on my neck just stood up!!! I think Da Da Records in Perth still has a few copies floating about.

++ I did find the Egg Records compilation, which is such a fantastic compilation of all of your releases plus an unreleased track. But I do wonder if there are still more unreleased tracks from The Palisades? maybe hiding in some old dusty tapes?

Sorry thats it. I do have a cassette of us rehearsing live but its very rough. There are about 7 or 8 unreleased tunes on there. Turkish Delight, My New Address.. cant remember the rest.

++ What are your favourite Palisades’ songs?

It’s hard for me to be objective. When I listen to them now I hear song writers on a learning curve. Like looking back on your primary school days. Light As Air was one of those round table songs. As is Today of All days which I still play on guitar to this day. So I guess I will take those two. Oh and The Jetty.

++ What about gigging? Did you gig lots as The Palisades? Any particular gigs you remember and why?

We did heaps of shows. We supported The Stems a few times, The Go Betweens, The Triffids, Hunters and Collectors, Falling Joys plus we got to play heaps of shows when going out to a gig was the thing to do so crowds were big like 300, 400 to a local band which was massive. I cant remeber any one show in particular. Being back stage with the all those bands was huge and seeing Mark Seymour warming up his vocals before a show was a huge moment for me personally like..”Shit, this is serious buisness here”. Up until then I didn’t take singing very seriously, just a bit of a giggle really. When I saw you could be as professional as a guitarist or drummer about it I really started to listen and learn.

++ Okay, I said I’d stick to Palisades but this I do want to ask, would you care to tell me a bit about the Pelicassos Brothers? I’ve been looking for songs for like forever but never to find anything. Was there anything released? Or at least, are there any recordings?

Martin Gambie and I got together on days where there was not much going on in the Palisade or Stolen Picassos camps. Our bands would play together often and we even had a song called “Weeping Woman” which was the name of the Picasso painting that was actually stolen.He got me into Mamas and Papas and obscure vocal bands and I would try to convince him of the merits of The Fleshtones or Jellyfish. We would jam a few of our favorite tunes together and a couple of covers like Dylans “You Aint Going Nowhere” and “Swan Swan Hummingbird” by R.E.M. and practice our harmonies. The we started playing a few gigs as a duo and I finally got to play 12 string! Then we would get rolling drunk. I do have a tape with two songs on it which I discovered the other day. I hadn’t listened to it for over 20 years! It was never released and one of the songs is just humming no words but the other song is great.

++ What about the tribute band the Pale Sadies?

You have got to be joking?

++ There is a moment when you all decide to move to Sydney, why was that? Then you came back to Perth, right? Was that when the band broke up?

First our drummer Richard Nash left the band and was replaced by Chad then Dave Hale, then Guido left and we decided to play as a four piece. Then Jeff and Dave quit to pursue other interests. Velo and I decided to continue on as the band had quite a following and we were getting heaps of shows. So Gil Bradley from The Homecoming replaced Jeff on guitar (who went on to start the Rainyard) and Duncan McMillan came in from the Stolen Picassos to play drums. We recorded a few songs with this line up of which “Memories of Old Flowers” and “Deaths Echoes” made it onto the Palisades cd on Egg records. Sydney was where all the record companies were at the time and all the new pop bands were coming out of Sydney so we decided to move there. Velo quit and we got Mandy Haines in from the Homecoming/Rosemary Beads to play bass. We played about 15 shows there and went down well but we never really got a foot hold. Jeff was sending tapes of The Rainyards stuff and it sounded like all the fun was back in Perth so we moved back. I just hung out for a year and then Jeff and I started the Mars Bastards with Gil on guitar. There were five line ups with the Palisades and each one had its own distinctive sound.

++ Are you still making music? What are some of Ian Freeman’s hobbies?

I still play in a band with Jeff called The Lazybirds here in Melbourne. Shaun Lahore from the Mars Bastrads plays drums with us and Dave Johnstone and Phil Natt from Ammonia play guitar and bass respectively. We have recorded a 7 track EP but have no label so are sitting on that at the moment. Hobbies??? Well, I surf. I am a chef so I cook and eat out. And play gigs when ever possible!

++ Thanks again for doing this interview, anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. It was heaps of fun. Take care.

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Listen
The Palisades – Alternatively Wednesday

Hope Stew doesn’t get mad if I call him an indiepop legend! But he is! And so, I’m very thrilled to have had the opportunity to chat with him about his most known band, Boyracer. He has been in many, you know, right? He also runs the great 555 Recordings label if you didn’t know. Check more of their stuff on myspace and on their own website. But that’s it for introductions, please enjoy our little interview!

++ Thanks Stew for making this interview. It’s hard to cover on a single short questionnaire everything you’ve done but let’s try it! So 2 feet of snow this past week? So it snows in the desert?

Oh yes. We are in the high desert here, 7000 ft above sea level. We get pretty extreme seasons, which is one of the reasons I love it so much.

++ Boyracer is mostly you, Stew, and lots of friends that have stepped in to play with you. What was the line-up that lasted the longest? And if you had the chance to do a sort of an all-star lineup, who would you choose?

Erm… I’m not sure what the longest line up was. I think myself, Jen and Ara supplemented by whoever else was available and wanted to help out. I think the most exciting line is always the current line up, which for the Slumberland reunion shows will myself, Jen, Ara, Chuck (Bright Lights) and Mario (From Bubblegum To Sky/Ciao Bella etc). I’m not sure if that is “All Star” but it is as competent as it gets in terms of playing live.

++ Have you been involved in other bands before Boyracer? Or was this your first adventure? Where did the inspiration to start came from?

Oh lots of bands, you should check out “The Wetherbeat Scene 1988-91″ CD we put out. Its a 35 CD comp of bands I was in during highschool.

++ Why did you call the band Boyracer?

A Boyracer is an expression from the North of England that describes a young boy who spends lots of money souping up a crap car and then driving it recklessly to impress girls. Sort of showing off with something that isn’t really worthy of showing off with.

++ You’ve covered many songs. But I’m wondering which is the one you are more satisfied with? or at least your favourite?

Well, I love to play music and its always fun to put your own twist on someone elses song and try and make it your own. I like all 15 of the songs on our Boyracer Jukebox Vol 1 very much. I think our version of Bonnie Tylers “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” is pretty remarkable.

++ How did you end up on Sarah records? Was it easy to be the noisy band in the label?

We used to put shows on in Leeds for a bunch of bands, not just Sarah bands, and usually we would book ourselves as the opening band. We where asked by Matt and Claire out of the blue to do a 7inch. It wasn’t easy at all being on Sarah as not many people who came to the Sarah shows or bought Sarah records liked us. Likewise, people who did sort of like us hated all the “twee crap” surrounding the label. There where, let us not forget, some truly dreadful and gutless bands on Sarah at the same time we where involved. Its funny how Sarah is viewed nowadays as an amazing label because at the time, in the UK at least, it was really uncool to be on Sarah. But I always thought Matt and Claire where fantastic people who I still have huge respect for.

++ But your first releases were on Fluff Records, a way noisier label, with bands such as Liechtenstein Girl and Aspidistra. And they were from Leeds too! Were you good friends? How did you meet the Fluff
Records people?

The mysterious “DMCL” who ran Fluff just wrote to us after we had been on a few compilation tapes. We sent him a few songs and he put them out. At the time he lived in Loughborough, and I had a job driving Artwork to and from Leicester from Leeds, so used to call in on him and play records in his bedroom. He was a pretty crazy guy who I suspect took too many drugs and burnt out. (His band was Leichtenstein Girl). He disappeared after a while, and no-one knows where or what he is upto.

++ You said once that you felt more comfortable with being Slumberland Records than in any other labels. Why didn’t you continue releasing there?

Not sure. Mike stopped asking us, not through any falling out, Im still in touch with him all the time. He has lots of new bands and I guess The Pains keep him busy. Although having said that, I did just record a 7inch with Matt Hartman as The How that will coupled with 2 new Boyracer songs, that be coming out on 555/Slumberland just in time for the Slumberland 20th anniversary shows.

++ What about starting 555 Records, what was the main reason behind that? It would be nice to do a whole interview about the whole label sometime…

The main reason was to release a record by our friends Hood. At the time I was sharing a house with Richard, and they had a bunch of great songs that remarkably no-one wanted to release. So we did. It wasn’t really meant to be an ongoing thing, in fact none of the first 10 records even had catalogue numbers on them.

++ I find it funny that you once wrote a song called “Bring me the Hair of Phil Oakey”. Have you seen photos of him today? He goes with no hair at all! But what’s the story behind this song?!

Always loved the league. Fine baritone voice, lovely mane of hair. Always liked men in mascara.

++ I do have to ask you about one of my favourite songs of yours “My New Shoes”, I just want to know what is it about, and how did you come up with it? Easy question!

Gosh. Erm… that’s as song I wrote 16 years ago so I don’t really remember specifics. But the gist of it is putting new shoes on a table is meant to bring bad luck. The lyrics I suppose are about deliberately bring bad luck upon yourself. I usually don’t think about writing songs much at all and certainly don’t enjoy dissecting my own output. I strive for a less conscious way of writing and recording. Pretty much everything I have ever done has been done very quickly. Initially because we couldn’t afford studios back in the day, but nowadays because I think any kind of “art” should be spontaneous and from within, you think about it too much you will destroy it. I hate pretension in any kind of “art”. Most of the recordings I have ever made have always been 1st,2nd or 3rd takes. (Apart from the drums. You have to get the drums right or the songs never work).

++ What about gigs, you’ve played tons! But is there any in particular you are more proud of?

I guess the Emmaboda festival in Sweden. Our biggest gig, and outside too. It was broadcast on Swedish radio. One of my favourite live moments looking out into a few thousand people. Of course it was a festival so they weren’t there to us specifically…

++ Why did you decide to move and stay in Flagstaff, Arizona, of all places. You don’t ever miss the city life?

I run a cattle ranch with Jen out here in the desert. Actually where we live isn’t technically Flagstaff as we live in the middle of nowhere completely off the grid with no roads, solar power, and we pump our own well water. Surrounded by cows, pigs, chickens, horses etc… It would break my heart to ever go back to living in a city. I’ve lived in cities most of my adult life. Once you get in tune with the seasons, which you have to do quite quickly when you have 400 cows, city life seems so ugly.

++ You spend quite some time in New Zealand and pressed records in Australia as well. What is that that you miss the most from the antipodes?

They’re always up for a beer and good time… no, really, an amazing amount of remarkable music has always come out of Australia and New Zealand and continues to do so.

++ Can we expect anything from Boyracer in the future or was the last record really the last one?

I thought we where done as Boyracer, but when we where asked to play the Slumberland anniversary shows although I had reservations I finally said yes. But I wanted to do something new for it, and not just have a nostalgia trip. I certainly feel with Boyracer the last 5 years of records we made where the best. Sadly not many people have heard the last 5 years of records we made, as we have no distro and none of those records even sold 100 copies. So I wrote and recorded 2 new songs which will be the aforementioned split single with The How. So, even when I want to stop I guess I can’t…

++ What was the biggest highlight so far for you as Boyracer?

Having John Peel tell me “Excellent punk rock” after he witnessed us playing 16 songs in 22 minutes.

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Listen
Boyracer – Passionflower

Some time ago I wrote a little piece about These Future Kings, a fantastic Australian band that seemed to have disappeared out of the blue. No signs on the internet about them! But Perry White, one of the members of the band got in touch and has been so kind to give me an interview and tell me more about his band! Thanks so much Perry!

++ So let’s get into business, how did the band start? How did you all knew each other?

TFK birthed in about 1985/86 after I met Charles at Monash University in Melbourne. He was studying Arts, I was studying science and we knew of each other through a mutual friend who encouraged us to seek each other out. I think we met through the Uni radio station at which we both had shows. We were both in separate bands at the time: I was in one called Polar 1500 and he was in Gothic Farmyard. Both bands were playing rather extreme music and we discovered we shared a passion for melody and guitars and had very similar musical tastes. We began writing together and knew we had to be in a band together. I was sharing a house with Mark Freeman (drummer) then, so he was an obvious choice. Steven Johanssen (sax and keyboards) I brought with me from Polar 1500 and Claudia White (bass) is my sister so I asked her to play simply because we didn’t have a bass player.

++ What does the name These Future Kings mean? Was it easy to decide on the name?

TFK is a phrase from the Tibetan Book Of The Dead which I found and I don’t think anyone else had a say in it. I don’t recall any discussions or alternative suggestions.

++ Bury My Bones is such a great track! What is it about? How did this song came to life?

‘Bury My Bones’ started as Charles’ guitar riff around which we played. We usually wrote by Charles or I bringing a riff or chord sequence to the band and everyone jamming on that initial idea. A structured song would usually rear its head from the jamming and I would write the lyrics last to fit the musical structure. On occasion, I would bring a completed song to the band or Charles would bring the music and I would bring the words.
‘Bury My Bones’ is vaguely about the idea of killing one self to give birth to another self; the idea of keeping moving and growing. But really I can’t speak for the guy who wrote those words – he was very young, a little lost and I guess looked a little like me.

++ I’ve only listened the Bury My Bones single so I’m still hunting for the Carnival LP. Can you tell me a bit more about the album? How many songs were included? What about the recording process? Your favourite song? Any other anecdotes?

‘Carnival’ was an absolute pleasure to make. It was the first time we had planned a recording session and our first time with a producer – Tim Cole/Mr Bo – who was a member of probably the biggest Indie band in Australia then – Not Drowning Waving.
The bulk of the recording took place in winter and for their acoustic properties, we decided to record in the basement of silos of an abandoned Flour Mill in Richmond, a suburb of Melbourne. The place was being used as a squat by friends of ours – it had no running water, no toilets, no heating but somehow the electricity was connected. The silos were near a major train route, so most of the recording happened very late at night after the trains had stopped.
I remember it being cold all the time, drinking a lot of Port wine to keep warm, all of us tired but urging each other on to play better – we were high on the music, the ambition, the promise of it all. And occasionally the dope.
We spent about 8 days at the mill, then did overdubs in a studio in Elwood and I think finished the recording and mixing in about 12 days. All up, perhaps the best recording experience of my life.
‘Carnival’ has 10 songs and is divided into a ’showside’ and a ‘ringside’ built around the carnival idea. I think all of us would nominate a song called ‘My yellow room’ as our favourite. I hope you get to hear it one day.

++ There was also a mini-LP released in 1986 right? I couldn’t find any information about it at all! What about this one? Does it really exist?

Our 3 releases on the Rampant label are completed by our first release, a four song e.p. called ‘After This’. We recorded it as winners of a community radio station 3RRR’s ‘Battle of the Bands’ type show.
There is also a compilation live LP called ‘Hair of the Dog’ from a venue called The Punter’s Club’ on which we have a track ‘A face to break a thousand hearts’ and several songs on cassette fanzines, etc. And our never-released 2nd album ‘Via Dolorosa’ which we recorded for Rampant, but the label crashed before it was released.

++ What were you listening at the time? Had the influence of the Flying Nun label from New Zealand already reached the Australian coasts?

Our infuences…hmmm… I personally was most influenced by local or Australian bands like The Go Betweens, The Birthday Party, The Laughing Clowns, The Triffids and many more. I was much more influenced by bands’ attitudes and their quirkiness than their music per se. Musically, I think we were influnced by a lot of guitar-based, melody fuelled music. I remember Charles loved tasteful guitar stuff like The ComSat Angels; Mark loved mainly American trashy stuff like Camper Van Beethoven, The Violent Femmes and their ilk; and I think we all loved Joy Division, some punk stuff, Echo & The Bunnymen, etc.

++ How did you end up signing to Rampant Records? How was the relationship?

We had a great relationship with Bill Tolson from Rampant. We initially sent him the completed songs for what became ‘After This’ and he signed us for an album based on that. He was very keen on the second album as well but the company folded.

++ On the Bury My Bones single you worked with Warren Ellis from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, how was that experience?

I knew Warren (Ellis) through mutual friends and we got on great together. He was playing in other bands and somehow ended up joing TFK for about a year. He was great fun to work with – ‘Bury My Bones’ is the only thing we recorded with him, apart from some live stuff. Ultimately though, he didn’t really fit into the band as we already had a ‘featured’ instrument (the sax), and Warren wasn’t a background sort of player. We loved the violin though and ended up recruiting Jennifer McCutcheon into the band on viola. She plays on ‘Carnival’ but only joined the band after the recording.

++ Did These Future Kings gig a lot? Any particular gigs you remember the most?

TFK played a hell of a lot, as did most bands at that time. It’s also a particularly Australian thing I learnt later on for bands to play themselves halfway to the asylum and really hone their talent that way. The Triffids and The GoBetweens were particularly famous for this. We played on average 4 shows a month basically anywhere that would have us. I think my favourite show was supporting The GoBetweens at a beautiful theatre in Melbourne called The Old Greek Theatre (now demolished). We were throwing sparks that night and went down really well in front of 800 people, maybe the biggest crowd we played to. A close second would be our first show in Sydney in an underground venue in Kings Cross. We had driven straight up from Melbourne (about 10 hours) to the venue to sound-check, then did a press interview, and just before the show a drunk threatened to slash me up with a broken bottle! I remember shaking for the first three or so songs and not being able to hold the chords down on my guitar. The show went great.

++ Why and when did you call it a day? Were you involved with music after?

TFK ended not with a bang but a whimper, I suppose. We gradually became disheartened shopping the second album around after Rampant folded. Claudia and Mark decided to leave music altogether and do something ’sensible’ with their lives. Charles and I continued writing and playing together and in the late 90s formed a band called The Lost Highway, which was very enjoyable but got nowhere, again through the difficulties trying to get a release for our album ‘Amarine’. Charles does not play music at all, but got heavily into the music business and now runs a music-related consultancy business in London. Claudia never played music again and is now married with 2 children. Mark is now a print journalist and is marrried with a couple of kids. Steven also stopped playing music after TFK. I am still writing and playing under the name P A White, and hope to have an album out around August this year.

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Listen
These Future Kings – A Rumour of Angels

First of all let me say that I’m a BIG FAN of They Go Boom!! And it was such a pleasure and honour to be able to have this little questionnaire with Mike Innes. Thanks a thousand to Mike for being up for me bombarding him will all kind of questions. It’s time to get your They Go Boom!! 7″s and put them on your turntable! Celebrate one of the best bands of the 90s!

++ Hi Mike! How is 2010 so far? Any resolutions for this new year? Or any great project you have in the works for it?

Hi Roque. I’m not really a New Year’s resolutions kind of guy. Maybe that’s where I’ve been going wrong all this time..?

++ Let’s talk about the band, alright? First of all, I’ve always wondered where does the name They Go Boom!! comes from? It’s a fantastic band name by the way!

Thank you. We wanted the name to be something that reflected both of our interests and enthusiasms and we were both pretty keen on Laurel & Hardy, so we made a list of their movie titles that might work for a band name and They Go Boom was the best-sounding one. Bohemian Girl was another of their movies, incidentally, so that was why later on we used The Bohemian Girls as the name for our glam backing vocalists.

++ Okay, so you notice you are being interviewed by a big fan of yours… tell me why you stopped making music? It’s not really fair. You’ve never felt like reviving TGB? I bet you’d be called to some sort of festival like Indietracks if you’d do it!

Oh, the reason we stopped was nothing to do with music. I moved away from the town where we were living and by coincidence Daryl also moved to another part of the country at around a similar time. We didn’t fall out or anything. In fact, I thought we might do Indietracks and we did speak about it briefly, but in the end I couldn’t get it together, partly for technical reasons and partly because life ended up getting taken over by a house move – still, my fault entirely. Sorry!

++ So Mike, how did you and Daryl knew each other?

I was working at the same place as Daryl’s wife and it turned out that we’d both dabbled in music with keyboards, so then we started getting together and doing bits and pieces of writing and recording.

++ I know you were a big fan of jangly guitars, you did the Phew Wow fanzine, but how come you decided to do electronic indiepop instead of guitar pop?

Well, we both liked a lot of different types of stuff, not just guitar pop. It was me who was more into indiepop and the whole Sarah thing, but I did also like 80s synth stuff and I listened to both those sorts of things equally. Daryl was a big Smiths fan but also was into probably a bit more experimental electronics than I was, like Fad Gadget. In retrospect, I wish we’d pursued that side of things more than we did. As for why we ended up using electronic instrumentation, well, we both had bits and pieces of keyboards and drum machines and neither of us could play a guitar… so, kind of an obvious choice. Actually, to be fair, Daryl did play some bass and we ended up using it on the outro to He Didn’t Deserve You on the Atlantic album. We were never interested in the idea of properly involving anyone else in the band, so until much later on it was just whatever we could do between the pair of us.

++ Talking about zines, your first proper release was the flexi that came with the This Almighty Pop! zine! Have you ever met Stephen? He seems really ace, I look forward to meet him! How come did you both got in touch?

Yes, we did meet once or twice. If I remember correctly TGB thought that sending out demo cassettes to some of the fanzines which we liked would be a good way of getting some kind of attention, and Stephen liked what we’d done and kindly offered to release a flexi with TAP.

++ Care to tell me a bit of those early tape releases, “Myopia” and “We Touch the Lives of Ordinary Folk”? What songs were included?

Oh God! I’m not even sure I can remember. I don’t have copies of them. It was twenty years ago! But basically they were all four-track recordings that we did over a period of time in Daryl’s spare bedroom. We were just learning how to use the equipment and how to work round its limitations. The She’s Like A Dream flexi track was probably about the best of the recordings we did then – for some reason it all just fell into place and it sounded great very quickly.

++ I also know there was a tape on Elefant Records, what about that one?

Luis got in touch and asked if he could make a compilation of the two cassette demos. I don’t know if it did the label or the band much good, but in retrospect it’s nice to have an Elefant release to our name.

++ Two questions about the name of your releases. What was The Ruby Lounge? and what about Woody Allen, what’s your favourite movie by him?

The Ruby Lounge was the name of a pub on the seafront in the coastal town where we were living. I was an incomer to the town and it was one of those things that I saw and thought was striking, while Daryl as a long-term resident hadn’t really noticed it. A lot of those early songs were about life there. The cover of the Myopia cassette is a power station that is close by, too. As for Woody Allen, I don’t have a favourite movie – it just seemed like an appropriate title for that particular song.

++ What about gigging? You did quite a few ace ones! But you only started playing live in 1994! Why was that? What took you so long?

Haha. Well, I think in total we did a grand total of five gigs and probably one of them I would actively describe as having been ace. The thing is that playing live was never really what we were interested in. The band was something comfortably social, like going round to a friend’s house and having a coffee and, oh yeah, how about this melody line or this for a drum pattern? Playing live would have been far too much like hard work and we never liked the idea of trawling round the crappier indie venues of England. Plus, because we were 100% electronic the equipment that was cheaply available at that time really wasn’t up to it. In the end a few people kept asking us and kept asking us, so we did play a handful of shows. As I say, one of them was pretty good.

++ From your gigs, I wonder especially about that one that you played along La Buena Vida, one of my favourite bands! How was that? Any anecdotes to tell from that night?

That was the good one! We and I think also Moving Pictures supported them at a place in Madrid. This was a time when La Buena Vida were becoming a pretty popular band across Spain, so they sold out a venue with a capacity of maybe 500 or so. The audience seemed to like our stuff, we heard that some people had travelled a long distance to see us and then I remember standing on stage and being able to see people in the audience actually singing along with songs of ours that they knew.

That was astonishing for us. In our world, in practical terms we were the only people who had any familiarity with our songs at all. Our experience of being a band involved meeting up at Daryl’s place once a week to work on songs, while occasionally receiving a letter from a label saying that they’d sold x copies of a particular release; our experience of being a band definitely did NOT involve going to other countries and seeing face to face that some people really really liked what we were doing. But that’s what happened on that one occasion with La Buena Vida.

++ Also you played at the Stockholm International Pop Underground 3, how was that experience?

Mmm, I think you know more about the band than I do… we invited Denis Pasero from Caramel to play some guitar for that show, which he also did on the album that we were recording at around the same time. There were some technical sound problems at the gig which made it a little bit frustrating, but it was OK. Having Denis involved on stage was a good thing.

++ It’s a bit complicated for me to talk about the 3rd album, the unreleased one. As you know I wanted so badly to release it, but it’s a bit difficult. But I would love to hear your insights from it. Listening to it, it hasn’t aged at all, and sounds great as back in 1999 I bet. Most people haven’t listened to it, so I’m wondering if you could talk a bit about it.

With hindsight, oddly it feels as if we kind of subconsciously knew that things were coming to an end, so we just wanted to record as much as possible in order to get it “out there”. That’s why there’s quite a lot of variety to it, some long songs and some little sketches as well, a couple of instrumental tracks… It was pretty ambitious in terms of the recording and although inevitably it doesn’t all work, I do think there’s some really good stuff on that record – The King Of Excuses is one I like a lot, because it was a song that neither of us could have done alone. That’s an especially satisfying aspect of working with someone else, when the whole becomes better than the sum of its parts. Also I’m very proud of I’ve Dreamed Of This For Years, quite an emotional song for me personally and a brilliant vocal by Daryl.

++ Before that you released 2 albums, Atlantic and Grand Vitesse. Thinking of it, you were quite prolific! What is your favourite release of yours?

Yes, we were reasonably prolific – we kept at it for quite a long time, never trying to do too much but always getting on with making new material. I definitely like the Atlantic album a lot, I think it hangs together very well as a whole release. The songs are pretty consistently good and by that time we had a clear idea of what we were doing in the studio. Just a shame that people never got the chance to see it with its proper cover art. God knows what happened there. As it is, the only version of the real cover is hanging on my wall.

++ Now I want to ask you about some songs I love! In a sentence tell me what they are about, alright?

– Door Marked Summer

Honestly, I can barely remember that song. It was one of those ones that was written and recorded quite quickly, so it kind of came and went without sticking in my long-term memory. There was a mistake with the recording, too, which didn’t encourage me to want to remember it and that’s why it never got played live, either.

– Twentieth Century

That’s one of Daryl’s. Lots of people seem to have liked this one, which I don’t think we really realised at the time. Nice sequencer lines.

– I Wish You Were Somebody Else

That’s one of Daryl’s, too. Kind of a jokey song lyrically and an opportunity to namecheck some of his favourite film stars, but overall one of our best. I wish we’d done more in this kind of style, really.

– Take Me to the End of the World

I think a lot of songs ended up being about escape and that was one of them.

– Island Nation

Politics! Check the front-and-back cover art.

++ And why write a song about Galaxy Craze?!

Ha. Well, I thought that Galaxy Craze was the name of a character in a Hal Hartley film, but a quick internet search suggests that that is completely wrong and to my surprise I see that apparently she’s an actress. Hmmm. That’s a mystery. All I can say is that I was watching a lot of Hartley’s movies at that time and some of the lyrics on this album are kind of taken from stories or characters in those movies. I wanted Why I Love Galaxy Craze to be a single, it’s catchy and the arrangement is pretty good although in fact there’s a mistake with the tempo and it’s actually supposed to be slower. The title, by the way, is a steal of Lloyd Cole’s Why I Love Country Music.

++ Alright, now difficult question, what does indiepop mean to you? How do you feel about the community?

Oh, that’s a good question. I think that in the period between when the band started up and now, the internet has changed everything and that includes the nature of community. On the one hand you have the music itself and on the other a subcultural group of interested people. Like other genres – particularly ones that aren’t 100% electronic – the economics of indiepop is something that hasn’t been resolved, in that if people are investing sums in recording studio time, ultimately they need to make that money back. My impression is that CD sales / paid-for downloads are far smaller than used to be the case, say, at the end of the 80s.

Nobody really knows how to address that problem, although conversely it is now very easy to find out about bands and releases and the community aspect of involving people and enabling them to find out about releases and events is made massively more straightforward. To be honest I’m not all that active as a consumer, but I do follow a little of what’s going on. I like Burning Hearts a lot and it’s interesting to see people like Sally Shapiro take some of the aesthetics of indiepop and apply them to a different style. It doesn’t surprise me that a scene still exists that to a great extent takes its cues from Sarah, etc., because that has its roots in a homemade aesthetic that is rendered very easy by the internet. But at the same time it’s very exciting to see younger people finding that those older records still have some resonance or meaning today

++ What do you think was the biggest highlight of They Go Boom!!?

Artistically, I’m most pleased with the Atlantic album and the Woody Allen EP. The experience of playing that show in Madrid is obviously something that has stayed with me, so I guess that’s a highlight too. Other than that, I think we just handled the experience of being a band well, for a long period of time. That’s a really good memory for me.

++ How was Margate back then, was there some sort of scene? Do you still live there? If I was to visit, to which places should I go?

Oh God, no, there was no scene. It’s a very small town, 40,000 people. There are lots of places like it on the English coast – towns that up until the 1950s were holiday resorts, but which never found anything to replace that source of income when people started to go to Spain instead. Neither of us live there now.

++ Is it me, or is there some sort of connection between Mike Innes and Japan?

Well, I guess so – my wife is from there and I’m massively interested in J-League football.

++ Thanks again Mike! Hope this is a great year for you! Will you come to London Popfest?

As I’ve never heard of it before now, probably not!

++ Alright, let’s wrap it here. Anything else you’d like to add?

Just to say thank you for taking an interest in the activities of the band.

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Listen
They Go Boom – Twentieth Century

Wow! It is so great to talk with Krischan! After one great interview about his Frischluft label now we talked about the brilliant Die Honigritter! Prepare your coffee, tea, or grab a beer, and enjoy this interview!

++ Hi Krischan! Good to hear again from you. So how have you been doing the last months? Any great musical findings?

I was enjoying my Christmas holidays and I’m glad about the snow covered world and having had the possibility of skating on the ice in Friedberg’s castle (humming the Vic Godard tune “Nice on the Ice“ in my head).

It’s always risky to ask me about musical findings. You know I’m an ever hungry digger… Some of last months highlights for me were The Crystalairs’ “Fortune Cookie“, Yu’s “Fine“ (alluringly deconstructing The Strawberry Alarm Clock), The Cave Weddings’ “Bring your Love“, Soulboy Collective’s “Casino Action“, Princess Superstar vs. Shawn Lee “Life is but a Dream“ to name but a few.

++ So last time, we were talking about Frischluft and you told me you were in Honigritter! As I told you before it was maybe my favourite band on your label. But I want to hear the whole story about it! You said it started from the ashes of Die Fahrraddiebe. Care telling me a bit about them?

Thank you for the flowers!

In June 1986 guitar-boy Tobi, moony Greek boy Thanos, tall little drummer boy Bruder Burch and no-ability me joined a one week-course in school called into life by wanna-be-evil Ted Bodo. Bodo’s aim was to record a version of “Jailhouse Rock“ on the last day. But he never got further than screaming “The warden…“ at his most raunchiest due to a collapsing rhythm section, who couldn’t keep the beat. The musical teacher Kammel day after day was counting his endless 1-2-3-4s bordering desperation, the others were laughing or visiting the schoolyard to flirt with some girls from the younger classes. On Wednesday it was dawning to the most of us, that this project will not come to the desired end. Sirken Sikora, who was taking another course, proposed that we could steal the golden 50s-drum-kit on Thursday to record a full-band-version of Die Maikinders “Sommerlied“ in his cellar. A word and a blow – we invited some more scallywags as there were Hilde (don’t be mislead by the girl’s name – he was a boy) and Schaumburg for the backing choir and some hours later Die Fahrraddiebe were born. Some weeks later we recorded “Johnny, der Held“. „Matrosen“ never got over the bedroom-status and is deemed to be lost in tape-heaven.

++ Who were the Honigritter? Was it easy to get the band together? Were you all friends? Did you all have the same dreams, taste or expectations?

Die Fahrraddiebe expired during the pop summer of C86, but building on the junction with Thanos and Bruder Burch from Bodo’s failed course in autumn a new combo was put together by the former Fahrraddiebe Tobi and me. We also added Burch’s brother Matn with his golden trumpet, who joined classes with me since that schoolyear, and the brother’s home (to their parent’s sorrow) became our headquarter. I remember being heavily impressed, that Bruder Burch owned a single each by Stahlnetz and The Three Courgettes, when I had a first look over his 7“-collection. Our musical preferences were ranging between The Smiths, The Pale Fountains, Andreas Dorau, Fähnlein Fieselschweif, The Polecats, Detlef Engel, Aztec Camera, Bourgie Bourgie, Fantastic Something, Gus Backus, The Jazzateers (and so on) at the time and we met somewhere in between as a starting point.

On a Saturday in winter we wanted to record our first songs and hired a 4-track-machine. Musical wizard Sirken Sikora, was chosen as our knob-twiddler. He owned a copy of “Take the Subway to your Suburb“ qualifying him for that job. As suggested before Thanos always was a little bit dreamy, so we didn’t get worried, that he wasn’t there at the appointed time. But after an hour we tried to call him. His mother was on the phone telling us, he’s sitting on his bed, crying and not wanting to talk to anyone anymore forever. He was lovesick. So Sirken Sikora for his first time ever took a bass-guitar, fiddled about with it a little bit and soon afterwards played all the parts straight onto the 4-track. On from then he stayed with the Honigritter. I never heard of or saw Thanos again.

++ You were still in high school when you started the band, right? How proficient were you all with the instruments at such a young age?

I never played an instrument (assuming that a record player doesn’t count). Tobi learned some Beatles songs to play on the guitar from an old bearded, long haired hippie. The brothers Matn and Bruder Burch came from a well educated background. So they had to take musical lessons as children for status quo. Matn played the trumpet, Burch had only three fingers on one hand, so he hit the drums. They were hunting for new purposes to pervert their knowledge into pretty soon, that was C86. Sirken Sikora was our musical wunderkind. Besides the instruments in a classic Beat band he taught himself to play piano, flute, cello… The list is endless. Just give him a new instrument and half an hour of time and you will see him playing like he’s never having done anything else before in his entire life.

++ How come at that age you were already exposed to The Chesterfields for example? Was the jangly pop music from UK easy to find where you lived?

The only jangly music our little town Friedberg’s record shop had in stock were from The Smiths and The Housemartins. But we begged for more! As we stumbled across the first fanzines (The Legend! being our first journalistic hero) we were regulars at our local bank to exchange some D-Marks into 5-Pound-notes to send it to labels like Creation, 53rd & 3rd or Subway (l even got the “The Sun is in the Sky“-EP from Martin, which was claimed to be as unreleased in the UK). This was the time, when our liaisons with the mailbox started (for me personally this lasts until today). An anorak wearing friend of mine even blamed his mother for not opposing him a new 7“ for lunch, when he returned from school.

++ So, honestly, did you start Frischluft! mostly to release your own band? Or it was just one of the many reasons?

To put it simple: this was the main reason! I will always prefer a well produced record (this includes intentionally shambling productions as well) over the so-called pure and honest sound a band offers on stage. Besides this I am obsessed with the various obscure systems of catalogue numbers from small labels and how to decode them (Factory, 4AD, Cosmic English Music or Fierce later on or labels like Service or Sincerely Yours today). FRL was an abbreviation of both Frischluft! and Fräulein (= unmarried, young woman – a term that was mainly used until the sixties). Thus the picture of a young woman combined with the catalogue number…

++ Why the name Honigritter?

I always loved both bandnames, which evoke an imagination, and bandnames made of compound words. The Honig(= honey)-part represented me being a sweets-addict and a gentle-minded person (at least at first sight), the Ritter (=knight)-part stood for the obviously more sinister Tobi (who stressed more on the robber baron aspect), but led into the land of fairy tales as well.

++ I heard Matn usually wore a white sailor suit. What about the other members of Honigritter? What was your style?

Anoraks, anoraks, anoraks! Combined with black 501s, striped T-Shirts, rubber soled suede shoes or broques and turtlenecks in the winter. One of my anoraks had a milk van on it’s sleeve. Tobi tended to dress up as a 50s motorcycle boy. The regular hairstyle was shaved backs and quiffs. I was wearing hornrims as well as sometimes a bunch of flowers in my hip pocket in true Morrissey fashion.

++ What about the songs released by the label Two-By-Art? How did that happen? In which releases do they appear? I would love to track those down!

I got to know Two-By-Art through a fanzine. The first release I bought was „Der Elefantenmensch“ by the Merricks. After listening to it, I thought, maybe they would be interested in the Honigritter as well and send them a tape with the recordings, where Sirken Sikora was replacing the lovesick Thanos. They chose four songs for their „Die Welt ist blau wie eine Orangsche“ (=The world is blue like an orange). These songs can be heard on the „Durch’s Schlüsselloch in des Mondgärtners Sternenhain“ (=“Through the keyhole into the moongardeners stargrove“)-Frischluft!-retrospective.

++ What was the idea behind the Honigritter Fibel? Why did you make only 5 copies?!

A Fibel basically is a small children’s book for learning to read, which was used in former decades. The idea was to “educate“ the listener with some background info on the band in the style of the booklets, that came with the first London Pavilion on él or Adam Ant’s “Kings of the Wild Frontier“ or the pretty, pretty inserts with the Subway singles (my favourite being the one with the children reading in their bunk beds from “Ask Johnny Dee“). The reason for it’s limitation to 5 simply was the production costs, which rose proportionately with our excess of ideas.

++ What is your favourite Honigritter song and why?

It may be “Die Liebe des Cowboys“. It was designed to be our Monochrome Set’s „cast a long shadow“. A short uptempo song with male voice choir in the refrain and a twangy guitar solo.

++ What about gigging? Did you gig a lot? Which gigs do you remember the most?

No, we weren’t regulars on stage. Our first concert was at a summer-party at school, where we were backed up by three girls called Die Bienchen aus dem Sauberland (= The little bees from tidy land).

In 1988 we were playing a well known venue in Frankfurt. “Partymädchen“ was a weekly regular at the ballroom, so they invited us. We hired a small van to transport a complete 50s style living room to build up on stage. So Sirken or Matn could sit on the sofa during songs they had no part in and read Tin Tin-comic books or watch the Wirtschaftswunder-era films with Heinz Erhardt we put on the telly on stage (you can see them doing so in the slideshow presenting the bands on www.myspace.com/frischlufttontraeger). In the background there stood a two meter xeroxed and hand painted Lurchi Salamander-character in a knights armour glued on cardboard. The whole scene was illuminated by a Super 8-film Matn and me had put together (Hanna Barbera-strips from the fleamarket painted with felt tips combined with the screening of a self-built psychedelic liquid wheel with water, oil and food colouring, a filmed slide show with antique fairytale-illustrations and the likes as well as slow motion flowers in the wind). The stage was sticky. The knob-twiddler told us, it would be the blood from the dog Skinny Puppy had slaughtered on stage the night before. Matn’s and Burch’s sophisticated parents secretly came to the venue, but didn’t dare to get in…

Some months earlier we played in Gelnhausen, where Barbarossa had a palatinate (so this seemed the right place to play for us). The concert was organised by one of our first patrons of the arts Peik (the “Mit Sonnenschirmen…“-LP is dedicated to him for that very reason). When I talked to him on the phone prior to that evening he told us that he had found a new and unknown jangly band on the rise to share the gig with us. When we arrived we were opposed to some evil looking long haired Grebos. One of them mumbled “f***ing wimps“ upon seeing us, Peik standing behind them hiking his shoulders, embarrassingly smiling at us. So we decided to blow them away with “Greenhorn“ in a Psychocandy/Bachelor Pad-style, which worked out well.

Our last concert was in the cellar of a nearby castle, where we played only one song (following the riot tradition of the Reid Brothers). The audience was filled with some german pop celebrities from the Worms scene or Bernd from Blam-A-Bit wearing a baby soother tied at his anorak’s hood and smoking a pipe.

++ Why did the Honigritter call it a day? Are you still in touch with the other members? If so, what are they doing nowadays?

We all had to leave school after having passed our A levels. And everyone went into another direction. Sirken, Matn and me kept on running the Frischluft! label for some years. Nowadays I meet some of these old friends very sporadically or by accident. As everyone expected Matn studied design, Tobi became a photographer, Sirken started several things ending up as the chairman of his father’s firm. Bruder Burch and me studied to become a teacher. I am a teacher now, Burch went abroad. And Thanos? Who knows?

++ What was the biggest highlight for the Honigritter?

The days before Christmas 1987, when we sold our “Im Sommer“-single at the Christmas party at school! The whole place was paved with oversized xeroxes inviting the spectator to “Klingende Weihnachtsfreude schenken“ (= present tingling Christmas joy) with all Honigritter climbing out of Santa’s sack.

++ If I remember correctly, you are a fan of potatoes whatsoever? Why is that?! I’m a big fan as well, I was having the other day a conversation with my friends in Hamburg telling them potatoes are from Peru, my country, but you know, I really enjoy those stuffed potatoes you make in Germany. What’s your favourite potato dish?

May we hail Seignoret von Luserna San Giovanni for being the first having brought the potato on a large scale to Germany (don’t worry, I may be a nerd on pop music, but I had to consult the internet for that info). I talked to Andreas in the meantime trying to find out, what his girlfriend was cooking for you. Neither he nor I do have the slightest idea, what stuffed potatoes may be. Maybe you remember jacket potatoes with curd, that were offered to you? I like these as well very much as long as there’s some butter on the potatoes instead of herbs in the curd. I guess I’ll disappoint you with my favourite potato dish – it’s simply banal french fries…

++ And now what plans for this weekend?

Unfortunately the weekend’s over in a few hours. In the late afternoon I was in my snow covered apple orchard at a place called Hexenloch (= witches hole) judging if the ranking blackberry bushes have to be cut in the spring.

++ We’ll talk again soon Krischan! But for the meantime, anything else you’d like to add? You know while in Germany I got great feedback about our Frischluft interview?

It’s nice to hear, that you got positive feedback for digging out my half-forgotten tales. I hope I could give some more attention-fetching anecdotes from the cobweb of my memory harboring the Honigritter besides all other great things pop!

Und nicht vergessen: Freude bereiten, Musik schenken!

(= And don’t forget: bringing joy, donating music!)

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Listen
Honigritter – Liebe Des Cowboys

Continuing with the East Anglian bands, now a fantastic interview with David Miles from the underrated but fantastic The Potting Sheds! Thanks so much to David! To hear more songs by them you can always drop by on their myspace.

++ David! Thanks so much for being up for this interview. How are you enjoying this holiday season? Any big expectations for 2010?

My New Year’s Resolution is to visit the pub for a nostalgia fest with Grant Madden as he has recently moved to Lowestoft. Last time I saw him was over a year ago at a Woodentops gig.

++ Let’s talk about the band, you started as a two piece right? It was you and Will Taylor. How did you two know each other and what was it that drove you to start a band together?

I was at school with Will. I bought my first guitar from him for £10 (it wasn’t a particularly good guitar!).

++ But the line-up changed a bit during the whole run of The Potting Sheds, why was it difficult to keep a stable line-up? Which one you’d consider to be the ‘classic’ line-up?

The changes were intended to improve the standard of musicianship in the band. I always wanted everyone else to be at least as good (and preferably better) than me. The ‘classic’ line-up was early 1992 with Phil McClarnon (vocals/guitar), Will Taylor (guitar), David Miles (bass), David James (keyboards) and Steve Chapman (drums).

++ Was The Potting Sheds your first band? Oh! and why the name, The Potting Sheds?

Will and I played one gig as Nigel and the Budgieburgers. Will suggested The Potting Sheds in honour of our first song ‘Don’t Mess (With My Potting Shed)’.

++ How was the Lowestoft scene? Were there any other bands worth around?

It was exciting. Grand Designs supported us under the pseudonym D.S.S. Gardening (spot the anagram) at Oulton Broad Community Centre before they became A and sold a lot of records. We returned the favour at Lowestoft Sports Centre and that was a fantastic gig. Dan Hawkins of The Darkness made one of his earliest recordings with Will and I at the controls on a hired-in 8 track. I think he was 15 at the time and was already a remarkable guitarist.

++ Once a band called Catherine Wheel supported you. You even had a gig along the likes of The Cranberries. What are the memories of yours about these gigs with these bands that were to become big?

I nearly became the bassist for Catherine Wheel. I went for a chat about it with Brian and Rob but I don’t think they were particularly impressed when I said they would be my third choice band after The Potting Sheds and Kites! They played me some of their demos but I thought they were trying too hard to sound like Ride. Even though they were very good, they were a little cynical. Only a few months earlier, they were playing rock music as Ten Angry Men! I introduced them to Barry Newman at The Wilde Club in Norwich who gave them their earliest gigs and released their first two E.P.s. They supported us during a snowstorm at Carlton Colville Community Centre shortly after they released ‘She’s My Friend’ and it was a remarkable night.

I played with The Cranberries twice. The first occasion was as bassist in Kites at Norwich Arts Centre and they were really lovely and said they really enjoyed our set. However, on the second occasion with The Potting Sheds, I overheard Dolores backstage saying we were “shit” after Phil snapped the strings on two guitars due to his over-exuberant strumming. I decided I didn’t fancy her after all at that point.

++ Any other particular gigs you have fond memories of?

We headlined two gigs to celebrate the release of the ‘Burn It To A Crisp’ compilation album in Norwich and Lowestoft. I particularly enjoyed these gigs as Will and I were wearing three hats as performers, promoters and record label bosses.

++ Your first releases were actually two tapes that there is not much information about, the “Good Effort EP” and the “Meryl Streep EP”. What songs were included in these? How many copies were made? And why dedicate one of the tapes to Mrs. Streep?!

There were four tracks on each E.P. and they were all recorded by Richard Hammerton, the singer from Red Star Belgrade, War Party and Stare. I can’t remember how many were produced – probably a few hundred at most. Will and I shared the vocals. The eight songs were ‘Like Leonard Cohen’, ‘Wet Weekend’, ‘Sarah’s Car’, ‘(Don’t Mess) With My Potting Shed’, ‘Bait’, ‘Tumbledry Me’, ‘Down The Line’ and a Robyn Hitchcock cover ‘Tell Me About Your Drugs’. We changed one of the lyrics to mention Meryl Streep and the E.P. was named after this. I pressed a copy into Mike Mills of R.E.M.’s hand when he was playing a secret gig at the Borderline in London as Bingo Hand Job and asked him to pass it to Robyn. I imagine it is still on continuous rotation on the R.E.M. tour bus.

++ Care to tell me a bit about Mad Cat Records?

Mad Cat Records was our own label. Under the Mad Cat name, we recorded other local bands, promoted a few gigs and released a compilation album of Norfolk and North Suffolk indie bands.

++ Your first release on the label was the Unsaid flexi that came along the Eyesore You fanzine. How did you ended up releasing it along this zine?

Barry Newman of The Wilde Club suggested we should release a flexi. Fraser and Matt were putting together a new Norwich fanzine so we decided to get together.

++ You made so many wonderful songs, Same Old Story being my personal favourite, so I would love to know what inspired you to write this one? What is it about?

Phil wrote the words so I have no idea what it is about. I have a strong memory of sitting on the floor of my parents’ house with Will, Phil and Val (the singer from Beestings) to work out the backing vocals a couple of days before we recorded the song and suddenly thinking “This sounds really good”. It was our first track to receive daytime national airplay on BBC Radio One.

++ But what about you? What’s your favourite Potting Sheds song and why?

‘Dream On’ or ‘Showerhead’. We only got as far as recording the backing tracks for these songs before Phil quit but they sounded amazing.

++ Oh! and what does Goldfish Memory means?

It is a reference to the fact that goldfish are said to only have a 7 second memory. This is fortunate as it means they don’t get bored when swimming in circular bowls.

++ There were plans to release a second 12″, I think you even recorded demos for it, so what happened with it? Why was it never released? Will there be a chance to listen to these songs someday? Maybe there will be some sorts of retrospective?

The 8 track demo backing tracks exist but Phil never added his vocals to them. It was a shame as we had plans to release both 12”s together as a mini-album in Japan. Sadly, it wasn’t to be.

++ What was your biggest highlight as being part of The Potting Sheds? Maybe getting John Peel to play you?

We didn’t actually hear John Peel play ‘Second Best’ at the time. The first we knew about it was when I received a fan letter from Poland! I remember taping him playing ‘Matches’ and feeling quite proud. I saw him a few days later at a gig in Norwich and thanked him and asked if he was going to play it again. He replied “Errr….” Peel didn’t seem to enjoy being cornered like that but he really was a great man.

++ When and why did you call it a day?

Phil just didn’t turn up for a recording session in Summer 1992 and we took that to mean he had quit.

++ What did you all do after? Were you involved with bands?

Phil joined Fish Logic and then became a street busker with Roxy’s Toolbox. I formed Halftime Oranges with Grant Madden and Will Taylor and David James both recorded and performed with us.

++ Thanks again, anything else you’d like to add?

If you are out there Phil, get in touch. We should give these songs a 20th anniversary outgoing to celebrate the 2012 Olympics!

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Listen
The Potting Sheds – Same Old Story