Thanks so much to Krischan for the extensive, exteeeeeeeeeensive, interview. It was a pleasure to know a bit more from the seminal German pop Frischluft! label. Hope you enjoy!

++ Hi Krischan! How is everything going? Any plans for the weekend?

I’m fine, but feel flattered about your interest in Frischluft! It’s weekend! I went for shopping on Friday (fruits, salad, chocolate…), skipped through some Doo Wop-compilations from Ace this afternoon, met my neighbours for supper and will look for a nice and sunny place in the countryside for reading tomorrow.

++ I have to start the interview asking what does the name Krischan means haha

It’s simply a nickname from Northern Germany. Rumours that I would be Chinese haven’t been confirmed yet. Although I could have created a nice él-type monarch founding on that (maybe Kris-Chan – The Emperor Of Oranges…)

++ When and why did you decide to start a label in Germany? Could it be considered that Frischluft was the first indiepop label in your country?

After the demise of Die Fahrraddiebe (named after the De Sica-classic I’ve never seen – the TV guide showed a still from the film with some Pale Fountains-styled kids – short trousers, slipovers, shaved backs) the Honigritter took over the torch. Still at academic high school we had romantic ideals and were longing for the definite pop statement: a 7“ record. Inspired by labels like Subway, él and Ata-Tak the summer and autumn of 1987 Matn, Sirken Sikora and me spent all our afternoons on creating every little detail of the Frischluft!-world snitching the Spectorian Wall Of Sound, the aesthetics and diction of Wirtschaftswunder-era Germany, the D.I.Y.-ethos of (post) punk and the enticing artificiality of Mike Always stable of Would-Be-Reals. Frischluft! aimed at being a wondrous world leaving the visitor with tears of joy. Finally a few days before Christmas 1987 we received the desired pieces of wax and sat the whole afternoon in my parent’s living room listening to the Chesterfields and some early Sixties German Schlager sticking together the Honigritter sleeves. In the evening nearly the whole edition was sold at the Christmas party at school. The Discjockey was spinning US sixties garage psych. We felt like pop stars!

++ Why the name Frischluft? And how easy was back then to press records in Germany? And what about to sell them? Was there a big crowd? I ask this because all of your releases are from bands singing in German, but maybe there was an international crowd for them as well?!

Listening to pop music should be like breathing fresh air (= Frischluft!)! I enjoy staying in the woods during holidays catching cool breezes of fresh air. It keeps me alive!

Ewald, our agent from the pressing plant, mainly was dealing with licensing 50s Jazz and Be Bop. So we were trying to show our Beatnik aspects although I’m not sure if he classified our psychedelic patterned anoraks as existentialist. He was living in the Taunus mountains (which were later sung about by Der Wind In Den Weiden) with his mother. One day we arrived just in time for plum jelly for afters. He didn’t get what we were all about, but I guess he had a soft spot for us…

Besides my home town Friedberg there were some very small focal points for guitar pop like Worms, Seeheim-Jugenheim or Hamburg linked by some few pop-kids swapping self-made records and fanzines. Apart from gemm.com

Hamburg all of these towns were small towns. Crowds seems to be a euphemistic term in this context. Everyone went for the Groove Farm’s maxime „Make a record for your friends to play“. The first to break into this secret circle were the Japanese. In the Beikoku Ongaku magazine I saw a photo of Hideki Kaji surrounded by his record collection with the Der Wind In Den Weiden and the Purzelbaum Im Badeschaum-7“s lurking out of his shelf.

++ Did you press many copies? Your records seem so hard to come by!

We had runs of 100 up to 1000 copies. The Honigritter “Kellergeister in unserem Haus” and the “Durch’s Schlüsselloch in des Mondgärtners Sternenhain” retrospective albums were limited to 10 copies each. Most records ended up in our friend’s collections, some were sold by Rough Trade in London, some by generous European patrons like Thierry in Belgium. All the remains were loaded cargo from little Friedberg’s train station directly heading for Shibuya.

++ The artwork from Frischluft is up my alley, the aesthetics of the label are so pretty. Was the presentation very important for you? How careful were you with the design of it? Who designed all of the catalogue by the way?

Frischluft! was following the ideal of L’Art Pour L’Art oscillating between German 1920s Dada non-sense and an elaborate corporate identity as with the semi hit factories of visionaries like Tot Taylor, Alan Horne or Patrick Moore. Before even writing songs or piecing together a band every release went through all stages of intellectual pregnancy summoning in the birth of a brain child. All the sleeves were designed by Matn, the Honigritter’s trumpet player often spotted wearing his white sailor suit, and me. Our treasure chests were small flea markets, our parent’s lofts and cellars. Scissors, glue sticks and pencils were our weapons when we took over the local copy shop. The lady watching over the place earned a living from our endless conceiving and rejecting ideas. In the evening we literally fell asleep between the Xerox machines kept warm by the machines still working.

++ Which labels inspired you to create Frischluft? Do you think there’s any label or band that carries that same spirit and feel of yours nowadays?

Postcard, él, Subway, Pink, Ata Tak, 53rd & 3rd, Respond, Creation, Operation Twilight, Compact, Whaaam!, Countdown…

Cats On Fire (for the boy scout-look and jangly sound), Cause-Commotion (for the shambly sound and beautiful hand-printed sleeves), Skint & Demoralised (for the passion and soul without being pathetic), Voluntary Butler Scheme (for the desire to sound huge with little means), Cave Weddings (for the punk-spirit resulting in pure pop)

++ So let’s talk about the releases. The one I’m most curious about is the Pfadfindertreffen Auf Immenhof 7″ compilation. Why have Edwyn Collins in the cover? And what about the bands that appear on this record? Could you give me a bit of a background on them?

The idea behind this release was to create a singing contest at a boy scout jamboree at Grandmother Jansen’s paddock. Oma Jansen was the legendary landowner lady from the 60s german screwball-comedy-like Immenhof-series. Edwyn in his shirt and scarf seemed to be the perfect virtual patron saint for that imaginary extravaganza. By the way, I never spoke with his lawyer…

++ What about finding the bands? How did you end up signing them? Did they send demos to you? Were they friends? How did that work for Frischluft?

On an early flyer we had Hanna-Barbera’s 60s character Wolfie stepping into the office of a friendly manager wearing shirt and tie. We challanged anyone fitting within the categories Beat, Pop or Psychedelia to follow Wolfie’s example. (This was decades before Stuart Murdock invited people to step into his office.) This request was repeated on local radio as well.

++ Once I read from Peter Hahndorf that the Frischluft bands were “The Sound of Young Germany”, would you agree?

“The Sound Of Young America” (Motown), “The Sound Of Young Scotland” (Postcard), “The Sound Of Young Wimbledon” (Compact). So it had to wind down one more step

++ One of the most known bands in your label were Die Merricks, who had many releases after leaving your label. Why do you think they were that successful? What were the strengths of the band? Did you expect them to have a career that spanned more than a decade?

I knew the Merricks from their debut release on the Augsburgian Two-By-Art label, who were the first to release a bunch of Honigritter songs prior to the single release as well. I got to know the Merricks’ mastermind Bernd through Mission Impossible – a Merricks offshoot by their singer Günther. Attracted by their Mod name I visited a concert of the latter. Bernd was also there. I was wearing a Mighty Mighty-T-Shirt and Bernd approached me with the words „great band“. So we started talking about C86 and the mid-eighties-Mod-Scene until we found out, that he even had the Honigritter-7“. I told him about our plans to release a compilation album and we came across that Die Merricks and Mission Impossible both would contribute two songs each very quickly.

The Merricks were a band with huge musical talent on from the early days reminding massively of Dexy’s, Jim Jiminee and the likes. Bernd added his visions of the perfect pop song. I see these two points as the basis of their success. Furthermore they always were able to reinvent themselves while the musical world was ever changing. Just think of „The Sound Of Munich“ perfectly fitting with that mid-nineties Easy Listening and club pop-hype. I always thought in a better world they would have been destined for greater success. I strongly recommend Bernd’s latest project Der Englische Garten, where he returns to our beloved 7“ format.

++ Maybe my favourite band in your label is Die Honigritter, but then, I barely know anything about them! Care to tell me a bit about them?

In this very moment you’re talking to their founder and singer. Being a hopeless and sentimental pop addict I dreamt of a band combining everything I loved to create the perfect pop: Andreas Dorau’s lyrics, Talulah Gosh’s innocence, Wirtschaftswunder-Schlager, the DIY-ethos and xerox-aesthetics of punk-fanzines, the fascinating faked world of él, 50s and 60s picture books for children, American pop culture just before the British Invasion swept over it, psychedelic without the drugs and of course the strength of the straight forward 2-minute pop song. I could go on forever. The slide shows on our MySpace-site will give you a more detailed idea. My basic idea of art in general is to quote extracts from one’s favourite influences, then to reassemble these to create something new. I cannot be convinced by the denying of pigeonholing favoured by many bands. Be true to your school as Brian Wilson once put it!

The “Im Sommer…”-single was sold with a numbered leaflet you could send to us to obtain your copy of the Honigritter-Fibel (=spelling book). Finally only 5 copies were printed in green, red and black. The Fibel is presented in it’s whole extent on our MySpace-site.

++ Then let’s jump to the “Mit Sonnenschirmen fingen wir den Blütenzauber” compilation! Here there’s one UK band: Jane From Occupied Europe. I tried to get in touch with them not so long ago, but no luck. They are not that very well known, so I’m wondering how did they end up in this LP?!

We were writing to the address on the Bubblegum Splash-single trying to obtain a song by them just to learn they were no more. The Bubblegum’s flavour may have been gone, but they didn’t throw it away (as Mighty Mighty once claimed) but re-put it into shape that was Jane From Occupied Europe.

++ On this same compilation there are some bands that I’ve never heard before like The Sheets, Mission Impossible, or Painting by Numbers! Care to tell me a bit about each band on this compilation if that’s not much to ask?!

We thought of the Sheets as our ace in the hole. Successfully recreating the second generation Sound Of Young Scotland as accomplished by Lloyd Cole, The Bluebells, Bourgie Bourgie or „Knife“-era Aztec Camera soon they were tracked down by Polydor’s talent scouts. But then the major label’s (groovy) train (sic!) headed towards baggy and scally Madchester rather than Glasgow leaving the Sheets with a rumoured to exist „lost album“.

Painting By Numbers were the definite (P)Op-Art affair with black and white polka dots and floppy fringes all over the place chasing The Revolving Paint Dream back into thee cave. Their first demo was pure Psychocandy as played by The Strawberry Alarm Clock. Frank – a deadringer for Bobby Gillespie – later moved to Hamburg to join Die Fünf Freunde.

++ Another 7″ you put out was the “Thymian & Prinzengold” by Der Wind in den Weiden. Any anecdotes you can share about this band? Did you ever get to meet any of your bands? What about going to a gig of theirs?

Der Wind In Den Weiden was inspired by Kenneth Grahame’s children novel from 1908 and were meant as Frischluft!’s teen folk loner nodding into the direction of “See Emily Play” seen through the eyes of “Mummy You’re not Watching Me”-era Dan Treacy. Their only live appearance was fortified with psychedelic lidquid wheel effects, tape loops, backwards guitar and reverrrrrrb all way through. A visitor who saw the mindblowers in action said he felt like „set the controls for the heart of the sun“ taking off at the Roundhouse in ‘67.

++ I found on a web page that the Purzelbaum im Badeschaum record came with a fanzine? What was this fanzine about? Did you do any other zines?

Your source is reliable. Included was the R-fanzine, which was working in a dialectic call-and-response manner with the legendary P-fanzine run by three young pop-kids from Seeheim-Jugenheim. The R-fanzine was our Xerox-overpoke with function following form. It was intentionally put together as a final statement on a scene who once rode on the strength of post punk and was watered down by twee for twee’s sake bands in the sequel of Sarah records and the likes. You may call the 7″/fanzine package Frischluft!’s swan song… I once saw the record in the “Industrial” section of a record shop

++ I can’t find any information about the “Mit Sonneschirmen Fingen Wir Den Blütenzauber” record, what was included on this one?

The “Mit Sonnenschirmen…”-LP was conceived to mark the status quo of the scene. It featured one or two songs each by Waldmeisterträume, Merricks, Honigritter, The Sheets, Painting By Numbers, Die Fahrraddiebe, Mission Impossible and a mystery track. As most of our other releases the album was presented by Radio Luxemburg DJ Camillo Felgen besides others. I doubt that he ever came across enjoying and appreciating this homage.

According to customs the LP came with a comprehensive bundle of flyers and memorabilia following the tradition of the early Compact compilation LPs. Featured was a small mailorder leaflet offering the Painting By Numbers-demo-tape, the “Radio Tannhäuser”-compilation or a large Waldmeisterträume-art print (ltd. to 3 copies) to name but a few.

++ What about the Himbeerbubis and Tobi? Who were they and why did you release this split flexi?

Die Himbeerbubis (= The Raspberry Young Lads) should have been our label’s own Hunky Dory. They recorded only one song. The tape is lost and even the “Durch’s Schlüsselloch…”“-compilation only features the instrumental version that survived somehow. Tobi was Frischluft!’s twisted mind heavily taking on the NDW-style of Der Plan, Erste Weibliche Fleischergesellin nach 1945 or Speck Nußeck with his “Gemüselied”. The flexi was conceived as a quote of the “Klingende Post”-7″-series. Each volume featured some sound snippets of freshly released records linked by some suave boy-girl-talking flirting and praising the new hope-to-be-hits and was given away for free in german record shops during the sixties.

++ Was there any record that you wanted to release but never happened?

Five records never exceeded the status of a droll idea.

First of all we wanted to release a 7″ by The Shampoo Tears, who were the most convincing German answer to the crooning of “Rip it Up”-era Orange Juice.

Next we found a lonely chanteuse with a jazz guitar singing in the streets of the autumnal Frankfurt. We imagined her as Frischluft’s Tracey Thorn/Marine Girls/Grab Grab The Haddock.

Then there were some street musicians playing Eastern European folklore dressed with the most beautiful traditional semi-uniforms and blue Russian boots. These should have been our él band. We were afraid they themselves never heard of neither the London Pavilion nor The King Of Luxembourg. So we didn’t dare to ask them to mime and pose on the sleeve in a Nick Wesolowski manner.

The Worms scene spawned a hauntingly beautiful boy/girl-duo called Celestial. Their „the man who lived in his dreams“ should have been a one-sided single with etching on the flip we wanted the duo’s girl singer to do, who lived in the most beautiful painted room with light-blue and white bordure in an antique Roman villa-style.

Last but not least Frischluft!’s own Waldmeisterträume intended to do a double-7″ to be played in sequence on two turntables with sides one and three on one single and sides two and four on the other and successive sides overlapping enabling the listener to mix them seamlessly. Musically this should have been our “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn”. Matn had recorded some turn-of-the-century poems from pre-psych-head Arno Holz’s “Phantasus”-cycle spoken through a hosepipe directly into an aquarium to give it the otherworldly treatment. The double single was conceived as a “From Birth to Death”-story snitching the idea from The Pretty Things 1968 epos “S.F. sorrow”. The bubbling poems should mark the beginning of the protagonist still swimming in the amniotic fluid. Furthermore we intended to work with samples of obscure erotic records trying to cash in on the success of “Je t’aime” circa 1970 (Christine Lamour, Marianne, Michelle Et David, Er & Sie et al.) This idea was partly realised some years later with Miss Soixante-Dix. We bought some corduroy jackets and wanted to stitch an amorphous mushroom on the back to stress on that 60s garage psych „band as a gang“-tradition.

++ What are the correct ingredients for a perfect pop song? What term do you prefer to call our music? twee, C86 or indiepop? why?

Most importantly you have to be a visionary. A good pop song for me is a highly artificial and constructed thing successfully pretending to be the most normal thing. I always would favour a imaginative and rich production over so-called “honest” (=boring) music. Simple but highly memorable melodies or a short guitar solo relying on one string will stick in your head and persuade you to listen to the song over and over again. Basically it’s everything major labels are trying to achieve but missing the aspect of the visionary. There have been periods where all of these issues have been considered resulting in great and(!) good selling pop artifacts (sic!) like The Beatles mid-period catalogue, ABC’s “The Lexicon of Love“ or Haircut 100’s “Pelican West”.

I see twee and C86 as two completely different things. C86 was a European thing drawing it’s influences from (post) punk and/or the UK- and US-sixties. When “indie pop” turned into “indiepop” during the early nineties it turned into an American thing shaking off completely that Thatcherite oppression, Red Wedge Movement, “kick a ball or play a guitar”, red brickstone houses, anorak/black 501s/Clarks desert boots etc.-image in favour of Hello Kitty, trainers and other bubblegum devotionals. But the most important difference for me was the absence of the punk spirit! In my opinion a lot of twee/indiepop bands (I’d take these for synonyms) lack of pop-historical and contextual awareness stressing too much on the fey and innocent aspects.

I saw that awareness creeping back in in the mid-nineties with the massive aspect of retro-culture/easy listening hype on “our music” resulting in magna opi like “algebra spaghetti”, The Legendary Jim Ruiz groups “sniff” or Belle & Sebastian’s “The Life Pursuit”. The internet en passent helped to connect local scenes spread all over the world making it a truly global and vitalized scene again, which offers so much to detect!

++ Why did you stop releasing records? Were you involved with any music activities after?

The end of Frischluft! went along with my diminished interest in a scene which had lost it’s original peppiness and it’s visionaries. I was involved with one-off Miss Soixante-Dix in the early nineties (rising from the ashes of Karl Kaiser und die Halbstarken Todesfahrer) examining the seeds sown with records like The Times “Et Dieu Crea la Femme” or The Teenage Filmstars “Star”, but rather concentrated on record collecting than producing them. Thus I consciously closed a chapter, which was running on my heart’s blood whilst being opened!

++ What does Krischan do nowadays? Are you passionate about other things aside from music?

I’m a teacher for mentally handicapped children in a little village in the countryside.

I’m passionate about a lot of things besides music: I like going to flea markets, swimming, riding my bike, graphic design, wandering through the woods, confectionery, spooky fairytales, German everyday culture from the late fifties to late sixties, potatoes whatsoever, sentimental American films from the late 60s, the books of Otfried Preußler…

++ Thanks for the extensive interview, hope it wasn’t too much! Anything else you’d like to add?

I’m the one who has to thank!

To dive deeper into the world of Frischluft! feel free to visit www.myspace.com/frischlufttontraeger

Add some music to your day!

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Listen

Honigritter – Bittere Pillen

Thanks so much to Andy Sandom for this exclusive interview!

++ When and how did Red Harvest start? Where in England were you based? How did you knew each other? Who were the members?

Red Harvest formed at university in Norwich, not sure exactly when, but probably late 1985. The original members were Steve Morris (vocals), Tony Barnard (Bass Guitar), Mark Huggett (Drums), Christine Ellis (Keyboards) and Phil Martin (Guitar). They all moved to London after university, and that was when I joined the band as a harmonica player. Steve Morris was a work colleague of mine at the time. I was playing in a psychobilly band called Saddlewhores at the Clarendon in Hammersmith and Steve came along to see us one night. After the gig, he invited me to a reheasal session with his band, Red Harvest, and I became a permanent member after that.

++ Do you know if the band members being involved in other bands before or after Red Harvest?

I know Mark Huggett is still playing drums, and has been very successful on the jazz circuit. You can google his name and find out plenty of info about him. I really don’t know about the others, I’ve lost touch after all the years. As for myself, I was the guitarist in a punk band called Chaos around 1979, and then took a rest from playing music, other than the occasional jam, and concentrated more on getting drunk instead! I joined Saddlewhores around 1986 and played with them for a while, recorded a demo session which was my first recording experience.

++ Why did you choose the name Red Harvest?

I’m not entirely sure, I wasn’t involved in that process as it was before my time. As far as I remember, it was chosen as it was the title of one of Dashiell Hammet’s most famous novels.

++ At the end of the “Strange” LP, which is the only one I own and it’s brilliant, there someone talking, telling this was the first album by Red Harvest. Who is this? and why did you include this nice little footnote?

That was Phil Martin, the guitarist. Someone had the idea (probably Phil!) to have a BBC style monologue at the end of the LP, and then blend it into a spoof shipping forecast. It was a just a bit of fun, there were a few seconds on that side of the LP that needed filling up!

++ Also this record was produced by Adrian Borland of The Sound fame. How was working with him? Any anecdotes you could share?

Adrian was absolutely fantastic to work with. He had so many ideas and so much talent, and was always full of enthusiasm. He played additional guitar on quite a few of our tracks, the most prominent was the slide guitar on ‘Runaway’. Around 1979/1980, I regularly used to see his band, The Sound, play live. I thought they were awesome, so much better than Echo & The Bunnymen and A Teardrop Explodes, who were around at the same time and similar in style. So, he was kinda a hero and it was a real honour for me to be working so close to him a few years later. I was absolutely stunned when I heard about his passing away. So sad.

++ And what about the song “Heaven”, produced by Pete Shelley! How did this go? How did you get so many renown people working with you?

Heaven was one of the album tracks from our first LP, but that’s all the info I can give you on this one I’m afraid! I never got to meet Pete Shelley, he produced the track after we had recorded it. Shame, it would have been nice to have met him. I really can’t remember how he came to be involved, I’m sure Steve would know.

++ I only know the “Strange” LP and the “Saved” LP, what’s the full discography of Red Harvest including compilation tracks and demo tapes? I ask because I want to hunt these gems on eBay!

I’ve just updated the full Red Harvest discography at Discogs.com, you can view it at: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Red+Harvest+(2)
We also recorded a few demos, and a BBC session for Janice Long. Oh, and I’ve got a live tape buried somewhere in one of my cupboards!

++ Can you tell me a bit about the Aftermath label and the Public Domain label who released your records?

Sorry, Can’t tell you anything really about those labels. They were both indie labels, with whom Steve had had sorted out a deal. I know an Elvis Presley picture disc was released on Public Domain, so it’s a privilege to be on the same label as an Elvis release!

++ Was there any interest from major labels? Why didn’t you get more popular you think?

We had a lot of interest from Beserkley at one point, but that never got off the ground. I think our big problem was doing everything ouselves and not having a proper manager. Still, I guess that’s true indie spirit isn’t it?

++ You’ve put up on Youtube the promo video for the “World Won’t Listen” single. Care to tell me a bit about the video? Where was it shot? what do you remember from recording it? any other anecdotes?

The video was very exciting to do. It was shot in Paris by a British director and cameraman, who’s names I just cannot remember at all. That’s really embarassing, especially as I work in the film industry myself these days! One thing I do remember about the shoot was the football. I remember England were playing Cameroon one evening while we were in Paris, it was the World Cup quarter-finals on 1st July 1990. We cheered like mad when England scored, and the whole bar went quiet and turned to stare at us. It was like that scene in ‘An American Werewolf In London’, know what I mean? Anyway, Cameroon scored next, and the whole bar cheered and gave us the finger! There was no violence or anything, but it did make us feel vulnerable! What a great match – 3:2 to England in the end.

++ What were your favourite Red Harvest songs?

All the tracks which featured harmonica the most! Ha ha ha! No seriously, it’s hard to put a finger on any songs really. I was particularly fond of Murder as that was the very first track I recorded with Red Harvest, I think we ended up recording that at least 3 times, the single version, the album version, and I’m sure we must have done a demo as well. There was a track we recorded in our final demo session which I really did like, I cannot remember what it was called though, but I’ve still got the tape.

++ Any particular gigs you remember and why?

I remember the Marquee gigs the most clearly I suppose. We played the old Marquee down Wardour Street, and the new Marquee in Charing Cross Road. The Old Marquee was my favourite, it was just such a prestigious venue. I had seen so many bands there myself in the punk days, it was a real privilege to have been on the same stage as many of my idols.

++ When and why did Red Harvest split? What happened after with you all? Any clues where are the other members or what are they doing?

We split not long after the 2nd album was released, not really sure why. It all just sort of fizzled out I guess. The original guitarist and drummer had left, and it just felt different after that. As far as I know, the only original member still playing music is the drummer, Mark.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

It really was great fun at the time, and it’s fantastic that there’s still some interest in our music! Thanks so much!

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Listen

Red Harvest – Heaven

Thanks so much to John Douglass for the great interview! Listen to more music from Kid Sinister at their myspace and at their label page Sons of Art.

++ Hi! How are you today?

Very well thank you!

++ Let’s get into business, let’s talk about Kid Sinister! How and when did the band start? What was the lineup and how did you all meet?

I went to school with Phil Rice the drummer and he had just left Bristol band Misdemeanour. I had been signed to Atlantic Records as a solo artist but it was not going anywhere and I felt I wanted someone else to sing my songs. I saw an advert in a local paper for a singer looking for a band and arranged to meet Steve and somehow he became our singer. Mike joined on bass and that became the nucleus of the group.

++ How do you remember those days in Bristol? Was there a thriving scene? Has it changed a lot?

Yes it was a thriving scene and a good place to be in a band. The only difference was there was less of an infrastructure to support the music business side so it was always felt that you had to move, or spend a lot of time travelling, up to London.

++ Where does the name Kid Sinister comes from?

A line in a Rickie Lee Jones song, can’t remember which song but it’s off her classic debut album the one with Chuck E’s in Love….

++ Did Kid Sinister gig a lot? Any particular gigs you remember the most?

Yes we did gig a lot, I don’t think we ever fully captured our best moments on record, they usually happened live. That’s why I was glad to get a chance to tidy up some live recordings and release the live album of songs that we never recorded.

http://www.bristolarchiverecords.com/bands/Kid_Sinister.html#unreleased

++ You only released one single, “Sugar Rae” 12″, right? You even set up a label because of this release! Care to tell me a bit more about why did you go the self-release way and about the Sons of Art label?

We had had a lot of interest from the major record labels but it wasn’t happening quick enough so we decided to do it ourselves. Although we weren’t ‘indie in sound’ we were in attitude and felt we could do it ourselves with the help of the Cartel, which had grown out of the late 1970’s punk & indie movement. We had intended to release an album on Sons of Art but the band split up and Steve & I regrouped as Wushcatte, where we were singed to Kitchenware Records/EMI so we mothballed the label until a few years ago.

++ Any anecdotes about the recording of this single?

The main recording studio in Bristol at the time was The Coach House run by Andy Allan. Andy was a folkie technician who somehow found himself at the centre of a musical revolution.

We were half way through our recording session when a group moved into his newly built pre production suites. That in itself confused us, ‘pre production, what’s that all about?’ We were used to rehearsing in a shitty cold damp room where everything was too loud and then setting up in a recording studio and recording it as we rehearsed it.

Any way this new ‘group’ had been in a week and all they had set up was a TV and some state of the art, but in reality rather primitive, video games. They had also racked up a huge phone bill. Andy was very unsure about them and although they apparently had a record label he had not seen any money and was getting nervous. We all had a good laugh too as they didn’t seem to have any ‘real’ instruments either!

Well I don’t know who had the last laugh as we went on to record our 12” single ‘Sugar Rae’ which is now fetching £50 on eBay whilst the other ‘group’, called ‘Massive something or other’, went on to record one of the seminal albums of the 1990’s, ‘Blue Lines’ and thus launched the ‘Bristol Sound’ and a thousand trip hop imitators.

Our only contribution was from Steve our lead singer. Neneh Cherry was recording with them and had a new baby with her and Steve got very drunk, threw up everywhere and ‘trip-hopped’ down three flights of stairs, taking out baby’s stair-gates one by one, Rock ‘n’ Roll eh?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and if we had had our wits about us we could have listened, learned and maybe teamed up with these great artists and collaborators and even appeared on the album. There was a YTS tea boy, called `Jeff’ who did appear to be taking it all in though, apparently he was thinking of naming his fledgling band after a suburb of Bristol just off the M5, Portishead!

++ Feel My Pulse might be my favourite song of yours! Would you mind telling me what is it about? Where did the inspiration came for it?

We recorded this at SAM studios above what became the Moon Club and then the Lakota with Steve Street. Steve was thinking of giving up the music industry, one too many overdubs with 80’s band ‘RedBox’, and we probably confirmed his decision.

Lots of major/minor seventh/sixths chords, this could be quite a stonker live. Again I was still clinging on to a bit of lead vocal! The original idea for the guitar riff came from a guitarist we played with for a few weeks called ‘Jerry’, forget his second name, but he worked for the BBC. He was a very nice guy and a good guitar player but he could never remember what he had just played, he would come up with a brilliant lick and then be totally unable to play it again. His time keeping was a little dodgy too. We arranged a band meeting and the first item on the agenda was time keeping and commitment. Jerry turned up late for this meeting as usual and arrived jolly as ever, ‘have I missed anything?’.. ‘er yeah, you’re fired’. Still no hard feelings.

Kit Morgan played guitar on this session but it wasn’t mixed very well.

Line up Steve ‘Logg’ Hogg Vocals, John Douglass Rhythm Guitar & Backing Vocals, Phil Rice Drums, Mike ’Thin Man’ Rogers Bass, Tim Walter keys, Kit Morgan guitar,

Lyrically it reflected the ‘true’ story of an attempted suicide when unemployment was rife in late 1970’s early 80’s. There were a lot of ‘pop’ bands with political lyrics then, The Style Council, Blow Monkeys etc.

++ What happened with the interests of the major labels for the band? Why didn’t that work out? What happened to all the other songs you recorded?

Despite continued interest the band called it a day in 1990. It was the end of an era and a good time to stop, commercially we may have had further to go but musically it was time to move on.

We released an album of all our studio recordings on Sons of Art records which is still available via the website but is also on itunes via the excellent Bristol Archive Records. They have also released a live album recently so pretty much everything we did is now available.

http://www.bristolarchiverecords.com/index.html.

++ Listening to your songs, I see there’s a lot of variety in them, from straight-forward pop songs to mellow ballads, was this the intention or did it came naturally? How did songs shaped up for Kid Sinister, from the first idea to the final recorded song?

I was the songwriter and never really wrote in one style or genre, I had a number of influences but Paul Simon was big one and he has always written songs which are distinctively his but in many musical styles.

The songs were arranged by the band and tended to reflect the period we played in, i.e. the 1980’s. Many of the songs would sound different if we were to record them now. We had a reputation for being ‘tight & polished’ but I’m not sure if that was true, I think we jammed quite a bit.

++ What music were you listening at the time?

Paul Simon, John Hiatt, The Beach Boys, U2, Rolling Stones, Steely Dan, Buddy Holly, and of course whatever was on the radio at the time, some of it good some of it bad.

++ Why and when did Kid Sinister called it a day? What do you do nowadays for a living?

1990 if my memory serves me right! I carried on working in music details of bands below. I also had my own CD import & music management business and then moved into music education. I now work for ‘Access to Music’ supporting the next generation of musicians.

++ Were you involved with any other bands after Kid Sinister broke up?

Steve & I continued working together and formed ‘Wushcatte’ who were signed to EMI & Kitchenware Records, home of amongst others Prefab Sprout. Our debut album, ‘this third animal’, is still available from Amazon, www.amazon.com. We also released an electronic album as ‘Widescreen’, working with acclaimed musician/producer, Richard Grassby-Lewis, available via www.2ndsight records.co.uk. Steve went solo for a while and released an EP called ‘Lakeside’ featuring songs co-written with myself, available via www.sons-of-art.com. We are now working under the name ‘Augustine’ and have an album, ‘Acorns Up’, out now on the revamped Sons of Art label, www.sons-of-art.com.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

It’s amazing how much interest remains in the band. I really appreciate it and thank you.

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Listen

Kid Sinister – Feel My Pulse

Thanks so much to Andrew Burnett for the interview! Please check his current project CLS Kunstwerk here. Also be sure to not miss “Forever, Until Victory!”, a compilation of all Close Lobsters singles!

++ “Forever, Until Victory!” is the new compilation that will be out soon on Fire Records. Care to tell me a bit about this? What will be included? And when will we be able to buy it?

All the singles and all the b-sides are there. Newly remastered. It is scheduled for release on 6.10.09 by Fire Records of London. Fingers crossed!

++ The name for this compilation comes from what Che Guevara wrote to Fidel Castro. Do you have any particular view about Cuba and it’s regime, or you just liked the title?

The phrase itself has a wonderful spirit of determination to it but can also be viewed in an ironic fashion when used in the context of close lobsters. Che Guevara was a prince among men.

++ According to legend, the band’s name was derived from their inability to decide between two prospective names: The Close and The Lobsters. Is this really true? If so, who proposed these names? It seems it wasn’t easy to pick up a name..

Myself and Steward were behind this accomodation/amalgamation – me close, him lobsters. close lobsters.

++ How did the band come together? Where from Glasgow where you all from and how did you all meet? Were you all fans of the same kind of music?

We met when we were at school, all involved in punk rock and its post-punk aftermaths – the real punk rock, not the one where people took it literally and uncritically, not the popular perception of leather jackets, mohawks, spitting and touristy attractions etc. So we were destined in a way to do it given our collective belief in the spirit of punk rock. The late 70s was magical for music.

++ You were part of the C86 tape. How did it happen? Did the NME call you? How did that work out? What do you feel in retrospect about that tape which gave name to this “genre” and being on it?

I can only assume by accident. A good friend Jon Hunter, trumpet player with the June Brides took us under his wing and promoted the band in London for a while. I’m sure it was his influence that helped bring about the inclusion on C86.

++ How did you end up signing to Fire Records? Did you send them a demo perhaps?

They approached us with a record deal. We signed. Some people rob you with a fountain said Bob Dylan.

++ Are there still unreleased songs from you waiting to see the light of the day?

Possibly but in a very different form. House music floats my boat these days. Electronic music.

++ You toured all around the USA. How did that happen? What would you say is different between touring here compared to the UK? What was the best meal you had here by the way? Any anecdotes you’d like to share from this tour?

We signed a agency deal with a company in New York and they let us loose on the mid west and the north eastern seaboard. Actually we had a licensing deal in the US with a record company in California which meant that our records were very much more available in the US than in the UK. All meals in the US are good – large and good.

++ Any particular gigs you remember the most?

Iowa, New York and Chicago. All very good.

++ You released two fantastic albums and many many singles. If you were to choose some songs you are really proud of, which ones would you choose? and why?

I Kiss the Flower in Bloom and Got Apprehension. They are the closest to what I wanted at the time.

++ You are still making music as CLS Kunstwerk which is quite different from The Close Lobsters. How did this band come together? And, I don’t know, give yourself some shameless free publicity! tell us more about it

CLS Kunstwerk came about as a vehicle for me to start making music again. One gets tired and jaded in life without the means to produce something of an artistic nature. A release is imminent and should be track called Cosmic War.

++ Do you still follow guitar pop music? Did you have any favourites back then? How do you feel about the Wedding Present’s cover of “Let’s Make Some Plans”? you like it?

No, not really. I like Radiohead but sometimes find them a little morose. One of favourite groups back then was the G-Betweens. The Wedding Present’s cover was very good indeed.

++ And between the Close Lobsters and CLS Kunstwerk were you involved with any other bands?

No.

++ Are you still in touch with the other Close Lobsters members? What do you all dedicate your time to nowadays?

Sometimes. Mostly they are dedicated to their children and wives and alcohol. In that order.

++ A couple of random questions, what’s a foxhead? which are the “Skyscrapers of St. Mirin”? do you believe in saints?

Foxhead was a way of communicate the word F-head and getting through the censors. In the 1980s there was no such thing as mainstream indie music and the mainstream charts were truly dreadful. The censors and the majors dominated. It was the effects after these years that opened things up. The skyscrapers of st. Mirin are those space cadets I grew up with in Paisley Scotland.

++ And most importantly, does Andrew Burnett likes eating lobster?

Yes, had it once and liked it very much. Its a bit sickly if you take tooo much of it. Like many things.

++ Anything else you’d like to say to all Close Lobsters fans out there?

Forever, Until Victory!

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Listen

The Close Lobsters – I Kiss the Flowers in Bloom

Thanks so much to Andy E for the great interview! Please check more of their music at their myspace. And for those interested, I still have some copies left of the Cloudberry single

++ Hi Andy, it’s been some time since we released the little “Flowers are Calling” single, what have you been doing since then?

Still a lot on the musical front – Graham (guitar) has been keeping his had in by turning out for a few live dates with the Gilbert Quick Orchestra, Bridgit (vocals, Violin and Keyboards) has been involved with an early music choir, and I’ve (bass and guitars) been keeping the Golden Pathway Label ticking over as well as promoting gigs for my all time musical hero Dave Kusworth. We’ve not doen anything as Joystreet although there are a few things which we hope to do not least to record some vocal tracks for a couple of songs which we never got round to completing, so I will keep you posted on that.

++ So let’s go back in time now, when did Number 4 Joystreet started and how did the band get together?

Me and Bridge had been playing in India Falls, which sort of faded out as other members of the band got involved in other projects – Simon went on to become part of the ‘Chesterfields’, and Matt formed ‘Thatcher on Acid’. I was doing some reviews for a local fanzine ‘Feeding the Fish’ when I cam across a band called Psycho Daisies which had this amazing guitar sound. The Daisies guitarist was Graham who also had a little band called Grim Noel who produced some lovely songs. Anyway we befriended Graham and set up another musical project called October Evening. We played a few gigs and produced some demos. Whilst recording was relatively easy we found it difficult to replicate things live and did loads of swapping around – I played guitar as well as bass and even keyboards on a few songs when Bridgit was playing violin and singing – Graham also took turns on the bass. So we recruited a few other including Judith – vocals, Sophie – Cello, Andy D – Keyboards, and Paul drums. This line up basically then become Number 4 Joystreet.

++ What does the name Number 4 Joystreet mean?

It’s the title of a series of Victorian children’s books – It was one of Graham’s suggestions as he had a copy of Number 4 as he liked the illustrations. You can still find these popping up on ebay from time to time – I have a couple of the series in my collection.

++ What’s the full discography of the band? There’s no place I could find this… I know there are at least 2 singles on Golden Pathway… are there any compilation appearances perhaps? What about unreleased tracks?

Regrettably the full official discography is short

* Watch The World – ( an early demo version without cello and violin) appeared on the Golden Pathway Sheeves of Gold compilation cassette album.
* Watch The World/ Flowers Are Calling/ Artic Chill – were released on the Golden Pathway vinyl EP.
* Stephanie/ Just a Shadow – were released on Golden Pathway.
* Flowers (early demo)/ Only The Tress on Cloudberry.

There is an album listed on Golden Pathway called ‘Devon Fire’ and whilst this actually exists it has never been formally released – mainly due to the fact that Graham lost the art work in a computer crash – I must sort this out and get it released soon.

There are a few unreleased tracks not least tracks which were planned to be the second single release – ‘Sometimes I could Kill You’ and ‘Desiree’. We went into a big studio to record Desiree and even recorded two vocal versions – at the time we weren’t happy with the results so we ended up with Stephanie which was recorded on a porta studio in a village hall and then mastered in a real studio. Listening again to these tracks I can’t think why we didn’t release them.

++ Talking of Golden Pathway, which is your own label, how did that start? What was the main purpose of it? Is it still going? Tell us a bit about the label

The Golden Pathway was started by Wilf local artist musician who has since sadly passed away, and Graham mainly as a label for their band Psycho Daisies. At that stage it was very short runs of casette albums – more designed for friends than anu commercial releases. There was never any plan as such behind the label that I was aware of. The advent of the joystreet single, along with Wednesday Page and Pop Parker really saw the label take off. I should also mention a nice guy called Steve Ball who largely financed the Pop Parker release. I think it is fair to say that being more business minded than the others I helped sort out the business and promotional aspects of the label, which with a distribution deal heped raise the profile. It is still going today and in recent years we have put out CD releases by The Morrisons, The Legendary Ten Seconds, Console, and Tim Chaplin. I am hoing to sort out a comilation of some of the newer bands including ‘National Pastime’ who are rather good. There is loads we could do but never enough time.

Most of the material released including vinyl is still available direct from our web site www.goldenpathway.co.uk

++ The design for the singles are beautiful though I have to say, a bit difficult for storage purposes, haven’t found a polybag for them yet! But, honestly, the care and design for them are striking. How did you went to through this path and not stick to the conventional 7″ packaging? Why do this amazing folder packaging printed both sides with photos and medieval imagery? Was any of you guys in art school perhaps?!

Yeah you spotted it Graham was the art school guy and is a very talented artist. Given the involvement of artists like Wilf and Graham it was somewhat inevitable that the label should seek to utilise their talents and produce an artistic edge to the releases. It was all about giving people something they’d value – a good record – EP releases rather than than singles, and a nice sleeve to look at. From the business angle I always liked the idea of the single sleeves standing out a few inches about the others in the rack. There was also a DIY element to it – doing the style we had meant we could put together the packages ourselves and we had many a happy hour using double sided sticky tape putting the packages together.

++ I can hear Strawberry Switchblade as an influence, am I right? What other bands were you listening and loving at the time?

Yeah we loved Strawberry Switchblade and still do – it has been quite a few years since we haven’t included a version of ‘Trees and Flowers’ in our live set. However, the Strawberrys were out much as the same time as us, and inevitably the fact that we both had two girl vocalists singing in harmony gave comparissons but these were largely coincidental. Also the use of drum machines was common for the bedroom musicians of the time. If you listen to some of the Strawberry’s demos (download from their website) you can almost imagine them sat in their bedroom in Scotland whilst we were doing the same thing in deepest Somerset.

Graham had a love for 60’s psychedlic stuff, Bridge early music, and me the Velevet underground. In india we used to play things like Sunday Morning and Femme Fatale live and with Joystreet we used to play Yardbirds tracks live like Evil Hearted You and Heartful of Soul which were fun. The medieval influence appeared in songs like ‘when to her loot’.

++ I think you have beautiful songs and the lyrics are quite amazing, who wrote them? How did the songs shape up? How was adding a cello or a violin to them? Was that a hard thing? These instruments weren’t that common in the scene then, right?

Thanks. The songwriting was pretty easy between us Graham was most prolific in terms of setting out a guitar line, athough I did a few, lyrics were mainly mine, with Graham doing a few in the later tracks. I often used to sit and quickly read a few of Graham’s victorian books which I interwove with what else was going on in life to produce interesting lines. Bridgit is brilliant at the melody bits – although always prone to leaving out a few critical words because they didn’t quite fit! Bridgit also did one or two of her own compositions. We all played a fair part in the arrangements.

The cello and violin were something we were keen to include and with Bridgit playing violin it made sense to utilise her talent. We weren’t to keen on the cello sound the keyboard produced so Sophie was drafted in to play the real thing. She was great and just got on and did the cello bits without any fuss, an excellent musician. I can’t think of any oter bands who had a similar line up to us. The main head ache was playing live as sound engineers rarely came across a violin let alone a cello in the type of ‘rock’ venues we were playing. However, we got hold of some clever stick on transducer type things which meant you could plug the strings straight into the PA without the fuss of mikes and feedback.

++ I’m wondering about two songs in particular: who is Desiree from “Desiree”? and, what about Christ appears? What is that all about?

Good question which I can’t answer Desiree is a song written by a band called the Left Bank which very few people have probably heard of let alone who know what the lyrics mean. ‘Christ appears on the factory floor’ is one of Graham’s so I will have to ask him about that when I see him next.

++ I found a video on Youtube for Just a Shadow where it says: “Just a Shadow was recorded in a small village hall in Somerset. The video shows old cine footage which the band and friends recorded, to use as a back drop at some of their early gigs.” So can you tell me about these gigs? Did you gig a lot? Any particular gigs you remember?

Bridge, Graham and me had been to London to see Virginia Astley play live. It was part of a series of gigs where the live act had their favourite film played before their set – so the audience got to see a good film and band on the same night. We liked the concept, but the practicalities of putting on a film at the venues we were playing at the time was a unrealistic. Thus, having come across an old cince camera Wilf, Graham and me set about producing an film of abstract shots – mainly out of focus. The bit of film used on the ‘Just a shadow’ you tube track clip is a rush job and hopefully we will do another version as there is a lot of more usable film footage not included. Anyway following from the theme of art and music we ran the cine film at a couple of gigs as a back drop including when we supported Roy Harper on one occasion. As we weren’t really a band who bounced around when we played it gave another dimension to the live outings.

We did quite a few gigs, but the one I remember best is when we played at the Fleece in Bristol UK. It’s a big venue and a lot of name bands were playing there, and there was quite a lot of interest in us with a good crowd turing out. Anyway about an hour before we were due to take the sage Paul our drummer called to say he wasn’t going to make it due to being stuck somehwre in northern England. Thankfully the Chesterfields drummer kindly drove his kit up to the venue and John Parish of ‘ PJ Harvey’ fame played drums for us. We had to do a short non drum set to start the evening a venue were getting concerned about the time. Suffice to say that John was brilliant and the gig well received.

Another gig which will stay with me is when we played a venue bwhich doubled as a small brewery in deepest Devon called the Beer Engine. There was a bit of an issue regarding our fee and the venue oferred to provide free real ale to help compensate. Graham, somewhat unusally, thought he’d make the most of this and ha probably tried a pint of each variety they had on offer before we played. I dont’t think a single song went the way it should have on on one song Graham lost his way entirely during the guitar brake I tried my best to follow where he was going on the bass but eventually gave up and left him to ramble on and eventually find his way back to the actual song.

++ What would you say was the biggest highlight of Number 4 Joystreet?

For me it was when the first single received a rave review in the likes of the NME. It was great to appear along side the likes of ‘real’ bands like Echo & The Bunnymen. It’s funny but I don’t think any of us had any real ambition to make it big so to speak and we were always very happy putting out stuff on a little indie label with a bit of an underground edge to it all. I suppose that this in part refelected the artists we liked at the time – I would have been much happier being a Nikki Suden type ’star’ than say Mick Jagger.

++ Are you still in touch with all the members? Do you still live in Somerset? Has it changed a lot?

With the exception of Sophie and drummer Paul we have all kept in touch – me and Bridgit have had to because we are married! I saw Graham at the recent Dave Kusworth gig I put on in Yeovil and Judith is living down the road in Dorset. We are in Cornwall and Graham in Leeds but family and friends bring us back to Somerset from time to time. What seems to have changed is the local music scene as there doen’t seem to be many bands coming through anymore or the support for local music for some reason. Yeovil in Somerset has a great venue called the Orange Box which should be the place to go.

++ There’s a lovely cover of The Flowers Are Calling by The Magic Whispers from Spain, have you heard it? Do you follow or like any contemporary indiepop band?

Yes that’s a really good version – it was great to hear one of our songs covered although they got some of the words wrong. I get to hear quite a bit of new music with the label still receiving emails from hopeful bands. Exeter UK has a good indie scene going on with the likes of National Pastime and Console. Also in deepest Cornwalll there are some good bands like I say Marvin (who may have just split up) and My Elvis Blackout who are excellent. I’d much rather see a band live than watch tem on TV, although myspsace throws up a few gems. I must however confess that you are mire likely to find me playing the latest release by Dave Kusworth than any new band – although in terms of mainstream stuff I thought that Pink’s ‘don’t leave me’ was a brilliant little song.

++ And now summer’s over, but I guess, there’s still time for for enjoying life? What other hobbies do you have aside from music? Any plans for the upcoming weekend?

Well I’m sure Graham will be doing yet more DIY on his house, Brdgit will be doing more music – singing playing the piano or even the church organ. As for me I’m managing an under 18’s football (soccer team) and our new season is just about to start.

++ Thanks so much Andy, anything else you’d like to say?

Thanks for keeping the interest in Indie going – keep up the good work.

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Listen

Number 4 Joystreet – The Flowers Are Calling