Thanks so much to Bernd Donner for the interview! I wrote about The Mirror Images some months ago and Bernd was kind enough to get in touch and clear my curiosity about his band. Enjoy!

++How are you doing? Still living in Essen?

Bernd is doing fine, but living in Recklinghausen, Jan lives in Christchurch, New Zealand and Marque is still living in Essen, but sadly not in Borbeck.

++ I’ve been to Essen a couple of times, so I’m wondering which are your favourite spots in town? What to visit? And if there’s a special dish in the region that I somehow forgot to try?

Madame Chocolat and Panic Room are good places for listening to live-music. The Rot-Weiss-Essen-Soccer-Stadium is the Sports-Olymp of Essen-Borbeck. If you tried Pommes-Currywurst, you tried everything.

++ What about Essen bands? I feel you are the only one I know, in the style I like. Would you recommend any other?

No.

++ So tell me about The Mirror Images! How did you know each other and what sparked you all to start a band?

We met back in 1983 in a youth club and started a band because there wasn´t another band in Essen to recommend.

++ Was The Mirror Images your first band ever? In what year did you form?

The Mirror Images were our first band. They were formed in 1983.

++ And where did the name The Mirror Images came from?

The Mirror Images were named after the song “Private Hell” by The Jam.

++ You already answered many of my questions and doubts on the comments section of my post about you. But I still wonder about some things, for example, what about your label? Who released your records?

The records were produced and released by ourselves in cooperation with Rough Trade.

++ And what about gigs? Did you play often? Which were your favourite gigs?

We played about 200 Gigs in front of 5 to 8000 People. Our favourite gig was in the “International Student Club” in Bern (Switzerland). The people went from traditional extreme phlegmatic to astonishing ecstatic in 45 minutes. So we got the double money and lots of beer, whiskey and chocolate-bars by the Organizer.

++ During those late 80s and early 90s there were many great jangly German guitar pop bands. Did you feel somehow part of a scene? Were there any bands of that period that you like?

We liked Marilyn’s Army, Stunde X and Family 5, just to name but a few.

++ And which bands would you say influenced your sound?

The Jam, The Who, Beatles, Beach Boys and Small Faces.

++ After splitting in 1993 you said you were together again in 97 and 2001. How come?

In 1997 we played our “Farewell-Gig” and in 2001 our “Revival Gig”. After that we didn’t have the time yet to play together.

++ I still have to listen to most of your songs, but it strikes me how good the song titles are. Seems you were very careful about it. Same as with the album titles and the meaning of some of the artwork. I feel there was a concept behind the band. Am I wrong? What was the intention?

You’re right we had an intention. We wanted to be more fresh, interesting, entertaining and inventive than the precocious and dusty rockists around us.

++ And so, which would you say are your favourite Mirror Images songs?

Like Nick Hornby taught us, we name here just a list of 5 titles:

1. Borbeck Riots
2. Once Again
3. Anyhow, It´s Now
4. The Distance
5. Why Do Only Kind People Die

++ What about unreleased songs? Are there any?

Yes, many. We made about 200 Songs in those years.

++ Also, I’m kind of curious, why write songs in English and not German? Any particular reason?

English is our musical native language.

++What would you say was the biggest highlight for The Mirror Images?

Touring through Germany in the late eighties and early nineties.

++ When and why did you decide to stop the band?

We didn’t really stop the band. We just didn’t have the time yet to play together any longer.

++ And what did you do after The Mirror Images called it a day? What other hobbies do you have?

We are doing our jobs and in our free time we are ambitious being idle.

++ One last question, would you do The Mirror Images all over again?

Never say never.

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

Not now.

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Listen
The Mirror Images – Eight Hands to Hold You

Thanks much to Andrew Withycombe for the interview! (and Bart Cummings for getting me in touch with Andrew!) Hydroplane was a fantastic band from the 90s. It consisted of the same members of The Cat’s Miaow and they were around the same time. They sounded different and did continue making music after The Cat’s Miaow’s demise. They had releases in great labels as Wurlitzer Jukebox and Elefant and well, it’s time to remember them. Enjoy!

++ Hi! How are things in Melbourne? Any exciting plans for summer?

Melbourne’s good. No big plans for the summer – mostly household chores, gardening and wrangling children.

++ It’s been 10 years since the last release of Hydroplane. What have you been up to since then? Will there be more Hydroplane songs some day?

I guess the rest of our lives got in the way – family, study, career, etc. I’ve played in other bands during that time. Huon and Driving Past, two other bands I’ve played with over the years, have released albums in the last couple of years. Hydroplane has a couple of unreleased songs coming out on a label called Fox Pop in the USA sometime soon. However, there are no plans to do any more recording with Hydroplane.

++ So the first question I ask myself is, why start a new band if you all were already in The Cat’s Miaow? What was the idea behind this band? Because there was an idea, right?

I’m not sure. I think psychologically it felt right at the time. It’s hard to explain really. Both bands were the same people. Musically either band could have played most of the songs. However, the writing and recording process for Hydroplane was a bit different.

Hydroplane was originally supposed to only release one record, which was a collage of song snippets and sound pieces. I think I felt there were enough ideas in that record to expand into an album. Drive-In Records, who put out the single, were into doing an album, so we did. I guess by doing that, I may have inadvertently broke-up the Cat’s Miaow. In hindsight, I think stopping then gave the Cat’s Miaow an evergreen quality, which I don’t think we would have maintained had we kept going. Also, it enabled us to neatly package nearly everything the Cat’s Miaow recorded on two CDs!

++ And why the name Hydroplane?

Hydroplane was one of the names Dean Wareham, from Galaxie 500, considered calling Luna before he settled on Luna. Seeing he wasn’t going to use it, we thought that we might as well.

++ Back then what’s your favourite place to hang out in Melbourne? And were there any other bands in town that you enjoyed?

I’ve seen so many bands over the years, and in so many venues, it’s hard to say. I think back then we were hanging out a lot at the Empress and the Rob Roy – two pubs in Fitzroy, and the Tote – in Collingwood, which are in inner city Melbourne. I can’t remember who was doing it for me. I know I used to see the Steinbecks, Sleepy Township and Long Weekend a lot. And I really liked Seaworthy, from Sydney.

++ How different was the recording process of Hydroplane compared to The Cat’s Miaow? And what about the creative process?

The Cat’s Miaow mostly followed the standard process of writing, learning and recording. Whereas, a lot of Hydroplane songs started as loops or drones, which were used to create a groove and inspire a melody and so on. I’d been doing stuff with tape loops and samplers since the late 1980s, when I got my first 4 track recorder. We did do a bit of looping with the Cat’s Miaow. However, I think hearing the first DJ Shadow album gave us the necessary inspiration to carry on.

++ And this is just my curiosity, how many instruments can you play? And how many do you own?

Not many and not very well. I have a couple of electric guitars, a synth, a couple of toy keyboards and numerous gadgets. I did have more but have either lost them, sold them or given them away.

++ During the time as Hydroplane, both Wurlitzer Jukebox and Drive-In, labels that helped and supported The Cat’s Miaow, were releasing your records. I’ve already asked Bart about the relationship with them and The Cat’s Miaow, but I’d love to hear your take on it Andrew. How important and how helpful was the relationship with these labels?

I can’t speak highly enough of those labels. Keith from Wurlitzer Jukebox and Mike and Jamie from Drive-In are the nicest people you could meet – great to hang out with, creative, supportive and a little crazy. Crazy I mean in a good way. For example, when Keith suggested doing a split flexi with Stereolab we thought he was crazy, but it showed how genuinely he felt about us and what we were doing. Mike was the same, always ready to try something new. Hydroplane would not have existed without Mike. The original idea for Hydroplane came out of a conversation I had with Mike late one night while we were watching a film about the Ventures, a surf instrumental band from the USA, from the 1960s, on tour in Japan. The photo on the first Hydroplane single is an image taken from that film – it’s supposed to be the mysterious “Hydroplane”. Ultimately, if the Cat’s Miaow, et al ever had a profile, it’s mostly because of those guys. However, I should also mention Clint Barnes from 4 Letter Words, and Tim Adams from Ajax Records – Tim used to sell our cassettes back before we started releasing records.

++ And another question where I’d love to know your opinion is, why the hell didn’t Australian labels pick you up?

We never really tried to do anything with an Australian label. Our business model wasn’t really suited to what was going on here at the time – we rarely played, we recorded at home, were ‘Lo-Fi’, etc. Anyway, we were internationalists. We were inspired by the K Records International Pop Underground.

++ And it’s not like you were very obscure or anything, you were once in the Festive 50 of John Peel no less! So I find it odd. But yeah, how was that? Being in the Festive 50? How did you find out you were featured? And what was your reaction?

I think it was either Keith from Wurlitzer Jukebox or Mike from Drive-In who told us that we were in the festive 50. At the time John Peel was featuring a lot of stuff that Wurlitzer Jukebox was releasing. However, I don’t think being in John Peel’s festive 50 made us any more popular or transformed into more sales. It was exciting and did seem prestigious, but I think it was only something that really mattered to a few die hard indie music followers. The festive 50 has probably taken on legend status, particularly since John Peel died. So it probably makes us seem bigger than we actually were. Nonetheless, it’s definitely a highlight probably only matched by the Cat’s Miaow’s first Drive-In single going top ten in Rolling Stone magazine’s alternate chart back in the early nineties.

++ Was that your biggest highlight? What other highlights would you say happened during the run with Hydroplane?

As far as media recognition, and getting a bit of air play on BBC Radio One, the festive 50 was a big highlight. But as much as it sounds a bit clichéd, I think just being able to keep putting out records for as long as we did was a highlight, as well as getting to know some really great people.

++ And did you play any gigs at all?

We played a few parties. Playing live was never a priority; but it was nice to occasionally play for friends. For example, when Keith Jenkins came to Australia, he requested we play. I hired a room at The Tote in Collingwood and organised a show. Hydroplane played, off course; Huon played its first show; and I think from memory Upstairs was the other band.

++ You released two 7″s on three labels I know nothing at all. So I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about them and how did you end up releasing with them, “Liquefaction Empire”, “Bad Jazz” and “Little Prints”?

Liquefaction Empire and Bad Jazz were labels based in the UK. They were run by two brothers. They were big fans of Wurlitzer Jukebox. I think that’s how we came to work with them. Bad Jazz also did some co-releases with Drive-In. The second Hydroplane album came out on CD in the USA on Drive-In and LP on Bad Jazz in the UK. Little Prints was an off shoot of Drive-In. It might have been like a 7 inch singles club or something. I think it only released one or two singles.

++ And what about the release on Elefant? They are quite a big label these days and I believe in the late 90s they were already making themselves a name. How was that experience? Ever been to Spain by the way?

Elefant was great to work with – very professional. I think that release was part of a seven inch singles club as well. I don’t know how we came to do that single – possibly because of the “success” of the single with Wurlitzer Jukebox.

++ You wanted to release just one 7″ when you started. But then you released many records. How come did the band evolve to be so prolific?

At the time we lived and breathed music – apart from going to work, our lives seemed to basically revolve around just seeing bands, playing in bands and recording and releasing records. So if it wasn’t Hydroplane, it would’ve been another band.

++ Many singles, and three albums. Do you have a favourite song of yours?

Nothing in particular – maybe ‘Stars’ from the second album or ‘Song for the Meek’ from the first album.

++ You have songs called “International Exiles” and “We Crossed The Atlantic”. It seems there’s a longing to be abroad, am I wrong? What are the countries that you’ve liked the most? And have any of them inspired you for making songs?

No, no really longing to be abroad. To be honest, a lot of Hydroplane songs are about being in Australia. Nonetheless, some songs are about overseas. The songs that do mention overseas locations are usually about us being there. For example Bart wrote “Wurlitzer Jukebox” after we were in the UK. We were visiting Keith from Wurlitzer Jukebox during some un-seasonally cold weather. There was a lot of snow and we literally froze. “We crossed the Atlantic” is a cover. It was originally recorded in the 1960s by an Australian singer songwriter called Pip Proud. I liked the song, so we covered it. “International Exiles” is about the Cat’s Miaow. Basically, it’s a celebration of our international success!

++ And the title for that album of yours, “Hope Against Hope”, it always made me think what did you mean by it. Care to unveil that mystery for me? 🙂

Bart titled that album, you’ll have to ask him.

++ What about covers? You made a couple? Even one from The Cat’s Miaow! If I ask you today, what cover would you like to do that you never got around doing?

We did record a few covers. I don’t think there where any songs that we wanted to cover that we never got around to recording. We didn’t keep a list of songs we wanted to record – choosing them tended to be more organic.

++ And what about the artwork for your releases? Where do all those great photographs came from?

Some we borrowed. Steve Crushworthy, who did the design for the second album, as well as some of the Cat’s Miaow sleeves, took some. And the rest, we took ourselves.

++ On the Munch video compilation you contributed with a video for “Completed Extract From The Previous 7″”…

I’d forgotten about that video. I think it’s footage of us playing at a party in Dave Harris’s backyard. Dave was the guy behind the Munch video compilations.

++ So when and why did you decide to stop? What did you do after?

I don’t think there ever was a conscious decision to just stop. It was just a case of other interests and commitments taking a higher priority and making it harder to write and to get together. Moreover, geographically we started to spread out a bit. Although, I guess if we decided to get back together, we could do it via a wiki or email or something, on our tablet computers.

++ And aside music, what other hobbies or interests do you have?

I have two children who seem to take up a lot of my spare time. Other interests include gardening, tending poultry, home maintenance, and home brewing – mostly beer, occasionally ginger beer.

++ Thanks so much Andrew, I do have one last question. What about flying in a hydroplane? Ever been on one? 😉

Unfortunately, no.

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Listen
Hydroplane – New Monotonic FM

Thanks so much to Koushi Ono for the interview! The Time Capsules were active during the 90s and these dayes Koushi goes under the name Alvysinger. This is great pop in the vain of Pale Fountains, Jim Jiminee or The Jazz Butcher. Well worth the listen. Please enjoy!

++ Hi Ono-san! First of all thanks so much for being up for this interview. I know these days you are in Alvysinger but many years ago you had a wonderful band called The Time Capsules. What would you say are the main differences between them?

小野さん、こんにちは！まず今回のインタビューを引き受けてくださり本当にありがとう。最近あなたはAlvysingerとして活動していますが、数年前The Time Capsulesという素晴らしいバンドを組んでいましたよね？大きな違いは何か説明してくれますか？

First, I would like to express my thanks for your taking interest in a kind of obscure band The Time Capsules. I am now pursuing my music career as “Alvysinger.” Although the name is changed, the spirit is just the same as The Time Capsules. It is true that the taste may be more personal because “Alvysinger” is my own solo project.

まずは、誰にも知られていないタイムカプセルズに興味を持ってくれてありがとう。僕は今、アルヴィシンガーとして音楽活動をしている。アルヴィシンガーはタイムカプセルズから名前を変えただけでスピリットは変わっていない。ただ、今は僕一人のプロジェクトになってしまったので、以前よりも個人的な内容になっているかもしれないね。

++ So let’s go back in time, to the 90s, that’s when The Time Capsules start, right? How did the band start? Who were the members and how did you know each other?

では90年代を振り返りますが、The Time Capsulesが結成されたのはその頃ですよね？どのようにバンドの活動がスタートしたのでしょうか？メンバーにはどんな人がいたのですか？どのように知り合ったのでしょうか？

The founding members were Koushi Ono (guitar, vocal) and Takehiro Uemura (guitar, synthesizer). In the summer of 1996, the band started with those members, college students at that time. We had been classmates at high school. We had entered different universities, but we had great time talking about Johnny Dee when we met again during the summer vacation. We had found ourselves being good friends and respecting each other. Then, we realized our tastes for indie music totally fit together. So, don’t you think it is good time to start the band?

バンド創立メンバーは、小野剛志（ギター、ヴォーカル）と植村岳浩（ギター、シンセサイザー）。１９９６年の夏に、当時大学生だった小野と植村の二人で結成した。僕らは高校の同級生だった。別々の大学に進学したが、夏休みに再会した時に日本の偉大なネオアコバンド「ジョニーディ」の話で盛り上がったんだ。僕らはとても仲が良くて相手をとても買っていた。親友とマイナーな音楽の趣味までぴったりあったんだからこれはもうバンドやるしかないだろ？

++ And what about the name? Where does it comes from?

バンド名について聞きたいのですが、バンド名の由来は？

We didn’t care about the music scene. We just wanted to record good music. The band was named after our hope that somebody might dig it up and listen to it somewhere and someday. Let’s put this moment in the time capsule! That was how we were feeling when we named the band. When we grew up, however, it sounded a bit too young and green, so we didn’t like it any more. That’s why I changed the name to “Alvysinger.”

僕らは音楽シーンなんてどうでも良かった。ただ良い音楽を録音しておきたかったんだ。いつか、どこかで、誰かが掘り起こして聴けるように、今この瞬間をタイムカプセルに閉じ込めよう、そんな気持ちで名前を付けた。大人になったら、それが少々青臭すぎて、それで嫌になってアルヴィシンガーへと改名したんだけどね。

++ And by the way, if you were able to travel in time, in a time capsule, when and where in time would you go?

ところで、もしあなたがタイムカプセルで時間旅行をできるなら、いつどの時点に行きたいですか？

I would like to fly back to the time when we formed The Time Capsules. It was totally a fun. We learned how to create music together, dreaming of a bright future. That was how we were. If we had been more ambitious, we would be successful. If I could go back to those days, I would spank them and make them work harder. J

結成当時に飛んでいきたいね。それはもう楽しかったからね。作曲について二人で勉強して、輝かしい将来を夢みていた、そんな時代さ。僕らがもう少し上昇志向があったら成功したかもしれないね。もしもそのころに戻れたら二人のケツをひっぱたいてもう少し努力させるさ（笑）

++ On your Alvysinger myspace you wrote: “we were too young to overcome various temptation, video game, mystery, horse racing, and we had been crazy about idle talk in those days”. So which were those temptations? What video games did you love? Did you ever win at horse racing? And what’s idle talk?!

アルヴィシンガーのマイスペースではこう書いていますね。「僕らは若すぎて様々な誘惑に克てなかった。テレビゲームやミステリー小説、競馬…そして当時はくだらない話題でおしゃべりするのに夢中だった」と。このうちどの誘惑に負けたんですか？好きなテレビゲームは何でしたか？競馬で勝ったことはありますか？くだらない話題とはどんなことですか？

This is exactly the reason why we didn’t make it. We lived far away (about 800 miles) from each other, so we only worked together during long vacations. Of course, we worked separately sometimes, and sent demo tapes to each other, but basically we were lazy and crazy about pleasurable pastimes. My favorite video games? I was fond of playing anything: Nintendo, PlayStation… whatever. I would buy any newly released game. Especially, I was crazy about Biohazard (Resident Evil), Dragon Quest, and Derby Stallion, for example. I loved detective stories, read lots of manga, and watched many movies. Every weekend, I went to horse racing. I only picked a long shot, so I didn’t win every week, but when I won, it was a jackpot. Like this, I spent my undergraduate days just hanging around. I was a typical Japanese college student. And what’s idle talk? It was literally idle talk, which is empty and produces nothing.

まさにこれが成功しなかった理由さ。僕たちはとても離れた場所に住んでいて（およそ800キロ）長い休暇の時しか二人で活動できなかったんだ。もちろんそれぞれがデモを作って送りあったりもしたけど、二人とも基本的に怠け者でさ。楽しい遊びに夢中になっていたんだ。ビデオゲームなんて当時はなんでも好きだったね。任天堂もPSもなんでも。新しいソフトが出れば買っていたし、バイオハザードやドラゴンクエスト、ダービースタリオンなんかに夢中だったよ。ミステリー小説も大好きだったし、漫画も映画もたくさん見たね。週末は競馬三昧。僕は大穴しか買わないんだ。だから毎週当たるわけではないけど当たったらでかかったね。当時はこのようにほとんど時間を遊んですごしたんだ。健全な日本の大学生さ。アイドルトーク？そのとおり無駄話の事だよ。

++ On the Time Capsules’ recordings I can notice the influence of many great guitar pop bands like The Pale Fountains or The Jazz Butcher. What were your favourite bands? Any Japanese bands that you love and would like to recommend?

タイムカプセルズの音源では、ペイルファウンテインズやジャズブッチャーといった多くの素晴らしいギターポップバンドの影響を感じます。好きなグループは何ですか？日本のバンドでおすすめはありますか？

Yes! Let’s get down to business.J At the beginning of our project for The Time Capsules, I didn’t know The Pale Fountains or The Jazz Butcher. I wanted to produce “evergreen” songs like Burt Bacharach or the Beach Boys. I just created music as I wanted and sang as I liked. As I listen to it now, I agree that it surely sounds like The Pale Fountains or The Jazz Butcher. I love their music and I admit that I was influenced by them, but it is not that we tried to become like them. My favorite guitar bands are: The Pale Fountains, The Trash Can Sinatras, The Wind (Tan Sleeve), The Hang Ups, North of Cornwallis. My favorite Japanese bands are: Johnny Dee, SUGAR BABE, Fishmans, Uchoten, Original Love. Among the Japanese bands these days I like Petrolz (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiNL-uzJbdk) and Kimyo Reitaro (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO0-z36FrNI&feature=related ). I should mention my favorite musicians: Burt Bacharach, Alzo, Lane Stainburg, Tsuyoshi Shimoda, Kiyoshiro Imawano. I don’t listen to guitar bands very often. I like to listen to songs produced around the year of 1976 when I was born, for example, AOR, soul music and acoustic swing.

イエス、そろそろ音楽の話をしようか（笑）タイムカプセルズの初期にはペイルファウンテインズもジャズブッチャーも知らなかった。僕らはエヴァーグリーンな曲を作りたかった。バートバカラックやビーチボーイズのように。思うように曲を作り、好きなように歌って後で聞いてみたら、なるほどペイルファウンテインズやジャズブッチャーに似ているね。それらは大好きだけで影響も受けたけど、彼らになろうとしたわけではないよ。好きなギターバンドは、The Pale Fountains、The Trash Can Sinatras、The Wind (Tan Sleeve)、The Hang Ups、North of Cornwallisなど。最近気に入っている日本のバンドはPetrolzと奇妙礼太郎。最近あまりギターバンドは聴いてないな。生まれ年の１９７６付近に制作されたものを好んで聞いている。ＡＯＲとかソウル、アコースティックスィングなんかをね。

++ So did The Time Capsules get to release anything? I heard there was a cassette release?

タイムカプセルズで何かリリースした曲がありますか？カセットリリースがあると聞きましたが。

Only “All for Our Tears,” which we released as cassette tapes for ourselves in 2000. We had no choice because we didn’t get any offer.

2000年にセルフでカセットリリースした”all for our tears”だけだよ。どこからも声がかからなかったからね

++ How many songs did The Time Capsules record? Care to list them for me?

タイムカプセルズでは何曲ぐらい録音したのですか？リストにしていただいてもよろしいですか？

We didn’t record so many complete songs. We included all songs we want you to listen to in “Touch.” As for other songs, we should keep them between Uemura and me.

そんなにたくさんの完成曲は無いよ。みんなに聞かせたい曲は全て”タッチ”に収録した。残りの曲やスケッチは俺と植村の心の中にしまっておくよ。

++ I would say that my favorite song of yours is “Small Trick You Boy”, it’s fantastic! Care telling me the story behind the song?

私の好きな曲は「Small Trick You Boy」です。これは素晴らしい。この曲の裏話を聞かせていただけますか？

Thank you. We recorded this song as a B-side of “All for Our Tears.” We intended to make an up-tempo vigorous song. Those days I was fond of Jim Jiminee. A female voice you may hear singing in unison is my wife now. All of us sang together into one microphone… it was really a fun to record this song.

ありがとう。この曲はAll for Our TearsのB面として作ったんだ。早くてガッツのある曲を作ろうと思ったのさ。当時ジムジミニーが好きだったからね。ユニゾンで歌ってる女性は僕の奥さん。みんなで一本のマイクでコーラス録音したり、楽しかったな。

++ Also there was a CDR called “Touch” with 8 tracks. It seems sold out now. Who were the Blue Lambretta label that released it? And what can one expect from this CDR? Will there be more copies anytime soon?

８曲入りの“Touch”というCDRもありますが現在は売り切れ状態のようです。このCDRをリリースしたBlue Lambrettaというレーベルはどういった方々なのでしょうか？このCDRはどういうものですか？いつか再発される予定はありますか？

This Blue Lambretta is a private label owned by Thee Windless Gates. They kindly offered to release us on the label. In fact, I cut discs and ship them. Well, it’s a so-called self-release.

このthe Blue Lambretta labelは、Thee Windless Gatesの個人レーベル。今回焼印を押してもらったんだ。実際に盤を作ったり、発送したりは僕が行っている。ま、セルフリリースだね！

++ What about the compilation “Airport Terminal 01”? I know you contributed to it. When was it released? And who made this CD? Which other bands are on it?

“Airport Terminal 01”というコンピレーションについてはどうですか？あなたも曲を提供していますね。リリースされたのはいつですか？このCDを制作したのは誰でしょうか？他に収録されているバンドにはどういった方々がいますか？

“Airport Terminal 01” was released on Airsport label in September 2004. This label is a music division of the design company (http://www.on-airs.com) presided by Atsushi Ito in Nagoya. Uemura and I were introduced by Tsuyoshi Shimoda and had a chance to join the compilation project. Johnny Johnny’s “Still I Always…” is a great number. I am proud of our “Call me up” as a nice sprightly number.

２００４年９月名古屋のデザインラボＡＩＲＳの音楽レーベルＡＩＲＳＰＯＲＴからリリースされた。レーベルを主宰するのは伊藤敦志さん。僕らは下田剛さんの紹介で参加することができた。johnny johnny: Still I Always…はグレイトナンバーさ。僕らの”call me up”もナイスな疾走ナンバーだと自負している。

++ What about gigs? Did The Time Capsules play many? Any particular that you are fond of?

ギグはどうですか？タイムカプセルズで演奏を行う機会は多いのでしょうか？特にお気に入りのギグはありますか？

I don’t play gigs. It is a very rare case, but I performed together with TWG at the event called MTMR in Kyoto last September (in 2011). I’m trying to find an impressive way to express my works. My live performance (singing with playing the guitar) is not so enjoyable for the audience, I think.

gigはやっていない。いまでも。ごくまれにはあるけど。昨年（2011年）9月に京都のイベントＭＴＭＲでＴＷＧと共演してきたよ。何か意味のある表現の仕方を模索しているところなんだ。僕の弾き語りなんてそんなに面白いものじゃないからね。

++ And tell me about the Japanese scene during those days in the mid-late 90s? How was it? Were there many bands? festivals? Was there any support from the press to neo-aco bands or was it over already?

1990年代半ばの日本の音楽シーンについて話を聞かせてください。どのような状況でしたか？多くのバンドが活動していて、多くのイベントがありましたか？ネオアコバンドに対するメディアの支援はありましたか？それともすでにネオアコは終わっていたのでしょうか？

Those days the movement called Shibuya-kei (Shibuya style) was popular among young people in Japan. Many neo-aco bands and guitar-pop bands started their career. There were a lot of indie labels. That was the last period when we had a dream in music, I guess.

当時、渋谷系というムーヴメントが日本の若者の間で起こっていて、たくさんのネオアコ、ギターポップバンドがデビューしていたね。インディレーベルもたくさんあったしね。音楽に夢があった最後の時代じゃないかな。

++ You are from Kitami-Shi in Hokkaido. I don’t really know much from your city to be honest. Were there any other like-minded bands? Are there neo-aco fans there? And what about your favourite places to hang out and party there?

あなたは北海道北見市のご出身ですね？率直に言ってあなたの街のことをよく知りませんが、同じような志のバンドが他にも北見で活動しているのですか？ネオアコファンがいるのでしょうか？お気に入りの遊び場やイベントがあれば教えてください。

There is nothing you can be proud of in the music scene in Kitami. There are a few local bands. There may be some neo-aco fans, but I don’t see any indie-pop party here.

北見市に誇れるような音楽シーンは無いよ。いくつかのローカルバンドがいるだけさ。ネオアコファンは少しはいるかもしれないけど、インディポップ主体のパーティーはないね

++ And if I was a tourist in your town, what would you say are the must see sights? And food? Any specialties in Kitami-shi? 🙂

もし私が北見を訪れた観光客だとしたら、何か必須の観光スポットはありますか？食べ物はどうでしょうか？北見市の名産品はありますか？

Hokkaido is a treasure chest of Japanese food. Anything is delicious here, seafood, land products, sweets and so on. It is a very cold area with a lot of nature. If you visit me in winter, let’s go on horseback to see drifting blocks of ice on the sea. Then, we will warm ourselves eating hot pot dishes.

北海道は日本の食の宝箱さ。だから食べ物はなんでもおいしいよ。海の物も山の物もお菓子もなんでもさ。あとは、とても寒い場所でもあるし、自然がいっぱいだね。もし君が冬に遊びに来たとしたら、馬にまたがって流氷を眺めに行こう。その後は鍋を食べて温まろうぜ。

++ And what did you do in between The Time Capsules and Alvysinger?

タイムカプセルズ活動休止からアルヴィシンガー始動までの間は何をしていましたか？

As I said at the beginning, the only difference between The Time Capsules and Alvysinger is the name of the project. We just changed the name for refreshment. Then, Uemura got busy with his job and he is now taking a break from his music career. That was in 2005 and I switched to PC-based recording at that time, so I was studying how to use the mechanical equipment. In 2006, I started recording songs by myself and releasing them under the name of Alvysinger.

最初に言った通り、タイムカプセルズとアルヴィシンガーの違いは名前だけさ。気分転換に二人で名前を変えたのさ。そのあと植村の仕事が忙しくなって彼は今は音楽活動を休止している。それが２００５年くらいのことでＰＣベースの録音に切り替えた時期でもあったから最初は機材の使い方なんかを勉強していたよ。２００６年から一人でレコーディングを始めてアルヴィシンガーとしてのリリースを開始したんだ。

++ When you are not making music, what other hobbies or interests do you enjoy doing?

音楽制作以外に何か趣味や関心事がありますか？

I’m working full-time for a company, so I usually work at the desk in the office. After coming home, I play together with my little daughter. I spend two hours making music in my own room every night while she is sleeping. After all, I have no time to spare for other hobbies. I like riding on a horse, reading, watching movies, and betting on a horse, but I spend only a short time on any of them. I like cooking, too. Cooking is very similar to making music. Speaking of movies, “Låt den rätte komma in” was great! I was really taken with it. I haven’t seen the Hollywood remake version yet. “Millennium” was good, too. Swedish movies are very successful these days.

フルタイムのビジネスマンだから、普段は会社でデスクワーク。帰宅後は小さい娘と遊んで、彼女が眠ったら自室で音楽を作るのさ。毎日、２時間くらい。だからほとんど趣味に費やす時間はないね。少しの空き時間に乗馬をしたり、本を読んだり、映画を見たり、馬券を買ったりはするけど、どれも少しの量だね。料理を作るのも好きだね。料理と音楽を作ることはとても似ている。映画と言えば「僕のエリ」は傑作だったね！これは大当たり。ハリウッドリメイク版はまだ見ていないんだ。「ミレニアム」も良かったし、最近スェーデン映画の当たりが多いね。

++ So, let’s talk about Alvysinger sometime soon Ono-san? Let’s wrap here this Time Capsules interview, it was a pleasure. Anything else you’d like to add?

それでは小野さん、またいつか近いうちにアルヴィシンガーについて語り合いましょう。このへんで今回のタイムカプセルズのインタビューを終わりにしたいと思います。とても楽しかったです。何か付け加えたいことはありますか？

Thank you for your attention. The history of The Time Capsules ended up, but I will continue to release songs as Alvysinger. Uemura might be coming back. I’m really looking forward to the day when we work together again and release our new songs.

読んでくれたみんなどうもありがとう。タイムカプセルズの歴史は終わってしまったけど、アルヴィシンガーとして作品を発表し続けるよ。植村氏も復帰するかもしれないし、二人の新曲を届けられる日を僕はとても楽しみにしているんだ。

end

了

Translated by Masafumi Moriwaki

翻訳　森脇正史

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Listen
Time Capsules – Small Trick You Boy

Thanks so much to Paul Stewart and Phil Ball for the interview. Our own Cloudberry Records have just released a fantastic retrospective by Feverfew that includes all the songs they ever released plus more. 17 remastered tracks where the genius of Feverfew shines. A classic, and a great way to start the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen series. Packaged in a lush custom digipack, and liner notes by Phil Ball, bassist of Feverfew. You can get the record by sending 15 dollars (US orders) or 17 dollars (Intl. orders) through paypal. Both prices include shipping and handling. You can find more information on the Cloudberry Records site, on the Cloudberry Kitchen series area. Now sit back and enjoy!

PS. All orders are on their way. Sorry for the little delay, it’s been hectic with Cloudberry moving to New York and all! Thanks again for the support and patience.

++ Tell me about the name of the album? Where does the phrase “Something of Nothing” comes from? And why did you decide to name it like that?

PB: That’s something that has come from my side. Something Of Nothing – this was an expression that my Mum would often use to describe other people’s egotistical boasts. Basically that they had nothing special to boast about and they were just building up the smallest things to try and make themselves look important. It just seemed fitting to use that as the title for the album. Feverfew was just a band, a group of friends, that played and wrote songs, nothing more, nothing less. We never pretended to be something we were not. It’s funny that other people have become very precious about it…

++ So it’s been more than 20 years since you were around as Feverfew. So how did you start as a band? How did you all know each other?

PS: I already knew Keith from the Church we used to go to. We dreamed of forming our own pop band so we started writing songs using the old guitar I had and a mono cassette recorder. We would have been in our mid teens then. We soon realised that to realise the dream that we needed to expand the line up so I knocked up a flier and put it in the music shops in Reading; that’s when Phil called my house and suggested we meet up for a rehearsal.

PB: I seem to recall that I saw the advert in Hickies a local music shop in Reading Town Centre, I had already played in a couple of local bands but after they split I was looking to join an indie guitar POP band. I saw the advert called up and it went from there. Originally it was just the three of us and a drum machine writing and rehearsing in Keith’s bedroom.

PS: I later met Victoria at a bus stop who said she sang and invited her along too. This foursome formed the original nucleus of the band

PB: The funny thing was that all of us were Woodley based, and lived approx. 5 – 10 minutes from one another but outside of Paul and Keith we never actually knew each other. This proves that it’s a small world but as individuals we can still be so distant from each other in so many ways….
During this time we started to write songs but struggled to find a permanent drummer, the first two recordings we made were using friends and relations as “session” players.

PS: Lloyd later followed on drums and at this point we could genuinely say that we were finally a group

PB: In between times Vicky left, Christine joined and then left and Vicky returned once more. Jason came and went as second guitarist and finally we were joined on acoustic guitar by Lloyd’s brother, Lee.

Keith – Vocals
Vicky – Vocals
Lloyd – Drums
Phil – Bass
Lee – Acoustic guitar
Paul – Acoustic and Electric Guitar

This was the final band line up and the one that continued from late ‘88 until the bands demise. So over the life of the band the sum of parts was 1 bassist, 3 singers, 3 guitarists and 4 drummers (incl Dr. Rhythm…)

++ And why the name Feverfew?

PS: Keith had read that Feverfew was the first known thing to grow in the earth naturally after the Hiroshima bomb was dropped. This really made an impact on him and we thought it was a fitting name for a band as it was quite abstract. At that time we didn’t want to be called “The (something)s” like a lot of the names springing up at that time.

++ I hope I don’t sound biased, but “Something of Nothing” may well be one of the best indie pop records this year. The songs are so strong, music and lyric wise. So tell me how did the creative process work for you?

PS: Usually, I had the chords and basic ideas for the songs then Keith, Phil and I would host a practice in one of our bedrooms and, after endless cups of tea and much scribbling in exercise books we would work out and arrange the songs. Once we built up a reasonable number of songs we’d then book a rehearsal room and work on the live sound with the drums.

PB: I think that at this time we were just learning the craft of song-writing, the ideas would be constantly tossed around between us, each of us suggesting things, adding and taking bits away, and the songs would gently evolve over the numerous cups of tea. During the jamming process Keith would have some key words and harmony ideas, the final lyrics would tend to come a little time after the “tune”. For the three of us the song writing together seemed to be a very natural process, the mass majority of the feverfew songs were actually written in Keith’s bedroom over cups of tea. I believe the time that we knew we had “something” was when we wrote Casey Jones, this was the point when everything just clicked.

++ And also, why, with so many great songs, you didn’t get to release more records back in the day? Wasn’t there interest? It’s hard to believe!

PB: Originally we thought that we needed to follow the usual “grind” that bands would go through, for example playing all the toilets in London, touting ourselves to record labels etc. but we soon realised that this was not really us and not something we wanted or needed to pursue. We realized that we could do things on our terms and in the ways that we wanted. I don’t want to sound like some old hippy but for us it was much more “organic”. There was “Interest” but we wanted to do things in the manner that we wanted, we were never keen to give up artistic control

PS: you have to put things in context; we’re talking mid/late 1980s and there were some excellent bands appearing overnight. Reading at that time had a very strong healthy music scene with many venues and some really great bands. You could literally see 2 or 3 bands every night of the week if you wanted. I guess you could say we were ambitious but knocking on record label doors wasn’t something we thought was worthwhile. Which suited us as we just loved playing live.

PB: For feverfew it was just about writing songs and playing and never about ego or adulation.

++ Let’s talk about gigs? Which were the best? Any anecdotes you could share?

PB: Actually during our time we played quite a few, I found my diary from 1988 quite recently and I was surprised that there were so many dates inside. I think that other bands always found it strange that we were quite happy to be first on, the main issue for us was just about playing and not about where we were on the bill.

Best gigs:  South Hill Park Wilde Theatre, this was early 89 and also the ones at the After Dark supporting our indie pop heroes were always memorable. For me the one that always sticks in my mind was when we came back together in Feb’91, a celebration for the live of a sadly departed friend. We played like our lives depended on it, it was a very special night.

Anecdotes:- I think my falling over the double bass of Jim Jimenee always sticks in everyone’s mind, I can still hear the crash on the floor even now and can visualise it slowly falling over. To this day I still maintain that to place it in the middle of the floor was a stupid place to put it. Anyhow finally no harm was done but the dirty looks from Jim Jimenee could have killed. Also feverfew having a rummage through the “Sale of the century” prizes, I really would not have liked to won the bed…

++ And what about that TV appearance? How did that happen? Was it a strange or just a fun experience?

PB: Just completely surreal… I think that we were always in two minds about doing it but in the end we just went for it. This was the in the very early days of Sky TV and the “Squarial” so probably only 2 or 3 people saw it…

PS: This is a bit of a blur really but I think Keith knew someone who was connected with the people looking for various acts for a talent show on Sky TV. It was, and still is, quite surreal as we found ourselves being called for make-up before recording ‘Bed Of Roses’ for a real TV show. We met Paul King (from ‘King’), comedienne Faith Brown and Keith Chegwin.

PB: Cheggers was always a hero for the band, we always had a soft spot for “Cheggers plays POP!” We would often play the theme tune in rehearsals and I think on more than one occasion during our live set

++ Your tapes, as well as the flexi were released by “Mighty 3 Minutes”. Care to tell me who was behind this label and how important was its support towards Feverfew?

PB: This was a label managed and operated by a guy called Phil Broadhurst, a local fanzine writer and all round good guy (and also fellow Woodleyite). It was just a meeting of minds… After a few months working together, Phil also began managing the band. We had the same ideals and same philosophies both personally and politically so it was a natural progression. Phil was a very integral and important person, an inspirational figure for the band. He was unofficially the additional member of the group, he was always there to pick us up when we doubted ourselves.

++ So yes, the “Give it Up” flexi. Who is that little boy on the cover? And how well did this flexi do? I think I paid like 20 pounds for it in a store in Stockholm! Must be quite rare!

PS: The picture is of me aged 2 or something in my parents’ back garden. I must have been about 2 or 3 I guess. It was Keith’s idea to use the picture on the front sleeve. We paid for the flexi disc ourselves; we probably got 1,000 or so pressed I guess and sold them or gave them away at gigs. I guess they are pretty scarce these days.

PB: Seems strange after all this time that this is so sought after, we were selling them for 70p and we struggled to sell them… I think that finally they were all sold (or given away) but it took some time.

++ The flip side of this flexi is a song dedicated to “Casey Jones”. How come?

PS: It’s just taken from the first line of the song and fits in with the sample of a steam locomotive at the beginning but the song isn’t about Casey himself.

PB: It was just a metaphor that Keith used, an expression to describe a long lost love. It was a spin on the age-old lonesome train metaphor. I think that the best thing ever written about Casey Jones was that it was the “1st post Thatcher love song”

++ Then there was another proper release, the split 7″ with The Rileys on A Turntable Friend. This release happened already after you had split, am I right? Did the label convince you to get back together or what? How did it work out? And how come you ended up releasing a record in Germany?!

PB: Actually The Happiness EP was recorded by a group of friends rather than two bands and was never really intended to be released, it was just the coming together of a group of people to celebrate the life of a friend tragically lost. After the recording session everybody was extremely pleased with the end result (both artistically and personally) so we considered releasing it, first idea was as a M3M release. Around this time I was having a lot of correspondence with Ulrich from A Turntable Friend and he offered to release it so we agreed. Keith designed the sleeve and Phil Broadhurst wrote the liner notes and the rest as they say is history

++ On top of that you released many tapes as Feverfew. Care to list them? And how many copies would you make of them?

PB: The list of release would be similar to the one below:-
• First demo (four tracks) Casey Jones / I won’t touch a girl again / Kindly Written Words / All the things I gave to you (Tape not officially released)
• 7” Flexi (M3M) – Give It Up / Casey Jones
• Cassette version of flexi (four tracks – Give It Up / Casey Jones / Pretending To Be Someone Stronger / Give It Up (long version))
• Cassette tape issued free with Sprog Fanzine – incl. Give It Up (long version)
• Cassette EP(M3M) – The Night It Rained Perfume (four tracks)
• Cassette EP(M3M) – Songs To Make Friends By (eight tracks)
• The “Happiness” EP 7” (A Turntable Friend) – two feverfew tracks Bed Of Roses / She’s Leaving plus two tracks by The Rileys (In reality all four tracks were performed by the same group of people)

Quantitites, actually I have no real idea probably between 3 to 4 hundred maximum. I am also sure that we released a joint Flexi with 9 Steps To Ugly which was given away with a fanzine but I honestly cannot find any evidence. The 9 steps track I seem to remember was Vaudeville, maybe this is just completely my imagination…

++ I’m kind of picturing your merch table at gigs, with the tapes, the flexi, and also pins. Did you usually have a merch table? What other things you used to sell? Pins? T-shirts? And who usually was sitting behind it, taking care of the fans?

PB: Back in those days there was no Merchandise stall or table, it was just the band selling the tapes and flexi after the gig. Generally I used to look after the selling (with support from the other members) and also the financial side of the band. The badges that were made were distributed free with the flexi. For T-shirts there were only ever a limited edition produced, I think these went to the band and our closest friends. I am not sure that we ever had any “fans” there were always a number of regulars who would appear time and time again at the gigs and buy the tapes etc. In turn the next time they would bring their friends and it grew in that way. There were also a number of people that would write to us via fanzines, compilation tapes and the like, we were always very flattered by the attention and always did our best to respond and write back.

++ Feverfew wrote so many great songs, I have many favourites, but I’m wondering which are your favourites. And which were the fans favourites back in the day for playing at gigs?

PS: Personally, I liked playing Kindly Written Words and Pretending to be Someone Stronger. The band sounds really fluid and some of Keith’s best words are on The Demise of Rock’n’Roll – all about a local DJ.

PB: For me Casey Jones, Summer 82 and A Crimson Gloom plus there were some other newer songs that we never recorded. I think the lyrics to all the songs are quite special. From a “fans” perspective probably “The night it rained perfume” or “Bed of roses” or perhaps “Answered Prayer” these were the tracks often mentioned in the letters and postcards we received.

++ And yeah, why didn’t you get to release more records? It’s hard to believe that with so many great songs no one seemed interesting in putting them out?!

PS: As I said before, we weren’t out to change the world and, being unconnected with any label, meant we were free to make our own choices. If we had really wanted to, we could have gone further. I have a rehearsal copy of one of the last songs we ever wrote as a band and it stands way above everything else we did but at that point people were starting to move away, change jobs, get married etc. Who knows?

PB: Actually I am in full agreement with Paul, a number of the later songs were really great, however many of these were never recorded and I guess will never see the light of day… The songs that were written over the period / life of the band were always very personal for the band, we never tried to write Pop songs for mass consumption. I am extremely proud of each and every one of them as they all have a lot of memories associated with them

++ So right, what happened? Why did the band split the first time, and then the second time? And what did you all do after?

PS: (were there 2 splits??) We never really fell out; we tried to keep things together for as long as possible but as people’s lives and circumstances change it was eventually decided we would disband. There were also a lot of sideline projects going on which is a good thing.

PB: I think that I mentioned before that the band never split, it just kind of dissolved, we never really separated, we just weren’t doing “it” anymore. In Mid ’89 I was getting married, Keith was in a relationship and moved to Brighton and I seem to remember Paul falling out of love with the guitar and in love with a girl and that was that. Late ‘89 I formed The Rileys with Lloyd, Vicky and Jason from feverfew with Mike and Richard, around this time Paul was back playing in She’s Gone and as an aside starting to write songs with Keith.

When Jason died in Jan’91 it pushed everybody back together once more. Born out of the shared grief we started talking about playing together again, began rehearsing, then we played a joint gig in Feb’91 (This was originally a gig that The Rileys were booked to play). Due to the positive energy and feeling that came from those sessions we then went back to the studio to record some tracks in April’91 this eventually became The Happiness EP. Around this time there was some talk about starting over once again as feverfew but in the end everybody decided that it was the perfect way to finish.

++ Back again to our compilation, why did you decide it was time to release it? Was there any reason behind it?

PB: On the back of reigniting my interest in music / indiepop I got involved with a number of Internet bloggers who were very interested in old school indiepop and in feverfew and also The Rileys, around this time I also got involved in Facebook and from this a number of enquiries came reference releasing a Feverfew retrospective compilation. Personally I never really considered it at all, however there were a number of offers made and it just seemed a good time to collate all the songs as a united body of work, many of which had never been formally released or were available only as very poor quality recordings lifted from the tapes and singles etc.. I ran the idea past Paul and he agreed it was a good idea. Timing wise in 2011 it was 20 years since we made the last recording session as Feverfew so everything just seemed to fit. The main reason and concept for the release was to serve as a celebration of a band, of a friendship and also to commemorate the lives of two very special and important people. It is as simple as that, there were and are no ulterior motives.

++ And how do you think the songs have aged? To me they sound so fresh!

PS: The songs evoke really happy, creative times. I was in a band with good friends and we all really enjoyed ourselves. If I’m honest, there is a tinge of sadness associated with it for me as the world was a much easier place to inhabit then than it is today and I yearn for those times again. As for the music, I think they stand up very well on their own; a little naive in places but we were cutting our teeth as musicians and we spent a lot of time honing our craft. We had high standards and ditched a lot of material if we didn’t all feel it was up to the standard we set ourselves.

++ And looking back in time, what would you say were the highlights of being in Feverfew?

PS: For me, the gigs were such a high, the friendships in the band and recording our own material in a proper studio and coming away with a cassette you could play on your Walkman.

PB: When I reflect back I realize how lucky I was to be able to write songs and to perform with some very talented and creative musicians and above all that I was fortunate enough to meet and enjoy a friendship with some wonderful, generous and honest people.

++ Now the important questions, are you still playing music?

PS: After Feverfew Keith and I formed Blueboy who were signed to Sarah Records and released 3 albums and a few singles. After that we had a brief fling as Arabesque and then later as Beaumont on Siesta Records which amounted to a further 3 albums. After Keith’s sad death a few years ago I began writing again and am now preparing material for a new baroque-pop inspired project called Edwardia (see www.myspace.com/edwardiamusic).

PB: I have just started playing once more after a gap of more than 15 years, I am now playing bass with The Occasional Orchestra a band comprising the ex-members of indie favourites Home & Abroad

++ What other interests and hobbies keep you busy or entertained when not making music?

PS: I have amassed a collection of old tat from the 1930s and ‘40s and my work in a Museum just outside London keeps me very busy.

PB: I have a very demanding job plus family commitments (a wife, three children and a dog) therefore I do not have so much additional spare time outside of the “Occasionals” and normal life so I try to make time to spend with my family, to read and relax as much as I can.

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

PS: Thank you for including us in your writings; it is flattering to know that people are still interested in something that we did such a long time ago !

PB: Yes, also from my side thank you so much for the opportunity. In addition it’s been a real pleasure to get to know and to work with you over the last months, thanks for the many interesting conversations!! Keep up the good work!

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Listen
Feverfew – Crimsom Gloom

Thanks so much to Shimoda-san for the interview!! And also to Hirose-san for the great translation! Thee Windless Gates is one of the most exciting neo-aco bands (even though they want to be rock!) bands from Japan at the moment. After a mini-album, they found their sound on the FABULOUS split CD with Alvysinger, which I recommend getting a copy! Also for all of you that love indiepop family trees, Shimoda-san used to be in the cult Japanese indiepop band Johnny Dee in the 90s, who released a couple of records on Vinyl Japan. So yeah, let me introduce you to Thee Windless Gates! Check more of their stuff on their site too!

++ Hello Shimoda-san! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! First of all how are you doing? Whereabouts in Japan are you these days?
こんにちは。下田さん。今回のインタビューをお引き受け下さり感謝しています。 まず最初に、最近はいかがお過ごしですか？日本のどのあたりで活動なさってるんですか？

Hello Roque-san! Thanks for your interview, indeed. Nowadays I’m too busy for my current work, so I can’t enjoy my musical life thoroughly,what a shame! In 2012,I really want to release our new album which has been stranded at the moment.
【回答】 こちらこそ、ありがとうございます。 仕事が忙しいため音楽活動を十分に出来ていません、作成途中のアルバムも来年はリリースしたいです。

Now we’re in Kumamoto which is situated in the southern part of Japan, maybe somewhere kind of like Glasgow (though I’ve never been there)
TWGは日本の熊本という、恐らく英国のグラスゴーのような（行ったことないけど）町を拠点に活動しています。

++ You used to be in the fantastic Johnny Dee! But ok, that’s a story that will have to be told in another interview. But I’m wondering how different would you say are Thee Windless Gates compared to Johnny Dee?
あなたは、かつて素晴らしいバンドジョニーディーに在籍されてたんですよね！でも、これは別のインタビューになるので、また別の機会に。あなたにとってジョニーディーとウインドレスゲイツの違いって何なんでしょうか？

The period of Johnny Dee was not so long,but for me it was an great experience. The difference between JD and TWG, I can say JD was mecanical sound as we mainly used drum machine, on the other hand,TWG is a three piece band which is my ideal style.
【回答】 JOHNNY DEEというバンドでの活動期間は短かったのですが、僕にとって大変貴重な経験 でした。僕にとってJDとTWGの違いは、JDがリズムマシン主体で無機質であったのに対し、TWGは スリーピースのバンドサウンドであることです。TWGは理想の活動スタイルです。

++ And what happened in between both bands? Were you involved with music?
両者２つのバンド間に何があったんですか？（解散と結成のいきさつ）音楽がらみの何かが原因ですか？

JD was ended naturally, nothing to do with TWG.There was no feud between them. Before JD I was in a neo-psychedelic band called THE WAVE. I started my new band TWG with the member of THE WAVE.
【回答】 JDについては自然消滅的に活動をしなくなっただけです。JDとTWGの因果関係はゼロ。TWGは僕がJDで活動する以前にやっていたバンド(THE WAVEというネオサイケバンド）のメンバーで再び活動始めたんです。

++ So alright, when did Thee Windless Gates start as a band? And is it just you or are there any other band members?
ウインドレスゲイツは、いつバンドとして活動を始めたんですか？ バンドメンバーはあなた一人、それとも他にもバンドのメンバーがいる？（これは ひょっとしたらジョニーディーの元メンのことを言っているかもです）

As I wrote ,TWG was formed with the past member of whom bofore I played as JD. I started TWG in February 2010 with Yamamoto Masaaki on bass and Masuda Takeshi on drums. They were not members of JD.
【回答】先程書いたように、JD活動以前に一緒にやってたメンバー、BASS 山元賢明（やまもと　まさあき）DRUMS 益田剛（ますだ　たけし）と2010年2月から活動を始めました。２人ともJDとは関係ありません。

++ And what’s the story behind the name Thee Windless Gates?
ウインドレスゲイツのバンド名の由来は？

Once I heard chickens at the poultry farm are vulnerable to the stong wind, so they are protected by the windless gate. When I heard that, I thought our band was like chickens, as we were in the musical scene like only tasteless American rock music was main stream.
【回答】 養鶏場のニワトリは風に弱く、ウィンドレスゲートというもの（商品名らしい）で 風から守られているそうです。米国的な暑苦しいロックこそ王道である、というような中で活動しているTWGはニワトリのようなものなのです。

++ As far as I know, there has been one release, a split CD with the great Alvysinger. Care to tell me a bit about the songs on this CD and how come did this release happen? Who released it?
僕の知ってる限りでは、ウインドレスゲイツはアルビーシンガーとスプリットシングルを１枚リリースしていますよね。 このＣＤに収録されている楽曲についてちょっとお話頂けますか？またリリースに至るいきさつを教えて下さい。どこからリリースされたんですか？

We have known each other for more than 10years. Alvysinger has a musical talent and is really nice guy. We decided to release split single , then we managed to make it by self production.
I think we did a really good job.
【回答】アルビーとは１０年来の付き合いです。大変才能あるアーティストでナイスガイです。アルビーとTWGでシングルを作ろうという事になり、セルフリリースにて作成しました。楽曲についても大変良いものが出来たと思います。

++ I really like the artwork for this release, who made it? What’s the idea behind it?
このシングルのアートワークが大好きなんですが、どなたがデザインされたんです か？またジャケット製作の背景にはどのようなアイデアをお持ちなんでしょうか？

As far as artwork’s concerned , Alvysinger directed by himself. We TWG are pleased with the artwork,which can tell our musical taste .
【回答】 アートワークに関してはアルビーのディレクションによるものです。我々も気に入ってます。楽曲のイメージ通りのアートワークです。

++ And yeah, for us Westerners, what’s the best way to get a copy of it?
で、われわれ西洋人がこのＣＤを入手する一番の方法は？

There are few Japanese record shops you can get the CD. You can order at the record shops below.

DISQUE BLUE-VERY

APPLE CRUMBLE RECORD

PEANUTS RECORD

【回答】少数の日本のショップで扱っています。DISQUE BLUE-VERY, APPLE CRUMBLE RECORD, PEANUTS RECORD 　であればオーダー可能です。

++ On Youtube I also found that there was a CD (?) called “How Does it Feel” that included 5 tracks. Was this released? And when was this recorded?
youtubeで拝見したんですが、５曲収録の”How Does it Feel”ってＣＤがありますよね。これはリリースされたんですか？またいつ製作されたんですか？

As I wrote before, TWG were formed in February 2010, and we made 1st mini album called “HOW DOES IT FEEL?” in May 2010. The sound was so rough and experimental ,as we just wanted to find out our musical direction in this album. It was totally different from our present sound .However we are fond of the album and if you want , you can get it for free through our web site and also MP3 download is available through SOUNDCLOUD.
【回答】 先に書いたとおり、TWGは2010/2に活動開始した訳ですが、2010/5に1ST MINI ALBUMとして “HOW DOES IT FEEL?” を作成しました。バンドの方向性を確認するための音源で荒削りであり、今のTWGサウンドとは異なりますが我々は気に入った作品です。ちなみにWEBから無償で配布しており、SOUND CLOUDからもMP3のDLが可能です。

++ So I can say I know 7 Thee Windless Gates songs, 2 from the split, and 5 from “How Does it Feel”. Are there any more songs available from your band? Are you planning another release soon?
で、２曲をスプリットから５曲を”How Does it Feel”から 僕は、計７曲ＴＷＧの曲を知っているんですがあなたのバンドでこれら以外にも入手が可能な曲はあるんですか？また近々リリースされる予定はあるんですか？

In September thee windless gates and Alvysinger had a gig called MTMR in Kyoto. http://5by5.up.seesaa.net/image/mtmr0922omote-3931b.jpg

At that time we gave another split single ,which contained 2 each songs ,to the audience for free. In this single we played “KISS ME SUGAR” and “HAPPIEST MOMENT”. Now we are planning to release a full album or a mini album in 2012.

++ For me, I’d say my favourite song is “In Another Day”. It’s just pop perfection!! Those guitars!! Where did you learn to play like that!? Who were your guitar heroes?
僕は”In Another Day”.が一番のお気に入りなんですが、まさにポップスの最高傑作です！あのギター！！あの（マーばりの）ギタースタイルはどこで身につけられたんですか？あなたのギターヒーローって誰でしたか？

I’m glad to hear that! As you can image, I was inspired by JOHNNY MARR a lot , although my skill’ll never catch up with him, ha ha! Apart from him ,I like PAUL WELLER, NOEL GALLAGHER,BRIAN MAY (you might think he’s quite unexpected ), GRAHAM COXON,ADAM FRANKLIN,PADDY MCALOON and so on.
【回答】うれしい！マー先生には到底及ぶわけありませんが（笑）JOHNNY MARRはじめ、ポール・ウェラー、ノエル・ギャラガー、ブライアン・メイ（これ意外かも）、グレアム・コクソン、アダム・フランクリン、パディ・マクアルーン ETC

++ And yeah, care to tell me the story behind this fabulous song?
で、この超名曲の裏話を教えて下さいますか？

Thanks, this may not be a behind story, but for us JIM JIMINEE ‘s TOWN & COUNTRY BLUES is one of the killer tunes in our club scene. I just wanted to express such kind of speedy sound in TWG, that’s the sound of “In Another Day”, right?
【回答】裏ばなしって程のことではありませんが、我々にとってクラブでのキラーチューンといえば、JIM JIMINEE の TOWN & COUNTRY BLUESなのです。あの疾走感をTWG風に再現したかった。それが「IN ANOTHER DAY」です。

++ Which would you say is your own favourite song?
あなた自身の曲で一番のお気に入りの曲は、何ですか？ （念のために他のアーチストの楽曲でもお気に入りをお願いします）

As far as TWG is concerned, I like “MEXICAN HOUSEWIFE” and “IN ANOTHER DAY”.
If I choose my fabs from other artists, there seems to be countless, so I ‘ll show you the numbers I listened lately.
The Cribs ～ We Share The Same Skies
GEORGE HARRISON ～ SEIL LOVE YOU
BEN FOLDS FIVE ～ UNDERGROUND
MORRISSEY ～ SUEDEHEAD
【回答】 「MEXICAN HOIUSEWIFE」「IN ANOTHER DAY」 他のアーチストはあげればキリないので、ここ一週間くらいで聴き返して良かったモノ

++ Have you played gigs as Thee Windless Gates? If so, any favourites?
ＴＷＧとしてはライブはされましたか？もしされたのならライブでのお気に入りの ナンバー（よかったライブ）は？

We played a gig in October, which was our last gig in this year. We’ve been playing gigs once or twice a month mainly in our local town. Lately we play “IN ANOTHER DAY” pretty well.
【回答】今年１０月を最後に今年のライブは終わりました。月１回～２回は地元中心にライブをしています。最近は「IN ANOTHER DAY」が良いノリで演奏できます。

++ And what about your inspiration, what inspires you to craft your songs?
曲を作る際にきっかけとなるものは何ですか？ひらめきのきっかけとなるようなも のは？

I’m not particular about writing lyrics at all, but I want to compose music that can make audience imagine the scenery. That’s my ideal writing style. Even though they can’t understand the words, I always wish the sound will move them.
【回答】 歌詞への思い入れなど一切ありません、音で情景がイメージできるような、そういうサ ウンドが理想です。言葉分からなくても音が心に響けばなあっておもいます。

++ So, when you are not making music, what other things do you like to do? Do you know how to make sushi?
作曲以外では、何が趣味ですか？何をするのが好きですか？寿司がにぎれるとか（笑）？

I’m afraid I can’t make sushi, but I used to go fishing. I am keen on watching anime nowadays. My favourites are Natsume Yujin Cho and Gintama
【回答】寿司は握れませんが、釣りは以前は良くいってました。あと、最近はアニメを見ることが好きになりました。「夏目友人帳」「銀魂」がお気に入りです。

++ Haha, talking about food, which are your favourite Japanese specialties that you’d recommend?
食に関しては、あなたのお勧めの日本食は何ですか？

If you visit Japan, please have Ramen, not soba or udon. There are several kinds of Ramen in Japan. There are many differences in each Ramenshop. There are some popular Ramenshops in every town.
【回答】もし、日本に来ることがあれば、そばやうどんではなく「ラーメン」をたべてください。都市や店によって無数の種類があり、その土地によって有名店が存在します。

++ And what about the sights in your town that you recommend a tourist like me if I was to visit?
もしもあなたの町を訪れたとしたら僕のような（海外からの）ツーリストにお勧め の観光スポットはありますか？

Kumamoto is popular for the sea and mountain , we also have rich hot spa where many foreigners visit. Kumamoto is also famous for Basashi (horse-meat sashimi ) , you can’t image, can you?
【回答】 熊本は海・山の観光スポットがあり、温泉も豊富で海外からの旅行者も多いです。 想像できないかもしれませんが、「馬刺し」という食べ物があります。

++ What about the neo-aco scene? Do you like any other bands at the moment in Japan? What about any international band? Do you follow any?
現在のネオアコシーンについてはいかがですか？今の日本で他に好きなバンドはあ りますか？海外のバンドでは？フォローしてるバンドっていますか？

Well, actually we are not in such kind of scene and I don’t want to be related, either. I want TWG to be a rock band, not a neo-accoustic band. In Japan I like Alvysinger and Sloppy Joe, they are absolutely cool! And there are quite a few up and coming young bands in Kumamoto.
【回答】 うーん、そういうシーンに関わっていないし、関わるつもりもないです。 ネオアコというよりもロックバンドでいたいのです。 日本のアルビー、スロッピージョーはイイですね。 あと、熊本には若い良いバンドがたくさんいます。

++ What was the last record you bought? And was it online or from a record store?
あなたが最後に買ったレコードは何ですか？ネットで購入？それともレコード店で？

The last record I bought was SONIC NURSE / SONIC YOUTH, Haha… I bought it at the record store.
【回答】 一番最近買ったのはレコードショップで SONIC YOUTH の SONIC NURSE （笑）

++ One last question, what comes easier for you, as I notice you do both, singing in English or in Japanese? Why?
最後の質問です。あなたは英語と日本語で歌っていますがどっちのほうがしっくり きますか？またその理由は？

I like English better than Japanese, though my English isn’t good enough. As I’ve been listening to British music for a long time, I don’t have any good command of Japanese words, It seems quite difficult for me to write Japanese words for the melodies I wrote.
【回答】 英語がいいですね。英語は下手ですが。 ずっと英国音楽を聴いてきたので、メロディーの乗せ方が日本語だと イメージ通りにならないのです。

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Listen
Thee Windless Gates – In Another Day

Thanks so much to Michael Weare for the interview. After being told by Uwe Firestation on how fabulous were The Mulberry Ceilings (and The Aurbisons) I always wondered how they sounded like. Months ago Dave Driscoll (from Fruitier Than Thou blog, and The Aurbisons) shared with me 4 songs recorded live by The Mulberry Ceilings, and they blew my mind. They were just so good, impressively good. The guitars were jingly jangle, chiming, just my cup of tea. Some weeks ago some videos appeared on Youtube by The Mulberry Ceilings and then, well, I couldn’t stop smiling. It was just fabulous indiepop. I hope, and wish, one day, these songs get a proper release. So good. Please enjoy!

++ Hi Michael! Thanks a lot for being up for this interview! I hear you live in Sweden these days, how come? Do you miss the UK at all?

Yeah, I’ve lived in Sweden for 11 years now. I live in the south of Sweden, a small town/village called Bjärred, near Malmö. I’m married and have 2 kids Lucas 8 and Emmie 6. I do miss the gigs and the pubs.

++ So yeah, I heard about The Mulberry Ceilings earlier this year thanks to Dave Driscoll. Four live songs. And they were fantastic! It’s a shame that they are not properly recorded. But, did you properly record any songs? Was there any intention to release some of your stuff at some point?

We recorded 2 tracks – Pillow Crazy and Tea in a China Cup. They were done on a 4-track at Liz’s house. She had this great room that used to be a barn so we could make plenty of noise. Unfortunately I no longer have a copy of these songs as I lent them to a friend and never got the tape back. It also included some live tracks when we played as a 3 piece. Chris Kelly, Liz Paton and myself.

++ You did make two promo videos though, what was the main idea behind them? And was it an easy choice which song to make a video of?

We only did one video for Pillow Crazy. It was done on black and white super8. We didn’t do it for any promotional use. Sean Johnston thought it would be cool to do a video. He wrote and directed it. Andy the bass player couldn’t make the filming so we used Liz’s brother Tim as a stand in. The blonde girl in the video who I’m trying to give flowers to is Chris’ girlfriend at the time Jo.

Sean also made a couple of videos for The Aurbisons, Creating a Fuss and Holy Cow. I was a stand in for Steve Harris for the Holy Cow video as he did not liked to be filmed. We made a mask that looked like Steve and I mimed along. I was also the back end of the pantomime cow- my first 15 minutes of fame.

We also made some gross out splatter movies that we showed as back drop when we played gigs. I remember at one gig people were not clapping or cheering when we just played one of our best songs. All I heard was “that’s disgusting and urggh” I turned around and the scene behind us was one of blood and guts and the audience was watching our films in the background. The films were not of the highest quality and but we still had a couple of people coming up to us uttering their disgust at the films.

++ When did the Mulberry Ceilings start as a band? Was it your first band? And who were the band and how did the recruitment process work?

Mulberry Ceilings were not my first band. I was in a band called Tomorrow the World- A very bad goth band that didn’t even dress in black. We later changed the name to The Monkey Puzzle and played only a couple of gigs in my hometown of Fleet. The Mulberry Ceilings were formed when I met Chris Kelly at a college in Basingstoke. He had a couple of songs that we practiced in his bedroom. Pillow Crazy and Tea in a China Cup. Liz joined me on vocals and but we did not have a bass player or drummer. We borrowed Sean Johnston (drums) and Andy Bennett (bass) from the Aurbisons who helped us record these 2 songs.

++ What were the expectations when you started the band?

We did not have any expectations. We just wanted to write some songs and play a few gigs.

++ Where in the UK were you based then by the way? Which were the venues you’d usually go see bands? And what were the places or neighborhoods you’d see The Mulberry Ceilings hanging out on say, a Saturday night?

We were based in Fleet/Basingstoke. 2 small towns in the south of England not too far from London. We had a fantastic venue called the West End Centre in Aldershot. There was a couple called Jo and Danny who put on some great gigs. It was called the Buzz Club. They managed to get The Stone Roses, Primal Scream, Blur, Manic Street Preaches, The Charlatans, The Beautiful South, Blue Aeroplanes and many others to play. The support bands were mostly local bands. The venue was not that big so you always had a cracking atmosphere especially if there was a big band playing.The Mulberry Ceilings only played once at the West End Centre. It was a local band night and we played in the bar as a 3 piece. Chris, Liz and myself.

++ What about the band name? Where does it come from?

Chris the guitarist suggested it and it stuck.

++ From those songs I’ve heard, I was impressed by the cover you did of The Poppyheads. Were you mates with them?

Someone had this on a mix tape and thought it would be a cool song to play. We only had a couple of our own songs and we needed to fill out our set for a gig.

++ And speaking of that, how much of a fan, and how involved were you, with the indiepop scene that was happening in the UK then? Which were your favourite bands?

I was really into the indie scene at that time. The jangly and faster the better.
We listened to everything from the 14 Iced Bears, Flatmates, Mighty Mighty, The Jazz Butcher,The Bodines, Close Lobters, The Primatives, The Fall and The Wedding Present to name but a few. I’ve just been looking back at an old scrap book and I was going to 2 to 3 gigs a week. The only band I never managed to see live was New Order but that was probably a blessing in disguise.

++ What about covering The Aurbisons’ “Debbie Rix”? I guess that happened because of the Dave Driscoll connection? What other covers did you use to play? Or which covers would you have liked to play and never did?

We did a cover version of Never seen Before by The Close Lobsters, not as the Mulberry Ceilings, but as the Aurbisons. I liked doing cover versions like this. Songs that people hadn’t heard of much that we could pass off as our own but I had forgotton that we did a cover version of the Poppyheads.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? Do you have any favourites? Any anecdotes that you could share?

We didn’t play that many as a 3 piece. We played at Farnborough Technical College, The West End Centre-Aldershot, The Basingstoke Caribbean Club, a hospital in West London and some busking in a shopping centre in Farnborough.
Not very glamorous I have to admit.

++ The other two songs I’ve had the chance to listen were “Pillow Crazy” and “Two Lumps Please”. Both are great! Would you care telling me the story behind both?

Chris came up with the guitar riff for Pillow Crazy and we wrote the lyrics and tune together in his bedroom. It was the first song we wrote together. It was the first song that I had I recorded and couldn’t stop playing the demo to all my friends at college. It was always one of the live favourites. Two Lumps Please – I think the tune and lyrics came first and Chris came up with the guitar riff after that. It was such a long time ago this maybe incorrect.

++ So how played guitar? I love the guitars of your songs, they are fast, jangly, chiming, I don’t know, just perfect for indiepop. Wish more bands played them like that. Where did you take inspiration? Did you have any musical heroes?

Chris Kelly played guitar. He loved the Wedding Present and all he wanted was to be able to play guitar as fast as them.I don’t really have any musical heroes but I loved Joy Division and New Order. I have never thought as them musical geniuses. I always thought they sounded like amateurs but they managed to make a great sound together.

++ How long did the band last and when and why did The Mulberry Ceilings split? Were you involved with music after?

The Mulberry Ceilings never really split up. We sort of evolved into the Aurbisions. The Mulberry Ceilings and the Aurbisons were going to play at the same gig. We were going to be the support band.
We needed a drummer and a bass player for the night so Sean and Andy from The Aurbisons were going to help us out. So both bands decided to practice at the same time to save on time. Someone suggested that for one night only we should play as one band.

Everyone thought that this was a great idea especially Steve Harris. He always wanted to have a big band sound. We went under the name The Aurbisons and that was the end of the name Mulberry Ceilings.
We decided to swap singing duties on the night and that’s how I ended up singing Debbie Rix.

I cannot remember how many times we played as a 7 piece but it wasn’t many. Steve Harris never really got the big band sound that he wanted and left the band. We carried on playing as a 6 piece but changed the name of the band to Cow and started getting in the baggy scene but that is another story.

The main core of the band carried on Liz, Sean, Dave and I until 2000 when I moved to Sweden and Sean moved to New York. Sean and I have been friends since we met at school aged 11.
We have always been in the same band and I’m sure we would still be doing something in a band now if we hadn’t moved away. We all still keep in touch even though we are so far apart.
I recently found Chris Kelly with the help of Facebook.

++ Looking back in hindsight, what would you say were the highlights of The Mulberry Ceilings?

Playing as a 3 piece at a student bar in Farnborough. For one of the songs we did a cover version a Splendids’ song. The Splendids was a friend’s band whose singer had a unique way of dancing with a hat. We started the song and there was a groan in the room. The small audience mainly made of friends thought it was a bad song choice. I thought we had 2 and half minutes left and people were not happy so I decided to start dancing in the same style as singer from the Splendids. Nobody expected this not even Liz and Chris and I managed to capture the singers dancing down to it. The audience thought this was hilarious and we got a huge round of applause when we reached the end of the song. That broke the ice and the rest of the gig was warmly received.

++ And aside of music, what other hobbies or interests do you have?

I still listen to plenty of music. I love bands like Primal Scream, Film School, Low, Efterklang, Broken Social Scene etc. Just recently I have started playing football (Soccer). I’m not very good but I get stuck in.

++ What about Stockholm? I really loved it there when I visited, would love to move one day even! What are your favourite places to have a beer, or to eat? Any Swedish specialty that you would recommend?

Stockholm is a beautiful place especially in the summer. It is made up hundreds of islands so I would recommend a boat trip next time you are over. If you go in the winter visit the Ice Bar. The drinks, mostly vodka, are served in ice glasses and you are given a extremly thick winter jacket and gloves. It is so cold you can only stay inside for about 20-20 minutes.

++ And how easy was to learn Swedish for you? Would you recommend someone to move and live in Sweden? Why?

I’ve never learnt a language before so it took me quite a while to learn the it. Nearly all Swedish people have a very good knowledge of English and even though I speak Swedish with them they sometimes answer in English.
I would recommend moving to Sweden if you have any connection here. If I hadn’t moved to Malmö I would have chosen Gothenburg or Stockholm as the other alternatives.

You cannot visit Sweden without trying the Swedish meatballs.

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Listen
The Mulberry Ceilings – Pillow Crazy

Thanks again so much to Johnny. If you didn’t know the ex-East Village and ex-Episode Four released some years ago an excellent solo album called “Quiet Storm” on the Japanese label Excellent Records. I recommend getting it! It’s a bit different to his previous projects, but great anyways. Now sit down and enjoy this trip down memory lane.

++ Hi Johnny, hope you are doing well. I’ve been listening a whole lot your solo record since ordering from Excellent Records a couple of months back. So I’m very glad that you are up for the interview. My first thought, and question, is if you were making any music in between this album and the last East Village release? What happened in those “lost years”?

++ And also, how did your music evolve from the jangly masterful and luminous songs of East Village to the personal, introspective and moody songs of your solo album?

Well, obviously EV were four people, who all had empathy. We had been together a long time and had evolved our sound. Great guitars and amps helped too of course. So, for me the QS songs aren’t far removed from EV but just myself playing them with no amps. The fact they are moody and introspective was just where my head was at that time …

++ There are some great notes you wrote about the album. On them you mention the album took life on an inter-railing trip around Europe. I’d love to do a similar trip! What gave you the energy or the will to take the train and just travel around? What places struck you and you would recommend visiting?

Spain was great – Seville. Palermo, Sicily. Athens. Sophia, Bulgaria. Budapest. All resonated with me, for differing reasons. But it was fantastic. I was still at a low place – this was a few months before Sept. 11th – and just had to get away from everything. I was working night shift sorting parcels for the Royal Mail. I was going nowhere. A friend said ‘if you’re feeling lost, why don’t you literally get lost?’ So I did. Spent a month sleeping on trains, no plan. Saw some great places, got inspired.

++ How long did you travel? Did you carry your guitar with you? How did these places shaped your songs? And can you connect particular places to particular songs?

++ Did you ever think of having a band for recording this album, or did you know you wanted to do it yourself from the start? Would you say that was an advantage or a disadvantage?

All I had in mind was to get the songs on tape for posterity. I had a lot of ideas for musical parts. Not just guitar but for other instruments too. So I just played them all on guitar in case I was ever going to get a band together again. It could be a template. But I didn’t have the energy or inclination to form one. The songs were about me. I didn’t have any dreams.

++ What about the name of the album, “Quiet Storm”? Where did that come from?

++ And is that you on the front cover? Do you smoke?

Unfortunately I do. I wish I could stop – if you know how, please help!

++ The second song on the album is about “Casey Jones”, the TV series, right? Was that your favourite TV show when growing up? What other shows did you enjoy as a kid?

Yeah, inspired by that show … not about it! A cartoon called Marine Boy. I loved that. There was a European version of Robinson Crusoe with lovely theme music. Captain Scarlett was a fave. Other things like Hawaii 5-0, Kojak etc.

++ The third track is called “Tony Joe”. Is it based on a real person?

was trying to write a tribute to Tony Joe White, the American singer-songwriter. Some of his songs knocked me out and his style of singing influenced me too.

++ Which would you say is your favourite song on the album and why?

‘Misty’ because it has the most direct memories of that euro train journey. I like the sentiment of it. Equally I like Orphan Child. It works well I think.

++ You were saying that the songs were recorded as demos. You mean you would have wanted to re-record them or? I don’t think many notice that! They do sound very good to me, but then I’m no musician 🙂

Maybe it crossed my mind to re-record them. It was suggested by someone. But Eexcellent Records liked them the way they were and I thought OK.

++ So how did the contact with Excellent Records come about? You never expected to release these songs as an album, right?

No I never expected that. They were in London and wanted to meet EV because they were fans. They wanted to re-issue the Drop Out album. So we had dinner and they asked me if I had done anything musically since EV. Well, it just so happened I had a cassette of 3 or 4 of the songs, so I gave it to them and they got back to me and asked me to do some more in the same way.

++ I just heard that Excellent Records will be folding or has already fold, which makes me very sad as it was a great label. How important and supportive were they to you?

Yes it’s such a shame. They put out an album for me and gave me something positive, which I needed. And of course they re-issued the EV albums. So very important to us and me. I think they were a little put out that I didn’t promote the album with gigs etc but Kei came to understand my reasons and wanted to promote it again because of those reasons.

++ After releasing the “Quiet Storm”, do you have any plans of making more records? I do know you have recorded some songs!

My life took off in other directions once i’d finished QS but I recently realised I had 10 or so songs written and quickly recorded a couple of them when I ws in England a couple of months back. But they are pretty rough mixes so far. Yeah, I would like to make something of them.

++ By the way, how do you record yourself? And at what time would you say is the best for you to make music?

A lot of the QS songs were written dead of night. In EV days they were written anytime, anywhere. But the recent ones just as they come. I learnt a lot of other peoples songs over the last couple of years and these ones are a kind of mix of what I learnt, I think. I also recently discovered an old Episode 4 era song that never got past rehearsals. It sounds pretty good to me so I might well resurrect that one too!

++ And going back to your traveling, and now that you are living there, is China inspiring you, in any ways, to make music?

I think so. Take a walk in the park and people are out there singing old songs, playing traditional instruments. I love that.

++ And what about the city where you live in China, are there any sights or places that you recommend visiting?

This city is so new, so big. Some nice parks, beaches, friends houses. Why are you coming over for a visit?

++ One last question Johnny, what would you say has been the most rewarding thing music has given to you?

well, that’s quite hard to answer. The chance to express myself for one. The chance to do what everyone wants to do – be in a band, tour, make records for another. But – without being too cheesy – some of the feedback i’ve had about my/E4/EV music has made me feel like I achieved something in a good way. To know you have affected people in their lives, is something else.

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

thanks Roque ….

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Listen
John Wood – Misty

Thanks so much to Oskar for the interview! A couple of weeks ago I wrote about this great Valladolid, Spain, band and Oskar was kind enough to get in touch with me. El Viaje de las Flores only released a split flexi back in the early nineties (shared with St. Christopher) on the Stamp label. On it, they included one of the best Spanish indiepop songs of all time, “No Te Estoy Mintiendo”. After many years in silence, the band became a mystery. Now it’s time to learn a bit more about their history! Sit down, read, listen, enjoy!

++ Hi Oskar! Thanks so much for being up for the interview. I hear you are in London and not in Spain anymore? How come? What do you do there?

Hi Roque thank you very much for the opportunity, it is amazing that you guys still remember the band.

Espe and I decided to move in 1993 after the end of El Viaje de las Flores. I was playing at the time with Rosas en Blanco y Negro. We formed a band called “Whore” in London and played the Marquee, Garage etc.. But then we got back to Spain for a year an a half before making a permanent move in 95′.

After a few years I ended up working with Talvin Singh, who has worked with Bjork, Madonna, Massive Attack, Siouxsie etc.. We worked together for 6 years on soundtracks for feature films, commissions such as Voxygen for the English National Opera, an album “Songs for the Inner World” as well as putting an audiovisual project together called Tabtek with whom we toured all over the world, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Turkey, France, Switzerland etc..

Now I’m involved in a few projects, Plateaux (plateaux.fotone.co.uk – vimeo.com/plateaux), Spectre Spector (spectrespector.fotone.co.uk) and I had just released a new album with the French saxophonist and composer Etmo, called Silver Liquid – Etmo meets Osk (shop.fotone.co.uk/album/silverliquid) with our independent label, fotone.(fotone.co.uk)

++ So let’s go back in time, to El Viaje de las Flores, this wasn’t your first band, correct? You were in a band called La Red. Care to tell me about them?

El Viaje was actually my 4th band. My first band was called ‘El punk nuestro de cada dia’ . Then I formed 39 escalones and then it was La Red. We were influenced by what it used to be called the new british psychedelia, the term shoegaze didn’t exist back then, or maybe we didn’t know it.. We used to hear bands such as the Chameleons, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, El pecho de Andy [one of my favourites Spanish bands of all time] and stuff like that. It was a natural progression from 39 escalones who was on the same kind of vibe.

++ How did the band start? How did you knew each other? Was it hard to get the right people involved?

Back in the days it was quite hard to find musicians in our hometown. I remember having to teach a couple of friends how to play bass. La Red was the same line up as El Viaje minus the drummer. I decided to stop singing and convinced Espe to drop the keyboards and pick the mic.

++ Where does the name “El Viaje de las Flores” comes from?

We used to run a bar, and on the first opening party night we gather some of the coolest musicians of Valladolid to join us in a jam session. It was Juan and JuanRa from Exit, Anselmo from Cronica Negra, me and Espe. I still remember sitting down with Anselmo trying to figuring out a name for the impromptu band to make the flyers.. We ended up calling it “the Flowers Trip”.. We liked it so much we thought we should use it for the new project Espe and I were starting, but translating it to Spanish.

++ And back then did you have any sort of expectations with the band?

Oh yes! we wanted to release our music, to record albums, that was the main goal.

++ And what would you say sparked the musician in you? Did you have any music heroes? What would you say were the influences of the band?

I think I was about 7 or 8, it was Christmas time the tv was on and then the Beatles started playing Hey Jude live and they had all those people singing with them enjoining it so much.. and the ending the Na na na nananana.. it still gives me goosebumps.. I said to myself when I grow up I wanna do that . Then it was when I was 13 and discovered the Sex Pistols and realised that you didn’t need to be a great musician to be in a band what really push me to start playing. Bowie and Brian Eno are the musicians I respect the most and off course The Beatles. When we were with El Viaje the bands we used to adore were Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Smiths, Pixies, Spacemen 3, Cocteau Twins etc.

++ Tell me a bit about Valladolid. Where there any other like-minded bands? Which were the places were you usually hang out?

Back in days we were just a few bands. “Exit” was the band I liked it the most. They were a pretty elegant dark leftfield british sounding band, I’ve got a lot of influences from them. Luis de Castro, their guitar player ended up being our photographer, he is one of my best friends, he is like my guru. Other great bands were UA, Replicantes, Cronica Negra, El Final, The Bumpers and Rosas en Blanco y Negro.

When I was 15 and playing with “El punk nuestro de cada dia”, a collective of bands was created by the most senior members of other bands, it was called Estandard Oil. The concept was quite unique. There were meetings, teachings, concerts, recordings etc it help us to develop our music and skills. It eventually died out but I remember it fondly.

Lando club was the place where everybody used to end up, it was a club that opened from 2am to 8am.. Legendary place. Nowadays the only place that have survived the pass of time is ‘El Largo Adios’ commonly known as ‘El Cafetin’, it is the best place to go and find old friends and musicians.

++ And what about the city itself for a tourist like me,  what are the sights to see in town? and what about the food? any favourite specialties?

My favourite place is called Pasaje Guitierrez, it is a beautiful passage right in the middle of town where discos Foxy used to be, it was the only record shop where you could find imported stuff. I listened to so much music there thanks to Gelo, they even let us use the shop for rehearsals with La Red.

La Catedral, la Iglesia de la Antigua, El museo de arte policromado, San Pablo.. There are some really awesome places down there.. Food-wise tapas are great all over town, and Lechazo al horno [lamb] it’s probably the best known delicacy. And let’s not forget the wine, Ribera de Duero.

++ You only released that one track on the Stamp flexi. Do you remember how did that happen? How important was this flexi for the band?

I can’t really remember how it happened, I think we recorded a demo and sent it to different places in Madrid, and then out of the blue Miguel Seridan called to offer us the chance of releasing No te estoy mintiendo as a flexi. It was HUGE for us. We immediately hired the best studio in town to record the track.

++ And then it’s really surprising you didn’t get to release anything else, your songs are fantastic! It doesn’t make sense. Why do you think it happened this way?

Thank you very much!.. Shortly after releasing the flexi we were approached by a management company based in Madrid that had all the right connections to make the band big. They promised us everything.. and us being very young and not having a mentor to guide us, believed everything. When we were in negotiations with them we got an offer from Rosa records, a contract for 5 albums.. But the manager forced us to discard it because he was going to sign us to Polydor.. The rest is history.

++ How many demo tapes did you make? Care to list me all the songs you’ve recorded?

We had a 4 track recorder so we did record many demos . We had so many songs its impossible to remember all of the titles, the band had different formations with different sets and different sounds.

++ Surprisingly, you did tour a lot all over Spain, right? You signed with Los 40 Principales, the main musical radio in Spain, to play all over the country. How was that?

All came about thanks to Nacho Reglero who was the head of Los 40 principales in Valladolid. He loved the band so much he went to the central office in Madrid to make it happen.

++ Among all the gigs you played, which would you say were your favourite gigs and why? Any anecdotes you could share?

My personal favourite one was in Barcelona, it was the best, perfect playing great chemistry with the audience, a great buzz.. One funny situation came about on a gig we were playing where the floor was quite slippery and Luis (bass) fell down so hard that I thought he had broken his arm, but he did stand up and carried on playing as it nothing had happened, I though wow what a pro, but a few minutes later I had to eat my words cause he went and left the stage in the middle of the set, not cause of the pain but cause he needed to go to the toilet..!

++ During the latter days of the band, there’s a bit of a change on the sound. You weren’t that poppy anymore, but a bit rockier. Was that a natural change or what was going on at that moment?

Yes, I started listening to rock more and more and got completely blown away by The Cult’s album ‘Electric’.. It was a natural progression.

++ With those songs you came 3rd place on a 40 Principales contest. Did you win anything? Do you remember who came in first place?

Yes we won 250,000 pesetas, second place was a recording of a single and the first prize was an album, so again no release. It was really frustrating knowing that the band who won had a previous band who were signed to the label that some of the judges of the competition were running. We were the best band with a difference, the reaction of the public when they announce the winner was incredible, people couldn’t believe it. We truly thought we were going to win it. But hey that was another good life lesson. It was the last time I ever put myself in that kind of situation.

++ The pop music scene in Spain during the 80s was huge, the sheer amount of bands that came out from there is amazing. Did you feel part of a bigger scene? Did you think it was healthy? I do find very odd that there weren’t many small indie labels though, that it was mainly big labels supporting small bands unlike the UK…

I know, they were so many really great bands, we humbly considered ourselves a small part of that “movement”. But as you said it was very very hard getting a record deal, it was mainly all majors.

++ Then what happened? When and why did you split? What did you do right after?

The beginning of the end came about when our drummer Diego (Celtas Cortos) left the band. We didn’t have the energy to continue and at that time I was playing, and about to release the second album with Rosas en Blanco y Negro so we decided to called it a day. I carried on playing with Rosas until we moved to London.

++ Are you all still in touch? If so, what are you all up to these days?

With Espe, who is now a Chinese doctor and acupuncturist, every day. We’ve got a son together, Leon, although we are not a couple anymore. A few years back Miguel the first drummer, who is now a pharmacologist, got in touch and every time I go back for a visit we hook up. Luis lives in Madrid he owns two bars/restaurants. A couple of years ago we managed to meet for a few beers and plenty of laughter remembering the good old days. And me.. well as I said earlier still pretty much full on with the music.

++ Looking back, reminiscing of those days, what would you say were the best moments in El Viaje?

The flexi, being number 1 in a radio program in Madrid for the whole summer (can’t remember the name.. they interviewed us). The gig we did in Toledo when we met Miguel Angel Garcia Ayuso from El pecho de Andy, what a great guy he is. Having “Devuelme tu amor” on rotation at Los 40 principales plus the touring.. Thinking we were going to make it big was quite naive but at the same time a nice feeling..

++ Have you ever thought of putting together some sort of retrospective album of all your songs?

Now that you are saying it maybe we should. It was such struggle and frustration having it so close and never actually achieving it, that I think we owe it to ourselves. Would you be interested in releasing it in your label?

++ By the way Oskar, do you have any favourite flower?

I love Lotus flowers, found them fascinating, and also because of the Indian and Buddhist symbolism.

++ Let’s wrap it here, thanks a lot! Anything else you’d like to add?

I still can’t believe we are talking about El Viaje, I would never ever imagined that after nearly 20 years people will be talking about us.

Also to whoever it reads this, check my present stuff, it doesn’t sound like El Viaje but you my like it! fotone.co.uk

Thank you very very much!

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Listen
El Viaje de las Flores – No Te Estoy Mintiendo

Thanks again to Terry Banks for the interview. Just a week or so ago we were talking about his first well known band, Tree Fort Angst, and today we talk about his latest, Dot Dash. This year Dot Dash released a fantastic album on the Canadian label The Beautiful Music, which the lovely Wally runs, called Spark>Flame>Ember>Ashes.  If you can, do get your hands on it. It has 14 songs of great power pop! I have listened to it many many times during the past month and Im happy to recommend it to you all. But now let’s hear from the band itself. Oh! You can also become fans of them on facebook.

++ Hello again Terry! I’ve been playing more and more the Dot Dash album during the last couple of weeks. It grows more and more on me. For some reason I started thinking that the sound is not that far away from early Creation bands, like The Jasmine Minks for example. Do you think I’m totally missing the mark?

Ha… you’re not missing the mark at all.  I consider a comparison to The Jasmine Minks to be a real compliment and, yes, I loved a lot of the early Creation stuff, especially them (i.e., the Minks) and Biff Bang Pow! and The Loft — great bands.

++ It’s a really great record, and I’ve already asked you on the Tree Fort Angst interview a couple of questions about it, but do tell me which of the songs on the album would be your favourite? And why?

I think the ones I like best are those that have a slightly different, slightly darker feel to some of the other bands/music I’ve been involved with before … Songs like “Dissolve,” and “That Was Now, This Is Then,” and “There and Back Again Lane,” and a couple others.

++ And even if it’s a 14 song album, it doesn’t feel long, which I think is an achievement for two reasons. These days bands release very short albums, and usually they include lots of filler tracks. This is not your case. The tracks all sound fresh time after time I listen to them. So, were there more songs recorded that weren’t included in the album? And why did you stick to 14 songs?

Thanks – I end up discarding a fair number of songs unilaterally (i.e., never even taking them in to the band), so the ones we end up doing are ones we feel really good about.  Because of that, we never really feel like we’ve got any ‘so-so’ songs (according to us, anyway.)  So, we recorded everything — the 14 songs on the album were the 14 songs we had at the time.

++ Tell me how and when did the band start? How did you all know each other?

We got together at the beginning of 2010.  Hunter and I were in Julie Ocean.  We knew Danny from around town and we had talked about trying to do some music sometime…  In late ’09, he was playing with Bill for a one-off, one-show reunion of his (Bill’s) old band Modest Proposal – they were a mid-80’s-era D.C. mod band.  (They had lost touch with their original drummer, so Danny filled in.)  That led to the four of us giving a new a band a whirl… It came together pretty easily.

++ And what about the name? Was that easy to decide?

Admittedly, the name comes from the song by Wire, but it’s not saying “please compare us to Wire” or whatever… It’s just a good, succinct name that we all liked.

++ What about gigs? How are you doing in that subject? Any favourites so far?

So far, we’ve played about 12 shows.  Our ‘debut’ was opening for The Trash Can Sinatras, who kindly gave us our first show, in summer 2010.  I think our favorite show as a band happened a few weeks ago in October, opening for Hugh Cornwell, who was sort of the ‘main guy’ in The Stranglers.  The show was at a college, on a big stage, with a really ‘pro’ set up, which was kind of fun.  The drummer in the band was Clem Burke, from Blondie.  They were all really nice guys and it was a very fun evening.  We’ve also played enjoyable shows with Urge Overkill and The Godfathers, among others…  At the end of this month, we’re opening for the 80s U.K. band The Chameleons and are looking forward to it.

++ My favorite could be the opening track, “The Color and the Sound”, that for some reason the title makes me think of a poppier “The Sound and the Fury” by Faulkner. I know, it’s silly, but the idea is stuck in my head. Anyhow, what’s the story behind the song?

Thanks – we all really like that song, too, and felt it was sort of the obvious choice for the lead-off track for the album.  As far as any story behind the song… hmmm…. Honestly, it was pretty ‘stream of consciousness’ and took about as long to write as it does to play (i.e., two minutes flat), which is often a good sign…

++ Your first release was a little single on the German label Edition 59. Just 59 copies and I’m a proud owner of one of them! How did this release came about? Ever met Werner?

Werner got in touch by email and offered to put something out, and that’s really the only contact we had.  I think his label is a very cool ‘art statement,’ and kind of a very arch comment on the nature and realities of doing obscure music or, more accurately, music that exists on an obscure level…  It’s a groovy little thing he’s doing with Edition 59 – and I must admit I am quite impressed that, with Alan McGee’s blessing, he has reissued miniature versions of Creation singles by Biff Bang Pow!, The Jasmine Minks, Revolving Paint Dream, Slaughter Joe, Meat Whiplash, and (pre-Creation) The Laughing Apple, among others.

++ What about meeting Wally of The Beautiful Music? They should book gigs for you in Germany and Canada!

Have never met Wally in person, but if I ever find myself in Ottawa, he will absolutely be getting a shout!  And, yes, some gigs abroad would be great.

++ Let’s go back to the album. The title, “Spark>Flame>Ember>Ash”, it makes it feel this album is the beginning and the end with that title! Was that the intention?

It’s just a phrase I came up with last winter when building a fire in the fireplace… I was just thinking about the constituent parts of a fire, I guess…  The little ‘carrot’ mark —  >  — between each word just looked good graphically, in kind of an early 80s post-punk sort of way… and I also liked the ‘greater than’ connotation — i.e., a spark being greater than a flame, being greater than an ember and so on…

++ And how different would you say was the creative process and the recording process compared to the other bands you’ve been involved with?

I guess one difference  is that since Dot Dash started, and just before then, I kind of reconnected with Joy Division, over maybe the last two years or so…  Not sure why, but it just kind of hit the spot…  Maybe that had an effect… The Dot Dash stuff is still “poppy” and melodic, hopefully very melodic, but it’s sort of darker, too, at least as I hear it.

We recorded the 14 songs on spark>flame>ember>ash over the course of two Saturday afternoons and a Sunday afternoon.  We did most of the stuff in one or, occasionally, two takes… Eric, who recorded us, is a nice guy who was good to work with and got us kind of a good ‘live in the studio’ sound.  It’s got a fairly scrappy feel, but that’s a reflection of how it came together as, again, we wanted to get all the stuff down…  In any case, it was fun.

++ And what would you say are your expectations with this album? Will there be a second one?

As far as expectations, it’s just been great working with The Beautiful Music guys — so it’s already ‘successful’ on that front.  If the record gets some good reviews and manages to intersect with people who like it, or are interested in it, all the better.

Yeah, doing a second album is something we absolutely plan to do.  We have eight new songs that we like a lot and are already doing them live…  When we get to ten or so that we feel strongly about, we’d love to make a second album.

++ On “There and Back Again Lane” you sing about Superman and Lois Lane. Are you a big comics fan? Or?

Um, no, not really…  It’s just a rhyme that popped into my head when writing that song and I liked its universal feel…

++ You’ve written so many great songs over the years, so perhaps you have the answer, what makes a song a good pop song?

Thanks a lot.  Hmmm… For me, a least in terms of raw measures, the essence of a good pop song is brevity.  Being short doesn’t make a song good — but, to me, one of the things a good song will always be is brief… Beyond that, you need an appealing melody that sort of ‘declares’ itself from the outset, and lyrics that mix urgency with poeticism, using kind of plainspoken, ‘everyday’ language… Or something like that… Who knows?  Certainly not me…  I don’t exactly have a “string of hits” to my name!

++ Let’s talk guitars now. How many guitars do you own? And which do you play on this album?

I pride myself on not being a “gearhead.” You can only play one guitar at a time, so why have more than one?  But I can’t really say that, as I do have more than one guitar – I have two… I usually play a red Gibson ES-335 (think Johnny Marr, or whomever.)   I also have a black-and-white (or ‘Jetglo,’ as they call it) Rickenbacker-330.  I bought it in 1987 — drove from Richmond to Charlottesville and bought it from an R.E.M. kid at UVA.  In the South in those days, R.E.M. were like The Beatles…

On the Dot Dash record, I used the Rickenbacker for the first seven songs, but later thought it sounded a little muddy and wooly, so, for the other two sessions, I switched to the Gibson and also used a Telecaster lent to me by Eric.  I actually think Telecasters sound best for the kind of stuff I play, but I’ve always gravitated to guitars based not on how they sound, but how they look and what kind of music they make you ‘think’ of… Back then, I liked, among other things, The Jam and Beatles/Byrds/early R.E.M., thus the Rickenbacker…  The 335 (a wedding present from my better half) brings The Smiths/Postcard/Velvets vibes…

++ So what’s coming up next with Dot Dash? What’s in store for the near future?

Ha, who knows… Primarily, we hope to get a second album out in the coming year and, of course, to continue playing shows and, overall, just have fun doing it.

++ You were telling me on the previous interview that you like to read. What are you reading these days? Any books you’d like to recommend?

If I rattled off all the music-related books I read you’d run out of space very quickly… The one I‘m currently reading is ‘Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Factory Records’ by James Nice, which is truly excellent.    On the non-music side of things, I am four-fifths of the way through a five-novel ‘box set’ of Patricia Highsmith, who wrote all the ‘Ripley’ novels.  I’m heading into the last one, ‘Ripley Under Water.’  You pretty much start rooting for Ripley after the first novel, which is weird…  I also recently finished ‘The Cold Six Thousand’ by James Ellroy.  It’s been out for quite a while, but I missed it among his other stuff.  His novels rock, but I think my favorite by him is actually his autobiography, ‘My Dark Places.’

++ “Alright, Alright”, it’s time to “Dissolve”. Isn’t that very inspired of me? Anyhow, there’s another song in the album called “Seconds in a Day”. If you have just seconds to save some records of your collection from, I don’t know, a massive fire, which records would they be?

Ha, yes, very inspired… Hmmmm… I think I’d just grab whomever was there an leg it out the door, but let me think… Well, I have a quite rare Modern Lovers bootleg… Really obscure 1970-71-72 stuff recorded in Boston – not the ‘Precise Modern Lovers’ stuff that came out of Rounder and the French label (can’t think of its name), but from that same era…  It has them playing a New Years Eve show at the Mercer Arts Center (the NY Dolls were also on the bill.)  I think it’s called ‘Songs of Rememberance.’  I also have a bootleg of Aztec Camera playing to about 10 people in Manchester in 1981 that’s pretty great – it’s from the ‘Just Like Gold’/Postcard time… Can’t think of any others at the moment – maybe I’d grab them and cut my losses…

++ Thanks again Terry, I look forward to talking later about The Saturday People or Glo-Worm, will you be up for it? Anything else you’d like to add?

Who am I say to say no… Nothing to add, other than thanks for the interview – and thanks for writing about Dot Dash!

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Listen
Dot Dash – The Color and The Sound

Thanks so much to Terry Banks for the interview. Tree Fort Angst was a Washington DC band in the early nineties that released records on lassic indiepop labels like Bus Stop or A Turntable Friend. They were great, and I think, underrated. Later Terry was part of Glo-Worm, St. Christopher, The Saturday People and Julie Ocean. These days he plays in a band called Dot Dash that I recommend all you to listen, so there will be a Dot Dash interview here pretty soon. But now enjoy the first band he was in, Tree Fort Angst!

++ Hi Terry, thanks for being up for this interview. There’s lots to cover I believe, but I would love to start with the present. These days you are in Dot Dash and you have just released an album with The Beautiful Music. It’s a great power pop album, I would love to recommend it more and more. So first question, how did you end up working together with Wally at The Beautiful Music? And to those who are familiar with Tree Fort Angst, what would you say they can expect in this album?

Wally had got in touch with The Saturday People a number of years ago (must’ve been almost 10 years ago) about contributing a song to a Television Personalities tribute comp he was putting together. It wasn’t something we ended up pursuing (as all our recording time pretty much went to originals) but he and I kept in touch, as he’s a great guy and we have strikingly similar musical tastes. When he expressed an interest this past summer in putting out something by Dot Dash it felt like a great fit.

As far as people who know Tree Fort Angst stuff and what they should expect from Dot Dash, I’d say it’s kind of a continuation from The Saturday People and Julie Ocean — i.e., the two bands that existed “between” TFA and Dot Dash — but I suppose some of the 60s influences have kind of been replaced by a slightly early 80s-ish, post-punk thing… It’s equally melodic and poppy, but slightly darker in places; still energetic but a bit more streamlined, at least that’s how it sounds to me.

++ On the album there’s a song called “There and Back Again Lane”. We all know what that means. But I’m wondering why did you decide to write a song dedicated to that tiny tiny street? I would assume your St. Christopher connection kicked in?

Yeah, I did get the lyrical idea from the name of the Sarah comp, but it’s just a good rhyme; a cool evocative phrase that popped

++ And talking about St. Christopher, I always wondered that you live in DC but you were in the original lineup of St. Christopher? Is that right? Or am I missing something?

Ha, well I suppose this is an example of how just because something’s on the ‘Net doesn’t mean it’s true I’m not sure how this misnomer came to exist, but I am most certainly not an original member of St. Christopher. They actually started in 1980 — they were called Vena Cava for the first year or two, during which time they issued two singles, both of which sounded like an effects-y Buzzcocks or maybe a punky, early U2. They became St. Christopher round about ’82. I didn’t show up until the 1990-91 timeframe and was in the band for about a year. It was a blast, though. We played lots of shows around the U.K., plus a number of gigs in Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, etc. Really good fun.

++ You were involved with many great indiepop bands, bands that will be remembered in indiepop history like Glo-Worm and The Saturday People. I would love at some point to do some interviews about both of them, and Dot Dash of course. But let’s start with Tree Fort Angst. I have to say that I have all your releases sans the flexi. So let me begin with that elusive flexi! Is it easy to find? How many copies were pressed do you remember? And what about the artwork? Are you a big pop art fan?

I do remember that flexi and I’m not sure how it came about. The guy must’ve written to me. I know he was from France. This was all pre email, so you’d get letters (remember them?) He asked for a song to put out on a flexi and our policy was, if you want to put something out, we’re down with it. I have no idea how many he pressed, but I remember that he sent a few copies of the release when it came out and they all had a little dried leaf inside the sleeve. I thought “Wow, this guy is really going for the twee thing. He’s putting leaves inside the records…” We never considered ourselves twee, but we were kind of associated with that scene and sometimes you just have to roll with it… As far as the artwork, yes, my then-girlfriend (now wife) was very into 60s pop art – Liechtenstein, Warhol, Hockney, etc. — and I sort of picked up on it from that. I stuck with that (the pop-art thing) for record sleeves, etc. for quite a while.

++ Tree Fort Angst started as a solo project, right? So what happened? How did you end up being a three-piece?

It was a little convoluted. I lived in Richmond, Virginia. I went to college there. I played in two bands there, one was called Roy G. Biv (after the colors of the rainbow.) We were trying to be ‘pop,’ but actually sounded more like a punky, thrashy, unpracticed Housemartins. The other band that followed was called The Knievels and was more coherent and accomplished — kind of a power pop thing. Anyway, both those bands contained my good friend John Gotschalk, who was, and is, a very talented guy. The Knievels was kind of his band and his stuff had sort of a Teenage Falclub-meets-Cheap Trick feel — really great, exciting songs, but a little heavier than where I was at the time — I was really, really, really
into Postcard and The Go-Betweens and all this light jangly stuff, even verging on acoustic Jonathan Richman-type stuff… So, on friendly terms, I dropped out of The Knievels and they kept on as a trio. I then set about doing my own ‘solo singer/songwriter’ thing — totally under the spell of Edwyn Collins and Roddy Frame and Tracey Thorn and Grant McLennan. I liked the songs I was coming up with, but the ‘solo guy with an acoustic guitar’ thing felt lame and boring… I wanted to be in a band so… um… I… roped my pal John back in (to join me in TFA, on bass), which he kindly agreed to. Hunter Duke was a guy we knew in our Richmond social circle. He was a great drummer and was up for it, so we went with it.

++ What did John and Hunter bring to the creative process?

A lot. They were funny, easy-going guys, and great players (way better than me) and were up for doing my songs.

++ And where does the name Tree Fort Angst comes from?

The best way, just made it up. The last couple of bands I’ve been in (Dot Dash and Julie Ocean) take their names, obviously, from song titles of other bands. I think they’re really good band names, but I prefer the ones that are purely made up. In terms of where the name comes from, I knew I wanted something with “Tree Fort” and it needed a third word, hopefully, something kind of pretentious… I was thinking Tree Fort Society, but that didn’t quite have it. My girlfriend came up with “Angst,” sort of joking, but it was good, so that was it.

++ The first recordings were put out on a tape called “Fifteen Songs of Vim and Vigor”. This seems and sounds very obscure. What tracks were on it? And do the songs sound like the later releases of Tree Fort Angst? And why did you self-release it?

It was a cassette with a pretty elaborate fold-out sleeve with all the lyrics and these weird little illustrations from a dictionary scattered around the layout. Six of the songs from the tape were later culled by A Turntable Friend for the Six Songs EP. The other nine songs kind of languished (i.e., never went anywhere but the tape), but they were pretty good (I thought) and similar to the stuff that made it to vinyl, sort of Go-Betweens-y, Aztec-Camera-y stuff, at least in theory… I self-released it because, well, I didn’t know what else to do with it…it was sort of a “long-form demo,” I guess… One funny wrinkle is that it was recorded by a guy named Barrett Jones, who had a little studio in his basement in Arlington, and soon
thereafter moved to Seattle to become a drum tech for the then-rising Nirvana and later produced the first Foo Fighters record (sort of a weird association for an obscure jangle-pop tape.)

++ Your first proper release was on the classic German label A Turntable Friend, a label that had exquisite releases. How did you end up releasing your record so far away? Did you try other labels for your first release?

I was in England then, in St. Christopher, and kind of sending the TFA tape around to various labels, here and there…. Again this was all pre-Internet, so you really just got addresses off the back of record sleeves or out of fanzines. I sent a tape to A Turntable Friend in Germany and Ulrich, who ran the label, wrote back to me in England, saying he wanted to do a 7” EP and suggesting which songs. I was all for it. I did send tapes to other people (am sure of it), but Ulrich was up for it, so I thought why keep looking?

++ On this first single there’s a song called “Four Years, Six Months, Two Days”. Does that period of time really mean something to you?

It sort of does and it sort of doesn’t… I often take something that actually does mean something to me, or is “about” someone or something, and I weave it around other things, just phrases or ideas I like, and that’s the song… The funny thing about that song is that a TV series called One Tree Hill which titles all of its episodes after song titles, named the lead-off episode of their fifth season after that song. It’s pretty weird, as most of the other song titles they’ve used are from people like U2, Bob Dylan, R.E.M., etc. (info at: http://www.oth-music.com/titles.html) I can’t figure out how or why they would even know about a minuscule, penny-ante band like Tree Fort Angst, but it seems that the guy who is the series creator
graduated from the University of Maryland (which is near D.C.) in the early 90s, so maybe he was into the D.C .indie pop scene back then and knows the band/song that way… Who knows…

++ Throughout your releases the aesthetics are very similar. Who designed the cover art? And where did these photos came from? Im pretty sure I’ve seen the photo of Tilting at Windmills in another band’s cover art, though I can’t remember right now which band!

I guess I designed all of them, if you take “designed” to mean to I cut a picture out of an old book or dog-eared magazine and said “This is the cover.” I think I did get a little predictable with the 60s pop iconography, but I liked that look and tended to gravitate towards it… The Dot Dash album sleeve looks quite different. It’s a photo – sort of an abstract nighttime image – taken by Bill Crandall, who is the other guitarist in Dot Dash. You’re right about the Tilting At Windmills sleeve for the EP that was put out by Bus Stop. I later found out, after the fact, that Prefab Sprout used the same photo (of Edie Sedgwick) for their first single, “Lions In My Own Garden,” but that’s a great song, so I was kind of pleased by the unexpected synchronicity.

++ So yeah, “Tilting at Windmills”, perhaps my favorite of your songs. Care telling me what’s the story behind this fab song?

I suppose that one is kind of looking back at one’s then-recent past, just how time had already moved on from old relationships… I guess you’d call it ‘twenty-something melancholia’ or whatever.

++ That was your last single and it was released by The Bus Stop label, which many call the Sarah of the US. On this label your friends of St. Christopher had already released some records. How was your relationship with the label? And how important was for you to release on a such high profile label (at least among indiepoppers!)? Did it feel like an achievement perhaps?

Yeah, I was kind of thrilled for us to be on the Bus Stop label because, as you say, it was a really “legit” label, at least in indiepop terms. After that EP came out, Brian, who ran the label, had got a pressing and distribution deal for Bus Stop with Dutch East India and, in the wake of that, offered to put out an album, which became the Knee-Deep record, and that (i.e., getting out a long-player) was really the coup de grace, even if we were broken up (and I was then living in Australia for a couple of years) by the time it came out… Either way, I was very glad to have records on Bus Stop – it was a nice little validation.

++ Ok, let me backtrack to the “Buzzing with Beauty & Wonder” 7″. That was released on Velodrome Records. I don’t have a clue who were they. Care filling in the blanks? Where were they based, who ran the label, any funny anecdotes? 🙂

Velodrome was us, Tree Fort Angst. After the Six Songs EP came out, Ulrich, from A Turntable Friend, offered to put out another 7” EP, which was great, but he was saying it would be six months to a year before it came out, which in indie-label speak, could be double that. We didn’t want to wait that long. We wanted to strike while the iron was luke warm… so we put it out ourselves. It was a good little record, got some good reviews, and kind of got our name around… The affiliation with Bus Stop came out of that, and the Stickboy record, and appearances on several compilations, so it was worth doing.

++ And then the only other single we are missing is the “Hope” 7″ on Stickboy Records. Again no clue about them, though I like the label name. Who were they? And what was the deal between you and them? A hand shake?

He was a guy from Brooklyn who was starting up a label. The other band on the label was Nada Surf. The guy who ran the label sent a letter to the address on the Velodrome sleeve offering to do something. We later talked on the phone. He was a funny, witty guy who wanted to put something out so, as with other offers, we said ‘…Um… yeah… sure!’

++ Later Bus Stop compiled the singles on the great “Knee-Deep In The Rococo Excess Of Tree Fort Angst” album. So really? You thought you were excessively rococo? What’s the story behind the title?

I just made up the phrase. I thought it sounded like something The Fall would use for an album title and I dug that, so, voila… There you have it.

++ Then 6 years later Foxyboy in the UK, re-releases this compilation under the name “Last Page in the Book of Love” -ok, Im missing this one too!- with 10 extra tracks. Where did this 10 extra tracks come from? And how come, a re-release of a retrospective album? It’s not that common!

The Bus Stop CD had pretty much sold out, or gone out of print, which isn’t all that impressive as I think only about 750 copies were pressed. Maybe it was a thousand, but certainly no more than that. Anyway, Ara, who ran the label, was a friend and was up for putting it out — he was releasing quite a few things. I know what you mean about re-releases for indiepop, it’s sort of nutty, but, why say no… The 10 extra tracks are outtakes, a couple of live tracks, and various other oddities, including the title track.

++ You contributed to a couple of fanzine tapes back in the day. I was wondering how did you like fanzines and tapes, and can they be compared to blogs and downloadable mixes? I do feel fanzine writers were more enthusiastic and hands-on than bloggers, but well, I didn’t experience the golden age of indiepop, so you tell me 🙂

I liked all that stuff. I thought it was great. Yes, I suspect blogs are the new fanzines, and they’re great, too, but I suppose fanzines had a certain magic to them that’s now largely gone… But life changes, things move on, eh?

++ What about gigs? Any favorites? Any anecdotes you could share?

Unlike subsequent bands — like The Saturday People and Julie Ocean and Dot Dash, where we play(ed) live as frequently as possible — Tree Fort Angst had a very ambivalent attitude toward playing live; we were the same way in Glo-Worm – it was sort of a “why bother?” thing. That said, Tree Fort Angst did manage to do some good shows. Velocity Girl gave us our first gig, opening a sold-out show for them at the 9:30 Club. It was big fun. About two months later, we opened for Liz Phair, also sold-out, also at the 9:30. She was on the cover of Rolling Stone at the time, so it was one of those ‘industry buzz’ kind of shows. We played with Heavenly and Honeybunch in New York, and with Small Factory in Richmond. We played with the English band Tindersticks at the 9:30 right before we split up. So, not many shows, but the ones we did were fun.

++ So you list as influences Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, The Smiths, The Chills, etc. But I’m wondering about the smaller bands, which ones did you like? And yeah, what about that early 90s scene of DC. Plenty of good bands, right?

Hmmm… smaller bands… Of the Sarah bands, the ones I liked best were St. Christopher (who I saw before I was in the band) and The Orchids, who were excellent. A band that wasn’t part of that scene, but from the same era was The Dentists. They were great and I saw them many times. In America, my favorite band from that time/scene was Small Factory. They were great (and rocked the house at our wedding reception in D.C.) I kind of see them in an ‘American triptych’ of The Velvet Underground — The Modern Lovers — and Small  Factory… I know that’s kind of a stretch, but, for me, it’s true… And, yes, the D.C. scene was great, too. I knew and liked the people in Velocity Girl and The Ropers, and later went on to form bands with people from both of those bands… Glo-Worm played with Tsunami and Air Miami, among other shows. A little earlier than that, there was a fun, Revillos-esque band in town called The Flying Shards, I don’t think they ever made a record, but they were great live. I can’t remember who else was around… It was a while ago!

++During those days you must have hanged out quite a bit with Mike Schulman from Slumberland Records, Pam Berry, Archie Moore, etc. I’m quie curious how did you all meet and where were the places you used to hang out? And how good were the parties?

Yes, I knew/know all those people. I suppose I met them all through Mike Schulman, whom I met in the record store he worked in called Vinyl Ink, right after I first moved to D.C. Somehow, through that, I met all those other people. Pam Berry and Dan Searing (who was in Glo-Worm and The Saturday People with me) and his sister Meghan lived in two adjoining houses on Monroe Street in Columbia Heights and, yes, they had many, many parties. They were/are really generous people, the type who don’t bat an eye at having their house filled with 200 or so people, about 50 of whom no one is really sure who they are… It was cool. Small Factory played in the basement once and Glo-Worm “opened,” I remember that. Pam moved to London in ’98-ish and that was a little bit of a turning point as far as the big parties, but Dan and Meghan kept it rolling for a while.

++ So then what happened? When and why did you decide to stop Tree Fort Angst?

My wife and I relocated to Australia (Sydney) in late ‘95 until the front part of ‘97, so the ‘Angst called it a day, a while before we left. It had kind of run its course by then anyway.

++ And then of course you started The Saturday People, but that’s a story for another time. But what happened to Hunter and John? What did they do after?

They both still live in Richmond and both still play music. Hunter is in a band called Hotel X, I think. John does a few different musical things but mostly plays in a 70’s soul band called NRG KRYSYS. He can basically play anything.

++ Today, looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest highlight of Tree Fort Angst?

I was just glad to get to do it – i.e., make some records and kind of explore the creative process… Getting the CD out on Bus Stop was a nice watershed, so I guess that was the highlight.

++ And what about you Terry, when you are not making music, what other interests or hobbies do you have?

My wife and I have a couple of kids, so we’re busy with that. I like to run. I try to do four miles a day outside, and sometimes I even stick to it. I like to read. And I’m still doing the band thing, in Dot Dash.

++ Alright, let’s wrap it here, but first answer me one last question, when are you playing a Popfest? It’s time!

Hey man, tell them to drop us a line, we’ll say yes.

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

Nothing other than thanks for the interview!

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Listen
Tree Fort Angst – Tilting at Windmills