I have excavated another interview here as some of the blogs no longer seem to exist. This one is from October 2009 with a person from a blog called Mistaken Press.
Hello gravetos and
Charlie, thanks for the
questions - my name's Russell
and I'm answering the questions alone (I'm the
singer) . So here it is:
- What inspires your music?
Fashion.
- Favourite bands?
As you'd expect the
different members have
different choices,
but one band we always listen to together
is this really weird
band called Insane Clown Posse. It
started because I was
on holiday on my own on this train in
Germany, and these
really aggressive Austrian men were all
dancing and singing
to this music - when I asked one of them
who they were doing
they said it was this lot - so I when I
got home I bought a
couple of their albums and the others
all like it.
- How did you guys meet?
I met Abbs Garran at work
because he sat opposite me and
would do all these
very new age sort of stretches and
chants. I thought he
was doing a performance art thing so I
asked him to help me
with my poetry - because in order to do
it live I thought it
would need a guitarist to play to fill
the silences and I'd
seen him carrying his guitar around
the car park. Then
James Tranmer heard about the band we'd
created which was
called Henderson Tires (which
was a pun on a tyre
shop where he worked) and said he
wanted to be
involved. I already knew the other two from
London.
- Any songs that marked you while you
were growing up?
I used to listen to
the very worst sort of pop party
sort of music -
Agadoo and that sort of thing, Rod Stewart.
But then my dad had
pretty interesting tastes so I kind of
would interesperse it
with his bands - people like Bjork
although I went off
her quite quickly - she was a bit too shrill for my tastes.
I used to really like the Blue
Aeroplanes initially just for the name,
but then I liked the
songs too. My dad had a great record
collection but I only
sort of skimmed it, and would listen
to all these really
bad party songs on the side.
- Describe your sound
I've always said if
people asked that we made punk
music, hence the sort
of generic punk name we've got.
But then we always
intended to do other stuff within that,
so I suppose punk is
sort of a base to work from.
- Best concert you've ever seen?
I hardly ever went to
see live bands when I was
younger. Although I
lived near London I didn't have many
friends so I didn't
really know you could just go to see
a band. It felt sort
of unnatural. Then I went away to study
but I only really
listened to bands who'd split up
anyway. It was the
era of all that forced wackiness like a
lot of the post
hardcore bands. So I just stayed at home and
watched television.
- How was your first time on stage?
That was with Abbs Garran and Christian (aka The Octogram)
- who are both in the Pheromoans now.
As some kind of art terrorism thing - it
must have been about 2005. Then I
started doing my
poetry which as I said earlier sort of
merged into the Pheromoans.
- Any rituals before getting on
stage?
It depends when
you're on - if you're on first
just a couple of
beers I suppose, but if you're on last
you tend to spend a
lot of time hanging around. You
don't want to get too
drunk, but a few drinks is always
necessary.
- Describe yourself
(individually) in one word
Confused.
- What does it mean to be a band in
the UK these days? In terms of
environment, music
scene, venues...
I don't know what it
means really. I don't
really feel like we
belong in the current musical
scene. I don't have
any preference when it comes to
venues.
- Who was your biggest inspiration,
musically and career wise, when
you've started making
music?
I don't know if you'd
really describe being in
the Pheromoans as a
career! The records I go back to
regularly are more
sort of lyrical people like Robert Wyatt
or Dan Melchior
because I'm interested in finding out
what the words and
songs are about. As I write a lot I'm
inspired by books,
poetry and even things like TV
sitcoms.
- Since the band
started, how many / what kind
of projects have you
realized?
We've got a few
7" singles, and in 2010 an LP
is coming out on
Convulsive. Also a tape is coming out of
some of our more
bedroom-type recordings.
- If you could live one day as / in
any other band, who would that band be
and why?
Probably one of the
party pop bands I mentioned
earlier, like Jasper
Carrot's band or that band who did
'Saturday Night'. My mum
and dad always made me turn
it off at night
because I would upset the cats. If I could
be an adult and be in
that band it would be ok - I could
come and go as I
pleased. I wouldn't want to be in one
of those bands you
get in Shoreditch because the
other members would
be too annoying.
- Any strange habits?
Probably listening to
the Insane Clown
Posse.
- First thing
you do when you wake
up?
I try and find my
cat, Bunty.
- Who would you like to be on tour
with?
There's a band in
London called the Human RACE who
are really good. A
tour with them would be good fun as we
know each other
anyway.
- What's missing in today's
music?
Probably a tour of
the kind mentioned
above.
- Where do you see yourself when
you're 60?
I think my life will
be quite similar to how it is
now.
- Where do you think music is going
to? (evolving in which
direction...?)
I suppose the
contrived 'lo fi' thing will
fizzle out thankfully
and the bandwagon will move to
somewhere equally as
awful.
- What music means to
you?
A trip to a converted
public toilet where we
practice.
