Speaker 1: Loud and Quiet presents Midnight Chats. Hello and welcome to
Speaker 1: this week's episode of the Loud on Quiet interview podcast
Speaker 1: Midnight Chats. I'm recording this part of the podcast in
Speaker 1: my car, which is outside our office, and this car
Speaker 1: failed it's mot this week and now there's not really
Speaker 1: much use for it. I mean, I will deal with
Speaker 1: it in a responsible manner. I'm not going to abandon
Speaker 1: the car here before anyone thinks otherwise. But it's quite
Speaker 1: noisy upstairs in our office, so I've come down here
Speaker 1: to record this awkward part where I have to introduce
Speaker 1: who my guest is this week. So currently sat in
Speaker 1: a car park in Hackney in the cold, looking kind
Speaker 1: of strange to the people in the office below us
Speaker 1: who are looking out their window at me. But they
Speaker 1: will get over it, I'm sure. So my guest this
Speaker 1: week on the podcast is a friend of Loud and Quiet,
Speaker 1: so I would say, I mean, he's just a musician,
Speaker 1: like anyone else that we interview in the magazine and
Speaker 1: online and here on the podcast. But Wesy Gonzalez is
Speaker 1: someone that I have followed his music endeavors since he
Speaker 1: was a child. Actually, he formed Let's wrestle around the
Speaker 1: time I was starting Loud and Quiet around two thousand
Speaker 1: and five, and that band has now split up. They
Speaker 1: were quite a tumultuous threesome, a punk DIY slacker group,
Speaker 1: and this year he released his first solo album, which
Speaker 1: is called Excellent Musician. Now, if you do read Loud
Speaker 1: and Quiet as well as listening to this podcast, then
Speaker 1: you may recognize the name Wesley Gonzalez. As a cover
Speaker 1: feature that we did earlier this year, Wesley was on
Speaker 1: the front under the headline man versus Indie. That was
Speaker 1: because Wesley has decided that guitars just aren't for him
Speaker 1: anymore so, having made his name in a guitar band
Speaker 1: and very much in the indie rock sphere, he's over
Speaker 1: it now and he's made an album called Excellent Musician,
Speaker 1: which how doesn't feature any guitars. It features synthesizers and
Speaker 1: piano mainly, but strangely, it kind of sounds like there's
Speaker 1: a guitar on there. I don't know how he's done that,
Speaker 1: but you you know, you have to be reminded that
Speaker 1: there isn't one on there. Anyway. We did a feature
Speaker 1: earlier this year and had a really fun day where
Speaker 1: we walked around the guitar shops of London and we
Speaker 1: tried to get guitar people to listen to Wesley's new
Speaker 1: single and tell us what they liked it. It was
Speaker 1: good fun. We start the conversation reminiscing about that and
Speaker 1: also talking about Wesley's videos. I'm going to put a
Speaker 1: link on our website below where this podcast is being
Speaker 1: posted on our website at least to Wesley's videos, because
Speaker 1: he's made five videos this year and that all quite
Speaker 1: something to behold. So if you're listening to this on
Speaker 1: your phone or via the ACRS st app or the
Speaker 1: Apple app or whatever, then do take the time to
Speaker 1: go on YouTube and just put in Wesley Gonzalez and
Speaker 1: check out some of the videos he's made. The ultimate
Speaker 1: one is his trip to Why Betha, which is where
Speaker 1: we will pick up this conversation. Thanks to Wesley for
Speaker 1: coming in. It was a really fun one. This so
Speaker 1: it's a bit longer than they usually are, and yeah,
Speaker 1: what more do I need to tell you? There's a
Speaker 1: bit of swearing in it. Wesley is a bit of
Speaker 1: a potty mouth. He freely admits that. And as long
Speaker 1: as you're okay with that please enjoy this episode. We're
Speaker 1: going to have a couple more episodes of the podcast
Speaker 1: before Christmas time, and then we'll take off, like you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. Nobody really wants to be listening
Speaker 1: to our podcast over the Christmas period, I'm sure, so
Speaker 1: we pick it back up in January. So there will
Speaker 1: be a couple of more but for now here is
Speaker 1: Wesley Gonzalez. And if you're currently in the market for
Speaker 1: a Perjo two six four series without an mot and
Speaker 1: very little hope of passing one, I can help you
Speaker 1: with that. Last time, what I saw you was when
Speaker 1: we did the cover feature.
Speaker 2: Was that March, Yes, something like that March praul When
Speaker 2: did the record come out? That came at June? It
Speaker 2: was a couple of It was a little bit yeah then.
Speaker 1: So to bring any listeners up to date. That was
Speaker 1: for a feature for the magazine, a cover feature where
Speaker 1: we went down Denmark Street and attempted to play people
Speaker 1: in guitar shops your albums, which doesn't feature any guitar,
Speaker 1: no guitar at all. Yeah, to get their opinion. But
Speaker 1: we weren't that successful, not all because they were essentially
Speaker 1: because they were just too grumpy.
Speaker 2: They weren't. Overall, they weren't that grumpy though, whether they
Speaker 2: were quite polite. There was a couple of guys who
Speaker 2: just told us to bugger off, but overall they were
Speaker 2: like frustratingly polite.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the ones.
Speaker 2: I did want them to sort of really start slating it,
Speaker 2: but I couldn't. They didn't ever get to that.
Speaker 1: Point because basically the people that would have been cruel
Speaker 1: about it wouldn't even talk to us, And the people
Speaker 1: that would talk to us were just too polite. So
Speaker 1: they said, oh I like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what was it going? Guy said, it sounds like
Speaker 2: mystery Jets? Just a bizarre reference.
Speaker 1: I don't know where you got that from. But the
Speaker 1: but everyone was quite pleasant. It was a fun day
Speaker 1: out though, Yes, in Nevertheless, they're just weird shops, so
Speaker 1: aren't they? They are generally like.
Speaker 2: I don't know why I keep on putting these ideas
Speaker 2: out there that it's putting myself in a situation which
Speaker 2: makes me the most anxious and nervous I could possibly be.
Speaker 1: Were you really anxious that day?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I get so terrified of doing it. I get
Speaker 2: really terrified of talking to people. I'm very good at
Speaker 2: pretending I'm not terrified. I don't exude anxiety in any way,
Speaker 2: but fucking.
Speaker 1: Terrified inside you are.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm dying, You're dying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, very well, you sat on that. I remember that
Speaker 1: day very well, and you seemed with it. You were
Speaker 1: straight in there, walking up to them and saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: can I play you my record?
Speaker 2: I think I gear myself up into it. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think it's I'm paying too much attention to John
Speaker 2: Ronson or something, and like that's, you know, going into
Speaker 2: this sort of like I'm going to do it. I'm
Speaker 2: going to do it, but I've gotten, I've gotten all right.
Speaker 2: It's like we did that video and I Betha and
Speaker 2: that's the same. That was the most terrifying two days
Speaker 2: I've ever I've ever had. It was really there was
Speaker 2: about two or three occasions when I thought I'm genuinely
Speaker 2: gonna get shit kicked out of me.
Speaker 1: So this is the video for Amsterdam. Yes, this is
Speaker 1: the this is the video of the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I think so.
Speaker 1: This is for anyone listening that's not not seen this yet,
Speaker 1: I suggest you stop listening to this podcast now, go
Speaker 1: and watch that. I'd take three minutes of your day
Speaker 1: and then come back to this podcast. This is where's
Speaker 1: his video for his track Amsterdam and it's you on
Speaker 1: a Lad's Holidays filmed in Iviefa.
Speaker 2: Right, it is filmed.
Speaker 1: Yes, let's just set the scene of it.
Speaker 2: If we If we start off from the beginning. We
Speaker 2: found out what the budget was from the label. I'm
Speaker 2: sat with my mate Danny does all the videos, We
Speaker 2: do them all together. He's an old old friend of mine.
Speaker 2: He also does a bank called Charles Hall, who are
Speaker 2: very good and we sat there found out how much
Speaker 2: the budget was. We talked up this ridiculous idea that
Speaker 2: was slightly vic and bob esque that we were planning
Speaker 2: and then just not really feeling it, and then found
Speaker 2: out how much more was. We were like, let's see flights.
Speaker 2: Where can we go with this budget? And it matched perfectly.
Speaker 2: The budget was one hundred pounds off for spending on
Speaker 2: the video and then two hundred quid on the flight.
Speaker 1: On the flights so go to Ibeth.
Speaker 2: I think this because we watched an episode of sun
Speaker 2: Sex Suspicious Parents as well. That's the that was the
Speaker 2: influence behind it, and originally the video was also going
Speaker 2: to be us interviewing my mum afterwards and her watching
Speaker 2: the footage and getting subtle, but the song was too
Speaker 2: short to get it in there. We even went around
Speaker 2: and started setting everything up at my mum's house. But
Speaker 2: so we fly over. We had about an hour's sleep
Speaker 2: on the way over, when neither of us had been
Speaker 2: to our breather before, neither of us had been on
Speaker 2: a lad's holiday before.
Speaker 1: Why had you only had an hour's sleep this point?
Speaker 2: Because the flight was it was like you know, cheap flights,
Speaker 2: five in the morning. We had to get to Standstead
Speaker 2: and so now it wasn't any mad party or anything, okay,
Speaker 2: it was we were sober. Just went and got there
Speaker 2: at like seven in the morning. The airbnb we were
Speaker 2: staying in was literally just as we like, right next
Speaker 2: to the beach, and we walked and we were a
Speaker 2: bit worried because it was so serene, but obviously that's
Speaker 2: seven in the morning. Yeah, it was a bit quiet.
Speaker 2: I'm a bit worried about this. And then we went
Speaker 2: checked into the airbnb, sat down for a minute and
Speaker 2: then we're like, okay, let's go do it, get ourselves up,
Speaker 2: went out and did it. The first shot, we're lying
Speaker 2: it's me lying on the beach. It's one of the
Speaker 2: first shots in the video as well. I'm lying on
Speaker 2: the beach with whiskey and coke. I'm singing the.
Speaker 1: Song wearing like Brown Trouns.
Speaker 2: I'm wearing Yeah, I've got this T shirt made that
Speaker 2: says I love excellent musician, which caused a lot of
Speaker 2: trouble as well. The whole time was there going you're
Speaker 2: excellent musician, and yes, yes I am. And yeah. So
Speaker 2: I'm lying on the beach and this Welsh guy just
Speaker 2: runs up into as soon as he notices I'm doing
Speaker 2: something slightly odd, runs up, tucks his little penis out
Speaker 2: at the top of his shorts and proceeds to start
Speaker 2: humping my head. And we got this shot and I
Speaker 2: could see Danny filming me, just like, do not move,
Speaker 2: do not change. You know, something amazing is happening right now.
Speaker 2: You don't know what it is, but something brilliant is happening.
Speaker 2: And then we went to the bar and sat down
Speaker 2: and we looked at the footage. We've made the complete
Speaker 2: right decision. This is the best possible thing we could
Speaker 2: have done. I think, like half an hour later, I'm
Speaker 2: like and I'm really smashing the drinks back as well.
Speaker 2: To get through this, very very scared, I go up
Speaker 2: and start talking to these guys. This again very early
Speaker 2: on in the video you see it. Start talking to
Speaker 2: these guys doing laughing gas and I was trying to
Speaker 2: get balloons off them, and I go, hey, you're right, guys,
Speaker 2: I don't know how to approach it, all right, fellas,
Speaker 2: how you doing? Could I possibly buy one of those
Speaker 2: laughing gas and canisters off you? And you just that
Speaker 2: All of them looked at me and just started walking.
Speaker 2: And it's one of the shots where I'm walking behind
Speaker 2: them and I do this weird like hand gesture like
Speaker 2: I'm in with them or something. It's just it's bizarre.
Speaker 2: And those are the guys where it was like they're
Speaker 2: going to kill me the sense I was following them,
Speaker 2: and then they sort of turned around and I ran off.
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm going to get murdered now. This
Speaker 2: is and everybody was so huge as well, like really
Speaker 2: massively beefed up dudes. We got away with most of
Speaker 2: the video by telling people we worked for Vice, because
Speaker 2: it explained why we were such odd dickheads, you know,
Speaker 2: like that in their Vice was sort of enough of
Speaker 2: a platform that they understood what that was, understood that
Speaker 2: we were just some hipster dickheads trying to make some
Speaker 2: stupid video whatever. So we did get through it in
Speaker 2: the end, but it was and we only had two
Speaker 2: hours sleep while we're there. Over the space of three
Speaker 2: days we had about three out of sleep, and it
Speaker 2: was just absolutely exhausting and grueling, but it was it
Speaker 2: was I'm so happy with how it came out.
Speaker 1: Did you manage to enjoy the exp because you've never
Speaker 1: this is the first quote unquote lads holiday you've been on.
Speaker 2: Well, we were discussing it when we were there, of
Speaker 2: what constitutes the lad's holiday. And I went away with
Speaker 2: the two guys I did let's wrestle with and a
Speaker 2: few school friends when we were about fifteen to Montpellier
Speaker 2: in France, which I wouldn't call it lads holiday but
Speaker 2: it was six lads, but just dorky lads.
Speaker 1: Well, this is this is what's changed, I think because
Speaker 1: I've been because I'm from Essex, so I've been on
Speaker 1: lads holidays willingly. Yeah, and it had a great time.
Speaker 1: But then and maybe this is just maybe my complexion
Speaker 1: and my build, But now it seems like everyone looks
Speaker 1: like you're saying it, Well, the guys are all massive guys.
Speaker 1: They all really look after themselves. I don't know if
Speaker 1: this is like since Towie and Maiden Else and all
Speaker 1: those things.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what it is, but I questioning the
Speaker 2: Royds situation. It's some serious steroids shit. Yeah as well, I.
Speaker 1: Think because when I went on Lad's holidays, it was
Speaker 1: really like we probably thought we were cool, but it
Speaker 1: was more like the in between us.
Speaker 2: Well, we saw a lot of people like that. We
Speaker 2: were trying to keep away from those people because it
Speaker 2: became too real in that sense. We had to only
Speaker 2: get the beef cakes in. But we did see other
Speaker 2: people there who.
Speaker 1: Looked as awkward as you felt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty much, but they in some they obviously didn't
Speaker 2: have the confidence in themselves that they knew they didn't
Speaker 2: belong there. At least we knew we didn't belong. They
Speaker 2: were trying to get along with everybody and it just
Speaker 2: wasn't working, and sort of you did feel really bad
Speaker 2: for them. And you know, I've only been in situations
Speaker 2: like that with like sort of young, youngish testosterone fueled
Speaker 2: trying to get laid sort of situations very infrequently. I
Speaker 2: think I learned from a very early age that I
Speaker 2: wasn't that person, but I did on this holiday to Montpellier.
Speaker 2: I think it's because the flights are like a tenor
Speaker 2: AND's going to like the middle of the summer, go
Speaker 2: to Montpellier and just sort of had nothing to do.
Speaker 2: There's no clubs in Montpelli or anything like that. I
Speaker 2: think we did finally find a club, and everybody was
Speaker 2: really excited that there was a club. They finally found
Speaker 2: a club. We went in and there was nobody in there,
Speaker 2: and I was just being a negative bastard, going, oh,
Speaker 2: this is terrible, there's nobody here. What do you think?
Speaker 2: I was like, look at you anyway. Do you think
Speaker 2: anybody's going to shag you? Look at you? Look we
Speaker 2: all look like idiots. What do you think is gonna happen?
Speaker 2: And then about twenty Irish girls came into the club,
Speaker 2: and everybody I was with got so incredibly excited that
Speaker 2: there were these girls there, and it got really and
Speaker 2: I think I made one joke that I don't know
Speaker 2: if I should repeat. I made one joke to one
Speaker 2: of them, just honestly thinking it was quite funny. It
Speaker 2: went down so badly that all twenty girls left. She went, okay,
Speaker 2: we're all going now, and they all stormed out of
Speaker 2: the club and left instantly, And then everybody turned around
Speaker 2: and hated me for the rest of the time. You
Speaker 2: blew it.
Speaker 1: That was going to be, Yeah, that was everyone's moment.
Speaker 2: It was going to be an orgy in the youth hostel.
Speaker 1: With the rest of your party, the rest of Let's
Speaker 1: wrestle and the friends you're with. Were any of them
Speaker 1: getting on with any of the Irish girls, just even
Speaker 1: if they were just chatting to them?
Speaker 2: And yeah, it's funny because Louis, who who I did
Speaker 2: Let's wrestle with it, I think he was more on
Speaker 2: my level. He knew we weren't getting lucky in anyway.
Speaker 2: We were a bit more like realistic about it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: nobody wants to fucking fucking fifteen year old boy, but
Speaker 2: you know, we were realists about it. But everybody else
Speaker 2: was like, this is it, this is it. We're new
Speaker 2: people now. Like one of them bought a copy of
Speaker 2: Nuts magazine on the plane and I was like, you've
Speaker 2: never bought Nuts before? Why you buy a Nuts magazine?
Speaker 2: He's like, well, what it got really defensive. It's like
Speaker 2: some reinvention of himself as a lad. It's like you're
Speaker 2: a postboy from Mauslil. You're go into Montpellier and you're
Speaker 2: buying a copy of fucking Nuts. What are you doing?
Speaker 2: But yeah, it was horrific and I never And they
Speaker 2: went the next year and they didn't invite.
Speaker 1: Me to to the same place.
Speaker 2: No, they went. They went somewhere equally as middle class though, and.
Speaker 1: They're like, we're not don't invite Wears because he blows
Speaker 1: it of all the girls.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in this clubless like culture Land. I think they
Speaker 2: went to like Vienna or something.
Speaker 1: So when you're in I Beefa and you're hanging out
Speaker 1: with like these beefcakes, yeah, how would you get the
Speaker 1: shots that you needed of talking to them? Would you
Speaker 1: ever say we're making a fit? Would you just like,
Speaker 1: how did you go about getting those kind of big
Speaker 1: stacked guys in? Do you just start some of them?
Speaker 2: We were just some of them, some of them. Danny
Speaker 2: was going over by himself because I looked too odd.
Speaker 2: So it's like when it's the individual shots, I'm hiding
Speaker 2: like around the corner because they as soon as I'm
Speaker 2: in it. They know that something's odd.
Speaker 1: This is exactly how we did the cover feature with
Speaker 1: me going into the shop and saying, I've got this
Speaker 1: musician outside.
Speaker 2: That's my tactic. And I was hiding because I knew
Speaker 2: as soon as I get involved, it goes wrong and
Speaker 2: they realize something's up terribly wrong.
Speaker 1: Is that just because they think this guy has clearly
Speaker 1: taking a piers?
Speaker 2: I think so, I don't know. There's something about my
Speaker 2: demeanor that I can't I'm very bad at like you know,
Speaker 2: I think in the same way that sometimes you, especially
Speaker 2: in the music industry, a lot of the time selling yourself,
Speaker 2: You're just going like, I'm brilliant, I'm fantastic, and I
Speaker 2: don't have the capability of doing that. If something's going wrong,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go this is fucking terrible. Everything's awful.
Speaker 2: I want to kill myself. This is terrible, and I
Speaker 2: can't do the thing. So it's the same thing. If
Speaker 2: I know that I'm trying to get a rise in
Speaker 2: some sort of way, I am still I've got a
Speaker 2: look on my face or and I'm wearing a T
Speaker 2: shirt that says I love excellent musician. I've designed the
Speaker 2: logo on my phone as well. I designed that T
Speaker 2: shirt on my phone, which I thought modern technology wise
Speaker 2: was absolutely fantastic. But you know, so a lot of it.
Speaker 2: He had to do that sort of side of it.
Speaker 2: But then there were but then there were other ones
Speaker 2: where I would go and approach them and say, we're
Speaker 2: making a documentary. That was the line. We're making a
Speaker 2: documentary about lad culture. And there's so many noisy documentaries
Speaker 2: on lads in Ibtha or whatever. We knew we could
Speaker 2: get away with it, so just doing that and then
Speaker 2: they'd just be chatting and a lot of there were
Speaker 2: just really sweet guys as well, and they're just like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, brilliant. Like even the guy coming and humping
Speaker 2: my head when we talked to him after, he was like, oh,
Speaker 2: you're making a video, brilliance, and like, you know, he's
Speaker 2: got really excited. So everybody it was weird. It was
Speaker 2: sort of sometimes you just as soon as you could
Speaker 2: smell I'm going to get the shit kicked out me.
Speaker 2: I just get the fuck away from it as quickly
Speaker 2: as possible. If there were there was like six lads
Speaker 2: on a hendu and they all had tattoos up to
Speaker 2: their ears, like completely full body tattooed, looked absolutely they
Speaker 2: come out of a gang, you know, they look terrifying,
Speaker 2: and oh yeah, I'm just on my hand. Yeah, just
Speaker 2: sort of, you know, so last night to night, so
Speaker 2: we go have a real mad one. You know, it's
Speaker 2: just right, This isn't what I thought it was, but
Speaker 2: you look like you look the part. So we're just
Speaker 2: sort of trying to find anybody that did that. I mean,
Speaker 2: the worst pit was there was one shot where we're
Speaker 2: walking down the big strip where all the clubs are
Speaker 2: and I'm singing the song walking down and that took
Speaker 2: about three hours, where because I was so pissed as well,
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: Like, you do look absolutely ship. First, I was going
Speaker 1: to say, is that just that's just real? That's not like,
Speaker 1: yeah it.
Speaker 2: Was, Yeah, I was absolutely ship. But we were going
Speaker 2: into every bar. You go into there, they'll give you
Speaker 2: a free shot just for going in, and Danny the
Speaker 2: director wasn't drinking, so we'd got two shots every bar,
Speaker 2: and I do both of them, and then we go
Speaker 2: to the next place do both of them. And it
Speaker 2: was because I knew at some point I'm going to
Speaker 2: have to go and start doing mad dancing in a club,
Speaker 2: I'm going to have to do.
Speaker 1: That's the best. That's the best moment when you're dancing
Speaker 1: and there's kind of a circle, a fague circle around
Speaker 1: your people looking The.
Speaker 2: Video could have just been that one long I was
Speaker 2: just dancing to a song for three minutes. It was
Speaker 2: literally that, and we could have just released that of
Speaker 2: me dancing and doing this psychotic, really like weird tribal
Speaker 2: shucking that I'm doing and just sort of I was thinking,
Speaker 2: like I'm like trying my best to look completely normal,
Speaker 2: just going this is the most unnatural thing I've ever done,
Speaker 2: and I can as well. It's like, I'm all right
Speaker 2: at dancing. I'm not too bad at dancing, and I
Speaker 2: think that's the funny thing is that I'm not bad
Speaker 2: at it, but I am just choosing to do the
Speaker 2: weirdest dancing. And they're playing like tech house in that
Speaker 2: club as well. It's like, this is to horrible tech
Speaker 2: house music, and it was the music. There was the
Speaker 2: worst music. And I love techno and house music and
Speaker 2: stuff like that, but it was the worst of the worst,
Speaker 2: like you know, Avichi and stuff like that, and trying
Speaker 2: to dance to like a Rihanna club remix, but doing
Speaker 2: it in this insane style.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because actually oddly it's kind of in time to
Speaker 1: the tune, Yeah to your song.
Speaker 2: But that's what I was trying to do. If I'm
Speaker 2: doing like a straight beat, it's not gonna work with
Speaker 2: a song, so it has to be this weird flailing
Speaker 2: around but also slightly r men. But yeah, you just
Speaker 2: there is a shot where you see one guy in
Speaker 2: the background who was just looking the most perplexed I've
Speaker 2: ever seen. But he look he looks so like, what
Speaker 2: the fuck is going on? This is not what I
Speaker 2: signed up for. This isn't the ib ether I know
Speaker 2: and love. You just could not suss it out whatsoever,
Speaker 2: but it was. It was. Yeah, it was the most
Speaker 2: exhausting two days I've ever had. It was. And then
Speaker 2: we got back the next morning again no sleep and
Speaker 2: had to go straight to work as well. I got
Speaker 2: from the from the airport straight into Soho to the
Speaker 2: record show to work, and luckily my boss gave me
Speaker 2: an extra hour off and I showed him. I showed
Speaker 2: him the video afters and he was like, I'm glad
Speaker 2: I gave you this.
Speaker 1: You deserve you.
Speaker 2: Did.
Speaker 1: Did it make you think differently? At aur of like
Speaker 1: lad culture when you when you talk about when you say, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you some people and you thought they look hard,
Speaker 1: but they're like really sweet guys. Did it make you
Speaker 1: kind of think I've never really thought maybe some of them,
Speaker 1: all right, I've not really.
Speaker 2: Had much of a disparaging thought about it, to be honest.
Speaker 2: I think the weird thing about it was I think
Speaker 2: I put it in the press release that I didn't
Speaker 2: want it to be in any way mocking of people.
Speaker 2: And you know, a lot of my family are like that.
Speaker 2: I'm from a family of a lot of people who
Speaker 2: were working class people who like to go and get
Speaker 2: ship faced.
Speaker 1: On an island.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's not become used to it weirdly
Speaker 2: like just but not in that circumstance. So I didn't
Speaker 2: have much preconceptions in the first place. And but it
Speaker 2: was just it was exactly what you would expect. It
Speaker 2: is walking into an episode of Parents, which is just
Speaker 2: one of my favorite shows ever. And like, you know,
Speaker 2: we were we were we were going back to the
Speaker 2: Airbnb and film it and watching the show and copying
Speaker 2: the camera angles. Like we get one shot in the
Speaker 2: video where it's me doing a shot and the camera
Speaker 2: follows the shot going up to my mouth, which is
Speaker 2: something we nicked directly from Sunsets Parents. We've got a
Speaker 2: few in there that we were really like, nobody's going
Speaker 2: to notice, but we were really proud that we've got
Speaker 2: the exact same shooting that they had done in their
Speaker 2: Sunsets Parents that I don't think it changed my mind
Speaker 2: on it in any way, or I mean, people are
Speaker 2: just people, and people like to let their hair down
Speaker 2: and stuff like that, and you know, people do whatever
Speaker 2: they want. I mean, it was we made a big
Speaker 2: point we didn't want to film any in any of
Speaker 2: the clubs that had strippers or anything. You know that
Speaker 2: it's so there is so much misogyny in those places,
Speaker 2: and you know, just the amount of women walking around
Speaker 2: in a bikinian heels and you sort of just feel
Speaker 2: really terrible for It's like you just be comfortable, you're
Speaker 2: on holiday, just have a nice time, but they're still
Speaker 2: looking at themselves as these sort of I've got to
Speaker 2: be in some way sexual to these beefcake men, and
Speaker 2: it's the testosterone levels are so incredibly different to and
Speaker 2: it's sort of soak into you as well. You sort
Speaker 2: of start thinking in a different way, in a way
Speaker 2: I wouldn't usually think like it was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know you start going, you remember that you have
Speaker 2: you're sort of you're a blow because well it's like,
Speaker 2: oh no, I'm from an arts background, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: thinking like this.
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm a homely sort of you know, music carding this.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it was just it was bizarre. It was
Speaker 2: one of the weirdest things I've ever done, and I'm
Speaker 2: really glad I did it, but I never wanted to
Speaker 2: do it with again.
Speaker 1: So then you come back and go pretty much straight
Speaker 1: to work. This is in in Sister Ray. I still
Speaker 1: call it selected disc in my mind. Yes, I had
Speaker 1: to catch myself.
Speaker 2: So when I first started going, I always remembered it
Speaker 2: as selected discs. I started going when I was about
Speaker 2: twelve minears over the road and stuff.
Speaker 1: That's a paper chase. Now, it's very depressing, sad.
Speaker 2: It's depressing that you see like couples come in to
Speaker 2: bloke go downstairs and the wife I'm just go to
Speaker 2: paper and that really upsets me. You know, not obviously
Speaker 2: not all the time, but I'll wait for the paper chase.
Speaker 2: What is in there? What people find it's wrapping.
Speaker 1: Paper, wrapping paper, and kind of like ironic cards. I think.
Speaker 2: I think the only good place to buy gift cards
Speaker 2: at corner.
Speaker 1: Shops absolutely the one across the road from here. I
Speaker 1: brought up all of that, all of that gift cards
Speaker 1: because they're old. They're not going to restock them. I
Speaker 1: think they've been in there since, you know, nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 2: So the ones where they're really shuddly made and it's
Speaker 2: just like a picture of two wine glasses and congratulations.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or it's like an embossed football football boot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Yeah, they're great.
Speaker 1: I love Happy Birthday Dad that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: What's great about them is they're like they're from a
Speaker 1: pre ironic age, aren't they. There's no that's so honest
Speaker 1: and sweet.
Speaker 2: There's something with modern culture in general is that everything
Speaker 2: has some sort of niche boutique vibe, now.
Speaker 1: Some gag in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I just want everything to be ship like it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, paper chases. The paper chase excels in that does
Speaker 1: like I think, like kind of little nods.
Speaker 2: And things, fancy ribbon.
Speaker 1: How is the record shop very well because in a way,
Speaker 1: like we like when we were going in on the
Speaker 1: guitar shops, and we were talking about how guitar shops
Speaker 1: are particularly kind of weird. It's a weird specialist place
Speaker 1: where you feel awkward as soon as you've gone in,
Speaker 1: and the dudes there are kind of quite weak, sometimes
Speaker 1: quite dewavy guys. They want to prove that they know
Speaker 1: about Yeah, they.
Speaker 2: Know who Stephen Wilson is.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Really, I'm really proud of it. And it's to
Speaker 1: a lesser extent for sure, But like record shops do
Speaker 1: fill some people with that similar kind of dread. I
Speaker 1: think I get when I'm record shopping, especially if I'm
Speaker 1: buying a classic, if I'm buying a Beatles album or
Speaker 1: an Elton John record or something, I kind of I'm
Speaker 1: embarrassed when I'm paying.
Speaker 2: You mean, I had myself because I kind of.
Speaker 1: Just think you kind of want to say I work
Speaker 1: in I do know other music. I just want this one.
Speaker 2: It's like you just go up and whisper mertz bough
Speaker 2: so they know I know about noise music. It's fine, No,
Speaker 2: I had that, well, you before I worked in CISTER.
Speaker 2: I used to work in Musical Video Exchange, which I
Speaker 2: think at one point was voted the rudous shop in London.
Speaker 1: It's just the Camden one.
Speaker 2: No, the Camden one was the only one I didn't
Speaker 2: work and I worked in the notting Hill on Greenwich
Speaker 2: one and the Soho one, and I remember once it's
Speaker 2: bloke I was working with and there were so many
Speaker 2: members of staff. Because the way you get the job
Speaker 2: as you do a written test on music. No you don't, yeah, genuinely,
Speaker 2: you don't do an interview that if you pass the test,
Speaker 2: it's questions like which band is Brian Chippendale in Lightning Bolts.
Speaker 2: It's just like, you know, really, where is Touch and
Speaker 2: Go Records based, like really incredibly meticulous question, but.
Speaker 1: All kind of from Is it all from like a
Speaker 1: DIY hardcore punk?
Speaker 2: No, it is across across the po. They even do
Speaker 2: it with the closed shops, the book shops, musical video
Speaker 2: shows because they've got all the different So when you
Speaker 2: sit down and there's a school desk in one of
Speaker 2: the shops where prospective shop workers have to go and
Speaker 2: do this written test, and you sit in this school
Speaker 2: school desk and do this five page test. So the
Speaker 2: first one is rock and pop, the second one is
Speaker 2: sole music, the third one is dance music. The fourth
Speaker 2: one is books. The fifth one is designer clothes.
Speaker 1: So you can you can kind of swat up for it.
Speaker 1: But you don't know what's on the test, right, but
Speaker 1: they tell you beforehand you're going to do the test.
Speaker 2: You phone up the owner. I don't know if it's changed.
Speaker 2: I worked there a long time ago, but so I
Speaker 2: went in. I asked for a job. They said, okay,
Speaker 2: we'll call the owner. The owner. I'm on the phone
Speaker 2: to the owner, who I also the whole I worked
Speaker 2: there for a while. I only met him once. He
Speaker 2: never came in the shop. So I spoke on the phone.
Speaker 2: He went, name all the members of the smiths. Okay,
Speaker 2: name all the members of Roxy music. Okay, you got
Speaker 2: come down Sunday. We'll give you the test. And that's it.
Speaker 2: And then I went down. Did the test? You're there
Speaker 2: for half an hour? Got it? Yeah? Got the test?
Speaker 1: Did they give you a past grade or is it
Speaker 1: just pass or fail?
Speaker 2: I think you have to get like eighty percent or
Speaker 2: above to get through, and like like, for instance, at
Speaker 2: that point, this is I didn't know that much about
Speaker 2: dance music, so I wouldn't have been I only worked
Speaker 2: in the rock and pop shop. I wouldn't work in
Speaker 2: the okay, so you have special So there's five pages
Speaker 2: so they can determine which shops you like, I did
Speaker 2: days in the clothes shop because I didn't too badly
Speaker 2: do too bad on the clothes, even though I'm not
Speaker 2: really a fashion guy at all.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So it's just a bizarre way to get a job.
Speaker 2: And the way that the thing that that sets up
Speaker 2: is somebody who I mean, it just it plays to
Speaker 2: people's autism. You know, somebody who's slightly autistic would be
Speaker 2: brilliant at the test but terrible at dealing with people.
Speaker 2: And that was common in the in the shop and that,
Speaker 2: you know, and I had it once. There was one
Speaker 2: bloke played this roy Wood record I like Boulders and
Speaker 2: it came on and I went up to it, went
Speaker 2: up to them and this is a guy like a colleague,
Speaker 2: and I went brilliant choice, love this Roywood record. And
Speaker 2: he just didn't say anything. He just looked at the
Speaker 2: floor and it was like, I work with you. I'm
Speaker 2: just I'm saying good choice, you know, how are you?
Speaker 2: It's rude to me, You're like I passed the test, mate, Yeah,
Speaker 2: but he worked for that. He wrote for the wire.
Speaker 2: So that.
Speaker 1: Explains it all. Well, I mean that's good. That's good
Speaker 1: to know that, because I kind of feel maybe I'm
Speaker 1: I being paranoid when I'm feeling awkward in a record shop.
Speaker 2: And maybe I think that's natural. But I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: it's changes from shop to shop I guess, or who's
Speaker 2: working there, but it's it goes hand in hand. People
Speaker 2: people who know that much about music are always slightly dysfunctional,
Speaker 2: so it's sort of and also it's a it's a
Speaker 2: hard thing when like if somebody's being rude. If it's
Speaker 2: like a rich person who's buying a dire Straits record
Speaker 2: has been really rude to you, you're sort of like
Speaker 2: you're buying terrible music. You've been horrible to me. Stop.
Speaker 2: You get a lot a lot of that, and people,
Speaker 2: because it's a niche market, people get confused about how
Speaker 2: the stuff works a lot of the time as well.
Speaker 2: So you hear the same question over and over and
Speaker 2: over again. So I can understand it. I mean, I'm never,
Speaker 2: I say I'm never. I try never to be rude
Speaker 2: to people. I don't think you know, anybody deserves it ever,
Speaker 2: whatever they're buying or you know, and I don't subscribe
Speaker 2: to that sort of thing, and I don't think anybody
Speaker 2: in the shop that I work out does. And I
Speaker 2: think also that that has sort of over time. I
Speaker 2: think maybe because of the market, the record market crashing
Speaker 2: in like the late noughties. I think that changed people
Speaker 2: like I have to be a bit nice enough. You
Speaker 2: have to, you know, put a bit more effort in
Speaker 2: because otherwise I just won't have a job. So that's
Speaker 2: that's character. Also fucking that trip advisor stuff as well,
Speaker 2: you know that's true. Yeah, so you you can be
Speaker 2: reviewed in any way at any time, so you always
Speaker 2: you know, you know. So I think I think it
Speaker 2: has gone down that sort of record shop rudeness over
Speaker 2: the line a few years.
Speaker 1: What is the thing with Whenever I go in a
Speaker 1: record shop and I consider myself that I know a
Speaker 1: bit about music, I don't think I could pass the
Speaker 1: test at all. I would be terrible at that.
Speaker 2: But nobody should be.
Speaker 1: Nobody should. It's weird if you can.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm slightly ashamed embarrassed that.
Speaker 1: You managed it. But whenever I go in a record shop,
Speaker 1: I very rarely recognize the song that's on on Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's that about is that on purpose? Like I feel
Speaker 1: like I've never gone in the car that playing. Well,
Speaker 1: I think we spoke about this before, like, yeah, they're
Speaker 1: playing you know doves playing that Coop song. Just think,
Speaker 1: what the fuck is this? I don't know what this is?
Speaker 2: Is like that, I don't know. It's like i've is there, like, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm a Beatles fanatic. I've never put the Beatles on
Speaker 2: in a shop.
Speaker 1: The only is that because you think, like would you
Speaker 1: be would would it be? Would that be bad form
Speaker 1: in the world of record? Would you have the.
Speaker 2: Hassle in the conversation with your co workers.
Speaker 1: Because would they be like, why are you doing this?
Speaker 2: Well, I've managed to convince some of my coworkers of
Speaker 2: some of Paul McCartney's genius recently, and that's my proudest achievement.
Speaker 2: At the shop, I'm the only person who likes the Beatles.
Speaker 2: I think maybe the owner likes the Beatles, but that's
Speaker 2: we've got over there. I love the pol yeah, my guy,
Speaker 2: but I put on McCartney too, and that's my go
Speaker 2: to one. If people don't like the Beatles, I put
Speaker 2: on McCartney too. I don't say it's Paul McCartney. I
Speaker 2: wait for somebody to go, what is this is bizarre,
Speaker 2: and you go, it's Paul McCartney in nineteen seventy nine
Speaker 2: and on the four track at home, and it completely
Speaker 2: changes their opinion and sort of I've managed to infiltrate
Speaker 2: some of that stuff at the shop. But again as well,
Speaker 2: I am still playing the weirdest Beatles affiliated records. The
Speaker 2: only other one I play is Approximately Infinite Universe by
Speaker 2: Yo Coono as well, which is a genius record, absolutely brilliant,
Speaker 2: but again, nobody ever knows that it's Yo Coo, and
Speaker 2: then once on they do, people look like their face
Speaker 2: drops when you tell it's It's like she's brilliant, She's
Speaker 2: Yokna was fantastic in every fucking way, but people just
Speaker 2: have this sigma with her, where as soon as you
Speaker 2: say it's a Yo ConA record, fuck fu shit. So
Speaker 2: it is is stuff like that, and I think there
Speaker 2: is a WE play a lot of Bowie and stuff
Speaker 2: like that, and there's common threads of what it is,
Speaker 2: but it's always we Like I started making a I
Speaker 2: was asked to do some Spotify playlist or something, and
Speaker 2: I didn't send it off. In the end, but I
Speaker 2: started making one which was just all really successful artists,
Speaker 2: but songs that you would never have heard of. The
Speaker 2: Frank Sinatra album Watertown that did terribly in nineteen sixty nine,
Speaker 2: which sounds like pet sounds. It's incredible, but it's just
Speaker 2: a completely unknown record.
Speaker 1: Why didn't you send this off? You should have sent
Speaker 1: this because I couldn't.
Speaker 2: I couldn't quite get it to the amount that I
Speaker 2: wanted it. I want it to be like fifteen songs.
Speaker 2: I think I got to like thirteen twelve thirteen, and
Speaker 2: I thought it needs to be a bit longer, but
Speaker 2: I'm going to try and do it. There's like a
Speaker 2: song called Tapio Catundra by The Monkeys, which is on
Speaker 2: their last album, which is brilliant, a Mike Nesmith song,
Speaker 2: and I'm trying to remember the others. Like I managed
Speaker 2: to get some really really like household names with just
Speaker 2: songs that like, if I play them to people, I
Speaker 2: can't believe this has been released, or it sounds nothing
Speaker 2: like the people and just just weird B sides and
Speaker 2: stuff like that. But I'm always looking for that. So
Speaker 2: I always like the record that nobody likes of an artist.
Speaker 2: There was a like with the Kinks. There is this
Speaker 2: record where Ray Davis made this TV musical in nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy six about is called Starmaker or something, and Ray
Speaker 2: Davies goes and it's like live TV audience. The Kink's
Speaker 2: playing on a stage in the background and he's acting,
Speaker 2: and he goes in and just knocks on this door
Speaker 2: at this this couple's house. He invites himself and he's like,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna turn your pathetic lives around and I'm going
Speaker 2: to make you into a start ah and like it's
Speaker 2: just insane, and he's so disparaging the whole way through.
Speaker 2: He's like, you look at this having toes for breakfast, pathetic?
Speaker 2: Do you not have any pati in? Like the whole
Speaker 2: record is this concept album of him just going your puny,
Speaker 2: little terrible lives and it fills me with such great
Speaker 2: joy and I play it to other people that this
Speaker 2: is the worst Kings album and I could imagine it
Speaker 2: and I'm like, it's genius, It's brilliant. So it is
Speaker 2: always that kind of thing. It's like, you know, in
Speaker 2: the cover features to talk about how much I I
Speaker 2: hate the Velvet Underground. Yeah, but just you know from
Speaker 2: the stigma that comes with him. But it's like the
Speaker 2: Lou Read album The Bells, which he did in nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy nine, which is all him trying to do. Yeah,
Speaker 2: funk album.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've heard that, brilliant Yeah, stupid me doing.
Speaker 2: This mad singing, like really trying to sing. It's so awful.
Speaker 2: But because it just sounds it sounds like a proper
Speaker 2: post punk crackle because it is. It sounds like something
Speaker 2: the pop group would do. But obviously he's not going
Speaker 2: for that. He is going for that major label I
Speaker 2: want to be a star thing, but it's coming off
Speaker 2: like early Why Records sort of thing. It's just bizarre.
Speaker 2: It's great and those sort of weird oddities are sort
Speaker 2: of what I really love. And it's amazing that there's
Speaker 2: so many that are out there that are still undiscovered
Speaker 2: that are actually genuinely brilliant. That Frank Sinatra record, it's
Speaker 2: not my favorite record ever. I'm not a huge Sinatra guy.
Speaker 2: I hate the whole stick really, to be honest, which
Speaker 2: is weird as well. I've been doing encores where I
Speaker 2: do That's life to a karaoke yeah back in I've
Speaker 2: heard yeah, but yeah, it's it's just a bizarre everybody
Speaker 2: should listen to it because it's just mad. It's really odd.
Speaker 2: But I think that is the case with most of
Speaker 2: the people working there. It is fine. The most obscure
Speaker 2: thing that is your identity. You have these records that
Speaker 2: nobody else has in the same way with like DJ
Speaker 2: culture or whatever, and it's always like you want to
Speaker 2: place that into your colleague that the colleague hasn't heard before,
Speaker 2: and he goes, that's brilliant, and now he'll do the
Speaker 2: same and then, which is great and a great environment
Speaker 2: to hear tons of music and sort of learn constantly
Speaker 2: about new start.
Speaker 1: Talking of McCartney, have you ever met Paul McCartney, I
Speaker 1: wish if you did meet him, what did you have
Speaker 1: any if anything you'd wanna what would you ask Paul
Speaker 1: McCartney or Ringo? That's we put Ringo in there as well.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't want to talk to Ringo because of the
Speaker 2: whole Brexit shit. Ringo can go fuck himself. He's the
Speaker 2: best drummer ever, but he can go fuck himself. McCartney,
Speaker 2: I think I would just talk about Secret Friend. I
Speaker 2: think Secret Friend is the thing which fascinates me the
Speaker 2: most that he did. It was just an incredible record.
Speaker 2: Off is the single that went with that McCartney two record,
Speaker 2: and it is just like the beginnings of dance music
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. I think, I just I just
Speaker 2: want to tell him how much I like it. I
Speaker 2: don't really know what i'd say. We me and a
Speaker 2: friend of mine talked about getting Paul and Linda McCartney
Speaker 2: tattoos on our forearms, like both having a portrait on
Speaker 2: either charm of Paul and Linda. And it got to
Speaker 2: the point where he'd even got a tattoo guy to
Speaker 2: book let us get it for free as well. He'd
Speaker 2: like managed to wang it would get these tattoos for free,
Speaker 2: and now I'm really glad. I'm very anti tattoos now
Speaker 2: as well. But I was like, okay, let's do it.
Speaker 2: And then it got to the day when we were
Speaker 2: going to do it, and I find him up. If
Speaker 2: I meet Paul McCartney at any point, I'm going to
Speaker 2: have tire a long sleeve T shirt and I'm not
Speaker 2: doing it. I'd want to be able to have my
Speaker 2: arms on show. I don't want him to think I'm
Speaker 2: with what if I just see him in the street.
Speaker 1: I want Paul to be able to see these arms
Speaker 1: for what they are.
Speaker 2: Indeed, I don't want him to judge me. And you know,
Speaker 2: you would be like, what the fucking would discussion that
Speaker 2: would really?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure he's seen he must have seen
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Yeah, but I do wander because most
Speaker 1: people that get those kind of things done would probably
Speaker 1: be the opposite to that, and they would say, there's
Speaker 1: Paul McCartney. Quick, I'm going to take your shirt off.
Speaker 1: You've got you've got his face on. He's not room.
Speaker 1: He won't know it's there as you show him, expecting
Speaker 1: like that celebrity bea at Port, McConnel or whoever, to go,
Speaker 1: oh wow, it.
Speaker 2: Must be in his mouth slightly every time he sees it.
Speaker 2: It'd be horrible. I mean, like I mean, in terms
Speaker 2: of me, I couldn't imagine what I think. It would
Speaker 2: just be how has your day been? It would be
Speaker 2: so minimal the conversation, because there's nothing I could say
Speaker 2: that would come close to sort of explaining how excited
Speaker 2: I was that I was meeting him, And I wouldn't
Speaker 2: want him to know. You know, I'm awful for that.
Speaker 2: If I meet somebody I really like I'll be really
Speaker 2: really like sort of cool about it. Mark Riley once
Speaker 2: brought to Alex Say. Mark Riley once brought the entire
Speaker 2: early lineup of The Fall, obviously apart from Mark Smith,
Speaker 2: to a Let's Wressel show, and I was fucking giddy.
Speaker 2: I was like, this is the coolest thing that's ever happened.
Speaker 2: I'm in South of playing this gig and nobody's apart
Speaker 2: from all of The Fall, all of like live CHARALSI
Speaker 2: are a Fall. You must have been at about seventeen seventeen, okay,
Speaker 2: Steve Hanley, the bass players in it till like nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety six. It's Mark and produced us. You know, after
Speaker 2: doing lots of sessions with him. I yasmin my girlfriends
Speaker 2: from Manchester and we when we go up for Christmas,
Speaker 2: we off and have a drink with Mark Bradley. We
Speaker 2: did a couple of years ago, and you know, he's
Speaker 2: become a pal. And Steve Hanley was like talking about
Speaker 2: He's like, oh, Mark says, you really like Paul McCartney
Speaker 2: and uh, Paul McCartney and Wings, And then they all
Speaker 2: started laughing liking Wings, and then I think I said
Speaker 2: Wings shit all over The Fall and it just ruined
Speaker 2: it for myself, and they all just looked at me
Speaker 2: like what is wrong with you? Like like just took
Speaker 2: it too far, And I was like, oh, no, I've
Speaker 2: just slagged off one of my favorite bands in the world.
Speaker 2: I've just off to their faces, all my favorite members
Speaker 2: of the Fall, I have just slagged off to their faces.
Speaker 2: And it was awful. And I since then, I think
Speaker 2: I'm just very unassuming with it because I know I
Speaker 2: have the capability to completely fuck it up and be horrible,
Speaker 2: and just like I get very defensive.
Speaker 1: I would have thought that they would have thought that
Speaker 1: was hilarious and been like, amazing, amazing, good on your kids.
Speaker 2: Like I think they probably did find it quite funny.
Speaker 2: But I think the panic of hearing myself say it
Speaker 2: means I can't even remember the reaction. I said something
Speaker 2: along those lines, maybe not as extreme, but it was
Speaker 2: definitely something disparaging about them, and it was just really
Speaker 2: And I think it was also the thing of like
Speaker 2: I was super like punk guy then as well, It's like,
Speaker 2: what's the most punk way I can react to this?
Speaker 2: I can really fucking go for yeah, and like it
Speaker 2: was just and I think I was did Mark Riley's
Speaker 2: show on Wednesday, and I was he was talking to me.
Speaker 2: He was talking about me and Mike from the band
Speaker 2: having a fist fight, seeing us having a fist fight
Speaker 2: outside the Star and Garter where we met all of them,
Speaker 2: And I think it was me saying that. He was
Speaker 2: then like getting he was getting angry. How could you
Speaker 2: say that to the fall having this fist fight outside
Speaker 2: because they was so stressed out that I said it,
Speaker 2: And you're.
Speaker 1: Like they slagged off Paula.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, nobody's watch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, don't care who you are, don't care if you
Speaker 1: are in the full Do you believe in like guilty
Speaker 1: pleasures in music? Do you not see? I know that
Speaker 1: I shouldn't write, but I think I do, and I
Speaker 1: think I actually think that quite it's quite good to
Speaker 1: have guilty pleasures. I mean, it's a weird thing, isn't it,
Speaker 1: Because the idea is essentially obviously that you shouldn't feel
Speaker 1: good about the music you like, you like what you like,
Speaker 1: that you shouldn't apologize for it at all. But the
Speaker 1: other day I was listening to sixteen Stone by Bush
Speaker 1: in my car and I was very thankful that there
Speaker 1: was no one else in the car when I was
Speaker 1: enjoying that because I also listened to it. I'm not
Speaker 1: listen to it for a long time. Remember it as
Speaker 1: a teenager and loved it and listened back to it
Speaker 1: and I realized this was only yesterday. I realized just
Speaker 1: how appalling it is, and especially the lyrics of it.
Speaker 1: I mean, the lyrics are so nonsensical. And it got
Speaker 1: me thinking about Gavin Rossdale. I'd seen him on TV
Speaker 1: recently and he was appalling and he did. He wasn't called,
Speaker 1: he didn't come across, he had no kind of humor
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: He's not the one, is he.
Speaker 1: He's not the guy, not at all as he was
Speaker 1: marketed to us. And I was thinking, yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a guilty pleasure me listening to this is that's a
Speaker 1: good thing. And I think that's okay because I'm aware
Speaker 1: of the fact it's crap.
Speaker 2: But I think that the what's different for me is
Speaker 2: that I'm just never I don't ever feel guilty. I
Speaker 2: don't have any over guilt, full stop. I don't have guilty. No,
Speaker 2: I'm an incredibly guilty person. It's the one thing I'm
Speaker 2: not guilty about. But it's I really don't I've never
Speaker 2: been embarrassed about anything that I like, and I think
Speaker 2: I'm very confident in the fact that even if it's
Speaker 2: something that's naff, I can point out what's a good song,
Speaker 2: what in it is a good what you like about it,
Speaker 2: because I have this weird thing where it's like I'm
Speaker 2: a music fan, but then I have this songwriter brain
Speaker 2: that even if I don't like something, I can appreciate
Speaker 2: the songwriting behind it. I can appreciate why people like it.
Speaker 2: The only thing that makes me angry is when I
Speaker 2: can't hear any merit in it, Like it sounds horrible.
Speaker 2: I don't like it, and it's poorly written, which is
Speaker 2: very common, you know, So I don't if I even
Speaker 2: if I don't like it at first, I can still
Speaker 2: see past it and sort of get a couple of
Speaker 2: bits where it's like that bit's good. I remember there
Speaker 2: was this Maximo Park song in like two thousand and seven,
Speaker 2: and I remember I really didn't like the whole song
Speaker 2: apart from one section.
Speaker 1: Is the big one, the big single, It was like.
Speaker 2: The second album. It's it was when he had the
Speaker 2: bowler hat, not the comb over. I'm with you the
Speaker 2: video where they're in a white room and there's they're
Speaker 2: just doubled. There's loads of them. Okay, do you remember that?
Speaker 1: I think I remember seven.
Speaker 2: And there was Yeah. I really just didn't get the
Speaker 2: song until this one bit came in. And I really
Speaker 2: like songs like that, where like there'll be one little
Speaker 2: segment that I like and then the rest of it
Speaker 2: I just hate. And I remember we were at Glastonbury.
Speaker 2: We kept on seeing these bands that, like, other people
Speaker 2: wanted to see and I didn't want to see. And
Speaker 2: then it would come to one song and I'd pick
Speaker 2: out like three phrases and go, yeah, yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 2: hate it. And it's sort of I do bits like that.
Speaker 2: But but with stuff like that, you know, I openly
Speaker 2: love Billy Joel. You know, there is there's people that
Speaker 2: I openly I don't care if people think it's ship.
Speaker 2: It is just they're wrong. It's they're wrong. It's really good.
Speaker 2: The Stranger by Billy Joel is a brilliant record, always
Speaker 2: will be. There is no there is no room for
Speaker 2: maneuvering with it. And Billy Joel's the only person I
Speaker 2: can really think of right now that I actually think
Speaker 2: people could see is a guilty thing people a while ago.
Speaker 2: I remember when we first started making music, Electric Light
Speaker 2: Orchestra was like one. People were not into Yellow. But
Speaker 2: I've always loved DLO. But now they seem hip again.
Speaker 1: Now everyone's in them. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Now it's not a guilty thing at all to
Speaker 2: like Yellow.
Speaker 1: It's the same with Fleetwood Mac, wasn't it. Yeah, remember,
Speaker 1: like everybody, there used to be a time when hearing
Speaker 1: a Fleetwood Mac tune in a shop would be like
Speaker 1: a little treat.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now you can't go into any you can't go into
Speaker 1: vintage clothes shop without them playing.
Speaker 2: It is the most vintage clothes shop music I've ever heard.
Speaker 2: I don't know why it has become that, because I
Speaker 2: remember when I first started going to vintage clothes shops
Speaker 2: it would always be like that rip it up and
Speaker 2: start again in compilation from that Simon Reynolds book or
Speaker 2: something like that would be scratchy post punk. And now
Speaker 2: it is just Fleetwood Mac all the time. Fleetwood Mac
Speaker 2: or UK garage.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, that's because the whole the nineties things coming.
Speaker 2: Back a big way. Yeah, and I love a bit
Speaker 2: of UK garage. There's nothing wrong with that. I think
Speaker 2: it was was it Tusk? I think that's the very
Speaker 2: Tusk because again because it wasn't rumors it was, you know,
Speaker 2: because it's slightly different, and Tusk is a weird record
Speaker 2: as well, the fact that Lindsay Bucking changes the studio
Speaker 2: to make it like a home studio.
Speaker 1: And it's weird that on the sleeve he is thanked
Speaker 1: by the band.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not seen.
Speaker 1: Fleetwood would like to thank Lindsay.
Speaker 2: I think I'm going to thank myself.
Speaker 1: That's that's nuts, isn't it. It's nuts thanking yourself in
Speaker 1: the third person, and.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of cocaine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like they signed off on that. He must have
Speaker 1: said I'd like you to thank me for my work
Speaker 1: on this and they went okay.
Speaker 2: So did they have individual thanks then?
Speaker 1: No, it's just him.
Speaker 2: Mac would like to thank Lindy.
Speaker 1: I think so, yeah, that's I might be right. I
Speaker 1: mean I might be paraphrasing, but he is especially picked out. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's all him.
Speaker 2: She's a witch anyway.
Speaker 1: So Greg, who I work with here. A couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, we were at Primavera sound. You were there,
Speaker 1: not playing, but he overheard you telling a story to
Speaker 1: your friends, which he then related to me, is like,
Speaker 1: oh I think he text that are it's about you?
Speaker 1: It was about you going for a job yeah sports Direct?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, yeah that is a good story.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that's a pretty much clean story, right.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm a foul mouth piece of ship, so
Speaker 2: I'm worried that it could be anything. Yeah, that I
Speaker 2: was signing on and this is when I was doing
Speaker 2: that wrestle and I was signing on, and I've been
Speaker 2: signing on for a while, and it got there. I've
Speaker 2: been putting his work program and it was like, you're
Speaker 2: going to lose your benefits if you don't go for
Speaker 2: this job interview at sports Direct?
Speaker 1: Which branch?
Speaker 2: Are we talking the fucking Stratford or Westfield? Miserable? So
Speaker 2: I went and I went to this office where you
Speaker 2: went and did the They basically watched you look for jobs,
Speaker 2: basically was what they were doing. They were like, Okay,
Speaker 2: meet here, we're all going to take you. It was
Speaker 2: me and three drug dealers basically going to this job
Speaker 2: interview at swarts Direct, one of which I was talking
Speaker 2: to and he was like, yeah, I used to be
Speaker 2: a manager at JJB Sports And I was like Okay, perfect,
Speaker 2: he's got it, but in actually I haven't fully it in.
Speaker 2: Before I even went, I made sure that I'd been
Speaker 2: up all night drinking in the clothes I was going
Speaker 2: to wear, so I smelled of booze. I really didn't
Speaker 2: want the job. So I was getting fucking ship face,
Speaker 2: wearing a brown corduroy's suit with a psychedelic green shirt.
Speaker 2: And I turned up at this thing with a I
Speaker 2: think a baseball cap, a green yeah, brown cord oroy
Speaker 2: suit and just looking like dressed like Sid Barrett. It was,
Speaker 2: you know, I was just thinking, what's the weirdest look
Speaker 2: I can go for? And they went, they took us.
Speaker 2: We all went on the train with this job center worker.
Speaker 2: Me and all the guys had like three phones, so
Speaker 2: it's obvious they're all dealers and none of them, none
Speaker 2: of us want this job.
Speaker 1: One of them is like, yeah, you're all trying to
Speaker 1: throw the job in a slightly different way.
Speaker 2: And he yeah. One of the guys talking to me,
Speaker 2: I used to be a manager at sports. I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: that's calm me down a bit. I went into the
Speaker 2: back room for this interview. I was the last person
Speaker 2: to be interviewed as well. I went in and the
Speaker 2: question started with like, first off, are you interested in sports?
Speaker 2: I go not really, not really my kind of thing,
Speaker 2: and he was like, is there any sports are interested?
Speaker 2: And I said dark. I was like, I do like
Speaker 2: watching darts over Christmas when it's on the BBC. But
Speaker 2: it's not like I'm getting going out of my way
Speaker 2: to watch darts, but when it's on BBC, I watch
Speaker 2: it because I like the darts. He was like, he said,
Speaker 2: we've got a dark section and nobody knows about darts.
Speaker 2: Ah fuck. You know. It started going downhill and he
Speaker 2: was like, so what have you done? Is like I
Speaker 2: used to work in a record shop. I and I
Speaker 2: was saying, you know, i'd done this fanzine when I
Speaker 2: was younger, and I used to do fanzines. And I'm
Speaker 2: really interested in art. Was the thing. I kept on saying,
Speaker 2: I'm really interested in art, just to basically tell him
Speaker 2: I'm not interested in this. I'm really interested in art.
Speaker 2: And then it got to the point where he was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: let's give you a couple of scenarios. What happens. You've
Speaker 2: got retail experience, you know, you got retail experience.
Speaker 1: So this is quite good, like he really wants to
Speaker 1: help you in a way.
Speaker 2: I realized that I'm just trying to get out of
Speaker 2: this as quickly as he says, all right, I can
Speaker 2: give you a scenario. There's a shoplifter in the shop.
Speaker 2: What is going to happen here? And I just went,
Speaker 2: you just got to get them at the shop. And
Speaker 2: then I said, the last thing you want is a
Speaker 2: shoplifter in your shop. Get him out. And that was
Speaker 2: my answer to the question. And then he said and
Speaker 2: then right at the end he said, I think maybe
Speaker 2: you should concentrate. No, before he said that, he said,
Speaker 2: what does he say? Once said, I'm going to get
Speaker 2: my bearings. He said, okay, so you'll be glad to
Speaker 2: hear you were the best candidate of the day. So
Speaker 2: he said, you're the best candidate of the day. And
Speaker 2: I'm just thinking, what the fuck of those other guys done?
Speaker 2: What the fuck of they said? They're all wearing pinstrip,
Speaker 2: so it's at least they're dressed properly, and I stink
Speaker 2: a booze dressed like Sid Barrett doesn't matter any fucking
Speaker 2: said you're the best of the day, and I was
Speaker 2: just like going no, don't give me a job please,
Speaker 2: and then finally went, now, I think you should concentrate
Speaker 2: on the art was what he said. And I got
Speaker 2: out of it, thank fucking Christ. And that was I
Speaker 2: was like, I have to get a job now because
Speaker 2: like and now I've got a job in the pub.
Speaker 2: That ended up making me make this record. But it
Speaker 2: was nightmarish.
Speaker 1: Do you think maybe they thought, oh, bless this guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they thought I was an odd ball.
Speaker 2: They knew the guy. There was stuff I was saying.
Speaker 2: I wish I had it recorded. I wish I like
Speaker 2: put a tape record in my pod because I knew
Speaker 2: I was going to do it and it would have
Speaker 2: made a brilliant like if I turn it into an
Speaker 2: article or something like that, it would have been great.
Speaker 2: But I should have recorded it. But I didn't have
Speaker 2: the foresight too. But he was just looking at me like,
Speaker 2: this guy is deranged. What he's saying makes this is
Speaker 2: the worst interview. But again, how bad could those other
Speaker 2: guys have been. One of them would managed a JJB sports.
Speaker 2: I don't know how it could have gone that badly.
Speaker 2: It was really just really really fucking strange, and then
Speaker 2: having this miserable journey back with the woman from the
Speaker 2: job center a bit pissed off with me as.
Speaker 1: Well, you know she's seen this before. She could tell
Speaker 1: that you just threw it.
Speaker 2: He knew that I was doing something, and there must
Speaker 2: be so many sort of art people on the dole
Speaker 2: who were sort of trying to get stuff done. Another
Speaker 2: friend of mine who was also signing on around a
Speaker 2: similar time, he went in and he like, I never
Speaker 2: said I was a musician or anything like that. He
Speaker 2: told them, Yeah, I'm I'm looking for a job in
Speaker 2: I'm a musician, you see, so I'm looking for job
Speaker 2: sort of to do with that. And then the bloke
Speaker 2: went okay, all right, and then went and what he's like,
Speaker 2: just give me, give me five minutes, and then went
Speaker 2: over and talked to his coworker and he my mate
Speaker 2: could see them both really laughing at him, pointing at
Speaker 2: him and laughing at and it kept on going on,
Speaker 2: and they all had a really weird attude to him
Speaker 2: after he said that, and it came out a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks later that they thought he said Magicians.
Speaker 1: Midnight Chats is a loud and quiet podcast. Music courtesy
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