Speaker 1: Loud and Quiet Presents Midnight Chats.
Speaker 2: Welcome to episode twenty one of the Loud and Quiet
Speaker 2: Interview podcast. Thank you for joining us once again, or
Speaker 2: maybe this is the first time you've listened. The good
Speaker 2: thing about the way we've been doing this and choosing
Speaker 2: the people that we interview, is that sometimes someone might
Speaker 2: just come by and discover us purely for a one
Speaker 2: off because they happen to be a fan of that artist,
Speaker 2: which is completely fine. Maybe this is the first time
Speaker 2: and the last time you will listen to this, I
Speaker 2: hope not. You can of course subscribe to the Midnight
Speaker 2: Chats either on iTunes or Stitcher. I believe is the
Speaker 2: big one that are on Android phone, or there's many
Speaker 2: others on Android. I think Android get a better deal.
Speaker 2: You can pick up podcasts from everywhere on Android, so
Speaker 2: find us. We're across all of those things. Or indeed,
Speaker 2: just enjoy this one episode because maybe you've tuned in
Speaker 2: purely as a fan of Blank Mass, who is also
Speaker 2: a member one half of Fuck Buttons, a band who
Speaker 2: have an expletive in their name, as I've just proven
Speaker 2: by saying that, but they're an amazing duo of Benjamin
Speaker 2: John Power who is also Blank Mass who I'm speaking
Speaker 2: to today, and a guy called Andrew Hung who met
Speaker 2: him Wooster when they were skateboarding as younger guys. And
Speaker 2: they've had an amazing career so far and released some
Speaker 2: very challenging and very interesting electronic music that's kind of
Speaker 2: noise is inspired by noise music and punk music as
Speaker 2: much as it is electronic music. They infamously soundtracked some
Speaker 2: of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: I speak about that a little bit with Ben, but
Speaker 2: not much because I feel like it might be the
Speaker 2: kind of thing that has ended up being the only
Speaker 2: thing that people speak to him about. We were mainly
Speaker 2: meeting up to speak about his new album, his solo
Speaker 2: album as Blank Mass, which is called World Eater. It's
Speaker 2: his third album, and it's a great record. It comes
Speaker 2: out next month on the third of March via an
Speaker 2: amazing label in the States called Sacred Bones, and it
Speaker 2: is a angry record for an angry time, I guess,
Speaker 2: but it's actually still got a lot of joy in it.
Speaker 2: I don't want to get to bog down in analyzing
Speaker 2: the record and what's so great about it. Basically We're
Speaker 2: big fans at Ladon Quiet of both Fuck Buttons and
Speaker 2: Ben's solo workers, Blank Mass and I met him in
Speaker 2: the most amazing place in one of an amazing recording
Speaker 2: studio here in London, in instant John's Wood, which is
Speaker 2: for anyone who hasn't been to that area of London
Speaker 2: or around there at all, it's a very posh part
Speaker 2: of town. It's very posh. It's around the corner from
Speaker 2: Abbey Road Recording Studios and Rack is as you're here.
Speaker 2: It's based in a old school. It used to be
Speaker 2: a Victorian school until a guy called Mickey Most from
Speaker 2: in the sixties. It was a record producer. He produced
Speaker 2: all sorts of people like Herman's Hermits, and I think
Speaker 2: he might have been the guy that also produced you
Speaker 2: Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate. Slightly different feel to Herman Hermits,
Speaker 2: but he was a great record producer and he started
Speaker 2: this recording studio which is where I met Ben, and
Speaker 2: we sat in what was his office, and he died
Speaker 2: in two thousand and three, and since then they've kind
Speaker 2: of left his office as almost as a I don't
Speaker 2: know shrines the right word day a museum piece. To
Speaker 2: Mickey most and it's an amazing old school recording studio office.
Speaker 2: It's still got his original massive, hulking wooden desk there,
Speaker 2: and his old chair that he'd sit behind every day,
Speaker 2: and all of these gold discs on the walls. It
Speaker 2: was just I was just really excited to be in
Speaker 2: that room, really, and I had a great conversation with
Speaker 2: Ben there. We were joined also by one of Ben's managers,
Speaker 2: or certainly part of his management team, lovely woman called Steph,
Speaker 2: who features on this podcast. Briefly she became inadvertently became
Speaker 2: a fact checker. I don't think she realized she was
Speaker 2: signing up for that when she sat in the room
Speaker 2: with us. But that third voice that you can hear
Speaker 2: is Steph. So thanks to Steph for clearing up some
Speaker 2: facts that we weren't too sure on, and yeah, let's
Speaker 2: just get into this now. Then this is my conversation
Speaker 2: with Benjamin John Power, who records under blank Mass when
Speaker 2: he's not in Fire Buttons. I do have it in
Speaker 2: good authority. We don't mention it here in this conversation
Speaker 2: that Funk Buttons will be back with a new record,
Speaker 2: hopefully next year. They are going to make some more
Speaker 2: music together, But for now it's all about Blank Mass
Speaker 2: and Ben's new record which is called World Eater, and
Speaker 2: that's out on the third of March on Sacred Bones.
Speaker 2: This is a pretty special room to be in.
Speaker 3: For this, Yes, Rack Studios.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is quite exciting for me because I don't
Speaker 2: even though I do what I do, I don't really
Speaker 2: get to go to any recording studios. And this is
Speaker 2: a really obviously a really infamous one. Yes, in a
Speaker 2: lovely area of London.
Speaker 3: Yes it is. And this used to be a school, right, Oh,
Speaker 3: I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: Actually, I was doing a bit of reading up.
Speaker 3: Yes, it was a school. Getting we're getting we're getting
Speaker 3: a nod over somebody in the Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think. Yeah, I was reading just a little bit
Speaker 2: about it, and I think it used to be a
Speaker 2: Victorian school, which I guess once you know that, you
Speaker 2: kind of get that from the outside of it.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's true.
Speaker 2: I don't know what room this would have been. This
Speaker 2: feels like it would have been.
Speaker 3: Well, this would have been the office.
Speaker 2: The office of the school.
Speaker 3: Oh right, I'm sorry, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: We are on what would have been the stage of
Speaker 2: the school.
Speaker 3: Wow, we've got we've got our history we've got our historian. Yeah,
Speaker 3: this is great, This is so really, I don't need
Speaker 3: to answer anything.
Speaker 2: No, it's okay, that's great. It's have you been have
Speaker 2: you been here before?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 2: What I mean what I was going to ask us?
Speaker 3: What? What? So?
Speaker 2: Why are we here? Why why have I come to me?
Speaker 3: Well? My managers work out of here. They work out
Speaker 3: of the office. In fact, you can see them just
Speaker 3: over here.
Speaker 2: And our is that them in the in the little
Speaker 2: corner one over there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Dave somewhere over there, and our local historian over
Speaker 3: here as well. Is work for work for the manager,
Speaker 3: the management?
Speaker 2: Good stuff. And have you recorded here at all?
Speaker 3: No? I couldn't afford that.
Speaker 2: This is like it because this is like quite old score,
Speaker 2: isn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we've got and you've got Abbey Road right just
Speaker 3: around the corners as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's a similar thing. There is something kind
Speaker 2: of very exciting and special about recordings I find personally,
Speaker 2: but maybe that's because I'm not a musician. Do you
Speaker 2: do you feel that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean I've I've I've been doing it from
Speaker 3: I've been recording from home for for a while now.
Speaker 3: But can I I can swear?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So I have to check. So with fuck Buttons. You know,
Speaker 3: our last couple of well, our first two albums, we
Speaker 3: actually went into studio, into the studio, into a studio,
Speaker 3: and it means it's kind of it's like an event,
Speaker 3: do you know what I mean, And you've got to
Speaker 3: get it done within this kind of space of time
Speaker 3: or else you have to go back.
Speaker 2: Is that a stress?
Speaker 3: That is? I mean no, I mean, you know, we
Speaker 3: we never We've never written in the studio, if you
Speaker 3: see what I mean. We've always gone to get it down,
Speaker 3: to get it, to get the recording down. And I
Speaker 3: guess it can be a stress, but you just have
Speaker 3: to you just have to do it. You just have
Speaker 3: to work. You can't work at you know, a snail's pace.
Speaker 3: I tend to prefer doing things in my own space
Speaker 3: because I can go back to things, say at the
Speaker 3: middle of the night and things like that, you know,
Speaker 3: if something comes to me or but I mean, it's
Speaker 3: definitely a thing. I mean, the world that I that
Speaker 3: I operate in, I think, you know, most people are
Speaker 3: doing it from home, and most of them can't necessarily
Speaker 3: afford to go to a studio. That so I do
Speaker 3: like the freedom that you have with home recording setup.
Speaker 2: Do you mainly recall at night?
Speaker 3: No, I don't. Actually, I'm actually quite I'm actually quite disciplined.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm in the studio by half eight nine
Speaker 3: every day when I'm at home, unlike a lot of musicians,
Speaker 3: I would say, and I usually kind of stop when
Speaker 3: my wife gets home from work unless there's something pressing
Speaker 3: that needs to be done. But I do tend to
Speaker 3: keep office hours, which I think is kind of good
Speaker 3: for my mental balance.
Speaker 2: I think I've started to do that this year. Yeah,
Speaker 2: because otherwise you do dedrive yourself insane, don't you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you can just work. So when your wife comes home,
Speaker 2: that's the that's when you go, right, my day's down now?
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, mainly because if dinner's not on the table
Speaker 3: when she gets home, she's not a happy But you're
Speaker 3: in trouble. Yeah, I'm in trouble, or at least made
Speaker 3: to feel like I'm in trouble. But I mean, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean obviously, from time to time, you have you know,
Speaker 3: you have to pull like a sixteen hour shift shift
Speaker 3: or whatever theyn'd like to call it a shift because
Speaker 3: that deglamorizes it a little bit. But you know essentially
Speaker 3: they are sometimes, but yeah, generally I kind of stick
Speaker 3: to her, a stick to you know, the office hours.
Speaker 3: That's good for want of a better. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So when I was reading up about Rack, because I thought,
Speaker 2: you know, I should come with some facts, like the school.
Speaker 3: Facts you're going to you're going to tell me more
Speaker 3: than I know.
Speaker 2: What I was going to say, I was looking at
Speaker 2: other other people that have recorded here. Yeah, who can
Speaker 2: afford to record here? This list of names I could have?
Speaker 2: Could you look at it? I'll read you a few.
Speaker 2: The list has hit me. This is tip of the
Speaker 2: icebergs because Sting was on the list as well, but
Speaker 2: I've not included him. Of course, of course was there,
Speaker 2: of course he was. Okay, the list, I've written down
Speaker 2: some big names as David Bowie, Yeah, Michael Jackson here here,
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson here, Michael Jackson here.
Speaker 3: Okay, now I'm impressed.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's good, right, Yeah, Michael Jackson's a good one.
Speaker 2: Al Green all right, Pink Floyd kind of get that,
Speaker 2: that makes sense, right, yeah, Adele Shakira, wow XTC all right,
Speaker 2: Radiohead they.
Speaker 3: Didn't do they didn't record plans for Nigel.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what they recorded it. This is the thing.
Speaker 2: It didn't actually tell me.
Speaker 3: What is the local historian? Okay, what album did.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll look into that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe yeah find out Yeah.
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe google that. Yeah, come back to us. We're
Speaker 2: checking on that in a minute. Depeche Mode, Radiohead and
Speaker 2: Shed seven. All right, Okay, that's.
Speaker 3: A that's a list.
Speaker 2: It's a list, isn't it.
Speaker 3: It's a good list. It's also maybe the local historian
Speaker 3: can find out which depeche Mode album or whatever was
Speaker 3: recorded here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great having a line research. I know, this
Speaker 2: is this is excellent.
Speaker 3: So good. Well, I mean you've already clearly done your research,
Speaker 3: but me, I've just got Yeah, look at me, shirking
Speaker 3: responsibility over here.
Speaker 2: Do any of those names do anything for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course. Yeah. Michael Jackson was I was beyond
Speaker 3: obsessed with Michael Jackson as a child too. Yeah. I
Speaker 3: actually went to see Michael Jackson on his Dangerous World tour.
Speaker 3: My mother took me from my a birthday, maybe nine ten,
Speaker 3: I can't remember what year it was even, but that
Speaker 3: was that was.
Speaker 2: Something I went to. The History tour.
Speaker 3: Oh okay, that's show.
Speaker 2: That was the first show I went to and it's
Speaker 2: my it's my that is my brag. Yeah, the right
Speaker 2: thing that I'd say. I'd say it to a lot
Speaker 2: of people.
Speaker 3: That was the first concert you went yeah, yeah Son.
Speaker 2: You yeah, Yeah, it's I mean, it doesn't really get
Speaker 2: much better. What was it? Was it the Wembley show
Speaker 2: you went to?
Speaker 3: It was the Wembley Show. Yeah, he left where arena
Speaker 3: in a jet path.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I saw it. I remember watching it on TV.
Speaker 3: Yeah in another interview. Actually I mentioned this the other day,
Speaker 3: but I remember there was like one of these Michael
Speaker 3: Jackson looking like kind of people milling around in the
Speaker 3: crowd before the show, dressed up, you know, exactly like him,
Speaker 3: looking exactly like him, and I was convinced that this
Speaker 3: was Michael Jackson, and I was like I had to.
Speaker 3: I was trying to get my mom to let me
Speaker 3: go go and introduce me to him, and she's like,
Speaker 3: it's not him. It's like, get his look, clearly.
Speaker 2: Not saying yeah, so I'll come on, then let's go
Speaker 2: meet Michael.
Speaker 3: Come on. Yeah. I could have met Michael Jackson that
Speaker 3: day in my own mind, but there we go.
Speaker 2: So you grew up on Michael Jackson.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for a couple of years. Yeah, but you know
Speaker 3: I was a big fan. Yeah. Yeah, that was my
Speaker 3: first kind of music that I got really really into
Speaker 3: as a kid, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, was it the Dangerous album? Was it bad?
Speaker 3: It was bad? Actually, I think that got me into
Speaker 3: it and then and then I was still in to
Speaker 3: it become Dangerous. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He lost me after Dangerous, to be honest.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I grew up a little bit after that.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's terrible to say. I still love Michael Jackson,
Speaker 3: but you know, when you when you go, I guess
Speaker 3: I discovered punk music shortly afterwards or something, you know. Sure.
Speaker 2: So this is whilst you're you were living in Worcester
Speaker 2: at the time, Yeah, which is where you grew up?
Speaker 2: You were born there?
Speaker 3: I was actually born in London, okay. Yeah. My mum
Speaker 3: and dad when they were together, used to run the
Speaker 3: Museum Tavern pub. Yeah, the Museum Tavern. It's in Kensington,
Speaker 3: I believe, I know. I'm so sorry. Yeah, it's it's
Speaker 3: by like the Natural History Museum that kind of very
Speaker 3: but it's called the Museum Tavern and that's where I was.
Speaker 3: I mean, I was born where I lived when I
Speaker 3: was first.
Speaker 2: Born, And what aged you move to Worcester.
Speaker 3: And I'll say three years old. This I'm really terrible
Speaker 3: at years and stuff, but it was around the age
Speaker 3: of three or something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I went to Worcester fairly recently. My brothers moved
Speaker 2: up that way. Oh okay, I went up. I'm pretty
Speaker 2: sure it was. It was Worcester. I went on the
Speaker 2: cathedral roof. Oh yeah, that's the thing, right.
Speaker 3: Worcester Cathedral is a beautiful cathed.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, first use of flying buttresses. I believe that's a
Speaker 3: good fact.
Speaker 2: That's the kind of stuff this podcast.
Speaker 3: Now. Yeah, in the in the UK or maybe even Europe.
Speaker 3: King John is buried there.
Speaker 2: He is, but when I was there, there was some
Speaker 2: scaffolding over his because it's inside, isn't it.
Speaker 3: It's inside, he's right in the middle. Yeah, he's toomb
Speaker 3: or whatever.
Speaker 2: Then the concert going on and i'd put in rate seating.
Speaker 2: Okay I missed that. But you go up on the
Speaker 2: roof and you have to climb up. It feels like
Speaker 2: you're climbing up like a hidden staircase.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It is a little bit, isn't it. But it's beautiful.
Speaker 3: And my other Worcester Cathedral fact is that it was
Speaker 3: used on the twenty on the back of the twenty
Speaker 3: pound notes for a very long time.
Speaker 2: Okay, so what was Worster like as you were growing
Speaker 2: up post Michael Jackson? It was teenage times.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was pretty good. I mean I was listening
Speaker 3: to a lot of punk and hardcore at the time,
Speaker 3: and there were some guys that used to put shows
Speaker 3: on in you know, whichever whichever pub would let them
Speaker 3: have the back function room or whatever for you know,
Speaker 3: two quid or something like that, and they wouldn't get like,
Speaker 3: you know, huge names or whatever, but you know, anyone
Speaker 3: who was kind of on the touring circuit, they would
Speaker 3: kind of bring through a lot of metal and things
Speaker 3: like that, you know. So you know, it was fine.
Speaker 3: And I used to spend a lot of time skateboarding and.
Speaker 2: Was that were you were quite an outgoing kid.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say so, yeah, yeah, I was. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's actually how I met Andy, you know, from from
Speaker 3: my from my band was through skateboarding and Worcester.
Speaker 2: Right, he was doing it as well. Yeah, So when
Speaker 2: you meet Andy, was it a case of was that
Speaker 2: pure luck? Because of what because of the music of
Speaker 2: Fuck Buttons is is a very specific sound.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I grew up in South End, and if I had
Speaker 2: been into that sound, yeah, I think the chance of
Speaker 2: me finding the other person in South End that liked
Speaker 2: that would be so slim. Was it like that or
Speaker 2: was there kind.
Speaker 3: Of No, it was a little different. Actually. I actually
Speaker 3: met Andy through some mutual friends and we skateboarded a
Speaker 3: little bit together, you know, when we lived in Worcester.
Speaker 3: Then I didn't see him for a long time until
Speaker 3: I went to Bristol. I went to university in Bristol.
Speaker 3: I studied illustration and then I recognized Andy as someone
Speaker 3: being from Worcester and I was like, oh, hey, you
Speaker 3: know we used to scape together and we actually started
Speaker 3: the band in Bristol, and there was like, you know,
Speaker 3: like kind of a lot of like minded people who
Speaker 3: liked weird music in Bristol, so he was just one
Speaker 3: of those people. But it kind of it more came
Speaker 3: about because we knew each other from years ago when
Speaker 3: we used to skateboard when we were teenagers, and.
Speaker 2: You knew, did you did you when you met him
Speaker 2: you were did you instantly kind of click into what
Speaker 2: became the fuck button sound he had.
Speaker 3: He was making, you know, short films for his fine
Speaker 3: art course, and and we thought we'd hope we used
Speaker 3: to we used to go out drinking and stuff together
Speaker 3: or whatever, and we decided that we would have a
Speaker 3: crack at soundtracking one of these short films he made
Speaker 3: and then and it worked out pretty well, so we
Speaker 3: just carried on making music from there.
Speaker 2: Really, And do you still skateboard now?
Speaker 3: No? I don't.
Speaker 2: When was the last time? When was the last time
Speaker 2: you were on escape?
Speaker 3: When was the last time I was on a skateboard?
Speaker 3: There's there's a skateboard in my in my hallway at
Speaker 3: the moment that I can't can't get rid of, just
Speaker 3: in case. But I mean, last time I went to
Speaker 3: a skate park with a friend of mine who lives
Speaker 3: in London called Conan, And we went to a skate
Speaker 3: park maybe about six years ago, and all the kids
Speaker 3: were just tearing it up. You know, it's just embarrassing.
Speaker 3: I felt like an embarrassing dad or something, trying to
Speaker 3: you know, like I was maybe going through a midlife
Speaker 3: crisis or something. But if I was good, I wouldn't
Speaker 3: have felt like that. But they were all so much
Speaker 3: better them, And I was like, we got to we've
Speaker 3: got to put an end to this.
Speaker 2: Right now, I live opposite at a skate park in
Speaker 2: Camden and some of the kids in there are like
Speaker 2: five year old.
Speaker 3: Unbelievable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fearless. I think it's the fearless nature youth, isn't it,
Speaker 2: I guess. But a lot of them are in there
Speaker 2: on scooters.
Speaker 3: Now, oh okay, I mean whatever whatever you want, that's fine.
Speaker 2: But there's kind of like tribes. You know, there's like
Speaker 2: a scooter tribe, and then there's the tables are amazing,
Speaker 2: and that's such tiny kids. It's a it makes you sick,
Speaker 2: doesn't I never really got very far with it. I
Speaker 2: used to be. I used to speak quite into it,
Speaker 2: but I could only ever Ollie upper curve was. That
Speaker 2: was as good as I got.
Speaker 3: I got, all right, I used to I used to
Speaker 3: throw myself off like big sets of stairs and I
Speaker 3: would have like a maybe you know, maybe one out
Speaker 3: of ten success rate or something like that. I mean,
Speaker 3: I was never very technical, but I had some I
Speaker 3: had some balls, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's half the battle.
Speaker 3: I think that's half the battle. But now I just
Speaker 3: if I break something, do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: I can't I can't do my job.
Speaker 2: And you'd have to explain at the hospital that you
Speaker 2: were skateboarding.
Speaker 3: And they're like, yeah, they'd be grow up. Come on.
Speaker 3: It's terrible to say, though, because like you know, there
Speaker 3: are still people our age who do it and are good,
Speaker 3: are great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I guess you just need to kicked in it.
Speaker 2: But I mean punk, the punk music you were listening
Speaker 2: to at the time, that just goes so hand in
Speaker 2: hand with skating and that cultures, that culture.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they definitely. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Who were the big bands for you?
Speaker 3: The big bands for me? I mean, you know when
Speaker 3: I went through a lot of phases as well during
Speaker 3: that time. I mean I would listen to stuff like
Speaker 3: The Misfits and No Effects, even things like that, you
Speaker 3: know when I first.
Speaker 2: Because we're around the same age, and I remember that.
Speaker 3: Duff like that, who I still have time for around
Speaker 3: I still have time for all these bands. Really not
Speaker 3: so much No Effects anymore, but I would listen to
Speaker 3: it if it came on. And then I guess grunge
Speaker 3: happened after that, and Nirvana were the big thing for me,
Speaker 3: who I still love and Sound Garden, But I mean, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean that that kind of culture. Skating definitely goes
Speaker 3: hand in hand with it, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: So you started Funck Buttons in in Bristol and then
Speaker 2: moved to London, I presume, Yeah.
Speaker 3: That's right. I actually I actually moved back to Worcester
Speaker 3: for a little bit and then moved to London pretty
Speaker 3: much when Funck Buttons first started, just before our first tour.
Speaker 3: I actually I moved to London just before that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, on the on the name fuck Buttons. I've only
Speaker 2: mentioned this because.
Speaker 4: Because you mentioned it, Because I like that that you
Speaker 4: had to say earlier.
Speaker 2: I was just swear it's.
Speaker 3: Okay to such a polite nihilist. I like that.
Speaker 2: It's got to a point where because I remember fun
Speaker 2: Buttons coming out, I remember the first record and thinking, what,
Speaker 2: you know, what a great name. But I never really
Speaker 2: thought it would be an issue like the expletiff in
Speaker 2: it because of the world you exist in. But now
Speaker 2: there is times where I would see it written as
Speaker 2: f buttons in things.
Speaker 3: I mean when we when we first started it, we
Speaker 3: didn't think we were going to be playing anywhere outside
Speaker 3: of the pub down the road in Bristol, do you
Speaker 3: know what I mean? And there were a couple of
Speaker 3: occasions where there was talk of some kind of self
Speaker 3: censor censorship. But my you know, my my roots and
Speaker 3: the punk in me would be like, well you know that,
Speaker 3: Why why should I change my name for somebody else's benefit.
Speaker 3: I'm still glad we didn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Does it feel with the places that the band's gone to,
Speaker 2: which essentially well, I mean when you see it edited,
Speaker 2: it's because it's in a realm that is probably outside
Speaker 2: where you thought it would be existing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, so for example the Olympics.
Speaker 3: You know when when they use blank masks and funk
Speaker 3: buttons in the Olympics, it's it's f buttons, you know,
Speaker 3: because you know it's our family show.
Speaker 2: You can't lord co.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, that's right. The Queen will be there, you know.
Speaker 2: Did that around that whole time of of I mean,
Speaker 2: I mean I remember watching the Olympic opening ceremony. I'm
Speaker 2: a big fan of the Olympics. Anyway, Yeah, I get
Speaker 2: quite caught up in it. I was very excited about
Speaker 2: it being here, and we had a party at my
Speaker 2: friend's house and we for the opening. Yeah, and as
Speaker 2: soon as it started and funck buns. It was the
Speaker 2: first sound of it.
Speaker 3: Pretty much opening kind of like video sequence.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I was with a friend of mine who
Speaker 2: who knows your music as well, but a lot of
Speaker 2: my other friends don't, and we kind of looked at
Speaker 2: each other, It's like, that's a that's a fun bun
Speaker 2: so And that was kind of like did it go?
Speaker 2: Did your phone go? Mentor?
Speaker 3: At that point, I think enough people knew that about it.
Speaker 3: I mean we had to sign obviously side disclaimers and
Speaker 3: stuff like that, but you know, close family and stuff.
Speaker 2: They I was like, you know, they were tuning in
Speaker 2: to watch it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, but I mean it did to a
Speaker 3: certain degree. Yeah, I would be lying if I say
Speaker 3: it didn't. Is this your music?
Speaker 2: And there were some blank mask tracks on there as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was actually more blank musters and than fuck
Speaker 3: buttons in there. Whenever a flag, whenever there was any.
Speaker 2: It was a flag thing, wasn't it. They were like
Speaker 2: when the torch came in, The torch came in.
Speaker 3: That was always That was always sundown from the first
Speaker 3: blank Mass album with the London Symphony Orchestra, which I
Speaker 3: went to see being recorded around the corner at Abbey Road,
Speaker 3: and that was quite something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, was that in the big room there.
Speaker 3: That was in the big room. Yeah, there was like
Speaker 3: a sixty strong string section and a thirty strong brass section,
Speaker 3: you know, the London Symphony Orchestra. Wow. And Rick Smith
Speaker 3: took me in to meet them all and I was
Speaker 3: like bloody yell and so.
Speaker 2: They kind of are you introduced to the orchestra and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: and you.
Speaker 3: Do a little bout that, just a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's quite an experience too. Yeah, that was
Speaker 2: very cool to kind of do that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Is soundtracking something that soundtracking seems so? I mean you
Speaker 2: say that you and Andy started off soundtracking some.
Speaker 3: Of his yeah, like a short, like a UNI project basically, but.
Speaker 2: That kind of feels like now the music you make
Speaker 2: is so fit.
Speaker 3: For Yes, I mean everything, you know, all of these
Speaker 3: albums have such like a strong sense of narrative in
Speaker 3: them any anything that I do, I mean, yeah, soundtracking
Speaker 3: is something that I've done a little bit of, but
Speaker 3: I want to and hopefully I'm going to be doing
Speaker 3: a lot more of. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And now you're not living down here at all.
Speaker 3: You're living in Edinburgh, just outside of Edinburgh, now, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Where you've been for maybe a couple of years, because
Speaker 2: I remember you were in the magazine three years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, three years.
Speaker 2: What was it that made you want to get out
Speaker 2: of this town?
Speaker 3: Well, my wife and I wanted to get out of
Speaker 3: London because it was starting to get a little a
Speaker 3: little claustrophobic, and obviously we wanted to find somewhere that
Speaker 3: could be ours. And you know, she was actually born
Speaker 3: in Edinburgh. I really liked it from when I'd been
Speaker 3: touring there, you know, and I was whenever we were there,
Speaker 3: I just felt this kind of you know, I could
Speaker 3: really see myself living here. You know, it's beautiful, you know,
Speaker 3: the architectures are Gothic and it's really it's really nice.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so that was that, really, And we lived
Speaker 3: in town for the first year when we arrived, like
Speaker 3: right in, right in the city center, and now we
Speaker 3: live it's fifteen miles outside of town and it's a
Speaker 3: little more rural, but it definitely is a change from
Speaker 3: living next door to the Shackle Arms, which I did
Speaker 3: for about six years.
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, Yeah, Well you like in what in that
Speaker 2: row of building that's is directly next door to the pub.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that Band of Horrors had Yeah, yeah, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's where I lived, all right, okay, Yeah, my Lafe's place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I went there once to do to meet him.
Speaker 2: I had like a little courtyard and it used to
Speaker 2: be like a dairy farm or.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, it used to be a dairy and
Speaker 3: fuck Buttons actually had he had. I made a studio
Speaker 3: space in there for fuck Buttons, right, and well I'm
Speaker 3: black mass as well in that courtyard, but which I
Speaker 3: believe I actually yeah, I don't know. I was about
Speaker 3: to say such and such has it now, but I
Speaker 3: don't know if that's right, is it?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 3: Because there might be people fans of fans of mister
Speaker 3: slash missus X that I maybe shouldn't mention. Okay, maybe
Speaker 3: people already. No, I don't know. But anyway, there's a
Speaker 3: studio in that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is right in the middle of that's in
Speaker 2: the thick of it, though, I mean a busy place
Speaker 2: to be I imagine.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean my bedroom window faced onto the street outside
Speaker 3: the sheackle well arms as well, so when chucking out time,
Speaker 3: it was very difficult to not get woken up.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. Yeah, So what's what's
Speaker 2: your kind of basic typical daily regime up in Scotland
Speaker 2: in the studio at eight.
Speaker 3: I mean really depending on what time my wife goes
Speaker 3: to work, because I get it when she does. And yeah,
Speaker 3: then I go into the studio, maybe to answer a
Speaker 3: couple of emails, maybe I don't, depending on what's going on.
Speaker 3: And then yeah, straight into the studio.
Speaker 2: And is that a case of you just making things?
Speaker 2: You just constantly in there making music. It's not like
Speaker 2: you're in the studio, but you're in the studio providing
Speaker 2: you've decided you're going to make this new record for example.
Speaker 3: I mean, it depends what's going on. You know. Sometimes
Speaker 3: there's remixes and things like that to do, or you know,
Speaker 3: mixing for something that already exists or I mean, but
Speaker 3: the real fun is when I get to there's no
Speaker 3: set goal in mind, and I just get to play
Speaker 3: around with whatever I have in there, and then you know,
Speaker 3: build up a library of stuff.
Speaker 2: And what's your setup? Is it it's like a home studio,
Speaker 2: but is it where is it? Is it in the
Speaker 2: garage or is it in a spare room or.
Speaker 3: It's actually in the kind of spare room. But yeah,
Speaker 3: and it's good. You know, it's like it's not it's
Speaker 3: not huge, but I can fit stuff in there. I
Speaker 3: mean I couldn't fit a drunk in there, but I
Speaker 3: can fit all my budget's in there, no problem.
Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah, And it's some way you can make as
Speaker 2: much noise as.
Speaker 3: You I can make as much noise as I mean,
Speaker 3: I haven't, I've tested it out. We're directly below as well,
Speaker 3: so it's actually in the essentially in the eaves of
Speaker 3: like an old house that was built in seventeen seventy
Speaker 3: three I think the house was built, okay, And the
Speaker 3: studio is up in the eves, so directly below the
Speaker 3: studio is our space again, so you know, we don't
Speaker 3: have neighbors directly below the studio, so it's actually quite handy.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a small space, so it doesn't need
Speaker 3: much to fill it anyway. But it's nice to know
Speaker 3: that if I do want to, you know, try and
Speaker 3: make my own ears bleed, then I can without too
Speaker 3: much without affecting the neighbors too much.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Has the fact that you're the fact so you're
Speaker 2: out in the sticks a little bit more as opposed
Speaker 2: to the center of town. Has that affected Has that
Speaker 2: affected the output the music?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean, I think it would be it'd be
Speaker 3: fast stretched to find somebody who's geographical location didn't have
Speaker 3: some impact on the record, whatever that may be. I mean,
Speaker 3: I and it's difficult to say how it has impacted it.
Speaker 3: But I mean, Dumbflash was written in three or four
Speaker 3: different locations, and World Eater was written solely in this space.
Speaker 3: So maybe it might sound a little bit more direct
Speaker 3: and cohesive. Perhaps, I don't know, but that's how I
Speaker 3: did it.
Speaker 2: Anyway, sort of title World Eater an incredible. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's put the bar here for titles of the year.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3: Oh that's cool.
Speaker 2: It's I didn't realize.
Speaker 3: But there's a bolt throw a song called world Eater
Speaker 3: that somebody asked me about the other day. And apparently
Speaker 3: there's also like a comic book character world Eater or
Speaker 3: the World Eater or something like that. Yeah. I don't
Speaker 3: I don't read comics, but apparently there is. Anyway, So
Speaker 3: where did where did it?
Speaker 2: How did that come to you? That?
Speaker 3: I mean, the theme of the album is about you
Speaker 3: know this, this this inner beast that you know this
Speaker 3: kind of evolutional evolve evolutional evolved hangover that we have,
Speaker 3: we're still very territorial and and that is the world
Speaker 3: eater I guess. I mean, you can interpret it however
Speaker 3: you want to. Also, you know, maybe the human humans
Speaker 3: are the world eaters and we're destroying ourselves.
Speaker 2: Is it the it sounds like because it's a it's
Speaker 2: a dark record. I guess it's a dark record for
Speaker 2: a dark time our current. You read it last year, right, yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: which is I don't know if you know this, but
Speaker 2: apparently it was the worst year in the history of
Speaker 2: the world last year, as we all have to say
Speaker 2: any given opportunity, did you feel, how did your twenty
Speaker 2: sixteen feel?
Speaker 3: Well? I mean, you know, it's very difficult for somebody
Speaker 3: of you know, reasonable privilege to really put a finite
Speaker 3: measure on how bad it was. But I mean a
Speaker 3: lot of shit went down and still is going down,
Speaker 3: and things aren't right, and human beings are fucking horrible,
Speaker 3: and you know, I it's yeah, it's difficult for me
Speaker 3: to say. I mean, sure there was, like, but all
Speaker 3: these things affect you, don't they, Yeah, of course, do
Speaker 3: you know what I mean? It's like, I mean I
Speaker 3: didn't have a great year. I didn't have a I
Speaker 3: didn't have as bad a year as some people in
Speaker 3: this world, though, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2: And I think that's important to remember. Of course, a
Speaker 2: lot of people, I think we kind of did all
Speaker 2: get a little bit too hysterical.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean it's difficult not to when when things
Speaker 3: are so fucked up, isn't it? I think? But it
Speaker 3: is important to remember, I think. But I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, if you feel you feel towards people who
Speaker 3: are going through things a lot worse than you, don't
Speaker 3: you that's another you know it is it is possible
Speaker 3: to feel empathy and and that affects you know, that
Speaker 3: affects that affects you too, doesn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 2: So is the is the is the record? Is World Eat?
Speaker 2: The music on World Eater? Is it a direct reaction
Speaker 2: to last year?
Speaker 3: And well, I mean you know it was written over
Speaker 3: a reasonably small space of time for me anyway, last year,
Speaker 3: and you know, all of this stuff was going on
Speaker 3: at the same time. And as I was saying before,
Speaker 3: you know, you are a manifestation. You know what you
Speaker 3: put out as are is you know, does manifest itself
Speaker 3: as from what is going on around you? I would say,
Speaker 3: I mean, I never try and you know, sit down
Speaker 3: in the studio and go right, I want to write
Speaker 3: a hip hop track today. It doesn't work like that.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's all it's almost like automatic writing, so
Speaker 3: and and experimentation, so what what what's going on is
Speaker 3: definitely has some impact. So to answer your question in
Speaker 3: one word, yes.
Speaker 2: But maybe you just don't know exactly was there. Was
Speaker 2: there a trigger or a particular thing that that got
Speaker 2: you going on right in this record? So you're like,
Speaker 2: that's it, I've had enough, I'm going to I'm going
Speaker 2: to the studio experience.
Speaker 3: No, see, that's the thing. It wasn't It wasn't a
Speaker 3: protest record. That would be a protest record that would
Speaker 3: be reactionary. And whilst it is like reactionary to a
Speaker 3: certain degree, I'd say it's more of a it's more
Speaker 3: of a kind of and like a recognition as opposed
Speaker 3: to a reaction. The overall theme is more of Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's more of a recognition. So and also I'm constantly writing,
Speaker 3: I don't you know, I don't kind of wake up
Speaker 3: one day and say, you know, oh, I'm going to
Speaker 3: start writing my new album today. Yeah, it doesn't really
Speaker 3: work like that.
Speaker 2: What I like about the record is although it's like
Speaker 2: it's dark, it's got obviously some a dark overall tone.
Speaker 2: There are tracks on it like Please, for example, Yeah,
Speaker 2: when you play when I'm guessing you're going to play
Speaker 2: some shows to support the album, and when you play those,
Speaker 2: you're going to be up there and that track's going
Speaker 2: to come on and people are going to just probably
Speaker 2: kind of lose that shit, but in a joyful, happy,
Speaker 2: like throwing their arms in the air kind of way.
Speaker 3: It's funny because I see, I actually see that track
Speaker 3: is quite like the emotional palette within that track. I
Speaker 3: actually find it quite melancholy. I actually find it quite sad.
Speaker 3: But that's like that's everybody sees things differently, don't they.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, some people may find it, as
Speaker 3: you say, like joyous, uplifting. I feel like it's more
Speaker 3: of a kind of I mean that if I was trying,
Speaker 3: if I was to try and analyze that one, I
Speaker 3: would say that that's more that was maybe me trying
Speaker 3: to make some kind of subconscious effort effort to bring
Speaker 3: some like personal balance and missed all the madness. I think.
Speaker 2: Yeah, seen as last year was, as we've already established,
Speaker 2: the worst year. Ever, how's how's I'm feeling good about
Speaker 2: this year? I feel like I'm I'm the only person
Speaker 2: saying this, certainly in my circle of friends. I've I know,
Speaker 2: everything's going to ship. How do you feel about about it?
Speaker 2: I mean, because you're about to enter a year of
Speaker 2: got your new record, and that's quite exciting time.
Speaker 3: Of course. Yeah, I don't really know yet. Actually, I mean,
Speaker 3: there's obviously some there's some great that has come from
Speaker 3: the bad, for sure, but it's very it's very early
Speaker 3: days to say how things are going to go. I
Speaker 3: don't know. I mean, my nihilistic tendencies sometimes have a
Speaker 3: louder voice than you know. Yeah, I I I really
Speaker 3: don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, I think maybe I'm just trying to I'm
Speaker 2: just trying to kid myself.
Speaker 3: Maybe I don't know. Maybe, but maybe there's hope is
Speaker 3: also quite important, I think, you.
Speaker 2: Know, thanks very much for being a guest on the podcast.
Speaker 2: Before we go though, Yeah, where do we get on
Speaker 2: these facts? The XTC record, the Big Express, it's the
Speaker 2: Big Express?
Speaker 3: Okay? Oh okay, what year?
Speaker 2: What year was that? Do we know?
Speaker 3: The year?
Speaker 2: On that? We don't need to go back that's good enough.
Speaker 2: I don't know where that is.
Speaker 3: Oh, the Museum Tavern, it's still called the Museum Tavern.
Speaker 2: Is it's still there the past.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's still.
Speaker 2: It's around all of the Naturalish Museum and.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that kind of area. In fact, I'm pretty sure
Speaker 3: my dad said that he was in there not too
Speaker 3: long ago.
Speaker 2: Okay, Oh, it's it's the comic.
Speaker 1: I don't know. It looks comic and that's what came up.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, there we go. Anyway, it's not in reference
Speaker 3: to a comic book.
Speaker 2: This is good. I feel we've got some closure. There
Speaker 2: are no facts.
Speaker 3: That's good. Excellent checker for like every interview.
Speaker 4: I know you're free tomorrow, Thank you very much, thank you.
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