I want to thank everyone involved with last night's show for making it the most incredible and special thing I've ever witnessed at The Haygate. Big love to Fever Fever, God Damn, Lady Fortune, A Pig Called Eggs, Bad Apes, Rich at The Haygate, Dave, Lucy, and my Dad for being a hero on the door. And not to forget all of you who came down to watch, it really means a lot.
Now, relive the magic, the mayhem, the mosh pit (oh yes!) that was Distorted Tapes presents... Fever Fever in this very special video presentation. Cheers! Graham x
Distorted Tapes is Killing Music podcast: Quality bands, crappy commentary. Tracklisting is as follows: 1// Everyone to the Anderson - 'High Brow, Low Brow, No Eyebrow' 2// God Damn - 'God Damn' 3// Bordeauxxx - 'Every Holiday is a Disaster' 4// Lady Fortune - 'I Feel So Slightly Strange' 5// Bad Apes - 'Speedy Recovery' 6// Fever Fever - 'Butcher's Shop' 7// Them Wolves - 'Max Waechter' 8// Crash of Rhinos - 'Lifewood'
in a decaying warehouse overlooking a canal, three young men have spent the last year meddling with the dark art of pedal boards and cheap lager, honing their art to brutal perfection. God Damn fuse together metal and the blues to create a sonic assault which not only plays homage to the Black Country’s roots as the spiritual home of metal, but has delivered a much needed shot in the arm for the Midlands music scene.
Formed in summer 2010, the Black Country three-piece, comprised of Thomas Edward and Dave Copson on guitars/vocals and Ash Weaver on drums, have already played with a host of the UK undergrounds such as The JCQ, Kong, The Chapman Family and Gay for Johnny Depp. Distorted Tapes was fortunate enough to be invited into the world of God Damn and ask them a few questions, as well as record an exclusive live video (see bottom of page)…
For those who haven’t heard your music yet, could you describe your sound in three words?
D: Turgid? T: Loud? No, that’s really crap. Relentless? D: I don’t know… Octave? Blues…
T: How about Black Country Metal. Black cus it’s gothy, Country because it’s bluesy – we’ve got a harmonica in there…
D: …and you’ve got the double meaning in there too, because we’re from the Black Country.
How did God Damn form? D: Thom and Ash previously played in a band called Your Biggest Fanclub. I’d known Thom for years anyway from when he used to come and watch one of my old bands, and it just got to a point where YBF weren’t doing much and I hadn’t played seriously for a few years and listening to the sort of bands coming out about a year ago, I thought the rock scene was coming back. It’s like the electro, danceable sort of indie had run its course and people were starting to look for something a bit different, and it seems that big heavy guitar sound was coming back.
A: It was more of a side project to begin with, more experimental.
T: We wanted to be brasher and more like Kong really!
D: We threw some ideas down like playing in masks or wearing ridiculous clothes or whatever, we weren’t sure what it was going to sound like. It could have been one minute long mad screaming, but it wasn’t until we started writing songs we realised we had something going on.
T: There’s a way me and Dave write songs anyway when we work together…
D: I don’t think either of us had played in a band with another guitarist before, I’d always been the sole guitarist and so had Thom.
T: When we got together we both had song ideas – it’s not like this band has a frontman. I know we did a video and it seemed like I was more the frontman because the camera was on me first but Ash drums like he’s a frontman, it’s what I’ve always liked about Ash’s drumming. I’d like to think that there’s not one person in the band you wouldn’t want to watch as they’ve all got a big part to play.
D: Our eventual aim is to have Ash as forward as us – just leave a little room for us to move across the stage!
Was it quite early on you decided to not draft in a bassist?
T: A bass player would have just been a spare part, and if we had a bass in there it would have ruined the sounds that we were creating.
D: We never said straight off we’re not going to have a bassist. I used to do the octave pedal thing in a two-piece band so it was quite natural that we needed some low-end but we left it open – if we need to get one, we’ll get one – but from about the third or fourth practice we were thinking we didn’t really need to.
T: There wasn’t any thinking of it as a gimmick, it’s just the way we write songs.
D: No, it’s not like we’re all ‘Hey, we haven’t got a bass player’, but then it’s not that much of a unique thing. We are more likely to get in a Hammond organ, more analogue sounding stuff, perhaps some rickety old piano sounds.
T: But I think we’ll only do that when we’ve run out of ideas, and we haven’t run out yet, we’ve kinda got too many ideas and that’s why we decided to get an album’s worth of material down because there will become a point where we stop playing them and we don’t want to forget them.
So what was the plan with the albums worth of tracks you’ve recorded so far?
T: We’re still waiting for some of the songs to be mixed, but we thought about releasing it as an album for free, but we’re not really sure what to do with it at the moment.
D: There’s nothing set in stone…
T: …but we all agree we want as many people to hear it as possible.
D: You probably won’t find it on iTunes, we’d much rather give out a load of CDs with 3 or 4 tracks on at shows than sell it and sell 2 or 3 copies at the very most.
A: It’s cool to gain interest that way.
I suppose because you’re writing new material at quite a pace, by the time you’ll have a product to put out a lot of those recordings are older songs, so this way you are giving fans the opportunity to keep up with you…
T: I don’t think we would hesitate to play any of our older songs in our set, but we do try and keep quite fresh and maybe if we had played those songs all the time we would have tired of them.
D: We’ve tried to intentionally to make each song a little bit different, perhaps poppier or heavier.
You recently posted a track called ‘Half Soaked Shuffle’ and I certainly felt that compared to previous material it was much more poppy, perhaps not in the traditional sense, but in accessibility. What were your aims with that track?
T: I actually think it’s more heavily produced than any of the others, and sounds much heavier but it’s the fact that it is a shuffle and the chords are the same all the way through. I wrote that song and it is like something I could have done in another band, but it works in this one and it’s still a God Damn song – I think it shows a different side to us.
D: We’ve got another recording on the way, a re-recording of ‘Harmonica Song’ from way back, but done entirely acoustic. Ash did some nice percussion and obviously we had the harmonica so hopefully that will sit quite nicely with the rest of the recordings.
It’s interesting that you’ve done that, as I feel that because of that bluesy, rock ‘n’ roll vibe a lot of your songs have you have the freedom to strip them right back and they’ll still work…
T: Live, we are unlikely to pull out the bongos, but y’know what, if we did a big headline set we’d have a fucking choir and stuff like that, chellos and things. It’s a conscious thing and an unconscious thing – we write songs but they all end up being different anyway. Well, it might be conscious that we think maybe we need a particular sounding song in the set but we won’t forcefully write a song.
D: I tend to look at things in the way of what do we need as opposed to throwing a load of random ideas out there. The song ‘Way Down’ was the product of us thinking we needed a song with a straight up, stomping sort of beat, to balance out our more down-tempo songs like ‘Wigger’, it’s more of a kinda way of thinking about it in the context of what we’ve got and what else do we need.
T: We end up having so many ideas that we can pick stuff like that. Me and Dave tend to write pretty quickly and go through spates of each of us writing, the other taking over when the other hits a dry patch, but we have had times when we’ve both had loads of ideas and we mix these ideas for songs together.
One thing that separates God Damn from a lot of other bands out there at the moment is that you are quite creative when it comes to making videos. Why did you decide to take this homemade approach to making your own music videos and do you think it has made your music more accessible to potential fans?
T: It was really just something we decided to do with our spare time. Some people don’t appreciate the DIY vibe, some people really like it. Personally, I’m really into the audio-visual element they bring to our music.
D: It’s nice to have something to look at, even if it’s not the band and just images the band have picked.
T: You kinda get a jist of the band. We want to keep it real – there’s a danger with this band that we could get branded as a sleazey rock ‘n’ roll band but if anything we’re Black Country hillbillies!
D: The surprising thing I’ve noticed from our videos is when Thom did the Bullseye video for ‘Way Down’ the amount of people who said “that new song you’ve got is class,” but that track had been on our SoundCloud for months, and it’s only down to the video that they’ve got around to hearing it.
T: People have such short attention spans, take for example the intro to ‘Half Soaked Shuffle’ – I think some people listening to the first few bars may be completely put off as it’s quite proggy, but then it turns into a pop song – people give it a few seconds and then move on, and we do live in that kind of world where people have a short attention span when it comes to music.
D: It’s because there’s just so much music out there – it’s not that people are less interested there’s just so much music! Gone are the days of reading about a band and it would be months before you actually heard them, trying to listen to a song over a dial-up internet connection, and then going and buying the CD as a result of hearing that one song.
T: And then you would read everything you could about that band. Maybe it’s something about being younger, but I remember I would buy a CD and read all the liner notes, all the credits…
A: …and that’s what has changed – there’s so much accessible music it’s not special anymore.
Considering the short amount of time you’ve been together, in the space of a year you have already managed to rack up an impressive list of bands you have played with. What’s been your favourite show you’ve played to date?
T: We needed that year to find our sound, iron out certain things live. We could have pushed it and really fell on our faces, but we’ve taken the time to sculpt our sound and I feel we are now ready to get out there, but back to the question…
D: I think it might be quite personal to each of us, but I think mine was The Haygate (Telford) gig with Fever Fever , it was so good.
T: We didn’t have any expectations for it, and it was just really good. We hadn’t practiced for 3 weeks.
A: I had been on holiday and I literally got back and played the gig, so it was very raw.
T: I think we had a lot of extra energy too, because when you haven’t practiced you’re a lot more alert.
A: Mine is probably the Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton about 4 or 5 months ago, we were just on it.
D: That Slade Rooms gig was really good because I think that was the point where we realised we should start pushing ourselves. We’d done a few gigs that were good, and one or two that hadn’t gone so well, but I remember after that show saying to Ash that we had hit it on the head that night.
T: I’m going to say the show we did at Wolves Art Gallery as part of the Home of Metal exhibition. There were about 250 people through the door that night, and because of the dynamics of the room we were really loud. I got a bit drunk on the free booze, but we played two sets – one with the poppier, bluesy songs, and then another with the more hardcore ones.
A: We had a good gig in Stoke, and the Firefly in Worcester…
T: Ah, shit yeah! I’m going to change and say the Firefly show, good vibes, and good people. I love it when you can actually see people nodding their heads and really digging it. I always worry that I’m really fucking deluded; is this just music? Am I embarrassing myself? But when you see people enjoying themselves it’s great. They’re enjoying themselves, I’m enjoying myself and you think you’re the dog’s bollocks!
Have you got any recommendations for bands Distorted Tapes readers should be checking out?
T: There’s a Wolverhampton band called Greaseater.
D: They are really bloody good. We put them on a couple of weeks back with A Pig Called Eggs, and they are the best thing I’ve seen from Wolverhampton.
T: I think they’ve just really found their sound, but they’re so fucking crisp. I thought they were going to be sloppy or scuzzy sounding but they were just savage, it was like Jesus Lizard… they were as heavy as Blacklisters but they just didn’t look it! Next one…
All: Blacklisters!
T: The Midnight Lycan Party, they’ve got some really great songs. They’re from Stoke and have a horror punk vibe. Fever Fever are really nice too, can’t not mention them.
D: Bad Apes are getting quite good now. They’re only like 19, and at first they were instrumental, still quite heavy but more post-rock, but they’ve developed this trashy rock sound and put some vocals in there.
T: The nice thing about being in this band that I’ve never experienced before is that people are saying they want to be in band like ours. I think locally we’ve made it okay to play this kind of music.
D: With bands we’ve played with, we’ll play with them again a few months later and they’ll have added a few extra little riffs in there. Lady Fortune have got heavier, as have Façade – considering they were like Fleetwood Mac it seems Sinead (Duffy, vocalist of Façade) has had her way with them and they’re much heavier.
T: Who else?
A: &U&I, but I don’t think they’d ever recommend us…
T: You can put that in the interview, because they won’t read it!
A: And my favourite band of the moment, Brontide, they’re decent lads, and an amazing band.
D: For anyone who’s younger and only got into heavier music recently, I’d recommend bands like Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Modey Lemon, Death From Above 1979…
T: …Kyuss, Mclusky, all the bands we started out listening to back in the early noughties.
So what does the rest of 2011 hold for God Damn?
T: We won’t be saying no to any gigs, and I’d like to tour at some point.
D: Just get all our songs out there. I don’t know if we’re going to give the whole lot away, or if we’ll release it as an album, we need to sit down and think on that.
T: It would be nice to get some more good support slots, get some dates together and get to play other parts of the country like Leeds, Manchester, Brighton, just play to more people and hopefully win them over. That’s what any band would want, right?
Watch an exclusive live version of 'Will You Be My Friend' recorded for Distorted Tapes below. For more information, like God Damn on Facebook.
Everyone's favourite indie pop septet Los Campesinos! are back with a new album, due for release on the 14th November. Hello Sadness has been described by the band as "ten songs of love, loss and heartbreak nail-gunned to a back-drop of broken, tangled bodies, creeping, dead-eyed animals, suffocating, looming shadows and World Cup exits. It is an honest, bare bones documentation of breaking up and trying not to break up in the process." And if that wasn't enough they are offering a free download of the record's lead track By Your Hand, no strings attached.
Unquestionably Los Camp!, By Your Hand certainly whets the appetite for the new album. Perhaps a more understated single than usual, the track is built upon an up-beat keyboard riff which is complemented nicely by Gareth's usual observations on love, loss and longing. Come on, we've all had one of those dates where you've kissed for hours with hands in each other's trousers... Oh, and the last 40 seconds are pretty exciting - you'll know it when you hear it.
Hello Sadness is currently available to pre-order through the Los Campesinos! website with a bunch of amazing exclusives including a how to play... DVD, an exclusive t-shirt, and most exciting a CD of rare and unreleased demos which date back to around the recording of their first LP. They've stated this offer will only be for a limited time so act fast or forever hold your peace. And of course, those Heat Rash subscribers out there can receive a discount too.
The track-listing for Hello Sadness is as follows:
Hayfever to tell: Bordeauxx will be found in many a field this summer.
Back in Mayof this year, Bordeauxxx released their debut single and follow up to last year’s stormer of an EP Mother’s Ruin; the marvellously titled Every Holiday is a Disaster. The Guildford quintet, who all met at university, decided to start a band due to a mutual love of beautifully uncomplicated pop music, glockenspiels, and their guitarist’s haircut (their words, not mine!) They also have a music video which contains loads of balloons and a naked man. So far they’ve been championed by Tom Robinson on BBC6 and have played an impressive number of shows across the south of England – it’s fair to say it’s only a matter of time before they bring their infectious brand of indie-pop to northern climes. We certainly could do with some cheering up considering how damp this holiday season has been, eh? It could be worse than soggy trainers and a t-shirt tan though, as I found out when I caught up with the band to discuss their own personal holiday disasters....
Jon (drums) “My worst holiday was definitely a family camping trip to Hastings. I've got nothing against Hastings - it has some of the finest crazy golf courses known to man - but on this occasion it rained. And rained. And rained. I've got nothing against rain either, but when you have to get up at 2am to dig a foot wide trench around your tent and STILL wake up an hour later with an inch of water inside, it's probably time to call it quits and look up the local B&Bs...”
Martin (vocals/keys)
“I once had a holiday experience that changed my life. If you're under say, twelve years old, everything I'm about to say is a lie. I was eleven at the time, in Spain with my mum and sister having a brilliant time - great weather, great hotel, we even made some friends which became pen pals for years to come. It was the last night, and we were all a bit sad to be leaving, though excitedly planning on doing the same thing the next year. To our surprise, mum agreed, since 'we all know the truth about Father Christmas now'. This of course was a fair plan - less extravagant Christmas, more exciting summer holiday. The twist is that I had absolutely no idea of this truth, and it's a sentence i'll remember for the rest of my life.”
Nat (guitar)
“I don't think I've had actually had a bad holiday experience as such. Probably my least enjoyable holiday was the one where I chose a book about suicide for my pool-side reading, and foolishly kept reading it, which put me in a bit of a mood the whole time. There are also always worst segments of holidays. I always hated being dragged around castle ruins- to quote my nan, once you've seen one you've seen them all! But these were always given a silver lining if my parents bought me a sword from the gift shop.”
Charlie (guitar)
“My worst holiday was probably on a trip to the south of France when I was about 14 and our car broke down 20 miles outside of Calais. This resulted in us being towed to a scrapheap in the middle of nowhere and sitting in the car for many hours whilst we tried to sort out how to get our car back to Calais where there was a garage. We got there late that night and ended up not leaving Calais until the next morning. In fact the following year a different car we were in broke down just before we got on the ferry at Dover, which was quite funny.”
Amy (bass)
“When I was in Year Nine I went on a school trip to Germany. When I arrived I shared a room with one of my friends and we unpacked our stuff. When we got on the beds loads of ants started crawling all over us. It was rank! Also on the same trip the food was horrid, they were feeding us horrid meat and stale bread. Besides all this the trip was fun...”
This summer the band will be braving festival showers at Leefest in Bromley with British Sea Power and Stagecoach, Knee Deep Festival in Cornwall with Tall Ships and Summer Westival in Aldershot with Johnny Foreigner and Dananananaykroyd. Catch ‘em if you can.
Every Holiday is a Disaster, along with last year’s Mother’s Ruin EP, can be downloaded from bordeauxxx.bandcamp.com
Telford has neverreally been seen as a hot-bed of musical talent, however Lady Fortune prove there is more to the New Town than the town park maze and dimly lit shopping centre. Their latest single, I Feel So Slightly Strange, has already gained support from BBC DJs, being played by Steve Lamacq, Chris Hawkins and Tom Robinson. I caught up with the three-piece to chat aboutfestivals, running their own label, and their mysteriousdebut album...
For those who haven’t heard your music before, how would you describe your sound in three words – one word each, no conferring?
Nick Robinson (Vocals, Guitar): Catchy Paul Pugh (Bass, Vocals): Non-Pop Lyndon Thompson (Drums, Vocals): DIY
How did you three originally come together?
N: Lyndon served me tea at New College in Telford. I wasn’t at New College, but I went to watch some bands play on the advice of a friend. So I met Lyndon, we had various members playing bass until Paul came along. Paul used to play in a band from Birmingham which I used to follow pretty religiously, and he told me he was looking to play bass so I thought ‘brilliant’, and as I was to find guitarists do make great bassists! That would have been around October 2006, because Paul’s first gig with us was my dad’s 50th Birthday. Our first proper gig was in Leeds… P: …and I was drunk.
Over the years you’ve developed a very strong local following – why do you think you have managed to hit such a note in Telford?
N: We’re normally quite friendly, but I was thinking about this the other day. A friend said he didn’t think many people would come and watch his band if they weren’t friends with them and I said ‘to be fair, we wouldn’t have met if you weren’t in an awesome band.’ I suppose you make friends because people regularly come to your shows. I’d say that probably is a factor, but they probably wouldn’t have liked our music otherwise. I think there is some relevance that people like the music in Telford because we mention the word Telford… I saw this group on Facebook that said ‘OMG, Telford is famous – it’s in a song by Lady Fortune.’ It had 63 members, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to like it.
Would you say living in Telford has been a major influence on your music?
N: Yeah, I guess so. A lot of our friends’ bands have moved – Foreign Hands are in Manchester now, 3 of them used to live in Telford; INTL were all from Telford or Albrighton and now live in London – but we never wanted to do that really. I like living in Telford, it’s not great and we have better nights out in Manchester and London. L: But it’s our hometown, so it does strike a chord with what we play and the people that come and see us. Plus we wanted to play at the Wrekin* once. N: Yeah, we wrote to the person who owns the Wrekin to see if we could play. Never got a letter back. Lyndon had a generator, so we thought we could pull that one off. L: Maybe one day…
It must be weird then that despite being a band writing songs inspired by life in small town England, your debut, 2008’s Manners Darling was only released in Japan. How did that come about?
N: We got an email from a guy called Daichi who runs a little label called Magnetic Records. He said he wanted to release an album, and we said alright. He gave us a bit of money, and we licensed it to him. We got a bit of an advance to pay for the studio time – it was all pretty budget, we literally had pennies. With that we got six days in a studio, including mixing, and we just caned it really. But I have no idea why it was just released in Japan and nowhere else.
Are there any plans to re-release the record in the UK?
L: I like the fact it’s just in Japan! N: I think it’s too late because we’re different now. L: Our sound has changed a lot since Manners Darling. N: I listened to it not so long ago and really enjoyed it, and we still play a couple of songs from it. I’m very proud of that record, but I like the songs we write now better. I do quite like the fact that if you wanted it there’s effort involved getting it and ridiculous postage costs. L: I always worry where the stocks are kept, and if they are now floating somewhere in the Pacific… N: Lyndon, we’re going to hell… L: Well, I am.
Last year you got to play the holy grail of festivals – Reading and Leeds - on the BBC Introducing stage. How did it feel having the opportunity to get your music exposed at that level?
All: It was the best couple of days ever. N: I smiled for about a week afterwards. We played Leeds first; you walk out and you just see a few hundred people and you think ‘okay… that’s cool’ but then you think ‘I don’t know any of these people!’ and then you see a couple of friendly faces waving at you, which is cool. And then your lead breaks, you start sweating profusely, and start playing a song which isn’t on the setlist! But we ran with it, and it was fine. Leeds was really good fun and a good experience. By the end of the set we probably had about six hundred people watching, and then Reading was just… L: Reading was the best. N: At Reading we walked out to about six hundred people and you just think ‘oh shit! This is going to be a good day’ and by the end of the set it was mental, the crowd had probably doubled. It was pretty rad! L: It was good. Nerve-wracking, but good.
How did the festival experience compare to the more intimate setting of club shows?
P: To be honest I don’t think I noticed much difference. It felt the same - there was just more people and blue sky rather than a grubby club roof! N: It was weird, I remember at one point looking out and feeling wind on my face and thinking ‘ahh, that’s lovely.’ I could get used to that. L: We’re usually sweating on a cramped stage. N: It was awesome. I do like the intimacy of a club show, but on the stage we played at Reading there was only a couple of foot between the stage and the crowd so we were still quite close and didn’t quite lose the vibe of everyone going mental. P: That’s the only thing I was worried about, the sound, because you don’t get a sound check so I was worried about just going on and the sound being lost in the air, but it was spot on. N: When you play a normal gig or smaller festival, you go on and put the microphone where you want it, but at Reading everything is done for you ; our manager said they had sent a plan over for where we put our amps, where we wanted the microphones, so when we walked out everything was just there – they know what they’re doing!
You also are heavily involved with your own club night, Facts of Life, which puts on semi-regular shows at The Haygate in Telford. Why did you decide to start putting on your own gigs?
N: Before Paul was in the band, me and Lyndon used to put on a night called Viva la Fortune and Paul’s old band played there, it was just something we thought well there’s no indie clubs in Telford anymore – Reach Out & Fuck Somebody [legendary Telford indie night] that had gone and they were always good nights – so we thought we would see what we could do, and if anything we just get to listen to the bands we like, book who we feel like and go from there.
Are there any plans afoot for future Facts of Life?
N: We are putting on an all-dayer in August: Thursday Night Facts of Life presents Saturday Night and Day All-Dayer of Life. We’ll be playing, plus Foreign Hands, God Damn, Arcade Parade, Fever Fever and hopefully some more.
You’ve also released you last few singles on your own label, Moorhouse Records. Why did you decide to release your records yourselves rather than through someone else?
N: At first it was just to see if it was feasible and if it was something we could easily do. We researched it, it was me and my housemate at the time Ross, who does all the artwork for Lady Fortune, and we just thought we could try it, and now we are at a point where we are planning to release other bands too, but at first it was to see what happened. The singles got played on the radio, people bought them, and we realised that it was pretty easy! It’s pretty stressful at times, there are a lot of envelopes and emails but it’s fun to have your own thing. I’m just terrified that no-one is going to like the next single, but hopefully we’ll be alright!
Do you have any tips for bands worth checking check out, in the Midlands or beyond?
N: Arcade Parade – a fantastic Telford band, the best Telford band ever? God Damn – they’re heavy, I’ve never really been into heavy music but I’m into them. Cajole Cajole were awesome but I think they’re on hiatus. I like Foreign Hands, but they moved to Manchester so can’t class them as a Midlands band anymore. AMiTY is fantastic too, she’s amazing.
What’s next on the agenda for Lady Fortune?
N: More of the same really, just carry on gigging. We’re working on some new songs, so we’ll work on them and then record, repeat process.
And finally, have you ever considered in how many record collections your record sits next to Lady Gaga?
N: On my iPod we’re next to La Roux which is bad, so Lady Gaga is probably better? You wouldn’t have La Roux on yours would you Paul? P: No, mine would be The Lambrettas or Lostprophets I think. N: That’s way cooler than La Roux. L: I haven’t even got anything that would play anything like that so, no, it’s next to
nothing!
Andrew Ferris (pictured front left) with Jetplane Landing
After 10 years in the business, Andrew Ferris passion for independent music hasn't waned. In fact, his hard work is paying off - or at least being recognised for the significant achievement it is. Earlier this year Ferris was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year prize at the Derry Business Awards for his work with independent artists. Andrew kindly agreed to answer a few questions for me regarding the 10th anniversary of his label, as well as give slip that a new Jetplane Landing album could be on the cards...
Congratulations on making it to the big 1-0! You started Smalltown America back in 2001, with the first release being Jetplane Landing's Zero for Conduct. Why did you decide to release the album yourselves, and did you imagine yourself still releasing records 10 years later?
Thank you very much, it's been a blast. We released ZFC ourselves because Jamie (Burchell label co-founder) and myself felt that no one else would want to put it out. It was an odd record with lots of influences and we felt like we were quite old to be beginning a commercial career with a major - so self-publishing felt like the least stressful path, no-one to answer to and everyone to impress. I'm very proud of that album; it has a lot of passion and some great songs. In the back of my mind, I kinda hoped that I would have a career in the music industry, but I didn't really have it figured out how that would work. My hero was/is Ian MacKaye and in later years people like Alison @ Southern have become great inspirations. From what I read and know of the people I admire, they are music lovers first and believe in the power of songs as a changing force - the actual dealing with bands and their management is pretty shitty, I don't really like bands - but I love their music. We're ten years into this and making plans for releases over the next 18 months, so we seem to be rolling well.
How has the running of the label changed over the past 10 years? With labels like Deep Elm switching their distribution to purely digital, and others disappearing completely, has STA had to make any changes to survive?
The label is now my fulltime job and I have people who help me now as opposed to doing everything myself. To be honest, I was a shocking label manager; I did my best - but was generally late with most things. We've put lots of procedures and checks in place now to make sure our artists are being fairly treated and looked after. It's quite complicated now to sell music; as there are many little 'pots' of money that have to be collected. When Deep Elm went digital, it made sense for them as they have a big back catalogue that they were faced with either repressing or deleting; as the physical sales aren't there anymore to run 2000 vinyls of an old record - labels are faced with little choice. I like the way they have streamlined things, changed it up and refreshed the brand. STA changes every day - there are mistakes and successes to be analysed, repeated or not repeated. The biggest change we have made is to focus all our attention on our customers rather than splitting it with stores; we were too slow to make that change - I see that now as a mistake, but we're back on track.
One of my favourite releases from the STA back-catalogue is the Calories LP. Being from the Midlands myself I've got a bit of a soft spot for them, they are mainstays of the Birmingham 'scene' after all. How did you come to work with them?
I love that record too 'To Encounter a Deer' is one of the best tracks we've released. When the band were called Distophia we shared a live agent (we might still do actually I'm not sure) and he gave us a copy of their first demo. It had 'Robert Redford' on it and a bunch of other songs - I thought they were great pop tracks. We took them on tour as Jetplane and offered to put the Distophia record out, we couldn't because they were tied into a deal already, which was a pity. As soon as they became free from that, I called John - he agreed to let us help out and we put out the record really quickly, I think we did the whole thing in 8 weeks. I love music from that region - in my altered universe Johnny Foreigner would be as big as Biffy Clyro. The world doesn't work like that, more's the pity!
The past couple of years have seen an emergence of fresh Irish talent who, in a lot of cases, are giving their English contemporaries a run for their money. From your perspective just how healthy is the Irish rock scene at the moment? And have you got any tips of bands we should be keeping an eye on?
Axis Of, Event Horses, Key Of Atlas, Ram's Pocket Radio and More Than Conquerors would be the current breed of younger NI acts that might bother people. There is a band called Eaten By Bears that are pretty good too. Sea Pinks are very well thought of. For me the electronica scene is the most exciting space in NI, it's really underdeveloped - but very cool. I don't think the Irish scene is particularly healthy, I'm not down on it but for every Villagers there are twenty fuckers that sound like him; for every Two Door there are fifty drummers playing that disco beat. It's kinda annoying - but I'm hungover today, so perhaps slightly grumpy!
What's in the pipeline for the rest of 2011 and beyond?
Okay - we have a compilation of new bands coming out, a documentary about the label on DVD/Digital, a book of artefacts and thoughts about the last few years and albums from JPL, LaFaro, More Than Conquerors and Fighting With Wire - so all pretty busy.
A burning question that I've had since 2007s Backlash Cop: Are we ever going to see another Jetplane Landing record?
As above - absolutely. I'm remaining tight lipped about the title, but I can say that some of the riffs are the best we've ever had and some of the lyrics are the most bonkers. It's probably closer in sound to Once Like A Spark - but it's not finished yet so I could well be bullshitting you.
As a label you've been fortunate to work with some great bands, however, if you could work with any act - past or present - who would it be? Everyone would like Arcade Fire or Radiohead I guess but for me I'd take Tom Vek, At The Drive-In, Ron Sexsmith, The Band, Rage Against The Machine and Talking Heads - if I had to pick one it would be Nirvana 'cos that really started this whole thing and I would have liked to have watched it blow up from the inside.
