Now then guys, how are things going? Are you feeling buzzed for the release of your third EP?
Things are pretty good thanks. I’ve just made myself a green tea and finished listening to ‘2020’ by Richard Dawson for the second time today. We’re very buzzed for the EP’s release – it feels like another step forward for us, so we’re very pleased.
The new EP, ‘One Less Bastard’ features cover art from novelist Steve Aylett, what was the thought behind choosing this imagery? What message do you want to send with it?
Sean and myself are both huge fans of his book ‘Lint’ and the corresponding comic book ‘The Caterer: Dial I for Inconvenience’. It was Sean who suggested we borrow one of the titles of (fictional) sci-fi writer Jeff Lint’s books for the new EP, so I thought it would be polite to ask Steve Aylett whether he cared, and if not, whether he’d be alright with us using some of the artwork from The Caterer for the EP sleeve. He was very nice about it and immediately sent back the EP cover, along with the image we used for ‘green deal’ as well.
The character on the EP sleeve – Jack Marsden – is a preppy college kid who breaks into psychotic rants about dust-filled goats and “the blood necklace of history”. In many ways, I feel we’re living through a ‘Marsden-ing’ of political discourse at the moment, thanks to the surrealist shitstorm of Twitter and a general breakdown of institutional trust, courtesy of Silicon Valley tech companies, who oddly seem to make quite a lot of money from the whole shebang – so it’s probably entirely appropriate to have Jack as the emblem for the EP which is quite a sustained, embittered rant about such issues.
In all honesty though, it was really just an opportunity for us to reach out to someone we really admire, and I’m thrilled Steve was so accommodating about the whole thing. We may attempt something similar with Jarett Kobek of ‘I Hate The Internet’ fame for the next EP. Sometimes, I wonder if the only reason we’re in a band is because it might provide an opportunity to talk to the likes of Alan Moore, Stewart Lee and Iain Sinclair.
In the spirit of Halloween, have you ever had a complete horror show whilst playing live? A gig that you just want to end whether that be technical problems, poor crowd or otherwise?
I’ve been playing in bands and doing gigs for about half my life, so I’ve had a lot of experiences of that nature. Of course, there’ve been lots of really great gigs as well, but if you’ve taken time off work to travel somewhere and play a gig, for free, because a promoter has invited you to do so, and literally no one is in the room, it feels absolutely crushing. Technical problems on stage can be a nightmare as well, but sometimes it’s actually alright, it can provide a chance to joke about things with the crowd when you try and sort things out. We don’t exactly take ourselves too seriously.
The message of pop music, any music, is coded with certain assumptions about human behaviour and attitudes, whether spoken or unspoken.
The first single release from One Less Bastard, ‘Green Deal’, takes aim at the ongoing Climate Crisis. Of course, The 1975 are very involved, collaborating with activists like Greta Thunberg. What’s your take on how a band uses their music and status to communicate messages like this?
I think it’s up to any artist to decide whether they want to make an overt political statement or not, and I can understand why some prefer not to. If the 1975 work with Greta Thunberg and that brings her message to more people – as someone who admires what she’s saying and doing – I think that’s a good thing. But, I also don’t care much for bandwagoning, and it’d be naive not to imagine that some people will decide (unconsciously or not) to introduce a political or campaigning message to their music once an issue has reached a critical consensus. We’ve been ranting about Neo-Liberalism and climate stuff pretty much from the get-go, so I hope that’s not the case for us.
When I was 14, I became obsessed with Radiohead’s music, and that made me read No Logo and become interested in globalisation. The experience of their music was part of my awakening, politically and socially, but that dimension to their music hasn’t really been there – to my mind – for quite a long time. I wonder why such a big band – and you could say this about a lot of artists – don’t bother with it any more. Are they tired of being criticised for taking a stance? Are they jaded about the difference it makes? I really would like to know.
Honestly, I think any artistic work has some political content to it, whether overt or not. If a pop song is talking about going out and having sex with a stranger – that could be a sex-positive critique of conservative values, or it could be discussing sex in a way that’s quite transactional and consumerist. People often tell me that I over-analyse these things, but I don’t agree with that for a second. You can’t analyse this stuff enough. The message of pop music, any music, is coded with certain assumptions about human behaviour and attitudes, whether spoken or unspoken. George Michael had a lot to say, in that regard, but people don’t tend to think of him as being political in any way because he wrote ‘Last Christmas’ and was a proper world-beating pop artist.
Off the back of that, would there be someone you’d like to collaborate with in the interest of climate change? I imagine David Attenborough could spit some serious bars.
I believe Thomas Dolby has a small battery-operated home studio which uses wind and solar panels to power his gear. As a big Prefab Sprout fan, working with the Dolbster would be pretty exciting. Come to think of it, working with Paddy McAloon would also be amazing – I’m always floored by the empathy in his writing, so I’d be curious to know what his take on environmental issues are.
I think a truly classic Organised Scum move would be if we did a collab with that undercover police operative who infiltrated Greenpeace and went native. Or that poor woman who Mark Field assaulted. I think Greenpeace are great.
As a three-piece, how does the dynamic work between you all in terms of creating new music? Do you feed off each others energy or is there often an idea that one of you will suggest and you run with it?
Some of our songs, I write them separately and we get them into shape first, then we work out how to play them together and figure out the arrangement that way. Other songs emerge from jams – ‘green deal’ was an example – where you improvise and try to capture something. I think both approaches work really well, but either way, it’s always a collaborative effort.
On the track ‘New Slums In The Sky’, you talk about how the London high rises and how they will be ghost towers in 10 to 20 years. What do you think will come of London culture in that time? The current culture has resulted in the emergence of grime music, for example.
Part of the inspiration for that song came from the ‘Living Buildings’ exhibition which Iain Sinclair contributed to. Looking at the demolition parties they had for some of the high rises that were thrown up in the 60s and weren’t fit for purpose. I imagine that construction standards have probably improved since then, but I’m not sure. The desperate rush to try and finish projects, and finish these buildings, seems like it would create the conditions for accidents to happen, or for new builds to be seriously short of regulation standards. I hope I’m wrong. I just don’t feel optimistic about it. I imagine after Ronan Point, people would’ve assumed something like that would never happen again in London. Then Grenfell happens. I mean, it’s unspeakably awful. It’s a tragedy that opens up psychic wounds which may never fully heal for the people affected.
I’m not sure what London’s culture is to be honest. It’s a hard place to be in a band, let alone trying to make a living from it. The material conditions of the city price people out and make life difficult. The grime and drill music that’s come about – it’s happened in spite of that, perhaps in response to it to some extent – not because of London itself. I think about the opening to ‘A Study in Scarlet’: “I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.”
Thanks for taking the time guys, we look forward to hearing more from you. Have you got anything big in the pipeline for the rest of this year and beyond?
We’re putting on a gig at SET in Dalston on 13th November, at which a fantastic act from Brighton called The Private Sector will be coming on stage and wowing everyone with their video installation stuff. I’m very excited for it. Other than that, we’re just working on the outlines of the next EP which will probably be getting recording in Feb next year. I’m excited for it.
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