James: Everyone thinks Post War Glamour Girls is a secret
name for Green Day now. Technically Green Day supported us in Reading . A couple of days before I started
getting these Twitter things off strangers saying, y’know “what time Green Day
are on on Saturday?” I’m like, what you on about? And then Zane Lowe announced
it and then our slot got removed on the site for Reading . And so we thought, we’re gonna be on
earlier and Green Day will be on in our slot. “This int gonna bode well” we
thought. There’s gonna be all these angry, angst ridden teens wanting to rock
out to Green Day and we’re gonna come on and spoil it. But then they went on
first, so it was much better. A lot of people stuck around. We played to a
bigger crowd in Reading .
But Leeds was better fun coz it was Leeds , it
was home.
Rhubarb Bomb: Did you see Green Day around, did you meet em?
James: Decoys. They have a decoy bus. This is backstage.
Bare in mind it was like 11 in the morning. There was us and a couple of staff
stood around, not really interested in seeing Green Day. We were sorta looking
over and this bus comes in, no-one gets off. Then suddenly these black Mercedes
(arrive), four of em, band member out of each with a security guard, running up
to the stage and the security is like that (arms crossed) guarding them and
it’s like: we’re not gonna mob Green Day are we?!
They announced on their first song “we’ve only got an hour
slot but don’t worry, we’re going into overtime.” And they went on for forty
minutes over schedule so we didn’t even get a linecheck. We just had to run on
with the gear and play and we had to cut a song. But even two bands after us
were cutting songs aswell. And the Reading
security had tried to take ‘em off stage. Not grabbing em but saying “come on,
you’ve got to go” and they were like No! No! And then Green Day’s security took
the Reading
security away! Marched em off! It was funny. It was a surreal experience, but
really good.
____________________________________
Rhubarb Bomb: It seems like the stuff you are writing about
in the lyrics are a bit different to the usual Indie stuff, is there any
particular approach you have?
James: The lyrics come from me. Musically it comes from the
band. I sorta write a scrappy demo, some chords, maybe a lead line. But lyrics
are the thing that really interests me. I mean the music too, but I trust the
band to do that, because between the three of them, they’re so fucking smart,
they get that sound and I just wanna write the lyrics. I have a lot of time for
lyrics in songs and I put a lot of time into mine. Early on in a band’s career
and especially live people tend not to pick up on it as much. I don’t like to
write about myself and how it feels, I like to write about bigger things and a
general consensus on them. So rather than writing a political song and trying
to change the world, you can write a song that is political but is just saying
what’s happening, you’re not saying what’s right and what’s wrong or what you
can do or what you can’t do. Coz that’s preaching and no-one wants to do that.
I think subject matter in songs is so boring to what it can be for a lot of
bands. And you don’t need to be self centred and write about yourself, you can
still get your personality across. Did you know the EP was a concept?
Rhubarb Bomb: I got an impression of it…
James: I like it all to be quite abstract. tBut here is an
underlying theme. But the (in progress) album is a concept about a Russian
delivery driver who delivers a message to me, in Meanwood. I don’t wanna give
too much away actually. It’s not telling a story about him tootling along in
his van like, there’s just pocketed lyrics that have been placed there. Whilst
he’s driving this van he’s got this turbulent relationship with his family.
It’s just about cycles. No matter how much anything means anything, things keep
on turning. It’s not like Yes doing Nights
Of The Round Table or anything, its really subtle.
Rhubarb Bomb: And what point do you present that to the
band? And do they just go ‘Ok’?
James: (laughs) Sometimes they say no. Sometimes they draw the
line on me. It was about a month ago we discussed that, coz we had about 5 or 6
tracks written and I could sorta work out from the subject matter where it was
going. Like, we’ve got this song, Service
Station Blues, which is about this trucker that almost has sex with an
underage prostitute and… this is the thing right, everyone thinks we are trying
to be really dark and that but its just something to write about! We’re not
going out and doing… that! So that’s become sort of the centrepiece of the
album. For me its really important that a record flows. I think we are planning
for this album to release separate singles and then the album. So they aren’t
within the confined album. I love albums! I like good albums and that’s what I
want to get out of it. So it’s not Yes… it’s…. what’s a good example of a
concept that‘s not a concept?
Rhubarb Bomb: Well SGT Peppers is but it isn’t…
James: Yeah, we are writing Sgt Peppers 2.0. It doesn’t
dwell on that. But I’ve changed certain lyrics in songs so they relate. So
there’s a line that mentions, in passing, the fisherman from the Tragic Loss EP. It’s just one line and you
wouldn’t even clock it unless I’ve sat here and told you that at 38 seconds
you’ll hear it. But that’s just fun for me, puzzles of my own that no-one is
listening to.
____________________________________
Rhubarb Bomb: I did wanna ask you about Sturdy Records. Is
there only so far that label can take you, how is that relationship going to
develop?
James: We’ve been completely honest with (Mark) Sturdy since
things picked up and we’ve had this attention. And a couple of labels have been
in touch but I don’t even wanna acknowledge it until… they lay a contract down
on the table, and it works in our favour artistically. I wouldn’t even be
interested. But we’ve said to Sturdy, we wanna keep releasing. We’re not gonna
be waiting around for something to happen, we’re gonna keep on at our quite
fast pace and keep doing it. Sturdy has been amazing, he’s just a music nerd,
but he’s a hero. He’s brilliant in everyway, such a smart man. It’s just nice
to have someone to do the numbers. I’ve sort of learned from him about the
workings of a very small independent label. And maybe one day if I find a band
I’ll start a label and help them out.
The main reason I wanted to do it with him was that he came
up to us after our first gig he came up to us and said he’d like to do
something. And after 5 or 6 gigs he kept coming up. And then the main reason
for me was The Wind Up Birds. I wanna be on the same label as The Wind Up
Birds, which means nothing to 99% of people in the world, but I think they are
the best band in the country. And that’s a bold statement to make but if you
want subject matter in your lyrics, they are the band. And they write these
beltin’ little pop songs. And the fact Sturdy was persistent. And there was no
pretence. And I love the man to pieces. And he’ll turn round and say we are
shit if we are shit. And you need that!
Dean Freeman
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