Interview with The Distractors

With the release of their debut Subversiv Dekadent, Ghent (Belgium) four-piece The Distractors have hit the ground running with twelve cuts of raw, ragged no-frills garage & punk laced rock 'n' roll.  In this recent email interview with vocalist/guitarist Philip Malcolm (aka Lobster Johnson) he covered everything from their history and recording during the pandemic to the Belgian music scene and more.  

Can you give me a bit of history on the band?

I hadn't been in a band in 20 years after a show I promoted for some John Peel type band went bad and I ended up getting beaten up for the door by their manager. They're not around any more and I stole loads of their songs, so fuck them. In that time period I moved to Belgium, started playing again and met Yves (De Molotov, bass). I think he used to play in a surf band way back and we started bouncing ideas off each other. I was going to a lot of shows and getting really sick of a band saying "here's a song!" Playing it and then saying "Thank you! Here's another song!" and I wanted to have a kind of party band with some sort of theatrical element and really make people feel they were part of the show, not just watching us play songs like it wasn’t important if they were there or not. I think we roped in Golden Hands (Sven) and Jonah (JP9000) around January of 2019 and had our first show in June. People really seemed to respond to the idea and the way that we want to play like we're headlining some mad festival or a stadium show for 20 of our friends in a bar. 

From that we got booked for a Saturday night show at Gentse Feesten, which is like a mad 10 day long party in the city of Gent, (shows everywhere, all free) in a bar and the place was insanely full, hot and sweaty. There were people outside because they couldn't get in. Now, I'm not saying that was our burgeoning live reputation, it was the start of their Saturday night of madness, but by the end I think we surpassed our own and a lot of other people's expectations and we kind of got some word of mouth buzz and respect from some people who I look up to like crazy. 

The record happened because Darren who runs Trash Wax was delivering some vinyl to the Garbage Bags (check them out too!) in February 2020 and I got him wrecked on that mad 8% Guinness we have here and basically nagged him into letting us do an album. 

You recorded the album in just three days in October, which was between lockdowns due to the pandemic.  What can you tell me about that whirlwind process?

It was always going to be a very quick process, not least because we were skint. The cool thing about Peter Snakeboots who recorded it for us in his awesome analogue studio, is that he really doesn't like to mess about. He just said "This is gonna sound like a live, dirty rock n roll band" and he just took a listen to us in the room, twiddled the amps a bit, knew immediately which mics to use and how and then we just bashed it out. There aren't really that many overdubs on the whole thing and the ones that are there were the most painful part of the process for me. It's exactly what it sounds like, a tight-as-frog-booty live band picking up and playing, dropped notes, open strings, vocal fuck ups were all encouraged. 

In the end it was like a long work-day. We all got in at 10 and knocked off about 2230. Its mad, because I'm a fucking terrible employee and have always just turned up and fucked off at the earliest opportunity but this kind of showed me that I am capable of graft.  The weirdest bit was that the curfew here was 11 at night at that point, so we were all clockwatching the last two hours to get home on time not to get arrested. We also weren't 100% sure if we were legally allowed to be there as only "professional" cultural activities were permitted. That definition is as vague as it looks so I think we were half expecting a SWAT team to kick the studio door down and haul us off to amateur musician jail with a load of dad-cover bands who were still messing about in their garage that weekend: Truly a fate worse than death. I think the whole scenario gave it a sense of urgency that i think comes through in the sound. 

I went back and mixed it for 2 days in December. Pete does this cool thing where he takes the original tape, puts it onto his computer, mixes it and fixes some of our more glaring errors then records it back onto some old 1/4 inch tape and bounces that onto the computer as the final mixdown. The difference in the sound from raw digital to taped is night and day. Anyway, he has this stack of about 200 reels of 1/4 inch tape and tells us that his cousin is a bailiff and repossessed it from a guy who went to jail for pimping and various other unsavory stuff. Pimp tape. Tape repossessed from a dangerous criminal. For the record, Subversiv Dekadent was taped over his copy of "Unforgettable: The Best of Nat King Cole". Sorry Nat. 

Were all the songs already written when you went into the studio or were some of them written during those 3 days?

We're not Radiohead (gasp! End interview!), so writing in the studio is a luxury we, quite literally, couldn't afford. Everything was written and pretty well drilled by the time we got there. The only spontaneity on that score was that we decided not to record two songs and we dropped another one whilst we were recording it. That left us a song short, so we did “Long Live The Dead”, which I was adamant we weren't going to record out of fear that The Reverend Horton Heat would sue me. Come at me, Horton Heat. 

How does your songwriting process tend to work?

I dream of being asked stuff like this! 

Normally, I get an idea for a riff or a chorus and mess about with it until some sort of structure falls out. I've long since stopped worrying about originality.  I'm not trying to take music to strange new places, I'm trying to take it behind the bike sheds and get it pregnant.  I'm also always scribbling down little lyrical ideas. With the first lockdown I had about 20 half finished ideas and about 80 post its with these lyrics on them, so I stuck everything up on the wall and just started to see what talked to what.

So then I'll come to rehearsal with the idea, or I'll record a demo and send it to everybody, then Yves takes over. He's got this great ability to pull my songs apart, move bits about, get rid of dross, add bits in and what comes out the other side is usually different to what I began with. Jonah, our drummer, is also the best musician in the band so he always has an interesting take on things too. 

Was it hard going into the studio and recording without having more time to test some of the songs live?

Climbing a palm tree is hard, recording songs you haven't played live, by comparison, is pretty swell. I think everything on the record, except “Everybody Hates Poetry”, “You'll Never Take Us Alive” and “The Night Is Young (and so are you)” have been played live. I don't think we're really in a position to be cutting material on audience reactions, given our average crowd is about 100 people. I think that's a dangerous route to go down as well: Self editing based on what you think people want from you. I am a student of pop music and as trite as it sounds, I want to make music I like. I want it to offer something I'm not getting anywhere else, otherwise what am I making it for? 

Most of your songs have a solid garage and punk sound with some surf rock elements at times, but ”Evil Mariachi” has a really strong surf rock vibe to it and really stands apart from the rest of the album.  What’s the story there?

“Evil Mariachi” is a Sven song, that's why it sounds different. He started coming up with riffs and making his own demos and then we went through the same process as my songs in rehearsal. He's a much better guitar player than me so his songs are normally a bit more complex or have more layers than mine.  “You'll Never Take Us Alive” was the other one from him. That's probably my favourite song on the whole thing. It's funny you mention surf music as Ghent has more surf bands per capita than anywhere on earth, it's insane how many surf shows you could go to here in a month. 

The band wasn’t together long before the pandemic started. What kind of impact did the pandemic have on the band?

We're still living it! We haven't all been in a room together since November 1st when we wrapped the recording. It is, to use a technical term, a fucking pain in the arse. We haven't practiced, we haven't played at all, we've had loads of cool stuff cancelled... But it's the same for everybody. We're going to have a beer on Friday (May 14) when the album comes out (digitally at least). That'll be the first time we've been able to get together with everything here being closed from early October until May the 8th. 

Your music begs to be heard live, but unfortunately due to covid that has been a no go for over a year.  I read that there are recordings of your last show before things were shut down.  Any chance we will be able to hear that?

It's like drunken bootleg quality, I wouldn't put it out unless we cleaned it up quite a lot. There's 4 or 5 covers on there too. It's also quite confronting... We're by no means perfect as a band, tightness to me is everybody starting and stopping at the same time. But there's a load of clangers all over that recording. I think it's part of the spirit of the band though, we play hard and that means we hit the odd bum note. In my head it sounds like that Replacements live album that came out a couple of years ago. Warts n all. 

Your bio says you’re “the third best punk band in Belgium”.  If you are number three, who is number one and number two?

That was a lie. I made it up when I was trying to put some streaming shows together via a large American platform. It was a lie that was so banal and, at the same time, so ridiculous I assumed nobody would ever check on it. Congratulations you're the first. 

For the record we probably are the third best rock n roll band in Belgium. The second and first are both Blackup. 

How is the music scene in Belgium?

Ghent is kind of like a little island in Belgium of off-kilter culture. All human life is here. There's a load of cool Rockabilly type stuff (Garbage Bags, Grave Brothers), cool punk stuff like Blackup, so much instrumental surfy stuff like The Akulas and Fifty Foot Combo. You've got the daddys of the scene like Deus and Soulwax... Sioen does some cool stuff in a really interesting, independent way without much mainstream support. 

In that way, I suppose Belgium is like anywhere else. It's the lowest common denominator stuff that ends up on the radio. I'm under no illusions that we're going to be on these stupid "Lets pretend we care about artists who can't work" shows on TV from the music barn in Antwerp, but as a nation we must be able to do better than Whispering Sons.  Other members of the Distractors quite like Whispering Sons and I'm sure they're lovely people doing their best. 

I read something about a cafe there in Ghent called Misterioso putting together an album and you will be contributing a song.  Is that going to be a new song or one from the album? 

Misterioso is my local bar, it's like 80 metres from my front door. We've played there twice and the owner is a good friend. The record isn't from the bar, however, it's a crowdfunding project with all the profits going to the cafe to help them back on their feet after 8 months with no income whilst the brewery still want their bit every month. 

The idea was from Jens De Waele who plays bass in Fifty Foot Combo and about 73 other bands. Then his girlfriend and my girlfriend and a few others got involved and it's a whole thing. The heart of it is a limited edition record with songs donated by bands who have played there, who drink there or, like me both. Our track is “The Night is Young (and so are you)”, there's stuff from Blackup, Garbage Bags, Pauline Verminnen, The Grave Brothers and most importantly Paul Couter who died recently and was an absolute legend of Belgian music (He's best known for his 80s stuff with Arno ,TC Matic  and Tjenscouter) who had his base above the bar and ran the sound for all the shows. 

If people want to buy it or just contribute to helping keep open a place where a lot of cool bands started out or hang out they can get on it here: https://initiatieven.crowdfunding.gent/project/31654

Do you have anything else you would like to share with readers?

Only the unconditional love of the Distractors, and the fact that they can always get in touch for info, bookings, fabulous gifts or empty promises at thedistractorsareintown@googlemail.com

That and they should buy the album Subversiv Dekadent, via our bandcamp or the TrashWax website. 

May the Distractors be with you!

(The Distractors - Facebook)

(Trash Wax Records)

L7 - Wargasm - The Slash Years 1992-1997

Following their debut release on Epitaph Records and it's follow-up on Sub Pop, LA's L7 signed with the major label Slash Records for three of their finest albums, which along with eleven bonus tracks, can all be found on the new box set Wargasm - The Slash Years 1992-1997. 

Produced by Butch Vig, Bricks Are Heavy, their first release on Slash, finds the band perfecting their mix of punk, metal, grunge and on “Mr Integrity” even a little surf guitar, all the while maintaining a melodic hook (see their biggest hit single “Pretend We’re Dead”) and the everpresent sneer in both the lyrics and vocals.  Bonus cuts on disc one are an edited version of “Pretend We’re Dead” and the B-sides “Lopsided Head”, “Freak Magnet” and with “I Used To Love Him”, their slightly altered take on Guns ‘N’ Roses. 

For their next record Hungry For Stink the band enlisted Garth “GGGarth” Richardson as producer, and while they follow a similar path, this time the overall sound is a little heavier, a little more abrasive and aggressive and a little less melodic, but all in a good way. Standouts include the single “Andres” and the semi-psychedelic tinged “Stuck Here Again”.  Bonus cuts this time around are a live version of “Baggage”, an edited version of “Stuck Here Again” and two B-sides - “Punk Broke (My Heart)” and “Interview”, which is an almost 14 minute radio interview that has to be about the most bizarre interview you will ever hear.

While there are moments that harken back to their previous releases, their final release on Slash, The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum found the band moving in a more experimental direction.  Produced by Rob Cavallo and Joe Barresi and largely recorded as a three-piece after bassist Jennifer Finch left (Belly’s Gail Greenwood filled in on bass on some tracks) the sound here is more stripped down and the band is tighter than ever.  Songs like “Drama” and “Must Have More” (the latter of which borders on doom metal) show they can still be as heavy as they’ve ever been, while others like the infectious near pop of “Moonshine” (complete with a countdown intro from none other than Lionel Richie) and the quirky acoustic tune “Me, Myself and I” show a new side to the band.  As for the final batch of three bonus cuts there is the (Piss Off Version) of "Drama" and two B-sides in the form of the outstanding spaghetti western tune “Guera” and the straight-up rocker “Worn Out”, both of which would have been right at home as album cuts.  

(Cherry Red Records)

 Ghoulies - Reprogram

With the release of their latest 7“  Perth’s Ghoulies present another collection of songs quite unlike anything I’ve heard before.  In just over nine and a half minutes the seven cuts on Reprogram are a cacophonous whirlwind of saccharine sweet synth-driven punk that even though they are the epitomy of chaos still manage to drip with hooks.  

(Ghoulies - Bandcamp)

Interview with Mark J Gidden

In 2019, following several years as a member of several different bands, Mark J Gidden released his debut solo album.  Now he is backed with his sophomore effort Fool Yourself.  I had the chance recently to do an email interview with him to talk about this new release along with a few other topics.  

Can you tell me a little about your musical background?

Hi Geoff, I joined my first band was when I was 17 and still at school. We were a three piece called 'Virtual Earth', but the problem was we all played guitar! I don't think we had the patience to learn covers which is is why we just started to put chords together and come with our own grunge-influenced tracks. We did one gig after hiring a drummer and after that I was in a couple of bands at unit before forming the Peterborough four-piece 'Traveller' in 2000. We won a local competition and after that I played drums for 'Emery' before relocating to St Albans. By that time I was focused more on songwriting and recording and after signing up with Nub Music I finally released my first album in 2019.

The arrangements and musicianship on your new release Fool Yourself are really strong and I really like the way the guitar sounds throughout.  Did you play everything yourself or did you have contributions from other musicians?

Although my first album included some collaborations, this second one
was something I wanted to put together on my own, as a bit of a challenge to myself! The oldest recording "If You Can" was recorded in a studio with an Engineer doing all the hard work and me just playing the instruments, but all the other tracks I recorded and mixed at home by myself. There are a few sampled instruments (including the drums) but the guitars are my trusty Jaguar and Pacifica!

I read that you performed alot of these songs at acoustic shows before recording them.  Did you even contemplate releasing them acoustically or was that just more of a way of getting them worked out before you recorded them?

I am keen to release an acoustic compilation at some point, but I think most of the songs have more 'impact' with a full band sound. In fact I'd love to get a band together so I can perform them closer to how they sound on the album, something for me to try to arrange in the future. For now I'll carry on performing with my acoustic guitar and hope that people like those stripped down versions as well as the album ones.

From time to time I hear a bit of an 80‘s/90's alternative vibe and a little glam (your vocals at time remind me of Brian Molko from Placebo and Trevor Tanner from The Bolshoi).  Would you agree with that assessment?

I'm definitely influenced by music from that period and am a big fan of Placebo, their first record is one of my all time favourites. Other singers that I am influenced by are Brett Anderson from Suede, James Walsh from Starsailor and Mark Greeney from JJ72. 

How does your songwriting process tend to work?

Most new songs start with me messing about on the acoustic guitar, which I do most days, and if I like something I'll quickly record the song idea on my old cassette recorder - I'm very old school that way! Most days I won't come up with anything, and most things I record never get turned into a song but I'll listen to these demos months later and the best ones will get short listed for inclusion on an album. Sometimes I'll be lucky and get more than one song idea from the same session - “St John” and “Non Profit” from the new album were both song ideas from the same day.

Over the years you’ve played in quite a few bands. How would you say being a solo artist compares to that? 

Well I like the freedom to spend more time on writing and recording and less time on rehearsing as a solo artist. There are also fewer arguments! But nothing can beat playing live with a band, it's much more fulfilling than standing up there on your own. And having others around you also takes the pressure off the performance.

What kind of impact did the pandemic have on your music?

It's certainly made it harder to get the music to new fans without being able to gig, but I'm very lucky that I've been able to keep working outside music and being at home more gave me the time to complete the album earlier than I might have done otherwise. I've really missed going to other people's shows though, so can't wait for things to get back to normal.

Now that live shows are starting to happen again and people are getting out more, what are your plans for the near future?

I'll likely be joining in with some open mics in the local area to start with and see how it goes from there.. Nub Music put on a great event in 2019 with several of its artists on the bill so I'm looking forward to something similar happening again. When things are 100% back to normal (hope that isn't wishful thinking!) I'd like to put a band together for a few shows.. let's see what happens!

Is there anything else you would like to share with readers?

Just to keep checking out new bands and other artists - there's so much good undiscovered music out there! And stay safe..

(Mark J Gidden - Facebook)

Global Village Trucking Company - Smiling Revolution

Often called Britain’s answer to the Grateful Dead, Global Village Trucking Company lived the epitome of the true hippie lifestyle with the band, roadies and families all living in a commune in Norfolk in the early 70's (the BBC actually filmed an interesting documentary about this that can be found online).  During their three plus years together the band managed to record one album, but unfortunately by the time the album was released the band had called it a day.  Smiling Revolution is a two disc anthology and includes a remastered copy of that album along with bonus tracks that include their contributions to the double live album Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwall’s Dance Hall and a few recorded for John Peel’s show.  First and foremost there is a quirky, free spirited element of fun here, something that is apparent from the get go with the upbeat and extremely infectious opening cut “Judgement Day” and while they do have a bit of that Dead-like jam band vibe they mix it up with piano driven pub rock, some soulful blues, honky tonk country, psychedelia and even some prog elements (“Short Change Tall Story”) resulting in a sound that is familiar but still refreshingly their own. Rounding out this anthology is an excellent 28 page booklet full of pictures and an outstanding essay on the band.   

(Cherry Red Records)

Interview with Elephant

The recently released debut EP from Rotterdam's Elephant is quickly becoming one of my favorites.  I recently did an email interview with the band where we covered their time in a Fleetwood Mac theatre show which actually led to their formation, the impact of covid, working with a member of DeWolff as producer and more.

Can you tell me who the band members are and what they play and also give me a little band history?

Elephant’s band members are: Frank Schalkwijk (vocals, guitar), Michael Broekhuizen (vocals, guitar, bass), Bas Vosselman (vocals, bass, guitar) and Kaj van Driel (drums & percussion).

We’ve been playing in different bands for a long time. At one point we all played together in a Fleetwood Mac tribute show. That’s where we grew close and decided we wanted to start a band. Because of the pandemic and the lockdown, the band became almost a religious exercise.

How does your songwriting process tend to work?

We have a very organic way of working in which all four of us contribute. Most of the time one of us has a riff or a hook and we start jamming on it. Then someone takes it home and writes a second part. We then develop it further in the rehearsal room. We don’t limit ourselves to our instruments. For instance, Kaj often plays guitar during songwriting. It’s always about the song, never about who plays what.

Your EP was produced by Pablo van de Poel from the band DeWolff. How did you hook up with him and how was the experience with him producing?

Pablo is an absolute legend. We already knew him and figured he would be the best match for our music. We recorded on tape which gives our songs the sound that we want.  Pablo also has great ideas to lift the songs to another level and always goes for that extra mile.

There are three of you that sing lead vocals along with some outstanding harmonies. How do you decide who sings lead on what song?

The song actually decides whose vocals should be lead. We all have different styles of singing, and most of the time it quickly becomes clear whose voice fits the song best.

Was it odd putting out an EP without really being able to test the songs much live due to covid?

Very odd! The pandemic made us grow closer as friends because the band is all we got. It has become a therapeutic activity for us. So in that sense the pandemic helped. However playing live shows is what we all love to do the most. We really miss that. For shaping and testing the songs we wouldn’t know, because we didn’t have much opportunities yet…

You have some various live performances on Youtube with alot of great tunes not on the EP (I absolutely love “Hometown”). I know the EP is just out, but do you have any plans for recording any of those songs and was there any reason you didn’t go ahead a record more for a full album instead of an EP?

Most of those songs are newish. The EP was recorded a year ago so we simply didn’t have them yet. However there is a rumour that we have just recorded our full length debut album ;)

You have a couple of really cool animated videos for “Bird’s Eye View” and “Never Know It’s Real”. Can you tell me a little about those?

Thanks! They were made by friends of ours. Cox Janssen did “Bird’s Eye View” and Emile Maigyte did “Never Know It’s Real”. We gave them total freedom to do what they want. I think that worked out really good. Maybe in the future we’ll work with them again.

How is the Dutch music scene?

Up till the pandemic it was very much alive. Great festivals, great venues and all that.

We’re hoping that things will be as they were soon… In the meanwhile, be sure to check out a live show of DeWolff or The Dawn Brothers on youtube, they really are amazing.

I read that a couple of you were involved in something called Fleetwood Mac: The Incredible Story from The Cosmic Carnival. Can you tell me a little about that?

We all were! It was a theatre show about Fleetwood Mac. We played all the songs starting with the legendary Peter Green and Jeremy Spence songs, and ending with the success of Fleetwood Mac up until this day. The show was a big success in Holland. We had such a good time zooming in on Fleetwood Mac, they’re such a diverse band! Truly one of the greatest of all time.

Are any of you involved in any other projects at this time?

Nope. Elephant is all we got. This way we can give the full 100%!

I know people can listen to the EP on Spotify but I didn’t see anywhere online where people can buy physical copies. Is there somewhere for them to go to order one if they are interested?

They can message us on Facebook or Instagram. Or email us at : info@elephantmusic.nl

Is there anything else you would like to share with readers?

Did you know the Elephant Song by Kamahl?

(Elephant - Facebook)

      

  

 Classix Nouveaux - The Liberty Recordings 1981-83

Following the demise of X-Ray Spex in 1979, two members of the band (Jak Airport and B.P. Hurding) joined forces with Mik Sweeney and vocalist Sal Solo from the band The News to form Classix Nouveaux.  Taking inspiration from Bowie and Roxy Music, over the next six years and through several lineup changes Classic Nouveaux released three albums (four if you include the alternate version of their debut album) and alongside bands like Spandau Ballet, Ultravox, Japan and Duran Duran, Classix Nouveaux was at the forefront of the New Romantic movement.  Their debut Night People (and the slightly different eponymous US version) is a really strong release full of infectious synth driven tunes and Solo’s distinctive vocals, and even though it contained  a couple of UK hits with “Tokyo” and “Guilty” you can tell the band is still getting their footing and finding their direction at this point.  Their sophomore release La Verite found the band heading in the same direction as their debut, but they really found their sound at this point by smoothing things out a bit and resulting in the biggest hits of their career with “Is It A Dream” reaching number 11 on the UK charts.  Unfortunately on their final release Secrets the band seemed to be pushing too hard for radio hits and the album sounded way too polished and completely lost any edge they had before.  Having said that Classic Nouveaux is definitely a band that deserved more attention than they got and The Liberty Sessions is an outstanding box set that not only includes all of their releases, but also contains 24 bonus tracks consisting of b sides, extended mixes and single versions along with an essay on the history of the band from Sal Solo.  

(Cherry Red)

Interview with Megan Lacy

I recently had the chance to do an email interview with Megan Lacy about her outstanding new EP Salvation.  In addition to that we also discussed her move to Austin from California a few years, her lyrics, the plans for her next release and more.

Can you give me a little background on yourself? 

First of all, Geoff, I just want to say thank you so much for reaching out and connecting with me - it’s very cool to be able to share with you! 

I’ve always been a singer, and I started writing songs when I was a little kid - all melody, hardly any structure, and no instrumentation. I got my first guitar when I was 18, a blonde D-16 that I named Lucy, and I really started writing songs around then. My brother taught me what he knew on guitar, and he and I started playing around our hometown, a little rural gem called Volcano in the California gold country. 

I moved to Truckee when I was 20 to be a ski bum, and over the course of the next decade I met some pretty influential people on my music path. I played solo for a while before meeting my friend, Gil Gaus. Gil is a killer songwriter, and a great guitarist, and he set me on a path of really learning about songwriting. We both had a lot of opinions, and I didn’t always listen very well. When I would actually take the advice he was giving me, most of the time the songs would take some kind of turn that was really unexpected.  A couple times that turn ended up forging a totally new relationship to the song, and I started to crave that new feeling - almost like I was free from what the song had meant to me, and was able to help the song become more about the feeling it was trying to create.  Gil and I played together for about 4 years. We co-wrote the song “Salvation” together! Over a decade ago. 

You moved to Austin from California a few years ago. How do you think that move has impacted your music? 

I just can’t even iterate how impactful a move it was. My partner and I moved in search of something much bigger than what seemed to be available to us in that small town where we were, and we both got such a kick in the britches out of moving here and starting fresh.  I mean, it was hard. Neither of us knew anyone, or had any connections, and starting at the bottom can feel like a pretty big punch in the gut. But we did it. Made friends, slowly, and at one point I thought like, how come I’m not getting invited to people’s backyard song circles?  And then I realized I had to create that. So I started hosting them, and soon I was meeting all kinds of songwriters, getting invited to other people’s song circles, and just feeling involved in the experiences I was craving.  I love feeling connected to people, it’s what inspires me most.  I do tend to get a lot of material out of feeling disconnected, ironically, but I prefer the joy that comes from relating deeply with people. 

Your lyrics sound like they could come from a very personal place. Does that tend to be the case or are they more fictional? 

The emotion is always real, but the details don’t necessarily need to line up exactly with what my experience has been. When I started writing, all the songs were relatively autobiographical, but as I’ve had more and more experiences, I think I am able to draw on imagery in ways that are more in service to the emotion behind the song than anecdotal.  Sometimes the lyrics are able to say something that I’m experiencing emotionally, but have not experienced in my life. 

I think a lot of us need help getting in touch with our emotions. Maybe we even feel numb to our emotions - we’re kind of taught to suppress them, or to disown them, especially the more difficult emotions. So the feeling a song can bring is kind of a tool to help us discover those areas in ourselves that might need a little attention. The story is just a story, but the feeling it can give you ends up feeling pretty real. 

The whole EP has a really stark atmospheric sound. Is that something you already had in your head when you went into the studio or was it more the influence of your producer? 

I think Justin was very much in service to the song, and to the feeling of the song. We had used Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball as a diving off point - his idea.  Semi-stark, impactful, much more than my little record, but the intent was there.  I think his own stoicism is very much a part of this record.  I certainly didn’t want a lot of bells and whistles, and what ended up being on the record I needed to feel solid. 

I had played the songs for so long as a solo performer, that when it came to developing them with other instruments, I didn’t really know what to imagine. All I knew was that I didn’t want the instruments to cave in on the song. I wanted there to be a lot of space in between everything - like I wanted it to feel like you were in a room with the song being played, and you could walk around in between the instrumentation.  Justin was well aware of this, and naturally has such a sonic understanding that everything he did seemed to create more and more space, and for me it helped to deepen the solidity of the sound.  It feels like a stepping stone to me - like I can stand on it for a second before I jump off again. 

Instrumentally “Watch This” is one song that really stands out to me, especially the really cool percussion. Can you tell me a little more about that song? 

Right on, Geoff! Well, it was the last one we developed in the studio - we had brought the others along, and sort of didn’t have too much of an idea of how to move that one forward and make it stand apart from the others.  It’s a really slow mover, and I suggested banjo, thinking that it could have some weird effect that we weren’t expecting, but that idea quickly got nixed. 

The four of us sat around, and Justin picked up the dobro, and I was like, Oh yeah, that’s gonna be it.  Aaron picked up this wooden conga that his dad, who is a luthier at Collings had designed and built for him. Chris sat down at the Wurlitzer, and we started playing the song. It was pretty magical! And when we kind of figured out how it would go, we ducked in and did a couple takes, and the last one was it. That dobro solo is one of my favorite moments on the record. 

You have quite a few videos on youtube of live performances of some really good older songs.  I know some musicians don’t like to look back at older songs and just tend to record their newer ones.  Do you think we will be hearing some of those on future releases? 

I’d love to bring those songs to tape! I am really excited to move forward - I just learned so much in the process of making this first record, that I’m kinda rearing to get back in there and develop more songs.  I’m always writing, but it takes time for songs to come up, and for them to become what they want to be, so I think it’ll be cool to try to give light to the songs who have been with me the longest. (I have one little record of newer tunes that I want to put out before anything else, though…) 

I see that you have a couple of live shows listed on your website, but with the pandemic alot of live music is still shut down. Do you have any alternative plans for getting the word out there about the EP? 

Well, I think it really matters that you are helping people get the word out about their music during all this - it’s really awesome to have people listening and sharing and engaging. Thank you so much, Geoff! 

I’m hoping now that things are opening back up, I’m gonna get to do what I always planned to do, which is to play live music as much as I can.  The live music experience is such a beautiful aspect to the songwriting journey, and I think a lot of people are ready for it to come back. 

I’m in this for the long haul, and I know about slow returns, so I’ll be alright with however this path wants to roll out. 

Is there anything else you would like to share with readers? 

I’m working on getting that second record together - it’s got an Alt Country/Cosmic Americana vibe, and it’s really upbeat and positive, if you can imagine that, haha.  I’m looking forward to getting those songs out there in the world to you soon, so stay tuned!  Your readers are welcome to follow @MeganLacyMusic wherever they do their media, and I’ll keep y’all posted.  Thank you beyond words for your great questions and for this opportunity to share about the record, Geoff!

(Megan Lacy)

The Living Pins - Freaky Little Monster Children

Twenty-five years after their first release (a cover of T Rex’s “Spaceball Ricochet" on the Wheatsville band compilation The Wheat Album) Austin, Texas’ The Living Pins are back with the Freaky Little Monster Children EP.  This time around the band is comprised of original members Carrie Clark (also a member of the band Sixteen Deluxe) and Pam Peltz with some help from producer Jeff Copas and Medicine’s Matt Devine along with Brian, the drum machine.  Opening things are the slow, psychedelic garage rock groove of “Raven”, a song that virtually lulls you into a trance with it’s droning, yet infectious hooks, and “Downtown” which musically throws in a bit of a Lou Reed / Velvet Underground vibe.  The glam sound of “Jaguar” finds them picking the pace up a little with it’s definite T Rex influence coming through and closing things is “Fish and Beads” an outstanding straight ahead psychedelic rocker.  Hopefully this EP is just the beginning and we won’t have to wait another twenty-five years to hear more.  

(The Living Pins)

The Blips - The Blips

With Will Stewart leading the way, this five-piece rounded out by Wes McDonald, Eric Wallace, Taylor Hollingsworth, and Chris McCauley is a bit of a who’s who when it comes to Birmingham, Alabama musicians with bands like Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, Timber, Dead Fingers, Vulture Whale and Holy Youth amongst their pedigree.  Written and recorded in late 2019 and the beginning of 2020, the album was then mixed and mastered throughout the rest of the year through texts and emails due to the pandemic.  The resulting eponymous disc is 10 cuts of raw, ragged, rootsy garage rock with some punk and pop sensibilities kinda like the bastard child of The Replacements, Big Star and The Long Ryders.  

Fraternity - Seasons Of Change – The Complete Recordings 1970-1974

Before becoming the lead singer of AC/DC, Bon Scott fronted the band Fraternity.  Seasons of Change is an outstanding 3 disc box set that contains their two studio albums, which have been remastered from the original tapes, along with a third album that is actually a collection of session tapes and some live recordings.  In addition to this there are also non-album single and EP tracks.  Disc one starts off with their debut release Livestock, which opens with a couple of rootsy rockers (the title track and “Somerville”) with a vibe not so unlike The Band and The Allman Brothers.  The next cut “Raglan’s Folly” finds them bringing in prog elements reminding me of a rootsier cross between Jethro Tull and Procol Harum.  After that they shift gears with the percussion driven, bluesy jam of “Cool Spot”, which has a bit of a Santana feel.  Other highlights on the debut are “Jupiter Landscape” and the dramatic “If You Have A God”.  Closing out disc one are 6 bonus cuts taken from 3 singles including the jaunty “Why Did It Have to Be Me”, an interesting cover of The Moody Blues “Question” and “The Race”. 

By the time they released their second release, Flaming Galah, they had added new members on harmonica, piano and slide guitar to further enhance that country rock sound.   Because of this they decided to re-record four songs from the debut to showcase this added element.  While the change is definitely evident, for the most part it isn’t too drastic with slightly newly named “Somerville RIP” being the most evident with alot more emphasis on the keys and harmonica. As for the new songs the band for the most part moved away from the prog elements that popped up from time to time on the debut and moved further into the aforementioned country rock sound.  While The Band continues to be the most comparable (their outstanding cover of their song “The Shape I’m In” is actually one of the bonus tracks on this disc) there are some CSNY like harmonies here (especially on “If You Got It”) and the more rock oriented “Hemming’s Farm” has a bit of The Faces vibe.  Also included as bonus cuts on this disc are single versions of two of the album cuts and their live performance of “Seasons of Change” and “If You Got It” from Hoadley’s Battle of the Sounds in 1971, an annual band competition held in Australia from 1966 to 1972 that they won that year.  

Second Chance, the third disc of the box set is actually, with the exception of three, a collection of previously unreleased tracks recorded by the band between 1972 and 1974.  First up is “Second Chance”, a more straight ahead rocker and the last song recorded by the band with Bruce Howe on vocals, because Bon had just left the band. The next six cuts are demos that were recorded in England.  Some of these like the blues tinged roots rocker “Tiger" and the cover of Don Nix’s “Going Down" show signs of the band evolving a little towards a more straight-ahead rock sound, but then there’s also the more root/blues oriented “Requiem" and “Patch of Land” that still show where they came from along with a very funky jam alternate version of “Cool Spot”.  The last of these demos is “Hogwash” a kinda goofy song that is notable for Bon’s spoken word vocals that would resurface from time to time later on in AC/DC.  The Band shows up once again on a cover of “Chest Fever” that was recorded during an Australian TV documentary about the band.  Next up are four cuts recorded live on a South Australian tour including a couple Chuck Berry covers, another cover of The Band (“Just Another Whistle Stop) and the only recorded version of the song “The Memory”.  Closing out the box set are four cuts that have Vince Lovegrove, Bon’s old bandmate in The Valentines on vocals and backed by the band.  Interestingly two of the songs he sings are covers of Fraternity songs “Livestock” and “Getting Off” (renamed “Getting Myself Out Of This Place”) that aren’t that unlike the originals.  Completing the package is a fantastic booklet with a detailed biography, song notes and anecdotes from the surviving members and tons of pictures.  Seasons Of Change is a well deserved look back at this underappreciated band’s place in music history and shows there was more to them than being Bon Scott’s band prior to joining AC/DC.  

(Cherry Red Records)

Edgar Jones - The Way It Is – 25 Years Of Solo Adventures

Every once in awhile you come across a musician who has been around for years, but has somehow slipped past you, and once you do find them you find yourself wanting to hear more and more.  That was exactly what happened the first time I made my way through The Way It Is, 25 Years Of Solo Adventures, the 3 CD retrospective of Edgar Jones.  Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was first introduced to Jones with Mexican R'n'B, the outstanding 1992 debut CD from The Stairs, a band that he was lead vocalist and bassist in.  Following that release (now available as a 3 disc deluxe version with two and a half discs full of demos and rarities) and a couple EP’s and singles with the band, Jones went onto a stint playing with The La’s (over the years he has also played with the likes of Paul Weller, Johnny Marr and St Etienne among others) and shortly after fronted his band The Isrites.  Over the years since he has also had solo releases along with releases from his other bands The Big Kids, The Joneses and The Edgar Jones Free Peace Thing.  The Way It Is contains 70 songs (some extremely rare) and covers music from these other projects.  Making your way through these three discs you never know what is coming next.  It is a fascinating journey of styles that will keep you on our toes from track to track and keep a smile on your face as he delves into everything from garage rock, jazz, R&B, soul and blues to psychedelia, funk, ska and more and handling each one as deftly as the next.  Hopefully this compilation will give Edgar the recognition he deserves and others like me will start searching down the full releases that the songs were taken from.  

(Cherry Red Records)

Roof Beams - This Life Must Be Long

While 2020 definitely had a devastating impact on the music industry as a whole, it also motivated many bands to approach things differently than they ever had before.  For the Roof Beams and their latest release, This Life Must Be Long, that meant everybody recording and arranging their parts remotely and then sending them to Nathan Robinson to do the final mix at his home.  I don’t know if it was this approach that made a difference or not, but while this Roof Beams album has all the hallmarks of their previous efforts, there is an evolution to the sound that is very refreshing.  Nathan’s lyrics are as strong as ever and very pertinent to the times we are currently living in.  He sums them up best as “reflecting a very timely anxiety and struggle for connection”. Musically the overall sound still has an indie roots vibe fleshed out at times with instrumentation like mandolin, pedal steel, banjo and harmonica, with tunes like “Outer Rings”, “Clean Break” and “Witness Me” really standing out. Then there are a few that step away from that like the hypnotic sounds of the title track, the dreamlike sound of “Carry On”, with the subtle keyboards and electronic elements really setting it apart, “Awareness", which harkens back to the rootsier songs but with some melodica and “Buckle", which has some beautiful textures to the instrumentation and percusssion.  Closing out the disc is “My Business”, my favorite track here and one that Nathan performed and recorded entirely on his own.  It’s a tune that moves in a completely different direction with lots of electronic sounds and keys creating an electro-indie rock vibe and really opening the door to all kinds of possibilities for the band in the future. 

(Roof Beams - Facebook  Roof Beams - Bandcamp)

 Interview with Melting Mallows

Belgian duo Melting Mallows has recently released their extremely impressive debut full-lengther Something Sweet.  I recently had the chance to do an email interview with Brian about the release, the path to getting there, being a two-man band, the Belgian music scene and more.

Can you give me a bit of a band history?

About 7 years ago Bices and I (Brian) met during high school. We got introduced to each other by a couple of mutual friends. Once we had met, we started jamming and it was sounding pretty good. We asked some other friends to join us and formed a small band. We couldn’t really find any places to play shows, apart from 1 cool venue called JH SOJO. That’s the only place where we had some shows. During that time we had written around 40-50 songs. 3 years after starting this band, the band had split due to our friends wanting to go in a different direction, so it was only Bices and I left. We didn’t really want to stop playing, we still loved playing music. At the time we didn’t know anyone who played an instrument so we had to find a way to play music with just the 2 of us. This would, 6 months later, become Melting Mallows. By starting this new band, we felt like we should have a fresh start and make new songs instead of keeping the songs we’ve previously written.

Can you tell me a little about your songwriting process?

It’s mostly Bices who has an idea and an almost finished lyric that he wrote at home. The next day he comes to my house and we see if we can work out the song. At first we take 2 acoustic guitars and make some changes in the structure, well only if that’s needed, and see where we can add some backing vocals and riffs. Once that’s done and the basic song is ready, we go over to the electric guitar and drums, and figure out those parts. We can’t really play riffs with only 1 guitar and a drum kit, then we would lose the ‘drive’, so sometimes the structure has to change a little again, just so the song won’t get boring in a live setting.

I hear alot of diversity and a wide variety of styles popping up throughout the 16 tracks including garage rock, surf guitar, strong 60‘s pop hooks and psychedelia.  Are there any particular bands or artists you would consider your biggest influences?

 

It’s not really a band in particular, but we get our inspiration from a couple of songs per band. Mostly British and American Bands.

The Beatles (I guess people say this band all the time), Beach Boys, King Khan, Ty Segall, Jack White, The Ramones, Spencer Davis Group, The Kinks, Car Seat Headrest, The Undertones, Simon and Garfunkel, Chuck Berry, ...

I read that you built your own studio in a 200 year old farm house.  Can you tell me about that?

The house has been in my family for about 7 generations or so. It’s basically been in the family from the day it was built. In recent years the house is no longer being used as a farm. 

Once my father heard Bices and I play together about 7 years ago, after a year he thought ‘wow, this is starting to sound good!’, and he also didn’t really want to annoy any of the neighbours. He had the idea of building a practice room in one of the old stables. But when he was still in the planning stage, he got the idea that, now that we are building this together, we could build a recording studio instead, in that way we did not have to hire a recording studio every time we wanted to get something recorded. So the old pigsty became our private recording studio. 

It says in your bio that you are 100% DIY.  Can you tell me a bit about the DIY recording process for the album?

A whole lot of struggles haha. I think in total we’ve re-recorded all of our songs about 10-20 times. We didn’t have any engineer, producer or arranger, so we had to learn everything ourselves. We had to learn using the mixer, the different types of microphones and placements, and the mixing process itself. We’ve just been experimenting with 'what would happen when we try this?’. 

We started with some demos of the basic ‘live’ recording of the song, after this we started adding other instruments on top just to have our songs sound like a full band. When we were playing our music acoustically, we had the riffs we needed, but when recording it for our album we had to look for sounds and that was the hardest and most time taking part of the recording. We’ve used about 9 different guitars and 3 different amps to get the guitar sound right. For example, on the song "Telephone", to get the sound of the guitar solo as we wanted it, we let a clean guitar go through a small amp, connect the headphones output of that amp to another amp and cranked up the volume of the first amp to get the sound all fuzzy. Also the drums, we tried different microphone placements and drumkits to get the sound we wanted. For example on our song "Nowhere", the drumkit only consists of 2 microphones, one above the kit and one at the snare, but on the song "Telephone", we’ve mic'd all separate parts of the drum kit. On the vocals, we’ve also tried different microphones and placements. On Nowhere we were singing the backing vocals together, both standing at one part of the mic and had a room mic high up at the side of the room. By accident on the high ‘oeh’ I moved my mouth to the right and it came in louder in the room mic. When mixing I’ve panned the normal mic to the left and the room to the right and it gave an interesting stereo effect. We’ve just been experimenting with things like this.

Does anyone else play on Something Sweet or is it just the 2 of you?

It’s just the 2 of us. We didn’t really know anyone at the time who played instruments so we had to do everything ourselves. 

A little later, we started knowing a whole lot of people who play music but we thought to just keep doing what we’re doing and stay as a duo. On most of the songs it's Bices playing the bass and guitar, on some songs it’s me playing a rhythm guitar or bass.  

Was being a 2-piece a conscious decision or did it just happen?

It just happened due to not knowing many people. A little later we thought of getting some extra musicians, but the thinking process of the songs is a lot faster to do with 2. But it’s not easy at times because for a moment you need to think as a drummer, then as a guitarist and then as a bassist, instead of only focusing on your instrument. But it's fun to do, I’m not complaining.

I know you released “Nowhere” as a single in 2018 and I read that you were planning to start recording the album in late 2018.  Was there anything in particular that took so long to get  it finished?

Something interesting happened late 2018, starting as a joke we signed up for one of the biggest music contests in Belgium called ‘De Nieuwe Lichting’ a music contest by one of the biggest radio stations, Studio Brussel, in Belgium. We thought ‘ah we're not going to get chosen but let’s sign up anyway and see what happens’. A little later I was having a home party at my house with some friends when I suddenly got a call from a guy saying ‘Hey I am … from the radio station Studio Brussel, we like your track and you’ve been selected in our top 9 songs from the 1200 submissions. We would like you to come over to our radio station on Monday and have a chat.’ Well let me say the party couldn’t be any better after that haha. When they played our music for the first time on their radio, within a minute after that, we received about 6 emails of venues that requested us to play a concert in their venue, including one of the biggest venues in Belgium called ‘De Vooruit’. It was a pretty strange time, one week we were nowhere and suddenly everyone knew us and we had mails coming in for bookings. We didn’t think we would ever have this coming at us, or at least not at that moment. We didn’t have a lot of live experience so we decided that we should put the album on hold and now focus on getting our live set as good as we could, so that’s what we did. There is one venue I’d like to thank in particular and that’s Het Depot, the biggest venue in our hometown, Leuven, for international artists (The Pretty Reckless, The Damned, Steve Vai, Jools Holland, The Strangles,...), they’ve booked us 3 times in 2019 and 1 time in 2020 during the covid pandemic. Apart from the concerts there were also a lot of managers and labels who contacted us, but for us that wasn’t really what we were looking for. What has been a little setback is that everyone in the music industry told us ‘The next track needs to be even better than "Nowhere". You should release an EP before the album.’, we picked that up making us confused by thinking ‘Is this new song good? Are we mixing good?’, a whole lot of questions popped up in our minds. After 1 year of playing a whole lot of shows we’ve decided that we can’t keep waiting on releasing new music. We got a little stuck in writing new songs since we were so busy with live shows and playing the same old material, we had to get these songs out to start on something new. So we hired a producer and a studio and recorded the song "YA YA YA YA", we’ve got it mastered at Abbey Road Studios just to make sure that it sounds good. The song got picked up but it wasn’t as highly picked up as "Nowhere". After this single we started thinking ‘Why are we spending this much money? We can do everything ourselves and sound just as good'. That’s when we decided, December 2019, that we should just do it our way as we did with "Nowhere". Bices still had his university exams in January so we’ve planned on recording the album in the first week of February at my house. That’s what we did and it worked out pretty well. We first thought of releasing the album in June 2020, but due to covid we thought to wait a little longer and release it a month later or so. When the 2nd wave came, we didn’t want to wait any longer since we’ve basically been quiet for about 6 months. The last song 'Something Sweet’ is an experimental song, with just guitar and vocals, to show that we wanted to have our album out and that we were pretty tired of waiting. The song contains just one sentence: ‘Something Sweet is all I need’

You have released several of these songs as singles over the past couple years.  Are those versions the same as what’s on the Something Sweet?

Those versions are the same as on the album. Since we were a little quiet for some time because there were no concerts, we wanted to let our followers know that we still existed and give them something to look forward to, instead of looking forward to a concert.

You also released an acoustic EP last year.  Can you tell me a little about that and the decision to throw that out there before the actual release?

Since everyone in Belgium who followed us, knew us from the song "Nowhere" and that competition we joined, we wanted to show them that we were going back to when we first started. The recordings from the acoustic EP were made a little after we’ve released our song "Nowhere". It was not necessarily an idea of ‘let us release an EP' but we meant it more as a sign to let people know who we are and where we came from. We thought that was important. 

Something Sweet is just available digitally at this time.  Do you have any plans for a physical release?

Our original idea was to have it printed on vinyl, but we don’t know if anyone is interested in buying one at this time. When the concerts are happening again, we might get it pressed and maybe also a CD. For now it’s only available to stream or to be bought digitally. (For example: Spotify, Amazon)

Since you just released Something Sweet and all the covid restrictions are still hindering things do you have any special plans for promoting it?

Not really, we thought of giving an online concert, but with the restrictions we are not allowed to come together with more than 2 people. And we would need some people to hold a camera. Once the restrictions are lowered, we might still do it.

How is the music scene in Belgium?

The scene in Belgium is really diverse, you have about everything going on here. That’s also the hard part, to find people who are listening to your genre of music. What separates us from other bands in our genre is that we do it all, live and studio, just by us 2. In that way we stand out from the other bands.

Is there anything else you want to share with readers?

I wish everyone a happy time singing with and dancing to our songs! I am pretty sure you’ll like our music. I hope the covid period will not last long, not just for us, but for everyone who is struggling financially and psychologically. For now, get those happy feelings by listening to our music and have a good time discovering new bands.

(Melting Mallows - Facebook)