Radio 4 - London, UK, Summer 2003
By: Toby L
Seated upstairs in the balcony, overlooking the perimeters of the Mean Fiddler - a sold-out hall Radio 4 are set to grace this evening - frontman and bassist of the NYC punk-groove quintet, Anthony Roman, is experiencing mixed emotions.
'It's cool,' he squirms, pondering how far the band have travelled to get to this stage. 'But it doesn't feel... Well, I wish I could say, 'Oh, it's amazing, oh, I feel like this,' but it just feels like a part of the process, because it's happened so gradually. It wasn't like twenty people to a thousand.'
'All the shows in the UK have been really good,' affirms bandmate and drummer, Greg Collins. 'The response and attendance have been really awesome; on some of the shows, people have just gone nuts, and I've never seen people react in that way to us before. There was a little bit of a drama at the beginning of the tour - people not getting along, arguing, and stuff like that, usually because of excessive work-load and, maybe, excessive alcohol-consumption... I personally don't drink at all, but sometimes it gets a little out of hand... But, overall, it's been pretty good.'
'They (London shows) have got something special about them, definitely,' Roman elucidates. 'Just the history, and all the bands that have been spawned here, and it's the biggest city we play in Europe. But I would imagine New York would feel the same way, if a band not from there was doing a show in the city.'
The band are entitled to holding reservations over the fluidity of their development-curve to date. It's been a trip - specifically, a painstakingly long one in recent months, a period that's seen them tour endlessly without so much as a full week to ponder the prospect of new material.
You can understand the push, though. 'Gotham!', the band's second-LP to date as flung into the stratosphere via City Slang, has become one of the past twenty-four months' must-purchase releases - a furore of instantly warming, disco-tinged rock magnets, sculpted with socially-politically aware commentary most of their musical peers seldom even consider, let alone pen tunes to.
'I like where we've gotten to up 'til now, but - as a band - I think we're all excited to move into... not exactly a completely different direction... but I think we're all moving towards a less punk-rock thing,' highlights Greg of the band's wishes. 'We definitely want to move into a more dancier area. I think that has a lot to do with where our heads are at, and via the line-up change with PJ (percussion) and Gerrard (keyboards) in the band, the group has changed considerably, in both our personal dynamic, and sonically. I definitely see us moving away from the fast punk-rock songs, and to something more groove-orientated.
'We did a little bit of rehearsing together before the current tour, but we didn't do a whole lot,' he continues. 'Because the touring has been, like, a month on, a month off, a month on, a month off... Just as you get off tour you want to take a break, and even if you do get a chance to start working, you're like, 'Oh, we have to leave again - so forget what we've done!'
'I definitely wanna incorporate more electronics into it, and more live drums and electronic drums at the same time, keep it really rhythmic,' backs up Anthony. 'Maybe slightly less abrasive.'
Since the first wave of promotion for the current record, how as a band do you feel you've progressed?
'I don't know how far we've evolved musically,' thinks Collins. 'In terms of the audiences, it's been different, because you see a lot more people singing along to every word, and a much more enthusiastic reaction. I don't think we've changed a whole lot, because we haven't had enough time off to change or evolve. We don't write while we're touring, so we need some time to grow; touring is, kind of, stunting our growth, if anything! But, this is the last major tour for a while, aside from the summer-festivals. So we're kind of happy about that.'
'I prefer recording, but - at this stage - we're much more of a touring-band,' concedes Anthony. 'We've been on tour seven or eight months out of the last twelve. Some people like the record better, but some people prefer seeing us live. I'd probably prefer if people heard our record first, as it sounds the way we think the songs should sound; live, things happen beyond your control, whereas, in the studio, that can't happen, because you have fault-control. And you know you're getting your performance to the best place it could be, and you're getting the sounds to the best result. Here, meanwhile, you do a sound-check for half an hour, sometimes, the bass-amp sounds great, sometimes it sounds weird - and you can't figure out why. So I'd prefer people hear the record.'
Greg becomes two-way on the issue. 'The live element is really important, and I think it's more important than the studio-aspect, but - for me, personally - if we're not writing, then I feel as if I'm not doing anything. And, if you're pushing an album for a year, a year and a bit, you don't feel like you're actually creating anything... That show you do is just like a show you've done a hundred times before. It doesn't feel like a creative-outlet once you've played these songs a hundred and fifty times.
'We want to really write this summer, in between festivals all over the place - here, Europe,' he then details, before becoming engaged with a surreal memory related to outdoor events. 'The only festival I can say we've done was one in Japan, a couple of months ago, which was a two-day thing, and it was great...
'In fact - I'm backstage at this place, it's us, and The Parkinsons, and a band from LA, and everyone's drunk, and loud, picking each other up and throwing each other round. I was just laughing, and there was such a noise, and we go out to the crowd during a band-changeover, and it's dead silent... It was then we realised that five-thousand Japanese people made less noise than thirty American people did backstage! It was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. They go crazy when you're playing - but, in between - oh no... Their silence makes you think you're f**king up - but, then, you realise, that's the way it works... Once I knew that was the way it worked, I was cool with it; but, for the first three songs, we were looking at each other and saying, 'Whoa, we're bombing!'
How do you keep the live-shows exciting for yourselves?
'What we do live is very gut-reactionary,' begins Greg. 'I personally wouldn't get on the stage and slack, and play like I don't care, because I do - the show isn't for me; it's for the people who come along. Granted, at the end of the day, we all have to be happy with ourselves, but if I'm on a stage, it doesn't always mean I'd rather be there - there are a lot of times I'd rather be in a hotel-room!
'But it's not all about me, it's about the people who came and paid to see us do a show. I don't feel like that all the time, but after you've been on the road for three weeks and you haven't had a good night's sleep, there are plenty of times you'd rather do something other than play... Like, just the other night - after fifteen dates - we had this outdoor-deck in our dressing-room, and we were like, 'Wow, I'd rather just have a barbeque than play a show!' Though you may feel like that at first, but - more often than not - once you get on the stage and start moving, it reminds you what you're there to do; I'm not here to amuse myself, I'm here to play to people.
'We also just try to have a very good time after the show,' adds Anthony. 'Wherever people want to take us, I try and go... For better or for worse. There's been a few scary experiences. None I should go into...'
'Before, I was in another band, but then I quit,' opens Greg, becoming introspective. 'I sat down and said to myself, 'Right, I'm not going to be in any more bands, I've had it.' And there was about six months that followed where I think I played drums about twice; I didn't play at all, I didn't even think about it. But then I started playing with these guys, and - for the first practice - Tommy (guitarist) called me up and said, 'Look, why don't you just play with us once; you don't have to join, just see what it sounds like...' Then I started playing, and we practiced twice, and it was just, 'I guess we're a band now, right?!' And that was it. I just couldn't help it.'
'Tommy (guitarist/vocalist) and Anthony, between the two of them, had three songs together, and when I turned up to play with them, I realised that they were just good, and were probably better than any of the previous bands I've been in. I think I was curious, as if it could turn into something pretty cool - and it did. Plus, it felt right. It wasn't an intellectual thing; I sat down, played with them, and it felt like a band, a band that should be working.'
How has the band's live-synergy progressed since first doing shows?
'We have definitely got used to playing bigger stages, and this is probably the biggest headline show we've done so far, and thus it's all a part of the learning-process,' notes Roman. 'But it's exciting, and it's new, so you go in with a different head, rather than just going, 'Oh, this is nothing.' You learn certain things that happen onstage, and as the stage gets bigger, you have to react to the music in a different way to keep it fresh, because you're so used to being close to each other, where you'd react off each other. But, then, rooms like this, there's more space to work with. But, then, playing to 10,000 people is completely different as well.'
How do you adjust to the larger stage?
'We try to mess around with the lights a little bit, get a set-pattern for them, so maybe it's visually more interesting,' he reveals. 'And just feeding off each other becomes very much different. But there's a friend of ours here that wants to break-dance onstage, but we haven't decided on that. It's one of the more interesting ideas I've heard in a while.' He smiles. 'Though there's an excitement about live, obviously, that a record simply can't generate.'
And how do you feel the material converges into live; is there a smooth transition?
'Live, as a band, I think there's a lot more dynamic changes with us,' informs Greg, 'and - obviously - it's less electronic, because, at least right now, we don't use sequencers or anything like that. So it's possibly a bit more of an organic thing, live. I can't be that objective, but the record is pretty sample and loop-heavy, and it's nothing like that onstage right now. I'd say it's much more visceral onstage. But I love the way that album came out; there's things I would have done differently, but I think it's cool.'
'I think it works both ways, because it's physical, and physical music that involves us moving around,' Anthony acknowledges, 'and the crowd moving around. So it can translate to a stage. I was just talking with someone about Massive Attack, because I think they're one of the better bands there is, but I don't know if it's so much a live-thing, as it doesn't really have a physical element to it.'
'Physical' being the attraction or not, arguably, the UK was the first outlet to first veritably rave about the band's present predicament; upon the band's debut-shows in Autumn 2002, the reactions proved near-impenetrably in favour, whilst both media and radio support has been relentless throughout, the spirited, up-tempo likes of 'Eyes Wide Open' and 'Dance To The Underground' indie-hits in their own right.
'There's definitely something going on here,' nods the drummer. 'In the States, it's a little different; we couldn't do a show like tonight's. We could headline a venue half this size in New York, and maybe the major cities.'
'We did a show with Blur in NY recently, and that was pretty awesome, especially seeing as Albarn went on Radio One recently and said that we're apparently his favourite band at the moment; that's exciting,' enthuses Anthony, sidetracking momentarily.
'Yeah... And the biggest difference in this is that the US is so huge, and there's these huge gaps of nothing there, but - here - we can play nice, big shows, and they're only two-three hours away from each other,' returns Greg. 'Back home, you have to drive eight hours between shows, and you could play in one place to 250-300 people and have a great night, then drive another fifteen hours and play a bad show to just 15 people, as there's no scene in that location.'
Notable that the term 'scene' is mentioned - are there any worries amidst your camp that, what with the likes of The Rapture, your associated production-team of The DFA and other like-minded acts such as !!! or The Faint, that your prominence has arisen via a scene?
'Maybe,' ponders Collins. 'I know our publicist thinks that (laughs). But I don't really think about stuff like that. From the beginning, we've done what we've done, and a lot of the bands that are emerging now in New York... I see that whole scene as not really a scene, but there's just something in the air at the moment, because I don't think a lot of the bands around at the moment really know each other that well. And it wasn't like we were all going to see each other, though lately it's been more like that. We didn't come up in a scene that was a really community-oriented thing - everyone's just doing their own thing, but it just so happens this dance-rock thing is happening. I just see myself as someone playing music; whether you're getting lumped in with The DFA, the whole explosion of bands at the moment - I see it as we do what we do, and that's that.'
'I'd hope that people would lyrically pick up what we're trying to get at, as we're talking about things that we see as important,' Roman asides. 'Though I hope people see things at both sides: that it's very serious lyrically, but music you could go out and have a good time alongside: that's the very idea. It's been done throughout our time - The Clash are a perfect example. We try and present forward situations that we think are screwed up, that need work - and can be fixed. Things that aren't a hopeless cause, and all rather than saying, 'This is wrong - don't do that, do this...'
'At one point,' Roman concludes on the subject, 'it seemed that a lot of depressing or not very constructive music was dominating everything, and it almost feels as if we need to exist as a counter to that; there's room for that type of music, and I don't think any one way is better than the other, but our way is for us, and their way is for them. I don't think someone is wrong for writing love songs or depressing ballads, but that's just not what we're interested in.'
'I'd hope they'd dance, but I'm not a salesman,' grins Greg, when commenting on hopes of people's reactions to the band, upon first sight and sound. 'If someone asked me what kind of music I play, I either say new-wave or dance-rock, I don't know what else to say... It's definitely a vibe-thing; we want people to have fun, and think.'
Anthony gets the final say. 'From now, we just wanna get this new material together, and make the record that I think we can make - a record that really incorporates all the things we're interested in and that is us. After that - I'd just want us to be in a position where we can move forward, get our message across to as many people as possible, without doing stuff we don't want to do, just making music we want to make.' He looks up and makes rare eye-contact. 'And let it grow from there.'
By now, you'd think you've heard a lot from Radio 4. But the next transmission looks set to be as similarly engrossing as anything else previously experienced before. Tune in, or cop out.
Artists in this article: Radio 4