Merge Records are twenty years old this year and still acting like teenagers. OK, so maybe the label are treading a little more carefully in the current economic climes but Mac McCaughan seems unaffected, honest and above all still in love with the music his label are putting out. The feeling you get from talking to Mac (Merge co-founder and lead singer with influential punk rock stalwarts Superchunk) is that he’s still having fun – he seems more teenage-fanzine-writer than a successful businessman.

Merge are currently still coming down from their 20 year Merge celebrations, dubbed XX Merge. We caught up with Mac this September to see what all the fuss was about and to talk business…

Q1. Merge is 20 years old this year, did you ever envisage the label becoming what it has back when you and Laura first started it as fresh faced 20 year olds? What were your hopes and expectations of Merge back then?

“i think all we could envision back then was holding the next release in our hands!
for some reason we did begin with the possibly naive expectation that people somewhere would buy the cassettes and singles we were putting out… but then again we were only pressing 500 or 1000 of each so we didn’t need a TON of people to buy them, just enough to get us on to the next record.”

Q2. What do you think has set you apart from the other numerous bedroom founded labels that started around the same time as Merge but have since met an untimely end?

“i think that has to be a different answer for each  label you’re thinking of…some we saw certainly trying to get too big too soon without any actual sales to back up the aspiration, but just as many were probably cases where the people starting the label lost interest or realized that they were going to have to have a “real” job as well and they didn’t want to be stuffing records in their spare time or living amongst the boxes. and then there’s luck which certainly has something to do with it.”

In February of this year, Touch and Go records announced that they were to shut their manufacturing and distribution arm as it was no longer financially viable to keep it running (see DbR post here). They provided this service for many smaller labels including Merge.

Q3. How have things changed and how have you adapted to the folding of T&G’s distribution arm?

i think we’re still learning how that affects us. so far i feel like it’s been pretty smooth but some of the records we’re putting out this fall will be a real test, because bands like The Clean and The Clientele have their strongest supporters in the world of independent retail, and that’s where Touch and Go really excelled and had great relationships because Touch and Go understood the music and loved it. if you’re selling records to Best Buy i don’t think that’s as much of a requirement. we just hope that Touch and Go the label continues on because Corey has a great history and is a person that the music industry (such as it is) should be without.

Part two coming soon…

Explaining where they had been for the two years since the last release, Martin (bass) from the band told DbR “We took about three months off doing anything after the end of our last tour. We then spent six months writing the third album, then a couple of months getting that album all recorded, mixed, mastered etc… and now we’ve just been twiddling our thumbs for a little while“.

The new album, due for release later in the year, has been recorded live in the studio, something the band hadn’t tried before. Gone is the poppy edge found on the second album being replaced by “…slower, darker, sludgier, weirder…” tracks.

So, what can we expect from the set at the Priory next week? “Extreme guitar volume and feedback with minimal crowd interaction” is to be expected from an average NBA set says Martin.

Tickets are available from The Music Week for £8.00 plus booking fee…

Download their track “Buy Nothing” for free here.
(Right click and save link/target as…)

You can listen to the track in the player below…

Andy: The North Carolina area has a long and impressive musical history, are all of the band members local and why do you think it is that this particular area is so musically fertile?

HNMTF: Jeff, Joe, and I are all from Durham, NC. Durham, Chapel Hill, and Raleigh make up the “Triangle” region of NC. Durham has always been known as the gritty, blue collar step brother to Raleigh and Chapel Hill. Raleigh is the big city, more conservative, but getting hipper everyday. Chapel Hill is the smaller college town with a big indie music scene. Durham is really coming into it’s own though. There are a lot of bands and music venues opening up in the area. I think one of the reasons this area is so musically fertile is because all three cities have large universities. Kids come from all over the country. There are a lot of transplants from New York and California. Many students just stay here after they graduate. Almost everyone plays an instrument, runs a venue or a label, or is a big time show goer. All three universities have great radio stations. WKNC 88.1 at NC State (Raleigh) is very proactive in the local music scene. I think the DJ’s are required to play a certain number or local music on the air per day. UNC (Chapel Hill) has a student paper called Diversions, which promotes local music like no other. WKNC and Diversions work together on a lot of projects. Durham is the city where a lot of younger artsy people move, because Raleigh and Chapel Hill have become fairly expensive. But all three cities work together to make one big scene. It’s an exciting place to be for music and art

For those not familiar with the sound of HNMTF, how would you best describe it and what are your influences?

I think our sound is reminiscent of the early days of Chapel Hill indie rock. Bands like Archers of Loaf and Superchunk are big influences. As are Pixies, They Might Be Giants, Deerhoof, Outkast, Foo Fighters, etc. We’re a three piece; guitar, bass, and drums. We try to make the backbeat as steady, punchy, and funky as can be. Then the guitar and vocals takeover the melody. Sometimes we get intricate, and sometimes we keep it simple. Sometimes we’re energetic, and sometimes we’re spacey. But basically we write three minute pop punk songs. It’s the Hammer version of pop, whatever that is…

You recently played with Superchunk at The Cats Cradle in Carrboro, how was that?

Opening for Superchunk was a blast. Probably my favorite show of the year. We practiced our asses off. They were on fire. They tore through their set, oldies and newies, and ended up playing three encores. They’re the nicest people too. I hadn’t seen them live in years before that. It was so cool to open for them at their home base, The Cat’s Cradle. Definitely an experience for us.

Your latest release ‘Looking For Bruce’ is packed with abstract, off the wall songs with titles such as ‘Mushrooms’, ‘Concrete’ and ‘Automobiles’. Who writes the songs and where does the inspiration come from?

All three of us write the songs in some form. Joe will write the music for a verse. I’ll write the music for a chorus, or vice versa. Jeff will determine the speed and feel of the overall song. We definitely piece together the songs in band practice. We’ll jam on one part for hours until it starts sounding right. Then we’ll jam on the next part, and try to piece everything together. Sometimes it works beautifully, and sometimes it doesn’t work at all. Then it’s back to the drawing board. We’ll play a song live long before it’s complete, just to figure out what we need to change. I’m usually the main lyric writer. Jeff and Joe have a lot of input though. I usually just write about anything that I’ve been reading about or hear on the radio. The song “Radiation” is about a girl who rides her motorcycle through Chernobyl. I went through a big “urban decay” phase; “Automobiles” is about dying Detroit, “Fall Down, Play Dead” is about homeless people in LA, “Concrete” is about a homeless friend of ours in Durham. I went through a big John Lennon phase as well, the lyrics to “Poison Apple” are about him. “Mushrooms” is definitely about mushrooms. I try not to write about girls, although occasionally I have to. Maybe I should keep all this a secret though.

In the current musical climate and with the style of music the band plays, do you sometimes feel that HNMTF are swimming against the tide a little?

As far as local shows go, it couldn’t be better. This is a great area to be a band. We definitely feel like we’re swimming against the tide of musical trends though. You just don’t know what’s going to hit next. Seven years ago, it seemed like the media was praising garage rock, then the disco rock thing, then the Bruce Springsteen/Arcade Fire/Hold Steady thing, then it was the experimental noise Dan Deacon stuff, Now it’s the folky thing. Hopefully funky indie rawk will be one of the next things to catch. (Sorry, I’m being condescending as hell!!). I love all that stuff, I just wish there was more room in the blogosphere for the music that we play. But we’re having the time of our lives. And in the end, we’re just happy to be touring and writing music that we love. People seem to dig our jams for the most part!

What do the band have lined up for the future? and will we get to see you over in the UK any time soon?

We would absolutely love to play in the UK. We’ve thought about saving up for plane tickets and renting a car and music equipment when we get there. It’s definitely a huge, huge dream of ours. Hopefully in the next couple of years! I have a lot of family in northern England. I’m actually going to be there in September 09. We should meet up for a beer! Other than our imaginary UK tour, we’re getting music together for our next record. We have a gajillion parts, we’re just in the process of completing the songs. We’re planning a pretty extensive US tour for October/November 09. We’ll have new music and tour dates on our website soon. We’re helping some friends of ours open a new music venue in downtown Durham. We’re also going to start planning for the second anniversary of Viking Storm. It’s our giant viking themed music festival that takes place in April. We’re just trying to do as much as possible, even if it destroys us.

I’ll be over in NC in a couple of weeks, anything that you recommend I go see?

Hmmmm, good question. Our friend, Betsy, is having a big musical cookout at her place on July 25. You’re definitely invited. You should see a show at Cat’s Cradle, Local 506, and The Pinhook. Disc Golf is always fun. Take a visit to Merge Records. There are a bunch of hiking trails and places to do urban exploration. Plenty of good, cheap restaurants. Plenty of good, cheap vintage stores. Nasher Museum of Art is pretty funky. We drink a lot of beer and go swimming and what not. We’ll show you a good time!!

Andy Maddison
Inhaler Records

Q1. Devin, the subject of your new documentary is a very emotive one for a lot of people and particularly for those of an age that can remember a time before people held their entire collection of music on a hand held device. What inspired you to make this film and what kind of reaction are you receiving to it so far?

I guess my biggest inspiration for Firewall of Sound is just my love of music as a whole. I feel that, for the last fifteen years or so, the music industry has undergone this massive transition, and every aspect, from buying to selling, recording to listening, all of that has been changed. I ultimately want my documentary to act as a sort of snapshot of the independent music scene, to show what it has accomplished, what its current state is, and where it’s destined to go. So far, the reaction from people who I’ve told about the project and who’ve seen the trailer on YouTube has been very positive. I’ve been amazed at the number of people wanting to be interviewed for the film. Everyone wants to weigh in on this topic, and everyone has a different opinion on what the future will hold.

Q2. I have always been a massive admirer of the US underground scene which I believe to be unique to anywhere else on the planet in terms of local and national networking, self sustainability and freedom away from the influence of big business, do you think that if the decline of the independent store continues it will have a negative impact upon the local and national scenes?

As more and more record stores shut their doors, we will soon say goodbye to one of the most cherished retreats of the music lover. I fear it won’t be long before they build a replica of a record store at the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, to show future generations how people used to buy their music, before the advent of iTunes and Myspace. But while that may seem like a negative attitude, I do feel like a lot has been gained. Local bands can now find a much wider audience than ever before. At the same time, fans can seek out an unprecedented amount of music on the web, and frankly, the weirder and more eclectic, the better. Whether its Belgian Satanic freak-folk or Japanese bikini-clad trombone players (both real; the latter played SXSW), I am constantly amazed at the wealth of bands I have found on the Internet, bands I would never have discovered otherwise. So while I am upset at what we are losing to the “digital revolution,” I am hopeful for the future of music.

Q3. I agree that it is now easier to seek out bands than ever before, Music is available on demand via your laptop, cell phone and also through your tv at anytime anywhere, but do you not think that the quicker and more accessible(perhaps even disposable?) music becomes to purchase that it is in danger of being devalued as an art form in the eyes of the consumer?

I totally agree with that statement. As more and more music is made available to the consumer, it has become harder and harder to keep the attention of the public on any one band or album. Even in indie circles, there have been many “next big thing” bands that have turned out less-than-stellar results. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve downloaded a song off a music blog, only to have it collect virtual dust at the bottom of my iTunes library. And while I do think music’s been slowly losing its value as an art form ever since groups of teen heartthrobs got together to pop-and-lock and lip sync in unison, it’s up to the consumer to search out the bands and the songs that he or she finds merit with. Before you chuck that MP3 file in the trash, give it a couple more listens. Revisit albums you haven’t taken off the shelf in a long time. Don’t feel obligated to speed through all of Pitchfork’s Top 100 Albums of the Year. Music only loses its artistic value if we choose to treat it as something less than art.

Q4. What kind of release are you planning for the film and will you be doing the rounds of film festivals around the US and possibly in Europe?

My hope is to premiere the film at the Cucalorus Film Festival in my hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina. From there, I would run the festival circuit here in the U.S., focusing mostly on documentary or music-based fests (SXSW, Full Frame, etc.) I can’t really go into any detail, mainly because I’m still focused on just finishing the film, which I hope to do before the end of 2009. The official website for Firewall of Sound (firewallofsound.com) will have any updates regarding the production and, ultimately, screenings of the film, so keep your eyes peeled.

www.firewallofsound.com

Andy Maddison

So, you have your finger on the pulse… Who inspires you in portrait/people/band photography ?

My biggest inspirations are Helmut Newton & Guy Bourdin. They dominated and changed the fashion photograph for ever though the mid 50’s to the late 70’s, sadly they both met a premature end. Both of them produced images with such amazing narrative power, I was blown away looking through their work for the first time while I attended art school at Doncaster College, back when I was nineteen. The images were so strong and vivid, they pushed the boundries.

Two of my old tutors have also helped me and inspired me, Richard Browning, my tutor at Doncaster College. He let me off the leash and left me to do my own thing, rather than stick to the curriculum, and the other is Mark Lebon, my head of year and tutor at London College Of Fashion. The man is amazing, and i’m proud to call him a very close friend. I also enjoy the work of Perou, Terry Richardson, Jerry Hsu & Richard Kern…. there are far too many to list…

You must have made some good friends along the way – what’s your favourite shoot you’ve done ?

Tough one. I had most fun shooting the Klaxons, but that’s more to the fact I was on tour with them in their bus for three weeks and were all mates. My favourite shoot work wise would be a personal one, it’s some intimate portraits of my girlfriend sat in my old flat in Hackney. I love them, and I rarely like my own work.

Do you tend to research a band before you shoot them ?

I’ll just Google them, have a listen to their music, check out past shoots they have done. I’ve been pretty fortunate to have shot bands that I’m a fan of already though, it hasn’t been much of a problem in the past. There was one that was tricky, a DJ from New York I was shooting for a magazine out there called Big Shot.. at the time he was fairly underground and I couldn’t find a thing on him. It all turned out good though!

Here’s a Smash Hits question for you… If you could shoot anyone (band) – who would it be and why ?
There are two bands that i’d love to shoot. Superchunk & Explosions In The Sky, for the simple reason they are awesome!

The Rakes

What bores you about band photos you see? You must see some criminal shots…

Four blokes stood against a wall / in a toilet / looking “edgy” – yeah, cut it out already… erm, I actually shot the Rakes against a wall. ha. I don’t think there are any real crimes to commit when shooting bands… not dropping some off a bridge into the Thames is probably one of them! – There are a few bands that I’ve worked with that thought that their time was too good for me / the magazine I’ve been working for… you just get on with it though and keep smiling.

How do you react to constraints laid out by labels/bands?
I’ve never had any constraints laid out to me before really, other than them requesting to change a location of a shoot.. usually last minute too.

Any upcoming stuff we should know about…. ?

I’m currently on tour with the band “White Lies” who are set to be utterly huge, they reached number one in the UK album charts earlier this year. They have some amazing dates lined up, and hopefully if I behave myself I could be off to the states, Australia and Japan with them. fingers crossed!

Wow… How did that come about, are you a fan?

I got a call from Steve Warby, the head of universal records subsidery fiction, which is in turn a inprint of Polydor (it gets a bit confusing, right?). A friend I have there had recomended me to him after seeing similar things i’d done with the Klaxons (also on Polydor) and The Rakes.

Richard Reynolds
NEON Magazine

To be fair, I’d been given their album on pre realease a few months ago, and gave it a listen or two but forgot about it.. then one night while in the pub, I got an excited call from my friend in A&R at Universal screaming about how her band was Number one.. I gave them another chance, and I’m pretty hooked on them now.. any fan of Joy Division, Tears For Fears or Echo and the Bunnymen should give them a chance.

That sounds rubbish, I bet you’d rather be back in Hyde Park (Doncaster) ? no?
Will you do us a tour Diary with photos?

erm…. I miss my mam. No, seriously.. I do miss “the donx” from time to time, but London is certainly for me.. I’ve been here six years now (with a little break recently) and I can’t really imagine being anywhere else. I certainly wouldn’t have the career or opportunities I have & get sitting in DN1 all week. Everyone should give London a go before they get too old!

Of course I’ll share some photos with DBR, just as soon as I get clearance from the label !

NaughtyJames.com

Q1. Justin, most people will know you best by your previous musical output with Yourcodenameis: Milo or by your production work with bands like Late of The Pier, Kubicheck and Hot Club De Paris. How did current band White Belt Yellow Tag come about and for those not aware of the band could you describe your sound and influences?

White belt came about after i started working (mixing) out of a studio up here where Craig (singer) worked.. after a while  he asked me to help him out with some tunes he was working on..and then after a while I started chipping in more and before we knew it we had about an albums worth of tunes..! an unconventional way of starting a band but i guess its whatever works!

Q2. I met you briefly in the studio a few weeks ago and got the impression that you are no nonsense type of guy when it comes to dealing with people in the industry, do you feel it is important to be strong and uncompromising when dealing with these characters? and do you think things have changed much since you first set out as a professional musician in terms of how much power and control these people can wield over a young band?

Things have changed massively since I started out..even in the space between my previous band to now things have changed massively… I guess it has a lot to do with the way things are currently with everything… which is basically fucked. There just isn’t really the scope for the majors to throw unbelievable amounts of cash at artists to make them “work” nowadays… I think you’ll see a lot more pop because of this as they tend to throw a lot of wedge behind “pop” acts as they tend to have a larger and shorter turnaround of profit if any.. whereas if you take your guitar / rock acts they tend to need the space to grow and craft their music and catalogue over time..the problem is in the fact that most bands don’t really hit peak until album 2 or even 4 but majors wont back that long plan anymore..

On the indie side of things is where this becomes interesting, creativity works best under constraint, so if there isnt much going on in the majors to shout about and people see that route as fucked they tend to get their shit together faster on their own terms..this to me is a far better way of working, having been through the major label system the biggest thing you notice is how the stopwatch on the band starts as soon as the deal is done..and if you don’t give them the return they expect then its game over..take this in comparison to a diy / small indie set up.. bands record themselves / distribute themselves and everything instantly has more appeal and validity in it..so..when dealing with anyone these days i usually tend to be exactly how I’ve always been, which is straight up from the start, I’m not a big fan of fucking around and time-wasting, and the whole courtship process that the majors do is beyond boring if you’ve been through it already, far better to work to your own terms, which is why i very rarely head to London for meetings, if people from those circles have something to say they can head north with their lease car and expense account.I understand the draw that major deals have, for a start theres the money, and when you’re young it tends to dazzle you a bit, but once you’ve been through that and you get down to the bottom line of what its all about..nowadays i just think its can be far more rewarding musically and financially to just do you’re own thing, if you hold the rights to your music from a publishing and a recording aspect then if that lovely sync to a film / ad comes knocking its far better to reap the rewards rather than someone who has fuck all to do with your music scoop it all up.

Everythings so fucked up in the music industry nowadays that you can pretty much write the rules yourself, so the old school way of getting someone to hear your music and all that is pretty much redundant now. So as far as they wield power and influence to a young band, my best piece of advice would be to take stock, read up and dont be fucking retarded about it, hard work is always the key to gettting anywhere doing anything.

So you’ve no plans to move to London then? What do you think of the current music coming out of the capital?… are you not tempted to dig out the eighties dressing up clothes and dust off the synth?

London..no fucking chance. I can only deal with it in short spells..I like to be in a place where you can see the same person walk past you twice in the same day…London always holds itself in a far higher place musically to what actually comes out of there..case in point, jo lean and the jing jang jong..all that stabby guitar wafer thin bollocks is so transparent and holds no weight at all..its the rice paper of music. I reckon if you looked historically at all the great bands in british history im pretty sure the north will come out on top. So ive never been attracted by any particular London scene…..i’ll be happy leaving it up to them, theres just no fun spending every hour of everday trying to get  noticed in a camden toilet.

Have you found that by taking more control over band affairs and excluding the established ‘industry’ types it has been harder to achieve mainstream press and radio without their financial backing for lengthy media campaigns? I know that you have initially received excellent coverage from the likes of Huw Stephens and Zane Lowe but from our experience and from talking to others in the same situation as us we have found that there is certainly a an old boy mentality that exists and a lot of (alleged) backhander’s taking place to secure prime radio and press slots.

There’s definately an old boy mentality, but its not as present as it was even a couple of years ago..ive always taken a keen interest in the affairs of whichever band im in, it just makes sense..if you dont you’d be retarded, at the end of the day you build and pay a team to do their best for you, gotta make sure everyones on top of their game otherwise theres no point..

am a firm believer in getting shit done and putting the effort and hard work in, i think this is far more important than whatever club the old boys and backhanders deal in..theres an element of that in every business, even more so when said industry  is fucked. Its all in the planning. And of course who you deal with.

So are White Belt Yellow Tag going to be touring in the near future and who will be completing the live line up?

yep we’ll be touring extensively throughout the year, including festivals etc.. were going out for 5 days at the end of this week to try out the new set up under the radar… I’m well pleased with how its sounding so far. big. we’ve recruited a drummer to finish the line up, he’s called Tom and he used to play guitar in the cooper temple clause..he’s a super nice chap and a fookin amazing drummer.

Andy Maddison

So consider our surprise when we roll into Manchester to find a huge old mill where the band can be found recording in a small corner of the building.

“I haven’t had much sleep,” mutters bassist Mark as he welcomes us in. “The hotel bed is hard as anything, plus we went out last night.”

“I think we must be in a big gay area, because last night we ended up in three gay bars,” drummer Tom adds.

But despite trawling the latest gay hang outs, Above Them have actually been hard at work. After recording in the studio for two days all the drums and bass are laid down, with Oli currently recording the second layer of guitar. The group are quite content in the studio, but surely it can be a little frustrating for a band who are so used to playing live?

“We’re quite enjoying it really,” adds lead singer Oli. “Last time we recorded was for the EP and we didn’t have much time. Now we’re just enjoying messing around and finding out what works and what doesn’t.”

Mark chips in, “Plus I think it’d be different if we were working with someone new, but we’re not.”

Of course Tim the producer we see very little of during our visit. Transfixed to his computer, only looking up to sneak another Haribo into his mouth, we feel like we’re disturbing his work. Also it’s a little surprising Above Them, who spend most of their time shouting out football scores by the minute, get on with the producer so well.

“I know what to expect from them and they know what to expect from me,” the producer barely whispers from behind the desk.

Mark adds, “We do feel like we can relax and talk to him but it is a bit different from what we’re used to.”

But in fact the band are not too different. While they bounce around the studio scrapping with each other, as soon as the interview begins it’s like getting blood out of a stone. As they return from a photo shoot a little disgruntled at standing in front of a camera, the band slink into themselves as a few questions are asked. So how did a band, mainly known for their ecstatic live shows decide what to record and what to leave out?

Oli: “It’s not like we had loads of songs and we don’t know what to pick. We decided on the best ones and made sure they were the ones we wanted to record.”

Mark: “Some we’ve had for a long time and we’ve been saving them for the album and others were only written a couple of weeks ago.”

Tom: “One thing that’s great is that none of them have ever been recorded before.”

As the band begin to ease up we do begin to notice something- this trio are super organised. In the corner we can’t help looking a white board with every little recording change noted down (“I think secretly Oli’s always wanted a white board of our recording process” Tom muses) But do the band feel like they’ve moved on since their EP?

“Yeah shit loads!” Mark bursts in, “It’s been a year since we last recorded and we’ve changed styles. What we’ve recorded is what happened at that time. From travelling around America we’ve met so many ace new bands and I think our songs have changed a little bit.”

“We’re more defined now,” adds Tom, “more us- more Above Them.”

Above Them’s debut album will be out later in the year on Inhaler Records.

Ruth Offord

Andy Maddison from Inhaler Records talks to Stephen H Davidson from Tellison about gigs, fans and Stuart Lee!?

Q1. I have seen you play live quite a few times over the last couple of years and it has been great to watch you grow in stature as a band over that time. You still look like you are having an immense amount of fun, have things changed for the band much as your popularity and audience has increased?

To be symptomatically and frustratingly human about it, Yes and No. Yes things have changed, a few more people come to our shows, some know we released a small record and a few singles a while ago, stunningly some people even know some of the words to some of the songs on those records. Over the last few years we have gone from playing bottom of the bill to two of our dearest and most long-suffering of friends in the smallest and most horrible of venues on the outskirts of London to headlining to a few more people than two, some of whom we didn’t even know, at KCLSU in the middle of London. We’ve gone from no one knowing or caring about our band to having a small group of very kind people know and care about our band. So, in terms of numbers of people involved outside of Tellison there have been changes. Now every so often people generally thought of as ‘inside’ the Music Industry ask us to come to have meetings with them. They look at us curiously and wonder, I suppose, whether they can make any money out of us. That definitely didn’t used to happen, but, so far it hasn’t actually changed anything about Tellison. Inside the band things generally stay the same. Although we’ve had Ben Wood (also and more importantly of Encyclopedia fame) come and go and Matt Roberts replace him as the fifth member of the band we still rehearse every weekend in Henry’s basement in a tiny room dangerously filled to bursting with equipment, we still just mess around during those rehearsals with guitars and drums and voices and keyboards and glockenspiels and other things until we make songs we all like and enjoy playing.

We’ve grown up doing that and we enjoy doing that and it seems to me the very slight increase in popularity we’ve seen over the last 18 months hasn’t changed anything about that. Sometimes we get to travel in vans with seats in the back as opposed to begging our big sisters or long-suffering friends to drive us everywhere but we still carry all of those big heavy cases, we still read books on the way and still get terrified no one is going to ever come to any show we play.

Q2. What i have always liked and admired about the band is that you have seem to have achieved verything you have so far in a very organic way, building your reputation and audience through good old fashioned hard work, by touring extensively and to a lot of small towns and venues. A lot of bands give up on this quite early as they get disheartened by poor turnouts, sleeping on floors etc. Was this ever the case with Tellison?

- Well. We certainly did and do continue to get disheartened by poor turnouts, sleeping on floors etc sometimes. But not that often, being in a band is a pretty incredibly fun job and we’re ridiculously lucky that people sometimes come and pay money to see us play. Our terrifyingly talented friend (both musically and with words: melancholy and rib-splinteringly funny, much to my visceral jealousy) Stuart Lee, the man behind Jacob’s Stories, said this once (in fact you can watch him say it again on a video on his Myspace Page and marvel at the time it took me to type it all out) on the disheartening side of being a musician, its quite long so strap yourself in:

“One of the things about live music is that its pretty much 80% shit and things always go wrong and people think ‘Oh, its not as good as I thought it would be, I thought it was going to be really magical, a magical experience, like listening to my favourite album in my room’. Well its not like that, its like being stood in the armpit of hell listening to someone try to make the music that they like but that just goes wrong and then ts a wholeheartedly miserable, dissapointing, hollow experience for everyone involved. And people that make music always come away thinking ‘Why the fuck do I do it? Why on earth do I put myself through it? This isn’t what I signed up for, I signed up for something pure and good and it turned out to be some sort of… rape in an alleyway. An endless horrible rape that I can never get away from, I close my eyes and I’m in that alleyway now being raped. And I think to myself, ‘I’ll do this again in a few more weeks, I’ll do this again somewhere else, I’ll get raped in front of loads of people, and we’ll all come away being miserable’ So, with
that in mind… could the keyboard be any louder?”

So. There you have it. Sometimes it can be disheartening to drive to towns where you don’t know anyone and watch while people (if you’re very lucky there will at least be people there) fail to enjoy the music you put so much time and effort into. But really that’s ok when you remember that you’re not in a call centre, you’re not doing something you hate for minimum wage with lots of people you don’t like. We have toured and toured because we love doing it, we’ve never had any money thrown at us so we’ve just got on with trying to get ourselves into a position we want be in. If young bands are getting so disheartened by poor turnouts and sleeping on floors that they break up then I’d suggest they can’t really enjoy making music much, because that, for us is the reward. Everything else, audiences, reviews is just strange, often humbling peripheral stuff, the music has to be why you’re in a band otherwise you won’t be able to wade through the bad things that sometimes happen.

Q3. I remember when we first met in 2007 you mentioned that some labels had been showing some interest, reading between the lines I can only assume that the next album is to be released with a major? What has been your experience so far of the type of people that inhabit that world and do you all have any nagging reservations about making that leap?

- We still don’t know who will release the next album. We’ve spoken to all sorts of people and been told all sorts of things but, until the ink is dry, nothing is confirmed. Our experience so far of the people who inhabit the major label world seems to tally with what you’d expect. There are some people working for major record labels who genuinely love music, new and old, and are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to help get new music into mainstream consciousness, they’re kind, super helpful and friendly and I’m glad they’re involved in the industry. On the flipside there are some people who, for whatever reasons, behave like the music is the least important thing about a band – and its probably very important here to remember that the major label music industry is an industry, not a hobby or a vanity project like so many independent labels, its goal is to make lots and lots of money for everyone involved – like you’d expect it would appear that there are the proverbial cigar-chomping suits who look you up and down and decide whether you’d be suitable firewood to throw into the furnace of the major label industry. And that sucks. But it only sucks from an artistic point of view, in business the behaviour so often railed against by musicians is often the norm, the difficulty, the frustration comes in the commercialisation of art, and sadly its this commercialisation that pays the bills time and again. We’ll see what the future holds for Tellison label-wise, we’re fully aware of the pros and cons of different labels and different ways of doing things and the best we can do is try to find a home where we feel we can do as much as we want to and be rewarded for doing it.

Q4. Following the departure of Ben to concentrate on his own band Encyclopedia you have a new addition to the live line up in the form of Matt Roberts, how did Matt come to land the job and does it feel a little strange to take to the stage without Ben?

- I met Matt a couple of years ago when I came to University in Cambridge. He’s been kicking around the UK underground for a long time playing with bands like No Comply and Howard’s Alias and the overground playing sax for Foals. When Ben told us he wanted to go back to doing Encyclopedia we were all pretty gutted, he’s an incredibly talented musician and a best friend to all of us, but we’re all huge Encyclopedia fans too so it’ll be good to hear that second record. We spent months trying to think of someone we knew who could handle all of the stuff Ben was doing: guitars, percussion, keyboards, samplers, vocals and more and it took me ages to realise the answer was someone I was seeing everyday. Matt’s a stunningly talented guy too and he fitted right in, its always strange to have a personnel change but Matt really stepped up and we’re enjoying paying more than ever right now.

Q5. I saw you play at The Leadmill in Sheffield last year with Hot Club De Paris and there were some great new songs in that set, do you think they are representative of the songs that you are currently recording for the new album? and when will we be seeing the album hit the shops?

- We’ve been trying different bits and pieces out on the last couple fo tours, seeing what works and what doesn’t. I’m sure there will be some things you heard that night that will be representative if not actually on the album. At the moment we’re still demoing rather than recording proper but we are aiming to get the album out this year. What with me being at University and the rest of the band working full time we’ve had to be a part-time band for years and years but, come June, we’re going full-time for the first time in the band’s history. We want our output to reflect that and we’ll be working hard to get lots of new music out….

Q6. I personally think that the DIY scene in the UK is in very good shape at present and that there are some amazing bands around at the moment. Do you think that the time is right for some of these bands to overthrow what many see as the really poor, style over substance crop of bands that are currently dominating the press, airwaves and our TV screens at the moment?

- I think the UK underground has been in very healthy shape for a long time. I’d like to think more bands will make the leap out of it and follow in the Biffy Clyro / Gallows / Get Cape / Frank Turner mould but, having some small experience of the hurdles in the way of that happening, I’d be surprised if we see much more that the trickle of bands breaking through. The UK music press, radio and tv, which are the institutions that drive that process, just aren’t interested in UK bands to the extent they’d need to be for more UK talent to break through. For whatever reason American bands coming over here are seen as more glamorous or cooler or whatever (as well as the fact they’ve probably got a hell of a lot more money driving them into everyone’s faces) and as such bands on even the UK’s biggest underground labels have got an almost unachievable struggle to compete. I’d love it if the NME turned round and gave some bands that have been working their hearts out round this country for years even just equal coverage to bands who’ve just formed from thousands of miles away, but they won’t and they aren’t anywhere near doing that.

Q7. Great to talk with you Stephen, but before we say goodbye can you tell us if Tellison will be playing any of the Festivals in 2009? and if not why not dammit!!?

- As far as I know we’re booked for a couple fo the more minor festivals so far, obviously we want to be playing as many as possible so we’re angling for that. Again its hard because hype bands are always the ones getting the slots we’d be up for, but we’re doing our best, pluggin away and trying to make the best music we possibly can. Thank you for being interested. I hope I’ve not come off sounding too cynical or anything. We love playing music, we love being a band, its the only thing we want to do and I wouldn’t give it up for anything.

Myspace link: www.myspace.com/tellison
Official site
Andy Maddison