 |
| Flying Saucer Attack Interview, as heard on 2SER FM here in Sydney, Australia. transcribed by "troy" - member of the 'drone-on' list. The interview was done by David (of 2SER fame) and David (of FSA fame) at some place in England, where FSA were playing later that evening. Dave (FSA) was eating, and I left out his vagaries... David (2SER) played it on Monday the 30th of June here in Sydney at around 7.30pm, after initially saying he would play it at the end of April, so who knows when it was recorded... Dave of 2SER fame has an English accent v. similar to that of Dave FSA fame, so it was pretty hard to tell who was who when they talked over eachother, but I tried to distinguish them as best I could, and I think I got it right... If I couldn't work out what they said, I put it in [], so yeah..Im sorry for any fuckups, but that's how its turned out. I: David of 2SER fame D: David of Flying Saucer Attack fame I: We are very secluded in Australia, we had heard rumours coming through that FSA had spilt up and were calling it a day? D: Well, we tried, I was just getting fed up with it 'cause we were, sort of... I think, the last single we did, towards the end of last year, the 'Outdoor Miner' thing, was, not a very good record really... it was a shame really, 'cause I've always liked that song but it seemed to not be a very good record and we've been doin a bunch of gigs, and they were like, generally very disatrous just felt like it went terribly wrong, and we still had these other gigs that we might have been doing later in the year and I'm [thinking] 'I can't handle doing this thing anymore' so I just had to put it around that we weren't doing this thing anymore. y'know and both Rachel and myself were both heartily sick of it... it's turning into a bit of a circus. so we kind of stopped, and about two months later, I kind of, realised that I didn't really have anything else to do with myself and so... I: so you still feel the creative juices are still there? D: yeah, well creative juices had completly dissapeared and then they kind of came back so we recorded some stuff at the end of last year and then the first four or five months of this year on and off, which is all, from this; in the process of being released. And I kind of felt a bit happy about it, and we got offered this gig tonight and uh... we brought in a couple of different pals to do some playing. I: Do you feel more comfortable with playing live now? D: No, cause I can't sing. but i mean, the Music, I like the sound of the music, I mean, we've been practising in the front room over the last couple of weeks and umm, suddenly it sounded y'know fine, whereas before it was always a real struggle... [Dave 2SER cuts off Dave FSA] I: I had a, i think a tape of umm, an interview you did with John Peel when you played at Bristol, i dunno it would've been a year or two... D: A year an' a 'alf ago... I: and you said that ...[unclear]... a wall of feedback and umm... you really couldn't hear your vocals anyway... D: [defensively] no, well I mean, I wish it had of been a wall of feedback anyway, it was really just a wall of badly tuned guitars, but I can't hear the singing... to be honest, I'm quite glad I can't, cause, its a nightmare singing. I'm not a singer, and I'm not much of a guitarist, but that's no reason not to have a go... [Played "Outdoor Miner" from the "Outdoor Miner" E.P.] I: With the Outdoor Miner [unclear] happy, [unclear] was that limited because you, recorded that on a 4 track? D: Weeeeeellllll, well I mean... I: Did you feel you didn't do the song justice or...? D: Well I didn't do the song justice y'know, the 4 track limitation, I mean, if you fiddle round with the machine, you can, bounce sounds, carry on overdubbing, so y'know, you're not just putting down 4 tracks but... I didn't do the song justice, basically, that was the thing, y'know, something I grew up with that song, bought it when it came out and all, I was about 11 or 12 when it happened or something... I: a lot of sentimental value? D: Yeah, yeah, what with all that, relaxed, kind of, Menswear nonsense or y'know, oh yeah, yeah Wire, like house, pretend to be ripping them off and then, the guys from Wire going to the music press and saying, "well actually, we hate them", y'know, so don't talk shit, so, we thought we'd join in on the Wire side of it, y'know, that was the idea... I: Many of the songs actually seem to conjure up images, I guess of, solitude and remoteness and [something] the lyrics quite wistful and melancholic... D: ...[Spanish?] tradition isn't it really [laughs] Well, y'know, its not a deliberate thing, but it does seem to,... But I was talking to Dave the other day, and uhh, we was just having a natter cause of this age of Britpop and all that its very easy to think "well hold on, we're doing the wrong thing" y'know, but I, realised, y'know, that all these bands are doing the, happy jumpy stuff, y'know, and our stuff is, as you say, almost bordering on the fay [?... a drum or car made a loud sound right here], but umm, certainly lyricly, but I think whats interesting about that, is to stand back from it, cause obviously you can't stand back from it when you do it, but, if one did stand back from it, its ahh... there's quite a lot of anger in it as well, I mean, the noisy stuff we do, it uhh, stands out reasonably well in terms of noisy records y'know? I: Oh, for sure... D: Sooo, there's anger as well as the, miserablist stuff, its not just out and out miserablist, its not, Sarah records, or something like that [not that that's bad???] but its not really that, cause your, mixing it up with the, big noise and the fuzz and that... I: Do you find it quite cathartic umm... D: Well, theres nothing better then booting a guitar. Its a very direct answer to your question isn't it? I mean not with my new ones, I mean, I just finally bought a decent guitar, but umm... there is nothing better then getting on the guitar and just smacking it around the floor and your amp and stuff and its plugged in so yeah I think theres a direct cathartic root going on there, cause some of the stuff on the actual record involves a certain amount of violence aimed at the instruments, so... I: Are there any, current BritPop songs you'd like to, desecrate with, some chainsaw guitars? D: Nnnnaaaahhhh, you see when we did that Suede thing on the first album, that wasn't really a go at Suede, it was a go at the fucking fawning music press and, no one understood that, but then again, why should they?, y'know, were not making a very specific point, y'know, we're doing a Suede cover version but they were the darlings of the press and they couild do no wrong, and it wasn't _them_ that I objected to, it was that, 'stand-in-line', 'say-the-same-thing', critical approach, and you've got it now with Oasis, I mean, y'know... [Played =AB of "The Drowner's" from the s/t album] D: Some friends asked me to join their band they had going when I was 17 or something, and they wanted me to be the bass player, and umm, somehow, I managed to get the money together to get a bass amp and a bass, got it and plugged it in, and jusat started attacking it with knives, rather than try to play notes on it, so umm, make of that what you will.. I: That was the beginning... D: Well, I remember actually my first violin lesson, I just, I wasn't interested in playing tunes, I just wanted to scrape noises out of the thing so umm... I: [mumble, mumble] D: So there's always been that sound thing, not necessarily, runs of notes, mind you, a run of notes with a certain sound on them, could be a sound, maybe. I: Before you, record or play, do yu have a preconception of the sound that your, trying to achieve? D: Yeah, A R Kane in their early days... do you remember them? I: I can't say, I can't say that I do... D: oh well, they were a band from about, '88, y'know, like, My Bloody Valentine, who got a bit of attention in '88 and A R Kane were the other band, that did, and they did umm... the one I remember best, the fondest, 'cause Ive still got the record is a 12" EP called "Up Home". It's the epitomy of feedback and noise its, blurring out songs, which is, y'know, the songs are still there y'know, there just, swamped by all this sound, and that's what I try to sound like... I: What about Krautrock, was that a... D: Weellll its like Krautrock, I mean, [??] done it for years and years and years and years, in the days before it used to cost alot to buy it, like it does now. And yeah, like a Can album, every time you put an early Can album on, [??] they were the best band in the world, and you kind of think, 'yeah, blimey, they were good', and uhh... [??a truck passes by??] still my favourite stuff, it really is. Umm... How big an influence that's been on us, or Tortoise, or Labradford, or Stereolab, or all these other bands that get the Krautrock tag, I don't know how big an influence it is, [I mean] a direct influence, I mean, we all listen to it at first, and we all listen to a bit of folk as well and... [Played "In The Light Of Time", from "Further"] FINE. transcribed quite dodgily by troy one wednesday night |
 |