Billed as a ‘special guest’, legendary guitarist Chapman took to the stage under the church’s rose-tinted windows, appearing in his trademark baseball cap, illuminated by a spotlight, through occasional billows of dry smoke. Delivering a mesmerising performance to a hushed audience, his finger-picking playing style and stony voice cut through the room, while occasionally interspersing his set with tales of more than 50 years of life on the road.

He recalls for an enraptured audience the time he was holed up in a 20-dollar hotel room in a long-forgotten town outside Texas; memories of Tel Aviv; or about life in Hull, deadpanning how it’s such an “inspirational town” while simultaneously imparting pride in his northern roots as only a true son of Yorkshire can.

Aptly enough, he soon launches into the haunting Just Another Story, an epic narrative that conjures pictures in the mind as only the best folk artists can achieve with ease. His songwriting recently revived by a liaison with American folk grunge artist Steve Gunn allowing him to perform several songs from the new album, 50 which was produced by Gunn.

“I wrote this song for Bert Jansch,” he says introducing It Ain’t So, before adding, “he didn’t want it.” Self parody, maybe, but Chapman was a friend and contemporary of Jansch, and his musical equal. The fact that the 76-year-old is still touring is a pleasure to cherish.

Julie Byrne took headline billing for the night, but there’s an obvious connection between the musicians, and not just their finger-picking styles. “I’d love his life,” Byrne says of Chapman, and it’s clear this New Yorker, although relatively young and new to touring, would embrace a life on the road.

“This feels like a second home,” she tells the audience, and her delight at performing live is contagious. Accompanied by a background track of crashing waves and grand soundscapes, plus a brilliant violinist who held the room in awe, Byrne showcases her critically acclaimed album Not Even Happiness. Songs such as Follow My Voice, already firm favourites with her enraptured crowd, are eagerly lapped up like a nourishing meal.

Like Chapman, she sings about the places she’s been and the feelings inspired; like Chapman, she has an uncanny ability to transport you right there with her, in spirit if not physically. If the original purpose of this chapel was to lift the soul, then the music played tonight under the preacher’s pulpit was a fitting tribute.

Live Review by Craig Scott & Photography by Paul Lyme of Michael Chapman & Julie Byrne at Union Chapel, London on 13th November 2017

https://rockshotmagazine.com/22608/michael-chapman-new-album-produced-by-steve-gunn/

But the Texas-based group are no studio hermits and once again they’re on the road, playing festivals and gigs across Europe, including three shows in the UK in June, before returning again in November. They were last in the UK in March playing an intimate gig at London’s 100 Club to showcase their latest album, Hot Thoughts, produced by the renowned Dave Fridmann. Ahead of their latest shows, I spoke to bassist Rob Pope.

Rob Pope, Spoon (Rachel Lipsitz)

You’ve been in Spoon for 10 years now – how does that feel, are you part of the furniture now?

It feels that way you know. It’s kind of crazy to think it’s been 10 years. I think I’m probably like a well-worn-in couch.

 What’s the plan for the tour, will you be playing a lot of the new stuff from Hot Thoughts?

We really want to focus on a lot of stuff from the new record and a handful of stuff from the last couple of records.

Was there a reason you played the 100 Club when you were last in London to showcase the new album, it was an intimate show. Was it a conscious effort to avoid the bigger venus?

We didn’t want to go anywhere too big, especially before the record came out. The 100 Club is a legendary place, it was very cool. I spent so much time there just looking at picture to see who’d been there before … We wanted to play a smaller show. A few of the guys had been over here doing press and then all of us came over the last few days and we were doing some video shoots and loads and loads of interviews, so we wanted to put a show in there because that’s what we enjoy the most. The gig was fun. It had been a little while since we played a big loud rock’n’roll show. So it was a blast.

I spoke to someone who was at the 100 Club gig and they said they’d seen loads of old friends in the audience that they hadn’t seen for years. Are you aware of the fan base being so loyal? 

We see a lot of the same people all over the world – returning customers as you will. It’s pretty remarkable that people have stuck with us and that so many people have come to so many shows over the years.

Spoon (Rachel Lipsitz)

You must be on the road for most of the summer with festivals etc – will you ever see home again?

I don’t know, it seems like we’re going to be on tour for ever. That’s what it’s looking like. We’re staying busy until the end of the year.

 Is playing live still what it’s all about for the band? Do you still get the same buzz from touring as you did when you first started out?

It’s still a blast – I just have to take care of myself a little bit better of myself than I did when I was 18 – I can’t stay out as late and I can’t drink as much, sleep is becoming a more important.

Is there a pressure with putting an album out as Spoon? It’s almost a cliche how reliably positive your reviews are. Do you always feel as though every album has to achieve the same critical acclaim as the last? Do you find that restrictive?

We’re always trying to make the best record that we can at the time. Of course it weighs in what people are saying about our band, but we try not to think about it too much and just make the highest quality record that we can. We’ve been lucky that we’ve been doing that consistently for a long time. We see certain reviews – I try not to read all of them – we’re aware of it but I don’t think it puts a ton of pressure on us. We’ve got pretty good at making these records at this point. It doesn’t weigh too heavily on us.

Do you all write together?

Britt [Daniel] is the primary songwriter and sometimes he’ll present us with ideas or ask for a contribution, or we work on songs all together, but it really does change from song to song; there’s no real formula to it. He may bring something in that feels really complete, or he may bring in just one little part and then we all hash it out and try to build a song out of that. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Since I’ve been in the band, so much of the new material we work on gets made in the recording studio, which is quite a luxury.

Spoon (Rachel Lipsitz)

There’s a much more synth sound to the new album. Did you deliberately move away from guitars.

One of the last songs we recorded for our last album was Inside Out, and that songs has no guitars in it, it’s got a heavy drum beat in it, but it’s very lush: synthesisers and pretty stuff happening. I think when Britt started writing for this record he kind of had that in mind, I think it was his favourite song off the last record and he wanted to continue down that direction. We just wanted to make it sound a touch more futuristic and, you know, we’ve done a lot of guitar records. I’m still in love with guitar and always will be, so I don’t think we’re ruling anything out for the future, but this is the direction we want to head in right now.

Did Dave Fridmann influence that approach as the producer?

He was great, he’s got a lot of great ideas and he’s always looking for non-traditional ideas, so I think guitars at this point may be fairly traditional for him. So, he’s looking for sounds that are wild and maybe something you haven’t heard before on a Spoon record.

 What about the level of fame you have, you’re pretty much indie-music superstars appearing on shows like Saturday Night Live. But maybe there’s not the same level of consciousness among the wider public enjoyed by a band like, say, Arcade Fire, who receive the same level of critical acclaim. Is that a conscious decision that the band have cultivated? 

I think there’s a little bit of intent behind it, but I’d take the Arcade Fire thing if it was offered to us, sure. They’ve done a lovely job of maintaining their own personalities and they’re great people. As long as we’re not having to change what we’re doing in order to sell more tickets or sell more records, I don’t think we’d ever feel comfortable doing that. There’s only a certain amount of things that we do to promote or records.

Adam Buxton supported you at the 100 Club gig, how did that come about?

He’s been a friend for such a long time. We learned about him probably back in 2007, he had made his own video for one of the songs on our record Ga Ga Ga Ga called Don’t Make Me A Target and a friend of ours who worked at Matador Records clued us into him and said: ‘You guys should know this guy’, and he started coming out to gigs whenever we were in London around that time and we just became friendly with him. When we were talking about who was going to support us at the 100 Club – for whatever reason there wasn’t room for another band – so Adam reached out and said: ‘I could introduce you guys and do a little bit before’. It worked out great, he’s hilarious.

Spoon (Rachel Lipsitz)

I need to ask you about Trump. Any American who sets foot outside America has to be asked about Trump …

I’ve been trying to tune out of the news …

 Tear It Down, one reviewer said it could possibly be seen as a message against Trump’s wall. Was someone reading too much into it?

I think Britt had written that and when he wrote that lyric it was long before the election. I remember being in the studio many time and we’d all be looking at our phones reading the news, and being so perplexed by what was happening in American culture and specifically by the things that Trump was saying and the fact that he was potentially going to be running for President – that was so shocking for us – months before the election. I think Britt had thrown that lyric in there not really thinking it would apply when the record came out, but here we are, sadly.

Do you see yourselves as being more involved in what is being referred to in America as ‘the resistance’. Your Twitter account is often retweeting anti-Trump messages or hopeful messages about defeating right-wing ideology. Do you see Spoon as being a political band?

I think it’s important for us to have a voice. If we can influence some people, even if it just makes them vote next time, or whatever it may be, I think it’s important for us to do that. It’s not too difficult, there’s a lot of people who pay attention to what we do, if people don’t like our messages that’s OK, there are plenty of other bands out there in the world.

Spoon (Rachel Lipsitz)

Do you think it’s the role of a band, if you have a big audience, to be politically active, to share your political views. Should more bands be doing this?

I have always appreciated it when bands are political. When I was a kid, my favourite band growing up was Public Enemy, and what was so appealing about that band was how radical were the messages they were talking about. As a white kid growing up in Kansas, it was mind-blowing. So I’ve always been influenced by groups who are political.

Are you still based in Texas?

I’m living in Massachusetts, I’ve been moving all over, but the band is still based in Austin, Texas. A couple of the guys are living there. A couple of the guys are in California. So we all gather in Austin, that’s where band practice takes place. The last album was recorded in Austin and a lot at Dave Fridmann’s place outside Buffalo, New York. It just requires a lot of planning, we’re kind of a commuter group.

Spoon (Rachel Lipsitz)

Spoon are playing The Forum in London on 30th June and here are their tour dates for June & November.

June
Tues 27th                                MANCHESTER, Gorilla
Wed 28th                                GLASGOW, The Arts School
Fri 30th                                   LONDON, The Forum

November
Mon 6th                                   Brighton, Concorde 2
Tues 7th                                   Liverpool, Arts Club                   
Thurs 9th                                 Cambridge, The Junction

Interview with Spoon by Craig Scott & photography by Rachel Lipsitz

Dodgy’s new album, What Are We Fighting For, is released on 2nd September, on Cherry Red Record. It’s the fifth Dodgy album by the definitive line up of Nigel Clark, Andy Miller and Mathew Priest and comes four years after their critically acclaimed comeback album Stand Upright In A Cool Place. New member Stu Thoy joins them on bass, giving the record a louder, rockier feel than past material.

Craig Scott met Nigel and Matt round the corner from BBC Broadcasting House, just before they kicked-off a round of radio interviews. “It gives us a shot to get on the playlist alongside Bryan Adams,” says Matt. Coincidently, it was also the same day as the 20th anniversary of Oasis’s era-defining Knebworth gig. So, what better time to discuss Dodgy’s association with Britpop, the band’s mid-90s brush with celebrity, political activism and what to expect from their new album.

Nigel Clark, Dodgy (Simon Jay Price)

Is the title of the new album, What Are We Fighting For, a reference to your history of standing up for social causes?

Nigel: In the 90s we did get involved in a lot of things. From the start we were against the criminal justice bill. We did a gig in Hyde Park and Matt and Andy got arrested for the cause.

Matt: It was the age when the NME did matter, and just to get a bit of attention you’d do some kind of stunt. We did this gig with an amplifier in Hyde Park for the criminal justice bill protests and we did it with the intention of getting arrested. The police turned up with five riot vans. Me and Miller got arrested and Nigel ran off.

Nigel: Someone had to be free. The police compounded our van – we had a flatback lorry. I walked back into Hyde Park and I saw the lorry with all the gear on and the keys were still in, so I stole it back off the police. Then we went to Bosnia – almost 20 years ago to the day.

Matt: We’d been asked to be play Knebworth with Oasis, but we’d already agreed this trip to Bosnia. People were saying: “Everyone who is anyone is going to be at this gig in Knebworth – it’ll define the 90s.” And we were in Bosnia!

We had big-top tent and we were taking it around the UK as a travelling festival. These people got in contact and asked if we’d take our tent to Bosnia. They said: “Look, if you can get your tent over to Bosnia, it’ll be amazing, the kids haven’t had any culture for six or seven years.”

Nigel: The war had literally just finished – it was the week Good Enough was in the top five – and we were scuttling over pontoon bridges like action men in Bosnia, seeing burned-out villages. We’d ask the driver why he was driving so fast and he’d say: “Last week, six UN people were shot here.” OK. Keep driving!

Matt: We had to dodge snipers in the hills.

Nigel: We came back from that and on the Monday we played in Liverpool and were asked to do an interview. I’d just read an article by John Pilger about the Liverpool dockers, so we went down to the docks with all the journalist who didn’t know there was a strike on. The next day I was on breakfast TV wearing a dockers’ T-shirt.

The least you can do when you’re in that position is to give something back. I actually feel the experiences we’ve got from those things are higher than an Oasis gig with people throwing piss at you – I’d rather be under the snipers’ rifles.

One of the singles, Now Means Nothing, off the new album was described as being a “response to Brexit”. You must have written that long before Brexit, but were you tapping into the same mood?

Nigel: Think about the word “now”. “Now” was a big word in the 60s, the psychedelic generations’ word and the beatniks before the hippies, it was their word. There’s this quote: “If you don’t control now, you lose control of the future and you only have the past to remind you of what you’ve lost.”

Now is so important. It’s nice having a five-year plan with your missus but, for anything else, it has to be now. We plan all these things and it takes our mind off now. Now is important. What are you fighting for now? What do you need now to live? I really don’t think politicians have that in their game, they’re always about 15 years in the future.

There doesn’t seem to be many bands that are into politics these days …

Nigel: If that’s your calling then you’re going to do it. If you’ve grown up with people like Bob Marley, Bob Dylan and Joe Strummer, you want to be like them. You know, they did it for me; you have to have an opinion.

Matt: If you hear a band saying something that chimes with you, to have someone saying: “Take them on and win” and “It’s love that we’re fighting for”, I think it’s a better message to put out than what Bastille are putting out – “I miss you”. Put a good message out. Especially at times like this when truth doesn’t seem to matter. Put out good vibes, that’s what we’ve always been about.

Would you still be doing this if the “comeback” album, Stand Upright in a Cool Place, hadn’t been so well received?

Matt: It was a departure that album, it did sound very different. It sounded like the three of us, it was the most Dodgy sounding album we’ve ever done. You kind of do know. We didn’t put it out thinking: “I wonder if anyone will like this?” We spent a lot of time making sure – like we did with this one – that it was as good as we could possible make it.

Nigel: I don’t think we’d ever do anything that would be laughed at. We wouldn’t put it out, we’ve got too much control over that.

Who would you say influenced What Are We Fighting For?

Nigel: This album is more of a band album, the band sound is coming through more. This is more what we’ve learned playing live over the past five years.

Matt: We had a bit of a short, intense Black Sabbath phase as well, which I thoroughly recommend to everyone really. I think that was influenced by Stu our bass player who’s come in. We’ve always had the rock, but Stu pushed us a bit. We won’t go as far as some of the shit he listens too, Guns N’ Roses and what not.

Andy Miller Dodgy (Simon Jay Price)

So the new album is a bit more rock sounding?

Matt: We have Stu in the band, we’re now a four piece so we can make a lot more noise. Before when we were writing songs and rehearsing it would be Nigel on bass, Miller on guitar and me on drums. So it was always quite restrictive in the amount of noise we could make. Suddenly with a bass player, we can make a lot of noise, it’s as basic and simple as that.

Nigel: The last album was acoustic and when you’re playing acoustic, people are talking through gigs. I thought the idea would be to go louder so you didn’t have to listen to people talking in the audience.

The single You Give Drugs a Bad Name contains the line: “Got a feeling we’re not in Camden anymore.”  Was that a deliberate reference to the epicentre of Britpop?

Matt: A few years ago there was a whole host of documentaries and articles about Britpop and we didn’t get mentioned, and that was great because at the time we never really associated with Britop. The idea of just British music and Britpop, we didn’t like it – it was a bit xenophobic. I think the bands who were into Britpop wanted to be part of that scene. Suede, Blur, Elastica and Menswear, they were aware of the Britpop scene and were trying to encourage it, whilst we were like, “No thanks”. I think The Charlatans were like that as well.

You Give Drugs A Bad Name was a mixture of a lot of things. It was a Bon Jovi pisstake for a start. Then it was piecing together a lot of lyrical ideas with a character who was big on the scene in the 90s and has ended up in a crack den.

Is it based on anyone in particular?

Nigel: I think it’s based on quite a few people we know, although not directly.

Matt: There are a lot of people we know, and for the grace of God some of them are alive and some of them have died. Even some famous ones, I’d see stories about Pete Doherty in his flat in east London and he’d be spurting blood syringes on the wall and you think: “That looks horrible, look at the state of him.”

I heard you played a great small gig at Kendal Calling this year, how did you find that?

Matt: We much prefer these littler gigs. The chances are the highest we’d get on the bill at a big festival is 2 o’clock on the main stage in front of 1,500 people who are still sober, and it’s alright, but not it’s not the right environment to play a gig. So we’ve been playing festivals like Isle of White and Kendall, but we’re playing inside in a tent or cafe and it’s rammed and people can’t get in, so it’s already causing a bit of a commotion. Everyone is going away going: “That was amazing, best gig of the weekend.”

Nigel: At Kendal, there were a load of Scottish blokes outside dressed as Mexicans, it was brilliant.

Matt: That reminds me of the time I met Lulu at Elton John‘s 50th birthday party. Lulu was dressed as Tinker Bell and I was dressed as a Mexican.

How come you ended up at Elton John’s 50th birthday party?

Matt: Oh man, back in the 90s it was stupid, we’d get Bond premieres, musical premieres.

Nigel: As you go up the charts, a door opens: top 40, oh … top 30, another door opens … top 20 … and it just goes on like that. Get to the top five and you get invited to Elton John‘s house.

When you were going to these celebrity parties and Andy was dating Denise van Outen, where you thinking, This is a great laugh”, or did you think it was selling out?

Matt: I think as a kid from Neasden like Andy Miller, sitting in your room smoking dope and the first band he joined was Dodgy – that was the first audition he went to – and then literally four years later he’s got Denise van Outen …  You can’t blame him. But I don’t think it was universally loved by everyone in the band.

Nigel: I don’t remember much of the 90s.

Matt: But you get to that point and, as Nigel says, a little door opens and someone says: “Gentlemen, VIP this way”. We were behind the ropes. But this is the point: we were only ever tourists there. I was well aware that I didn’t really belong behind the VIP rope.

They were some of the most insecure drug addled people you’d ever meet, these proper celebrities, and I loved it because I was a tourist there, I knew I wasn’t going to be there long because I didn’t like the kind of people and didn’t necessarily get on there, but fuck, when I was there I was going to really enjoy it. Go to all the parties and see what it’s all about, because if I didn’t, I’d be thinking, “Oh, I wish I’d went to Elton John’s party”. But I know exactly what it’s like, and I’m really glad I don’t go to any more.

Matthew Priest, Dodgy (Simon Jay Price)

So when did the partying stop? Did the VIP rope get pulled back across?

There is a classic story that I do tell. It was six days after my son was born 1999, and I hadn’t been out to wet the baby’s head. The Who were playing at Shepherd Bush Empire doing some sort of anniversary show. Entwistle was still in the band and Daltrey still had his voice – they were phenomenal. It blew my mind how good they were.

Afterwards, it was the backstage party and I was talking to Gem from Oasis, who we knew from years back, and Noel Gallagher was there. Ronnie Wood comes up and he goes: “Alright fellas, party back at my place, Guinness on tap, as much of that [mimes snorting a line] as you like, snooker table …” I was like, I’ve reached heaven! When you think of all things you want to achieve in a band, a party at a Rolling Stones’ house is it. He said: “You up for it?” I said: “Of course I am.”

The phone rang.

I said, hang on fellas – and I’d just told them about the baby being born – and I answered the phone. All they could hear is me going: “No, no, he’ll stop crying soon … He will … He will … No, he will stop crying soon … I can’t come back … No, don’t you cry.” And Noel and Gem are looking at me.

I had to make a decision then and there: do I go off to the Rolling Stones’ house; or do I go back because the missus is crying and the baby is crying? So I got a taxi home. When I told that story to Stu, our bassist, he said: “Well you clearly failed, mate. You failed. You should have let the little bastard carry on crying and gone to the party.” But I made the decision there and then.

You can say now that obviously you’d go to the Stones’ party, but as soon as that kid comes, your priorities change and your whole world goes up in the air and you just don’t know.

Dodgy (Simon Jay Price)

Why did you break up all those years ago?

Nigel: We sort of don’t talk about that, but we didn’t have to – the better question is why did you get back together again.

So, why did you get back together?

Nigel: We got back together because one of our mates was really poorly who’d been in the band with us as a lighting guy, and he had terminal cancer and he’s now dead God bless him. I think we got back together then, and really a lot of the problems that existed in the 90s were not transferrable, it didn’t matter.

The band became more of a business in the 90s and if you feel like you are losing control of something, for me personally, it’s not a good place because that’s not what it should be about, it should be about being happy and enjoying your time doing it, that’s the important thing.

If you had a Dodgy museum, what would be the highlight?

Matt: There are so many, I think it would be ridiculous to say one thing stands out more than any other. Travelling around Europe in a big tour bus with your mates is a massive, massive buzz. I just have such fond memories: going to Canada on a never-ending tour; going to Japan with all your mates on tour; playing Glastonbury; listening to Staying Out For The Summer for the first time; little things that you buzz about. Writing a song like Long Life in the studio and going, “That’s amazing”. So many different things, it would be hard to pick one.

Nigel: For me it would be quite simply writing songs, just being in that place – the travelling on the tour bus was fun, but my real love is having time to write songs and being in that space where you can create something, where you have a day in the studio and you wake up in the morning and you’re singing that song, that’s probably my highlight. That has always been Christmas Day for a five-year-old for me.

Interview by Craig Scott, August 2016.

Photographs by Simon Jay Price

Dodgy are on a UK tour starting in September.

Album order links:
Deluxe Vinyl: http://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/what-are-we-fighting-for-limited-deluxe-vinyl-edition/
Deluxe CD: : http://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/what-are-we-fighting-for-limited-deluxe-cd-edition/
Official Store Packages: http://www.dodgyology.com/
iTunes: http://radi.al/WhatAreWeFightingFor

Indie, synth band Teleman at KOKO April, 2016 (Rachel lipsitz)

Teleman formed in 2012 from the ashes of Reading’s acclaimed Pete and the Pirates. The new band took it’s name from composer Georg Philipp Telemann – signalling a shift to a more refined form of pop from their indie guitar-fest early days. Featuring from the original band Tom Sanders on vocals, brother Jonny Sanders on synths and Pete Cattermoul on bass – they were joined by Hiro Amamiya on drums. Teleman’s second album, Brilliant Sanity, was released earlier this year and the band are currently on a UK/European tour. I spoke to bassist Pete shortly before their gig at Koko in London.

How’s the new album – Brilliant Sanity – going down?

It’s going down really well, everyone we speak to after the shows is really into it.

Düsseldorf and Fall in Time definitely sound like crowd pleasers

Düsseldorf is definitely pleasing the crowds – and Glory Hallelujah, the next single, that’s going to please a lot of crowds.

Is there a story behind the album title?

There’s a book called Brilliant Sanity, if you search for Brilliant Sanity online our album isn’t the first thing that comes up. It’s some kind of Buddhist thing, about having a state of enlightenment.

Is that something that you’re into?

It’s something that appeals, for sure … I’d love to have a state of enlightenment.

As for the Buddhism stuff?

I haven’t read the book. I think Tom might have read it, because he came up with the name. I think it’s just a nice title, a nice vibe. We feel pretty sane as far as the way we’re working now, we’re working well and cooperating – a streamlined machine, so that feels pretty good.

Teleman Portraits at KOKO (Rachel Lipsitz)

Teleman has a very quintessential English sound. I was thinking apart from the Franz Ferdinand Sparks collaboration FFS, there aren’t that many non-English bands with that sound …

Well we supported Franz Ferdinand around Europe, so I can only guess they got all their ideas from us!

But are you conscious of being an ‘English-sounding band’ – is that a style or image you’ve tried to develop with Teleman?

I suppose it’s a sense of identity – being conscious of your sense of identity and not getting sucked up singing in an American accent, for instance. I remember when I was a teenager just learning guitar and maybe being into Bob Dylan or something, so you start singing like Bob Dylan. I think to find your own voice is very important. If you’re English, it kind of makes sense to sing with an English accent.

I think the thing that’s fresh with our band is the songwriting, really. I mean the sounds are fun and interesting and we rock out when we want to rock out. We make good pop songs really, that’s what I like about it.

So is that what you always set out to do, to write decent pop songs? 

Yeh, I mean, what else can you do in this day and age!

Teleman Portraits at KOKO (Rachel Lipsitz)

What would you call your sound? Is it a scene, could you put a label on it?

I think it’s just good music, really, that’s what I call it. Tame Impala is another example of a band that just makes really good songs, they don’t stick in one genre.

Tom’s vocal delivery has changed since Pete and the Pirates, there’s a cleaner presentation of the lyrics, was that style actively pursued as a band?

I think everything got tidied up a bit, you know, we wanted to refine the arrangement and have a bit more of a considered sound, because Pete and the Pirates is pretty much a full-on guitar fest. Everything was played on guitar, we didn’t have synths, really, and all the vocals were very laddish, almost, even though it had the quintessential Englishness to it. Teleman has refined something that was always there with Pete and the Pirates, but has now come to the fore.

Jonny used to play drums in Pete and the Pirates and now he plays synths. Did you make that switch to accommodate Hiro on drums?

No, initially we chose to not have a drummer and just play with a drum machine. Jonny said at the beginning: “I want to try something different, I want to play some keys.” That was a way to update the sound of the band, so to speak, and there was just me, Tom and Jonny left. We didn’t even know Hiro when we started Teleman. So we did a few gigs like that, then we got a manager quite quickly who just sort of turned up from Moshi Moshi and said they wanted to manage us. Someone around that time was saying: “You really need a drummer, this is going to make it so much better.” I think at that time we were just a band without a drummer; we hadn’t changed that much for it to be like some kind of new form of pop, FKA Twigs or something, we hadn’t gone that far into electronics. I think because we have a bass guitar and a real guitar, drums really does go with that, it makes the trio.

Teleman Portraits at KOKO (Rachel Lipsitz)

Is that the main reason you moved away from Pete and the Pirates, the sound wasn’t what you were into anymore?

What do you mean, ‘moved away from’?

 Well, did the band end because you guys were saying: “We don’t want to play this music anymore”, or was it because the band ended and the people who were left had a different kind of music to play? What came first?

Well the band kind of ended because people wanted different things, and it wasn’t as though … I don’t know, how to explain … some of us wanted to keep working on it and some people wanted a break, so that was kind of the breaking point – you want six months off and we don’t. One of the guys stopped playing and it was a weird time because we weren’t really sure what to do; some of us had moved to London. Me, Tom and Jonny eventually decided to start a new group and get a new name, also because we’d been Pete and the Pirates for quite some time and we wanted to try something new – but with the same people! Kind of weird, but I think we felt we’d built so much with Pete and the Pirates, but still felt that it wasn’t exactly what we wanted. The name even felt quite kiddy and fun, and I think we wanted to be taken a bit more seriously, so that was the start of Teleman – we had these more serious songs. I guess we were tired of the whole “indy” thing.

So there’s no chance the two bands could co-exist?

No, I wouldn’t say that, I never really wanted Pete and the Pirates to break up, I was saying we should keep doing it, let’s make a third album now because things were going really well, but there was so much disagreement within the band; maybe I was just under some illusion that things were going to work.

It could work out having two bands – double fees at festivals!

We could tour! Pete and the Pirates could support Teleman and the next night switch it around! Pete and the Pirates making a comeback in 2017! Ha, ha, ha! The other guys are going to love that!

You, Jonny and Tom have been playing for quite some time together, but who writes the songs?

Tom, pretty much. Teleman is all Tom’s songs, Pete and the Pirates was more mixed up, but Teleman has just become his thing as far as songwriting goes. We work on arrangements together. Other people have put in songs, but we’ve never actually started playing them. It’s not like it’s a closed door, but I think the first album, for one reason or another, we just ended up doing all of Tom’s songs – because he’s a brilliant songwriter, there’s no doubting that. The rest of us do write songs, but we’re maybe a bit less prolific. I think because he’s the singer as well, he kind of has the last say on whether we do a song or not. Anyone can put their foot down and say: “I really don’t like this song”, but when Tom writes a really good song, you can’t really say: “I don’t want to do this song”, because its really good, you know what I mean, it would be stupid.

Pete playing bass with Teleman at KOKO (Rachel Lipsitz)

So what’s your tip, what band should people check out?

Floating Points – have you heard of them? Definitely check them out. And Kate Tempest.

Every time I listen to Marc Riley, he seems to have you on …

Yeh, he’s an uber, uber supporter, he’s been great, there from the start from the Pete and the Pirates days, pushing the band. We can’t really thank him enough, he’s a top bloke. I think everyone who listens to 6music knows who we are now.

Do you have any festivals lined up this summer?

There’s Latitude, Secret Garden Party, Hidden Door, Tramlines, Kendal Calling, a few others and more coming, we’ll get some last minute bookings, I’ve got a feeling.

So Teleman is going to be around for the long run?

I’d give us six months!

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Interview by Craig Scott and portraits and live shots by Rachel Lipsitz. See more of Rachel’s great portraits at little trousers.

Always excelling as a live band, they recently reformed and are currently touring throughout February and March, including a sold-out show at the Roundhouse in London. I recently met with lead singer Crispian Mills and drummer Paul Winterhart in west London where they were rehearsing their new album, K2.0.

Kula Shaker (Simon Jay Price)

It’s 20 years since K came out, I heard you describe that thought as ‘horrific’, was it that much of a surprise?

Crispian: It was a big shock, it didn’t feel like 20 years. Time does rattle past.

Paul: Hopefully you’re armed to accept what life throws at you the older you get. Things that used to freak you out – even recording K. I remember us being freaked out about being in big studios, and the pressure that that brings.

Crispian: We were pretty neurotic, Paul and I especially.

Paul: Because we wanted to be great, right.

Crispian: Neurotic and controlling and ultimately we weren’t satisfied with the record. I wanted it to be much more analogue sounding and it was quite radio friendly. I remember thinking Grateful When You’re Dead sounded terrible, nothing like I imagined, and I was like, ‘What happened to the Who at the Isle of White, what do we sound like?’

John Leckie [K’s producer] didn’t seem to be listening to my concerns. I went and did an interview at Radio 1 – back in the day when Radio 1 still played bands – and I went to the loo and I heard it coming out of this tiny little speaker in the ceiling and it sounded great, and I thought, ‘That’s what it’s all about, this record … that was its ultimate medium’.

But I’m proud of the record, with time I really do appreciate how rarely bands come along with real imagination who are driven by ideas and a love of playing and make it into the charts – and it happened for us. For that I have a lot of affection for the album.

Crispian Mills, Kula Shaker (Simon Jay Price)

Were you not tempted to do an anniversary tour and play K in it’s entirety?

Crispian: I haven’t entirely ruled it out, but I think we wanted the focus to be the fact that we wanted to make a new album. We would all get bored if we just played K.

An anniversary has a celebratory aspect to it and there is a natural nostalgia that is permissible because of the nature of the time, but you’re also thinking about where you are now, how you got to where you are and where you’re going. I think past, present and future all marry at an anniversary rather than it just being about redoing the past.

You had a number of albums after K that relatively weren’t as successful as K, was that a conscious decision?

Paul: It wasn’t our decision for K to be successful, so it certainly wasn’t our decision… without wishing to sound overly artistically purist, we just try to make the best records at any time.

Crispian: The only conscious decision was to not play the game. We wanted to be a pop band so we wanted to be popular; we wanted to see how big our audience could be, how much reach we could have. But we made a conscious decision to not do what was expected and I think there was an antagonistic element to that. Mystical Machine Gun was a pretty ridiculous comeback single and that was definitely a conscious decision that we’re not  going to play the game.

Paul: So was putting out songs in Sanskrit. They always sounded good live, they’re big tracks that sounded good live and people responded to them.

Crispian: Ironically, the less successful of those first albums, Peasants, Pigs and Astronauts, was still a big album by today’s standards, even though it wasn’t multi-platinum like K, it really solidified the fan base. It solidified this hardcore fan base that stayed with us who were into this total world.

Paul: Lots of people got into the first record, but the people who got into the second record considered themselves as more hardcore fans, it’s just the general public weren’t that fussed. The second record is quite mad.

Crispian: It’s a very rich meal. I don’t think it works as a whole record, but individual tracks……

Paul Winterhart, Drummer and Songwriter with Kula Shaker (Simon Jay Price)

Are you as happy with the other albums as you now are with K?

Crispian: I can appreciate with a bit of hindsight and a bit of objectivity. I have a lot of affection for them for different reasons. Strangefolk was a very difficult album to make.

We made a little EP when we started playing music again in 2006/7 and that turned out really good and was a real high. Then we tried to make a whole album without the record company and the managers and that proved to be quite difficult because we didn’t have sounding boards or any support really. So that’s the album that suffered. But it has good moments.

The best thing on Strangefolk was the bonus track and it turned out to be one of the best thing we’ve done, it was this track called Persephone, which is a very romantic pre-Raphaelite number.

Paul: Day Of Love is one of my favourite songs. Amazing. I’m probably more proud of that than anything on K, but that’s from a drummer’s point of view. Drummers like Rush, you know, they’re not necessarily to be trusted on a taste scale.

Harry Boardbent, Hammond and Keyboard Player with Kula Shaker (Simon Jay Price)

Was the lack of publicity around those albums related to the controversy caused by your misunderstood comments in 1997 about the use of the swastika in India? Did you want to avoid a similar situation and concentrate on releasing music and avoid the publicity?

Crispian: No, it was quite simply that no one was interested in us any more and we didn’t feel like we were part of the scene. It was easier and simpler for us to just make music and see where it took us and we ended up making Pilgrim’s Progress, which was one of the best things we ever did, so it worked out in the end.

K2.0 seems to be generating a lot more excitement – you have sold out shows at the Roundhouse – where does that come from? Is that the fans generating the interest or from the band wanting to do something bigger?

Crispian: I think it’s just good timing you know. There’s something to be said for ideas that are of their time – the past and the present have all caught up and it just seems natural. There is a relevance to it I guess, part of it is the anniversary, but I think there is something to be said for the general mood of the music scene and where we fit in.

Kula Shaker (Simon Jay Price)

The album cover features K2 in the Himalayas, once again you’re looking to and referencing the East – and that is something that has always been part of the band’s persona. How would you describe your relationship with eastern philosophy and religion?

Paul: Most people don’t ask this in band interviews.

Crispian: There was a lot of antagonism and silly business around the band right back at the beginning because people couldn’t work out whether it was all just an act, or just flaky hippy bollocks.

Obviously we’re not religious people because that’s a complete drag and I’m not into organisations and cults or anything like that, but it’s part of life for me. It’s been a massive influence on us as a band because it was part of our formative playing years with friends coming from India and with Krishna devotees that were around us. We’d even play in the Krishna temple.

Paul: First gig pretty much was at Glastonbury.

Crispian: We talked our way on to the Krishna stage and we played Govinda. They had this big stage and were doing all the free food, so we played Govinda also to say thank you to them.

If you are going to get into spiritual life you have to acknowledge some kind of authority or some kind of tradition, otherwise you’re are just making it up as you go along, so we had this connection to the Krishna movement, but really the philosophy of the Krishna movement is very, very ancient and has nothing to do with cults or anything.

I think when you really understand the East and you understand India, then it just connects you to the whole world. India is the mother culture you could argue, there is a lot of evidence that the roots go back there, so when you get into that you suddenly think, ‘Oh, that’s what Jesus was on about, that’s what the Celts were on about’. Everybody is talking the same language.

Crispian Mills, Singer, Guitarist and Songwriter with Kula Shaker. (Simon Jay Price)

You’ve described your association with Brit Pop as an ‘accident of chronology’, is that something that you have regrets about, would you like to have been associated with a different scene?

Paul: In our time touring it seemed like American acts were more sociable and pally with each other. American bands had a real brotherhood – ‘We’re all in the same line of work, we’re mates’ – but we never had that with any British bands, really.

Crispian: Damon Albarn seemed like he always had a gang, but I never met him and everyone else seemed to be insecure and clique and a bit sniffy about each other. We had some strange and unexpected hookups like when I hooked up with the Prodigy, I didn’t expect that at all.

And Noel Gallagher was really into us and invited us to Knebworth when we were just really starting out. But we never hung out, we were disappointed there were no late night jams happening in the Troubadour cafe.

Alonza Bevan bass player, songwriter with Kula Shaker (Simon Jay Price)

When you first moved to London, you all lived together, was that a crazy rock’n’roll house?

Paul: We hoped it was going to be but then Crispian got married. As we moved in together, he got together with his wife, so they were very sensible. Our original keyboard player Jay got married.

Crispian: Sensible, is not quite the word … faithful.

Paul: It just wasn’t very us. We tried.

Crispian: He can’t remember because he’s the drummer. We never had orgies, we never did that and it never became like ancient Rome.

Paul: It was pretty calm.

Crispian: The thing is, the archetypal rock’n’roll party from the late 60s early 70s, they were really frightening things. You had to be out of your head. If anyone walked into the room straight they would be deeply shocked and have nightmares.

What can we expect from the new album, is it going to be vastly different?

Paul: There’s some stuff that’s quite proggy. Some of the tracks are super 60s, some have ventured into the 70s. I don’t think anyone is going to be disappointed, we haven’t gone electronic. If there are synths, they are very well hidden by analogue distortion.

Crispian: The whole album is driven by  the live sound of the band, that’s what we always were before a recording band or before songwriters, we were basically a band that played live and could pull it off. People really didn’t understand or get the band until they saw us live, then it all came together. That’s what we are more than anything else, we can do it at the top level, we can play and have a proper vibe. That’s what we’re all confident about when we get on stage.

You’ve done some wonderful covers in the past, but which band would you have cover one of your songs if you could pluck someone out?

Crispian: Bob Dylan and The Band – sort of ’66-’65, round that time, it’s just such a great sound. Bob Dylan, that’s sacrilege, but if I had to insist! I’d like to hear him do Shower Your Love, because it’s all about having a pretty song and then throwing it away. Some of his songs are quite pretty and because he throws it away he gets aways with it. Like I Believe in You, have you ever heard him sing that? Incredible lyrics, but he just chucks it all away and it doesn’t mean anything and that’s part of the power of it. It’s just a song.

Would you go along with that Paul?

Crispian: Go on, say Rush.

Paul: Could have Yes doing Second Sight – they would make it really complicated.

Interview by Craig Scott and Portrait Photography by Simon Jay Price

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Kula Shaker live review https://rockshotmagazine.com/19096/live-kula-shaker-the-roundhouse/