source: culture of destruction - transcribed through my pc speakers forgive any mistakes

Hi sean, nice to meet you, you guys are here to promote your new cd, the big thing that happened a few weeks ago is the gig in cuba, was that a dream for you guys come true.

S: It's just that when we were putting the album together we discovered there were lots of references towards cuba, so we thought it'd be pretty mad if we went and did a gig in cuba, and we thought it'd be even crazier if fidel castro came and when he actually did it was just like astonishing that a person of that importance in his country, even the world, he is living history personified, we just couldn't believe it to be honest with you, not even in our own country have we ever had any head of state come to meet us let alone watch an entire gig, so it was good for us.

A lot of people might wonder why you guys want to perform in cuba cos I don't think it's a coincidence at all to be honest.

S: A lot of people think that it isn't. Like I said it wasn't until possibly just before christmas that we decided cuba would be a good place to launch an album considering that the last time we did it, we did it in kettering in the uk with no sort of fanfare at all. A lot of the things cuba seems to stand for in the world today we seem to have some sort of empathy with. And just the fact that it's a country on its own that has an identity that it's so desperate to keep. We sort of empathise with that considering we're a band that within the uk at least, we feel that we're not part of any scene or movement, that we're very much on our own, doing our own thing in our own style. So we have a lot of things in common then with cuba and the people.

You guys are very into socialism and social themes and things like that.

S: But it's not party political, when people ask us about politics our socialism is more to do with community and country and people, much more than whether we're left or right, nothing to do with labour party or conservatives, we just want some sort of justice and integrity, some sort of honesty with people, we're more into like being considerate.

Talking about the new CD, what can people/fans expect from it.

S: I think the best thing I can say about it is not to expect anything from it cos we don't expect anything from fans. But there's a mixture of all our influences, very much like David Bowie sort of Pin Ups type album. There's lots of references to a lot of the things that we used to listen to when we were young. And then there's references going back to earlier albums, we just wanted to touch base again and find some sort of reality within ourselves. Just because the last album we tend to lose touch with ourselves and our surroundings.

There's a lot of different styles in it, is that representative of what you guys are doing right now because we can find even a disco song on it.

S: Well even with the girl who wanted to be god, that was another veined attempt at trying to do a disco track. You know, we get bored easily, and we find that today people get bored just as easily. We always try and take things to the limit of our abilities, we don't get it right all the time but at least we're there pushing our frontiers.

Do you get bored easily too.

S: Oh yeah we do as people, that's why we're constantly consuming as much information as possible. We're not so introverted that we lose touch with the outside world, you know, we're very much in touch with it. It's just a pity that everybody on the outside world seems to be losing touch with reality at the moment.

How do you think people are losing touch with reality.

S: I think possibly through things like the internet, I think there's so much misinformation on the internet now that I just find it totally unbelievable and I can't understand why people have so much respect for the internet when it's such an easy media format to manipulate.

Cos we're doing an interview for the internet too, is that bothering you at all.

S: It doesn't bother me but I just hope that the truth goes out there and people understand that it is the truth and it isn't misinformation that's put onto the internet that people, because it's on the internet, believe it, that it is the truth.

Looking at you now I guess you're telling the truth.

S: I hope I am, I hope you don't take this away and start editing...

We're not going to edit anything, we're going to broadcast the full interview.

S: I think it's possibly my paranoia of watching films like Wag The Dog that has sort of heightened my imagination about the media.

You're not too paranoid are you?

S: It's good to be slightly paranoid, it's always good to question.

Talking about the internet, we can't go without talking about napster. What's your personal or the groups opinion on that?

S: Well all I've got to say on it is my own personal account was closed down as well. I didn't use it to exchange music I just used it to listen to music and ultimately napster would speed up the demise of live music and bands. I mean even now less and less groups are being signed by the major record labels and it would just accelerate that process. Music can't be free it'd be just like ordering groceries on the internet and expecting not to pay for it. People have to live, people have to make money. At the same time I remember taping things off radio but it didn't stop me from going out and buying the LP if I liked it and if I had more money, when I got older. So I think napster is there for people to sample the music but it shouldn't be there just purely to download entire albums. Some people I read have been downloading 10,000 CD's, that's got to affect the music industry after a while.

Know Your Enemy, your enemy is the internet, I'm sure of that.

S: Well it was ourselves, with the last album we sort of lost touch with ourselves. At the same time subconciously I suppose we see America now as being our enemy in the way that it seems to be pushing its culture on every single country in the world as some sort of template of this is how life should be and you look at it and it's so dysfunctional and the whole society is breaking down. And yet people are supposed to look up to that as the perfect example of how to run a capitalist country. And at the same time the internet came from america, and it just allows all those minority groups to thrive whereas before they were underground and perhaps just hearsay now they're brought to fruition. When you get some sort of organisations that are available to young impressionable minds, it's about time someone just... I know freedom of speech is such a big thing in america but I don't see it as freedom of speech, I see it as freedom to do exactly what we want regardless of whether it is right or wrong morally. I just find america as very unmoral.

You sound like a bitter man to me, is that true because I heard SWSS and it sounds pretty happy to me.

S: I think life is bittersweet when you look at it, you couldn't actually point to one person in this world and say they're the happiest thing ever. Happiness is just those brief little moments that you cherish and you remember later on in life but life is always going to be a struggle. Our songs are always about struggle.

Was making this CD a struggle for you guys?

S: Well this time it wasn't basically because we weren't given any time constraints so we were basically told we could do whatever we wanted to. And we did. We followed our muse and pleased ourselves first and maybe we'll please other people as a result of it.

How were the gigs you did up to now, you did a few.

S: Well we've only done 2 on this LP so far, as you know the ones in cuba. The 2nd gig we did was an hour long broadcast for radio 1. So it wasn't really a gig it was more of a showpiece for the album with a selected audience. A few tickets went on sale to the public but it was mostly for the broadcast. So we still haven't got to our full capacity as a gigging band. I think we'll sort of build up our abilities then through the summer. And then hopefully we'll be doing tours then, extensive tours of europe.

[can't hear question] S: Well I hope so cos we did rather well last time in belgium and we were very surprised because of the problems with the language because we looked at france and we've never done particularly well there because the translation doesn't quite come across and we were very surprised in belgium that the translation seemed to come across rather well. And our style of music I wouldn't say exports that well, it's taken nearly 10 years for people to understand what we're about outside of the uk.

So you love performing in belgium I guess?

S: It's always been good. I can't remember a bad gig in belgium actually, it's always been good. The last one we did was really good.

The CD is very diverse with very diverse songs, do you have any favourites on it.

S: Ocean Spray because it's quite personal.

Wattsville Blues because it's something that Nick felt quite strongly about and the lyrics are about his situation and that's the reason for him singing it because James felt that he couldn't give it an honest approach so we said "Look Nick, you might not want to sing, but you're going to" (!!)

How did Miss Europa Disco Dancer end up on the record?

S: Like I said we've always tried doing a disco type song and I suppose when you're young and you're given abba records for christmas something's going to rub off so we were just having fun and it's our sort of rock the casbah type song.

Are there more things we can expect from manic street preachers?

S: I'd like to think so but at the same time I wouldn't like to be the rolling stones or aerosmith. I'd like to think there's definately a cut off point in our career and it's just a matter of saying that's it, we can't go any further, we can't do any more.

You can't wait to do some gigs, I can see that.

S: Yeah, yeah I think... yeah.

You'd rather do a gig than do an interview?

S: Promotion's always been hard and I've got away with it for the last 5 years so all those times when I've spent in the hotel asleep and resting I know I could give up [not sure about that bit] so I think I'd rather be on the road, travelling on the bus.