Gene interview for The Indie Shop
June 1, 2000
12pm
I was impressed in so many ways through the interview. Perhaps the strongest memory was the friendship and comradery that exists between the band. This positive and friendly vibe seems to envelope all around them, and I can't help but be impressed with the kindness they've shown this small time radio dj from the other side of the world. I must say that this also relates to the bands management and publicists. Both Jerry and Michelle have gone beyond what your normal record exec would normally do, and without them there would have been no interview.
It's rare that one gets to meet the people he greatly admires. This is especially true in this age of global markets and media exposure. Gene helped to re-awaken me to the joys of British music while England was in the throes of Brit Pop. Suffice to say they're outlived early comparisons to The Smiths, many of the bands that rose with them in the mid 90's, and have gone on to forge a new identity with the explosion of the internet. What you have below is a 90 minute conversation between myself and the band. We touch on many of the topics that have shaped the band in the past years, as well as what might shape the music industry in the near future.
Cast of Characters:
Kevin Miles, Bass
Martin Rossiter, vocals
Steve Mason, Guitar
Matt James, Drums
Michelle, American Publicist
Jerry Smith, Gene's Manager
Charles-Indie Shop host, rabid Gene fan & interviewer
Ali-K-Beach dj and assistant interviewer
The Interview took place within the outside lounge of the band's hotel in Hollywood. Kevin was sitting by himself at a small round table as we arrived. I must preface the interview by stating that the bands attitudes may be different from the way they are here. Their sense of sarcasm and humor is tough to translate to print, especially Martin's.
Due to the interviews length, it has been devided into several pages. Mererly follow the link at the bottom of each page
Martin: I had a skinhead for many years. The first skinhead I had was at 14, if I remember rightly.
Charles: Feels great doesn't it?
Martin: Oh its lovely.
Charles: You don't even need shampoo, just regular soap will do.
Martin: No, I use shampoo.
Martin: You filthy boy!
Charles: Were just poor over here
Martin: Well I don't believe that now
Charles: Do you want to introduce yourselves?
Kevin: I'm Kevin Miles and I'm the bass player of Gene
Martin: I'm Martin Rossiter and I do everything he tells me to
Charles: I've heard on one of your pages, a fan page, that Kevin actually runs the show
Kevin: That's right, yeah. Well I'm the oldest you see so age before beauty
Martin: He's the great puppeteer…. and were mere pawns in his grand scheme, aren't we Kev?
Kevin: That's right.
Martin: It's all true.
Kevin: Its taken me ten years to get them sounding a bit like the Faces. We'll get there eventually.
(long silence…….moment a bit overwhelming)
Martin: So what should I say next Kevin?
Kevin: I don't know.
Martin: Control me boy!
Charles: So you guys enjoyed the venue last night?
Martin: Yeah, very much actually. I had a great time. I felt like Buddha.
Kevin: Its all like the marquee almost. It's a very legendary venue, a lot of famous people have
played there. John Lennon used to hang out there, didn't he?
Ally: All those heavy metal bands
Kevin: Well, we're not bothered about them, are we.
Martin: Just the fact that John Lennon got kicked out of the Troubadour is quite important to us.
Kevin: Elton John's first American show was here I think
Charles: Will you guys try to follow in his footsteps?
Martin: What, buy getting kicked out, or buying a wig? Well, we tried so hard but they're all so nice.
Kevin: We tried smoking
Martin: But that didn't work.
Charles: How was the crowd?
Kevin: Good actually, yeah. There's no barrier at the front. We've found over the years that the
atmosphere tends to be better if people are pushed up against the barrier. People seem to relax a bit more.
Martin: They were great. The Los Angeles crowd is much like London. They're a little bit jaded
because everyone comes here. London is the same. Its not like going to Sheffield back home or
somewhere here like San Diego which not everybody passes through. They're just a little more
excited to see anybody. But having said that, they were quite wonderful actually. We feel very welcome.
Charles: And the fact that its been three years since you played here last.
Martin: It's a bonus for you probably.
Kevin: We'd hoped you had forgotten us by this time.
Charles: You decided initially to do one show here in the US, and I was surprised that Los Angeles
was chosen.
Martin: Why?
Charles: New York seemed to be much closer.
Martin: Yes, yes, but it makes very little difference, five hours on a plane.
Kevin: We had a friend here who was friendly with the promoters of the Troubadour and they were
quite keen to putting us on.
Kevin: And on top of that we've always done, probably LA's been the city in American that's been
kindest to us I think. We've always done really well here. They've taken us to their silicon bosom.
Charles: I know you came out here to do some promotional work as well, such as start a label.
Martin: We'll, we've got a label started back home. It would be nieve to deny it, we're over here
looking for some American licensing deal. Also, we're doing the web cast on Friday. That ideas been
thrown around for the last year or so. I think it would have been a bit dull to do it in London, and I
think it was the perfect opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with you.
Kevin: We thought we'd record it and put out a live album as well. We'd have a lot of requests
over the years for a proper live album. So we're gonna get that out. We're gonna mix it as soon as we
get back, and hopefully, if it all goes well tonight and tomorrow. We'll put that out at the end of June.
Charles: Do you plan on doing a live video as well?
Martin: There's talk of a video, of a DVD, fully interactive, dress Kevin as you want.
Charles: I believe it was Steve that posted something about wearing nursing outfits.
Martin: He was obviously drunk.
Kevin: Well I'm used to that, my wife's a nurse, so I'm a but jaded with that fetish.
(Martin requests his first diet coke from the waitress)
Charles: As far as the video goes, do you plan on releasing that here in the U.S. as well?
Martin: Well I hope so. The mechanics are thus, It's simply a case that if somebody wants to do it.
With the deal we signed in Britain its for the UK and Europe and we're trying to spread our fingers
around the rest of the world. If somebody wants to release it, of course, we'd love to. Unfortunately
that's out of our hands. If it was feasible that we could expand out to America with our own little label
than we would, but it's not. We need somebody with a little more muscle over here. I hope so, I really
would hope so. If people like us.
Kevin: I think the video will probably come out over here. The live album's gonna be out here, so
hopefully.
(Michelle, the bands American publicist/promotions manager appears.)
Martin: You still crotchety? We'll cheer you up, so don't worry.
Michelle: I know you will
Martin: Sorry, so where were we?
Charles: We were talking about releases as far as videos here in the U.S.
Charles: You guys do fairly well in the UK still.
Martin: We do alright. I mean the last years been very odd because we've been without a deal, and
we did a show in January in London at a venue called the Forum which is a fairly large place. We
were very pleasantly surprised that it sold out quickly, and that the fans are still there. In a way,
without sounding too cocky, I think it's a victory of substance over style. We've never been a
particularly fashionable band, but that's enabled us to have some longevity. The last time we were in
America was in May of '97 and we've come back and sold out three shows which has staggered us to
be honest. We were hoping to sell out one and they kept on adding them.
Charles: And I understand that the shows in New York are also sold out.
Martin: Are they? I don't know, I don't know. If you're right.
Kevin: That's good.
Charles: You definitely have a very, not hardcore, but a very strong core audience.
Martin: No, we do have a hardcore audience. Ron Jeremy, big fan. In every way. In fact the porn
industry has been very supportive, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.
Ally: Maybe you guys could make a porn soundtrack?
Martin: Maybe we could make a porn movie that would never sell
Kevin: Yes.
Martin: I think we ought to get off this….yes, move on.
Charles: Speaking of videos, you guys had a song featured in Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
Martin: Did we?
Kevin: In the Buffy the Vampire?
Martin: Slayer. It's a program.
Kevin: I know, my mate who's here, he loves Buffy so if we tell him that he'll a…
Martin: In the program of film?
Charles: In the program yes.
Martin: What song was it? Do you know?
Charles: How does my mind go blank at the wrong times?
Martin: I don't know, mine does as well.
Charles: (after looking at cd) "Fill Her Up"
Martin: Oh was it? Oh how lovely.
Charles: For some reason the only way I know is that a person I happen to work with is a huge
Buffy fan and does her own show. It's a coincidence that my favorite band would appear on the show.
Martin: Absolutely charming of them. Did you know that Michelle? That we've been on Buffy the
Vampire Slayer allegedly?
Michelle: No, actually Jerry told me he's trying to find out all the things that you're on.
Martin: "Fill Her Up" it was. I don't know, I don't watch the show.
Michelle: You've never seen it? It's really, really, really popular. People are obsessive about it.
They don't miss it.
Martin: I wanna be on Frasier
Kevin: I wanna be on the soundtrack album than.
Charles: It's interesting that you would have a song used and not even know about it.
Martin: Well there are a lot of things that we don't know about. The worlds a large place, there are
thousands of countries and you simply cant keep up with everything. And obviously people like
Michelle don't do their job properly obviously.
Michelle: (…..)
Martin: Oh, I'm so sorry, so sorry.
Michelle: I cant be blamed for anything in the past, only for the past few weeks.
Martin: We don't find out about everything, so its nice to be told. Thank you.
Charles: You don't think that it's a sign of losing control?
Kevin: You cant really stop it to be honest. You have to give permission to things like adverts and
films. We had "London Can You Wait" in a film called "Face" and we had to give permission for that.
Martin: But contractually after a certain amount of time you lose that anyway. That goes for any
band on this planet, whether they're Limp Biskit, REM or Spice Girls. It's a…
Kevin: Hey Andy. I gotta tell him, he's the Buffy fan.
Martin: Watch his face, watch his face.
(Andy is told of the song)
Martin: You simply don't find out about everything. It's ok, I don't think it devalues the songs.
The songs stand up. Christ, I co-wrote them and they stand up for me so they should for anyone else.
Charles: Recently a law came before congress, and part of the law stated that an artist is basically
hired and they don't retain the rights to their music. The company maintains all control.
Martin: Well that's been true anyway, your publishing company owns your songs. Unfortunately,
if you want to make records, that's how you have to do it.
Kevin: They lease them don't they.
Martin: Yeah, for twenty five years. That's the nature of the business. I'd love to change that, and I
don't think its right, but in the grand scheme of things we're a small, albeit quick, fish.
Kevin: In the end of the day if it's a fact that we were played on Buffy we'll get paid for it. If we
didn't have a publishing company than anybody could….
Martin: Well probably get paid in about four years, seventy cents each.
Charles: Do you maintain some kind of control over your songs?
Martin: As much as we can. With the new deal, we probably have as much control as is possible in
the industry. I doubt there is a band that has more control than us. But having said that, its impossible
to have 100 percent. It simply doesn't happen.
Charles: So twenty years down the line you wont have to worry about someone else controlling
your rights.
Martin: That still applies. In twenty, twenty five years they'll be open to the open market. That's
why Michael Jackson owns the Beatles songs. The writers still get the money, don't get me wrong.
Chrysalis, our publishing company, they own our songs. There's nothing we can do about that.
Charles: Which I guess is what I'm trying to get at. Who owns the songs.
Martin: It's the publishing company. The publishing company owns your songs.
Charles: That's something you work out when you get signed?
Martin: Yes
Kevin: There's no way you can get out of it.
Martin: That's true of every single band on this planet.
Charles: So it's a matter of compromise.
Martin: Of course it's a matter of compromise because there's no other way of making records. To be
quite honest with you I think its more important that the people hear our songs than us owning
them.
Charles: As far as the songs themselves, there seems to be a change in the way that you're bringing
them forth. The original music from Olympian seemed to much more emotional and now you're
getting more political, at least as far as lyrics are concerned.
Martin: You've got a copy of Revelations, haven't you? ( he looks at the cd sleeve). This is the last
studio album, and if you look at this there are three or four political songs on this.
Kevin: "As Good as it Gets"
Martin: Yes. Politics is emotional. It's not an intellectual pursuit, it's a pursuit of the heart. Kevin
and I are both, I think, still glad to say we're socialists. Aren't we?
Kevin: um
Martin: And I don't do that because I thinks its intellectually right, I do that because I think it's
morally right, and therefore it becomes emotional. I still get angry, I still get hurt. Without sounding
like Whitney Houston I still look at the world and it pisses me off. But having said that, you've got
songs like "Little Child" which is, when it was written, was about my unborn kid, and that's highly
emotional. Very small, very micro little song about a tiny little detail in one persons life, and I think
it's as emotional as anything we've ever done. I think all we're doing is broadening the way we show
that emotion, but its still there. I don't think Gene would be Gene without it.
Charles: So its just perhaps a signal of your growth as songwriters.
Kevin: Lyrically if you think of the first album "Left Handed" was a very political song. "This is
Not My Crime", "Do You Wanna Hear it From Me". There's always been political sides to the lyrics.
I know Martin writes the lyrics and there are more on the recent album. Its probably a part of waiting
so long for a left wing government to come into our country and when they came they just
disappointed.
Charles: What are the things that still motivate you when you write? What really gets to you,
touches you?
Martin: I think the thing to remember is that there is still that magic. My favorite song ever is a
song called "Rapoit Mader Rapoit (sp) by a Hungarian folk band called Musikas. Now I haven't got a
clue what it's about. It's in Hungarian. My Magyar isn't what it was. I love that song because it does
that thing that music can do. It can make you like on your bed in awe and you have this absolute
flood, air raid, of feelings that just smother you. The lyrics in Gene are intrinsic to who we are, but it's
easy to forget also that there are simple things like lovely tunes, that I hope, can leave you breathless.
So in that sense I'm motivated by, I think we all are, by creating any sort of response from the listener.
That's important.
Kevin: It's just a wonderful thing, writing a song and than recording it. You feel so proud. As
though you've achieved so much. Granted it's not a brain operation, but for the four of us it's what
we've always wanted to do. And to be able to do it and be able to pay our mortgages as well is
fantastic.
Charles: How does it feel, when obviously the product is good. You guys write excellent songs and
the emotion is strong. How does it feel when you've slaved in the studio and the public reception isn't
quite what you hoped it might be?
Martin: You feel a bit pissed off, that's inevitable. I think we're probably more philosophical about
it now, because otherwise it would destroy you.
Kevin: But we're still playing here in Los Angeles. You have to look at it and think that in the grand
scheme of things we've done fantastically well. Compared to 99.9% of the bands who never even get a
record contract, never mind manage to travel the world.
Martin: It is easy to look at it negatively and you do have to punch yourself occasionally and say
"well hang on" and view it from the other side. You suddenly realize I know the names of people I've
met because they like our music in about forty or fifty countries in the world. We've been to Japan and
seen the same faces and they adore us, and they adore our records. Sometimes you do sit there and
think this is shockingly unfair, but than you see some very talented buskas (???)
Charles: I'm specifically speaking of "Little Child" which among fans seems to be the least popular
song.
Martin: The least popular? Oh that's good. Does it?
Kevin: Perhaps it has something to do with, there is this sort of weird attitude to people in bands
when they have children. The Gallagher brothers have had serious knocking in the British press for
becoming fathers which is unbelievable. Its just a part of life and growing older and moving on.
Maybe people still like Martin to be some sort of single chap who's available. That's my take on it. I
think musically and melodically it's one of my favorite songs from Gene We played it to the Forum in
January. Do you know Dodgy, the band? We had the drummer from Dodgy play and Matt played
acoustic guitar and that was just great, wasn't it?
Martin: It was lovely.
Charles: I agree that it's one of my favorites. You can tell that it's such a strong emotion for you.
Martin: What people forget is that it's not over sentimental really. The root of the song is that my
misses and I had a miscarriage and she got pregnant again. The song is saying I hope this one
survives. It's not at all "aren't you lovely, I'm going to stroke your beautiful bottom that looks like a
peach", its...
Kevin: I'm the baby
Martin: Thank you, and you of course. It's a highly emotive issue. People are entitled to think what
they like, just not in front of me.
Charles: I do have a couple of questions that listeners are curious about. We talked about playing
live. What would be your proudest moment.
Martin: There've been a few.
Kevin: I think V97 was a good one. There's a festival in Britain, Virgin Festival that we played in
'97. We were on the second stage against The Prodigy and we pulled a massive crowd.
Martin: That was one of the best shows we ever played.
Kevin: We played really well, didn't we? I think the Forum in January.
Martin: The Forum in January. Having done the Albert Hall still. I drive past the Albert Hall. I
don't know if any of you have seen it, but it's this monstrously impressive building. And to go past it
and think hmmm, we filled that. Sometimes you go past that and think I only filled that. That sense
that "ha".
Kevin: That was great. All our families in their little box.
Martin: Milan in 1995. That was an important show for us. The first time we heard the songs being
sung back in a foreign accent. It gave us a sense that we were translating over water.
(Steve walks over and introduces himself)
Kevin: Someone take over for me
Michelle: It's a tag team interview
Martin: I'm the rock
Matt: Yeah?
