Gene interview; part 3
Charles: Are you guys running short of time?
Steve and Matt: No.
Steve: We'll talk until the cows come home. I never know what that phrase means but,
Matt: They come home to the shed at the end of the day, don't they. They all go out, graze and eat
their grass than come home to the shed.
Steve: I've got a friend that's quite sad. He's got a book of all these quotations. So if someone says
something he'll give you some brilliant reason why that phrase is used.
Charles: Contra, that's the name of the company you're starting?
Matt: There's Sub Rosa Music which is what we wanted to use but there's a company called
Sub Rosa in America. We're actually called Sub Rosa but well trade to the name Contra. Contra, did
you thin of that?
Steve: Yeah, it just means in opposition to. Which I think is quite apt considering we don't like
working for corporates.
Matt: It's nothing to do with (?), I'll assure you of that.
Steve: I don't ever want to work for a corporate again to be honest. It's just wrong for what we're
trying to achieve artistically. I'm sick of being, I think we're all sick of being pressured by monetary
values rather than our artistic expression. We did get a lot of hassle which was unnecessary. Two
singles which we otherwise wouldn't have chosen. It just all comes down to cash, something we really
don't need to get into. It's nice for us now to be independent and have people that believe in us quite
blindly, that we are good musicians and that we're worth being backed, rather than just being under
the umbrella of a corporation that has so many artists on the roster that they don't know where to
spend money so they throw it all around the place and no real understanding. I think that sucks and
that's a bad ethic to live your life by. So Contra is opposition to that.
Ally: Do you feel especially compelled to play all age venues and keep the cost of tickets to your
shows down?
Matt: Yeah, we've always done that.
Steve: We're not elitists in any way.
Matt: That is important. The all ages show is more of a thing in America. Certainly tickets prices
we've kept…It's worked for us in a way cause we've always sold tickets live. We just did the Forum
in London and had two and a half thousand people there, and we haven't had a record deal for a year,
means these things are paid back to us., though we've always kept ticket prices pretty low.
Steve: Not that low.
Matt: Lower than most people. We're rewarded by loyalty, so it works for us as well.
Charles: How do you feel about the way the internet is really helping musicians get out there, and
hindering others….
Matt: For us I think it's going to empower us.
Charles: Think so?
Matt: Yeah.
Steve: I think its such an early day that there's such confusion over how the internet will dictate the
market. There's not enough in the majority of countries, there's not enough technology in peoples
homes to exploit the fact that music can be delivered over the internet basically through the
downloading problems and the lack of quality. I think the whole retail market will change hugely over
the next ten years because you will not need to have big hangers full of product. You can just burn it
straight away. It just means that the retail situation, which obviously dictates all the charts and dictates
the media, because the charts are what it follows, its gonna have to be taken into account for the
internet sales and its much easier to release records on the internet as it's not half as much money.
You can do it yourself as well. Anybody can make music in their own bedroom, make their own
website, you can have your own record company from your own house. It does cut out all the fat cats
with the cigars saying show me the hits. I think that's a godsend.
Matt: I remember that, during the Drawn To The Deep End session, when Lucy and (?) at Polydor
just clapped his hands and said "show me some hits" and we just sorta, all our heads went down.
"Lucy don't say that in front of Gene", we were like, "oh god".
Charles: You don't worry about internet pirating?
Matt: I know that our fans have made our stuff available, downloadable. To me it's sort of home
taping really. It's probably gonna do us some good really, the word of mouth type thing. At this stage,
I'll encourage it. We're not gonna be Metallica about it. As though they don't have enough money
already, they're all probably worth about four hundred each.
Steve: The think is every form of fraud needs to be monitored, doesn't it? And if it's fraudulent
behavior than it needs to be sorted out. At the end of the day I think people like seeing the artwork,
reading the lyrics.
Matt: People will still like to buy a cd.
Steve: At the end of the day the internet will get so strong that people will get to do that anyway.
You have any photograph and you'll be able to zap it into the computer....
Matt: There's something about shopping though, isn't there? In a sort of physical way, hopefully
will still he there. Bands like us , it gives a chance to survive really without making corporations in the
future because we have people that like our music. We've always had a problem of getting more
people to like our music, hopefully we'll be able to utilize the internet to do that as well. We've got to
a certain size and kinda stayed there. We really do want to become like REM, really. maybe we'll find
a way through the internet to do that.
Charles: How do you feel about tomorrow nights performance?
Steve: Don't know, haven't played it yet.
Charles: The fact that you are able to reach fans all over the world with one performance in a small
venue.
Steve: Frightening, isn't it?
Matt: Yeah, don't cheer us up too much please.
What's amazing is that you can touch so many people without leaving a 200 person venue.
Matt: We had this idea of having a virtual ticket type thing actually where people had a ticket
emailed to them for free. it gives you a number and you go to that site, but we thought that was too
restrictive in the end. It's gonna be great. Let's just hope that people are up at six in the morning in the
UK. They were thinking of beaming into a club in London so the London fans could watch it on a
screen. But they'll be tired. We don't think they'll like us enough to get up at four in the morning and
go somewhere.
Charles: There are actually a few people in the UK that wake up at five in the morning and listen to
the show, though I can't imagine why. I'm sure I'd be the same. It just shows the power of the music.
Steve: Yes.
Charles: Offering the chance to listen to something different that Brittany Spears every hour.
Matt: Oh yeah, now that's the way it's going. There's some shocking stuff going on in the music
industry. There are people that aren't even stars, people who are just frightened little girls and boys put
in roles as puppets and bands where you can lose two members and two others show and nobody
seems to notice or care.
Charles: To me, as far as being a fan, it's almost frightening. It seems like it would be a little scary
as an artist to see the way the industry is moving around.
Matt: It is. (?)type stuff being controlled completely by global corporations. It's up to people like us
and other artists to fly the flag of art really and not be afraid to be artists. Stop calling projects art.
These things are just projects, sort of cabaret things. The boy bands and all that stuff, it is just
elaborate cabaret. Sometimes its very good, in the entertainment world. There really needs to be a
balance. There's a lot great stuff getting squashed.
Steve: The thing is all industries change for one reason, progression. And obviously the whole
internet scenario is in a confused state at the moment, it will take a while to settle down. I'm sure once
it has settled down . I'm sure once it has settled down it will be for the better for all involved.
Charles: This kind of goes hand in hand with this next question. How does it feel to come into the
US and try to regain a footing?
Matt: Regain a footing?
Charles: You built up a good fan base with Olympian and Drawn To The Deep End and you kind
of lost it for a while because of the deal. It seems you will have to re-establish yourselves.
Steve: You've gotta fight for everything you want. If it's given to you on a plate you become
complacent. I think at the end of the day if we have to fight all over again than it gives us a sense of
hunger, it gives it a new sense of challenge. I think when you're challenged it puts you in a different
mindset and you deliver things you wouldn't possibly do if you were in complacent land.
Matt: It was great. It felt like last night it was a case of needing to win over some of the American
fans here. Obviously we're older and haven't been over here for a while. There was a little bit of
sparring between us and the audience in the first half of the gig last night. And by the end it was
"oh yes, you are still good to us". There's no reason why people won't just like you forever if you're
not good. There was a case of winning back the memory of it and seeing that there is a future as well.
I really felt that there was something going on. Hopefully tonight will be better than last night.
Charles: Are you guys taking requests for tonight at all?
Matt: What sort of request?
Charles: I had a fan, a listener, who was interested in hearing "Speak To Me Someone".
Steve: We did that one last night.
Matt: We'll play that. In the London shows recently we didn't do that at the Forum, we didn't do that
at the Scala before we came out but we decided to do it when we came over here. It did actually go
down really well last night. We're probably gonna mix the sound around a bit tonight and pick the best
for Friday.
Charles: Ever play any b-sides?
Matt: We might play "This Is Not My Crime" on this tour. We've got that up our sleeve. I don't
know, we'll have to wait and see. There are a couple that might come out.
Steve: To be honest we wanna come back and do a proper tour of the states anyway, this is just a
gift, to come out and do three. We were quite fortunate that the fans were loyal and allowed us to play
three nights here, and obviously you have the web cast and stuff. This to us is just like a rekindling of
the fire that we tried to start years back, and now we're in a different situation where we got people
that believe in us. We'll come out and do proper tours. And once you start doing proper tours it gives
you more scope to really rage the back catalog and bring things to the fire that you might not have
done. To be honest we would get bored if we played the same set every night. It's like watching the
same film every day, you can't do it. We've written stuff, I don't know, about a hundred songs? We've
written so many.
Matt: Must be about a hundred
Steve: It would be stupid for us not to bring out rarities, and it puts us on our toes because we think
"shit, how the hell did we play this in the first place". Also, it's nice for people to hear things from us
that they wouldn't normally hear from us.
Matt: "Sick Sober And Sorry" was the b-side that we sort of embraced and played every night, so
now we sort of put it on hold for a while. "I Cant Help Myself", that's one of the greatest songs we've
ever written and it should have been on Olympian. I don't know why we didn't do that. It's one of our
favorites, and of fans as well. A status all of its own.
Charles: Have you guys played All Night live?................It just happens to my personal favorite.
Matt: Yeah we have. We used to use the same(?) snare on it, didn't we.
Steve: I can't remember how that goes.
Matt: That one isn't a Gene favorite really. It's sort of...
Steve: That was an attempt.
Matt: That was an attempt at a pop song and I think it's a bit shallow in a way. I suppose
"Fill Her Up" is a bit shallow in a way, it's just a drinking song. "All Night" Martin didn't really like it
actually, he was the one who wasn't so keen on it.
Steve: That's quite sonic, isn't it?
Matt: Yeah
Steve: (simulated drum sounds) doom doom chik, doom doom chik.
Matt: Yeah, yeah. Yep.
Steve: It's a bit embarrassing.
Charles: How about "Pass On To Me"?
Matt: That's a great one, it's very lovely actually.
Steve: (trying to remember how the guitar goes, humming chords)
Matt: We've got so many songs now that those songs don't get a look, but I think that when we do
the next lot of touring we're gonna bring songs that we dropped or never played in again. It's to keep it
exciting for us. Maybe that's one we could consider.
Steve: It's quite intricate, "Pass On To Me", isn't it? (hums the song)
Matt: It's really one you could do on a radio session or something. I like that one. It sorta goes off at
the end, we didn't quite finish it off properly.
Steve: You gotta be weird with certain songs because on record they sound great but trying to get
them across live, you're sounding dead rigid because you've got this technical thing to pull off. To be
honest, I can't be assed. I'd rather whack a guitar a bit more and be violently emotive. We are a rock
band basically. We seem delicate because we have a singer that can deliver poignant lyrics.
Matt: I was into the encores last night, of doing the rocky encore and doing the delicate encore. I
think that's brilliant as it shows the two sides of us. We might try to do that again tonight.
Charles: I saw your post on the message board. It was you?
Steve: Yeah.
Charles: You're doing a Belle & Sebastian song?
Steve: That's not me. There's imposters you see, they're everywhere. I love that word, it's quite
comical, imposter.
Charles: There's no way to tell.
Steve: Well there should be as I try very hard that when I do go on the bulletin board to have a style
that, whatever, well it doesn't seem to work so I'm gonna have to conjure up a secret code or
something.
Charles: I really appreciate your guys for being able to talk to me here.
Steve: Cool, it's a pleasure
Matt: Quite relaxing place this hotel. Not the grandest hotel, but I really like it. Sitting around, sorta
just chatting really.
End of interview…….
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The author reserves all rights for the above interview. Please notify me with any intentions or desires torebroadcast the above in any manner. Photos curtosy of Gene's official web site, Genenet
