Interview w/ Jason + Nigel - 6 nov 98
By Adam Kukic
Triple A, Jazz, and New World Music Director
90.3, Meadville, PA WARC (Allegheny College's campus station)On Friday, November 6th, Tori Amos played at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena. I'm a huge fan of Tori and originally, that's why I was there, but the excitement was for something else. I managed to score an interview with the opening band, Unbelievable Truth! They are from Oxford (England) and just released their debut album last week which has received solid reviews in many publications (Including our own, The Campus). I never interviewed a band before, let alone an up and coming one from England. Needless to say, I was a little nervous.
I went to meet their tour manager, Warwick Sayce and had no idea what to expect. Upon meeting him, he informed me that we'd have to do the interview on the band's tour bus.
"When Tori goes on, it'll be too loud. Is that alright with you?"
"Sure!" I always wanted to say that I've been on a band's tour bus.
The walk to the bus took a few minutes and I was informed that the interview would be with Nigel Powell (drums) and Jason Moulster (bass). Frontman and guitarist, Andy Yorke's father had flown in to see this show and Andy was out with him. I was a little disappointed that I hadn't been able to make it for the 5pm interview I originally had scheduled, but what could I do? I was happy to hear that Jason would be there. From the interviews I had pulled off of the net, it seemed like most he didn't go to.
Upon entering the bus, I immediately felt relaxed. Nigel and Jason were watching the South Park Halloween episode, it was just ending. They cleared a seat for me to sit across from them and I decided that this was a good time to begin. I decided to start off casually. Nigel had his head shaved with the exception of a long tail in the back.
"So Nigel, shaving your head, how do you keep it smooth? I'm curious because when I shaved my head a little while back, that was the major draw back."
Nigel and Jason chuckled.
"Jason shaves it regularly. It's a bit fuzzy tonight so he'll have to do it again for me later."
"I do it myself, and always have trouble getting the back of my neck."
"Yeah, especially with this bit," he takes hold of his long tail, "It's pretty impossible to go around it yourself."
Okay, I'm totally relaxed now, but I decide to stick with the humor. In some interviews I got off the web, Nigel and Jason had mentioned that REM was a huge influence on them. Having just listened to the new REM CD I remember that Bill Berry, their drummer, had left the band. I asked Nigel, jokingly of course, if they ever asked him to fill in, would he?
"Definitely not, we'll actually stick to our promise. It's actually the three of us." He eludes to the fact that REM had said if anyone left the band, that would be it. "As an REM fan," he continued, " I found that very disappointing cause they had said that from the very beginning. And the kinda rethink after the 10th album."
Okay, they like REM, good start, next question.
"So who's idea was the tour diary?"
Nigel looks inquisitively at Jason, "Ahh, mine I think, was it mine?" Jason nods his head. "I was kinda gonna do it and then somebody from Virgin [our label] suggested it again, and it just kinda spurred me into the direction of actually getting around and doing it.. Cause the wanted it for our official website. And it actually gone up on the official website, it's mostly going to the fan sites and stuff. We try and service them more than the official site cause they're much more dynamic and more interested in us [and our music]."
Okay, going back to the more humorous side of things.
"So, I saw you guys were watching South Park and that you made reference to it in the tour diary, any of you have any good impersonations down yet?"
"Oh no!" Jason says with a smile.
Nigel is quit with a retort. "Yes, Jason does, he does a good Cartman." Jason takes a sip of his Beck's bottle at that.
"Ah, yeah, but not on request. It has to be one of those moments."
We laughed, "Well if it comes to you at any point in the interview, please feel free to just blurt it out. So moving onto to question number three. . . " Dammit, I couldn't find my next question. I wrote them all out, but not in order, and then I renumbered them upon finding that Andy wouldn't be there.
"Interesting number system you got there, most people just kinda go from number one. . ." Nigel and Jason are having a little fun at my expense, noticing the circled and triangled numbers along with some scratched out questions.
"Alright, let's just go with number four then. I read in some interviews that Andy was involved with Greenpeace in Moscow, are you guys involved in any fundraising for that or doing any activities for them?"
"Not really, it kinda . . .," Nigel tries to phrase it properly so it doesn't come out wrong. " At our level there isn't exactly a lot you can do for that kind of thing, cause basically we'd lose their money every time we'd do a gig. I suppose we could lose money on behalf of those organizations, but . . ."
Jason interjects, "Cause we're like ye big." He says with a laugh, showing about an inch of space between his thumb and pointer finger.
After he and Nigel are done laughing, Nigel comes back a bit more serious. "Our profile isn't that huge and since we're a new band, most people ask about us and not our political views."
Oops, I didn't mean to open up a political discussion cause I know nothing, "I just was curious cause that what I read . . ."
"Well, we did a festival over this summer in Oxford," Nigel still sounding sincere, "which was for Hospis called Helen House. and that was cool. So we're always open to it, but we're not big enough to pull big, huge crowds."
A great segway into my next question.
"I read that you guys don't want overnight success, that if it's gonna come, you want it to be more gradual. It's kinda my impression after having listened to your CD for the past two weeks that you guys could be a sorta soundtrack for the average college student going through an existential crisis? Is a sorta cult following like that enough for you right now?"
Nigel and Jason once again, give a little chuckle, Nigel responds with, "Yeah, totally . . . I don't think we're really fussy about who's listening to us and that's kinda another facet of not lusting after the kinda multi-platinum album success thing." Nigel seems to be getting serious, "If the music touches somebody, then, um, I want them to hear it and that, in a way is the reason for taking it out to the public. But I'm not desperate for every single person in the world to like our band."
I nod my head in agreement, "Yeah, that also sorta has a backlash effect, like with Hanson and the Spin Doctors, etc. So, does playing the same stuff every night create a further understanding of your music or boredom?"
Jason takes charge of this question. "Well, we don't, to combat that. We just, we change the set around and for example, tonight, we played the first half of the set was complete new songs or B-sides . . . ."
Nigel jumps in, "I've got a bit bored of various songs, and so has Andy, but we just kinda rotate them in and out until you've regained interest."
"Which is worst, becoming bored of songs or becoming bored of the same interview questions?" to go along with the previous question I asked.
"Uh, I don't know," Nigel once again, contemplates his answer, "In a way I find it worse becoming bored of songs because, um, ya know, you get to do kinda, bad interviews right from the start, but interviews aren't part of what you really enjoy about the job. Whereas playing is something you really enjoy. So if part of that is getting a bit tired, then that sorta depresses the whole reason for doing it."
Wow, good answer. Going along with the media, I ask about pressure that's created.
"Opening up for Tori kinda thrusts you all in the spotlight. I read that pressure, Andy doesn't work well with it and that was part of the reason he left you guys for a while and went to Russia. Is that causing more pressure for you guys?"
Jason is all over this question.
"Isn't it funny how the first couple of nights we did, but, you know, I felt pretty buzzed. But as time goes on it's more of a music thing than ever. You concentrate and become more critical of the music and less about the size of audience that you're playing to." Jason looks over at Nigel, "At least that's how it goes for me, I don't mean to speak for you."
"No, I was surprised tonight that it went like that cause this is a pretty big place, this is the biggest place we've played on this tour, and I was surprised that I wasn't nervous at all. I just wanted to go out there and, uh, play our best." Nigel says with a smirk. "So, no, I don't think that there's pressure in that way. I think that the only time you think it's a bummer is when you come off stage and think that you've played badly and it doesn't matter if everybody went bonkers and they thought you were amazing, cause you feel like shit."
Okay, what question is next? They don't have lyrics on the CD's liner notes, so, "Going back to REM, is this similar with Michael Stipe's wanting each person to have their own meaning for the song?"
"Yup, it's a direct rip-off." Nigel says with humor. "That makes sense to me, cause I've had songs that, um, which I've really loved and meant something real personal to me. Then you read an interview with the guy who wrote it saying what it's actually about, and it kinda takes something away if it's not what you thought it was."
"It seems to me that music is more important to you guys then words. So, with lyrics, what are you shooting for, poetry, sound, story, or just a greater meaning." Seems like a good question to ask, would've been better if the lyricist was there though.
"Um, well Andy writes all the lyrics, and I think that most of the time since the lyrics come after the music that he's just trying to follow the atmosphere that the music's created. It's difficult to say what we're building on but each kinda of snap of instrumentation or arrangement or recording or production and then lyric writing, singing, or the melody all seems to be building on a certain something which the song is at the beginning. So, uh, it's just kind of that process really."
Finding a question that should've been asked earlier, "Would you guys want to be bigger in the states or in the UK and Europe. Would this create more comfort for you? I read somewhere, I'm not sure if it's true, that whereas Bush is huge in the states, they can't even sell out a small club in England. Is this something that you'd like?"
Nigel, confirms the Bush statement, "Yeah, they're doing better now, . . . but a while ago . . ."
Jason is quick to the rescue of Nigel, "When they were really making it big time over here they weren't . . . ." The two overlapping now, "They could play the tiniest places."
"Would this make it more comfortable for you guys?"
"I don't know. I don't particularly want success anyway. For me, on a very personal level . . . although this would never happen because of the other people in the band, I'd like to be successful in America cause I'd like to go on tour for months on end, cause I would love that to pieces. Cause deep down, aside from the writing and producing and playing keyboards and playing guitar and everything else that I do to help out the band, um, all I started off wanting to do is drum and I can do that on tour and sit down every night and play a set. It feels really good."
Wow, Nigel likes his job. Pretty cool, eh?
"So going along with more notoriety, what do you prefer, arenas or clubs?"
"I think my ideal is somewhere in between. . . or at least it certainly was before we did this tour. We've played some theatres in England and that feels like the kinda ideal place for us cause it's big enough that you can put in a good PA put on a good show. Cause you've got the money to do that. But, it's also small enough that, our music really works on kinda a really intimate level, so you have to be able to feel like the people in the back row, you can actually touch them, if you know what I mean? That you are actually getting to each one of them there. Instead of it turning into a great big surrealist painting, sorta people like objects." Nigel changes thought process, "But that said, playing arenas on this tour has been more enjoyable than I thought it would." Nigel looks at Jason, realizing that his companion hasn't spoken in a while, "You found that?"
"Yeah." Jason says with a look that says don't screw around with me.
"Good." Nigel laughs.
"Alrightee then, have either one of you read a book by Nick Hornby, called High Fidelity?"
Nigel has.
"Alright, there's a passage in the book that asks `What came first, the music- or the misery? . . . Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person? . . . The unhappiest people I know, romantically speaking, are the ones who like pop music the most; and I don't know whether pop music has caused this unhappiness, but I do know that they've been listening to the sad songs longer than they've been living unhappy lives.' What are your guys feelings on that?"
"Uh, it was one of those books that really took me in, I kinda read it in one night. But, I don't know, that the music comes from what you feel and everything that you've experienced. People try to sometimes times certain songs down to certain things, whereas usually, the kind of process of writing a song is kinda a culmination of a whole thread of things that have been working their way through your life that go back to when you were young. So, it never feels that specific to that extent."
Going back to the audience needing to feel a part of the music, and the need for the audience to become sorta entranced by the music, "I've read an interview where someone said they got lost while listening to your tape as they were driving, and I know that I totally melt into your CD when I listen to it in my room. It also goes along with a lot in my life. I think this is a compliment, how do you view it?"
"Absolutely." from Nigel.
"Yeah. . .definitely." Jason speaks again, "Dangerous, but uh. . ." trails off in a little laugh.
Nigel comes back with, "That's the biggest compliment we can get. If it . . . I know I love it when you get that kinda feeling from an album where you kinda just dissolve in the atmosphere of the album. It's kinda like a big room full of cotton wool all around you, in the best possible way. It just kinda holds you there, then if our album can do that to somebody then I'm proud."
Okay, enough sucking up to them, I read one or two bad reviews (whereas I don't agree). "So what do you guys say about bad reviews. Are you big enough that you can take it?"
"Well, I always try to keep in mind that, when we're getting good reviews as well as bad ones, that it's just sorta one person's take on it, um, uh, one person's opinion. That's the word I was looking for, opinion. It just so happens that person works for a radio station or magazine, and gets to write badly of you." Then, going in a different direction, "I think it would be more damaging to listen to the reviews that say you're perfect and the albums amazing, and uh, I think that would fuck me up a bunch more. At least with a constructive negative review, there's often things that you know and don't want to admit."
Moving back to Tori now, Warwick had told me that she had picked Unbelievable Truth herself after The Devlins left her tour, "Were you fans of Tori to begin with, or when she asked you to open for her, were you just taken back by it? Did you know for sure that you wanted to do it?"
"Um, not huge fans. I mean not in a bad way. She hasn't broken in England in the way that she broken over here. She's kind of a connoisseurs choice over there." A little confusion now on Nigel's part as to where he was going. "I'd heard Little Earthquakes."
"That's my favorite of her's, that's why I'm here tonight."
Nigel comes back with, "Well, I'm sorry I'm making you miss the show." Some laughs."It's been really exciting to play with her. As soon as she asked it appeared that it was going to be a perfect match up with the audience and the music and the way we work together as bands. So, I was really excited about that."
"Any favorites?"
'Yeah, but we don't know any of the names." Nigel sort of cringes in embarrassment.
Jason chimes in to try and save them, "I think it's the new single, uh, the start of it sounds sorta like a Smashing Pumpkins track."
No help from me, I don't have the new CD yet. But it leads for a nice transition. "What are a couple of CDs that you guys have in your CD players right now that you're enjoying or are influencing you right now?"
Jason is quick to start on this one, "Violent Femmes. I love the bass player, it's the unstructured chaos of it. . . uh, that's one." It seems like that's all I'm gonna get out of him. Nigel prods for me and repeats that I asked for a couple. The heat's back on Jason.
"Uh, a couple, hmm . . .I don't know," Nigel starts taunting him again and asks what does he play. "Well Placebo's new album is really good." That's all I'm getting out of Jason on this one.
"I'm playing a band called Idlewild which has just come out in England. And they're album is really, really fantastic. And, the Burt Bacharach/ Elvis Costello album."
I know that one! I have it in my rotation at the station! "Yeah, it's pretty good stuff."
"Yeah, it's really amazing stuff. Kind of very humbling in a way to hear craftsman like that at work."
"I was really impressed with it when I came across that CD in my stack of CDs to review."
Nigel thinks that I'm talking out of my arse. "Well, what did you think?"
Showing him that I wasn't making it up I talk about how I'm more of an acoustic guitar, depressing Costello man as compared to the more Bacharach sound.
Nigel seems pleased that I wasn't making it up. "Yeah, I know what you mean cause it can be a bit of a surprise. It's very Burt Bacharach with Elvis Costello singing. After a couple of listens I get it, and it's really quite amazing, and it really works, the sort of slushiness of what Bacharach. And I've never heard Elvis Costello's singing recorded quite so harshly." Nigel takes his hand and places it right in front of his face. "It' s like right there and really scratchy sounding. It's a great counter-point, to uh, to use a long world."
And that was it. I ran out of questions. I had made a list of twenty-three questions and never expected to actually have the time to ask them all. Thirty minutes had transpired and for failure of having anything else to ask, and also not wanting to overstay my welcome, I called it a wrap. Nigel and Jason humored me in my request for a picture and autographs and wished me luck. I was very happy to meet them and find out how nice and polite they were. If a band's success were to be based on good music and kindness of he band, Unbelievable Truth has already gone triple platinum.