Gay Against You Interview (Part 2 of 2)
(6) What plans do you have for the future of the band? Upcoming
releases, tours, collaborations ...
JOE: we’re touring the U.K. and hopefully Europe in June! Please see our MySpace page for details of shows and help us out with dates if you can. we’ve got a bunch of new material that is very slowly coming together right now - a collaborative DVD with the artist ghost_stories, entitled ‘bogus totem summer’ and a split tape with the awesome chico y chico, entitled “The Wimpy Pumps,” out on Undereducated Records in the U.K. and P.E.A.R.L. in the U.S., plus a fulll-length on Adaadat soon. Check them out! I want to release a new Germlin album soon also: I’ve started doing solo shows again after a long break,
which is great. We’ve done a bunch of remixes for other artists too although most haven’t seen the light of day - one for Shit Disco, one for we are the physics, one for Klaxons, one for the matchsticks....next is Digiki I think, then Bruno and Michel are smiling.
LACH: Lots to do!!! I have a Yoko, Oh No! album which has been about a year in the making which is featuring collaborative tracks with Silverlink, team brick Le Couteau Jaune and others. I have also been making clothes and have become quite addicted to sewing stuff to other stuff.
(7) How did you two meet? Lach goes by YOKO, OH NO!, and Joe goes by GERMLIN, and both of you have -- to some extent -- individually released stuff under those monikers. So tell me where that stuff stands now ... are YOKO OH NO! and GERMLIN continuing side-projects of sorts or is that all over now?
LACH: Joe and I met in school when we were 16 or something and have been in a collection of ridiculous bands (Smart Arse Tiger, the Albinos, Saigon High Chair Pirates) this one being the pinnacle as yet.
JOE: And our solo stuff is brewing under, not finished. I know I personally have a whole lot more I want to do under the Germlin name but I also have records under the name “Mightey” and “Co Ags” and more.
(8) You’re from Glasgow, a place that doesn’t get a whole lot of attention in the States. What kind of stuff’s happening up there, musically, and can you give us some recommendations, point us in a good direction?
LACH: Glasgow is a funny place, we don’t go down very well here, it’s a bit serious. There are some great acts though: Molly’s Seafoods, the Royal We, Dannananakroyd and Dolby Anol to mention a few (the ones I can think of right now).
JOE: I like Park Attack, Nuts and Seeds Nights, Christ ‘zine. Yeah, I don’t think we’re very at home musically in Glasgow but it’s probably for the best. Because everything here is so insular, you get a kind of microcosmic music scene, where bands and artists can be huge but only within the boundaries of Glasgow. Some “legendary Glasgow bands” only seem to exist in the city itself and sort of disappear once they leave.
(9) I ask this -- sometimes fruitlessly -- to most bands I interview, but it’s interesting sometimes ... what kind of musical background do you come from? Or maybe the better question to ask here is how did you get interested to begin with? Any records that changed your lives/perspectives or such?
JOE: I started learning piano at the age of about 7 I think. I’m classically trained to a fairly high standard on both piano and saxophone and I’d like to think I could bash out a tune on most instruments put in front of me, if fairly amateurishly.
LACH: I’m not from a particularly musical background I tried to learn the bagpipes when I was a kid but I was useless. When I was 12 my teacher made me a mix tape with loads of techno on it (the Grid, Orbital, Underworld Tinman etc...) before that I just listened to what my parents liked, (Fleetwood Mac and Simon and Garfunkle). When I met Joe he made me learn guitar so I could play in his band and introduced me to loads of music.
JOE: I think the thing that changed the way I saw music, rather than a record as such, was discovering that people could make music without a band, or loads of instruments or whatever. I have to thank my high school music department for letting me potter around with an old Amstrad and Cubase for days on end! Being able to make music electronically totally changed my perspective and freed up the creative process for me, massively.
(0) How do you guys makes these songs!? They’re so spastic and chaotic, it’s hard to imagine that there’s some sort of procedure involved in the creation of them.
LACH: There’s no procedure really, we bought this program from an old man. Every nite we fire it up, input the variables and set the constants, then leave it running while we sleep and when we wake up in the morning it’s produced a song! Mostly they are rubbish but occasionally it comes up with an album worthy track.
JOE: sometimes I talk to the machine in a vague and probably egotistical hope of influencing its decision but this has so far proved to be fruitless, it does exactly what it wants.
(1) I guess I'll leave it there for now. I wish you two the best of luck. You've certainly made something intriguing and compelling, in all its crazy, noizy glory. I hope it all ends up where you want it. Again, thanks for agreeing to this interview!
LACH: No sweat, what's our score?
JOE: can i just say peace to all the children and animals of the world please?
Gay Against You - Bicentennial Nuggets