People Who Make Music

TOTALLY ENORMOUS EXTINCT DINOSAURS

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs will literally rock your socks off and blow your hair back when he plays live. The DJ/producer type has just got back from tours in Europe and the States and is now gearing up for the release of his debut album in the new year. He’s a very busy boy at the moment but he deigned to answer some inane questions.

You’re pretty multi-talented on many instruments, if there was an apocalyptic episode (don’t worry, you survive) which instrument would you save to help you rekindle humanity?
I’ve spent a lot of time fantasising about an apocalyptic episode. Mostly though I plan which shops I’d raid and what weapons I’d carry around. Basically B&Q is the place to be, but I’d hit up a few museums on the way. Saving an instrument is something I’ve been to selfish too consider up until now. I’d choose the piano though. My favourite instrument by far, and if shit gets really bad you could strangle people with the strings and maybe make a bow and arrow somehow. And you could hide inside it.

You’ve been on the road for most of the year – where’s been the best so far? Why’s that then?
That’s hard to say, so many trips have been really amazing. We were in Iceland last weekend, and I loved it there, I’ve already decided its my next holiday destination. You can’t beat volcanoes and sea food. Sometimes just the party can make a place; Essen for example is not the greatest German city, but we had a better night there than many. I’m about to go back out to America and I can’t wait to get back to California, LA in particular trips me out, in good and bad ways.

If T.E.E.D. was to do an ‘Unplugged’ gig. How, erm, would you go about that?
I would love to do it one day. I have lots of ideas but the first one I want to try is lots of tuned percussion (marimbas, glockenspiels etc) and a brass band. I hope I get the opportunity to do that, and that because I’m an electronic musician people don’t assume I’m not capable. There is always the option of going battery powered, I probably have enough gear that can do that. A few years ago I did a song in the back of a black cab and we used a violin and battery powered Casios, it worked in a sense.

Do you ever changed it up a bit during a show to keep your dancers on their toes?
Yeah and they don’t like it because it messes up their carefully planned costume changes. Though I mainly change it up to keep myself on my toes. I think when we get into the longer tours next year when we have 15 dates in 18 days say, we will have to do it more like a band and have a strict set list. Not that that is a problem, I actually like the idea of really honing down an hour long set over many nights. There is still a lot the explore with the live show, Ive been so tied up with album work and touring that its been left behind a bit. Hopefully by the time the album comes out I’ll have bought it up to scratch.

What’s next for you?
A couple of weeks in America and Canada, then UK and Europe shows until Xmas. Then we are off to Australia for New Years which is as frightening as it is exciting. And suddenly its next year and there are all kinds of tours planned. The album is coming out early 2012, not completely sure of a date yet.

Photo: Tom Medwell

OLIVER KEENS

You may know Oliver Keens as DJ Gimp, Mr Safety or Bugs Raplin, but he's doing away with all those monikers and sticking with what his mum gave him. He's done an excellent covers mix especially for us which you can download free here.

Who are you?
I’m Oliver Keens, I’ve had many different DJ names in the past, but I’m binning them all. My first was DJ Gimp from when I was at university in Brighton. Then I had one called Mr Safety, which was completely unironic and then Bugs Raplin, which no one could understand. It’s from a Tim Robbins film called Bob Roberts and is all about a really dodgy man who runs for senator and there’s this journalist called Bugs Raplin who hounds him all the time.

Tell us about the mix.
The mix comes from ferociously hunting out cover versions for the last few years. Loads of the tunes are by dance folk covering unusual stuff – like Diplo doing The Pixies or Dilla doing Gary Numan – which I thought would be a nice counterpoint to the typical Live Lounge/bash-out-a-cover-on-an-acoustic fare that’s everywhere and highly boring. I wanted to declare war on all acoustic guitars, basically.

Why does it say ‘DJs should be seen and not heard’ on your rosette?
I write for dance music site Juno.co.uk and am constantly looking at promo pictures of DJs wearing headphones in the middle of nowhere, staring into the distance like a catalogue model and looking like complete wangs. So I thought I’d at least look like a complete wang with a canny rosette on to break up the tedium.

Where are you from?
I’m a born and bred Londoner, I’m originally from Kilburn and then moved to Wapping and then to Isle of Dogs. I grew up next to the UCS school playing fields, which were astonishingly nice and really pretty. Around the time I got into cricket, I would cycle up there and watch them practise. I didn’t really think anything of this, I was very, very lonely, so I’d pull up to this fence and watch these guys who were the exact same age as me; I remember overhearing two fielders near me – one of them said, “Is that weird kid gone yet?” But I still kinda stayed.

Where’s your favourite place to DJ?
Places which aren’t venues are the best. Where you just pitch up and set up a PA and play and you have a party. They’re the best places to play. There’s a Japanese place called Life at the top of Old St, which is pretty good to play. There’s a feature in this month’s Mixmag about DJs who’ve played in weird places. I played on an army base, which is fucking weird. You get searched by people with big guns when you get there. They were all dressed up in their officers’ clothes and were all dancing around. I did hear someone say ‘Can we get naked now?’ I looked up and there were two guys naked, dancing to Queen. It was good. What more do you want.

One of the best gigs I’ve ever done, was when a friend of a friend of a friend booked me to play their kid’s 16th birthday party. They lived right down Coldharbour Lane in Brixton and the parents were super liberal. They had like rainbows painted in the kitchen and stuff. They’d cleared the whole house out and there were about 400 kids there. They didn’t discipline the thing at all. They just destroyed the place. It was like an original Skins party. I’d set up the PA in the kitchen and they trashed everything. I was holding on to all my equipment to save it.

Where’s your favourite place to go in London?
Apart from the internet? I can’t big up Iranian restaurants enough. There are a bunch of them but they’re all over the place. It’s not as though there’s a Little Tehran area of the city. They’re mainly in north London — Westbourne Grove, Paddington kind of area. It was Iranian New Year in March and my mum — who’s the only Iranian in our family — took us to a restaurant for a New Year dinner and it was amazing. There was cabaret there — they’d flown a 60-year-old singer in from Iran and it was genuinely one of the most fun nights I’ve had. I’d say the best Iranian restaurant in London is Alounak, near Queensway tube, they’re really fast service and it’s still really relaxed. I’d recommend the awesome choice cuts of lamb with rice served with bread cooked in a stone oven right in the restaurant.

Photos: Tom Medwell

3D – MASSIVE ATTACK

Massive Attack. We’ve all got their albums. We don’t necessarily listen to them that often, but they’re definitely one of those bands that we all stroke our faces and say we like. They’ve not done so much in the last five years as they’ve been writing a ‘difficult’ album, but they’ve just released an EP called Splitting The Atom, and they’re on a massive tour. I caught up with 3D for ‘SUP Magazine, just as they’d finished the UK leg. Click here for the full interview.
– Faceface

How are things with you?
I’ve still got a sore throat. When you’re travelling with the amount of people that we’re travelling with, you’re just gonna pick up everything. As soon as you finish with one thing another mutation of it comes back and gets you again.

How has the tour gone?
We’ve just finished the British Isles bit of the tour and then we’re off in to Europe until some time in December. Hopefully I’ll beat this bug I’ve got and then I’ll be super immune for all of that.

Where was best for you?
That was our 14th time of playing at Brixton Academy and we’re now in the top 10 acts that have played there among people like The Clash and The Pogues, The Prodigy and Primal Scream. We got a special certificate there back in 2003 for being the first band to sell out there five nights in a row. That was a tough week I tell you.

My favourite gig of the whole tour so far though is probably playing Glasgow on a Tuesday night of all days. And it was straight after a Bank Holiday weekend so you’d think it would have been dead but the crowd was just brilliant you know.

You’ve been writing and producing award winning film soundtracks in your time away from Massive Attack, is it hard to flip between writing songs for an album and for a soundtrack. I remember talking to David Holmes about it and he said he had to totally focus on the film and kind of live the film, and also argue with the director about certain songs.
You soon realise doing that stuff is that all music for films follows a pattern. You have to tell a story. You have to let the audience know how to feel – when to laugh and when to cry, and it’ becomes really quite monotonous. You realise that no matter what you start with, and how ever many conversations you have with the director about doing something brand new and original, by the time it’s gone through the processes and re-edited, re-edited, re-edited and re-edited and re dubbed, and all the creatives have got involved then it doesn’t make any difference. You might as well just done American Beauty over and over again. It’s fucking mad – the funniest experience was when I worked on Gamorra, which was the first film that I thought “This is is an absolutely amazing film.” Luckily though my friend Massimo from Naples, he knew Matteo the director of the film and because of my family connections to Naples, I got pulled into it, which was really good and I was really chuffed. I had a chance to see the film and had a conversation with Matteo and I told him I didn’t see how music fitted into the film as, as a piece of work, it was so beautiful and music would just distract from it and send it off in directions he wouldn’t want it. He disagreed at the time, but eventually he did agree after trying some things out, so I suggested we just used a piece of music at the end. And I’m really glad it worked that way. Every time I tried to add music to a scene it would almost become the judge of the scene – sad music would mean it was a sad scene so you’d have perceive the characters maxims in a certain way. You became removed from being in this fucking war zone to being a spectator and therefore not involved. What I like about Gamorra is the feeling that you’re involved – it’s the same as the Splitting The Atom video. I didn’t want to watch it again. In fact, after the first time, I haven’t actually seen it again – I feel that if I do, it won’t have the same impact. It’s a beautiful piece of work and if I watch it again, then I’m watching it voyeuristically. You only need to watch it once to get what’s going on.

There’s quite a foreboding undercurrent in both the songs and the remixes I think. Almost like a warning.
The funny thing is, and why I’m laughing at that, is that we actually tried to make it quite cheerful. Everyone we’ve worked with has brought something new to it. I think when you hear the record in its entirety, I think there are storm clouds over the mountains, but there are also nice, bright sunny spells as well. Plus a mild heat wave and some spots of rain too. The landscape on which you’re treading is actually quite pleasant – it’s not all dark and gloomy. I’m sure the reviews will say “Here we go again – Massive Attack, dark as fuck. But hopefully not.

The video for Splitting The Atom is actually really unsettling, what was the thinking behind it?
It unsettled me too. There are a million metaphors in that video – especially if you add it to all the metaphors that are in the song, which is all about trying to unravel what life’s about. And then maybe realising that at the end, after various struggles, that there isn’t much more to it than just being a part of it, no matter if it’s big or small. I think that the bull is a metaphor for all of us, and the cruelty of the way we’re steered through life and the systems we adhere to. What’s great about the video, and also what’s terrible, is the awful balletic beauty of the death of it all. The way the matadors inflict ultimate death on a creature with such tremendous charm and grace, and how strange they look as they do it. Then you become a part of it – it draws you in, in a really uncomfortable way. I felt really sick after the first time I watched it.

MARSHALL “I LOVE WHAT” HACKETT

I first met Marshall “I Love What” Hackett when I was bouncing around a warehouse party, bitching about the size of the speakers. I was supposed to DJ (for about the first time ever) and was drunkenly whining to everyone who would listen about how the setup wasn’t good enough and I couldn’t be expected to play under these circumstances.
Fortunately for me one of the (few) people who would listen was Marshall ‘I Love What’ Hackett, who told me there was a PA in the back of his car if I wanted to borrow it.
Apart from his amazing hair, and a bit of facebook banter, that’s all I know about Marshall, but from what I have gathered there’s a bunch more good bits to find out…
- Fieldface

Marshall ‘I Love What’ loves what?
Everything! Everything that’s loveable anyway, especially music. Some things aren’t loveable, such as cowpats in the dark at festivals, poorly labeled mp3′s (but that’s just me and my OCD) and cables – bane of my life.

Do you always carry a massive PA in the back of your car?
I wish I could, you never know when you might need one. It was just a fortunate turn of events the night of that party as I was due to kick start another one the following night, which happened to be just around the corner. If this answer shatters any illusions of me being nothing short of the ultimate party companion then feel free to omit it.

How come you give music away for free? Are you more musical philanthropist or DJ buccaneer?
A bit of both. My site is aimed at everyone, no matter what their musical persuasion. The aim is actually to try and encourage people to look further into artists that they have discovered through my site, and invest in their music when possible. I generally try to post the rare, unreleased and forgotten so I’m generally not stepping on people’s toes I hope! Also, I only post tracks that have made an impact on me, whatever that may be, in the hope that they have a similar impact on others.
Of course there is also the shameless self-promotion! I aim to have a healthy amount of my own DJ mixes, remixes, bootlegs and productions on there amongst all this quality music so a) people will take the time to hear me out and maybe assist me on my path to musical success and b) associate that level of quality with me in a subconscious kinda way, maybe.

Your website saved my DJ ass last week, do you mind people banging out mixes that you’ve made? Is that like DJ plagiarism or the highest form of flattery?
I didn’t even know you did that! I’ll take it as a compliment but if you do it every time we may have to have talks about who gets credit for Adventure Unit performances. Maybe you could wear masks with my face on whilst you DJ or something? And I could send you off as stand-ins for signings, public appearances etc.

Did your parents name you after the Marshall amps or is that just a happy photo op?
Purely a happy photo op that I wish I’d taken more advantage of. Although a guy I met on my travels always called me Marshall Amps, so I decided to add it to my list of monikers. Just waiting until I make the right kind of tune to accompany it. I’m actually Marshall Jr – just so you know.

Were you serious when you said we could borrow your sounds and generator and maybe even a marquee for our wedding? Because that seems really generous and excellent and something only a super nice bloke would offer.
Is that your way of saying, “Can we have it for free?” Yes, I meant it. We can discuss the details when you’re ready. Talk about being backed into a corner…

This was the first ever interview I’ve done, do you think I’ve covered all the bases and if not what did I miss?
Your first? Really? I do feel privileged. It seemed pretty thorough. You did overlook the small matter of my life story, motivation, goals and dreams, but who gives a shit about them anyway. Good job!

FEAR OF THEYDON

Remixer and DJ Fear Of Theydon has been whipping up a bit of storm of late. He’s been pretty busy twiddling noise knobs and pushing buttons that make noises sound like different noises and basically making people’s songs sound even better than they ever realised. Plus he absolutely rinsed it with his sets at Bestival the other week (I saw them. They was good innit)
Click on the link in question nine and you can download a bunch of his noisey noise.
And he’s just had his hair cut so there isn’t an up to date picture of him. So I nicked one of him with his head in a bin off his facebook.
– Burnface

Are you the fear of Theydon? If not, what’s so fearful about the place?
I used to make jangly [Soft] Rock under the name Friends of Theydon – that was when I was living with my folks in Theydon Bois after university. It was really wet music. I sang like a pre-pubescent girl. Fear of Theydon is a reaction against that loser.

I always kept an eye out for the Theydon Bois… they’re nutcases I heard…
(unless you’re from Essex or you’ve got the Central Line all the way east then you probably won’t get that joke)
Not quite. It’s the Debden Boys you wanna look out for. When I was growing up, all boys I saw from Debden had a little ear stud and smelt of chip fat and cigarettes… from the age of about 2yrs +. Actually the Debden/Theydon rivalry probably only now exists in the minds of 30+ males from both places, but I swear, growing up in Theydon there was a time that shit was real. I remember once hanging out on the golf course when we heard the sound of a Super Woofer coming over the hill in the distance, one of the people we were with started panicking, ‘Shit! The Debden lot are coming!’ Turns out one of us had accidentally left our Walkman headphones on. Panic over, we just looked like total pussies… quietly… to ourselves.

What’s happening right now with you then? Things seem to be getting busy.
It has been insanely busy in the last few months actually. I’ve been doing all the ‘Sunday Best’ remixes for Sunday Best Records – Lemonade / Ebony Bones / dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip / Dub Pistols and shitloads more. I’m co-producing the Rob da Bank remixes that are about at the moment [MGMT/Passion Pit/Amadou & Mariam]. But I still try to do as many Fear of Theydon remixes as I can – recently remixed Stornoway, Citizens, Skinny Lister – hopefully got one coming soon of Human [La Rudd from Grand National’s new project]. I would love to do one of Munch Munch. I’ve co-produced a few tracks from the forthcoming James Bright album. Am I just listing stuff like a complete egotistical penis here? This is actually what I’ve been doing I guess, you did ask. I still feel like I’m achieving nothing so it’s all pretty trivial really! Hah!

If Tom Jones came up to you and said ‘Ello, could you do a super remix of Delilah while I trim my beard over there. I’ll give you a cuddle as payment.’
1- Would you do it?
Yeah

2- If you would what would you do to Delilah?
Just take those chops at the start – slow them down and make it 4/4 – get the nice bass guitar sound and make a really proggy disco bassline, do away with loads of most of the vocal, chuck a load of delay all over the long notes he sings and use loads of them as the vocal, throw a few of the little horn stabs in for disco effect and try to add an arpeggio in there that goes slowly out of time and almost gets on your nerves. Bleep Bleep. Would you like a receipt with that? God it’s pathetic how formulaic it can become. I think I’d still make it sound nice though.

How was Bestival for you?
I was overseeing the Sunday Best Xmas Grotto, hoping that we’d sell some of our records in there. That meant A – I didn’t really see much of the festival, and B – We didn’t really sell any CDs. I drunk lots of Baileys and sherry though over the weekend, which we were giving away as a Christmas treat. We were situated next to the ‘Lost & Found Cosmonaut Training Camp’, where I had some of the most fun times I’ve had in a long time. I DJ’d in there – and also the Big Top too on Thursday night, which was nuts. I played aggro dance music to a frickin’ packed, huge circus tent like Fatboy Slim would. Only thing is, I realised after, there was no other music being played on Thursday night so people didn’t really have a choice but listen to me. My mum could’ve been playing a Paolo Nutini album in there and it still would’ve kicked off. So I was a bit like Slim Boy Slim playing Paolo Nutini to loads of kids off their chops on Meow…

What was your favourite bit?
Probably my DJ set in the Cosmonaut rinse-out station on Saturday, just because I had loads of really lovely friends in one place and I was playing my favourite records. I had the all important wetty specs on too. Wobbly times!

I’ve heard you on the Sunday Best podcasts – you really should do a lot more of them dude… you guys were dead funny.
Yeah, da Bank is taking a breather from the Sunday Best Podcasts actually, he’s got an insane amount of commitments. So me and the other yoots from the label are taking over for a while, gonna keep it label-focused. It’s fun to do but there’s not one second that goes by where you don’t feel like a complete tool for entertaining the idea that people might want to hear the shit that you’re saying. It’s Rob’s thing really, but if us lot can at least play some stuff from the label we can at least keep it insightful for the listener and hopefully not put people off for life with our idiotic mumblings!

Got any links to remixes you’ve done recently?
Here’s a bunch of stuff.

I like your haircut. Where do you get it done?
The haircut is over. I cut it off. I have reverted back to my pubescent passport photo look. I basically look like Ellen MacArthur again… it’s a shame – ropey times. I had a Lego flavour to my previous haircut that I miss, but I had that haircut for so long I became the haircut. It’s like, if Axl Rose suddenly wasn’t ginger, he wouldn’t have his supernatural powers right? And you wouldn’t have gone out and bought Chinese Democracy? Ultimately, he wouldn’t be Axl Rose. That’s a shame though, I mean he should feel free to have a short back and sides and be free to prance around at an N-SYNC concert – and we should respect him all the same… or something. Anyway, the haircut is over.

Where’s your favourite drinking establishment anywhere?
I deplore anyone who says they think it’s rubbish in The Palm Tree in Mile End. When the old dudes get on the mic and sing the Rat Pack classics, you can be just a random tit who lives down the road, an old Eastender who’s grown up in the area, an East End art student, it doesn’t matter – everything sort of slips away and you feel like you’re the protagonist in an episode of Goodnight Sweetheart. It’s well special. I do have to accept that people must hate that place for that exact reason… I will. There’s The Lauriston with ace pizza, or the Morgan Arms which technically should be “very nice” but who manage to David Blaine any cash that makes contact with O2 anywhere near the building away into a dark secret place… My girlfriend hasn’t been that impressed over recent years when I’ve become uncomfortable in a pub where there are too many other young people around who look cool and I suddenly want to leave because I think they’re all looking at me funny because of my stoopid haircut. That’s pretty much limited my desire to go out near where I live. But that should all stop now I have a crew cut. Whenever I’m completely devoid of creative drinking ideas in central London, I go to the Player Bar in Soho and spend shitloads on a cocktail. That’s what successful people do right?

MAREK FROM INVASION
photos by Dan Wilton

Marek Steven is one third of British New Metal band Invasion, and they’ve been hailed as the saviours of British music (by the NME admittedly, but don’t let that tar your opinion, they are actually shitting amazing). Which is nice. And also quite a bit of pressure. Their album The Master Alchemist is out early October, with a dirty, free launch party at Cargo in east London on 2nd of that month. Check out their video for Spells Of Deception in the Music for Ears section. Marek’s my friend so I shamelessly asked him several times like a spoilt child to give me an interview for Strokeface. And he said he would, so here it is.
– Burnface
Invasion are doing alright aren’t they? You must be pleased, proud and a little bit afraid…
Yeah, well we’ve had some good reviews and stuff and we have a really nice label and so on. It’s been an epic build up for me, playing the same stuff since I was 17 so I’m just enjoying it all and ticking lots of boxes I never thought I would tick. I genuinely have no expectations as we are a weird little metal band that doesn’t rehearse enough. It’s interfering with my career so I guess that’s a good sign right?

What’s your favourite riff?
Oh boy, that’s a horrible and tantalising question. I can’t really answer it which surprises me. The one’s that ‘changed my life’ were Sleep – Dragonaut and Kyuss – Thumb. And they’re both ridiculously simple but have incredible heaviousity and subtlety at the same time. They both very Sabbathy riffs and Tony Iommi has done it all already. You can’t do anything better, so maybe I’ll go for Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath, as heavy and forward thinking as riffing has ever been. And it uses that evil diminished 5th chord progression…

What do you think of shopping?
I’m actually a surprisingly good shopper when I have to be but I rarely have time to do it anymore. I used to spend half my life in record stores but shopping culture is killing the planet so I try not to buy too much new stuff. Vintage everything and new metal shirts is about it for me. Which seems to be pretty standard.

I’ve got an Aerosmith T-shirt and I don’t know where it came from – I definitely didn’t buy it. Is this a good or a bad thing in your eyes?
It’s a good thing for you and a bad thing for the owner. I had an amazing Black Sabbath – Never Say Die vintage shirt that I got in LA in 2003. I lost it few years ago and I get cold sweats regularly thinking about it. I mourn. Aerosmith have some good albums. If I was American I would probably love them.

Soon you’re gonna be doing a bunch of touring… I heard the secret is to always keep a brand new pair of socks about you as it feels like the biggest luxury ever when you get to put them on. That’s not really a question. Just a bit of trivia.
Yeah, I’ve heard that. I kind of have this thing where I always have everything anyone ever needs. My van is my pride and joy and I just chuck everything I might need in it before I go anywhere. It’s actually more comfy than my room in many ways. So as long as I can dump the gear and rest of the band somewhere I am basically laughing… hehe.

Tea or coffee?
Both, but I’ve noticed that I can’t enjoy a tea after a coffee, it’s weird. I don’t want to sound like a fucking ponce but I also thoroughly recommend trying a Soya latte, it’s actually WAY nicer than a milk one in decent coffee houses.

Did you know that big white tiger jumper thing your girlfriend left at Dan’s house after Steph’s party is still there? Just in case she was wondering where it was…
Yeah man, I do really want to get it back sometime but we are all busy I guess. I work 10 minutes away from there. It’s actually a cheap, fake pelt for the floor but if you put it on your back it’s a grrrrrrrrrrreat festival outfit. Thieves.

What’s your favourite Invasion song?
The last one we write. It’s actually very true that. Which right now means Behind the Black Gate from our last single. I don’t see the point of writing new material unless it’s better than anything you’ve done before. I intend to write songs that are better and better and soon as I can’t I will stop doing it. Maybe.

INVASION FREE ALBUM LAUNCH AT CARGO ON RIVINGTON STREET, LONDON ON FRIDAY 2nd OCT

ILIRJANA ALUSHAJ FROM APACHE BEAT
pictures taken by Apache Beat for ‘SUP Magazine

Ilirjana Alushaj is the siren lead singer of New York tribal beat sound making darlings Apache Beat. Their new single, Your Powers Are Magic is about to drop off their debut album, Last Chants, and they’re heading to the West Coast with Gossip for fun times and touring. She’s also the editor of that super duper zine The Pop Manifesto. As she was packing her fanny pack in preparation for the months ahead, I sent her an email and she sent me one back and put together, they went a bit like this.
– Burnface

Yo Ili, how’s shit?
Shit is good. Really busy but it is all positive busy.

You know when I say Yo [insert name here] it makes me feel really New Yorky?
Haha. Not sure how much it works with your British accent but I’ll go with it.

What’s going on with Apache Beat? Things seem to be going full steam choo choo ahead…
Yes! Finally we have finished our debut album and we see movement again. We’ve been recording and mixing forever but out of nowhere we see things happening and we are excited.

How are the rest of Apache Beat? What are they all doing RIGHT NOW?
The band are great. Well… right RIGHT now Christina is at Six Flags Funpark, Phil is writing a screenplay, Mike is learning sitar and Neil is reading War and Peace. We spend our separate time well.

So you’ve got a single out? Tell me mooooooooooore
Almost out. 29th September we releasing our first single, Your Powers Are Magic from our debut album Last Chants. John Agnello (The Kills, Patti Smith, Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jnr) mixed it and we think it sounds pretty good.

Then you’re touring with Gossip. That’s pretty sweet.
Yes. The Gossip are pretty sweet.

You’ve appeared in the fashion press loads because of your sweet, sweet styles and Beth Ditto’s, well, Beth Ditto. Are you gonna create a brand new fashion Deathstar of a tour bus?
Yes. Beth and I are plan to sit on the bus when not running around the stage, to design the future of fashion. It will not only be the future but the mindblowing future. So watch out… your mind may be b l o w n.

Let’s forget about Apache Beat for one question. What’s going on with The Pop Manifesto?
We are working on the next issue. I try to balance everything, so when I am not doing Apache Beat stuff I go back to organising the next issue. It will be our eighth issue and will be pretty killer.

Back to the band. What’s the best place to play in New York in your opinion?
Bowery Ballroom. It is a great size and the sound is just right.

Strokeface also has bar reviews on it… What’s your favourite bar in NYC and why? And can you write like a paragraph about it because this is a cheeky way of getting a free review to put in the bars For Drinking section.
For some reason I have been going to b.East in the Lower East Side a lot. Drinks are great and it is pretty chilled space. They have some random good nights they I always forget are on when I go there. It is always dark and best of all you can sit on the furniture without thinking you will leave with a disease.