FABRIC

So there's loads of things happening in the Fabric world at the moment.
Yeah. It's good. Our guitarist is leaving. Basically he told us in our rehearsal on Sunday that he's leaving. Because we were a four piece and then we got someone called Kevin and then Jamie wants to leave because he's basically a metal kid at heart, and we've kind of been moving away from his...We were quite kind of rock, not really rock, I don't know...Yeah, kind of just seventies more rock based than we are now. We're a bit more kind of all over the shop, but, like... Here's our drummer...Mr.Fuck...and then, and so Jamie decided he was going to leave, but he's gonna play with all the shows that we've got booked until June or something, and then we're gonna either get a new guitarist or work within the set. We'll do something...I don't know what.

I asked this question to Understand, and I'll ask the same to you. You're both mentioned in the same kind of breath....
Yeah, we do get mentioned in the same breath but in that same breath we're so far apart but if you stay around you'll see that we are not exactly the same band. I mean, yeah, we're good friends and like we know them. They got us our first couple of shows, but I mean they've been around for two or three years and we've been around like a year and a half, so we were all friends the years before that when they got us our first shows and we've just done shows ever since, and we have the same manager/same everything so it's like pretty similar that obviously people are gonna lump us but it's not at all musically the same. But that's cool. It's not an insult or anything.

Not at all.There's no point being the same band really.
But I mean, if you're a hardcore band then the press just calls you either Bad Religion, Rollins, or Greenday or Fugazi. And so we both get called Fugazi. We got called The Membranes meets Joy Division last April. It's ridiculous. We just get really odd things said about us.

Have you just been gigging loads since you started?
Actually, we do play a lot, really. We play a lot. We play every ass end of fucking London. Every week we play the fucking toilets. The George Robey, the Bull and Gate, all those sort of places all the time. The best thing is when we started, like being a hardcore band in Britain is like, they don't really have high goals or anything. Like, I imagine, they do like support and...

And if they do have high goals they never want to admit it.
Yeah. Oh yeah. But, I mean, the thing is that there's not really a lot of ways you can go because there's not the audience so basically all they do is support American bands when they come over, and do a single, and then break up. So at the beginning, we were like, we're going to do shows with absolutely anyone, and so, because of that I think it's cool that we have. Basically, I mean, we play weird sets, like we're the weirdest band, and it like works pretty much, so that's good.

It's like I said with Understand like, they're signed to East West now and basically, like, I think quite a lot of hardcore people that people are starting to like, kind of totally tying up labels that break up, like they sell two hundred copies, but not on ?????? labels.

Well they put it out themselves now.

Yeah, yeah. Or under the bed, like...

Well...Yeah...They've done well you know and that's what they wanna do so that's cool. And you've gotta fucking give it to 'em, they're twenty years old..

I think Understand realise that they should use what they've accomplished now by the band which they do, cos they basically try and get other bands, do shows, tour with them, which is good of them. They haven't got their heads up their arses really.

And the other thing is whenever they do shows they are always, like about fifty five door places for headlining which is fucking like certain for a major label band. For example, they did a show in the Smash club which is that sort of Melody Maker/NME place, they sort of promote it, whatever, and it's a fiver to get in, and they said 'we only wanna play it if it's a pound'. And so they go 'well, we can't do it' and he goes, 'well, forget it man', and the guy round the back says 'OK, we can get anyone you like in for a pound', so our combined guest list for Fabric and Understand was two hundred and something...

We're not into major label; I don't think it's in any of us to do that. We'd be uncomfortable with it basically. That's what it comes down to. It's not that we'd be madly adverse to it. It's simply because of the LP price, but that probably wouldn't even be a problem, it's the fucking promo side of it, which is disgusting, like sitting in these silly magazines, it's not really us. I just don't really want to come to views with all that.

You'll keep going on your own label then?
Yeah. I think it's basically because there's never really been a sort of label I've seen which has ever really accomplished anything. Basically, I think we have the opportunity really to make something out of it, so why turn it down? Why just zap it away? And if we start getting other bands we'll still carry it on. I mean, there's this band called Dead Life that we're going to sound like a quite on if you shalpen it Helmet side, and they're fucking really good and we wanna, y'know...

Kitchen Parties...Yeah!

...do them an LP, and then...

D'you want a couple of stools???

Kitchen Parties...Yeah!

Fuckin' Bog Party!!! Oi! It's a Bog Party!

...We knew them from like, the town I come from and went to school with one, and were just friends over the years. Me and Andy were singing in a band with one of them for years and he was there...It's just basically a friend thing, I mean we had some tune and er, it just became our fan base. We used to do a few shows with them here and there, but she was good friends and as soon as he played over Easter they split up. A week after. It's like, as much as we've got full control, we still have to be like,guised, we still have to kind of like, persuade him to like put more of our records out. So it's like, his only stipulation with anything is as long as they don't break up. They had such a good fan base just from doing their demos...

Basically what they did is they recorded stuff and they would put it all onto tape themselves and send it off to people for free. So they had a mailing list of two or three hundred people and would just send them all off for free. Which is like, amazing, like they were really so uncool they would like tell guys in the pub, this is how they'll totally talk to me, like, we're going to do them a favour. And then they split up. But they sell all their records and they've done them all for a pound, so...everyone's happy really. But yeah, it's weird though, I dunno...

It's like we learnt a lesson out of it basically, so... I don't know if there's any other bands we'd work with. There's not that many bands around, I mean, other really good bands in Britain, there's like Box Hill from Nottingham, and they're pretty much with another label now, which is a hardcore label, which is cool, but we really wanted them to work with our label. But there's not really anyone. But we're not just some kind of cliched, cliquey label. There's fucking nothing worse than a band that's like, taking other stuff, y'know what I mean? It's really barrow. I wouldn't be adverse to Groom, and put stuff out like that, as long as they have an inkling of like other stuff that went out with it. I mean, being a London band, most of the other stuff is the kind of on the Wiiija side, y'know, from a sort of post riot girl thing. Bands like Linus and everybody. There's so many little bands coming up and so maybe we could go off with one of them if we really liked them, cos we do a lot of shows with them. We've got more in common with them than with anyone else. So they're another band we really like, and we'd put them out.

What do you listen to at home then?
Ooh...The dreaded question! The thing which we all listen to and is why we're in a band is DC area hardcore... Everybody in the band has some inkling of that. It's probably the only thing we all listen to, like DC hardcore and things on Gravity from San Diego, and...

Apart from that, Jamie is really into his seventies rock. And Tony likes his inside sixties stuff, y'know...

And I like sixties stuff and then like quite a lot of hip hop and a lot of things that are just happening in dance music now. Like the ambient/hip hop crossover thing, MoWax records. A lot of British stuff happening. I like...

It sounds cliched, but you just listen to music. I think most musicians do. If you're in band, you just do. Maybe if you'd asked me that question four years ago, it'd've been like Bud by Black, whatever. I mean, you just progress as you get older and you discover more music, and you're like, I can see where they're coming from, a different aspect, and you just take all that on board. I think why Fabric is so diverse at the moment is because we just all have different things, we're all like coming from different directions.

...And the stuff that we all like is coming from one area!

One of our favourites is like stuff on Gravity, bands like Heroin, and stuff like Rodan, Slint. We're doing a show with Codeine. We're all really into Codeine. They did one show in London and they're coming back to do a whole tour. Who else is coming over?...Rodan, of course. Eggs. Have you heard Eggs LP?"

Yeah! It's totally wild, isn't it?!
...There's another one, isn't there? The first Eggs LP.
They've done loads of stuff.
They've got a lot of things on seven inches.

That's about it really. What do you think of the toilets down in Brighton then?
Ummm, they're quite plushish, but they're fucking...

They're very hot...

They're very good for a pub toilet though.

Not bad, but it's more a restaurant really.They're not sort of worn in enough for men's toilets. You've got to remember this is a family restaurant. You've gotta bring your children in here.

I must say, I like the draw compartment thing.

What magazine's this called?

Err, vertigo.

Have you got one in your bag?
Err, I dunno. I'll get one to you later.

Where did you get that Hoover thing from?
Oh Right...You've got a Hoover picture.
There's a picture of Hoover in there?

Aaarrrrrrgh...That was from a press release I think.

Yeah..It's so weird. It's a weird picture of them. It's such a weird picture of them. Yours is the only one I've seen.

Yeah. Their my favourite band and I just cut all their faces out of it. It's really funny, cos this guy is the only one who had glasses cos he's big, and it's sort of like err, I saw the fucker. They're one of our favourite bands. The picture's awesome too. I mean, it was like, aaaahhh, here's affra... fuckin' hell...is that good?...it's like Go-Go's meets Pretenders...

It's really weird, cos like that track on that Kill Rock Stars LP, I quite liked that...

Is that Eddie Mingle star?
Yeah.Yeah. I quite liked that. But the LP I thought was miles better than that.

And the first seven inch... the first seven inch was incredible as well. Cos we were gonna do that cover, What kind of monster are you? on a seven inch. I still wanna do that.