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By
Mary Chang on Monday, 14th May 2012 at 11:00 am
Ahead of the Temper Trap‘s headline appearance TGTF’s stage at Liverpool Sound City this Friday, we asked guitarist Lorenzo Sillitto to answer our Quickfire Questions. I didn’t mean to trouble him about what album he’d choose to bring to heaven, honest!
The Temper Trap are set to go on at 22.00 (10 PM). Pop rhythmic sensations Clock Opera will play at 20.30 (8:30 PM). But come early to see Spanish band Dear Prudence will be playing at 19.30 (7:30 PM).
1. What song is your earliest musical memory?
‘Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree’
2. What was your favourite song as a child?
‘Beat it’ – Michael Jackson
3. What song makes you laugh?
You Make My Dreams Come True’ – Hall and Oates. Mainly because of the montage in Set Brothers.
4. What song makes you cry?
I’ve Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good – Nina Simone
5. What song reminds you of the first time you fell in love? (It’s up to you if you want this to be sweet, naughty, etc.)
‘Push the Little Daisies’ – Ween.
6. What song makes you think of being upset / angry? (Example: maybe you heard it when you were angry with someone and it’s still with you, and/or something that calms you down when you’re upset, etc.) Darondo – ‘Didn’t I’. Calms me down when I am in a unpleasant place angry or sad.
7. Which song (any song written in the last century) do you wish you’d written yourself? ‘Maggot Brain’ by Funkadelic, with probably one of the most emotional guitar solos ever written.
8. Who is your favourite writer? (This can be a songwriter or ANY kind of writer.) Hunter S. Thompson.
9. If you hadn’t become a singer/musician/songwriter/etc., what job do you think you’d be doing right now?
I would probably be working at the family restaurant.
10. If God said you were allowed to bring only one album with you to Heaven, which would it be and why? So you’re telling me I could bring ‘All Things Must Pass’. Fuck. ‘Since I Left You’, by the Avalanches. Man, the hardest question.
By
Mary Chang on Thursday, 10th May 2012 at 11:00 am
Clock Opera will be busy the next two Fridays, playing Brighton Dome at the Great Escape this Friday (11 May) at 20.30, then playing the TGTF stage at the Liverpool Academy of Arts on Friday 18 May, where they will go on at 20.30. We asked Dan Armstrong, sticksman for Clock Opera, to answer our Quickfire Questions. His answers follow.
1. What song is your earliest musical memory?
The theme tune to the original Moomins. It’s beautiful. If you search for it, all you’ll find are later, inferior pieces. But here it is, starting annoyingly in the middle but still right enough to reach into my earliest synaptic pathways.
2. What was your favourite song as a child?
‘Say A Little Prayer’ – Aretha Franklin. It’s still right up there for me.
3. What song makes you laugh?
‘Jenny’ – Flight of the Conchords (live). There’s also a song in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace episode ‘Skipper The Eye Child’ which is hard to beat.
4. What song makes you cry?
Too many. It’s a form of emotional self-medication.
5. What song reminds you of the first time you fell in love? (It’s up to you if you want this to be sweet, naughty, etc.)
‘No. 41′ – Dave Matthews Band. They’re not respected much in England but for me as a writer, a singer, a performer, a man and as a band they are phenomenal.
6. What song makes you think of being upset / angry? (Example: maybe you heard it when you were angry with someone and it’s still with you, and/or something that calms you down when you’re upset, etc.)
When I was at secondary school a boy in the year below died when he fell onto a greenhouse while retrieving a football. It was a shocking tragedy. He was extremely charismatic and popular and the whole school was devastated. For some reason I was imprinted by Annie Lennox’s ‘No More I love Yous’ and ‘Just Another Day’ by John Secada which I assume were both being played on the radio at the time. If I ever hear them now, I only think of him.
7. Which song (any song written in the last century) do you wish you’d written yourself?
‘Always On My Mind’ (Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson…whoever they were). Or ‘Lover You Should’ve Come Over’ – Jeff Buckley.
8. Who is your favourite writer? (This can be a songwriter or ANY kind of writer.)
Terence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson, Alan Watts. They were all thinkers as much as writers but each one was super human. No time spent listening to their words is wasted. Milan Kundera is my favourite novelist. Bob Dylan is Bob Dylan.
9. If you hadn’t become a singer/musician/songwriter/etc., what job do you think you’d be doing right now?
No idea.
10. If God said you were allowed to bring only one album with you to Heaven, which would it be and why?
One album in heaven is a hell.
By
Mary Chang on Friday, 30th March 2012 at 11:00 am
I unfortunately missed singer/songwriter Gemma Ray at SXSW. But the Sparks-loving songstress kindly answered our Quickfire Questions, revealing how a Santana song makes her turn on the waterworks and how a Van Morrison song was a revelation. Keep reading…
1. What song is your earliest musical memory?
The theme tune to Button Moon. [This song was written and performed by former Fifth Doctor Peter Davison and his then wife Sandra Dickinson. - Ed.]
2. What was your favourite song as a child?
Bangles – ‘Walking Like An Egyptian’
3. What song makes you laugh?
Sounds of Wonder – ‘Tafo’
4. What song makes you cry?
Santana – ‘Samba Pa Ti’. The key change in the bridge seems to directly stimulate my tear ducts without fail.
5. What song reminds you of the first time you fell in love? (It’s up to you if you want this to be sweet, naughty, etc.)
Van Morrison – ‘Sweet Thing’. I simultaneously fell for both a man and the musicians playing on this recording when I first heard this album. It captured a magical, hopelessly romantic and fantastical moment of time for me when my surroundings weren’t.
6. What song makes you think of being upset / angry? (Example: maybe you heard it when you were angry with someone and it’s still with you, and/or something that calms you down when you’re upset, etc.)
Any song by one of those generic indie/rock boybands with guitar hoisted up to their chins, digital synths, silly haircuts – churning out songs with no melody, chorus or class before they inevitably resign themselves to being estate agents or bankers once their gap year is up and trust funds run out.
7. Which song (any song written in the last century) do you wish you’d written yourself?
I don’t wish to have written anyone else’s song, though many leave me inspired to try and write one half as good. Leonard Cohen has certainly knocked many of those out in his time.
8. Who is your favourite writer? (This can be a songwriter or ANY kind of writer.)
I don’t have one particular favourite but I am currently enjoying Kurt Vonnegut and I love the melodic and lyrically timeless brilliance of the Gershwin brothers.
9. If you hadn’t become a singer/musician/songwriter/etc., what job do you think you’d be doing right now?
I would like to have been a nurse or an archaeologist.
10. If God said you were allowed to bring only one album with you to Heaven, which would it be and why? (Sorry, but double albums do not count!)
(Who? Where????!) – Maybe some Sister Rosetta Tharpe. It may be considered just about Godly enough to sneak me through the gates, and may also get me into Rosetta’s good books so I can have occasional blast on her SG. [I've been told this is in reference to Tharpe's guitar - Ed.]
Special thanks to Ellie for sorting this QQ out for us.
By
Mary Chang on Wednesday, 29th February 2012 at 12:00 pm
Toronto art rockers the Darcys are currently on tour supporting Bombay Bicycle Club, but that didn’t stop their singer Jason Couse from answering the TGTF Quickfire Questions. Something tells me he’s about my age (Smashing Pumpkins!)…except for the Steely Dan reference…
1. What song is your earliest musical memory?
My Dad must have played Neil Young’s ‘Harvest’ for me nearly every day of my childhood. I also have a vivid memory of sitting with my grandfather at the piano for hours as he played Oscar Peterson’s arrangements of old jazz and soul standards. I should probably thank them both.
2. What was your favourite song as a child?
Really early on it would have been a tie between Spin Doctors’ ‘Two Princes’ and Michael Jackson’s ‘Black or White’. Following that It would be anything off of Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Siamese Dream’.
3. What song makes you laugh?
Van Halen – ‘Runnin’ With The Devil’. David Lee Roth’s vocal antics are both absolutely hilarious and amazing. I also find a lot of humor on Of Montreal’s Hissing Fauna. Again, it’s all really incredible, but it can also be pretty funny.
4. What song makes you cry?
Antony and the Johnsons – ‘Hope There’s Someone’. This may be the saddest song ever written, and combined with Antony’s cry-like vocal quiver it almost never fails.
5. What song reminds you of the first time you fell in love? (It’s up to you if you want this to be sweet, naughty, etc.)
Hayden – ‘Between Us To Hold’. With this kind of thing it’s all about recalling the memory of a specific time and place, and this song always teleports me right back.
6. What song makes you think of being upset / angry? (Example: maybe you heard it when you were angry with someone and it’s still with you, and/or something that calms you down when you’re upset, etc.)
Radiohead – ‘Treefingers’. When someone puts this on at 4am while driving through a snowstorm it becomes hard to stay in touch with reality, let alone stay on the road.
7. Which song (any song written in the last century) do you wish you’d written yourself?
I don’t really consider myself a fan of this band, but I think the last track off of Fleet Foxes‘ EP, ‘Innocent Son’, is an incredibly beautiful song. It is so far from the kind of music that we make that I almost wish it were my own daily. Just to have as a reference point, something to identify with that is less cryptic and dense than what we most often participate in.
8. Who is your favourite writer? (This can be a songwriter or ANY kind of writer.)
I have to give this one to the illustrious writing team of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, a.k.a. Steely Dan. The hyper-literacy of their lyrics leaves a lot to be uncovered. Full of references and tongue-in-cheek humor, it’s often hard to tell if a line between serious artistic exercise and irony even exists. Also, with so many studio albums, it makes me wonder if they have come to operate out of process over inspiration. It seems like they write and record for the sake of the craft, yet never have a shortage of ideas.
9. If you hadn’t become a singer/musician/songwriter/etc., what job do you think you’d be doing right now?
I would probably still be in school, searching for something else to grab onto.
10. If God said you were allowed to bring only one album with you to Heaven, which would it be and why? (Sorry, but double albums do not count!)
Do Make Say Think – ‘Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn’. Most often I quickly grow tired of albums that I listen to repetitively, but I can’t ever imagine that happening to this one.
The Darcys’ self-titled album came out late last year and is available now. Thanks to Dana for sorting this q&a out for us.
By
Mary Chang on Wednesday, 15th February 2012 at 12:00 pm
Pulled Apart by Horses is in the middle of a UK tour but we were lucky enough to have their drummer Lee Vincent answer our Quickfire Questions. Wasn’t he nice?
1. What song is your earliest musical memory?
Probably ‘The Race’ from Cozy Powell’s solo album ‘Tilt’. At the beginning there’s a sample from the start of a car race and then it kicks into this crazy instrumental piece of music. My dad used to play it to me for hours on end, because every time it finished, I’d just shout “AGAIN!”
2. What was your favourite song as a child?
I think ‘Ice Ice Baby’ by Vanilla Ice. When that came out I honestly thought it was the best thing I’d ever heard. It was the first 7″ I bought too. I sat and listened to it until I’d transcribed all the lyrics and I still remember most of them to this day if I’m the right amount drunk. (Editor’s note: embarrassingly, I know all the lyrics too.)
3. What song makes you laugh?
‘Gertcha’ or ‘Rabbit’ by Chas and Dave never fails to bring a smile to my face. Absolutely ridiculous songs. They keep me in touch with my southern roots haha.
4. What song makes you cry?
No song has ever made me cry! The song ‘H’ by Tool really gets me choked up for some reason though, and anything from ‘Veckatimest’ by Grizzly Bear because it reminds me of my daughter being born.
5. What song reminds you of the first time you fell in love? (It’s up to you if you want this to be sweet, naughty, etc.)
Damn, that was a long time ago! ‘Six Underground’ I think its called, by The Sneaker Pimps. That totally reminds me of my first proper girlfriend.
6. What song makes you think of being upset / angry? (Example: maybe you heard it when you were angry with someone and it’s still with you, and/or something that calms you down when you’re upset, etc.)
I never really listen to music when I’m angry, I just listen to music by angry people. I’d recommend something like ‘Dog’s Holy Life’ by Eyehategod as an ultimate pissed-off song (although anything by that band will do!)
7. Which song (any song written in the last century) do you wish you’d written yourself?
There’s a lot of those. Probably ‘Obstacle 1′ by Interpol. If you listen to any individual part in that song it’s perfect. Drums, bass, guitar, vocals, all individually stunning, put together to make a stunning song.
8. Who is your favourite writer? (This can be a songwriter or ANY kind of writer.)
At the moment It’s Cormac McCarthy. He’s best known for writing The Road and No Country For Old Men. He writes these timeless, bleak, harrowing novels. One of my favourite things in storytelling is to get rid of happy endings and, for the most part, he’s quite the believer in that ethos.
9. If you hadn’t become a singer/musician/songwriter/etc., what job do you think you’d be doing right now?
I’d be a journalist. Besides music, English is the only thing I have any kind of a grasp of. I got a job as a Music Editor for a new magazine in Newcastle around the time the band started. I had to convince the others that I would still come back to Leeds to practise, I’m glad they believed me!
10. If God said you were allowed to bring only one album with you to Heaven, which would it be and why? (Sorry, but double albums do not count!)
Well, I’m going to hell and I’m taking ‘Zuma’ by Neil Young and Crazy Horse with me (ask me tomorrow and it would be a different answer).
Pulled Apart by Horses’ current tour stops in Newcastle tonight. For more details of the tour and to watch the video for ‘V.E.N.O.M’, head here.
By
Mary Chang on Friday, 25th November 2011 at 11:00 am
So we’ve shared with you the Quickfire Questions answers from our writers and I was thinking some of you might be wondering how I would answer them…
1. What song is your earliest musical memory?
My dad was a crazed maniac when it came to fidelity of sound; the house I grew up in is still littered with the many speakers he bought over the years, after painstakingly researching each one through geeky audiophile magazines including one from this company that came into existence before I was in existence). So it’s really not surprising that my first musical recollection is something from his classical collection, probably ‘Nessun Dorma’ from Puccini’s Turandot (aka Pavarotti’s big number).
2. What was your favourite song as a child?
Madonna’s ‘Borderline’ was the first song I learned all the words to. I still know all the words, but it rarely gets played on radio these days. At the time, I didn’t understand that Madonna was this sexualised being that girls wanted to emulate and boys wanted to be with. All I wanted to do is sing along to it on my hairbrush. And dream about being a pop star one day.
The Rolling Stones’ ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ was my favourite when I got older. The awesome guitar riffs are there, the lyrics that you want to sing along to loudly at the top of your lungs are there as well. It came back to me years later in a introductory biology class in uni, when the professor was discussing respiration and said in passing, “it’s a gas, gas, gas!” and I sniggered loudly. With both pride and embarrassment, he identified me as the only person in the cavernous lecture hall to have gotten his joke.
3. What song makes you laugh?
Fine Young Cannibals – ‘She Drives Me Crazy’. There is a good way to do falsetto. (Exhibit A: Hayden Thorpe of Wild Beasts.) Roland Gift, he’s an example of someone with an embarrassing one that will now go into history thanks to the record-buying public. It’s not that he was a bad singer. ‘Good Thing’ proved he could sing, given the right material. In the right key. Generally anything by Art Brut also guarantees sniveling and snorting of the good variety.
4. What song makes you cry?
Coldplay – ‘The Scientist’. This probably sounds odd, as I don’t like Coldplay and think they’re massively overrated. When the song came out, I was very ill and I wasn’t sure I was going to live. I don’t care what anyone else says: coming to terms with your own mortality is the single most scary thing you will ever have to do in your life. I remember hearing it for the first time, breaking down in tears, thinking, “does this mean I am going to die before I’ve ever fallen in love?” The melody’s not great, but the lyrics “tell me you love me / come back and haunt me” gives me a lump in the throat every time.
5. What song reminds you of the first time you fell in love? (It’s up to you if you want this to be sweet, naughty, etc.)
Stephen Duffy and the Lilac Time – ‘Salvation Song’. My first love dedicated this song to me. He said I gave him great inspiration for songwriting. And he gave me a glimmer of hope, a beacon of light when everything in my world was dark. I have no idea where he is now, but I would think he would get a kick out of finding out I now run a UK music blog and play bass.
6. What song makes you think of being upset / angry? (Example: maybe you heard it when you were angry with someone and it’s still with you, and/or something that calms you down when you’re upset, etc.)
I blame both my parents for this: I have a really bad temper. Crossing me is not advised. I cannot sit through Hoobastank’s ‘The Reason’. The last time I sat through this song, I was in my car, trying to find the hospital where paramedics had taken my father after he had collapsed at work, and this stupid song was mocking me. Seriously, every time I hear it now, I want to put my fist through a wall. Or a window.
7. Which song (any song written in the last century) do you wish you’d written yourself?
The Stone Roses – ‘She Bangs the Drums’. Mani’s thudding opening bass line, the minimalist taps on the drums, then the melodic guitar into Ian Brown’s sweeping vocal. I don’t know why it took me so many years to realise how dirty the song is (!) but it’s a prime example of being able to write a very good rock ‘n’ roll song that can mean different things to different people. It’s also very weird to me now knowing that the Stone Roses have reunited and are touring next year. In a good way of course: anywhere close to Washington they decide to gig, I am there.
8. Who is your favourite writer? (This can be a songwriter or ANY kind of writer.)
I really don’t read as much as I should. (I’m listening to music. All the time.) I think Stuart Maconie’s dry humour in both his music and UK heritage books is great. The writers I aspire to be like are Dorian Lynskey and Dave Simpson of the Guardian. It doesn’t matter the topic: I know when a piece has either of their names on it, I’m in for a balanced, intelligent, wonderful read.
9. If you weren’t writing for this blog right now, what job do you think you’d be doing right now?
I’m a science editor, which is as good a job as any if you still want to remain in the sciences but you can’t be a wet bench scientist (working in a lab). If I could give it all up, I’d pack up my things and move to a major city in England and be a music journalist. My dream job when I was little was to be a singer; I was in choir and did all the things in school you could do to prepare yourself for a career in music. Unfortunately, I just don’t have the voice for it anymore.
10. If God said you were allowed to bring only one album with you to Heaven, which would it be and why?
If I died tomorrow, I’d chose Mystery Jets’ ‘Serotonin’ (pictured on top, review here). Admittedly, I’ve listened to it a whole lot since it came out last summer. There aren’t too many albums that distill love and lost love in pure pop form as perfectly as this one. Listening to it, I’d never forget the people who had graced my life over the years.
