1-07-05
Wild, fuzzy, out of control, and that’s just their hair! Could Sludgefeast be the
Interview by Ian Pickens.
James: So it's me James, I play the guitar and shout at people, Coirin plays bass and sings sweetly, and James II has just joined us on drums, he's pretty cool and young enough to take the piss out of all the music we like, however when we go on tour I will be forcing him to endure long sessions of Alice Cooper and such...
Gravy: Why Sludgefeast?
James: Why not, I mean really its a pretty crap name, but then that's half the point we always try to be not what people expect. We used to try and be as crap as possible on purpose, there was a real excitement to those shows, you knew people weren't going to have a good time, but they were entertained by the spectacle of us making idiots of ourselves on stage, now we just insult people a lot more, usually each other, that's got nothing to do with our name has it? Yes our name, it isn't very good...but it describes the music I guess, I mean you aren't going to expect us to sound like Guns n Roses are you?
Gravy: What is the reason d’existence of Sludgefeast?
James: To actually sell enough records so that I can feel good about myself, and tell Justin Hawkins that his band aren’t the biggest on the label....actually no, really we have no goals. I can’t even imagine making another record after this one at this point, but I am sure I will.
James: Yeah that's cool, I don't really know what we sound like, we just play rock music, hell I like Mudhoney and Fu-Manchu, so that's cool.
Gravy: What influences you apart from music?
James: Nothing really, I just pick up my guitar and write some riffs stick em together. I wouldn't say anything really influences me. I am not one of those people who labour over a song or have to be in a particular frame of mind. I just write songs its something that seems to come easily to me, I guess practice helps, but really its dumb rock, if I can imagine myself 15 years ago head banging to it, then it’s a good riff.
Gravy: Your love of arcade games permeates the music to quite a high degree, are you going to continue fusing the two things together? Where can you take this concept in the future?
Gravy: If it came down to playing arcade games or playing music, which would you choose?
James: Playing music, and buying a fast car and a paintball arena.
James: Maybe...well yes. I work on and off at a game developers (primarily because I learnt how to code for feast invaders!) however I don't code I do music, design, level editing etc. There's a song on our new record that is an apology to the original designer of PacMan, as we recently did a horrible title using good old classic PacMan. Every day when I turned on my PC I felt like I was fucking the poor old yellow guy in his ass.
Gravy: Your music is pretty relentless; most of the tracks come in at under two minutes and are so fuzzed out that it hurts; can you ever see yourselves deviating from this style?
James: I don't know, not really but then who knows I may decide that I don't like it in a few years. I have always written really short songs so I can’t see that changing and I really like raw production...so yeah its pretty unlikely. But hey when I get old I am sure I'll be releasing 2 minute super distorted country songs, and I'll do gigs on my porch with amps pulled up to all the windows in the house, and a shot gun leaning on my rockin' chair....because that's the only way to get old gracefully, country music, or easy listening, maybe a bit of both like Glen Campbell...yup that's what I'll do.
James: Well I thought people would be over it by now, so yeah its doing pretty well, as long as people stop peddling crap in to peoples hands (NME I am looking at you) it will carry on. It never really went anywhere its been around for ever, its just a bit more over ground now. Lets hope it stays there, although this 80's revival thing is picking up pace, I wish that would fuck off, its just so shit.
James: I don't think we are spearheading anything, we just do our thing, we met each other in London and it turned out we lived right next to each other, I speak for myself but imagine the same is true of Richard Clam, neither of cares about anything much except the music we are making, anything else is pointless really...hell regional music is just a pile of shit. We have always been fucked over because we come from
James: Yes, these are the reasons... 1. Venues don't want to pay you, 2. No one wants to go out to shows, 3. The
James: Well he had other stuff to do, it was pretty shitty at the time but James II is doing an awesome job, in fact at our first rehearsal he pointed out that we were playing one of our songs wrong, so yes he’s pretty good...so no effect really....sorry Geoff!
James: John Peel, I know he wasn't a musician but he did play some instruments on some sessions or something as I seem to remember...as for why, well he used to play our records on the radio, and ever since I was 10 years old I wanted a Peel Session...I felt we were close but it never came off....plus its impossible not to like the man even if you haven't met him...so he was good at manipulating our emotions, he should have been an evil overlord.
James: Go back to lounge, turn on XBox, play ghost recon 2 online for the rest of the day/night.
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