pint-sized punk zine issue 8

pint-sized punk A 10 YEAR OLD'S GUIDE TO LIFE AND MUSIC

Issue 8 January 2021

SHAME - SLEAFORD MODS JOHN ROBB - TV PRIEST - RUIZ!

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Cover artwork contributed by the amazing Charlie Steen Insta = @steenomite all photos taken by me or my mum (unless credited) Portrait of Charlie Steen contributed by the unbelievable Ludwin Schouten Ludwinschouten@gmail.com www.instagram.com/widlun www.facebook.com/widlun.otenschut

' m I ! i H

o l r A

This month I needed a bit of a rest after getting our bumper Brismas issue ready…in fact, I was going to take January off, but there are SO MANY amazing albums being released by my favourite bands that I just couldn’t. January 2021 may be the best month ever with new albums from LICE, Viagra Boys, Shame, Sleaford Mods, Arlo Parks & Pom Poko.

I’ve gone back to homeschooling again due to the new lockdown, and have been hanging out with my toys and my family.

Lockdown has been a bit easier because I got a PS4 for Christmas!

I hope you're all well and not going too crazy. If there's anything you'd like to see in PSP in future to help you through, just let me know.

SHAME Exactly 3 years after releasing 'Songs of Praise' (that's more than 1/4 of my lifetime, guys!), shame return with 'Drunk Tank Pink' to bring their own special post-punk back to us. I was really pleased to chat with guitarist, Eddie, and singer, Charlie Steen.

I'm 10. What did you want to be when you were 10?

Charlie: Ha ha ha ha, I wanted to be an ice cream man. My obsession for ice cream still lasts. I've moved on to milkshakes now.

I think milkshakes are really cool 'cause you can get milkshakes which have ice cream in too, so you're getting two for one.

Charlie: Yeah, yeah, yeah, what's your favourite milkshake?

Chocolate.

Charlie: Superb choice, superb choice.

I went to Creams yesterday and had this sundae that had caramel sauce, little chocolate things and loads of hot fudge brownie in the bottom.

Charlie: That sounds banging. My favourite sundae is probably a banana split. We've got a lot of Creams in South London. I think they might have started in South London where my parents live, in an area called Tooting and there's a lot of ice cream parlours here. Um, Eddie, what did you want to be when you were 10?

Eddie: Um, probably a football player. And then I realised I'm really bad at football, so that dream was quickly crushed.

Charlie: I'm 23 and I still don't really know what I want to do.

What music did you like when you were 10?

Eddie: I liked Green Day and all that sort of thing.

Charlie: Yeah - all of us grew up in the same school year - a lot of us actually went to school together when we were growing up. And 'American Idiot' for us was a very big album when we were 10. And Eminem as well.

I watched your set at End of the Road 2018 and I met Charlie afterwards. You spent ages talking about my shoes! You're such a good live band - how do you prepare yourself for a gig?

Charlie: Did I spend ages talking about your shoes?

Yeah. I met you after your performance and you were just talking about my shoes for ages.

Charlie: What kind of shoes were they?

Only old Nike trainers.

Charlie: Wicked. Maybe I wanted them - I've got quite small feet, as well!

Eddie *giggling*: How do we prepare for a live show?

Charlie: I think when you start out, you're quite nervous so you might tend to drink or do whatever to get you into a zone. But that's not necessarily the healthiest way to do it. I think when you start to play a lot of shows it doesn't become more normal, you just become a bit more adjusted to it. I think usually I'm just kind of like pacing around. I go to the toilet quite a lot.

I'm quite nervous. I'm not sure, I feel like you're not really prepared until you begin actually playing. You're just quite impatient.

My Mum always nags us to the loo, even if we don't need ot.

Charlie: Yeah, my Gran used to do that to me. Like I have - do you know, what OCD is? And it's quite bad; it was quite damaging to me. You just need to make sure that everybody is there before you're on stage...

Eddie: And then remember the words. That's usually good.

It's annoying when you don't think you need the loo and then you suddenly do. It happens at the worst possible moments.

Charlie: Tell me about it. I still have those moments all the time.

Will you ever stop having those moments?

Charlie: No, no. I have a very weak bladder, which I've been cursed with.

Um, so I think I wouldn't stop having them, you just get used to them.

Charlie crowdsurfing (to the loo?) at End of the Road, Larmer Tree Gardens, Spetember 2018

Would you rather have to eat a mud pie or a slug and lettuce ice cream?

Eddie: Ooh, slug and lettuce ice cream. But tell me more about the mud pie.

Um, it would basically just be a bunch of mud. Maybe some worms.

Eddie: I'd go for the slug and lettuce ice cream.

Charlie: Yep. Slug and lettuce ice cream actually sounds relatively nice.

Eddie: No it doesn’t!

Charlie: It sounds very French. *warming to the idea* It does sound like a French dish.

What’s the one essential vinyl I should get?

Charlie: My first vinyl I got when I was probably about your age, which is an incredible one, is ‘Asylum Years’ by Tom Waits. And it's so good because it's from his time at Asylum Records. And so I think, if I'm not mistaken, you've got about 20 songs on there, and I really loved it. The first record I ever played was Joe Jackson ‘The Jump and ‘Jive’, which is amazing as well.

You can get one by Donny Hathaway or Eddie Harris, or Billie Holiday is a good person to have on record or John Coltrane. I think when you're getting records as well, those genres of jazz or blues are particularly nice, because the songs can play for a while and you’re not worrying about changing it or whatever. What's your favourite record you've got on vinyl?

There's some that came out this year, like Billy Nomates, 'Ultra Mono', Protomartyr, 'A Hero's Death', Spectres, the Sleaford Mods compilation...

Charlie: Yeah. Nice. We'll send you a copy of our record when it comes out.

My favourite album at the moment is the new Gorillaz album.

Eddie: Oh, cool. I like that one.

Charlie: I haven’t listened to it yet, but Gorillaz did their first record ‘Demon Days’, when me and Eddie were growing up That was a massive record for our generation.

How was 2020 for you? We’re there any silver linings to the whole lockdown thing?

Eddie: Not really. It was pretty difficult at the start.

Charlie: Not really?! Eddie, don’t be such a downer!

Eddie: It was a joke, Steen! It was difficult at the start, but as the year went on, you know, we got things together with the album and we planned to release the album. So it's been nice having material coming out over the later course of the year. We did one gig, which was nice. Just the one gig.

But no, there's been a few silver linings just like knowing that the album's nearly out and then releasing a few singles, filming some videos. We've had some fun.

It feels like ages since ‘Songs of Praise’ came out. Are you excited about 'Drunk Tank Pig' coming out? *oops, until Mum just corrected me, I got the name of the album wrong! I still reckon Drunk Tank Pig is a good name though* Eddie: Very, very excited. As you said it's been too long. And if it wasn't for the Coronavirus situation, we probably would have put it out a bit sooner.

But yeah, the time has come. And we're nearly there.

Charlie: Yeah, world domination will soon come.Why did it take so long?

Eddie: Well, I think it took a while because we needed a bit of a break after the first album campaign. We'd been on tour for so long that we needed to take a bit of time to ourselves just to chill.

Charlie: If it wasn't the COVID, the record would have been out a few months ago. So it wouldn't have been...

Eddie: It still would have been kind of a long gap, I guess. But, you know, we wanted to experiment a little bit more with this album, we wanted to try and learn a few new things and that takes time, I suppose. Like we would teach ourselves different things. But yeah, if it wasn't for COVID it would have already been out by now. That's partially the reason.

How would you describe the album in 3 words?

Eddie: Go on Steen!

Charlie: Very, very good.

Eddie: Yeah.

That's a good answer, I'll need to remember that. If Shame was an animal, what animal would it be?

Eddie: A mongoose.

Wait, what's a mongoose?!

Eddie: You know a Meerkat? It's like one of them, but a little bit more threatening and a bit faster. They're pretty quick - I don’t know why I think that's a good adjective for us. *Charlie giggles* I don't know, Steen, you might have a better suggestion. I don't know why I came up with mongoose!

Charlie: Maybe a piranha?

Eddie: A piranha? Oh no - everyone hates them.

Charlie: Or a turtle. Long-lasting.

Turtles make you sound like no-one likes you anymore. Because everyone is like "Save the turtle" so it makes it sound like you're old news.

Charlie: Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Well, we are old news! Okay, okay, how about I describe it as a Roadrunner?

Wait, isn't that just a thing from a cartoon? Is that a real animal?

Charlie: It's a real animal. Yeah.

Eddie: Is it? I'm gonna fact check this, I'm afraid *Googling* The greater Road Runner is a long legged bird in the cuckoo family that lives in the southwestern United States and Mexico. We've all learned something there.

Charlie: Yeah, we’d be a road runner.They look a bit weird, but they're cool.

Eddie: They've got, like Mohawks and stuff. They can run 15 miles an hour that's mad. And it only flies when it's absolutely necessary.

Charlie: That sounds like Shame! Sounds like our tour manager.

Eddie: Fast on their feet. They don't like to fly, they can eat snakes, they aren't shy, they are monogamous. This is us down to a tee. This is it!

What are the best and worst things about being in a band?

Charlie: The best thing, I guess, is that we are fortunate enough to have this as a job. But the downside of that, is that it's a pretty strange job as well. It's good, because we have a lot more control, but also, at the same time...

Eddie: ...we really don't. I think it's good because obviously, you know, you get to make music for a living, and you get to perform and stuff like that. But it can really consume your whole life and sometimes you don't have that much free time. And, you know, being on the road all the time can be very, very tiring. You can get a bit crazy - if you've been away for too long it gets a bit difficult, all the travel, the jetlag. But I'm not complaining. As much as I love going places, I don't enjoy the process involved in getting there. So I love going to places like Japan, but I don't enjoy sitting on a plane for 12 hours.

Charlie, you're also an artist. Do you think that your art and lyrics and music all come from the same place? Or are they like different parts of you?

Charlie: No, I think they're quite different. It's weird because, with any painting or drawing I do, it is very much under my control, do you know what I mean?

When we write music together, we're writing music together. So the band might come up with a song and then I've got to put lyrics to it. Or we're working together looking for a melody or looking for something else. Whereas, if I was to do a painting or whatever, then it's my decision what the subject is going to be and then what it's going to look like. So it's quite different. But I haven't really been able to paint much. To be able to paint and stuff is a massive privilege and, at the moment, I don't really have anywhere I can do it. You need at least some space and I can't fit my easel inside my flat. But I think they're from different places. They link, definitely, but they're quite different.

Right. This is like the biggest question the whole interview. So...

Eddie: ‌strap in!

Well, Marmite: yes or no?

Eddie: Yes. 100%. Yes. I had Marmite this morning and I love it.

Charlie: No, but everyone around me does. I've made countless amounts of Marmite on toast. I've made an infinite myriad of that meal, but it's never been for myself.

Eddie; An infinite myriad of Marmite on toast?!

I’m not sure whether that sounds appealing or horrible - infinite Marmite! *as usual, we had a bit more Marmite chat*

On stage at Thekla, Bristol, 5th April 2018 Eddie (left) doesn't look too grumpy!

What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever said to you?

Charlie: Ummm, mine would be slightly inappropriate.

Eddie: Yeah, let's not go with that one. *Charlie giggles. I didn’t ask...* Um, a German fan once got quite annoyed with me because he said that I look too sad when I perform. And he was quite upset that he paid, I don't know, 20 euros for his ticket and that I wasn't giving him the enthusiasm that he deserved as a customer. So I apologised to him and I went on my way. Yeah, I thought it was a bit rude of him personally, but he wasn't happy that I didn't look...Were you trying to do a grimace and look cool?

Charlie: That’s all Eddie ever does.

Eddie: No, I just naturally don’t look happy, because I'm concentrating, I suppose. But this German fan clearly took that the wrong way and thought that I wasn't showing enough enthusiasm. So he took it up with me directly.

Yeah.You should’ve shown him the video for ‘Feliz Navidad’ - you look really smiley in that one.

Eddie: Yeah. That got played on the radio today.

Oh, yeah. On Thursdays I do recommendations for a show on Purple Radio, and I recommend that for the Christmas one.

Charlie: Oh, thank you very much, mate.

It was either that or ‘Jesus is a Hedgehog’ by Kid Carpet Charlie: Ha ha ha ha ha ha. That’s like that Cat Stevens, or Yusif Islam one ‘God is a Dog’ or something like that.

That makes sense because god spelled backwards is dog.

Eddie: Yeah, that make sense.

Here’s just a couple of questions from fans in the shamebandukpostings Facebook fan group. Vivo Spud asked what are your favourite tour snacks?

Charlie: That's a good question.

Eddie: When you're on tour, you get very bored of hummus after the first couple of days, so not hummus.

Charlie: I think just crisps. Oh, it’s not really a snack but my favourite drink would be Choco Mao which you get in the Netherlands.

Eddie: Yeah, the Dutch chocolate milk - that's good. Steen, you know those those pitta chips you always get in America?

Charlie: Yeah. Yeah, I think like crisps. I like cheese and onion crisps.

Yeah. I’d probably just go for something like Tangfastics or Haribo.

Charlie: Yeah, but your teeth. When you’re at the point where you might be touring or whatever...

Eddie: When you get to our age, you’ve gotta watch the old sugar intake.

Charlie: Yeah, dentists are expensive.

Eddie: Dentists are expensive - you wanna look after your teeth.

Charlie: Yeah, from sugar to salt.

Tyler Youngs asked what was your favourite record of 2020?

Charlie: I really got into - which a lot of people don't really like out of his stuff, they prefer other ones - but I really like ‘Ghosteen’ by Nick Cave. It hasn't come out this year, but that's what I really, really like.

Eddie: I like ‘Alias’ by Shygirl.

Like I said, my favourite album at the moment is the new Gorillaz one.

Charlie: Yeah, I'll give that listen. I've been quite bad with listening to music, but I'll give it a listen.

Thanks for your time – it was great to talk to you.

Charlie: Arlo, thank you so much mate, for taking the time to do this. This has been one of my favourite interviews. I hope to see you soon for a chocolate milkshake. Merry Christmas.

Eddie: Yeah. This has been really good.Thank you.

Thank you guys.Let me know if you're ever in Bristol.

Charlie: Well, we'll put you on the guest list if we play it.

Thanks. And I’ll take you to Creams.

Eddie: Okay, cheers. All right.

This is the second album from Shame, following ‘Songs of Praise’, which was one of the albums that I put on my first MP3 player.

Released 3 years ago, I’ve had to wait a quarter of my lifetime for this album, but I forgive them – it’s great.

It opens with the single, ‘Alphabet’ – classic post-punk drums and stabbing guitars that we’ve heard lots from bands like IDLES & Fontaines DC, but this is still the sound of Shame from back in 2018.

Charlie’s vocals are often a bit more subtle on this album, with lyrics that are more reflective and personal and it has a much more complex sound than Songs of Praise – there’s so much going on in songs like ‘Born in Luton’ that every time I listen to it I notice something new.

There are lots of funky rhythms on songs like ‘Nigel Hitter’ and ‘March Day’, which includes my new catchphrase “I can’t get up, I won’t get up”.

One of my favourites is ‘Snow Day’, which has more recognisable spoken/shouty vocals from Charlie, over a nervy and frantic backing. Like other songs, it completely shifts in the middle to new speed/time to stop you feeling comfortable.

True story – the first time we listened to this album was over Christmas while we were playing Monopoly (which I quit half way through…it was taking SO long) and it actually snowed outside for about 2 minutes. I want proper snow so bad, so I’ll keep playing this loud to make it come.

‘Human, For A Minute’ gives another different sound, which is much more chilled out. I reckon I could put this on loop and chillax in my bedroom.You have to think a bit more than with ‘Songs of Praise’ and it doesn’t make me want to jump around the room quite as much, but I think this is a much better album that I’m looking forward to listening to much much more.

... ays s r Wow! Maybe more bands should take a break and really consider the Mo their 2nd album. These tracks exude confidence, textural depth and more bare lyrical honesty, which could easily sound like a hot mess. But it’s clear that the band know what they’re doing, and James Ford’s production balances the multiple layers, polyrhythms and signature changes smoothly. Talking Heads, The Strokes, Baxter Dury & Foals can be heard as touchpoints, but there is never a moment that this sounds like imitation; it is truly Shame’s own sound.

Cover art based on Drunk Tank Pink

by Charlie Steen Created live on YouTube on 19/1/20

SLEAFORD MODS SPARE RIBS I’ve only got into Sleaford Mods in the last year, after Jason guested on the Billy Nomates album. I’ve been listening to the All That Glue compilation for months, and was really looking forward to ‘Spare Ribs’.You might think that going from a best of compilation to a normal album might set me up to be disappointed, as albums always have a few terrible songs usually…but not this one. I like them all – from bangers like ‘All day ticket’, ‘Mork n Mindy’ and ‘Short Cummings’, to more unexpected tracks like ‘Fish Cakes’ (where Jason croons about childhood).

The singles ‘Nudge It’ and ‘Mork and Mindy’ provide the most excitement, as they include guest vocals from Amy Taylor (of Amyl and the Sniffers) & Billy Nomates, which add an extra layer. Amy is an unexpected collaborator, but it works perfectly, and Billy Nomates’ singing has given us yet another earworm from her! On ‘Mork n Mindy’, which again focusses on childhood, it sounds like a toy robot has broken into the studio. I’ve been loving hearing it on the radio, but it’s a bit of a Marmite track (and you all know how I feel about Marmite!!)

There are the digs at other bands on ‘Nudge It’ and ‘Elocution’ that we expect from Twitter – like Joe Talbot in the video for ‘Grounds’ “stood outside an high-rise trying to act like a gangster”.

‘Out There’ displays that the album was mostly written during the summer of 2020, in between lockdowns, and tells about how uncomfortable it was going out and about and being near other people in the shops in the summer.

Andrew’s beats are massive and really varied through the album - it’s not at all samey. Jason sounds angry, but he should be, as 2020 really didn’t give us too much to be happy about.

They may have a song called ‘I Don’t Rate You’, but I really do rate them. If you’re not a Sleaford Mods fan, then this may convert you.

BAKING DADDY

TWITTER KING I meet Jason Williamson, singer with Sleaford Mods, ahead of the release of their brilliant new lockdown album 'Spare Ribs'.

Known for his outspoken and funny tweets, and his Baking Daddy videos, here is some of our chat.

I'm 10 - what music did you like when you were 10?

When I was 10, I discovered the Sex Pistols, actually. When I met my soon to be step-brothers, one of them was into punk rock and I got introduced to the Sex Pistols primarily, and stuff like GBH and The Damned. So yeah, it was quite exciting. That was 1980. So by 1980, there had been a second wave of punk, so stuff like The Exploited were quite interesting. Really good. What about you? You're into everything, though, aren't you?

Yeah, I like all sorts. How does songwriting in the band? Do you do everything together or usually start with music or lyric ideas?

It varies, really. Andrew will do a lot of the music on his own and I will write most of the lyrics on my own. Sometimes we collaborate with the music and the lyrics. Andrew is very good; sometimes it's saving in an idea when I've run out of patience with it. He's very good at filleting in a kind of bridge that will mend the song, you know, like a plaster so to speak. He'll stitch it together where I couldn't, you know? So yeah, it just depends, really.

All right. When I interviewed BEAK>, Geoff Barrow said his dream job in music is being Andrew, because at gigs he just has to press play and drink beer, because you made all your sick beats in the studio. Is there more to it at the gig?

Yeah, lots more. If you can put yourself in Andrew's shoes...he has to support what I do, both visually and also psychologically, spiritually. So he kind of holds the show with the way he is at the back. He sets the landscape, and that will allow me to run around. If Andrew lost interest, you would tell and it would fall flat, regardless of whether I was doing a great performance, you know? He has to be as switched on as I do with it.

So I would imagine is quite hard work for him. He never talks about it, but I can tell that it is just as taxing as my performance in a lot of ways.

And it must be really hard to come up with all those sick beats...

Well, they kind of fall off him, really. And it's stuff that he doesn't really even labour over. He'll just do something that he thinks I might like, or he'll do something that he thinks will fit Sleaford Mods, you know what I mean? He spends a lot of time at great pains, orchestrating his own solo project, Extended Network. And that is a far more complex, perhaps a far more creative, project than Sleaford mods. You know, we're a pop band essentially. Andrew delves into soundscapes and he likes to create pictures with his music. So he's a very, very complex artist.

What's your favourite track on your new album, 'Spare Ribs'?

Well, there's two really: 'Mork & Mindy' and 'Nudge It'. They're my favourites, primarily because of Amy Taylor (from Amyl & The Sniffers), who guests on 'Nudge It' and Billy Nomates, who guests on 'Mork & Mindy'. It's been a real thing for us to collaborate with people and, most importantly, for those collaborations to work out. So, you know, I kind of see those two songs as the ambassadors for the potential that we've got going forward.

I first heard of Sleaford Mods when I reviewed Billy Nomates' album, then looked you up 'cause I loved your rap on 'Supermarket Sweep'. How does it feel that your music inspired acts like her?

Really good. Yeah. I think it's great. Yeah, I'm really happy about that. But I think you find that whenever you achieve something, or whenever you feel good about something, it's something that you just have to move away from, and move along from - you can't just keep gloating on it. Because I think it then turns into a negative. You put it under your belt and you move on. But, saying that, whenever I go to think about things such as Tor being influenced by what we do - because we're massive fans of her, she's brilliant - it makes you feel good. Do you not know what I mean?

I float in fog, yeah!

I got my first record player in lockdown, and I work at Longwell Records, what is the one essential vinyl I should get?

The one essential vinyl you should get is... 'Designer' by Aldous Harding. It's really good. I'm sure it's out on vinyl. I think she's really, really good.

I get paid in vinyl, so I can get lots of albums if Iain has them!

Oh, that's fantastic. Well then I suggest you buy either 'Designer' by Aldous Harding or 'Miami Memory' by Alex Cameron. Both of those albums are really interesting.

What was it like doing a live stream gig from The 100 Club during lockdown? Did you enjoy it?

Yeah, it was alright. I didn't think it would be very good - I'll be honest because as much as streamed gigs are, at the minute, the only alternative, to a certain degree, I just I just don't think they are sustainable. So, with that in mind, I went into it feeling quite negative about it. BUT, because we like performing so much, and because we've done a lot of television as well - it's just like that, it was just like an extra long piece of TV. And I really enjoyed it. You know, we played really well. It was really good.

Yeah. It was really late as well, so I fell asleep during it and Mum was astonished I could fall asleep with all the noise and lights.

Ha ha ha ha. Well, I don't blame ya. I find it hard to listen to us a lot of times!

Yeah. Like I find it a bit boring to read the zine sometimes. Looking at something you made is cool for the first five minutes, but then you actually listen to it or look at it and it's not as great anymore.

This is it. And that is a good sign because that just shows that, obviously, you're thinking ahead with it. And consciously or subconsciously thinking about what you're going to do next with it, do you know what I mean?

Yeah - I've spoken to other people who made really popular zines back in the day and they said they used to love posting it out.

That's the bit I really don't like...I just wanna get to the next interviews and listen to the next album.

That's how it should be, when you're a creative person.

What's the best day you've ever had in the band?

The best day we ever had in the band was... every day! You know, the early years were really, really good - special - because you made it, you know what I mean? You made it after all those years of trying and thinking you'd never get there. Bearing in mind, we were nearly 45 when we made it, both of us. It was amazing. It was really special. And you just remember little things, like sitting in an airport or travelling down the motorway to a gig in Denmark, or just little things like that. Or having a drink in the house with the wife when it all started kicking off and reading everything on social media about your band, you know what I mean? Those are really special times, but... I love it - every day is great. It's all really good. Recording can be a bit stressful. But mainly, when you look back on things, they were special times and they will continue to be.

If there was a film about Sleaford Mods, who would play you?

Who would play me? Robert Redford.Yeah.

Isn't he a bit old?

Ha ha ha ha. Well, I'm picturing the classic Robert Redford, like 70s Robert Redford, I think. No, actually Michael Fassbender. Yes, I would get him to play me, as he looks a bit like me. Basically, anyone that's quite handsome, you know what I mean?

Right. Lots of interviews asked about musical heroes. Instead, I'd like to know who are your music villains?

Oh, music villains, I've got loads. Absolutely tonnes. But I tend not to talk about music villains anymore in interviews, because I find that it creates a ricochet of negativity afterwards. So yes, my musical villains, they change on a kind of weekly basis really, though I might have one or two particular musical villains that never change. And then I'll pick new ones up every week to a month, which I think is really healthy. I don't think there's anything wrong with disliking lots of musicians, because it's what you care about and you've got strong principles about what you do. So when you are critical of people, it is a sign that you care about your work. But, there is a darker side to that, where you can be too critical of people, and that can then eventually just kind of devour your perception on everything. So it's a bit of a fine line. You've got to keep a balancing act with it.

All right, what's your favourite pizza topping?

It's gotta be pepperoni. Or, Fiorentina with a fried egg in the middle. But, what I like to have on all pizzas are the those little fish.

Anchovies?

Yes. Wooooo.

I went to The Louisiana in Bristol, which used to be a venue, but is now doing pizza while it can't have gigs. And I had anchovies, parma ham and pepperoni. It was the saltiest thing have ever tasted.

I bet it was absolutely gorgeous. Did you have a lot of chilies on it as well?

Actually, black olives are really nice.

Thanks. Marmite: yes or no?

Love it. *we had quite a long chat about toastie makers and air fryers here…how Jason doesn’t use these kitchen gadgets and toastie makers used to be a health and safety risk, but ours is ok. And we talked about his Baking Daddy videos on Instagram - his top idiotproof recipe that he recommended for my Mum is Victoria Sponge* IDLES are one of my favourite bands and so are you, but people seem surprised when I tell them that I like both for you. When I asked my followers if they had any questions for you, several people asked about your beef with IDLES, and I didn't really understand what all the wars and stuff mean and it was all about.

Oh, I don't think it's really that important, to be honest. And I really wouldn't like to give them any airtime really. I don't really think they deserve it. So, yeah, that would be my answer to that.

All right , that’s it! You whizzed through this.

Did I? Was it a quick one?

Yeah, it was pretty efficient.

Well, it was really nice to meet you mate.You tooAnd this is a really big thing - you're really quite a good interviewer. I don't even think at 10 I could put my socks on.

Mum - He's not so good at that!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hahahaha. Trust Mum to stitch you up Arlo!

TV Priest's brilliant debut album is finally coming out, after a surprise signing to Sub Pop just after I featured tha band in the summer coincidence?? ;-) I caught up with frontman Charlie Drinkwater.

It's been a few months since I spoke to you. How have you been?

I've been very well. It's been tricky being back in the lockdowns and stuff again and I'm not able to see the band at the moment, which is a shame.

We're split up all over the place. But I'm healthy, I'm happy, my family's happy, and I've got some work. So I think that's as good as can be expected at the moment, you know?

The album release was put back because you've signed to Sub Pop that's pretty cool.

I couldn't believe it. To be honest, it was pretty crazy. It was something that I did not expect to happen, so it's been really nice. Obviously, it was a shame that we put the album back because we want people to hear it. But the people at Sub Pop are really, really cool people, really nice. They needed a bit more time to make some more records!!

Has it changed anything about the album?

No, it's still exactly the same album. It's still the same record that we wrote that we were going to put out, just with our friends. Yeah, nothing's changed about it, really. It meant that we could invest in the people that are making the videos a bit more. So before Joe, who made our video, did it for no money as a favour. So this time, we could give him some money and pay him, which was great. Those are the things that have been able to change, you know? We're not just exploiting our friends now :-)

The label has lots of history. What are your favourite bands on Sub Pop? Oh, I think there's so many. I love a band called Mudhoney. They're great.

Really, really good. And they've been on Sub Pop for like 25 years, on and off, so it shows you what kind of label it is - people stay there. I mean, obviously, there's Nirvana when they first started, but then I really liked The Shins too. *mum keeps nodding her stamp of approval* There's some really cool bands that are around at the moment. And there's a band called Chai, who are from Japan, and there's another band from Canada called Kiwi Jr, who are really really cool as well. And there's a really great singer songwriter called Weyes Blood...and Father John Misty, of course. Loads of really cool stuff. There's too much to mention. And then us - a bunch of errr.......ha ha ha ha. I don't know why they signed us - they've already got too much cool stuff!

What do you think are the best and worst things about 'Uppers'?

I think the best thing is that we made a record all by ourselves - with my best friends. Other than two or three things, like getting it mastered, and also getting my friend to take the picture on the front, everything else is just us and I think that's the best thing for me. I'm really proud of us that we did that. It's taken us a long time to get there just as people, but I'm really proud of that. And I'm proud that we couldn't have made a made it any different in a way, you know, we couldn't put any more of ourselves into it.

The worst things? I don't know, I think that's hard to say. You know, I think that's maybe for other people to say. I think it's for other people to listen to it, review it and go this is rubbish. Or I like this. You know, I think that's quite difficult. Sometimes when you when you're an artist, you want to stand next to your work all the time and explain why maybe people should like it or people should care about it. But I can't do that.

What's next for the band?

We have moved into a little studio that we've set up, so we are going to start writing the next record as soon as lockdown lifts and we can be together. Yeah, we're going to write another record pretty quick, I think. We want to, at least. Can't go and play gigs, it seems, so we'll fall back to making music again! I think all of us use music as a release, and a way of feeling happy. So if we can do that, then we'll write another record.

On the album it seems like you sometimes sing with different personas. Is that true?

Yeah, I would say that is a very good point. When I sing, and when I make work and art, I channel a different little bit of myself that perhaps has more confidence to talk about things than I would every day, or let me inhabit a part of my personality that I don't always s present to the world. It's a good outlet for me to say things and talk about things to people. I think it still is me and it's still what I'm about and who I am, but it's like a different flavour of me. And also, you couldn't walk around all the time shouting things to people like you would in a song: you wouldn't have any friends!

You don't want to get like too weird a persona, because you might end up like Gollum...

I'd have to throw my record into Mount Doom to get rid of it. No, I think you're very right there. And I also think, if you put too much of a character on, you're at the risk of losing all of the things that people like about your music, you know, which is about connecting with someone that they think is interesting.You’ve got to keep yourself in there, or you’re just an actor, and it does all become mixed up with your identity. One of the hardest things, in the last couple of weeks, I’ve learned that someone will tag you on Twitter just to say ‘@TVPriest I think your band's rubbish”. And that comes right onto my phone right here. And that's really hard, because it's like ‘oh, you really want me to see that you really don't like me?’ That’s something that I’m having to get used to, and having a persona in the songs, and not always being serious in them, helps with that. Also, I suppose you wouldn’t make any kind of artwork if you thought everyone was going to like it.

Right, tell me why should I spend my pocket money on your album.

I mean, it's hard to say, isn't it? But there's a lot of other really good things to spend your pocket money on. I would say that it's not sweets, so it won't rot your teeth, and it'll last a bit longer. And I would say, hopefully, it is a good record to listen to at a strange time in the world's history.

Out on 5th Feb on Sub Pop I’ll say it right from the beginning – ‘Uppers’ may possibly be my best album of 2021, which is saying a lot because so far we’ve had Sleaford Mods, Shame, Arlo Parks and LICE (and we’re only 3 weeks into the year!).

In TV Priest I can hear bits of lots of the bands that I like at the moment – IDLES, Sports Team, Life, Bambara, Dry Cleaning, The Murder Capital – which makes them sound great on the radio, cutting through all the other noise, but they always sound like themselves.

‘Uppers’ has been delayed for a few months after the band signed to Sub Pop, after releasing their early singles on Hand in Hive Independent Records. It shows how confident the band are that these early singles didn’t even make it on to the album, as they have so many great songs. It has been really hard to stay quiet(ish) about this album since I first heard it back in August and I’m so glad that it’s finally coming out into the world with Sub Pop behind it.

Press shot supplied by the band...sorry, I don't know who to credit. It's very good though, isn't it?

It opens with ‘The Big Curve’, which is about something big happening but you miss it because your eyes are glued to a screen, with the powerful lyrics “This could be the first day of the rest of your life, but I was mystified by the images on screen”, which is a great opening line. It includes a strong guitar riff that features in all of TV Priest’s songs. Frontman Charlie’s voice preaches to us like the evangelists that the band are named after (Mum showed me some of those guys on YouTube…they are really weird), sounding like the guy from The Fall, except you can understand him ;-) One of my favourite songs is the current single, ‘Press Gang’, with thumping drums and bass, building up to raucous chorus, this is music for dancing to. It is impossible not to move. I need to listen to the lyrics on this one, but I can’t help jumping up and down every time I hear it.

I’m amazed that this is a debut album. The band sound confident; they know who they are and what they want to say. The lyrics include questions that make you think, not just slogans to shout along with (though when they eventually get to play live I will definitely be shouting along).

There are some moments where the style and tone changes. ‘Powers of Ten’ features a slow, steady build, and on track 11 ‘This Island’ you suddenly wonder where on earth the keyboard comes from!?! When Charlie stops preaching and sings, he has a sweet crooner voice, a bit like Joe from IDLES when he is more vulnerable.

I can’t wait for this album to be out in the world and for everyone else to realise how special it is.

What I've been listening to Wasteland: what Ails Our People Is Clear by LICE

1

Song Machine Season 1 by Gorillaz

3

Sawayama by Rina Sawayama

Modern Yuppies

by Home Counties

5

2

4

Positive Mental Health Music

by TiĂąa

In December, I was lucky enough to chat with John Robb - vocalist and bassist of The Membranes, head of Louder Than War, journalist, thinker, Twitterer. We had a great chat, but talked so much, it was impossible to edit...then I realised that we don't want to miss a word, so welcome to my new running series - ta da -

THE WISDOM OF JOHN ROBB PART 1 PART 1

I'm 10. What were you listening to when you were 10?

When I was 10 it was 1971, so it would be the early days of glam rock. I could be super cool and pretend it was David Bowie, but it was more likely to be stuff like Slade, The Sweet. And I did like T- Rex and Bowie as well.

That sounds pretty cool to me.

Yeah. I’m from Blackpool; I don't really know what cool is! I’m not interested being cool. And also leftover stuff from the 60s - I do remember seeing the Beatles and The Rolling Stones on Top of the Pops, but I didn't really know who they were - but there's other stuff like ‘Pinky & Perky’, which was a BBC series of two little papier maché pigs that used to sing pop songs. And I remember thinking they were dead good, but I was about 8 then, so that's a lot younger than 10. I think if you're 10 nowadays, you have much cooler music tastes than we had when we were 10 because music’s everywhere. Now, when I was 10, it was just Top of the Pops. You had no idea that stuff actually existed in between Top of the Pops - it was there one day, then six days when it wasn't. Yeah, whereas now you put your computer on, and it's like an avalanche of music.

What are the best and worst things about being in a band?

The best thing is being given the luxury of being allowed to be creative, which is an amazing thing. You know, for somebody like me, making a piece of music out of thin air and it works and then you play it together as people. And that's an amazing feeling as well. And then playing into an audience and the audience jump up and down to it and sing along to it, or connect with it as well - It's a really brilliant feeling. I think that in a time of disharmony, which we're in now - where everybody's shouting and nobody's listening - there’s something great about music, which is about harmony. And I love when we do stuff with the choir. The idea you got 30 voices in harmony in a time when everyone's shouting, is an amazing thing. It's like a salmon swimming upstream against the water. It doesn't make any sense. Does it? But how do I describe what it feels like? How do I describe music?! It's impossible. You know, it's a transcendental experience, innit?

Yeah, I know how you feel. I find reviews so hard, because I have no idea how to explain music. I remember with my first review of The Pleasure Dome I was super grumpy, and just needed to get it done before the deadline, so I said the singer’s voice sounded a little bit donkey!

Yeah, but I would take that as a compliment. *chuckle* But you can only ever say what you feel, I think. You know, I think a lot of people talk a lot about music writing and what's good or bad, but there is no good about it.

It's not like writing about politics or something where you have to have an opinion and a slant and backing up the facts (which these days you don't really, unfortunately), but music is what you feel. So if you hear a piece of music, it's what you feel about it in that moment of time that is the only valid thing you could ever say about it.

That makes me feel a bit better! Mum always says a review is just a snapshot of what I think at that time, but I trust you more ;-) If The Membranes were a flavour of crisps, which flavour would you be?

Salt and vinegar, although I've not had crisps for about 40 years so I can’t really remember what salt and vinegar crisps taste like! But I like the idea of being sweet and bitter at the same time.

Yeah, I think that that's what I'd be. It’s something you wouldn't normally put together like really shouty punk music and a 10 year old kid like me.

Well, I don't know, because when I was younger, and I got into punk when I was 15 or 16, I was usually the oldest person around in Blackpool. There was 10 or 11 year old kids into it. They're still the same, you know? And they understood it as much as we understood it. There was no massive difference. People forget how young the punk audience was, you know.

When I did my first gig in Blackpool, my drummer, Coofy Sid (who was the drummer all the way through The Membranes) was 13 years old. He was only slightly older than you are now. I can remember when I was 10 or 13, people who were 25 seemed incredibly ancient. I remember thinking “25? Oh, God who ever gets to 25?!” It sounded like the oldest age I could imagine when I was 10. And then now, it's like an awful long time ago!

R Rooksby on Twitter has asked whatever happened to Coofy Sid? Well, after he was in the band, he got a job making stages, so he was flying around Europe constructing stages for festivals and party political conferences. He still lives about two miles from me and I bump into about once a year in really unlikely places. But he's more of a pub person, and I don't really go to pubs. I like them as buildings, but I don't drink, so there's not really and awful lot for me to do in a pub. He likes going to the pub and watching football, and that's not really a world I've lived in that much, so I bump into him in the airport more than anything! He stopped playing drums, but then he bought a drum kit which we put up our rehearsal room just to store it for him. And it's still there, actually. I don't think he's played for 10 years.

Right. How has COVID situation this year affected the band?

It just brought it to a grinding halt, really. We can't play any gigs and we all live in different cities, so it’s difficult to make any music. Two of us are quite techie, so we can send files around with a few bits of stuff. We’re actually working on a song at the moment, which is going to come out as a limited edition single. And it was an old song which was half recorded, but we can move bits, we can add guitars and bass to it online. But it’s not how you normally do this kind of music. I mean, a lot of electronic music is done like that, but like using computers and it's not massively different to being a studio, really. Because in a studio, it's not like everybody's there at the same time, so it’s not so different. But actually playing gigs or making plans are really impossible.

But you know, in the scheme of things, it's nothing, is it? There’s people in much worse situations than I've got. I mean, it gave me a whole year to do loads of other stuff. So I’ve written two books, and I'm getting on with loads of other stuff - every mad idea I've had this year, I've actually got off the ground. So they're not all music ideas, but they're all different types of things. The only thing is, you don't see any people, do ya? I mean, you hardly ever see any other human beings. I interviewed somebody this afternoon on Zoom, and he hadn't spoken to another human being for 3 weeks. You know, that's kind of the reality of this time, innit? I'm lucky - I live in the middle of a city, so I can sit in the park like this and I do see other human beings walking past and I know some of them. But the isolation is probably the worst thing for a lot of people. I mean, you're lucky because you're in a family, so you’ve got other people in the same building to hang out with. But sometimes it can be super annoying, because you can't go anywhere. I'm just stuck with my family. *giggle* Yeah, I've been in Manchester. I've been out of town once since February. I went to Stroud just before the 2nd lockdown, and it felt really weird. I felt really guilty sitting on the train, like I was naughty. Like, you know, people see me sitting on trains - there's still trains, so you must be allowed on them?! Of course, in these times, you can't work out what you can and can't do. It’s confusing innit? I mean, maybe the 10 year olds run the country instead of the grown ups? I mean, Boris Johnson is... no, it's an insult to a 10 year old to say he's like a 10 year old! I'm sure you're a zillion times more on it than he is. And Donald Trump...I mean, Donald Trump to you must look like a five year old! *chuckle* A kid being Prime Minister is such a good idea for a kids book... Yeah, I think so. I think everybody's got ideas that are valid. But then why not have a 92 year old, they've got the wisdom of life? There's too much putting people in boxes. You should be able to listen to everybody and what they think and what they feel.

Is it annoying to see young bands, who sound a lot like you did 40 years ago, being successful and getting famous?

No, no, I've probably written about most of them first! I'm always cheering them along, or connecting them with other people. It's exciting, actually, because it makes me feel like I was right in the first place *giggle* It's only me that knows that. I mean, it's nice to get praised and it's nice when people pay for your stuff so you can... live *chuckle* But, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter... you're always going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's just it doesn't really doesn't matter it's all you know.

When we used to try to do our music, people thought we were completely mad - now it's become much more normalised and it's is a victory. So when I see IDLES, who don't sound exactly like us, but they're working in the same area, I see they're number one and it makes me feel good, you know? Or Sleaford Mods. I mean, people always said 'Oh, that music is always too abrasive to be on the radio or the TV' and now it's normal, innit, and I think that's great, because we didn't really make the music to be abrasive, we just thought it sounded more exciting to be like that, you know? It just made us feel more excited. It wasn't to make people run out the room, although it quite often did!

It's funny the bands you mentioned there - I've got Joe Talbot (from IDLES) in my December issue and Jason Williamson (from Sleaford Mods) in the January one. I love both bands, even though I only found out about Sleaford Mods about 6 months ago.

Brilliant. I'm friends with both of them, even though they're not friends with each other *more chuckles*.

I don't understand it.

I don't I understand why Jason feels like that. But it's a misinterpretation, I think. But I love them both. I think Jason's a great guy and IDLES are really good people. I knew some of them before the bands and, you know, and I just wish we'd all stick together because there's bigger enemies out there. You know, there's bigger problems in the world. Although Jason is incredibly funny on Twitter - I think he did say he thought he was gonna fall out with me, but when we met, we got on really well. I think he just assumes people are always gonna fall out the the sort of guy but he had to spend an awful lot of time. And nobody been interested in his music and that does make you angry - it was six years before they made it, wasn't it? They're both amazing bands, though. It's good to be in these time when we've got bands that good, doing that well. It's a victory.

My Dad would like to know how you stay positive at the moment?

Well, I don’t always, I kind of go round in circles, you know? Some days you wake up, and it feels like 'Oh, god, this is such a nightmare'. In everybody's life there's going to be a situation like this, you know, nearly every generation has had to deal with the blues, basically. And I think we're lucky: this is not the Second or the First World War, I'm not in a trench, you know, all I got to do is stay at home most of the time, or wash hands or whatever. So you put it into context. We were always going to have to deal with something like this in our lives, so if we've got to deal one thing, this is the lightweight version. So I can put up with that. And the other positivity is, I trust in science. From the very start I really liked the Oxford vaccine people; they were so British. They knew they had the vaccine even last February, and they had to do the testing on it, but they weren't as gung ho as everybody else, you know. Scientists aren't dogmatic and that's what I like about them. That made me feel good. And then a few days after this thing started I realised 'okay, my life's changed'. I like change; you should always try to embrace change. But then I realised that I could do all the other stuff that I can't normally do, because I spent most of the day in band life - booking bands and looking for drivers to get to gigs. There's a really high thing of being in bands, which being creative, but it's also a really boring thing when you DIY, you have to do all the really boring stuff, like arranging stuff all the time. So I'm actually being very creative this year, which has been exciting as well. So I'm lucky. I've always worked from home or in cafes, so my life didn't change as much as other people's. The people whose whose lives got tougher were the frontline workers and the nurses and people like that, whose lives have got a lot tougher, you know, and I think about those people and it puts my life into context.

Marmite: yes or no?

Yes, when I was younger. I've found other things I prefer to it, but I will go for a yes. The first thing I ever ate was Marmite - to this day my mother still tells me that. Yeah, it was the third word I knew. It was Mama, tortoise, Marmite then Dada. Marmite was more important than my father!

Join us next time, when we'll discuss the meaning of punk, vinyl & trilobites.

Ruiz!

Please Baby Please This is the second single released by Sheffield-based Ruiz!, who you may remember from PSP issue 5. This is less ‘Iberian psyche’ (his own special genre that he was given by Reverend Jon McClure), and more moody, dark, country twang. Recorded at home during lockdown 1 by multiinstrumentalist Hugh Ruiz, this is the most impressive lockdown project that I've seen and comes ahead of an album due in August 2021.

The song starts with a sort of synthy noise, then some rhythmic guitar comes in that drives through the whole song. Ruiz’s voice is multi-tracked to sound eerie and foreboding, and is kind of soft but husky at the same time, creepily begging “please, baby, please”. Sometimes it sounds like a robot singing.

Dad says it reminds him of The Stone Roses 2nd album, where everything took a darker turn. At least it only took Ruiz! 1 lockdown and not 5 years ;-) It’s kind of epic psychedelic rock and the twanging of his reverberating guitar just makes me sway along.

This is available on Only Fruit Recordings via Bandcamp and on Soundcloud - search for ruizsheffield Also, check out the video at www.youtube.com/user/hughbiedoo

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