Robert Turner of BRMC. Manchester Academy 12.05.02 - top 5 bands or albums? Robert: Hmm. It’s easier if I just do music I like rather than best bands otherwise I’ll be here all day. The Band, do you know The Band? - Yeah I know them Robert: that’s the best band I think that’s ever been, errrm, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, I dunno that sounds a little easy, erm Joy Division, ermmmm Sam Cooke - Who was your biggest idol as a teenager? (long, long silence) erm, I didn’t really have any (laspses back into thought) I guess you’re supposed to but I didn’t have any. Idolising people – I was really paranoid about that. They can only go so far. It’s good to set your sights above whatever you’re looking at, try and do it yourself. Keith Richards kind of but not because he’s like, I just think he’s pretty wise, he’s a really wise guy. I think he knows that he doesn’t know everything – that it’s a bunch of bullshit in the end. Richard Manuel from The Band, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm – they’re all the guys in The Band. - Are you sick of the Jesus and Mary Chain comparisons? Robert: I’m sick of it cos it’s just lazy writing on the journalist’s part. They’re not doing their part to like, really look at the music. They’re just slapping My Bloody Valentine or Jesus and Mary Chain on and then walking away. Kind’ve turns people off as much as it turns people on. Like, right now you’re asking that question and what you’re saying is like mentioning it, so if you’re gonna put that in yours you’ve just mentioned it. Even though you don’t believe in it. And that happens half the time to us too – where people are just commenting on how we don’t sound like them. - It’s just perpetuating it? (laughs and agrees) it’s just perpetuating it. - Was your image ever a conscious thing? Robert: The only conscious part about it is that we put a lot of thought into not distracting people from our music with a certain fashion, y’know. And even like the extreme of not having a fashion and just wearing what’s in your local store near by, whatever the masses are wearing, is the epitome of fashion. It’s saying more than if you put some thought into it. - I know things like the NME have branded you as ‘the band in black’… We were just trying not to put any logos on ourselves. Try to really leave it up to the people, and leave it up to the music cos we don’t wanna be speaking about it like that. We don’t want to speak through our clothes. We tried our best not to do that. - One band I pick up in your sound is Primal Scream, are you a fan? Robert: y’know, they’re the best band in the world right now – right below us huhhuh. I saw them the last tour ‘XTRMNTR’, I saw them at the House of Blues and I saw them Reading festival (2000) they were right below and they should’ve been headlining! - Do you think this is the year of rock ‘n’ roll? With all these new bands… Robert: I’m just trying to figure out if we’re a rock ‘n’ roll band, just a rock ‘n’ roll band, cos it seems like there’s a lot more going on. ‘Whatever Happened to my Rock ‘n’ Roll’ – that song, it’s got such a big banner over it, y’know. Such a big flag to wave, it’s kind’ve a speeding runway. As for other bands, there’s a whole thing yeah. A couple of years ago, right when our album came out there was nothing going on. Like, White Stripes had a couple of albums out but they were totally ignored and the Strokes album wasn’t out or anything. We played with the Strokes in Phillidelphia, Boston and that was great. - Who was supporting who? Robert: we were on the East Coast so we were supporting them. We were touring though, the first tour of our album and the whole thing just kind’ve came up right like a little wave and we were just kinda riding it. - Are the Strokes really big now in America? Robert: they’re much bigger here, but they’re big in the States. It’s kind’ve annoying everyone talking about them, but they’re a good band. It’s just like, it’s only annoying cos you don’t want to be too hyped, it kinda spoils it. When any band’s being hailed as the best band it’s a lot of weight. It’s much better though, than a couple of years ago. - You did a lot of television promotion for 'Spread Your Love', how do you feel about all that? Robert: it’s so different. We did one in America. It’s just like any other show, you just set up and play. It’s kind’ve half-way between in the studio and a live show. But here you don’t know if you’re gonna be playing it live or just singing it live or playing to the whole thing on tape, y’know. There’s a lot of different ways to do it. I can’t say I’m against it because there’s nothing else on TV - I’d rather watch whatever’s on rather than anything else cos it’s still putting music forward. interview and text: Rachel. |