easyworld
For those of you not in the know, it’s been two years since Eastbourne trio easyworld first played Sheffield Leadmill on their first ever tour, now, a major label signing, album and four singles down the road, we catch up with them on the eve of ‘Junkies’ release to discuss life, love and er, rabbits...
‘We will speak...but you know what he’s like!’ says drummer Glenn Hooper, motioning towards singer Dav Ford.
January 2003
Dav shrugs, ‘As soon as they start to say anything I’ll just interrupt them anyway.’
‘It’s true, every time we try and talk, except that time when he was supposed to for comedy effect but didn’t.’ Giving up, Glenn returns to playing cards with bass player Jo Taylor and we get on with questioning Dav...
Why release ‘Junkies’ as the final single from the album?
‘It’s the best song on the album arguably and if we hadn’t released that song, it’s the last opportunity to do so and it’s a song we always intended to release. We’ve been playing it for three years now and all along people have been saying, ‘that song’s a single, that song’s a hit’ and regardless of that, it’s been one of our best friends as a song, it’s probably largely on the strength of ‘Junkies’ that we got signed in the first place, it’s always been central to our live sets and for me it typifies the album, ‘This Is Where I Stand’, a lot more than other singles like ‘You & Me’ and ‘Try Not To Think’ do. Obviously in the cold light of hindsight you can look at our single releases and think we did it all wrong, we should have released ‘Demons’, ‘Stain To Never Fade’ and ‘Junkies’, so I mean it’s more like redressing the balance, kind of saying, “this is what it’s all about, it’s all about ‘Junkies’ it’s all about ‘Try Not To Think’, it’s all about trying to get back on the straight and narrow”. In a lot of ways it leads the way for the next album which is going to be a lot more kind of like ‘Junkies’ rather than ‘You & Me’ - a little darker, a little slower, a little more intense, possibly a little sadder.’
Why the title change (‘Junkies’ originally appeared on the band’s Fierce Panda debut under the title ‘Junkies & Whores’)?
‘This is a quaint little thing that Jive records do, where by they decide “if it’s called Junkies & Whores they won’t play it on CD:UK”. The fact of the matter that CD:UK wouldn’t play it if you held a gun to their heads, is beside the point. Basically they thought it sounded threatening and a little bit unpleasant to call a song ‘Junkies & Whores’ but ‘Junkies’ you can just about get away with, then they might play it on CD:UK and meet Cat Deely.’
The band ended 2002 with a support tour to Toploader, the only other ‘band’ to hail from sunny Eastbourne and one that easyworld have never been too vocal in their love for. So why do it?
‘Well it was there, you know. Why do people climb mountains? Because they’re there. It’s something to do and at it’s very basics and fundamental level it was the opportunity for us as a band to play in front of 2000 people a night, 2000 people who are willing to pay £17.50 on a ticket to a gig and are willing to be affected, influenced or impressed by new music. The fact is, most of the people who go to the Toploader gigs don’t go to a lot of gigs. They go along there because they heard a song on the radio, they liked ‘Dancing In The Moonlight’, they saw it on a Sainsbury’s commercial, any of the above, they are to all intents and purposes, the general public and you can’t go discounting them as your audience coz even if you hate Toploader, which I don’t, they are people who are there to be converted to the path of righteousness, which is kinda what we were doing. It was as simple as that really. You can look at it in the cold, calculating business minded way, it’s the chance to play in front of a lot of people, or you can just say, Toploader, they’re not the devil, they’re not the enemy, they’re not the thing we should be angry at or hateful of as basically they don’t get in anyone’s way. If you ignore Toploader, they disappear. If you ignore Gareth Gates he’s still on your TV every fucking day.
‘Busted as well’ points out roadie Rich.
Now now, Busted, talented fellows, the way they can play without plugging in the guitars and jump at the same time!
‘That is true, they are very talented in that fashion. And they can do all that without a drummer either. It’s incredible!' points out Glenn excitedly.
Who needs a drummer though?
‘True! It’s inspirational to people forming bands, “hey, we don’t need a drummer!” unfortunately they’ll fall flat on their faces very soon.’
That’ll be the jumping ...
‘And similarly,’ adds Dav, ‘there’s two guitarists and I'm like, I'm sure there’s no guitar in that track, this in entirely synth based music. My point is though, Toploader, if you ignore them they go away. You can’t escape Gareth Gates and Will Young, they are proactively digging their claws into their Bibles, whereas Toploader they’re just off doing something else. If people don’t look at them they’re not there.’
The last few gigs you’ve been showcasing new material, what are you being influenced by this time around?
‘We’re playing six new songs tonight, well six songs of varying newness but all not off the first album. They’re about a wide ranging bunch of stuff . Songs like ‘The Other Man’ that’s kinda not as serious but it kinda deals with the serious issue of getting off with other people’s girlfriends which sounds like a really Sum41 thing but it’s more about pitying the position. Some guy gets it on with some girl and looks like everything’s cool but she’s got a fellow and goes back to happy families leaving me. It’s the whole kind of thing where the wrong people end up feeling shit, it’s about that. I’m sure everybody has felt like that. I’m the other man and I've been left feeling like shit. ‘Celebrity Killer’ that’s kind of an anti celebrity song, similar things to what I was saying about the cult of celebrity whereby people are famous for not doing anything. Everyone is just a normal person, some people are very talented and can do really great things while some people can’t but they’re still famous anyway and get treated like they’re some sort of god. So ‘Celebrity Killer’ was kind of a bizarre idea I had that wouldn’t it be great if there some kind of maniac that ran around killing celebrities...tone that down a bit, it’s more about killing the idea of celebrity rather than actually specifically murdering people although someone had Jill Dando didn’t they? It could have given way to a whole load of celebrity murders and then they would have come looking for me.’
Puzzled, Glenn chips in, ‘Why would they want to kill you?’
‘I mean as a suspect! Yeah coz I’m a celebrity! Then other than those two, the rest of the songs are really a collection of heartbreak records really. Hopefully not trailing over too much trodden ground but songs of unrequited love and loneliness and stuff like that. I think they make for a mix of good songs. There’s some nice, sloppy, positive, up love songs as well. Just a bit of everything really. You couldn’t say “yes, all the songs are about pigeon fancying”, as they not. They’re all about the depth of human feeling, emotion, and experience, the benefits and the highs and the lows there of. They’re all songs about being a human being in the 21st century.'
How far along are you with the new album?
‘We’re still at the demo stage. We’ve probably demoed all that we’re going to so the next stage is go and record the darn thing. I and indeed we, we’ve got a good album ready to go, I think they’re gonna be another couple of songs on it that as of yet don’t exist, there’s a couple of things we’re still working on it, the whole climatic, grand scheme of things and also the sound and vibe of the record. It’s taken on it’s own identity and I think probably we’re gonna record it this spring and release late summer. The label have plans for touring Europe and Japan, stuff’s being released in other countries so we should go and do that.’
It’s been 2 years since you first played here - how do you think you’ve evolved as a band?
‘Fluctuations in weight!’ laughs Dav. ‘It’s really difficult to put your finger on how far we’ve come. Looking back to the first gig we did here on the first King Adora tour, I obviously think we’re a far better band now. I feel more confident in performing, writing, in having the balls to stand up there and not be afraid of what you do and have the confidence that what you do you’re actually quite good at. I’m still rubbish at playing the guitar, that hasn’t changed much.’
‘Rubbish compared to who though?’ asks Jo.
Rubbish compared to Busted?
‘Yeah, they wouldn’t give me a job in Busted playing the guitar!’
‘Yeah but you can’t jump like they do,’ Glenn adds.
‘No, no I can’t.’
Have you tried?
‘Well no as I find it really hard with the guitar plugged in...’
‘So do they apparently!' laughs Glenn.
‘There’s a solution to that’ says Jo after some consideration.
‘Don’t plug it in?!? It’s a very good question and I’m kinda lost to be honest. I think we’ve come along as a band, I think we’re more worldly wise, bit more professional, ready for the understanding of what playing and being in a band involves. We were very green when we started out and hopefully we’re a bit brown now.
‘Soiled you mean?’ asks Rich.
‘Yeah. battle hardened.’
Do you think signing to Jive has paid off instead of signing to a small indie label?
‘The American Jive represents Britany, N*Sync etc, the British Jive just has us really. As far as Jive records go it’s not a big corporate machine in this country, it looks, smells, feels and acts like a small indie label, despite now being owned by BMG due to take overs etc. It’s certainly as we’re aware as we’ve never been on EMI or anything like that, it still feels like a very personal experience, they way you deal with the record label. There aren’t any of these masked powers behind the scenes. You know who calls the shots, you know who makes the decisions and you’ve met them all.’
Giving his take on it Glenn adds, ‘It’s like a big family really, having an extended family that just does things for you.’
‘But,’ says Dav, ‘I’ve never got on with my family...Yeah I think it has paid off and the reason it’s paid off is because what Jive offered us was not a get rich quick plan it wasn’t a “We’ll give you half a million up front, spend a million recording, 2 million promoting and then if you haven’t had a top 10 album at the end of it we’ll drop you like a stone,” and that’s what happens with a lot of bands, they’ll get it all up front and if it doesn’t pay off straight away, the floor falls from underneath you. It’s always been honest, they said, “we’re not gonna give you a huge amount of money, we’re not gonna spend a huge amount of money but we’re gonna give you support and nurturing and the next album will be slightly bigger than the next one and we’ll keep moving up the steps.” In that respect, it was a master stroke going with Jive rather than a big chunky label.’
What’s been your oddest moment of the last year?
‘Signing a bit of asparagus?’ suggests Jo.
‘That was the same day that Del from the Candys wanted me to sign his penis,’ adds Dav matter-of-factly, ‘He ran to the front of the signing queue and went “Dav sign this!”. Then he got chucked out.’
‘Oddest for me was as we were coming out of Scotland on one of the tours, we stopped at the services and some middle aged bloke came up to me and went, “Hey, aren’t you in easyworld?” He’d seen us in Bristol and we were coming back from Scotland. I was scared.’ says Glenn, looking slightly worried.
Not to be outdone by his band mates, Dav begins... ‘I was driving the van across the A66 on the way to Carlisle from Mibblesborough after a gig and I though I’d do a bit of driving so I got up to this roundabout and this rabbit ran in front of the van. And, as rabbits do, when it got directly in front of the van it stopped and just started walking forwards and backwards in the line of the tyre. I was breaking and stopping and there was a video on in the back and it was that programme ‘Spaced’ and everyone was asleep but once the vehicle had ground to a stop and everything was silent, on the video someone suddenly started yelling “RABBIT RABBIT RABBIT RABBIT RABBIT RABBIT!!!”.’
‘And in the background the music was playing from the Magic Roundabout and we were just approaching a roundabout. We were like “oh my god!”, adds Glenn.
‘You did also wipe out an owl,’ Rich helpfully points out, ‘flew straight into us.’
‘I was driving again! I must have a thing about wildlife! The two times I've been driving on the tour! There you go dead owl. Other than that I jumped into a lake after a gig in Middlesbrough and cut my hand up and so I was walking back to the van passed all these people waiting to get things signed and I had blood dripping from my hands, covered in pond water, that was weird. The oddest thing I did was nearly break my neck in a bizarre footballing accident. It was the day before the tour so for the first five days of the tour I think I was concussed. I stripped to the waist in an Eastbourne night club but that’s not particularly odd.’
‘It is, there aren’t any night clubs in Eastbourne!’ laughs Glenn.
‘What about when you were faining sex with Omar on the floor of the club?’ asks Jo.
‘Oh,’ says Dav, ‘that happens all the time.’
We asked you this time last year what your tips for 2002 were and Jo said Darius would have a number 1 single! Any predictions for 2003?
‘I meant to pick another one as I knew you’d ask me that! I’ll have to think about that one, take the others first.’
‘I beg your pardon?!?’ gasps Glenn in mock horror. ‘I think Colin Murry will be the biggest personality this year. I reckon he’ll go from strength to strength.’
‘Phil Collins is going to be the world heavy weight boxing champion, West Ham won’t get relegated and Blink 182 will surprise everyone with a lounge jazz album.’ proclaims Dav, accurate as ever.
Finally, Miss Taylor, mystic of Eastbourne offers her prediction, ‘OK, September - there’s going to be a massive earthquake in Britain.’
If she’s right she’ll be burned as a witch but until then, easyworld have a tour to finish.
'Junkies’ charted at number 39 and ‘This Is Where I Stand’ has been released in Japan. ‘2nd Amendment’ in due to be released on October 6th on 2CD and ltd 7”. Their second full length album, ‘Kill The Last Romantic’ is due out at the start of 2004. For more info check out www.easyworldinfo.com