Electric 6
Back in January a band from Detroit released what could prove to be the single of the year and there’s not a brother/ sister duo in sight (well, not quite). Flashing crotches, high pitched yelps and stage names that give The Hives a run for their money, Electric 6 have become masters of the eccentric oddity. Part way through their February tour we braved the wilds of Nottingham to enter their world...
How’s the tour gone so far as you’ve just come out of the European one?
How did the European tour go? Did the single do as well over there?
How has the audience response been?
What’s been the best gig?
All of them then?
You’ve been doing matinees on some of the shows haven’t you?
Was that your idea?
It seems a good idea coz of the under 18 thing.
No injuries yet?
Were you surprised how well ‘Danger! High Voltage’ did?
The people I've spoken to who’ve liked it have been from a really wide section of tastes, they’ve said it’s like the missing track from The Rocky Horror Show.
Speaking of Rocky Horror, the video was certainly in that vein. Whose idea was it?
And you went with the flashing crotch?
You did seem to go for it ...
Are you worried that future singles won’t do as well or does that not bother you?
Why did you finally decide to release ‘Danger! High Voltage’ as the track’s been around for quite a while now?
The single was backed with two older Wildbunch songs...
Why sign to XL?
The album’s called Fire. Have you got a slight arson obsession?
The single was released during the fire fighters strike, would you not recommend starting fires in discos during that time?
What do you think marks you out from all the other new American bands around at the moment?
Have the bands that made it over here in the last year had the same success in America?
Any other bands that you think would do well over here?
What do you think of the British music scene in comparison?
The new material - if you could collaborate with anyone, who would you choose?
The band are currently on tour in Europe having undergone a major line-up change. Their debut album ‘Fire’ hit the shops at the end of June and third single ‘Dance Commander’ is due out in October and a December tour is booked.
February 2003
Dick Valentine: We had a week off in between Europe and this. The week off was good as we saw a lot of cool bands.
D: It got released the same time we were over there.
Manager: It did really well but Europe's is much like America, you don't really have a singles market. The short answer to that would be no, but it’s like apples and oranges.
Rock And Roll Indian: It seemed to be good. There are crowds in the UK that are bouncier but in terms of what we’re doing it seemed like everyone was getting in to it so we’ll be doing another trip to Europe.
D: Paris was good, Glasgow was good, Liverpool was good, Oxford, Manchester.
D: Yeah. London was shaky. We have two more chances to redeem ourselves in London!
D: We did one in Cardiff and in Glasgow.
RARI: No. It’ll never happen again!
D: In that respect it’s a good idea but our shows are so physically exhausting that it's tough to do 2 in a row.
D: No physical ones.
RARI: It’s all physiological, existential, spiritual.
D: In terms of physical injuries, no. We stretch before a gig!
D: We were very surprised. We’re very small potatoes and in fact still are.
RARI: I don’t know if we were surprised or would go out of our way to say we were small potatoes but it’s not something anybody planned on so it’s odd but this band has always been about doing bizarre things and/ or having bizarre things happen to us so in that context it fits right in. Weird stuff happens.
RARI: People just respond. We don’t put it under a microscope.
Surge Joebot: I guess there’s something in it for everybody, there’s a lot of things going on including a sax solo.
RARI: Anybody a big Rocky Horror fan?
SJ: The band unanimously despises Rocky Horror and we’re not necessarily big disco fans either.
D: That was more or less the director’s idea. It just came down to a handful of ideas...
D: Exactly! It was quick to film. You show up, make out and at some point the catering shows up. It was a one day shoot. I was expecting more making out though! I thought you’d have to go for multiple takes.
D: Well I think it was coz it was only two or three scenes so we didn’t have to go for 15 takes or something. Thankfully.
SJ: It's the last thing that we think about. We don’t operate in terms of charts. America doesn’t pay attention to the charts or anything.
RARI: And singles too. It’s non existent. It’s more of an album culture. So for singles to be treated this way is odd.
SJ: Nelly’s ‘Hot In Herre’ wasn’t even released as a single, it was strictly an album track.
Manager: Typically they aren’t. It’s only in certain genres that singles are released. A single’s just a lead track of an album.
D: I think it had a grass roots build up and it just seemed the right thing.
SJ: We had a batch of new songs that we put into a label that had released our stuff in the past and they kinda didn’t want to put out anything else for a while coz their punk rock fans had sent them very scathing hate mail for putting our stuff out. But after a couple of years they wanted to put more stuff out so we gave them a batch of new songs and they we’re like ‘we want that one,’ and we were like no, we’ve got better stuff than that. ‘No we want that one out’. It had a life of its own.
D: Well nearly everything we do is Wildbunch, we just had to change the name. Not the band. For the album it’s a mix of stuff. We just took what we thought were the 12 best songs at the time. 2 or 3 of them happened to be new but most are older.
D: We like their roster and what they’ve done and out of the choices we did have, they stood out.
SJ: Yeah!
D: No! We just looked at the songs on the album and realised a lot of them contained the word ‘fire’. Nothing to do with arson at all. It makes you’re song a little bit more exciting, dangerous.
SJ: We don’t want to make decisions like that for people. There was a fire in a disco in Bali and there was talk about changing the song but it all worked out.
RARI: Fire’s a growing problem in a lot of places...
SJ: It’s making a comeback!
RARI: Nothing, nothing at all!
D: I think you’d have to pick a specific band and then we could compare.
RARI: We have three times as many people as The White Stripes, two more than The Strokes, no, one more person. There’s differences right there!
D: I think they do better in Europe than they do in the States to most degrees. We’re basically unknown there. I think it's the same with any band you want to look at. What’s popular and what's being listened to is more like suited to your commercial radio.
SJ: 90% of the people in these bands are people from the same bar scene in Detroit. Sitting around for like the last 6 years so its weird opening up a magazine - it adds to the surreal nature of the stuff. It’s just people from Detroit.
SJ: The Paybacks were just over here and I'm sure they’ll be back as they’re a really good band.
D: The times we’ve been over here we’ve been so busy we've not had much chance to go out and see shows. I think in terms of finding out what’s around here we haven’t had the chance to find out and haven’t been pointed in any direction.
RARI: Debbie Harry
SJ: Steve our driver - we’ll get him to rap! Jack White!