[kj] October File interview -- asked several questions about Killing Joke, excerpted below

[B. Oliver Sheppard]

I heard their two new tracks at their MySpace page (October File, that 
is). Tracks from the upcoming album (but none w/ Jaz vox). I don't like 
what I have heard. And I *so* wanted to like it! If I buy the October 
File LP I'll probably only get it for the tracks Jaz is on, and, man, do 
I hope he can rescue them..... -Oliver



from: 
http://www.candlelightrecords.co.uk/candleweb/redesign/candle_october_file_interview.html

[...]


Q: How do you feel about being compared to Killing Joke all the time?

Steve: “We never wanted to sound like anyone else. The constant 
comparisons to Killing Joke, because we toured with them and Jaz is on 
the record, well, do we sound like them because we play dark music? 
That’s like saying that every metal band sounds like Metallica and 
that’s bullshit. Just because it’s in that realm doesn’t mean that 
that’s what it is. You know, we all went to see Killing Joke and they 
were fucking outstanding, and I said to the others ‘We don’t just want 
to be as good as this, we want to be better than this!’ and that’s the 
intention. We want to do our own thing with that level of intensity.”

Q: How did you persuade Jaz Coleman to take part on the album?

Steve: “Jaz really likes the band and it was great when he turned round 
and said that he’d like to do something with us. He offered to produce 
the album for us, and we just thought that because he’s barmy it might 
not be the best idea. We don’t really want to go to Morocco to record 
the guitars, Jaz! (laughs) We’d rather do them in Reading. So we thought 
we’d do our own thing, so he offered to do some guest vocals instead. 
That bit on ‘High Octane Climate Changer’ was written with him in mind. 
In the end what he did was the exact opposite of what I wanted him to 
do, but it turned out amazing! It was great, watching Jaz Coleman 
singing lyrics that I wrote on one of our songs. He was sitting there, 
waxing lyrical about the record and being honest, and I kept thinking 
‘Wow, Jaz Coleman likes my band!’”

Q: You seem to have played shows with a wide variety of bands. Was that 
a deliberate ploy to confront as many different audiences as possible?

Steve: “Well, we’ve toured with lots of different people, from Killing 
Joke to Deathstars. We’re prepared to take any gigs. If there’s an 
audience in front of us, we’re happy to let people make their own minds 
up. We’ve picked up people along the way. We did a gig in Swindon 
recently and there was a real mix of different people there, people 
who’d seen us on this tour and that tour, and there were really young 
girls dancing down the front and the 40-year-old guys at the back 
wearing our tour t-shirts from two years ago, and all of a sudden we 
could see that we’ve done a lot of ground work for this, and we’ve 
delivered a great album at just the right time.”