[kj] Drowned in Sound meets Youth from Killing Joke

Tue Nov 17 05:34:48 EST 2015

Nice to hear The Hum will be making a return to the setlist! 

Jim.

On Tue, 17/11/15, Nick Scott <npscott at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [kj] Drowned in Sound meets Youth from Killing Joke
 To: "A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)" <gathering at misera.net>
 Date: Tuesday, 17 November, 2015, 10:20

   Thanks for posting this Paul, nice read. 

    On 17 November 2015 at 01:03 Paul
 <dubecho at gmail.com> wrote:

      DiS meets Youth from Killing Joke

       by Dom Gourlay November 16th, 2015

       When Killing Joke put out their first album in the
 summer of 1980, no one could have predicted they'd be
 here, thirty-five years later, talking about their sixteenth
 long player. Least of all the band themselves. Nevertheless,
 that's where they find themselves having released said
 record Pylon some five days earlier. Today's midweek
 charts reveal the album currently stands at the heady
 heights of number eleven, their highest chart placing since
 1985's Night Time. For a band who've operated
 outside of the mainstream throughout their lifespan, these
 are celebratory times.

       Currently halfway through a near sold out UK tour that
 will see them enrapture a jam packed Rock City in a few
 hours time, the four-piece - Jaz Coleman (vocals), Kevin
 "Geordie" Walker (guitars), Martin
 "Youth" Glover (bass) and "Big" Paul
 Ferguson (drums) - might be in their twilight years yet
 their music still pushes boundaries with every subsequent
 release.

       Having just returned from an in-store at the
 city's Fopp Records, DiS sat down with Youth - himself
 an esteemed producer in his own right - to discuss both his
 and the band's currently hectic schedules. But first,
 the conversation starts right here...

       ---

       DiS: You've played Nottingham Rock City
 numerous times over the years. What's so special too you
 about the city and the venue?

       Youth: I think we've played here fifteen times.
 Its got a special connection for me because one of my great
 aunts lived here. She was deaf and blind and worked on the
 local newspaper. Even in her late eighties she was still
 working for them. Whenever we played here I'd go round
 to her flat and fetch her. She'd be chain smoking
 Gauloises, have the TV and radio on full blast and she would
 this thick, gloopy coffee.Which she'd drink constantly
 while tapping away on her typewriter doing local stories. So
 we'd bring her down here and the staff were always
 really good. They'd bring her in with her wheelchair and
 look after her. And she loved the band. I think we were
 always loud enough for her to hear and get the experience.
 I've still got a cigarette box of hers I carry around.
 She was a favourite aunt of mine so I've always got fond
 memories of coming here and seeing her.

       DiS: Do you feel there's quite a
 connection between the band and Nottingham audiences? I
 remember as a teenager whenever 'Pssyche' or
 'Love Like Blood' came on during one of their club
 nights the Rock City dancefloor would fill up in
 seconds.

       Youth: Nottingham's the heartland of England
 isn't it? It's not quite the Midlands - East
 Midlands right? - but it's got a great rock heritage.
 The shows have always gone down well here and we've
 enjoyed playing them.

       DiS: Your latest album Pylon came out last
 week. Did you think you'd be sat here 37 years after the
 band started talking about the releae of your 16th long
 player?

       Youth: No I didn't. I thought the band would last
 six months to a year really, so it's amazing. But we
 were ambitious, there's no doubt about it. We always had
 our hearts and eyes set on the same targets and we had every
 intention of taking them on in a big way. Yet at the same
 time we weren't bothered about it! We were just happy to
 get away with doing it. It's especially great now
 because we finally have the experience and expertise
 we've learned to make records the way we always wanted
 to. Which is possibly why the new album's going down so
 well. We worked out a good modus operandi how to make them
 well. We might have got lucky with this one? All of them
 have really great lyrics but this one seems quite complete.
 Even though people still talk about our early albums as
 being great records - which to a degree they are - we were
 never entirely satisfied with them at the time. We're
 never very satisfied anyway but with this one I think we
 managed to get everyone fairly satisfied. And that's a
 good feeling. Plus I think it's great we still have
 something to say as a band and we're still engaged,
 present and relevant.

       DiS: Your last three records - 2011's
 Absolute Dissent, MMXII the following year and now Pylon
 rank among your finest for me. So I'd wholeheartedly
 agree that Killing Joke are as if not more relevant now than
 they've ever been. Particularly when put alongside many
 other bands who've reunited purely in the name of
 nostalgia, which is something you've never
 done.

       Youth: It's interesting because a lot of bands of
 a similar age to us - they're not up for making new
 records. Most of them haven't made a record for at least
 twenty years, and the further up that mountain you get, the
 colder the wind blows. So they end up deliberately avoiding
 it because they don't know how they got there in the
 beginning. Or things have changed so much they don't
 have the urgency or passion to do it again. Whereas luckily
 for us we've never really stopped. The band have made
 three albums in the last five years and I'm making
 records all the time with other artists. It's brought
 the whole band up to steam a bit. Absolute Dissent was more
 of a regrouping and a little self referential. MMXII was a
 bit more focused but we also experimented a lot on that.
 With this one we just decided let's go really heavy and
 that's how it came out. We also spent a lot of time
 writing this one. Two or three two-week heavily focused
 sessions in Prague, which ended up garnering thirty or forty
 really strong ideas. So eventually we worked them down to
 sixteen songs and then we finished up with the ten that made
 it onto the album.

       DiS: Of the six that didn't make Pylon, do
 you see yourselves revisiting them in the future?

       Youth: Well, originally when we were making MMXII we
 had this track called 'In Cythera' which our
 guitarist Geordie really hated. But eventually it became the
 lead single off the record and I actually think it's the
 greatest single we've ever done. With this album we had
 a similar track called 'Love Is The Law' which again
 Geordie doesn't like because there's very little
 guitars on it, and I think it's possibly the second
 greatest single we've ever made. So we decided as a
 group - reluctantly on my part - to leave it off the album
 although Geordie has said he would consider revisiting it
 with extra guitars on. So maybe we'll put it out next
 summer? We're certainly not short of material. We're
 all writing a lot. There wasn't a dull moment during the
 writing sessions. We had lots of ideas. It was just a matter
 of getting them all down.

       DiS: That sounds quite frustrating. Are there
 a lot of disagreements when it comes to deciding which
 tracks to release?

       Youth: We are a workers collective and we're all
 very strong alpha males with strong opinions. Sometimes we
 have a tendency to murder songs early on, just to give them
 a chance. It's about putting them in the ring and facing
 the seven-headed hydra, and if they work we're generally
 in unanimous decision. If it doesn't - if two of us want
 to work on it a little further it usually gets to the point
 where all of us are on board or none of us want to fight for
 it. It's difficult, it's challenging and it's
 frustrating. It's also really democratic so if three of
 us don't like something but one does and they've
 pushed at it we'll usually give it a chance. It all
 depends how hard someone is prepared to fight for that song.
 And even then, by the time the lyrics are added and a few
 other things are changed it's completely different to
 the song you first brought to the table anyway!

       DiS: Were there any other songs on the record
 which you had to fight for?

       Youth: Yeah, and a lot of them didn't make it. Two
 of my favourite songs didn't make it,
 'Apotheosis' and 'Panopticon'. They're
 both on the bonus disc. There was another song which was
 based around a Barry White bassline. We got quite far down
 the road with it but then it got dropped late on. But
 they're the classic sabotage techniques we know and love
 Killing Joke for really. And I do like that. If the songs
 are good enough they'll end up on a b-side or EP anyway.
 I guess it's our infantile arrogance which allows us to
 self-sabotage to that degree. And get away with it!

       DiS: You've described the last three
 albums as being a triptych of ideas. Will the next record be
 in a similar vein or are you hoping to do something
 completely different?

       Youth: Every record we make feels like the last record
 we'll ever make and then we're here again so I
 don't know. I would imagine we'll make another album
 and I'd expect it to have a different vibe. Our records
 tend to reflect where we are emotionally as individuals and
 that's generally changing.

       DiS: Pylon is currently number eleven in the
 midweek charts which is your highest position in thirty
 years. Do you consider the charts relevant?

       Youth: As relevant as they ever were I guess. It's
 a great result for us and good affirmation that we're
 still relevant. Even though they're not that important
 every band would like to be number one when they put a
 record out. So to go top twenty is an amazing thing for us
 and a bit of a surprise really. We've always found
 ourselves tucked away in a cult minor league somewhere so
 this shows there's still a lot of support for the band
 out there.

       DiS: Tom Dalgety produced the album having
 also worked on the last record. Are you big fans of his
 work, particularly what he did with the Royal Blood
 album?

       Youth: We liked what he did on MMXII so we were happy
 to let him do a big chunk of the engineering and production
 on this record. Most of the recordings were done by the
 three of us - me, Geordie and Paul - with a little in-house
 engineer in Prague. In fact, he wasn't there a lot of
 the time so I engineered most of it. Then Tom came in and
 did some individual tracks with us. Paul didn't want
 anyone there when he was doing the drums so it was just him
 and Tom with me ringing up every couple of hours saying
 "Make sure he does this!" or "Forget
 that!" or "Cover yourself with this!" And it
 worked out fine. His drums came out fantastically well and
 we were all happy with how it sounded. Then Geordie did some
 guitar overdubs with Tom and mixed it. That was great
 because when I take the full weight and responsibility for
 that side of things it incurs a lot of resentment from the
 rest of the band. Because I'm in the band. You know, why
 should he have more power than the rest of us? Especially
 when I signed the band to my label. That was a nightmare!
 It's better to just be the bass player and a
 co-producer, so another co-producer can take some of the
 flak.

       DiS: Does your work with other artists impact
 on what you bring to Killing Joke? For example, has there
 ever been a time when you've heard something in the
 studio and immediately thought that would work on a Killing
 Joke record too?

       Youth: Whatever I do informs everything else I do to
 some extent. I tend not to compare or compromise projects
 with other projects I may be involved with. I have clear
 boundaries. They are two totally different disciplines so in
 lots of ways, no. The only time it becomes a problem is if
 the managers fuck it up and they double book me. It's
 been fairly smooth in that department mainly because the
 others are always busy as well. If it was just me the band
 were waiting around for that might cause a problem but
 it's not, so everything usually works out OK.

       DiS: What other projects are you working on at
 present?

       Youth: I've been working on the Spiritualized
 record and more recently, the new Jesus & Mary Chain one
 which is a big deal as it's their first record in
 seventeen years.

       DiS: How are they getting on?

       Youth: Well, the Reid brothers are still talking to
 each other! That's good, and the songs are phenomenal.
 It's sounding great. We're at the halfway stage now
 so it should be ready by the end of the year.

       DiS: What about the Spiritualized
 album?

       Youth: I recorded around twenty-two tracks with Jason
 (Pierce) then we took a break so he could do some summer
 festivals. And then he came back and decided he wanted to
 throw the whole thing away and start again. He does have the
 capacity to do that every now and then. He's a very
 challenging artist who has a very high criteria of what
 he's looking for. So I don't know what's going
 on there at the minute or whether I'll be working on it
 again.

       DiS: With such a vast back catalogue to choose
 from, are there any records you're not particularly fond
 of or try to avoid when putting together a live
 setlist?

       Youth: I don't really go towards Revelations or
 Night Time that much, but the rest of the band really want
 to do them, so we've agreed to do 'The Hum' and
 'Eighties' at some point. I don't really like
 those records so I'd prefer not to but then there are
 other songs I never really liked the recorded versions of
 yet we made them sound killer live. We're in a good
 position having such a big canon to play around with.

       DiS: Your fanbase also covers a wide
 demographic, especially since the last three
 albums.

       Youth: That's right. We travelled that journey
 throughout the demise of the tribes. People are more open to
 diverse sounds now. We've opened everything up from just
 dub and trance mixes which is a reflection of how people are
 today. Acid house changed a lot of that. I remember hearing
 Phil Collins play George Clinton followed by U2 followed by
 Phil Collins and the place would be going crazy!

       DiS: You're already scheduled to tour
 America in the early part of 2016. What does the rest of the
 year hold for the band?

       Youth: We're also planning to go to Europe,
 Australia and Asia so a large chunk of next year will be
 spent touring with possibly a few festivals in there as
 well.

       DiS: What advice would you give to new bands
 just starting out?

       Youth: Get your vision and manifesto together and if
 you're really connected with it, see what happens.

       DiS: Are there any new artists you've been
 impressed with recently?

       Youth: I really like the new Tame Impala album. The
 new Fuzz record is great too.

       ---

       The album Pylon is out now on Spinefarm Records.

      http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4149534-dis-meets-youth-from-killing-joke

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