DISS: Hi, Ant, first of all thanks for taking the time to do this interview. First of all, how and why did you decide to become a musician?
ANT: Well, I knew I wanted to be a performer before I became a musician. My uncle lived with me and my dad for seven years. He’d been a professional magician and passed on the tricks of the trade, plus he gave me his magic kit. I started my life on stage as a magician. I then got into acting, but I wasn’t great at it, certainly. When I was 13, my dad saw me playing a Casio keyboard in a department store. The Casiotone 201 was the very first Casio keyboard on the market. I was picking out melodies and my dad was impressed enough to buy the keyboard for me. I was 13, that age where things crack open and new eggs fall out. Gary Numan’s song Cars was the thing that flicked the bright switch for me - I’d never heard anything like it - the weirdness was wonderful and the track felt scary and cold and pulled me right in. Plus - synths! So, long story short, it’s all Gary Numan’s fault.
DISS: After hearing “In the Village of the Apple Sun” again, I suddenly felt the urge to listen to some SYD BARRETT for the first time in ages. Is he one of your influences and would you like to elaborate on influences already cited like THE BEATLES and JULIAN COPE as well as any others.
ANT: I love Syd’s songs, absolutely. I have a song on my recent PolyNormal AB record called I Saw Syd, based on the time I indeed saw him on Mill Road in Cambridge, where I lived for several years. It was an unsettling moment for me, to be honest. I don’t know if he’s still an active influence on me, though… what he did with music was so distinctive and true to himself - and I bear in mind his mental illness - that trying to absorb his vibe past a certain point just sees a little superficial. But his peculiar way with melody and his flow of poetry are awe inspiring. Regarding other influences… The Beatles, to this day, to this minute, are always the alpha/omega for me. I learn new things every time I listen to them. I’d never noticed until yesterday that John is basically singing a drone in Drive My Car. Just the fact of John and Paul together as singers - that alone is proof that God kept a secret day of creation to Thyself. Julian Cope is another artist who inspires me daily. He’s 100% committed to his righteous trip and his music comes straight from The Place every time.
DISS: I used to review Pink Hedgehog CDs sent to me by Simon Felton. You released a couple of your albums there if memory serves. I was wondering how that came about.
ANT: Yeah, I worked with Simon on and off for years. I think the last record we did together was “Berliner Grotesk”, my piano-based record from 2019. I met Simon at the Woronzow Summer Pudding. I’d released King of Missouri on the Woronzow label and was familiar with the lads in the Lucky Bishops. There was quite a family vibe in that scene and it made natural sense to work with Simon and Pink Hedgehog. I had to look it up, but it seems I did 5 albums with PH. Simon is one of the true hearts in the “music biz.” Alan Strawbridge and I produced one of Simon’s solo records - Failing In Biology - a groovy album that turned out quite well.
DISS: You also have a connection with BEVIS FROND of course and Nick Saloman sent me some downloads for albums on his label including the aforementioned “Apple Sun” which led to this interview. You supported Bevis Frond in Sacramento I believe, and they also played on one of your own albums- was it King of Missouri? I was also wondering how that came about and your recollections of it.
ANT: My band was booked as support when the Frond came through Sacramento, my hometown. Maybe this was 2000 or 2001? I’d heard of them but had the odd notion they were a well-coiffed fancy band. When I met them, long-haired very real, I was amazed! When I heard them play, I was hooked for life. How could these songs be so stunning? Those melodies, the lyrics and the ROCK, right? That gig led to a friendship - and an open invite for me to come to London. So, the next year, I showed up for a gig supporting them at the 12 Bar. This not only kickstarted my career as a performer in the UK, it also led to the threat of me making an album with the Frond. I returned the following year to make King of Missouri with them at Gold Dust in Bromley. With their rep as one of the greatest psych bands on the planet, I pictured them dosing me on day one, making the album without me while I rolled around in a field full of cows. Nothing of the sort happened. Instead, the sessions were professional and super-efficient. You know, started on a Monday, finished on a Friday. We tracked 12 songs on day 1, then moved into production-line mode, doing lead guitars, then keyboards, then vocals etc. I say production-line, but you know that with the Frond this doesn’t mean anything less than stellar, inspired performances, no matter how many takes a given track took. Curiously, “King of Missouri” turned out to be such a clean record that I found myself beginning to write songs for “Village of The Apple Sun” in reaction.
DISS: I also believe you played at the Cavern at a launch gig for your Guladong album. What was that like?
ANT: The first trip to the Cavern was wonderful. I rode up with my band - Alan Strawbridge from the Lucky Bishops, bassist Yuki Kasuya from Tokyo, and Steve Randall, a hot guitarist from Sacramento. We drove from Weymouth in a 15-seat van, with all the members of the Lucky Bishops, Bitter Little Cider Apples, and Cheese crammed in with us. Thankfully, all bands shared members, so 15 seats were enough. We sang Beatles tunes as we approached Liverpool, but stopped singing while we drove an hour around the city looking for parking. The gig itself was quite emotional - exciting and overwhelming. A huge moment, of course. I played the Cavern twice after that. The second time was in the back room, again with Steve Randall and a German drummer named Tito. Steve and I borrowed a bass and took turns playing it in a room filled with 10 or 20 people. The last time I played there was a disaster! I played an acoustic set with a guitar that only produced howling feedback. This was only happening onstage, so the audience had zero idea why I was freaking out.
DISS: What was it like working with people like Colin Moulding of XTC and what are your favourite recollections of collaborations with other?
ANT: I’ve worked with Colin on 3 songs, and on videos for two of those songs. We started working on the first track online. I’d not met him, but his daughter-in-law is a dear friend. I’d never wanted to push for a connection, but when she said, “Why don’t you ask Colin to play on something?” I went for it. He and I went back and forth over the Internet, and bit by bit, a Colin Moulding bass-line appeared before my eyes. I finally met him when it was time to make a video for the song he’d played on. I went to his place in Swindon and we filmed in his kitchen! We got to chatting about writing songs for other people, and I told him I was working on a second album with Allyson Seconds. He was curious about this, so I soon after sent him some of the tracks. He offered to sing on the title track of her “Little World album”, which was a thrill for Allyson, who is as much an XTC fan as I am. Dave Gregory, also ex-XTC, just played on a song of mine, too. I’ve not met him in person, so it’s a bit removed in a way, but what a stunning musician. Donald Ross Skinner was Julian Cope’s right-hand man for years and he’s been adding guitars to a few songs of mine lately. Again, hearing people who had vital roles on some of my favourite albums ever, now playing on my own albums is, frankly, weird! In the best way. It’s not fair to pick faves, but… I was in Three Minute Tease with Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor, both former Soft Boys/Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians members. We made two albums together, the second one with the late Pat Collier. Being in a band with those fellows might be my favourite collaboration, because it was indeed a band. There was chemistry and decisions were never just mine to make. I was sad
when the band broke up, but I’ve been recording with them both again of late, so hurrah!
DISS: How do you see yourself placed genre-wise. I note a recent album was called “POWER POP !!!”
ANT: I often use the term “pre-apocalyptic psychedelic pop” because it’s evocative - it SOUNDS like it means something specific and mysterious at the same time. But I’ve released multiple Antronica albums - all synth pop, all the time. I love plain, simple pop music, I love freaky folk. I put out an EP of synth drones. The guys in the new band I’ve formed are mainly jazz types. My Power Pop album was a piss take, title-wise. I find that particular genre to be very limitation-based, which is the opposite of what I love in music. Still, I adore the perfect jangly guitar-pop song like anybody else, so there you go!
DISS: I’ve heard you described as a “force of nature”. At last count I think you are approaching 40 albums since 1993. Where does your energy and the inspiration to keep going come from?
ANT: Bassist Andy Metcalfe came to a curious conclusion about me some years back, when we were first working together. He noted that as I’d never had any “proper” success nor any of the burnout/cynicism that can sometimes come with such - that I was still very much an underground unknown in the big eyes of the world - I still had a kind of naïve hunger for success. I think that’s shifted over the recent years - I’m not as driven by the thought of fame, but I’m still excited every single day by music. I listen to music with, hopefully, a more open, curious mind than I did before. I want to know what I’ve missed out on due to uptight teenage biases. I’m always reaching into the unknown, looking for sounds I’ve not heard before, for melodies and harmonies that buzz my brain. I never quite feel satisfied with what I do, it never feels quite real enough. So perhaps that’s a driving force as well. Someday I’ll make my own “Aja” and then I can relax and retire!
DISS: What effect has living in different countries had on your music?
ANT: You know, I think about this a lot. I’ve got a song called Queen of Apples that could only have been written in the Birdwood garden in Cambridge. It’s quintessentially English, that song. Secretion Of the Wafer was written in a hotel by a foggy lake on the French border in Spain, yet the lyrics describe early days in California with Julia, now my wife. Berliner Grotesk and Clubbing in Berlin could have only been written in Berlin, right? But Milk Churn in the Morning and High Noon, both written in the same Berlin flat as the Berlin-themed songs I just mentioned, could have been written anywhere. To sum up, sometimes my songs are very much the product of a specific place, other times not at all!
DISS: What are your plans for the immediate future?
ANT: I’m eyeball deep in a next album, Glitch Wizard. It’s an odd record, and I don’t know if it’s good, great, terrible or frivolous. But making records is what I do - compulsively. If I’m not working on something most hours of the day, I panic. Meanwhile, slowly starting to book a few gigs again. Berlin is sorted, and possibly New York and a date or two in the UK. Maybe Jerome, Arizona, just for laughs! The thing I’m most excited about is the reissue of In The Village Of The Apple Sun on Blue Matter. It’ll be on LP for the first time.
DISS: Is there anything else you would like to add?
ANT: Thanks for having me and watch out for falling lasers, slow dogs and frogs
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