With two albums under their belt, shambolic performances at the Jug of Ale and their very own spiritual guide ‘Sir Erotic Volvo’ Moseley nine piece Misty’s Big Adventure have been regulars at the so-called Birmingham scene for ages. Now it’s time for world domination (well, as far as we are concerned). Misty’s have been regulars on Rob Da Bank’s One Music show and ‘The Black Hole’, the band’s second album, has even been released in Europe. Fused went to Hamburg (yes, The Beatles spiritual home) to catch up with them on their first European tour.
Grandmaster Gareth: We’ve tried to find the club where the Beatles played when they first came to Hamburg but couldn’t find it. Do you know where it is?
Apparently it’s just down the road, near St Pauli the infamous red light district. But apart from that, how’s the tour been going so far?
GG: Yeah, its been going OK! We’ve been to Cologne and Dresden and a couple of other places so far and we will play Berlin tomorrow. We are really looking forward to that one and to our day off in Berlin. We’ve played anything from 30 to 150 people which is great as The Black Hole is our first release in Germany and it’s only been out a couple of weeks.
Back home in Birmingham you’ve built up a bit of cult a following. Do you feel part of the current ‘Birmingham scene’ with bands like Editors?
GG: Basically, the scene that I most identify myself with and Misty’s started in the mid 90’s with bands like Broadcast and Pram. There is a great band called Novak as well, there were seven of them and it was quite chaotic. I used to go and see them when I was about 15, 16 and thought it would be cool to have that many people on stage. These days, to be honest because we are touring so much, I can’t really keep up to date with what’s going on in Birmingham. There’s a few bands doing alright but we are sort of a separate entity and then there’s the Editors.
Sam: They are doing well at the moment but we’ve never seen them or played with them.
GG: We’re very kinda split in Birmingham. It’s weird.
Sam: It’s too big I think and it’s spread out a lot. People don’t tend to travel that much to listen to the music. That is why we play at the Jug of Ale a lot; it’s in our local area.
Do you think the music press makes up local music scenes?
GG: I read a thing recently in the Telegraph and it called us part of ‘The New Eccentrics’, which seemed like an annoying tag.
Sam: It’s hard to say ‘cause we never really felt part of a scene. I think some bands do find that helpful. It’s not really benefited us so we carry on regardless.
GG: We don’t really stick to one style and I hope to think that we keep changing every album, keep developing in different ways.
Sam: Trying to avoid as many scenes as possible really (laughs).
How many instruments did you actually use when you recorded The Black Hole?
GG: I think that’s really impossible to say because we just randomly stick stuff on when we are recording. I don’t know what you term as an instrument because I end up hitting anything to get a sound. But the basic line-up is saxophone, trumpet, keyboard, guitar and bass. And then I use a Theremin occasionally, bits of electronic equipment and saucepans, egg whisks.
There are nine people involved in the band. How do you actually work with that many people?
GG: Well, it starts in my head and then we practice and give different ideas to different players in the band and then we develop it as we go along. It just seems to kinda work like that. I have the final say, so if I don’t like something then I’ll say and it won’t happen, otherwise it gets too chaotic. When there is that many people playing in a band you need someone to put the foot down when it’s getting out of hand.
Sam: I think we’re all very practiced to understand what Gareth wants in his head. We’ve done it a lot over the last few years and we’re good at it now. It works well it’s tried and tested.
You are also quite famous for your dancer “Erotic Volvo”…
GG: Basically, his parents put on shows for kids. I can’t remember what the play was, but anyway, I saw him in the play wearing his costume and I just thought it would look cool on stage. Initially we didn’t have any idea that he’d dance. I remember the first gig he did, he said to me about two minutes before we went on: ‘Oh what do you want me to do’. And I said: ‘I don’t know, just stand at the back’. And over the time he evolved his own unique style.
On your first record ‘Misty’s Big Adventure and Their Place in the Solar Hi-fi System’ there is a song ‘Home Taping’s Killing Music’. What do you think about downloading?
GG: For us it’s great! I doubt we loose many sales because of it. Even if people do download the album for free hopefully they’ll come to a gig or they might buy something else. For bands at our level it’s a great thing. Possibly for Metallica it’s not that good. I’m sure they can afford it.
Sam: I think people will always want something physical to buy. That’s an advantage. Downloading is important. It’s quick and it’s easy and the music gets heard everywhere very quickly.
GG: The only danger with downloading that I find is that you get all this stuff and you don’t value it as much. When you go to a shop and you spend 10 pounds on an album, you’d really listen to every track. Whereas these days you just download all the stuff and some of it is good but you don’t really digest it.
Sam: It goes on your iPod with another five million songs and you put it on random.
What was the idea behind the album title?
GG: Mainly because I was very depressed last year and I’m obsessed with space. But with the Black Hole it kinda sucks you in and you gotta try and get out of it. It’s the same with writing songs: it gets me out of my moods.
That’s the thing with your lyrics in general isn’t it? The topic is always kind of serious, philosophical even but they always got this certain twist to it…
GG: I write about stuff that’s getting me down and then I try and find a punch line. So there’s normally a positive at the end of all this stuff. But I’m always trying to keep the music fairly upbeat, so whatever I’m singing about, everyone else is going mad.
The Black Hole is out on SL Records.
Christine Franz