Underground eXperts United File 120

eZine lover (@eZine)

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Underground eXperts United

 · 5 years ago

  

 
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                         Underground eXperts United 

                                 Presents... 

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         [ Pleasurehouse Interview ]           [    By The Chief    ] 

 
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                     Pleasurehouse Interview 23-Apr-93 

Pleasurehouse played live at a local place here in Linkoping, and of course, 
yours truly was there to record and interview this 'new' Swedish indie band. 
Most of the questions were answered by the drummer, as he was the one who 
talked the most (and told enough jokes to keep everyone else in hysteria. :)) 

[S] = singer, [D] = drummer, [B] = bass player, [G1] & [G2] = guitar players. 
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ME: GREAT CONCERT GUYS! 

S: It was okay. 

ME: IS IT OKAY IF I DO AN INTERVIEW WITH THE BAND FOR A ZINE I'M WRITING FOR? 

S: Yeah, grab your stuff and come up to our room. It's just up those stairs. 
   We have to sit down, and have a few beers. (smile) 

ME: OKAY, I'LL BE THERE IN A FEW MINUTES THEN. 

S: Yeah. 

[Well up in their room, I found everyone sitting around a big table, 
 plus a few other people, who introduced themselves later as friends 
 to the members of the band. Everyone was drinking beer, except the 
 bass player, who explained he was the driver for the night.] 

ME: HOW LONG HAS PLEASUREHOUSE BEEN PLAYING? 

D: Since 1986... (laughter). Back then we had a different line-up though. 

S: We started 1986, but it was only last year we were signed with West Side. 
   The CD you got there [Marseille] is our first release really, but the 
   songs on it are really old for us now. 

D: We had a different guitar player then. He played with another band at 
   the same time, and sometimes he didn't show up at rehearsals, so now we 
   have this new one from Sm†land (pointing at a guy in a sofa who nods). 

G2: I played with My Favorite Martians before. Bass though. You heard of 
    them? We only released one single. 

S: He didn't play on 'Marseille'.. only joined a couple of months ago. You 
   like the tracks on the CD? 

ME: SURE DO! I ONLY BOUGHT IT A MONTH AGO, BUT I THINK THE SONGS ARE GREAT. 
    I WOULDN'T BE HERE IF I DIDN'T. (smile) 

S: Haha, that's true. Well, we're sick to the teeth with those songs. 
   We've played some of them since 1986, like 'This is how it feels' 
   and 'Happy when you leave', and you know, it's really boring to play 
   the same songs over and over again.. I mean, 1986! 

D: Yeah, but 'Blind' was okay tonight, don't you think? I think so.. 
   Felt great to play that one (drums on his knees), and they (referring 
   to the audience) were with us on it, dancing and all.. 

S: Yes, that one did okay. It's good to hear that you like the CD though. 
   It was to be released last october, but the company [West Side] decided 
   to wait until march this year. We got a good review in Aftonbladet.. 
   [a Swedish evening-paper] Three 'plus'.. not bad at all really. 

ME: A COUPLE OF NEW SONGS TONIGHT... ANY CHANCE WE'RE GOING TO SEE SOME 
    NEW SINGLES OR PERHAPS EVEN A NEW ALBUM SOON? 

S: Nine songs. Four from Marseille, 'Breathe', 'Summer', 'Blind' and 
   'This is how it feels'. Then we played 'Cindy', written by our new 
   member [the guitar player] which will be out on flexi with the next 
   issue of Sound Affects together with a song from Easy [another band]. 
   We also played 'Candyfloss', 'Vals', 'September' and 'Six Eyes'. 
   'Six Eyes' wasn't really written today [they said it was, to the 
   audience during the concert] (laughter), but we did write it this 
   week.  

ME: HOW ABOUT THE LYRICS? ARE THEY WRITTEN TO SOMEONE SPECIAL OR...? 

S: They're written like to a friend. Some of the songs are really 
   for someone I know. But I really want people to have their 
   own thoughts about what the lyrics are about. I think that goes 
   for all lyrics.. I wouldn't for example go and ask another singer 
   what the lyrics are about.. I have my own picture, you know? 

ME: SO THE NEXT THING IS THE FLEXI WITH SOUND AFFECTS? NO SINGLES? 

S: No. We have a lot of songs though.. 

D: West Side is like this. You sign with them, they release your first 
   album, and then they try to sell you to a bigger label. He (the owner) 
   sits in his house up in Skellefte† and is having fun. Sort of like he's 
   just doing all of this as a hobby. He puts a lot of pressure on the 
   bigger labels though, to sign bands from West Side. 

ME: YOU SAID YOUR NEW GUITAR PLAYER WROTE 'CINDY'? YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO 
    WRITES SONGS AND LYRICS FOR PLEASUREHOUSE THEN? 

S: No no. He's writing a lot of our new material. He really did bring a 
   lot of new ideas to the group. 

D: Yeah. Before, we played and then went home. After he joined, we're 
   a lot closer, and spend a lot of time together (the whole band) outside 
   the studio. More like a group now, if you know what I mean. 

ME: WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT 'HERRGR'N'?  [THE PLACE THEY PLAYED AT] 

S: Small scene. [everyone agrees] 

G1: Did you feel it swaying? I felt it A LOT. It was like, wow.. if I'd 
    leaned a bit more forward, I bet it would've gone over. (laughter) 

D: I heard my drums all around me! I couldn't... 

S: And the first time he told us about that, was when we had two songs left 
   to play! 

D: Yeah but.. [the other members laugh] ...they fixed it then at least. 

G1: You heard my effects-box? It died several times, so I had to kick it 
    to get it to work again! I felt kind of funny, standing there and 
    kicking the box all the time. But no-one seemed to have heard the 
    difference.. 

ME: I DIDN'T. [everyone laughs] 

G1: Well.. It sounded fine when it worked..  

ME: HOW ABOUT SOME REGULAR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS? HOW OLD ARE YOU? 

S: 24.. 

G2: He's 32! (pointing at the drummer laughing) 

D: See! He's writing that down! I won't say.. [everyone laughs] 

ME: OKAY.. FAVORITE BANDS (INSPIRATIONS)? 

S: Moose, My Bloody Valentine... Suede's latest single is good. I also 
   recommend Dinosaur Jr's 'Bug'. Lately, I've been listening to The 
   Auteurs though. It grows on you. 

D: Boo Radleys, Sonic Youth... 

G2: Soundgarden 

ME: HOW ABOUT SLOWDIVE OR CURVE? 

S: uh.. no. They're too slow, if you know what I mean. 

D: Definitely no. 

S: And the whole Grunge-wave really sucks. 

G1: I like Alice In Chains. 

S: What's that? (laughter) 

ME: SWEDISH BANDS? MINDSCAPE, SUREDO, A SHRINE? 

S: Don't say Mindscape..  

D: We don't like them. 

S: No. They had one good song.. their hit. Suredo, yeah, they're great. 
   Weren't we supposed to play with them at Skylten [local place] ? 

D: Yeah, but the guy who owns that place don't want local, or 'small' 
   bands to play there anymore. He's more into known bands now, like 
   Th†str”m and so on.. It's really sick because that place was made 
   for like, unknown bands, you know. 

S: So the last thing we heard was that they didn't have any date for 
   our gig, and they just let it go. Sad though.. Would've been fun 
   to play with 'em. A Shrine, yeah, they're also good. Also on the 
   West Side label. 

ME: WHERE ARE YOU PLAYING LIVE NEXT? 

S: We were to play in Norrk”ping together with Blue (another Indie band) 
   from ™rebro, but we haven't heard anything about it for a while now. 
   We're playing in ™rebro though, in may, and then in Skellefte†. 

D: Yeah, see, we have this deal, like, Blue's coming to Norrk”ping to 
   play, and we're going to ™rebro to play. Like a switch... 

ME: YOU'RE ALL FROM NORRK™PING THEN? 

S: Yeah... well, not our new guitar player, who, like I said is from 
   Sm†land. 

ME: OKAY.. NEXT GENERIC QUESTION: FAVORITE DRINK? 

S: Carlsberg. [everyone agrees] 

D: ..and Gin/Tonic! 

ME: GROUPIES? HOW ABOUT THAT? 

S: (laugh) 

D: You wish! (laugh) 

ME: OH YEAH, YOU HAD ONE SONG ON THE LATEST WEST SIDE COMPILATION.. 

S: Yeah. They called us one day, said that we had ten hours to do a 
   song for the compilation if we wanted to be on it. So we did 
   'You will never know', and the week after that, the compilation 
   was out. 

ME: HAVE YOU RELEASED ANYTHING ELSE, EXCEPT FROM MARSEILLE? 

S: Well, we've been on two compilations from West Side, and then it's 
   that flexi with Sound Affects. That's all. 

D: If you don't count the demo tapes.. (smile) 

S: Haha, we won't give out those though. We sound like.. [he says the 
   name of a group, which unfortunately, I can't remember. Sorry.]. 
   We didn't sound at all like we do today. You wouldn't like them 
   if you like how we sound today. 

ME: ANYTHING FUNNY HAPPEN TO YOU WHEN PLAYING LIVE? 

D: Why don't you tell him about our release-party? 

S: Okay.. we had this release party, for Marseille, and there were a 
   lot of people at this place, and of course, we wanted to do our 
   best. So we go up on stage, and starts to play. And it sounds 
   TERRIBLE! Everything was wrong. The sound came from all directions, 
   and no-one could hear what they played or sang. Later, we found 
   out that they had a 17-year-old sound technician, who just started 
   to work there. 

D: He was just practicing there! 

S: He must've been! It was a disaster! [laughter] 

[at this point, most of the members of the band had gone downstairs 
 to the party to mingle, and someone who worked at that place came to tell 
 us that they wanted us to leave, because it was really a room for the 
 employees, the rest of us decided to join the others downstairs.] 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

 I talked a lot to the singer and the drummer, and asked them about 
 the lyrics and more about other bands they liked during the rest of 
 the night, but I guess we all had a bit too much to drink at that 
 point (Gin/Tonics for the drummer :-)), and I just don't remember 
 everything they said too well. Better to leave it out, than to 
 perhaps, write stuff they didn't say. :) 

 When the drink-bar closed, and there were no more Gin/Tonics available, 
 they decided to leave. Their instruments and gear was carried out to 
 their van. After I got my copy of Marseille signed by the members and 
 we had found one of the guitar players again (we lost him a couple 
 of hours earlier <grin>), and after the band told the management of the 
 place that they didn't like to be thrown out from the room they were 
 supposed to be able to use, they drove off in their van. 

------ 
 To order a subscriptions to the Sound Affects magazine - call +46-11100053. 
 (you get a free CD with your subscription. Either PLEASUREHOUSE - Marseille, 
  or one of the West Side compilations (they've released four so far)). 

 PLEASUREHOUSE - Marseille. West Side Fabrication 1993 WeCD 042. 
 Breathe, Summer, Blind, Happy When You Leave, Regrets, This Is How It Feels. 

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  uXu #120              Underground eXperts United 1993               uXu #120 
                        Call THE STASH -> +46-13-175042 
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