Jackie has always written good tunes, even back in the Yummy Furs, simple and really catchy.
Jackie has always written good tunes, even back in the Yummy Furs, simple and really catchy.
Incendiary have a nice cup of tea with 1990s
I arrive at boutique Hotel Vondel and make my way to the patio/extended lounge area. I was quite impressed, the hotel has a lovely back garden with several, (possibly over-elaborate) Asian-style water features running just about everywhere. I sit down for a beer and a lovely chat with Jackie McKeown and Jamie McMorrow of the 1990s about making pop music, filmmakers, guitars vs. girlfriends, the Glasgow bands family tree and working with Lovefoxx from CSS.
We start off talking about how bands notoriously get stoned and or fucked up before taking the stage in Holland and in particular Amsterdam.
Jackie: It happened once to me, I could still play, but I kept thinking about the songs and as I was playing I was thinking… what’s this song about? Why did I write that? Then I remembered, oh shit, I’m in the middle of a gig! (Laughs) And only youse get that, every other city in the world gets a band that is really lively and on top of their game. Even the tech guys lost it. No way… drugs after the show. Only after.
IN: That’s a good rule!
Jackie: I mean we get very drunk on stage, but we get drunk on stage at EVERY gig, so you still get the same gig that people in Glasgow and London get.
IN: Hey I’ve interviewed a couple of your fellow Glaswegians! Actually, when I interviewed Bobby Kildea from Belle and Sebastian over a year ago he mentioned you guys as a band to watch out for from Glasgow.
Jackie & Jamie: Owweee, that’s nice. Cheers, here’s to Bobby!
IN: Something that seemed interesting to me whilst interviewing Glaswegian bands and also from your history is that the Glasgow music scene seems a little… I wouldn’t dare say it… but… incestuous?
Jackie: It is! Totally! (Laughs)
Jamie: I’d say it!
IN: You two were in the Yummy Fur for eight years correct? The split was in like 2001, so it’s been now 6 years. What happened in between?
Jackie: Jamie basically went clubbing.
(Jamie laughs and nods his head, a bit ashamed.)
Jackie: I did bands all the way through, mostly electronic bands. I was bored of guitars, so I made electronic music for a while and now that’s made me like guitars again. That’s why 1990s music is quite joyous, because we are back in love with our guitars again.
Jamie: I had a really nice bass guitar that got stolen, and then because I got into dance music I didn’t replace it. So to join this band, I had to go out and buy a bass. When I brought it home it was sitting in my room, it was like "aahhhhhhh old pal!" (Big laugh)
IN: Your bio is really silly and sort of leads people to believe that you guys just ended up in the studio and got drunk and made the record randomly. It seems to be more conscious then just that, especially with your musical history. Is that true?
Jackie: Yes, No… We didn’t end up in the studio by accident, that’s true. But us coming back together and making music sort of was. It was just a few chance situations that lead to us being in the same room and playing music together.
IN: There are a few really catchy, really brilliant pop songs on this album, (Cookies – great name).
Jackie: Thanks, those songs were written really quickly. Most of those songs were written in the time it takes to play them.
Jamie: Jackie has always written good tunes, even back in the Yummy Furs, simple and really catchy.
IN: I also really liked the video for You Made Me Like It with the gymnasts. Your dismount is fantastic! That’s obviously a stunt double right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lFjS2yEpxU&mode=related&search=
Jackie: Yeah, this little guy did that… I think he was about 9?
Jamie: 16 or 14?
Jackie: Really young!
IN: Was that the only person they could find that could match your body type, (bloody skinny?)
Jackie: (Laughs) TOTALLY! Anyone over the age of twenty would be just obviously a man, "no that’s never him" (i.e. Jackie – ed). Totally!
IN: You mentioned before electronic music and I’ve heard the track you did with CSS, Super Legal. How did that come about?
Jackie: We were in Brazil recording and we asked if we could get a Brazilian percussionist and background vocalist… I’d become interested in tropicalia and people like Os Mutates. We ended up with this girl Lovefoxx and CSS was virtually unheard of at the time, and we were like… oh god they’re getting us this really Westernized punk singer because they think that’s what we want. We wanted big Brazilian babes who could sing amazing vocals. So then she came in the studio with us and I quickly wrote down some lyrics and said… ok go and use any of those lyrics in any order you like. She went in and was really bouncing around and went BAMMMMM, and did one vocal take. And we were like, that’s amazin’! And she was like; oh do you want me to harmonize it? And we were like, YEAH! Get in there and do it! (Laughs) Four part harmony! It was quite odd cause by the time we got back, CSS had hit England big and everyone was really like, wow, you made a record with CSS? It wasn’t like that at the time… Like when people ask us what is was like being in a band with people from Franz Ferdinand?
IN: Yeah… they were just mates… whatever!
Jackie: Yeah… (Laughs)
IN: Was CSS big in Brazil before they broke?
Jackie: Lovefoxx was well known because she was a late night kind of MTV sort of thing presenter. So she was known as a TV person but not as being in a band, she was and is the face to the band. They are a really fun band that doesn’t take themselves too seriously. They’re joyous.
Jamie: At their shows you could spend your time watching any of them during the whole show. There is always something going on, someone climbing on the speakers or just rocking their asses off.
IN: You also played recently in NYC at Bowery Ballroom.
Jackie: Best city in the world.
Jamie: I was walking around the city, with the mouth dropped…looking up… and there I was and suddenly it was real.
Jackie: I was worried about playing there. A lot of the music is influenced by mid 70’s American punk and it was a worry, it’s like for example when BRMC would come and play Glasgow, they used to be laughed out of the city, since it’s just like the Jesus and Mary Chain, we already did that. I was worried that they were going to be like "we invented Television and Johnny Thunders", but they weren’t. Nobody does what we do any more there, so it was quite alien to them to see that music again even though they invented it.
IN: I like the logo. It’s really cool. I was looking at it for a while before I actually noticed that it was musical notes. What is this note called?
Jamie: I think it’s a quaver.
Jackie: We asked our friend who actually lives next door to Jamie to make a logo and he came up with that.
Part two, where the lads talk about Glasgow and guitars can be found here…