Transcribed from an unidentified paper by Andrew Miller

 

Having been dumped by a major only to snare a top ten single, POP WILL EAT ITSELF turn their forceful fusion to the rise of racism and cooling down insulting journalists, writes Michelle Callaghan.

I'm disappointed that I'm not talking to Clint Mansell (vocals/guitar) or Graham Crabb (vocals), of the successfully unsuccessful Pop Will Eat Itself, as the two have a reputation for being very honest and apparently Graham poured a beer over a journo's head. Instead I get Fuzz, who joined the band after the original drummer Miles left.

PWEI formed in 1986 in Stourbridge, England expressing a down to earth/who cares atitude backed up by an industrial grunge style of rock.

"Along with Miles they formed a band and got things put together and Miles left and it was like a bunch of friends from school days. One of them knew Graham, as a drummer, so Graham was brought in as a rummer. Things progressed from there" explains Fuzz.

PWEI have a new album out Dos Dedos Mis Amigos, their first after being dropped by RCA records, and it is being described as their best work yet.

"We finished recording it around June or July time and I think everybody, after the recording was finished was pretty satisfied in a way we haven't been before, kind of thing. Generally speaking all the tracks were how we wanted them. It seems to be proving it's worth at the moment. We like it anyhow." says Fuzz.

I ask if being with a new record company has had anything to do with the current musical satisfaction.

"I think perhaps now that the pressures off, having been dropped by RCA and finding once again that we were in a position to record an album, I think it left us a lot freer to do what we wanted to do musically. I suppose that's been reflected in the way the album's come out. It's not of course that RCA was saying `You've got to record a song like this or anything'. I don't think they had the set up or interest to really go along with us. Whereas now because we're with independents all over the world it's a much better situation."

The Poppies were dumped by the company and then a twist of fate saw their then single soar through the charts and reach number 4, an ironic situation for a young band to be in.

"That was extremely smug and satisfying, I suppose it helps us over here and world wide because people were going `Well what the hell are RCA doing then if they can actually manage to break the top 10. Why have they been dropped?' I think it was actually an accountant's decision because obviously RCA had put a lot into the band before hand, so even though things wer coming good, the accountants were saying `Well you've got to cut back here, there and everywhere.'"

"But it meant that we could start with a clean sheet again, we didn't have a large debt that we had to recoup before we could go on. So they did us a fucking huge favour," he concludes.

Lyrically Graham and Clint do most of the writing, with the other members contributing less, so what inpires them?

"We don't wave a banner or flag or drum about any particular cause. We reflect what's going on around us really. We are not an overtly political band in trying to change the world. I suppose we are social commentators you could call it. THere aren't any particular things we run against but obviously if something pisses us off it's going to be written about."

But it's not like the Poppies to write simple love songs and the single Ich Bin Ein Auslander is about racism around the world.

Fuzz retorts, "I don't thing there's anybody in the band who doesn't like a little romance but I don't think any of us are good enough to write about it, perhaps none of us are good enough to write about it."

He explains the story behind the single.

"It's about racism globally. It's only got the German title because there was a protest against fascism, sort of like a whole weekend event and the catch phrase being Ich Bin Ein Auslander. Which I suppose comes from the Kennedy speeches of '61 or whenever it was. It was a phrase that we felt would be understood globally really. There are bubbling undercurrents here in Europe and indeed the rest of the world."

In preparing for this interview I read up on Pop Will Eat Itself and found a statement in an article from a UK magazine that the reason the band has not had bigger success is that they `lacked the necessary glamour'.

"A bunch of ugly bastards you mean? I don't think it's really hampered our progress at all. Had we been a bunch of glamourous young lads we'd have been taken as that and that would have been it really. We would have been washed up after an album and the interest would have waned. I think its worked to our advantage really. I suppose we just carry on and prove ourselves through our work. I don't think the music industry has been particularly bad for us at all and I just think we've been a little harder to market."

I eventually give in to temptation and have to ask about the beer incident with Graham and the journo.

"It's like any walk of life, it somebody'y reasonable with you, you'll be reasonable back. If they're a real bunch of shit and get personal we'll react," he states.

Seems reasonable enough to me.