Dark Angel Interviews Clint

transcribed by Andy Larson from April 95 issue

Cover Story - P.W.E.I.'s vocalist, Clint, talks to Gaia about the band, the music, the Independent scene and Soccer.....

Pop Will Eat Itself
no notcrapatall
by Gaia
(Photos courtesy of Festival/Liberation Records)

Having been a fan of the incredible P.W.E.I. for time beyond memory, I was excited to the point of orgasm when the opportunity arose to interview Clint, one of the band's vocalists. Unfortunately the interview was to be conducted by phone early (Well, 9:20am) one morning. Compounding this difficult fact, several stars had shone brightly the previous night causing me to oversleep. Being awakened by a house-mate when the call came through is not what this boy considers ideal preparation for any interview. Forming in 1986, P.W.E.I. have become one of the better bands in existence of late. They have transformed from a guitar based "grungy" band into an act that is not afraid to take risks. Technology has become a large contributor to the
group's sound through samplers and drum machines (until the addition of drummer Fuzz: for "The Looks Or The Life-style."). The appeal of the band has been reflected by consecutive top 30 singles (in the UK) and the debut of their latest album, "Two Fingers My Friends" (which is actually a translation of "Dos Dedos Mis Amigos") at number on the English Independent Music Charts. Bearing in mind a certain caption from the cover of their first album, "Box Frenzy", I began by asking Clint if the "Poppies" are still crap...

Clint- (laughing) That's something that's always going to come around and haunt us, you know, because, um, we always.....you see, mistakenly we believed it was a good idea to send up the idea of being sorta like "rock 'n roll status symbols." If we hadn't done that we'd probably be driving around in white limo's (he chuckles, taking the piss)....so we completely blew it there, in the early stage of our career so, no, we are absolutely fab now, and we're fantastic and everyone should buy our records and make us extremely rich...no, not crap at all, best record in the land, buy it!!!

Gaia- Oh, I will, I will!....Who the fuck is Vestan Pance?!

Clint- That is, unfortunately, another thing that comes back to haunt us....hang on, my dog is having a complete, utter.....Leroy! Lie there.....That's something else that comes back to haunt us, the fact that we
credited our publishing to an overall name for all of us, which is Vestan Pance, and everyone now thinks we've got some outside sorta Svengali-like figure that does all the stuff to make us seem program-drunk puppets.

Gaia- So, it's just you guys under a collective name?

Clint- Yeah, basically.

Gaia- Your lyrics seem to have gained a far more political edge to them, definitely since "Box Frenzy." What has bought about these inspired and enlightened lyrics?

Clint- ....Um, I think the more songs you write, the more things you've got to think about. When you first write a song, when you're....I dunno, fifteen or sexteen, you write about anything that's going on in your life....as you get older, I suppose. I mean, unfortunately we all have to get older and different things affect you as you change. You're gonna go from situation of being sixteen, when you write a song like "Oh baby, you left me, you cow..." or something, to being ten years later and thinking of different things, so it's just the fact that we've been lucky enough to have a career that has spanned a certain amount of time. It's given us time to develop and to think about different things. So, I guess that's what it is really. I think any band
would go through that if they were given the chance.

Gaia- What inspired you to add a drummer to the lineup after so long with the
drum machine?

Clint- It's just a case of trying to adapt the sound really. we just want to build what we've got all the time, and keep it moving so we can have the sounds that we're hearing in our heads, and that's sort of what we want. We realised that what we were doing live needed drums, so we went and got a drummer.

Gaia- Having read your bio, I couldn't help but notice that "Familus Horribilus" didn't make the top 30 as a single. Was that because there was a negative reaction to the subject matter?

Clint- No, what it was, was a double A side with "R.S.V.P.", so that got to about number 28, or somethinglike that. But I mean....dogs attacking me again....Um, no, we're not really aware of that much.....like whether people respond positively or negatively to what we do. For us, the idea is to create really, and if people latch onto it, they do, if they don't, they don't. It's not something that overly worries us, to be honnest....I think most people in this country can't stand the Royal Family anyway. They're taking more fucking money out of this country than anyone else, so I think most people would definitely agree with that song......

Gaia- What inspired the release of "Two Fingers..." so soon after the release of "Dos Dedos..."?

Clint- It's something we've always thought about doing 'cause we've had remixes done. It's something we've always wanted to do. But it all sort of fell into place with this, because people we always wanted to work with, like the Orb and Rnegade Soundwave, who've done stuff for us before, and Hoodlum Priest...It all just came together with this one and everything just seemed right. In England, after your album is released, ther's pressure to do another single from the album. We just thought that could be pretty tame. I know a lot of people might think that doing a remix album is trying to sell people the same thing twice or something, but I think there was enough new material on there, like the material that State Of The Orb did, and Transglobal Underground did. Basically just like new songs practically. They were almost nothing to do with us, you know, just like new pieces of music, so we thought it was valid on it's own, and we were happy enough with what people had done with our songs that we thought it was worthwhile, so we went with it.

Gaia- Cool. What happend with R.C.A.?

Clint- I guess, they just thought we were shit; they just didn't want to give us anymore money - which is fair enough, I suppose...

Gaia- Why choose an independent?

Clint- Because we were sick of the corporate thing really. The thing is with major labels is like "so and so's working marketing this week, and next week he'll be working over at C.B.S." It's all just a hierarchal thing. They're all just bouncing from ladder to ladder to get to the top. We just felt that no-one really cared. Where as, on an independent side, it's a smaller network. They both have their limitations one way or another, but I think we feel more comfortable on this side.

Gaia- Having just finished your tour of the States, how does it feel to have these amazing turnouts at your gigs? And would you have had such large crowds if N.I.N. weren't on the bill also?

Clint- I'm sure we wouldn't. I mean, things are the way they are and we got given a great chance by Trent Reznor signing us to Nothing Records - it's his label. Obviously they're a big band in the States, so him endorsing another band makes a lot of other people like the look of them and go and check it out.
Then, at the end of the day, you've still got to deliver the bacon. I mean, if you're shit when they get there, they're not going to be interested, are they? What he gave us was a platform and then we had to perform on it, which is great. We were just thankful for the chance and I supose we like to think we delivered. I'm not sure everyone thought we were great but a lot of people were into it, so it was good for us....

....there is a knock at Clint's door....

Gaia- What sort of bollocks are you going to spray out with now?!

Clint- Oh, all of it, all of it I should think! That's what you have to do when you're doing interviews, isn't it?

Gaia- Yeah, I guess so...

Clint- Nah, but they are a great band I think. I have nothing but absoulute respect and admiration for them, they're superb...

Gaia- Do you find that you pull similar crowds across the world (background barking).....Oh my god, that dog's going off! Are they of a similar make up of people?

Clint- I think so really, because you get something like P.W.E.I. or the Chilli Peppers....I think they are going to be pretty much the same kind of person because they're going to relate like, to the lyrics and what's going on, the sound of the band....I think they're pretty much the same person, from England, Australia to Outer Mongolia really. The crowds are very similar in Australia to what it's like in England or America. It's just the same kind of kids into the same things. They pick up on some ideas; it's not that different. I don't know if people want it to be different, but I don't think it is.

Gaia- Do you see yourselves as a mainstream band considering the success of your music, or is it that the British market is more open to good music than the Australian market?

Clint- We're not a mainstream band. I mean mainstream is fucking Phil Collins isn't it? But we are on that market. Phil Collins or bloody, I don't know, that's horrible stuff, isn't it mate? Like I say, take a band like the Chilli Peppers and they sell millions of records, but they're still not mainstream are they, really. They cross over in part, but it's not like everything they do is anesthetized, and is like sorta, you know, [tamarzippanned - ?] out of your head, and it's okay to be accepted by fucking braindead hospital patients.
It's not like that when bands like us do cross over in part, it's not like being Phil Collins or Lenny Kravitz....

Gaia- On your bio, it's got you quoted as saying "We don't see anything that is so sacred that it cannot be touched." Given this, what are some of the future themes and directions that we could expect to hear from you?

Clint- Thrash/Techno is definitely....We did a track with the Prodigy and I think that's opened our eyes. What I wanna do next is defineitely Thrash/Techno. The idea is to combine Slayer with Wonderworld [?! - Ed.] or something like that. That'll be cool.

Gaia- You guys are coming down here to do the Alternative Nation events, of course. Are you going to be doing any other gigs while you're in the country? Clint- Apparently we're doing another one on our own in Sydney, but that's about it. We're only here for a week. We were staying there longer...

Gaia- You'll have to come out again soo, then...

Clint- Well hopefully, yeah. It's a big country. We're all thinking of staying on a bit longer, because once we've travelled all that way, there's not much point coming home. So we're on About staying for a bit....

Gaia- Before we finish, tell me how does Graham feel about the Wolves making the Semi's (of the F.A. Cup)?

Clint- No, I'm a Woves fan, he's a Spurs fan. We got knocked out last night, Spurs are through, though..

Gaia- That's no good.

Clint- We got beat 4-1 by Palace. I was there. It was absolutely gutted (fucked) , so I can tell you straight from the horse's mouth, it was an absolute pisser. They were five of the greatest goals you've ever seen in your life; it was one of those games, but that's the beauty of the Cup.

Operator- Good morning, gentlemen. Sorry for the interruption, but this call is due to finish now.

Gaia- Uh, okay. I'll see you later on Clint.

Clint- Yeah okay. Cheers...

---the end (thank god!)