Gene

by Monkey

Part I--An Interview With Kevin Miles

RAD: After your current U.S. tour gets done, will you go back to the studio and record more stuff?
Kevin: No, we go back to England for about three days. Then we start our European tour around the beginning of December, and then hopefully we'll get back in the studio and probably record three or four songs for a single.
RAD: Have you already come up with some songs?
Kevin: We've got about six or seven songs that are finished, and about another ten that we are just waiting for Martin to add lyrics to. We have been trying a few out on the road, you know, two or three.
RAD: Can we anticipate something like that tonight?
Kevin: Yeah, there will be at least three. We don't want to play too many, so people will hopefully want to hear the songs on the album.
RAD: So, in England you guys are huge and sell out large places right?
Kevin: Well, yeah, quite big places.
RAD: Well, I'm sure since you started your U.S. tour you find yourself in these small places with tiny audiences. Do you have any preferences?
Kevin: No, this is actually pretty average really [talking of the venue]. In Los Angeles we played at an outdoor place that held about 1200 people, and in New York we did about the same, but most of the other places hold about five to six hundred. But you know, it's fine. We don't expect to come over here and play to three or four thousand people, that would be a bit arrogant to assume that since we did it in England we could do it over here.
RAD: Have you been received very well over here?
Kevin: Sure, yeah, I mean, it's a slow kind of building thing. We talked about Elastica earlier, and they are obviously doing better than us worldwide, but then they played here as well. I think for most British bands coming over here it's kind of difficult.
RAD: Now when you played at the Reading Festival, were you on the second stage?
Kevin: Yeah, they have a huge big stage, and then they have a big marquee that holds about twenty thousand [the Melody Maker tent]. We had fun on that one, it was kind of frightening.
RAD: I'm sure you got over it though.
Kevin: Yeah, you get used to it. We've did lots of European festivals like Glastonbury and some others where there are not only English bands, but European bands. You get, well, not used to it, but a bit more experienced at playing them.
RAD: Now I was wondering, how close is Gene's sound to Spin's original sound?
Kevin: Spin's sound? Quite a bit different actually. Steve and Matt were originally in Spin once, and the singer would write the songs. There would be a slight comparison obviously in Steve's guitar style and Matt's drumming style. Other than that the songs are more like the Stone Roses type of songs. I mean, I and Martin came in towards the tail end when two members of Spin left. We were there for about a couple months and then we started to write new songs. You can still get Spin's albums, I don't know if you can get them over here but in Great Britain they are still available.
RAD: Just some information I wanted, on my "For The Dead" single it says that the song originally appears on "Olympian," but it's not.
Kevin: It's an import then. The U.S. release of the album has "Be My Light, Be My Guide" and "For The Dead."
RAD: How did I do that?
Kevin: Maybe you bought the British one. The American one would be on Polydor Records and the British one is on Costermonger.
RAD: I was worrying because I had the album, but then there were tracks that I still didn't have.
RAD: Why did you guys end up covering a Beatles track?
Kevin: Why did we? Well, we all knew it. Well, when we first started, we needed certain chords and Martin needed a song. We used to do it at every show, when we first started but then we stopped playing it about a year ago because we were doing it at every show and it was getting boring. Now and again, over here or in Europe we'll do it, but not very often.
RAD: Have you guys done any other covers?
Kevin: We've done a Faces cover. We'll probably do some more in the future.
RAD: Like?
Kevin: Well, I don't know, it's difficult. To try not to do things that are obvious, to try and pick songs that are a bit...with the Beatles one it as a b-side to a Beatles single, it wasn't like doing Hey Jude. We would try and do something that we could change a little, not make it exactly the same.
RAD: Off "Olympian," are there any songs that are just yours?
Kevin: Off the album? "Sleep Well Tonight," "Be My Light," "Be My Guide," "Still Can't Find The Phone," "London," "Can You Wait." They were just sort of ideas, very basic ideas. I can't say that I wrote all of the song, but that I came up the idea. For the opening of, say, "Sleep Well Tonight," the verse and the chords, and then I think Steve came up with the chords for the chorus. There actually are some group compositions, we don't always split the writing, that's just because Matt plays drums on it also, I mean, he plays guitar as well.
RAD: Now is it just, pretty much the three of you, are you guys pretty much isolated away from Martin when it comes to the song writing experience? Do you write the music first and then...
Kevin: Give it to Martin? Yeah. It's a weird way to work. That's the way we work better, I mean, Martin writes lyrics, we can't really write lyrics that well, so he does the lyrics. And also, I think, that if one person writes the lyrics you kind of have a progression, so you can tell that one person is writing the lyrics and expressing the same kind of ideas. And also, we tend to come up with music easier than he can.
RAD: Now, do you guys share the same kind of political agenda that he does?
Kevin: Yeah, I mean, I can't speak for everybody, but I'm a member of the Labor Party the same as Martin, so, we have pretty similar..
RAD: Now would any of that seep into the music in an obvious way?
Kevin: Well...we've got a new song that is quite political that we might play tonight, and I'm trying to think of other songs that we've put out, the song "Do You Want To Hear It From Me?" It's the b-side of "Haunted By You." That one is about the royal family and the aristocracy. But it's kind of difficult to, I sympathize with him really, it's difficult to write something about that without coming across as banner waving. You have to be quite subtle about it to do it well. It creeps in every now and again.
RAD: It seems that since I've first heard of Gene they have always compared you to The Smiths, so what is your response to this?
Kevin: Yeah, it keeps coming up. There are some people that think we really sound like The Smiths. I mean, there isn't a lot we can do to change their point of view. I think, if you actually listen to a Smiths record and listen to a Gene record, there's no Smiths record that you could listen to and say "well Gene nicked that." And also, I think, when we started the band, Steve and I weren't listening to The Smiths at all. I felt The Smiths were an OK band, I've got a couple of albums, but we were more into bands like the Small Faces, and the Beatles, and The Jam, sort of Van Morrison and that kind of Motown, than The Smiths. I think if you actually listen to the music, the music doesn't sound like The Smiths. People say that Martin sounds kind of like Morrissey. I remember the review for the album, and it said, "this man wants to be Morrissey," which is completely unfair. I think his vocals are very different to Morrissey, I think he's got a better range, he's got a better melodical style. I think it's just the fact that he writes about certain topics that Morrissey does. He doesn't write about cars and girls. He writes about things that are a bit more sensitive, or a bit more important, and tend to perhaps attract people that would have been into The Smiths when they were around. Perhaps the band means a bit more to them then going out and getting drunk and then in six months time forgetting about the band. Really, that is the only comparison. We're not trying to nick The Smiths. I think we wouldn't be here if that were what we were trying to do.
RAD: With the new material that you guys are writing, are they in the same vein as the songs off Olympian? Or do you see a progression?
Kevin: I think the only reason for a progression is that we are more experienced as a band writing together, but hopefully the songs will just get better. We haven't actually sat down and thought, "for the next album we want to become a jazz band," or, whatever. Which of course, some bands do, so that they change with every album. I think we set ourselves, in a way, quite a good, it was quite a good move with the first album being, whatever, twelve songs of different styles,

Part II-- An Interview With Martin Rossiter

RAD: Now, how did you end up getting hooked up with the guys from Spin?
Martin: Well, it was all because of him, really--Mr. Mason. He approached me in a club. He approached me and said "can you sing?" I looked at his haircut and I looked at his shoes, and I thought he looked too ridiculous to be in a band. Then I thought, "this sounds interesting." So I asked why? He said, "I'm in a band and we're looking for a singer," so I said "OK." And I went down and auditioned. It became obvious from the first notes that were sung and chord that was strum, that it would work. There was something that happened.
RAD: It worked. So, there was a kind of connection there?
Martin: Yeah, there was a connection there.
RAD: And it's continuing?
Martin: Oh, it's getting stronger, oh yes. I mean, that's inevitable. We know each other a lot better.
RAD: Well, sometimes that could just ruin things.
Martin: Well I think that we are four very distinct characters, we are very different people, and that in a way helps, because we do argue, but they follow a certain pattern, and because of that we have a certain pattern for solving them.
RAD: Do you find yourself falling back on certain themes lyrically?
Martin: I wouldn't call it falling back, it's not a reliance on certain things.
RAD: I'm sorry.
Martin: In fact the new songs I'm writing at the moment are changing in a way. They are becoming more candid, more honest, more autobiographical. Before, I would create an artifice, I would create a setting to get a certain point across. Now I simply say how it happened to me.
RAD: Kevin mentioned that more of your political agenda is seeping in to the music, with some of the new songs. Will it ever get to the point were it is blatant?
Martin: Oh, at times it is blatant. It's just that I don't want to wave a flag, I don't want to carry a torch, because that's always the sort of thing that switches me off. I don't know if you know, this song wasn't on the album, the song is "This Is Not My Crime." That essentially is a very political song--it's a song about rape. The line "this is not my crime," is one that has been said before, and I hope will be said again. It was a line that I thought needed to be said then, in a record, and that is essentially a political song. There is a song at the moment just called "French Song" because we haven't come up with a title yet, and that is also a political song. I wanted to put emotion in there. I don't simply want to say "the right are bad, kill them all." That would be dull, and it's been said before, and people don't listen to that.
RAD: Do you think the message gets obscured when you use "pop" music to convey it?
Martin: No, I think that pop has always had it's strengths to create the times and reflect the times, and history had proved that. Pop music is by far the most potent, or possibly the most potent, potentially the most potent art form there has ever been. I mean, you stick Sinatra in the boxing ring with Milton and Sinatra will win.
RAD: I've even read comparisons of you on stage with Morrissey, even the way you preen yourself.
Martin: No.
RAD: Maybe I just made an enemy. I mean, I had to ask.
Martin: I mean, people have compared me to Morrissey, but I've also been compared to Bowie, and people had compared me to Adam Ant, people have compared me to, believe it or not, a couple of times, Henry Rollins. I tell no lies.
RAD: Who do you compare yourself to?
Martin: I don't.
RAD: That doesn't work for an answer.
Martin: It does, because it's true.
RAD: What kind of influences do you have?
Martin: Well, in the band the band the influences are long and fast I'll try and place for you to show you the variety. Matt is a huge reggae fan. Kevin is a huge Soul fan, Northern Soul in fact. And a lot of Motown and your Al Greens of this world. Steve likes blues, he's a big fan of the Ronny Woods and Keith Richards of this world.

My...I think I've pinpointed what is my main melodic influence it's hymns. But I'm a big fan of the Pet Shop Boys, I love Queen, I love the Redskins, I love a lot of rap music, I like house music. It sounds pompous, but it's having a connoisseurs taste, it's taking bands from every genre and being influenced by it, it's something you can do a bit more easily in Britain because radio isn't segregated as much as it is here. I mean, in Britain you can have a Michael Jackson record followed by an Anthrax record followed by the Pet Shop Boys followed by Nirvana followed by Mariah Carey, and that can sit quite comfortably. People don't have any problem with that because that's what they've grown up with. I mean, we have Radio One which is the biggest radio station playing music, simple as that, it plays pop music, rock music, whatever you want to call it, soul music. It plays music. The whole thing, bar classical. Whereas here, a lot of people have not heard of A Tribe Called Quest because they don't listen to that kind of station, or have never heard Def Lepard, but lucky them.
RAD: I guess I have to ask. How did you get that scar by your mouth?
Martin: Ah, nobody has ever asked me that. Now here's a story, it's not that good actually. I was eleven and it was a Saturday, and I had gone down to the local chemist to pick up some photos for my Mum, and basically what happened was I walked through the door, turned the shop corner and there was a Golden Labrador tied up, and I obviously shocked it, and it's reaction was to jump up and take a chunk out of my face. I was only about 4'8", and it jumped up and took a chunk, and I was rushed off to the doctors down the road, who luckily was in, and he stitched it up and all is well. Seven stitches, though, two there, four there, fifteen there.
RAD: Now, this is all from the same dog?
Martin: No, this is all separate.
RAD: Now, you only have scars on your face?
Martin: No, I have a scar on my thigh.
RAD: Well, should we ask?
Martin: No, no no. I fell off a bike. I was an accident-prone, geeky, gawky, prepubescent boy.
RAD: And you're over that now?
Martin: I would like to think that I am, although life is determined to prove otherwise.
RAD: What kinds of things do you find yourself writing about now. I mean, you said that a lot of them are autobiographical.
Martin: Well, let me think. They are just becoming more emotional. When I want to write about a subject specifically, the very mechanics of writing a song don't allow you to cover that whole subject in 120 words or 150 words. I take a little bit of it and, either I relate it to something that's happened to me, or something I've seen, or I use my imagination and I write about it like that. And specifically the song we mentioned earlier, the "French Song," the untitled song, is essentially three very brief vignettes of three characters living in the British Isles and how the (political) right has destroyed their lives. But, that's how I do it, I'm not going to stand up and say the right is really bad, you have to relate it to people. I loath to go too much into detail because I do want the songs to speak for themselves. I don't want to have to give out reams and reams of notes so people can decipher them. If I do that, I'm failing.
RAD: When it comes to song writing I know that they pretty much write the music and you pretty much write the lyrics right?
Martin: I mean, they certainly contribute more to the music that I do, although I do have my moments.
RAD: Now you play the keyboards right? But you're not willing to play them while touring.
Martin: No, because playing and singing is a completely new art to me.