Anton "Duly Noted" Newcombe
ANTON: THIS PERSON ASKED ME, "WHAT MAKES AN ARTIST NOTABLE?" WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?
Meeting the prolific Anton Newcombe, the only consistent member of Brian Jonestown Massacre, is worryingly one of those make-or-break situations...will he set our hair alight in cursing rage, or will the notorious front man be as inspirational as many fans deem him to be? Rocking up to the Columbia Hotel, SUPERSWEET’s Gemma Dempster apprehensively shook the long-haired singer’s hand, who, deeply apologetic, asked to catch up on the morning news before the interview. Sober for over a year and returning with BJM’s Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? Anton is crystal-clearer than ever; his laid back tangent drawl is so infectious that we even fall into his hippy freed diction in retort. Well it works; we snigger about “British gutter” inspired LEGO, daily word-play and reveal Anton’s sincere fears for victims of the political world. And the result? SUPERSWEET left the hotel unscathed and (wait for it...) was called “wonderful”!
SS: 2010 sees the return of your old band member Matt Hollywood (after a nine year stint, he left in 1999). What sparked his return to the band?
Anton Newcombe: Some people really like the songs that we wrote together. A lot of the tensions that we had together in our group were based on how he really wanted to express himself. Because the way I write; I’m really prolific and it’s stifling to another person in a collaboration where whole, complete ideas come out at once. As a young person he always wanted really to do his own thing. As time goes by, I asked [Matt] “Well, do you want to play music when we are 50, or do you want to play now?” So last year we were doing really big tours and shows, it was good for him. He’s never played in Europe or any of these places. He didn’t play on the record, but we are working on new stuff together. It’s cool, because it gave me some breathing time, I like to play music too, not just be a singer, that’s why I’m always working with women, people from all over. First and foremost my interest is in music.
SS: You began recording the new album Who Killed Sgt. Pepper? almost over a year ago...
Anton: No, some of the stuff I recorded September, October. Because of my touring, it some of it was last winter, into touring. I spent the summer here; I went to a place in Plymouth. Is Plymouth Nice? If you’re a ship it’s wonderful! (Laughs). So I also flew up to Manchester to do some recording in the studio there, but I didn’t use that on the record. I sort of recorded lump songs that should go together, to create an overall concept, rather than singles. I’m just not that type of artist.
SS: Did you engage with any new instruments this time around?
Anton: It’s really weird because [most] bands, people have the roles ‘John, Paul, Ringo...’ burned in their brain. Then you have artists, like Beck, Elvis and all these type of people just standing there with the faceless backs. I actually play studios when I’m in the studio. [The studio] is always kind of been atmospheric even if it is minimal; it seems like a band. I have been inventing these techniques, going off of a tangent into dub-style...
SS: Really?
Anton: No. Listen. This record and the last couple of things I’ve been working on I’ve been using echoes a lot. A third of this album uses echoes, so I’m basically playing a studio. New instruments, I didn’t bring anything exotic or anything into it. What’s weird is I could stand up with an acoustic guitar like Neil Diamond, or just do something more actual. It’s all really because I’m interested in recording as an art form, even if it’s sarcastic, silly, or aggressive. At the same time, we have a live group, evidently, it’s notable. Ha. This person interviewed me yesterday asked me “What makes an artist notable?” What would you say?
SS: It’s so general! I don’t really know how to answer that question...
Anton: Exactly. There aren’t really words to describe it, somebody takes note. (Imitates a posh American accent) “duly noted!” Rhetorically, it’s meaningless. You’ve taken note, you’re talking to me. Sorry, I didn’t mean to go off tangent...
SS: We love tangents! ‘Felt Tipped Pictures of UFOs’ features the famous controversy using John Lennon’s remark of the popularity of The Beatles on par with Jesus Christ. The song seems to reveal Lennon correcting his remarks over and over again...
Anton: A lot of my stuff has to do with mythology, and having a go at these giant things. Putting them into perspective. So that featured, we were talking about the actual dialogue over the piece of soundscape, Harold Budd-esque, so it was an hour and a half long taking the piss of the Beatles, but telling the truth of the whole thing. They are very guarded about their image within the confinements of “Yeah, it was the 60’s, we were doing acid, smoking pot, whatever” or it’s implied, and how it’s suffocating. So we were taking a stab at that, to create an audio-sculpture.
SS: Nice word!
Anton: Audio-sculpture, archi-texture. I’m really into word cells.
SS: What’s your favourite word of today?
Anton: Arsenic.....Ha. Arsenaal!
SS: Ha, that’s depressing.
Anton: I know. That is really depressing. On the cab ride today, this guy is Turkish; he can’t even speak real German. And he tried to talk to me in English. It’s some kind of blade-runner mismatch of conversation. [He asked] “What’s your football team?” But he didn’t even say football...I just got what he was saying. So, I just started thinking, what’s the worst football team in the UK, with the worst record, but won’t give up. The smallest fan base, but really loyal. I really want to say I’m a supporter of them, and wear the jersey. They’re so bad they don’t even talk about themselves; they cover up their own logo. (Laughs) I’m being silly.
SS: Talking of football, ‘Let’s Go Fucking Mental’ features chilling football fan chants, egging on, to go “fucking mental”...who starred in this with you?
Anton: If you can imagine a band that was influenced by German rock bands who are influenced by Rage Against The Machine, with a girl singer from Albania. She was rehearsing in another part of this record studio complex. When she was walking by, and I was “Oh, would you help me do something for a minute?” [Soon after] we were already being menacing and singing it like pirates!
SS: What about the twinned vocals, they are almost tongue-in-cheek, like everything is already mental?
Anton: People starting singing that when we were playing in the North in Scotland and I had the chant in my head, so I was like “Oh My God”. I wanted to just be menacing musically and I think it’s funny to steal something from “the British gutter”. I think it’s funny to put into a tune, it’s like putting a tune to ‘Happy Birthday’ and I’ll argue that I’ve done the best job in putting a tune to it. I like that it can’t be commercial but obviously it’s infectious, and it’s too naughty to be on the radio. That song is as deserving as anything La Roux will ever write, but you’ll never even hear it. I like how it’s built to be underground forever, and it’s real serious though too. But it’s some kind of taboo but really it’s just ‘boo.
SS: You’ve cited a pretty awesome zombie-lego takeover for ‘Let’s Go Fucking Mental’ on YouTube...
Anton: Let’s give a shout out to the TomJoe Twins. They’re these 14 year old kids from the Midlands and they have dozens of these films. Someone showed me this kid’s video, pastiche style, and I thought “we gotta put this song over it, because it’s a zombie film!” Then somebody saw it and wrote “you stole the TomJoe twins video!”. Real mean. I’m like “I didn’t steal anything; this is pastiche, not for sale, just to make you laugh.” It was like how Andy Warhol stole the soup can...but not really. So they [the TomJoe twins] messaged me, and I was a little uncomfortable with the subject matter as they are fourteen, “Sorry I put cussing to your video...” (Laughs) Actually...I was just thinking of LEGOs with spray tans and slap. Your chav set. You can build the pub. Like a drinks night. You could do Jordan LEGOs also with her horses. Something ridiculous...
SS: What about you other public videos streamed on YouTube?
Anton: We’ve also done other ones, where people are protesting for G20. Not to bag on Denmark, but policemen were smacking women in the head at some serious protests. [The women were] completely non-violent, they were sitting on the ground and not even more than fifty people. I’ve got these videos of it that didn’t get widely distributed. I think it’s out of line, these women aren’t even being aggressive and they are cracking their heads and dragging them away out the street. So I put ‘Let’s go Fucking Mental’ over it, as the zombie thing is light-hearted.
SS: You’ve mentioned Beck and Elvis, but are there any modern day musicians you respect at present?
Anton: You know I’ve talked so much about bands. (Going off- topic) I believe people should give generously, but with a level of decorum. It’s ridiculous, Madonna, "God Bless Her" or Kabalabalabalablaah, she gave $250,000 to support Haiti, but she immediately set herself up to have Lindsey Lohan publicise that she donated a million. All that publicity, it makes people feel shit if they can only give a five pounds, even for like eight year old kids. What we would hope is that anything can be done. For many days they were like, “it’s a drowning man they’ll take us down.” A lot of clever people are completely overwhelmed. This stuff keeps happening, such as the Pakistani earthquakes. I was thinking that you could have really light, bomb shaped objects, breakable plastic, load that up and fly low and drop it, you can mobilise an insane amount to them. But I don’t like getting into the politics, because it’s bad form while I’m here, sitting in a hotel living room. My concern is that, when the fatigue sets in, when we stop worrying about it.
Words: Gemma Dempster
Photography: Eleanor Harvey