For how long have you been making music?

I have no idea. I wish I knew.

What are your musical influences?

Like a lot of people I'm from an indie rock background, became bored of it and wanted something more. I usually listen to Krautrock records, electronica, 60s pop and various oddities I find interesting.

The biggest ones are probably all bands who have done something different and pushed things forward a bit - people like the Velvets, New Order, My Bloody Valentine. That and various kinds of dance music.

The laptop and Rob’s effects pedals. 

You're known for using impressive visuals such as digital light displays at your shows, what form does it take?

Invariably a flashing one.

We always play in front of a large screen with video projected onto it. I often find it very boring watching bands play live, there's very few who do anything interesting on stage. I always liked the idea of the light shows all the West Coast bands had at the end of the '60s and I thought we could do something like that but a lot more modern. It's a lot easier now when you can just bring a video projector instead of 20 slide projectors and three of your mates to work the things.

The films are often just ways of chucking light around, but it feels more complete like that somehow. All the noise and light is kind psychedelic, it's difficult to explain but it's like everything there is, all at the same time. You can't usually see much for a while afterwards.

Do you work the visuals around the music or is your music ever inspired by visual ideas?

The music and the films are both quite abstract, so it's more about them having the same feeling. If we were a normal band and we had a song about drinking tea there would probably be lots of footage of tea - or vice versa. It's nice not to have to work like that.

Where and when can people catch your live shows?

We're beginning to play in Cambridge so often we're having to try different ideas to make it more interesting such as improvised sets, or themed sets, which I suppose is a good thing because it forces us to innovate. We're also playing national gigs in various places, although to no real pattern yet. If you join the dots of the gig locations on a map it might say something important, or then again it might not. Live dates are on our website so the best thing is to see what we are doing and if we are playing near you.

What is Cambridge like for new music?

I think it's the same as any typical small town, there's a few venues to play, many promoters to fill them and quite a few local bands doing the same indie thing, but there's little that is stand out interesting. It reminds me of eating potatoes - it fills you up but sometimes you want to eat something more spicy like, say, Radishes. Like everywhere most of the student population want to dance to charty commercial music, its just that there's a higher percentage of them than usual in Cambridge. Electronic and experimental music is quite well catered for in Cambridge with several nights a month so that's pretty good. For a town of it's size it does pretty well, plus it gets a lot of the national touring bands in the larger venues should you want to see the latest NME hype.

Overrated.

I think it's shite actually. There's loads of venues and about 300 bands in Cambridge and apart from the ones Rob mentions, they're all really boring. You wonder why they do it, you know - what made them think it was a good idea to start a band in the first place. It's like they pick a group and do their best to imitate them. What's the point? You might as well start a covers band. Sorry, it pisses me off. Cambridge is notorious for shit bands though, apart from a couple of people who went to the university the last band from Cambridge that got anywhere were Pink Floyd.

Katrina and the Waves are from Cambridge too. Err, but that's it.

Are there any local bands you can recommend?

Um is always fantastic. He's just one man who sings his wonderful lyrics to a minidisk backing and I can't recommend him enough. We also play with the Vichy Government a lot. Half of them are from Cambridge. Does that count? Also the Fuzzylights do some lovely soundscapes and are well worth seeing.

The Vichy Government are the future of hip hop. Probably.

Yeah, there’s always time for Um. The Khe Sanh Approach are also pretty good, but not really that local.

Where can people get hold of your releases?

Some of our recorded output is on our website. Otherwise send us an email and we'll help you out with a CDR and a badge.

Are you planning to release anything soon?

Maybe later in the year, we'll see how it goes...

Which records have you been listening to most recently?

This week I have been listening to the Byrds and the Future Sound of London, if only because they are the newest CD's I bought.D: Nico, Faust, Plastikman and the Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Bob Dylan, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Kinks, and a bit of Robyn Hitchcock.

January 2006