TLOBF Interview :: Fuck Buttons

Whenever an acquaintance suggests that you ‘Check out my band, you might like it’ there is always a sense of apprehension. Principally, you’re thinking ‘I like this guy: what if his band sucks?’ You don’t want to tell someone that even though you like them, you don’t particularly like the thing that they want to dedicate their life to: neither do you want to insult them by lying through your teeth about how they were amazing when you felt nothing but a vague sense of annoyance. Such thoughts were in my head 3 or so years ago when a softly-spoken, yet witty and likeable work colleague called Andy Hung invited me to the East End to watch his ridiculously-named laptop duo Fuck Buttons perform in the cosily low-rent Macbeth pub. Suffice it to say, I wasn’t prepared for the dynamic, startling, confident, unnerving and noisy performance art I witnessed that night. They were still playing gigs on the floor in front of the stage in those days, and Andy would walk right up to you and bellow into your face, while Benjamin John Power clattered something on a standing snare drum that was part-tribal and part-skiffle. There was more to it than just noise and amateur dramatics; anyone with eyes and ears could detect it. There was intelligence, a real sense of drama, the ambition to expand it beyond the confines of an East End pub.

Three and a bit years later, and they’re playing on the highest stage I’ve seen them perform on, at legendary “Gentleman’s club” Heaven in London’s Charing Cross. The night’s support is provided by living icon Andrew Weatherall, producer of Fuck Buttons’ second album Tarot Sport and now friend of the band, an eclectic mix of vintage beats from Detroit and Chicago, echoing off of the brick walls and arched ceilings of the rapidly-filling venue with something like familiarity. Then post-Aphex darling of the Warp label Chris Clark (or as he now prefers to be known, simply ‘Clark’) does his thudding, shuddering, stuttering beats-squeaks-yelps-and howls thing to enormous effect.

But the roar of anticipation that greets Fuck Buttons’ entrance takes even me by surprise. Two albums in and the only thing that has changed about them is the size of the surroundings and the crowd. They may be more physically removed from the spectator (no more scary, thousand-yard-stares-at-close-range, more’s the pity), but the rigour and intensity which has characterised the blistering Fuck Buttons live experience from as early as I can remember seeing them is still dominant. The set hews heavily to the Tarot Sport side of the boat, ‘Surf Solar’ and ‘Olympians’ harder and woozier than on the record, ‘Rough Steez’ and ‘Phantom Limb’ walling you in with ferocity and volume. The familiar kick-drum sample that starts ‘Bright Tomorrow’ begins, and the crowd seem to physically lift off the ground with euphoria. ‘Flight of the Feathered Serpent’ prompts a lot of honest-to-God glowstick-in-the-air raving, and even a singalong (impressive for a song with no vocals or lyrics). They encore with ‘Sweet Love For Planet Earth’, the chiming, marbles-on-a-glass-tabletop intro still perhaps their signature sound. They don’t generally betray much emotion during their performances, but Andy occasionally steals a glance at the audience, a shy, satisfied smile on his face. They don’t look shocked to be there, they know they deserve to be and false modesty is no virtue, but they sure do seem grateful.

The performance is even more of an accomplishment because Ben has not once betrayed how sick he is: earlier in the evening while trying to enjoy the plush, spacious backstage area (big enough to accommodate TWO roomy sofas, miles away from each other and a bar) he certainly isn’t a picture of health, his frame wracked with hacking coughs, and his dialogue peppered with feverish, half-delirious statements. He could have perfectly reasonably sat our ensuing interview out, and got some much-needed rest for the gig later on, but he pulls himself together for it like a pro, something for which I will be forever in his debt.

How does it feel to be playing London’s premier gay nightspot?
AH: I think the actual venue itself is fantastic. It looks brilliant. I’ve never been here before until today.
BJP: So far it’s great. The sound is good.

How long have you been on this tour?
AH: Since the beginning of September.

What’s been your best gig so far on this tour?
AH: I was really impressed with a lot of the European dates, actually. In the UK we’re aware of how much coverage we’ve been getting, because we live here and can see it for ourselves, but it’s been quite overwhelming in Europe. We really enjoyed Brussels for instance, that was a big surprise.
BJP: Lisbon as well.

Could you talk a little about your history, how you got together?
AH: We’ve known each other for quite a bit of time. We come from the same hometown, bit it was only really in university that we started hanging around with each other. We weren’t really part of the same social circle when we were kids, although we knew each other. At university we started hanging out together, going to shows and stuff.

You had shared influences?
BJP: I don’t think we particularly did share influences. I mean there were certain shows that we would go to together, but I don’t think our musical backgrounds are that close. Growing up I listened to a lot of punk and hardcore, and Andy was listening to electronic music. We went to Bristol University, and a lot of touring bands come through Bristol, so we took the opportunity to see a lot of different types of music and would see each other at the gigs.

Do you think that the disparity in your influences provided a healthy mix?
AH: We don’t really talk about the music we used to listen to any more. When we first started MAKING music it was pretty interesting right from the beginning. Whether that was a result of the disparity between us is pretty hard to say really.

What are your working methods like? Does one of you come up with an idea and present it to the other to see what he can do to it, or do you work at the same time? Is it an organic process?
AH: We work together. There isn’t really a set way we approach a new song. I don’t think it would be beneficial to our music to have a structured creative process and so we don’t. The only thing that is consistent is that we are in the same room when we make this music. It’s not like someone ‘brings something to the table’. Obviously there is room for that, but normally the things that surprise us happen when we are both present.

How has Andrew Weatherall fit in to your working methods?
AH: When we went into the studio, the music (we’d written) remained intact and formed, and our vision has remained intact as well from beginning to end of the recording process. Andrew was able to integrate himself into our filtering and embellishment of that sound once we were in the studio, so he brought that component to it.

Whenever a ‘name’ producer gets involved with a young band there is always the charge that the band has ceded its identity to the producer, and that he has dictated the sound of the record. Not in this case?
AH: He didn’t influence the direction of the music. But he was tantamount to the actual production…since he was the producer (laughs).

I’ve always detected a definite ‘pop’ element to your music. Not necessarily Cheryl Cole, but similar to bands you’ve toured with and that you speak highly of such as Mogwai and Caribou: abrasive on the surface but with a pop centre. Do you think Tarot Sport is a conscious move toward a more pop aesthetic for you?
BJP: I don’t think we’ve consciously moved towards it.
AH: I think we’d find it hard to define pop. It’s open to a very wide spectrum of interpretation. But I do think that the bands you’ve just mentioned do have a pop sensibility. But a minority of people would regard it as ‘pop music’, so it’s hard to wedge it into a definition like that.

To the average music fan your music might be looked on as avant-garde, even though as we’ve discussed there is a pop element to it. Do you feel that established figures in cutting edge music have a problem with you? I’m specifically thinking of The Wire Magazine referring to you as ‘easy listening’, or saying that Tarot Sport sounded like Carlos Giffoni playing to an Ibiza beer-boy crowd….
AH: Which sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? (laughs) I’ve seen the music polarise people, sure, but it isn’t something that informs us or the music. It’s interesting how we alienate the avant garde crowd but we’d alienate someone who was into the X Factor just as much. It’s slightly interesting, but it’s not something that we concern ourselves with.

Do you have a listener in mind when you create music?
BJP: Yeah, two of them: me and Andy. (laughs)

Obviously with the name of your band you’re not after the mainstream dollar. What was the thought process behind the name? Was it meant to be confrontational?
AH: The name doesn’t have a process behind it (which IS one of course). We didn’t have any ambition for this band in terms of a listening audience, we were just interested in making music. The name was peripheral in that sense. But you’re right, the name does provide a hurdle for some people.

Has it caused you problems with bookings etc?
AH: It hasn’t presented as a problem: it’s just a hurdle one can get over through things like censorship. On the radio they just call us ‘F Buttons’. It’s just not a problem at all.

Some people do see what you do and what you’re called as shocking and confrontational though, That isn’t intended?
AH: I don’t think so, no. Confrontation is not something we’re interested in while producing the music that we make, very far from it.

Your music is often quite uplifting and positive…does that reflect your general outlook?
BJP: That IS apparent but again I don’t think we necessarily planned this. But hope is an emotion that we are both interested in. Maybe that is what just comes naturally to us.

In terms of how your sound is developing, Street Horrsing had many more vocal elements to it. There isn’t a great deal of that on Tarot Sport. Is that something you’ve grown out of?
BJP: We don’t really have any plans for what we’re going to do next, creatively, it will just come from us playing around with things.. It wasn’t a conscious decision to leave any of those elements out, they just really didn’t have a home on this record.

In songs like Sweet Love For Planet Earth, are you actually saying anything, Ben? Are you chanting specific words? Is it just a general roar?
BJP: Oh, a bit of both.

But you won’t be providing a lyric sheet in future re-issues?
BJP: No (laughs).

Street Horrsing had a strong ‘ethnic’, or ethnographic pulse to it: tribal drumming, speaking in tongues etc. A song like Ribs Out is like a primitive incantation. Is that something you’ve abandoned?
BJP: I think Tarot Sport is somewhat richer so maybe it’s harder to pick out some of those elements that you speak of. The songs on Street Horrrsing are more skeletal.

Whenever I’ve seen you perform the reaction is overwhelmingly positive. Do you get many negative reactions to what you do live?
BJP: There have always been negative responses.
AH: There ARE detractors, We don’t overwhelmingly get negative responses, but of course there are detractors..
BJP: I think now that people kind of know who we are and what they’re going to get, the people who’d REALLY hate it don’t bother, whereas when we first started to play shows, more people might not know what was going on, give us a go, and absolutely hate it (laughs).

The music is quite sparse and instrumental, so people will want to pin a narrative onto it. Are the titles of your tracks and albums a roadmap for people? Is there a narrative element to what you do?
AH: Thinking about that question, you’re talking about the relationship between the audience and the product?

Things like naming a track after a ship that sank in WWII for example…is that just to evoke a mood?
BJP: It’s about the mental imagery that is conjured up for me and Andy: that’s how a track will get its title. It’s not necessarily to steer the listener in a direction of what they SHOULD be thinking about. Andy has often described our records as being documents of where we are at a particular time, which is totally valid and I think that comes down to our mood and what we are feeling when we were writing these songs in the first instance. But it’s not to steer anyone in any direction. In terms of narrative, yes I guess there IS a narrative, but I wouldn’t like to think that we impose anything on the listener beyond the titles.
AH: When you start listening to music you enjoy, you start looking into the history of it, and since we don’t have any lyrical content to provide a structured narrative to the music it’s something we are interested in. It’s not ambiguity: there is emotional directness in our music, which is what we like to be prominent, not the formal narrative of the music. We very much enjoy ‘feelings’: a very big part of what we get out of it is enjoying the feelings that music provokes.
BJP: It’s more suggestive, the titles.

As it’s very mood-orientated music that is open to interpretation, how do you feel about how your music has been used in other media? I’m thinking of it being used in film trailers and as a backing track in Top Gear etc. It seems that any time there is a documentary about a serial killer in Bristol, they have you guys in the soundtrack somewhere…
BJP: Yeah Sky News used us to soundtrack something about Princess Diana’s car crash. It’s a nice example of how other people’s interpretation of the music and their mental imagery is not the same as ours, which I think is great. The intro to Sweet Love For Planet Earth was used in the trailer for a horror film, and I would never see that connection: it just doesn’t conjure up that sort of mental imagery for me.
AH: I really enjoy that sort of thing. (pause) It’s out of our control (laughter).
BJP: Everybody’s entitled to their own interpretation: I don’t think it’d be right to tell someone that they’re wrong.

Have you thought about soundtrack work? Has anyone approached you for a car advert, or even a movie?
AH: I think the prospect of working with cinematography is fantastic. We’re not in that process yet, but it’s something that would interest us for sure.

How long is the tour going on for?
AH: Another five years or so (laughter)
BJP: or until one of us drops, unless this actually kills me (coughs).

The music makes a great deal of sense live, so it’s no wonder you tour so much: what does the future hold for you? You’re touring to promote the album at the moment, but are there any areas that you’d like to move into beyond that?
BJP: I think what you just mentioned would be interesting for us to do, the soundtrack thing.
AH: But the prospect of not knowing where one could go is extremely exciting. We are concentrating on the tours at the moment, but it’s exciting that we don’t know where the music is going to take us, either aesthetically or physically (laughs).

You’re off to America next week?
BJP: Andy goes on Thursday, I go on Friday. Because we can’t fly together obviously (laughter).

Like the guys who know the formula for Coca-Cola?
AH: What’s the name of that band we know that actually does that?
BJP: I’m not gonna drop names in an interview, man!