Moshpitasticallyinyerface

Quantum leap protagonists, purveyors of trepanation, matadors of mayhem, or a plain ol' rock'n'roll band called Ned's Atomic Dustbin? So far as one of them's concerned, take your pick, so far as they're all concerned, you're barking up the right tree. Not that trees are where it's at, but with a name like Ned's Atomic Dustbin, everything's where it's at.

This includes Killing Joke, snowboarding, Stevie Wonder, heavy drinking, Tom Waits, large breasts (preferably female), Joni Mitchell, hangovers, and just about anything that doesn't include the bad aftertaste of Paul McCartney's last album.

For Ned's Atomic Dustbin - a band from England's West Midlands aka the Wonder Stuff and half of Led Zeppelin - have just released their most positive and self introspective album to date. Entitled Brainbloodvolume - named after a term the band discovered while studying the ancient art of trepanation - it's an eclectic eleven tracked album that does much to pin one's pessimism (and kidneys) to the wall.

In other words, it's hard to listen to without being reached, albeit momentarily. Be it via a snatch of Tears For Fears care of ‘I Want It Over,’ or a thousand yard stare care of Premonition, Brainbloodvolume's in yer face like a topsy turvy merry-go-round.

If all this sounds like a night on the tiles with Kaity Tong and Ronnie Wood, you wouldn't be mistaken: a polka dot pre-text the one minute, a beer guzzlin' extremity in F#minor the next. Somehow the two go together, but it's a juxtaposition of the finest musical order. Perhaps this is what vocalist Jonn Penney meant when he said: "There came a point in our career where we realised we needed to re-evaluate what we were doing and dig a lot deeper to find out exactly what we were trying to achieve."

With this in mind amid the hustle and bustle of Sony's Publicity department, yours truly ventured to penetrate the Guinness inflected mindwarp of Messrs. Penney and bass player Matt Cheslin.



It's being said that a lot of current British bands such as Oasis, The London Suede, Manic Street Preachers etc, are finding it hard to make any headway in this country. How's America been to you?

Matt: "We've never had that problem. America's probably the place where we've had the most success and the most encouragement to continue making records."

Jonn: "At least in the last three or four years since we first broke."

Matt: "I think it's basically because we're a very rare thing in America - which is a bullshit free zone. I think people appreciate that."

Jonn: "We're not afraid of putting the time in to play people's towns, beyond their doorstep, and making ourselves available to them."

There are appears to be a spate of British bands that don't like touring America.

Matt: "Well it's fuckin hard, and you do get sick of it, and you do want to go home, and you do get lonely; but at the end of the day the rewards make it worth it. You can go to like, Raleigh or Ann Harbor and loads of places and get people into your gigs, and watch them manifestly enjoying themselves. At the end of the day, that's what we make music for, and it's the biggest kick you can get out of it."

To what degree does it pay to be arrogant aka Oasis, Gene et al?

Jonn: "I think it'll totally undo them..."

Matt: "What's the fuckin point?"

Jonn: "If they are cocky, it'll really undo them because American people won't put up with it. They just won't put up with it."

Matt: "You shouldn't be ungrateful because you've turned up, plugged in and got paid to play for people."

Jonn: "It should be a shared thing. I think what you've got to do is just come over and be yourself. If you want to be cocky, and that's your style then fine, but we've never been like that, y'know what I mean?"

Would you describe yourselves as a video band?

Jonn: "Not really. We're a live band. We try to write songs that we can play live, and play live well. Where people are most likely to see us and be converted. The first place that can happen is probably at a gig; at least if they've heard us and aren't sure what we're about, they'll find out by seeing the band live."

Of this record, you've said there came a point where you realized you needed to re-evaluate what you were doing and dig a lot deeper to find out exactly what you were trying to achieve. How valid is it to pinpoint what you're trying to achieve?

Jonn: "If you're going to stay together, you've got to at least discuss it; especially if you've been together for a while. There comes a time on the road when you don't really know or understand each other."

Matt: "You tend to blank people out and that."

Jonn: "You'd think that maybe you'd get to know people and get closer, but you don't. So when you down tools and say 'right then, we're not touring now until we've written a new record and everything,' the first problem you're faced with is 'well what kind of record is it that we want to be making?' So by saying that, I was trying to find out where we were coming from as individual people."

What was the premonition behind Premonition?

Jonn: "I was in Australia, and it was that time of day when you know there's about another twelve hours before you can actually call home cause no-one will be awake. And I had this gut feeling that something really, really bad had happened..."

Matt: "You always get that on tour."

And did anything?

Jonn: "No, but you sometimes get this feeling whereby there's nothing you can do about it, and you just have to wait. I've done it before where I've got so wound up waiting, and phoning and there being no-one there; that when I've finally got through I've been in tears."

Matt: "And the person at the other end saying, 'I've just got in from work, what's the problem?'"

You've also said that you wanted this album to make hairs stand on the back of necks. Have you done so?

Jonn: "Yeah, I think with I Want It Over."

Matt: "Especially if you play it really really really loud on headphones, it really works."

Jonn: "It's almost like a chemical thing."

Would you agree that ‘I Want It Over’ is a little reminiscent of Tears For Fears?

Jonn: "I've had a lot of people telling me that they think my voice on this album sounds like Kurt, who used to be in Tears For Fears. Not specifically any song, but a lot of people have said that. I'm not insulted."

Matt: "Maybe it's because (Tim Palmer) the producer we use works for Tears For Fears, he might be using the same sort of EQs."

How about past songs; can you think of any that make the hairs stand on the back of your neck?

Matt: "Nick Drake's ‘Northern Sky’ breaks my heart every time I hear it."

Jonn: "’Martha’ by Tom Waits."

Matt: "Yes, that's a good one. Um, Heart of A Saturday Night by Tom Waits; in fact anything by Tom Waits makes it happen. Closing Time is a real special record for us."

Jonn: "Joni Mitchell's ‘Last Time I Saw Richard,’ that's brilliant as well."

Matt: "Stevie Wonder's Too High, that always gets me for some reason, and another Tom Waits one, San Diego Serenade."

Jonn: "’My Girl’ by The Temptations... all these songs can actually have like an immediate, physical effect."

What's the deal with trepanation? Are any of you going to embark on drilling holes in your head?

Matt: "I think we've drilled a lot of metaphorical holes in our heads over the time we've been together. For various reasons, exploratory, whatever, and some of 'em you want to plug up and some of 'em are really useful."

Were you aware of drilling these metaphorical holes at the time, or are you looking back in hindsight?

Both: "Yeah, looking back in hindsight."

Matt: "It's like, if I hadn't taken that enormous amount of drugs, I wouldn't have seen this. Or, if we hadn't have spent six weeks on the road eating crap food, I wouldn't have seen that."

So between trepanation and hindsight, you've attained a sense of enlightenment?

Matt: "Well we were finishing off the album at Real World, Peter Gabriel's place, and Dan (Worton) the drummer was reading a book about various people who do strange things for their own... sort of reasons. And there was a section on self-trepanation - a couple in the '60s who did it with power drills - basically saying that if you release the pressure on your brain and increase your brain blood volume, you sort of return to your childhood state of innocence and empathy."

Jonn: "And apparently they were very pleased with the results."

Matt: "So the drummer was reading this book and saying 'you've got to fuckin read this, this is crazy. You know, there's graphic descriptions of this bloke finally breaking through the skull and a jet of blood coming out..."

Jonn: "So it was one of the things floating around. One of the things going on in our heads at the time, along with writing the album and feeling like 'God, we're nearly there, we're gonna finish it soon and it's gonna be good.'"

As an extension of trepanation, do you think you'll ever reach a stage of utter peace and contentment, and would you know it if you did?

Jonn: "I think the whole idea of reaching anything is a ludicrous one. To coin a phrase 'life is a journey and not a destination.' You arrive at death, but in the meantime, I don't think you actually arrive anywhere."

Matt: "I think you stop off at places along the way, and sometimes you want to stay there."

To change the subject, do you think democracy works within the framework of band?

Matt: "No, it doesn't work, because you always have to positively discriminate for the minority."

Do you think it's important then, that there's one guy with a vision?

Jonn: "Definitely, that would be the easy way out, but at the end of the day, you have to be enormously talented to hold the whole thing together."

Apart from mediocrity, what's killing rock'n'roll?

Both: "Phew..."

Matt: "Well there's not a lot else really other than an enormous blanket of foggy mediocrity sweeping down. Hype, bullshit, the NME (New Musical Express); they're killing rock'n'roll."

Jonn: "NME and Melody Maker (British music weeklies) are absolutely destroying it."

Matt: "Basically because you think of them as being the lifeblood, the publicity and the hype and shit like that. At the end of the day though, it eventually becomes a parody. It reaches a stage where you can't be sure of the quality of anything, whereby no-one makes up their minds about the quality of music. They have to be told."

By the NME?

Matt: "Yeah, or by publicity on a billboard."

Jonn: "In America, people are actually interested in where you're gonna go, and, at the same time, are interested in what's new. In England, it's almost as if there's a solid distinction between people who are only interested in what's new, and will ultimately loose interest rapidly. You should be able to do both, as they do over here."

Do you miss the Wonder Stuff?

Jonn: "No. I mean the thing is, they're lovely blokes, but after all the favours they did us in the press, we hardly ever saw them. We were too busy doing our own thing."

Finally, would you agree that Ned's Atomic Dustbin are becoming connoisseurs of controlled mayhem?

Matt: "I think we've learnt how to make vessels to carry things in. We've learnt how to make strong containers for stuff. Whereas before, instead of having a jar of flies we'd have a bag of flies; and it couldn't hold it all together. Therefore, no-one could really focus on it particularly well."

Jonn: "I can always remember being horrified the first time someone called us a punk band. Just picturing punk as chaos, and really, really not wanting to be coming across that way. Y'know, I wanted to be coming across like an expressive pop band, with something positive and tight and textured."

And have you attained being those ingredients?

Jonn: "Yeah, I think we have to a degree."