7/21/2006

¡Forward, Russia! interview



¡Forward, Russia!
By alexander laurence

tom - voice, synth
rob - bass
katie - drums, shouts
whiskas - guitar, shouts

¡Forward, Russia! formed in Leeds in early 2004. Katie and Whiskas are sister
and brother. Tom and Rob were in a band called The Black Helicopters. All
four came together to try to create something unheard of. The first gig was in
April 2004. The madness followed. At the end of 2004 a single was recorded. The
song “Nine” was released as a split 7-inch single with This Et Al in April
2005. It was released on the Dance To The Radio label. This is a label ran by
Whiskas. Soon Katie finished college. The rest of the band quit their jobs.
During the summer of 2005 they played with Editors, VHS or Beta, and others. They
were featured at the Leeds and Reading Festivals. The next single
“Thirteen/Fourteen” came out in August 2005. White Heat Records put it out. Soon the band
its first gig in London. At the beginning of 2006, the band recorded the first
album. A new single “Twelve” made it into the UK top 40. After a successful
show at SXSW, they released the album “Give Me A Wall” (2006). In June 2006,
¡Forward, Russia! Was back in the States for some more shows. I spoke to Tom
and Rob at the show at the Troubadour. I also saw them at Popscene in San
Francisco. Unfortunately that tape didn’t come out. But I got to talk to Whiskas
over the phone. Their album will be released in America in September 2006.

AL: I talked to some of the other band members in Los Angeles, but the tape
didn’t come out.

Whiskas: I was probably off getting a beer.

AL: How did you meet the other members of the band?

Whiskas: Katie is my sister. Some people don’t realize that. The other two
were in a band called The Black Helicopters. They were playing a lot of gigs in
Leeds and were championed by a few people. They were a band that I really
liked. They liked my band. We used to play together and we got on really well.

AL: You also did a label too?

Whiskas: The label came later. Dance To The Radio was the label and
Transmission was the club. Obviously “dance to the radio…” is a line from the Joy
Division song “Transmission.” At this time I was just putting gigs on, rather
than doing the label. The band started and the label came about very quickly.

AL: You always worked in Leeds?

Whiskas: Yeah. It was all based in Leeds. I have never done anything
elsewhere. I was briefly involved with a label in Manchester. I think Leeds needed
something like that. I think the label has proved that it has kick-started
things.

AL: What other bands did you work with?

Whiskas: We worked with a band called I Like Trains. And a second band This
Et Al which is doing well here from the early days. Since the label has become
a bit better we can actually sign bands properly and work with them a bit
more. We have released a single not by Forward Russia. We have a family of four
bands now. There are the bands The Pigeon Detectives and Yes Boss. It’s a Leeds
thing to help each other out. Most of the bands sound different. There is one
new band called Shut Your Eyes and You’ll Burst Into Flames. They are more
like us, so we have been playing a lot of shows together. On some of the
compilations, we have played with most of the thirty bands on there.

AL: How did you decided about the look of the band and wearing the same
clothes with the exclamation marks?

Whiskas: It was quite funny really. When we played our first headlining gig
in Leeds, we decided to make a big deal out of it. So we decided to put
exclamation marks everywhere. We had the idea to put the big posters everywhere. Then
we put then on the t-shirts too. We started to click as a unit. I like the
idea of a band wearing a uniform. It takes away the idea of fashion. You can’t
talk about how cool a band looks, because basically in a way they don’t.
Especially when it’s a white t-shirt with the band’s image on it. We did that and
they we decided to do that for every gig.

AL: Then you don’t have titles for songs. It’s all numbers. How did that
come about?

Whiskas: It’s great to talk about this sort of thing. Because it was all coinc
idence and us being a bit stupid. Why do all the songs have numbers? It’s
because we had four or five songs and we could think of any names for them. Then
we decided to dub them “One” and “Two” and so on… It wasn’t a long-term
solution at first. Then we wrote a few more songs and dubbed then “Six” and
“Seven.” At that point we thought: “This is silly, but what else are we going to
do?” After we finished the album, we said “We will stop giving the songs
numbers and we will start giving the names.”

AL: So you got up to twenty songs?

Whiskas: Nineteen. That was the last one. We are going to work on a few new
songs and they will have names. Because we are always thinking of names, they
haven’t got names yet.

AL: So when you play live people say “Play song eight!”

Whiskas: That is like Autechre. It’s fun to have people shouting out numbers
when you are onstage. Everyone finds our setlist pretty funny. For us it’s
useful because you can write it out in ten seconds. You don’t have to write out
long song titles.

AL: What do you think about coming to America and playing shows?

Whiskas: We have loved the two times we have been over. Our record is coming
out in September in America. We have been frustrated how short the tours have
been. We are usually playing to more people in America. But you are rushing
around everywhere. We are looking forward to hit it properly before the end of
the year. We love playing live. We just started playing the rest of Europe as
well. You can see the difference. In the UK we have toured so much that it’s
like a farewell tour for the album. It’s weird that we are still introducing it
to the rest of the world. We want to get that done. The American crowds seem
receptive and enthusiastic. In Britain we are used to kids coming down to the
shows. There are a lot more teenagers there. In America, we play at they bars
that are 21+.

AL: We have energy drinks over here to keep us young and energetic.

Whiskas: What is that thing? Battery Spark? Sparks? We had a couple of those.
We saw them and had to try them.

AL: How does the songwriting go in the band?

Whiskas: I usually come in with a few ideas and we will play around with it.
We will work on individual ideas within a song. Like we are working on a new
song. It has two or three different bits. We are not sure what order they will
come in. We might change around what each of us is playing. When we play it,
we discovered that it would be better if we played it on keyboard rather than a
guitar. Little things like that. We are making sure that we try everything
and push it so we get the best results. Most songs come really quickly.

AL: Does everyone contribute equally?

Whiskas: We are a guitar driven band. That might be the spark for it all.
Everyone contributes his or her own parts. We talk about the form and the format.
Everyone will have an equal say what things should sound like. Sometimes the
song with written in individual parts. Usually the group is involved in the
shaping of that.

AL: Does Tom write all the lyrics?

Whiskas: Yeah. Tom writes lyrics that are very personal to him. We might have
some ideas about the tone or the melody.

AL: What about your sister? At the end of the day, was it a good idea to have
her in the band?

Whiskas: I like the way you put that. We have a normal brother and sister
relationship. We have proper fights. She is a great drummer. We have a strange
relationship. I went to University, and she went to a boarding college, so we
didn’t see each other for a few years. Musically we have some of the same
influences. We look out for each other.

AL: Who are some of the bands that you have played with that you have liked?

Whiskas: The bands that come to mind are Editors, We Are Scientists, and
Biffy Clyro. We have had an amazing time and amazing tours with those bands. We
had a great tour with VHS or Beta. We played with them all in the UK. We played
with this band in New York at the Mercury Lounge called Holy Fuck. We
absolutely adored them.

AL: We have a Holy Shit over here in LA. Maybe they should do a tour together?

Whiskas: Holy Fuck are from Canada.

AL: When you record is it all done as live takes?

Whiskas: No it’s all thought out. We do a lot of layering and it sounds
different from the live show. We do a lot of different parts and we hint at things,
because I use a lot of delay onstage. Tom has an amazing ear for harmonies. I
use a lot of delays, imitating what a second guitarist might play. It’s
easier to play all those parts on a record.

AL: Are there any other bands that you would like to play with?

Whiskas: We would like to play with Pretty Girls Make Graves. Someone
mentioned that we might play with TV on The Radio. I think that would be absolutely
amazing. All of us have different likes and dislikes. Sometimes we don’t about
other bands we like to each other.

AL: The record comes out on Mute Records in September. You would like to do a
longer proper tour over here?

Whiskas: Yeah. We are just waiting for the opportunity. We should be there in
October and November. A lot of British bands only do five dates. I would like
to tour for a whole month. I would like to go to some odd places.

AL: Have you played some festivals?

Whiskas: We just did T In The Park in Scotland. It was very mental. We had a
bunch of friends there. We did Oxygen in Ireland. It’s healthy to play all
over Europe. The shows in Europe look like good bands. Then we are going to Leeds
and Reading.

AL: Did you watch the World Cup this year?

Whiskas: We tried but we were in America during some of that time. We were in
Europe for ten days driving around. I was on a plane for two of the England
matches. We watched one England match on a Jet Blue flight. They have a cable
in the back of the seat. We were going to San Francisco. That was bizarre. I am
looking forward to South Africa in 2010. I catch more of it then.

AL: How do you feel about Zidane and the headbutt?

Whiskas: It’s quite funny. We were playing a show when the match was going
on. We were coming back to the dressing room and trying to watch it. It’s a
funny way to end his career. Zidane has always been that kind of player. It’s
interesting to find out what happens in the Italian league.

AL: What else are you going to do this year?

Whiskas: We want to record again this summer. We have a big European tour and
a small UK tour. We want to be in America most of the rest of the year. We
want to do the next record soon. We want to give people a fair crack at this
first album before we move on.

AL: What do you think of The Cribs? They said that they broke the ground for
all Leeds bands.

Whiskas: They were taking credit for it? I will tell you about the Cribs,
mate. I saw them in when they were a band called Wrinkle. They were playing
Mansun and Placebo covers. They were playing in Wakefield. They definitely gave the
Leeds scene a shot in the arm when they really started doing stuff. They were
helped by a lot of things too. The Kaiser Chiefs came out with their album at
the same time. The Cribs were one of the first bands.

AL: Are there a lot of places to play in Leeds?

Whiskas: There are a lot of places but a lot of them are closing down. You
can hire a hall there. There are a lot of bars.

Website: http://www.dancetotheradio.com/
Website: http://www.forwardrussia.com/


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Photo: alexander laurence

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