Hello Jam on Bread. Who are you then?
Hiya! My name's Steve and I make 'ukulele pop,' at least that's what I say when I'm begging people to give me gigs. I've been going for about a year now and have been lucky enough to play gigs with musicians who are much better/more famous than I am, which is nice.
Just you and your Uke is it?
Yeah! It's a lot easier that way. If I want to play a show or go on tour I don't have to mess about making sure the rest of the band are available. Also, the Ukulele is about as portable as it gets so I don't have to lug around heavy bits of equipment. I'm really weak so I'd probably cry if I had to haul a real instrument around on public transport.
Who are the people/bands that have influenced you and convinced you to write popsongs?
Argh! Far too many to mention. Bands like The Middle Ones, The Deirdres, The Empty Set, The Shrieking Violets and songwriters like Pagan Wanderer Lu and Pete Green inspire me. They make me want to write pop songs just so I can get the chance to play gigs with them. I'd be happy if I was half as good as them on that list.
Non band wise, people like John Brainlove from Brainlove Records have influenced me a lot. He's really enthusiastic about everything he does and I'd like to say I have the same enthusiasm for what I do. I'm being a brown nose now aren't I?
Can the term 'pop music' ever be rescued from 'chart music.' Obviously chart music is popular with a lot of people, but surely pop is more like the Labrador stuff which we both love.
I dunno! Maybe there should be a distinction between Pop music and pop music. I'm not sure which one would be which, but I'm not a fan of capital letters so I reckon the good kind would be the all lower case 'pop'. Yeah. One day I'd like to see pop music being Pop music too; have Suburban Kids With Biblical Names selling out the Apollo while The Enemy or some crap like that are playing at Dry Bar. Having said that, The Enemy would probably go down a storm at Dry Bar.
what are you up to at the moment? any plans for a proper jam on bread release? oh, and did the isopods cd ever come to fruition? i totally forgot to finish my song for that before the deadline...
there's supposed to be a 7" coming out at some point but it's a bit up in the air at the moment. i'll probably release it myself. diy by default! i need to get round to recording it first though...
i don't think the isopod compilation ever got finished. i'd say it was a shame but my contribution was awful. genuinely awful. it was the first song i ever wrote and recorded and it was called 'isopod in my bathroom'. i don't think i even have a recording of it anymore!
Seeing that you are just as much a fan of the internet as us, can you suggest some good blogs to be reading? I see we share a love of swedesplease - I love that site.
I really like Vegan Yum Yum, but that isn't a music blog, it just has lots of recipes and stuff on it. It's entertaining even if you can't stand cooking 'cos the photos are so nice. I'm making tofutti cream cheese tomato sauce with spaghetti tonight and it'll look nothing like what it looks like on the internet, but still, yum!
Music-wise I'd go for Death to Music, Skatterbrain, indie mp3. Probably some others I can't think of right now. I have a swedesplease t-shirt! I bet you don't have one of those! I was so happy when they wrote stuff about me on there. I'm not even Swedish!
what other things are you into right now? read any good books, watched any good films/tv?
we don't have a tv but i'm pretty hooked on illegally streamed episodes of gossip girl, embarrassingly enough. house as well, although that's much less embarrassing. i love house so much.
a friend lent me adam gnade's novel. so far i'm about twenty pages in and already we've had a dog chewing on a dead baby and a lorry load of bunnies crashing, leaving a road full of screaming fluff. apparently they scream like babies when they're in pain. the thought of that made me do a sad face for about a whole hour after i read it.
What are your plans for 2009?
There's supposed to be a 7" coming out at some point but it's a bit up in the air at the moment. I'll probably release it myself. DIY by default! I need to get round to recording it first though... I'm also in the middle of arranging a tour with Mat Riviere in February which'll be nice. Mat Riviere's ace. Other than that, I dunno really! Play some more gigs with people I like and meet even more lovely people. Anything else would just be a bonus!
thanks a lot, we hope you have a great christmas and a happy new year!
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