INTERVIEW - STUPID NAME GROUP

As a bonus for the Infiltrator single, we got together with Andrew from Stupid Name Group to ask a few questions. He answered them. Then we wrote down those answers here, in this totally imaginary interview.

WE LAST SPOKE AROUND THE TIME OF THE TELEPHONE SONG. YOU'VE HAD A GOOD RUN SINCE THEN!

Thank you! Well, I think we've had a very good run since Super Standard Behaviour e.p. If it wasn't for the Summer album we did last year, it would've been a great run, anyway.

That album just really sucks. Still not sure why. The last track is good, though, and the dubs were OK. But I don't know why it's so bad, even listening to it now. That just reminds me that I still don't have any clue what I'm doing, so I don't know how to avoid doing bad things. I'm just fumbling around.

AH WELL. YOU COULD TAKE THE ALBUM DOWN.

True. Maybe we should. It does suck, but it does tell part of the story, and it's not too embarrassing.

It's a shame, because that album has some good ideas. 1643, James Whyte... but it's all a bit... flat. One of the tracks is basically Theme from Stupid Name Group... it sums up our raison d'être. It's a shame it's not very good! Maybe that's appropriate.

GOING BACK TO SUPER STANDARD BEHAVIOUR FOR A MINUTE, THERE ARE A LOT OF VIDEO GAME REFERENCES.

It was funny. I might do more of them, more of the "supers". But I was going through a very dark time when I did that e.p., and it's amazing anything half decent came out of it, let alone something with that much humour. Well, maybe the humour was inevitable. The e.p. isn't really about video games, but they're a big part of my life, so the language is bound to creep in.

SO: SMALL POEMS? THAT FEELS DIFFERENT IN KIND TO THE OTHERS.

Yeah, after we did that I realised that at our best, we're basically doing poetry and music. That album is maybe the best thing we've ever done with lyrics. When I say "poetry", I don't think it would stand up to any serious literary criticism. But in combination with the music, that boosts the words. It's maybe cheating.

THAT ALBUM IS VERY LO-FI.

Yes. It was more polished when we started, but we restarted the project twice, because it wasn't working. In the end, we did it quite quickly, like we did years ago, and because the lyrics reference that time period, it worked. We used to just record straight to tape. Hence the extreme tape hiss and degradation, and simple nature of the recordings. In the past, we couldn't even overdub, except by playing back a tape and recording it through the air.

THE ALBUM HAS ANOTHER TRACK CALLED "TAPE". IS THAT YOUR THIRD?

Yes, we did two tracks called tape before, on one of the e.ps. I don't see why you can't have multiple songs with the same name. In fact, of course you can. It's bizarre that people assume that you can't. We are actually thinking of calling all our tracks "Tape". I'm not joking.

WHY TWO VERSIONS OF DRIVE FAR? THE SINGLE VERSION IS MORE... SINGLEY?

I just thought that Drive Far stood out as a catchy part of the album, when the riff comes in, and it would be a cool standalone track, and it went from there. And then as a standalone track, it needs more repetitions, because in that context it's not part of the album's song flow. That track isn't the best part of the album, but that moment when it comes in... Also, it's nice to have as many different versions as you can make. Songs don't exist in one form. The parts can be many things, or they can split, recombine...

THAT'S WHERE THE SECOND TELEPHONE SONG SINGLE... E.P.... COMES IN?

Yeah. For me there's no definitive version of a track - the dubs are as valid as the "originals" (he does air quotes while he says this). I really enjoy doing the dubs. We still might do a showcase album!

So yes, different tracks with the same name, the same track with different names. I think it's obvious why we do it, and it's got to be done and it's natural and enlightening.

The telephone dub is a statement of intent, really: take nearly all the parts off a track, including the main vocal, then put it out as a single.

THE INFILTRATOR?

As often happens, the words came first. I don't know where they came from, but I view it as... I suppose for me, it's about autistic masking. That's what I was thinking about when I wrote it. It's taking the piss out of myself and some of the psychological games... coping systems... I've come up with over the years. Every once in a while, I recognise how deluded I am. I suppose it's wise to recognise that. But really it's something that some autistic people have to do because we live in a world that's stacked against us, minute by minute.

I think in my case I used to play quite ridiculous psychological games with myself to explain my masking to myself, instead or recognising it as what it was, so that's how I'm mocking myself. But it's about how autistic people just have to be someone they're not, just to operate in the world.

IS THE VOCODER A STATEMENT ON THAT SONG? YOU USE THAT A LOT.

Not really. I'm proud of the way it came out... look, I mean, it's got the vocoder because I can't sing it... I tried re-pitching, but it didn't work. I think it works in its own way with the vocoder. I do what I can. Sometimes I can sing a song, but mostly I can't sing our songs, so the vocoder has to suffice.

AND YOU COVERED AN OLD FOLK SONG... FROM THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION? I THOUGHT MAYBE THE VOCODER WAS A STATEMENT ON THAT ONE?

Not really. Again, it's a singing thing. Although I like the idea of vocoding such a “traditional” (more air quotes) song. Also, hearing the vernacular in that song out of a vocoder… love it. Actually, it might not be an old song - there's speculation that the guy who found it, in the 20th century, actually wrote it. That’s sometimes the case with folk songs.

But I was reading a graphic novel version of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, and was fired up. That book is scarily relevant to today. All the tricks that capitalism uses applied then just as they do now... or now, just as they did then. And people haven't learned. They still come up with the same objections, you know, cultural hegemony. So I was all... go, socialism!, as people say these days.

There are a lot of versions of that song that I don't personally like, but I found an arrangement that I adapted, which I think is more in line with the post-punk that I grew up with. It has the same types of chords. But it's a great song... it's arguably the best track we've ever done, and that's not because we did a great version... the song is just really good, and survives our version. If it’s a stand-out after our mutations, then it must be better than the stuff we come up with!

WHAT IS NEXT FOR STUPID NAME GROUP?

I don't know. It's going to be a while before we have enough time to do another album or long e.p. Busy times ahead in my “real life”. I hope we can do a run of singles. We've had a good run since Super Standard Behaviour. You could take Super Star Wars or Standard Behaviour off that as a lead track. So if you count that, we've got four very good singles now.

Since we did the last compilation, I'm looking forward to doing another one. And it could be less weird this time, and be a compilation of actually accessible tracks! But it's tempting fate to try to get a run of good singles. Not easy to do in any case, and forcing it is an even worse idea. It's difficult.