Interview: We The Undersigned (WtU)
We the Undersigned Interview @ the Kazimier 4/11/2011
“WE WANT TO PLAY ON THE MOON”
Tonight I met with three members from We the Undersigned for a quick chat before their show at The Kazimier they were; Collen Chandler (Band leader), Ben Bielicki (Sax) & Matt “The Mook” Mak (Bass).
As I entered the backstage area they were enjoying a few pre-show beers and humus whilst the on-going sound check downstairs provided a fairly hectic backdrop. They are a band with bags of personality as well as talent and their easy banter made my job as easy as I could ask for (even if I did have to coax out some responses from the silent Mr. Bielicki) they shared insights into their musical philosophy, plenty of laughs and it’s easy to see just why they are so popular at the moment...
After our chat, the lads went on to give a storming performance as part of what was a really fantastic event on a whole (you can read my full review of that night here). Here is what they had to say beforehand…
First of all I’d just like to thank the three of you for joining me here tonight, especially with the show set to start so soon! Are you all set for tonight are you ready?
Matt: Yeah, as ready as we are gunna be! It’s a bit of a weird for us tonight because our drummer, kind of cancelled at the last minute…
Matt: Something came up that he can’t get out of...
Collen: He’s got dinner with the Illuminati!
Matt: So we had a choice of either cancelling the gig at The Kazimier, which is our favourite venue in Liverpool….well, ONE of our favourite venues in Liverpool, we were here last night for Seun Kuti & the Egypt 80 and the crowd was amazing.
I missed that last night actually I should have gone by the sounds of it!
Collen: You missed a cracker!
Matt: So yeah we’re doing the gig but it’s slightly different set up to normal….
Collen: Yeah we do it busking sometimes so we’ve got three busking amps, erm, beat-boxers in place of the drums and we’re gunna set up, not on the stage, but underneath the sound booth.
Is the first time you’ve tried this on stage?
Collen: Ermm, yeah? (Questioning glance at Matt)
Matt: No, no, no Two Thousand Tree’s we smashed it…
Collen: Yeah, we played a festival in the summer, we’re we played on the busking stages
Mood I'm In (feat. The Fire beneath the Sea) by We, the Undersigned (WtU)
Was that the Two Thousand Tree’s festival down in Gloucestershire yeah?
Collen: Yeah, where as well as having the main stage there was these little shacks basically!
Matt: Wait! Let’s get this straight! They weren’t shacks; they were more just like…raised platforms on the grass
Ha-ha! Anything is better than nothing!
Do you get any pre-show jitters? Still?
Matt: Err I think that depends on the gig… A little bit of like healthy enthusiasm is normal, yeah.
Collen: Yeah! & when it’s a bit different like this, it keeps you on your toes though!
Matt: Or when someone comes in and tells you they’re gunna review the gig and you’re like Oh!
Do you have any pre-show routines? Superstitions, which you follow?
Collen: I dunno, do you have any superstitions?
Matt: No, I think mainly like just get in touch with each other!
Collen: Make sure everyone show’s up!
Matt: Yeah, hanging out and having a bit of a laugh… we’ve started doing this thing; we do like a little chant where we all shout…aaaaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH SHIT!
Is there anything that makes Liverpool as a city, different to play in or stand out from everywhere else?
Collen: Well we haven’t really got out and played around all that much. Liverpool is definitely where we’ve played the most, it just feels like home.
Matt: Yeah and we’ve got a good home support too, which is nice.
And you said earlier that The Kazimier is your favourite venue to play?
Collen: Definitely yeah, it’s just the coolest venue to play in.
Matt: Don’t tell Paul at The Masque though!
Okay, let’s move on to how you guy’s actually managed to get together. There are 18 members you said, that’s a big group of people! How do you form that sort of collective? Did you always have in mind that you wanted to be part of something so huge or did you start off small and more and more people kept joining?
Ben: Well I only joined the band about…3 weeks ago!
False Flag by We, the Undersigned (WtU)
Collen: Well erm,, we started basically with me a trumpet player and a drummer, then we got you in didn’t we (points at Mook) as a bass player. We kinda meandered around not really doing much, trying to actually play our instruments! Erm what did we get then, saxophones?
Matt: Yeah saxophones and erm, “Jesus Chris” the guitarist came in and we got “Mr Beats” the drummer, he took over from the other drummer we had and we just sort of evolved more and more really.
And do you have a cap on the number of players you’ll let into the band now?
Collen: Well when there were seven of us we thought well we’d go for twelve, twelve like the zodiac. We were trying to get it so every member represented a star sign…which meant some people had to leave! And erm to
be honest over the last year or six months or something more and more people have just kept joining, I mean we’ve smashed the twelve figure now, it’s well gone!
Matt: We’ve kind of mutated in like a really different direction, maybe from what the start plan was for the band.
Collen: Yeah we started with me, basically doing all the writing and it was very Indie stuff, and you (Matt) didn’t really like it did you?
So how does the writing process work for now? Is there a small collection of you that gets together and does the majority of the writing then says to the rest, “Hey we’ve got this, work over the top”. Or do you actually jam and write together as a full band?
Matt: A bit of both really, it depends on the…
Collen: It depends on the song!
So, out of all your songs currently, what’s you’re favourite one to perform live?
Collen: Ooh! Erm I think I’d say “Cosmic Warrior” at the moment, coz it’s the newest one…It’s always the newest one!
Matt: I’ve got a special place in my heart for “Mood I’m In” It’s our only real like stomping funk tune with brass all over it and I get to play a little cheeky bass line
Ben: The rap section is great in that as well!
Matt: Yeah the rap section gets sick in that as well and I like the chorus!
Well bringing us onto the music itself, you’re one of the few bands around that can say you’ve created your own genre in STANKH! Just tell us a little bit about it, how did it come about how did it evolve into what it is?
Matt: Well it’s come about in the same sorta way the band has really, how the bands evolved. I mean everyone has got slightly different tastes musically, decreasingly so actually. Historically though it was always like a bit of a mix of things.
Collen: Yeah I was sort of bringing the sort of Indie aspect; he’s funk through and through (Matt), the drummers like hip-hop/metal and our previous guitarist who was big part of the creative team was like folk and rock wasn’t he? So we kind of had to all agree on what we were doing and sort of naturally come to evolve to a genre we were all happy with, which was quite difficult.
Yeah I can imagine, trying to incorporate that many different genre’s into one sound is always going to be very difficult, but you seem to have found a way that works and appeals to a lot of people which you must be quite proud of?
You list bands such as Parliament, Rage against the Machine, Bob Marley and the Wailers and the Jimi Hendrix Experience as influences on you and your music. So for each of you individually, what would be your top three desert island records?
Matt: Aw man, the thing with having to choose these kinds of records, especially now where you can get anything so easily….
Well you can’t on a desert island! That’s the whole point of the question!
Matt: Okay, well one of them would definitely have to be “Mothership Connection” by Parliament, It’s just a classic album.
No-One Left To Kiss by We, the Undersigned (WtU)
Collen: We’ll just pick one each! One for each of us!
Matt: Yeah we’ll be here all night otherwise!
Alright then one each, Ben what’s your choice?
Ben: It’d probably have to be “Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd
Collen: And I’d have to say mine would be “In Rainbows” By Radiohead
Matt: Well there you have it, even with just those three picks how’s that for an amalgamation of genres!
It’s eclectic to say the least, I’m sure fights over the CD player would ensue after a while too!
Matt: Oh! One person I do want to mention, going back to the origins of the STANKH sound is our baritone sax player, Marie-Lou…
Collen: Yeah! When she joined it was like and extra like power up for us, have you seen her?
Matt: She’s the same height as her instrument! But yeah, I mean everyone has their input into what we do; recently we’ve had the rap guy’s join us (Fire Beneath the Sea) and there’s not one person who comes or go’s that doesn’t have some sort of input and if they do leave that we don’t miss. I mean “Jesus Chris” has since ascended back to heaven but he had a significant impact on us!
With the way that the band and your sound has evolved and grown over time, is there anything you’d say no to doing or any genre that you’d flat out refuse to incorporate?
Collen: I’d say disco, house and country, they would all get a no.
Matt: Or any sort of hate messages as well! We wouldn’t change the style of the band to like let’s be racist and sexist and all that. That’d probably be a no…probably!
You incorporate the Ankh symbol a lot in your designs and obviously into the STANKH name, what’s the meaning behind that?
Collen & Matt (in unison): It’s the symbol of life!
Matt: Big up to the ancient magic!
Collen: Yeah it’s a positive sign, we want to create positive music and positive energy with it.
Well speaking of positive music and energy; your lyrics are very politically aware and quite conscious of what’s going on in the world around us. Yet the music itself is essentially “party” music, do you worry that the meaning of the lyrics will get lost in the fun of it all?
Collen: I’ve always liked the contrast of it. I mean if people want to listen to the lyrics then they will anyway, but not everyone does, do they?
Matt: At the end of the day if they aren’t listening to it consciously, it’s still getting in their heads while their having a dance, while we tell them about…
Matt: Ha-ha! It goes in any way! I think rather than getting kind of downbeat about all the bad things in the world that all of us that are switched on see, we want to keep it positive. We’re saying it terms of like yeah, it’s fucked up, but like so what? Let’s have fun and have fun constructively too and turn it into some sort of system of living that’s not driven by….knobheads!
Collen: Yeah and I think if you’re going to do politically conscious music and you’re going to do it with that sort of slow and melancholic feel to it, no-one will fucking listen to it!
Bob Dylan got listened to!
Collen: Erm…..Yeah…Ha-ha!
That’s just not an avenue you want to go down, genre wise?
Collen: No, we just to make people dance!
Matt: The music reflects our personalities as well, we are very passionate about all these kind of issues and having a more just and peaceful world but we’re not going to get like angry or down about it. I mean sometimes you feel a bit blue and you can stick on something like “Mothership Connection” and cheer yourself up!
You’ve played with some pretty impressive artists during what’s been a fairly short tenure for you as a band. I mean we can mention the likes of Ed Sheeran, Kid British, ROX and tonight you’re playing with Louis Barabbas and the Bedlam Six. Do you feel any sort of pressure playing alongside acts like that?
Collen: Well it’s always good, we love supporting artists, we’ve got this habit of supporting people now which is great, because you always have a good crowd and get to see a great band for free!
In that case, who would you say is your favourite artist you’ve played alongside?
Collen: Erm, I think it’s pretty hard to beat Toots and the Maytals
Matt: Yeah Toot’s were great to play with
Do you agree with them on this one Ben?
Ben: Yeah, well unfortunately I wasn’t with them at that point! I joined the band later that week so I missed out!
Okay onto the last leg of questions now, are there any bands you particularly want to play with?
Matt: Maybe Egypt 80 after seeing them last night!
Collen: I dunno, there’s so many bands in the world aren’t there!?
Matt: Yeah why not! They say aim for the stars! Well actually there is a planet, on a distant star out there called “The Planet Mook” where like the rest of my species are, so yeah we’d like to get there but it’s protected by “The Hendrix Field” but it’s a great place to go! So yeah that’d be my dream venue, and you get good fucking weed on Planet Mook!
Ha-ha! So finally, do you have any parting words for our readers?
Matt: Fuck the Royal Family, fuck the British government and just fuck all that shit!
Collen: Solidarity to the Occupy Movement! Let’s see if that’s gets somewhere because that’s quite interesting to me.
Anything you want to add Ben?
Ben: Nah I think we will leave you with that!
Okay well thank you again for sharing your time with me, I look forward to seeing you later! Aaron out!
Follow We the Undersigned by giving any of the links below a quick click and get involved with their STANKH revolution!
http://www..com/wetheundersigned
www.wetheundersigned.co.uk
www.soundcloud.com/wtu http://bit.ly/WtUyoutube
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