LIKE A KIND OF MATADOR

What's behind the name "like a kind of matador"?
essentially, it's a nasty jibe made by one of my ex girlfriends. i was explaining my ancestory while 'making out' and when the term "like a kind of matador" came up she burst into tears of laughter, not something that does your self-esteem that much good when you're 'inflagante' rather than take offence i thought it might be best to roll with the joke hence like a kind of matador

What other bands are you all in or have been in?
loads, all rubbish!(mine at least) i played guitar and sang in rauschen, which was a kind of all over the place. we were listening to everything from king crimson to moss icon to neil young to neu to rorscach...a very unfocused band. i played bass in esprit de corps which was three people out of rauschen, neither of whom i really talk to anymore because one of them is a cunt and the other lives a long way away and is difficult to get in contact with. i played in a bunch of improv bands, i played bass in blackthorne stick and i played drums in guivall and giant tank, i've been told that noone leaves giant tank so i guess i'm still technically a member of that band. i played play bass in perditta durango which was somewhere between the minutemen, rush and van halen and I’m also metallica but you know all about that don’t you! i've got plans for another two bands, one of which might be a solo project hahahaha sarah famously played flute on canvas' last album, she's also played on the last couple of hood records and she's in an amazing quasi -classical duo (al;though she’ll probably bollock me for calling it that) with seth out of solanki/headache/snail racing. daniel used to be in a little know band in york called general lee, he's an excellent guitar player

Why is feedback so great?
well, i kinda like the chance element of it. it's rare that you can duplicate feedback perfectly night after night, biut i really like that. playing in improv bands has totally opened me up to just letting stuff happen, accidents can really make for incredible music. not all feedback is good though, i've been at gigs where i've heard the weakest shite and wanted to break the guitar and all the amps i think though, when we get down to it i like weeding out people who are easily offended and i like the way it feels...i like it when after a particularly long, sustained bit of feedback everything sounds different, really bassy excuse me if i'm rambling, i'm quite drunk

Are the Melvins the greatest band to have ever existed?
they're definetely up there, it would disingenuous not totally acknowledge how much of an influence they've been in fact i can remember the exact moment this band was formed "dan, do you want to play drums in a melvins tribute band?" "sure, but i'm no dale crover" a beautiful monsrosity was born. obviously the wider possibliltes have suggested themselves over time and while we still totally worship at the alter of the melvins i do think we're doing our own thing but yeh, what an incredible body of work...there's certainly no other band i can think of that have released so many consistently brilliant records. if there's way that they really inspire us it's the sheer contrariness of what they do i can't imagine them ever getting shit for the record my favourite melvins albums are bullhead, lysol and eggnog lysol is just.....wow!

How has the music of Toto influenced Like A Kind Of Matador?
not really at all i'm afraid. i do love toto iv it's one of the most perfect pop recors ever and africa is such a beautiful song. we listen to a lot of music and i guess there's wee ideas, maybe a ceratin rhytm or chord sequence but i don't thin i'd ever name them as an influence and are you taking the piss now?

How did the idea of getting a female singer and accordian and flutes come about? How is it working out?
well, i started out doing the vocals and i couldn't really do the sort of thing i wanted to do and play guitar at the same time and one time i was staggering home drunk with sarah and she started harmonising on this old catholic hymn with her sister and i just thought it was beautiful. Her sister rachel was originaly going to be in the band that didn’t quite woirk out as we’d planned. i don't think there's anyone else playing the sort of heavy sludge stuff that we do and mixing it up with angelic girl singing so hopefully we've struck o something unique and original. the accordian/flute/ stuff is just a case of utilising the sarahs many talents as a musician. it's going great, the singing is amazing! And what sarah brings to the band in terms of song writing really cannot be ignored! she’s perfect in that she’s a rocker but she’s got a lot more going on with her classical schooling, she brings a really unique voice to the band that I don’t think we’d ever have found without her.

You've done a trbiute song to Harvey Milk. What's so great about them and why have they gone almost unheard?
harvey milk were simply one of the most original, inspired bands of our time. there's two albums of thiers that really sum up wjhat a band should be. they are incredible muscians but never descend into machismo shows of musical dexterity, in fact the restraint in harvey milk is incredible! i have never heard a band use negative space so effectively. i have also never heard a band be so devastingly loud, crushing and heavy while being able to be play the most beautiful, gentle, graceful music. all this done with wit and a healthy dose of the obilque. i love them, if you enjoy challenging music then i heartily reccomend you seek out their albums.

Tell us a bit about your zine, "Is". Is there a new issue anytime soon? Why do you do it?
i started doing it after my mum died in 2000, it was intitally a way of imposing some sort of structure to my life which just seemed insane and chaotic at that point, and i guess that's still why i do it as far as what i wnated the zine to be...i find a lot of zines very superficial and wanted to do something that might ahve a bit more substance, hence asking people what motivated them to be in a band rather then just asking people about their band (nae offence ewan). it also gave me the chance to combine my rabid love of music and comics by doing reviews that were far too long. i dunno, i just wanted to do something thought provoking. it helps me get over stuff as well. drawing horrible comics about wanting to kill people is probably a whole lot better than actualy killing people although.... no, there won't be a new issue for ages coz i'm lazy/busy fuckwit.

Imagine a modern day emo kid is reading this. please tell them why modern emo is so shit and what records they should track down to make them understand.
it's pure fucking herd mentality, 'we all agree with you' it talks no chances and conforms to all the fucking cliches that have been established by mineral or whoever how can music be anything other than background noise that is totally inconsequential to your life if it takes no chances? people compare it to radio rock but even most of the top 40 stuff you hear on the radio takes more fucking chances than your average emo record it's lowest common denominator trash for idiots i'll have no truck with it and neither should you. so why did you interview spy vs spy you cunt? the good shit that folk should listen to that comes under the emo banner: early rye coalition, mossicon, native nod, heroin and the rest of the gravity bunch, ordiantion of arron, sleepy time trio, four hunded years, drive like jehu and a bunch of other that i'm too pissed and old to remember

You're at Hyde park Corner at midnight and the Devil comes down and you sell your soul to him to make the greatest 5 records ever. What labels would you choose to put each record out on and why? Also, what would the previous 5 greatest records ever have been? Ooh yeah, the Devil also says your allowed to kill 5 bands. Who and why?
Hahah, here’s the ‘how hip am I’ test!!! if the devil came down to hyde park corner at midnight he'd probably find me shit-arsed and rat-faced and incapable of conversation. but assuming that that wasn't the case we'd like to do a record for tumult because they restored my faith in modern music. I’m really into a the stuff that load are doing at the moment so I’d like to jump on board that bandwagon.We’d like to do an album on inoxia because it means we could go to japan and hang out with our good friends boris. I’d like to do one on ipecac coz I’ve got debts to pay and mike patton must be a barrel of laughs ….also I think it’s a pretty good record label and finally I’d l;ike to cryptically say that I’d like to be on any british label that has released anything by sightings, my reasons for now, must go unheard. in my humble opinion the five greatest records are red by king crimson spiderland by slint lysol by the melvins courtesey and goodwill towards men by harvey milk and there's too many great records too chose from for the fifth one so i'll just say what's on my stereo as i'm writing this, which is high voltage by ac/dc. I don’t think I really want to kill any bands but the thought has often crossed my mind…no further comments yer honour!

Do you compute?
rarely

Are we not men?
all indicators say no

Do they owe us a living?
men? yes!

What are your thoughts on the aesthetics of Metallica?
i live the first four albums, patchy as they all are (yes, even master of puppets). i actually watched a documentary on the making of the black album on itv, and i found it quite rewarding! Kirk hammet looks like lionel ritchie thwese days. to be honest i'm not entirely sure what you mean by aethetics? do yuo mean their fashion sense? can you clarify or elaborate?

Electronic music. State your case for why it should be destroyed (even though you’re wrong).
as if i ever said that frater, are you trying to destroy my rep? hahha, it's fine, i'm plenty good at destroying my own rep. i'm really indifferent to electronic music, what can i tell you i'm a rocker! i like wendy (nee' walter) carlos' stuff and one of my favourite bands in the uk at the mo' are kilng klang they're electronic(but they’ve just split up…oops!) if you're refering to the faceless hoards of electronica people making pasty little hip hop or r'n'b rip offs wth added shoegazer introspection then i have no time for it for exactly the same reasons i don't like modern emo

The ten greatest bands ever are....?
laddio bolocko, melvins, harvey milk, king crimson, earth, sun city girls, slint, I’m loathe to say metallica but they are, van halen, does john fahey count as a band?

Now is your chance to convince everyone of the merits of finger tapping on the bass guitar.
maximum flash! it sounds good, it feels good, it looks good. it provides many possibilites for unusual harmonies that you noramlly wouldn't find on the bass. wha can i tell you? i have progressive tendancies

What does the future hold for Like A Kind Of Matador?
well, we've got another tour with boris coming whenever the oppurtunity arises for them to come back over, which should be a lot of fun coz we really got on well last time. I’m dead excited about recording the album, which hopefully will be out at some point this year, we’re recording some stuff for some compilations too so we’ll saturate the market in one fell swoop hahahah!.i also think we'd all like to play some gigs abroad japan and the us particularly i hope we'll be together for many years coz it's the best band i've ever been in

i hear your doing some kind of session thing on radio 3. what's that about and how did it come about? are you going to become a classical chamber quartet or something? you said it wsa something like a feature on the leeds diy scene. do you reckon the leeds diy scene is up to much at the moment?
I’m not really sure about this whole thing, the hows and why oft this coming about all seem very cloudy to me. Daniel got an email from radio 3’s mixing it asking if we’d be interested in contributing something to a programme/evening/whatever that they’re doing on stuff in leeds. If that seems vague then you’ll know how I feel. I think it’s about leeds avant garde stuff, they asked sarah if mcwatt, the afforementioned, incorrectly labeled neo classical duo would contribute something and everyone seems to reckon they’ve asked vibracathedral orchestra as well. So anyway, we’ve recorded a song that we’d be happy with them using on the radio and we’ve sent it off to them. as yet we’ve heard nothing back so maybe we’ll be on maybe we won’t. I already consider us to be a classical chamber quartet and frankly I’m offended by you asking. The leeds diy scene is in many respects the same as it ever was; people are either celebrating or complaining about the diversity of the gigs you’ll see in any given month. People are complaining that the same bands are playing too much and hogging all the good gigs and people are noting how there seems to be new blood every year…so on and so forth. It’s fine, it’s great, I love it hear, I’ve been round these parts for the last six years and I can honestly say there’s not really anywhere else I’d want to live, I like the fact that on just about any given week I can see, heavy metal, drone/improv, or indie rock…it’s great! I know a lot of the people round here and despite typical crappy scene bickering (that I’ve admittedly been involved in) I really like the people round here. There does seem to be some progression going on in that bands seem to actually be recording records which just never seemed to happen. I think that’s good because there are a lot of good bands that people should be able to hear. There’s talk of sorting out our own venue that’s not something to do with the whole pub circuit…that’d be great…there’d be less gig clashes for a start…arf!

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