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Interview With Big Block 454

Our Ten Questions Go Up To 11

> Z: Who are you and how would you personally describe your music?

Good Day. You can refer to me as Colin from the band Big Block 454, which has been described as "a semi-amorphous post-modern / situationist neo-dada cross-platform compositional construct from Manchester, England." There are elements of dadaism/surrealism, krautrock, art-rock, psychedelia and humour in our music.
Live, the line-up has been :
Colin Robinson (fretless bass)
Pete Scullion (guitar, vocals)
Alex Stone (guitar)
Mark Joell (keyboard, vocals)
Robert Shaw (drums)

However, when we're recording we all play whatever we feel like, including a collection of old analog synths and wind instruments, a lot of somewhat left-field instruments (zither, kantele, banjolele, didgeridoo, balalaika, clavioline, cimbala and a large variety of percussion items) and found sounds such as scrap metal and legumes. We have constructed some instruments ourselves, and we all feature on vocals. It's a somewhat flexible line-up too; anyone who is in the studio at the time of recording tends to get used in some way.

We have released a series of CDs and 12" singles over the last 10 years - our most recent release being the CD "That's a Nice Hat", featuring four extended pieces. It's available through our mp3.com site

We have recorded some music for the Les Howarth film "Fistula!", which is still in production. However, we will release the two CDs soon - one of more song-oriented pieces and the other of incidental and ambient tracks.

We are currently working on our next album - we have about 40 pieces partially finished and about 10 awaiting mix-down. A lot more acoustic work, more improvisation, more vocals... It will be powerful and strange. You will shit...

> Z: When writing, where do you begin?

Most of our music is composed actually in the recording studio; the multi-track machine is an integral part of the compositional process. The first stage is usually to get an atmosphere; to get a real or imaginary soundscape constructed. We use live mics and improvise using a variety of instruments and appliances to get the sound of real air moving. The song is then constructed over that base. We make use of randomising and aleatoric factors, such as Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies" card pack.

We are interested in the process; the journey... but we are also interested in the end result. Ruthless editing is involved.

> Z: Which groups, artists and/or bands inspire you?

Brian Eno, Faust, Can, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Robert Fripp & King Crimson, The Residents, Henry Cow, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Soft Machine and The Bonzo Dog Band.

Particular inspirations include the film-style editing employed by Faust ("The Faust Tapes") and Zappa ("We're Only In It For The Money") - abrupt jump-cuts between atmospheres/soundfields. Also, Eno's idea of recorded music as a piece of sculpture, something to be cut away rather than added to. A lot of Eno's ideas are valuable; they restructure the way we write and record music.

> Z: Are you influenced by art and literature at all?

I'm particularly interested in dadaism and surrealist art in general. As for literature, people such as William Burroughs, H.P.Lovecraft, Kurt Vonnegut, Captain W.E.Johns and Mervyn Peake. A few occult sources such as Austin Osman Spare. Film: people such as David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick and Tim Burton. We have been working on some short films recently which incorporate our music. These are not music promo videos, but little vignettes, complete films in themselves. Imagine Spike Milligan meets Eraserhead in two minutes.

I'm inspired by comedy - Spike Milligan, the League of Gentlemen - and children's TV - The Clangers, Hector's House, Thunderbirds and Sooty (only the original Sooty, not the modern-day obscenity).

I also like English things - steam railways, prehistoric sites and ley lines, country houses and old churchyards, trolley buses, pointless heroism, fish and chips, that sort of thing.

The titles of our songs are very important. Titles of all pieces of art are very important. I hate it when you visit an art gallery and find a series of paintings, all entitled "Untitled". Here are some song titles from our new album :

"Hull is Full of Grubby Slappers."
"From Cheetham Hill to Miles Platting by Hovercraft."
"My Porcine Waste of Time".
"Eat Your Greens Mr.EGG."
"William Henry Perkins accidentally invents mauve"
"The Golden Age of Braking Systems on the Maryport & Carlisle Railway (Volume One)"

> Z: Are there any songs/tracks that you have heard and thought, I wish
I'd written that?

I am not troubled with thoughts such as those.

> Z: Do you push yourself to write, or do you have to wait until you're
inspired?

I can write/record/compose music at any time. I have to be in the right mood to write lyrics. I collect words and phrases and, when I am in the mood, review the list and see what comes to mind. The other band members do the same.

> Z: What was it that made you go into into making music?

A desire to make a fool of myself on stage and pick up oodles of lithe young women. I have managed to achieve 50% of these goals.

> Z: Do you feel the internet is a good way of helping/promoting your
music?

It certainly helps to get the name around and provide facilities for people to find out about us. Also, we've made contact with a lot of helpful people through the Internet. However, as yet, I don't think it's all that useful for actual sales. And I feel that most sites are looked at by other bands looking for promo ideas rather than genuine music fans looking for new music to purchase (cf mp3.com). And there are far too many sites run by Identikit American bands who say "Yo! We RAWK !". Tossers.

It is a matter of received wisdom that "bands who play live are the ones who make it big" and I think that is still true, however much Internet exposure you have. We don't play live all that often, but when we do, we like to make it an event rather than just another gig. Recently, we played at a multi-media event in an interesting church in Salford. We had recorded a piece of music, made a film to go with it, and then projected the film on screens behind and around us whilst we performed the music live. The event was then filmed (with me so far?) and will be made available for download on the Internet.

> Z: Has the computer age, and its use in creating, editing and
manipulating music helped you in any way?

When Big Block 454 started, we used a lot of sequenced Midi tracks, running Creator on an Atari ST. After replacing my 8-track reel-to-reel with a hard disc recorder, we have used the sequencer less and less - we now tend to record instruments direct to the recorder, and then cut'n'paste and edit on that, so that our loops, samples and sequences are all based on real instruments played by us. I've never actually used a PC for sequencing; I use it now for mastering to and for burning CDs, but it's not used directly in our recording set-up.

We have used computer programs to generate music and lyrics: for example, I found a Haiku Generator program and altered the database to remove some of the more Japanese-influenced phrases and replace them with a more English feel - "mountain top" and "cherry blossom" being replaced by "garden shed" and "radiogramme", to name but two.

Computers, samplers, sequencers, guitars, didgeridoos - they're all just tools. They make your life simpler, but they are not creative things in themselves - the creativity comes from the musician. You could spend a million pounds on recording gear and still produce crap. Well-produced crap, but crap just the same.

> Z: Give me three good reasons why someone should buy your CDs, barring threats of bodily harm?

1. Our CDs are not like any music you've heard before, without being too weird or difficult.
2. They're interesting and stimulating, they kick-start your brain into some lateral movement.
3. They make you laugh... well, they make us laugh...

> Z: Finally, what happened to my 1st class air tickets, free drink, drugs
and promises of casual sex?

I thought our lucky bag of a cheap-day return to Heckmondwike, a packet of Rizlas, a Holland's Cheese-and-Onion Pie and a copy of "Readers' Wives" would have been sufficient. Sometimes you just can't win.

Big Block 454, Manchester, England

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And big thanks to Colin for an interesting, insightful and entertaining interview. Nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks that radiogramme is a splendid word. And my campaign for the return of the phrase 'beat combo' to popular media culture continues apace!