An Interview with Justin Sullivan on the eve of his Beautiful Days appearance - August 2008
How has 'High' and the'High' tour turned out?
The album was generally very well received - particularly among people who wanted to know if we still 'rocked'. I like the fact that each album is different. The next one which is in its embryonic stage will be different again. I think the tour was great - a lot of memorable shows. Even in America, where we did an average of 360 road miles every day and might have expected to get tired, we were still really going for it at the end. I'd say that we seem to be a very cohesive and confident unit at the moment.
What's next?
Well, the 'High' tour hasn't really finished yet. We'll be doing some more shows in September and again in November and then a Christmas mini-tour. Meanwhile we've just finished mixing a live album (which we've been meaning to do for ages).
Is it from one gig or from many?
It's taken from Amsterdam, Koln, London December 07 and Holmfirth in May 08. We didn't actually record that many shows on the 'High' tour and unfortunately none on the 'Carnival' tour with the two drum kit thing. As usual there are various technical issues. It's impossible to make all the gigs sound the same - Amsterdam and Holmfirth were medium sized very enclosed rooms whereas Koln and London are big, open and ambient venues - but that doesn't really matter. We've just taken the very best performances and put them together to make a great live album, much as we did on '& Nobody Else'.
What about the title? Some would say it seems to be deliberately provocative.
No, that wasn't our thought at all. At our New Orleans show in March, I mentioned in the encore that I was losing my voice and that we had a show in Austin, Texas the next day. The response of the audience was to chant 'Fuck Texas, sing for us' which we all considered pricelessly funny. It was captured by DC Brian, one of the American following, on a camcorder and although we don't have any proper audio of the gig itself, this was too good not to use. We hope the good people of Texas, especially those in Austin who were an equally responsive and passionate audience the following night, will take it in the humour that was intended.
So what's on the album?
74 minutes of energy.
What else have you been up to?
After our Istanbul show in July, which we all really enjoyed, I stayed a week longer to see a bit of Turkey. I spent a bit of time with our friends in Morve Otesi (Turkish rock band) but then decided to get away from the crowds on the coast and the heat of the interior and went up to the North-east corner, where no one speaks English, near the borders with Georgia, Armenia and Iran and spent a few days in the mountains - I had a brilliant time and am quite fascinated with Turkey (half east, half west).
Ah, a hippy traveller?
Hmm, a hippy traveller with a debit card and a mobile phone'
And?
I've also finally finished 'Spirit Stories', an album of Joolz' poetry set to music - in the tradition of 'Hex' (1986) and 'Weird Sister' (1991).
How do you go about these kind of albums?
The poetry is recorded first. Joolz is the most spontaneous artist I know (she applies these same principles to writing, performing and painting) and likes to do things quickly and not too many times. So straight away I have the backbone of the track in place and don't really mess much with it. Then I build the music around it. Sometimes this is just a simple mood background, sometimes it's a full-on backing track but always trying to be complimentary with the mood of the piece and rising and falling with the dynamics of the story . I think her work really lends itself well to this because it's always based around stories. The idea is to make an album that works on several levels and that people will want to listen to often - as opposed to dry spoken word which can be really powerful but a bit one-dimensional.
Did you have any guest musicians?
Michael played some fantastic drums on the four rock(ish) tracks. Ty Unwin added a string arrangement and mix on one track and Jade McMahon (who sang on NMA's 'Freedom 1991') sang on one track.
When will it be released?
Joolz wanted to have a CD available at Glastonbury so actually an early version exists already and there a couple of the non-rock tracks on her Spirit Stories MySpace site [http://profile.myspace.com/joolzspiritstories], but the real release with lyric booklet, artwork etc I think will be the end of August.
Are there any solo dates or plans for another solo album?
I'm doing a single week of shows this month accompanied by Dean - and an interesting week it's going to be too. It includes Beautiful Days, Lifetime Tattoo Studio Gallery, which is owned by Ben Stone (our old merchandise man) in Derby, The Rigger in Stoke which is run by a great guy, Dud Talbot, Garth Prison - our first ever prison gig and then the beautifully named Big Bang Festival in Beirut, Lebanon. We're also planning a long-awaited Red Sky Coven tour for January. I've got ideas for a solo album but no plans to write and record it at the moment. My two month projects tend to turn in to two year ones and I think, with the band on a roll at the moment, the next thing should be another NMA album.
Any songs written yet?
I rather like the way we wrote Thunder and Consolation and High which is to collect lots and lots of musical and lyrical ideas and when there's enough, to sit down and construct a whole album together. It's then a fast process and makes an album somehow more cohesive. So far we're still collecting'
What are the others up to?
Nel is, as always, busy with a whole load of musical projects. His latest is a very cool 60s surf band called Surfquake [http://www.myspace.com/surfquake]. Marsh is still doing the odd gig with Kyla Brox and also has got back together with an old band Crosswire [http://www.myspace.com/crosswire] . Actually you'll find him playing somewhere in the pubs and clubs of East Lancashire almost every night of the week. Michael has been joining me on sorting out the NMA live album and 'Spirit Stories' and Dean's been getting back into guitar playing for the acoustic gigs we've got coming up.
