Fudge cornered Aereogramme in a dark dingy corner of the Lemon Tree as they got ready to perform for you at The Fudge Awards 2002, and refusing to let them go until they'd let us interview them. Because we rule. Shivering slightly in nervous anticipation of their moment of exposure, here's what the mighty bearded ones (and he who is also of the band but not bearded) had to say:-
Fudge: Looking forward to the gig tonight?
Cambell: The tour of Europe, we did our biggest line of consecutive shows ever, 13 nights without a break, and it was great, I just got really into the routine. Nowadays, I'm in my flat, bored, well, not bored, just disappointed I'm not playing that night. Tonight? I'm fucking right up for it. It's only been 3 weeks or whatever, but I'm fucking right up for it.
Fudge: How did the European dates go?
Martin: Great, the biggest tour we've ever had. It was fantastic, especially in Germany. The record seems to be doing better than it has anywhere else, we're up there with David Hasselhoof! [cue laughter at the mulleted moron]. It was pretty weird though. There was another band that was shouted up alongside us. You know the band GWAR? They were like that, except with cagoles. They were a bunch of classy guys. Oh my goodness, they were pish!
Fudge: And America? Was that interesting?
Craig B: For the first couple of weeks we were out with Superchunk. It was good to play with them. They've been going for years. It was good to see how they do it, diong it on their own terms, it's really interesting to see a band who've been doing it for so long. They had an older, almost coffee-shop type of audience, in their late twenties and early thirties, and it was interesting that we seemed to go down really well with them. After that, for the next couple of weeks we were just doing one-offs, things like support slots. The sheer scope of the place was quite fucking frightening, the size of the place, and the amount of bands there who are quite succesfull, but you've never even heard of.
Martin: Bands like "At The Drive-In" have been touring continuously for years, and it was only their last year that they got big, and that was here too.
Craig B: You also find out, though, that no single American has heard of Andrew W.K., and then alarm bells start ringing in your head about why he's big over here. They haven't heard of him, and yet he's the future of music?
Campbell: And there's a big Anglophilia thing there as well, there's a lot of people who'll say "I only ever listen to British music", who seem to be quite obsessed in that sense. And the bands that are big over here, the likes of the Moldy Peaches, are playing the same venues as us over there, and you start to realise how...[Craig B interjects, putting forth the example of Texan group Lift To Experience]. I mean, Lift To Experience can't get arrested in the States, but they're getting really big here. We're pulling more people in the States than they are. I think we're becoming aware of the huge world market of music, and it's pretty fucking depressing!
Fudge: Is it true you had false beards for sale in your merchandise? [I think this question illustrates the whole profoundness of the interview. Jesus Christ.]
Craig B: We sold more false beards than we did records! You can buy them in bulk, but to get them printed up is expensive... I have this fantasy one day of going on a huge huge stage, and the whole audience is wearing beards. Then we're going to come onstage and shave them off, and the whole audience will be in tears...
Campbell: With the fake beards, we won't want the ladies to be left out. The guys have the optionm to beard or not to beard...
Fudge: ...what about bumfluff?
Campbell: ...oh, that's unacceptable. It's either full beard or nothing.
Craig B [finally admitting the truth]: Nah, we didn't have any beards.
Campbell: You should never let the truth get in the way of a good story, so therefore we had HUNDREDS of sales of fake beards. Lies are far more interesting than the truth! The truth is pretty boring...
Fudge: So what do you think about the album now that it's been out for a few months?
Craig B: We've had it for a while. It was recorded in November (2000), and came out the following August (2001), so it was almost a whole year after we recorded it. But it just came out in Japan in January (2002), so it's like nostalgia. But I am intensely proud of it.
Fudge: What were you hoping to achieve when you came out with the album?
Martin: I think it achieved much more than we ever expected it to. We never expected to do so well in Europe. In comparison, the UK's a disappointment. We thought we'd do better than we have over here, not in terms of sales, but in terms of reactions. The reactions seem to have been far better everywhere else.
Campbell: It almost seems the same as when American bands come over here. The foreign aspect of the band seems quite appealing. There's something mythical about it, because they have a different culture. So a band like us, who probably sound more American than British, are not going to do well in Britain because we're not from America. If we said we were from New York we'd probably sell more than we do! We thought of doing that in the Press Release! A band definately did that... what about the Lostprophets?
Fudge: They're very definately Welsh...
Martin: They sound very American...
Craig B: They're pish!
Fudge: Right now there's a lot of different genres going on, such as nu-metal, etc. Are there any contemporary bands that you identify with?
Campbell: I'm so self-obsessed I don't really think of it like that. There are bands that I find exciting, and that are trying to do something new, but I think we've got fuck-all to do with them, because we don't know them. The Dismemberment Plan are among the bands trying something new... the whol retro thing turns my stomach, I just think it's a pointless waste of time. The perpetual regurgitation of culture. Just because you're good at it, it doesn't justify fucking doing it, aping another band. I don't care how good the tunes are, it's just pointless and depressing. Maybe it's like the obsession of Japanese culture with Western society, it's so depressing. There's still people there doing the whole Teddy-boy thing, all they listen to is music from the late 50's, it's like they're trapped in a bubble, it's horrible.
Fudge: Do you identify with bands like Biffy Clyro. Who are releasing stuff with the same kind of sound that you are?
Martin: I grew up with them, I actually lived with Simon until about 2 weeks ago... I guess I can identify with them because we've been with them since the start. We listened to the same kind of things.
Fudge: Is it frustrating to see bands being succesfull with styles that have already been done, while other bands who are perhaps more original don't get the recognition they desereve?
Campbell: I think things can turn on a dime, and I can see bands like The Dismemberment Plan being absolutely fucking massive this year.
Craig B: I just prefer a band who's going out there and doing their own thing. As much as I'm not a big fan of the Super Furry Animal's music, but what they do with their money is very admirable, in the way that they just pumped it right back into that DVD, which is groundbreaking. That's what we admire. Fugazi are the same, when they started - and now - they don't sound like anyone else, and they don't have the desire to follow any scene. I don't think we fit into any scene, and we're not attractive guys - no offence, I'm speaking for myself here - so it does purely come down to what we do, and all these bands we'd like to be compared to, not in a musical style, but in how they go about business, that's how I'd like to be.
Fudge: Is that something you want to pursue, bucking the trend? Doing something individual in the sense that it can be influenced by certain bands, but it can't be defined as "band X meets band Y"?
Craig B: A lot of people do try to describe us, but they always miss something out. The Independent, I think, described us as "Travis-meets-Nirvana", but we've got all thes electronic noises that neither bands do. I do think not fitting into any specific role can be a bit of a problem.
Campbell: I think it's as much of a benefit as a hindrance. We can play with bands like The Icarus Line or just full-on fucking metal bands, and tailor our set, or we can play with Low, and we're like one of the only bands that will manage to play with both The Icarus Line and Low. I'm really proud of that.
Martin: People seem to like pigeonholing bands. It doesn't interest me in the slightest, but people continue to do it with Aereogramme.
Craig B: I understand it, because when you're trying to describe a band, you've got to give certain pointers. We're not denying our influences, but I can't really describe us. It's heavy and it's quiet, and it's...
Martin: You go to look at reviews of your band around Europe, and it's the press release, which Campbell wrote, and they've just written it out word for word. But he did a good job!
Fudge: Does it irritate you when you go into so much effort trying to make different sound, and people just compare you to Mogwai and Slint?
Craig B: Fucking right!
Campbell: We get compared to Arab Strap! I mean, I'm drunk, but I don't talk as much shite as they do [much laughter commences]. Hmmwaarghh! [more laugher]
Iain: That's one to put in big quote marks! "I'M DRUNK BUT I DON'T TALK AS MUCH SHITE AS ARAB STRAP!"
Campbell:I don't think Mogwai sounds like Slint though.
Craig B: I don't think they sound like Slint, and I don't think we sound like Mogwai. It's just laziness in comparisons, or difficulties in pigeonholing it...
Campbell: They're an instrumental band, and we're not...
Craig B: I think it's to do with the dynamics. The whole bread and butter of what Mogwai do is in their dynamics. We use it a bit, but not as much as them... but we're not shy of it.
Campbell: I think it's mostly the record label we're on, being on Chemikal Underground.
Fudge: Do you find it quite helpful being on Chemikal Underground, in a capacity that you do what you want to do?
Craig B: Uhh, yes and no. When you sign with a smaller label you usually are given greater control, but with no cash, so it's been hard for us in some ways. But I'm really proud that we decided to do that, because we could have signed to a major label if we had wanted to, and we didn't...
MartinL It does bring people to gigs as well, especially around Europe. A lot of people came down not necessarily having heard the record, but because we are on Chemikal Underground.
Campbell: You don;t get people going "Oh, there's that band signed to Warner Bros, let's go and see them"...
Fudge: You must be quite proud when you release an album like "A Story In White", and then get into the Top 5 in the Rock Sound end of year poll... also the Metal Hammer album of the month...
Craig B: The thing that was really really impressive about that is it was written by Neil Cilcanny(?), because I specifically read what he used to write every week in Melody Maker, because everyone he wrote about, I wanted to buy it. I used to go out and buy stuff that I had no knowledge of, but he wrote about it so well. It's really flattering.
Campbell: Yeah, because we sent our first single to Melody Maker, sent it to him. I actually spoke to him on the phone, because he didn't review it, and I quite naively phoned up Melody Maker, and asked him why he hadn't reviewed our single. He was dead polite, and said there were too many singles that week, and said sorry. Then he desappeared after Melody Maker went tits up. But he was the hip-hop correspondent, so to see him reviewing us in Metal Hammer... I don't understand some of the things that go on: somethings classified as a 9/10 "must have" album, but they won;t do a feature on us the next month because we're not a suitable type of band. It's not annoying though, it's just kinda funny.
Fudge: So onto another matter we go, like sheep on bouncy castles. What about the mysterious fourth member?
Iain We'd played in a couple of bands before, and this was different in that I was concentrating more on composition. I was enjoying what the guys were doing, and approached it from more of an outside type of angle. But I'm probably going to be doing this thing full time from now on... I kind of like lurking about in the background... this is the first gig we're doing as a four-piece.
Fudge: We're honoured! I think we've got to wrap up with the generic Fuge question of "What's the most Rock thing you've ever done"?
Campbell: Here it comes... [farts loudly]...
Craig B: ... he did that one time in Germany, and ther was this amazingly foxy chick from a major magazine, and she ended up... she acted okay, but she was crying on the inside.
Martin: What about drinking Games with Norwegian Hells Angels?
Campbell: What's the most rock 'n' roll thing I've done today is... eh... I canna think of nothing... I was so drunk last night I couldn't get it up...
And from that I think we can all learn a lesson, though we cannot be entirely sure what that lesson is. Maybe that you need to be more than just drunk to talk as much shite as Arab Strap, or maybe that beards are the new black in the fashion of 2002. Ormaybe it's just that, in this game of life, there's no winning or losing, there's just the subjectively minded exponents of the art-form that we like to call ROCK.
And here, Aereogramme are kings.
Courtesy of Fudge Fanzine #5.