I've been instructed to ask you about your "pathetic Shellac worship". Tell me about that. Same equipment and stuff, I hear?

I think there are a lot of bands who deserve the Shellac comparison more than we do. Level that one at Kill Yourself or Cove or Feverdream (three fine bands btw). I think I am the only person in the band with more than one Shellac album and it's only certain songs that I can say I really love. Phill likes them as a recording engineer and we've all been to see them play and loved it. In fact I think they're one of the best live bands around. But the no frills, almost cold approach they have has become very fashionable and I don't see us as part of that. The emotions in Shellac's music seem to be revenge or bitterness. Its only the really warm songs like Billiard Player Song that hook me in on record. Our music seems to be about different things. As for the equipment - well, I use a Fender Jaguar too but that doesn't mean I worship Placebo! Me and Phill have always been into weird guitars and equipment, we like stuff like that. I've been through loads of guitars and really wanted to try a Travis Bean (the same metal necked guitar Shellac use) but couldn't ever afford one. Mr Travis Bean has a really amazing story. He was a drummer and a motorcycle enthusiast, thought all guitars sounded shit and decided he was going to build a metal one using his motorbike knowledge. Even though he'd never built one before by some kind of combination of genius and slight accident he built this fucking incredible guitar. He was laughed out of the industry after making around 3000 of them and wasn't heard for years. He tried to launch them again a couple of years back but has since sunk without trace. I got some advice from a guitar shop who suggested I ring a writer called Paul Day who collects guitars and writes for all the big magazines. I just called him up and asked him if he had a Travis. I said I wanted the most common model (because it would be cheap i.e. under a thousand pounds). He said no but we chatted for a long while about guitars (boring I know but sorry) and eventually he came out with "I don't have the Standard model but I have another of which there were only 350 built". I was like "you lucky shit" because they're worth about two grand. He just said "well, you can have it for £XXX (cheap) because I know you won't sell it" and sure enough I sent the cash and it arrived a week later. And no I won't sell it! Then I got a call from one of the old ads I placed by some guy with another one for sale and I went up to Darlington and went through this bizarre day and ended up with that one for even cheaper. Then to top it off some guy saw us play and approached Phill with a bass version for sale which he bought. He's since had another but sold it to the band Fourth Quartet. Basically we love those guitars, they're made of Reynolds aluminium for god's sake! I love the story surrounding them and the way they sound but as for worshipping Shellac? No way, we just worship the man Travis! Having said that, anecdote: Todd from Shellac slept on my floor once and the guy is a prince.

Tell me all about Wolves of Greece, your other band.

I've been in the wolves since the middle of 2000. I got asked if I wanted to play in them and ended up moving to Nottingham to do so, though the band is far from full time. I think it started as a bit of an idea by Neil (Johnson, guitar) and Simon (Feirn, vocals) back when they were in the band Bob Tilton. It seems to me anyway that as Bob Tilton got less rowdy sounding that they wanted to do an alter ego of the band that was just super loud and noisy and another that was very very quiet (I Am Spartacus). At least that's what they said. The 3 main members have always been Neil and Simon together with Steve Charlesworth on drums. Steve used to play in Heresy, 666 Dead and the X Rays amongst others. He's also the fastest, most amazing drummer I've ever played with and his girlfriend Annie absolutely rules. I could be wrong but I think originally it was Chay Lawrence on bass (who used to play guitar in Bob Tilton) and then when he moved to the USA Phillip John Welding took over. Phil used to be in Schema. The other guitarist through this was Steven Stanley (who was also in Spartacus and now plays under the name Our Lady, Star Of The Sea). I think Greg from the X Rays might have played guitar for a bit too but these were all just practise line ups. When Steven left I'd just met Neil properly for the first time at All Tomorrows Parties where we were just watching bands and drinking wine. He was getting k icked out of his flat in Nottingham so I starting thinking about moving there as I'd finished university and wanted to move somewhere. I had this bizarre Saturday where I was staying down with Matt from Gringo in Colchester and everywhere I went there was a phone message for me from Neil to call him. Even my Mum called and said a guy called Neil had phoned. I called him and he asked me to join on guitar and I thought about it for about half a second and said yes. I'm not going to lie, Bob Tilton were one of my favourite bands and I always had an inkling it might be cool to play with Neil and Simon before I even knew them properly. So I started practising with them every week, driving from East Anglia to Nottingham then I got a house with Neil and Matt and Tom from Gringo in November 2000 and the first Wolves gig was at the end of that month. At the time we started doing the band no one else was doing super fast, chaotic stuff so it was really exciting to know we were on our own and the chances were people would hate it. Seems like a lot of people are doing that now but I think our influences and what we're going for is different in a way. The wolves is supposed to be absurd not some kind of self concious art statement. I feel the same about that band as I do about Reynolds in that gigging is hard because we feel affinity with so few bands. The only time I've played with Wolves and felt in place was with Melt Banana and they sound nothing like us. The band has split and fallen out a lot and it's never easy work but we just did a live gig on John Peel for One Live In Nottingham that was amazing fun and we played with Fugazi in front of 1000 people so things are changing for us, not in terms of "success" or something but more that we're playing to new people and that's the main point of the wolves I think. We recorded an album earlier this year with Tony Doggen from Spiritualized and our soundman Mark Spivey and we have to decide who's putting it out. We have a covers gig to do at the weekend for our friends and we've been practising Clear Spot by Captain Beefheart and New Rose by The Damned. Tony Doggen will hopefully be blasting out the harmonica solo on the Beefheart tune. Hope someone bootlegs it.

What do you think are the best ways for an independent band to gain exposure to a crowd that cares?

In short, there aren't any! The NME has long been controlled by the pockets of press agents. You have to have a "proper" press agent to get a review. Long gone are the days where journos even got on a train to check out bands. Now people are paid to bring new bands to them by way of press packs and sweet gifts. The advent of the internet means anyone can produce a zine with little effort and the subsequent decrease in average quality has turned people away from zines. I think they were the best thing about being in a band when we started but they seem to have died out. Gigging is the obvious thing but I know so many fanzine and webzine writers and journos who don't bother watching support bands so you're in this vicious circle of not being able to get people to see you because you can't get headline shows and you can't get headline shows because no one has seen you play. Again, you're going to need a press agent! But fuck it you know, I'm never going to make money from music and all this talk of exposure and attention smacks of wanting to "achieve" and be successful. I'm happy just playing to be honest. As for Careless Talk Costs Lives, I think it is a step in the right direction but with that there is still too much of the snidey kind of nihilistic London attitude to the writing. The True Report is just a waste of two pages. It's the journalistic equivalent of a fucking text message - one line reviews delivered in the style of a back of the hand sheltered comment said to an industry pal at the bar of a gig. "Chuckle. Must try harder. Haw haw". He's capable of better stuff than that. But then again it always has good stuff in it and at least it's covering good bands. It's more than I've done... Basically the popularisation of the internet means anyone can get their music anywhere they want or say what they like to an audience. It's brought the quality down and so people don't go to gigs anymore or support music. I'd hate to be 16 and in a band because it's hard enough for me as it is. Fuck it, I'd love to be 16 actually, I've got beer tits and I'm going bald at 25. What the hell am I on about?

Does the Reynolds world begin and end with music, or do you all have lots of other varied and interesting outside interests?

I'd say music with this band is a very small part of our lives though music in general seems to take up most of our time. Phill works as a studio manager at a print company and runs Place Position which is a semi-mobile 16 track studio. He's pretty much busy with the studio in all his spare time and records bands most weekends. He lives with his girlfriend Kate who is an arts projects manager for schools. He's a bit handy with DIY too. Kevin works for a leading music retailer in Covent Garden. He's moving to Japan this year (which probably spells the end for our band) to teach English. He makes solo music of an electronic variety at his home in London. He plays drums for the band Jet Johnson who are just recording an LP for Seriously Groovy. He also drums for Gavin Baker (of JJ and Billy Mahonie) when he plays shows under the name Meets Guitar. Kev lived in San Fransisco for a while before he joined the band so I'd say he is a traveller at heart. He never seems to be in one place for very long. I just moved house and live with my girlfriend Claire who is a costume designer back home in Australia but works as a waitress here. I do design stuff for cheap as mentioned and I work in a bollocks job that annoys me so much I never want to get out of bed. I write a bit, just columns and articles. I also buy and sell guitars so if there's anything you're after drop me a line. I've just started playing solo under the name Last Of The Real Hard Men. I did a show under that name with kev and my friend Jude but the problems with organising 3 bands mean it's more fun for me to do it on my own. I recorded some songs with Phill and I want to re record them with a full band and put them out. When Kevin goes to Japan I'm moving to Australia for a while with Claire I think (which probably spells the end for our band). Don't know what I'm going to do out there. We'll see...

Plans for 2003?

Australia. Solo record if I can sort it. Our album coming out and hopefully people understanding why we did it and enjoying it. The Wolves of Greece record coming out at long last and recording again with them. Bruce Springsteen live at Crystal Palace on May bank holiday. The Magic Band playing in London. Me quitting my job to go to Australia. Second, third and fourth Part Chimp albums coming out in successive months and bringing harmony to the world a la Wylde Stallyns from Bill and Ted. I dunno what else. I'll be 26 which is kind of bleak...

...get over it, I say. I'm going to be 30 later this year. Anyway thanks to Chris for putting the effort in with answering my dumb questions. Read more about 'Love Songs' within this column here and search around diskant for more fawning adoration of an honestly wonderful album.

Reynolds website
Errol Records
Place Position

interview by Simon Minter