1. Your web site announces a new record is on its way. Can you elaborate a bit about its contents?
Our new record will be twelve songs long and is called Weightlifting. It is played and sung by the Trashcans with some help from a string quartet, some samples arranged by Simon Dine from Noonday Underground and some harmonies sung by Norman Blake from The Teenage Fanclub. It is our finest creation so far.
2. Do you feel any pressure knowing it is going to be compared with your records from the 90's? Are the new songs similar or different than the old ones? Why?
We are very proud of the records we made in the 1990's and are extremely pleased with and proud of our new record, so comparing the new album to those records is not a worry. There is no great change in musical direction ...we have not been majorly influenced by nu-metal or speed garage. The music is made the only way we know how...with our voices and guitars and our love of melody and lyric.
3. Which subjects concern the lyrics of the new songs? Are they different from the subjects on your 90's songs?
The lyrical topics on the new record cover a lot of things...very human things...ordinary things...love, loss, hope, regret, romance, wisdom. I think, in general, it is a very comforting, hopeful record. Our early records reflected our youth and its mix of scepticism and optimism...to me, some of those songs now sound a little naive...but, then again, that is a forgivable, natural symptom of youth. We are now a little "longer in the tooth", and our lyrics are a little older and wiser.
4. When is the record expected to be released?
We are hoping to have a release in Springtime or early Summer.
5. Could you estimate the current popularity level of TCS in the UK? I have read about sold out gigs, was it a surprise for you?
All I know is that when we play, people show up. I know how hard it is to even "show up" so it is a wonderful, humbling experience. Every gig we have played over the past few years has been packed with good, normal, lovely people who end up overjoyed (and, I guess, a little hungover the next day). It is a good feeling to contribute to such pleasure creation...long may it continue.
6. Who runs the website? It is very detailed and seems to be more addressed to the diehard fan than to the newbies, is that your intention?
The website is run by a former Astronaut based in the US. He assures that it conforms to all NASA guidelines and fans either diehard or newbie should easily find out anything they want to know. |
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7. Will the new songs be fully shaped by the time of the Spanish show?
The set we will play in Spain will contain fully formed, fresh out of the ground, new songs, as well as some old treasure.
8. What's the current line-up? Is it the original one? If not, when did the new members join?
The band is the same John, Paul, Frank, Stephen and Davy. Though, we will have a friend called Roddy Hart helping us out on piano.
9. What is the most valuable thing your record label problems taught you?
That we are a proper band.
10. You have paid the recording of your new record, haven't you? What do you expect from the label that releases your new album?
We have financed the record ourselves, so we feel we are in a good position to bargain with whoever wants to release it. We only expect them to adore it. Everything else should flow from that.
11. Did TCS ever played in Spain before?
We have never played in Spain before, but over the years we have had various letters and e-mails from people appreciating our work, especially Catalonians for some reason. I spent a week in Barcelona many years ago on holiday and thought it was friendly, beautiful city. I wrote a song called "The Pop Place" that was partly inspired by a bar called The Pop Place that I drank in one night on my Barcelona holiday.
12. Your headlining of the Mini-festival was a surprise for us. Can you elaborate a bit the facts that lead to it?
I am in the dark as to why we are headlining. It is a surprise to us too, a very pleasant one.
Originally appeared in mondo sonoro.
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